DnD Wife Stories

Drexla was completely appraised of her situation now. She was being held in someone’s sack. She could feel the movement of steps as they carried her and could still hear the noise of the festival. They were still here so she had a chance. Drexla prepared her crossbow with her special bolts and made ready to fire. She was shooting nearly blind but could just barely see a tiny bit of light at the stop of the sinch for the bag. She aimed at it as best she could in the darkness and shot her bolt.

It hit the top of the bag and the light of the torches flared through the opening as it opened up and she began to fall into the open. The loose fabric of the destroyed bag wrapped around her as she fell and whoever had been holding her cursed as they noticed. She slammed into the ground, unable to fly within the confines of the fabric. She began to move in spite of the pain to get out and get free but heard a voice nearby.

“Now, now be careful with yourself in there. You don’t want to hurt yourself.”

The sack was picked up again and began to violently shake. After more than a few moments of this she realized it was intentional. It was dizzying but she rallied her senses long enough to activate a smoke bomb on her belt to leave a trail behind that her companions might see. With a puff, the bag was engulfed in smoke and it began to leak out of the hole she had created at the top.

“Hope you didn’t burn yourself in there,” the voice said with a chuckle.

Drexla paid the voice no mind and waited until she could feel the bag jostling at a normal pace of someone walking. She took out her dagger and located the hole at the top of the sack. With a kick swipe she sliced the bag down using the hole as her leverage. The smoke began to billow out of the open slit in the bag giving Drexla great cover for a quick escape. She flew for it, darting straight up into the night sky to escape her captors. A large hand came up out of the smoke in a mad grab for her but she thrust upward with her wings and managed to escape the grasping fingers. With that she was free.

The night sky looked beautiful as she flew out of reach of another hand shooting up to try and grab her. She only stopped when she could see the entire center circle of the festival grounds beneath her. From up there she could see the distant area where she knew their wagon was. She headed there from a safe distance above and made sure she wasn’t followed. The market stalls nearby were open and people conversed below with merry and familiar warmth. No one saw her as she approached their camp site. Drexla only breathed a sigh of relief when she was ensconced in the familiar confines of the wagon. She seemed to be the first to arrive.

Bogbean followed the floating eyeball. It stopped every now and then to make sure she was following before continuing on its path. Shadow Bricky followed behind, or rather, was being dragged behind Bogbean as her iron grip remained unbroken on his arm. He could only flail at her in annoyance. They caught up with actual Bricky, Tobias, V and Luna. She couldn’t see Drexla anywhere. Luna was asking questions as usual.

“How does your eye fly though?”

“I don’t know, it just does.” Bricky answered.

“Maybe the person it came from could fly?”

“All I know is zhat it vas from a little girl from Esterbern.”

“Oh dear!”

“More importantly,” he turned to shadow Bricky, “vhere have you been?”

They were all shocked when shadow Bricky made a crude gesture in response.

“Woah, I think we all know what that means.” Tobias coughed.

The shadow made another gesture, this one a bit harder to understand, but Bogbean recognized it.

“he..he killed you?”

Luna gasped.

“how?” Bogbean asked, “but you are him arent you?”

The shadow shook his head. Through a series of complicated gestures he managed to let them know that he was Bricky’s body’s shadow, Bricky was something else inside the body as well. Somehow Bricky was the inhabitant of the body but the original owner’s shadow was still tied to the body in the form of a shadow. Wanting to know more, V stepped up to the shadow to start gesturing back at him. He could understand the gestures somehow and was able to communicate.

“He asked, “What is going on and why are you scared of Bricky?”

The shadow signed back and the response was surprising.

“I’m not scared, I’m mad. He stole it from me!”

“What did he steal?” Tobias asked, surprising everyone with his own signing skills.

“Everything.” The shadow signed back.

“You stole everything from him.” V clarified for the rest of the group.

“So you’re not Bricky’s shadow?” Luna asked.

V translated for the shadow, “I am me and Bricky is Bricky but Bricky stole what is mine.”

“You say everything, but can you elaborate?” Tobias asked.

“Woke up different. Trapped and stuck to Bricky. Couldn’t leave, felt trapped.”

“Did you use to look like Bricky?”

“Not that ugly. Some parts are the same others are not.”

Luna gasped, “You are the personality of one of the component bodies used to make Bricky aren’t you?”

The shadow nodded and signed, “Bricky must live.”

“But you hate him.” Luna pointed out.

“Very much so. I do, but Bricky must live.”

“Do you die if he dies?”

“Don’t know, but I don’t feel what he feels.” He then slugged Bricky right in the arm but the blow missed Bricky’s bicep.

“Hey now, no need to fight. We can try to get this sorted but in the mean time, may we have your name. We’ve just been calling you shadow Bricky and I don’t think you particularly like that.”

“Call me Shadow.”

“Sure, Shad for short.”

“Shadow is fine.” Then he turned to Bricky.

“We have to find the doctor.”

“wat doctor?”

“He’s probably referring to Professor Wallenstein or Ubertodeshefter Otto.”

The shadow shook his head and signed, “No, the one who smiles.”

“What does he mean by that?”

“do you know someone that smiles?”

“Nein.”

“cause I do.”

The shadow smiled and used his hands to stretch the smile even further.

“A doctor with a wide smile.” Luna desciphered.

The shadow looked at Bogbean and then back to Bricky with a serious look on his face.

“well if you want him to live,” Bogbean began, “he’s really close to dying right now without you.”

“Oh so he needs me now.”

“Very much so, he seems to be a bit weaker without you.” Tobias responded.

Luna turned to Bricky with a slight, dangerous smile, “You know someone who smiles a lot.”

Bricky shook his head to deny the claim.

“Well he says you do. So one of you is lying and he’s just pissed enough not to be lying. So it makes me think you’re lying.”

“I don’t know him.”

Luna looked at him real close trying to gauge if he was lying or not. She couldn’t tell if he was lying exactly but she knew something wasn’t right.

“I’ll be keeping my eye on you then. Don’t try anything funny and don’t hurt Bogbean or I’ll kill you.”

“bricky wouldn’t hurt me”

“Well he’s lied before, he can lie again. I’ve read about and seen some of the worst things people can do to each other.”

“I haven’t hurt anyone.”

“No you haven’t, but you’re lying to us right now and I have a feeling that, although you may not be lying, you aren’t telling the entire truth either. I don’t like that because I’ve been as honest with you as I can be. I haven’t gotten the impression that any of the others are lying to me but you are hiding something. You’ll be sleeping closer to me from now on and we’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

“What we don’t trust Bricky now?” Tobias asked.

“Not necessarily, but I’m not taking any chances. Being observant won’t hurt.”

“Alright, well,” Tobias turned to Shad, “do you know how to go back to Bricky?”

Shad rolled his eyes but nodded, “If it will make Bricky alive, I will help.”

“Can you leave any time you want?” V asked Shad.

“The only time I could leave was when Bricky was nocked out.”

“Well, we will be fighting over the next couple of days so perhaps you will get another chance to come out.”

Shad nodded, “Truce, for now.”

“Strange how I trust a person’s shadow more than I trust them at the moment.” Luna pondered out loud.

Shad held out his hand and Bricky reached out as well. Once they made contact, Shad vanished. They watched as definition filled Bricky’s face and a shadow grew from behind him to rest in the usual place. Bricky felt complete and full. Shad was still visible when Bricky was still but when he moved, Shad dissipated into formless shadow.