The Last Outlaw: Part 2

Basil was used to these stories by now, but he could never forget how astounded he was the first time he heard one of Helmund’s stories. He spoke of dragons and the giant eels, but recently Basil looked at him as if he were crazy. Basil realized that if he told him about his doubts, Helmund would probably just try to demonstrate one of his heroic feats. He’d crumble under the weight of his ego, that thought made Basil feel less unfortunate given their current situation.

“Which is the way to the pet store, Chosen One,” Basil asked in a not so flattering tone.

“The last time I was here I was being chased by a dragon, so forgive me if I don’t remember every single stone I left unturned”, Helmund exclaimed from up ahead.

It was a misty morning when we left our makeshift shelter, and as soon as we walked out of the entrance you could instantly smell the fresh dew on the grass. We were heading to Forlond, an Elven city near the Sacred Forest to retrieve some of Helmund’s gear from some of his previous ventures. We had to escape to this valley area near a forest for shelter because Helmund said an “old friend” owed him a favor. However, he failed to mention that the old friend was really just a bar owner that he had fought 10 years ago.

It took us about 4 hours to get to the edge of the valley, where the mountain began. The journey went really quickly because of Helmund’s stories, although I had heard some of them plenty of times already. The sun was beginning to shine really strongly on our backs as we were traveling, a stark contrast to the early morning feel of the mist. What felt like miles had passed quicker and we had finally made some progress in our journey.

I was gazing up into the blue cloudless sky and listening to the old man grumble when I spotted some merchants, whom were flying high above me on Argentavis, so I threw out some bread that was left over from an earlier snack. As soon as the bread had hit the floor, the birds had instantly spotted it and they flew down in a kaleidoscopic pattern and landed to feast upon a meal of dry bread.

“Are you looking to buy something boy?” One of the merchants asked with a not so friendly look on his face. “We are in a hurry, we must deliver these supplies to the mainland” , He pointed to the flock of travel birds they had just landed on.

“Not exactly, we’re looking for directions to Forlond, the Elf city'‘ Basil exclaimed. “Helmund and I-”

“HELMUND?” the merchant shouted.

“Do you speak of the treacherous outlaw named Helmund” another chimed in.

Basil had to think quickly, “No…no no no, you see, my grandfather is named Helmund, we were just headed back home when we got lost in this forest. He is very old so he loses his way sometimes.” Basil pointed towards Helmund who was standing near a tree atop a small hill. The lie seemed to convince the traveling merchants, the anger had left their faces.

“Be careful where you say that name boy,” the merchant explained. “The legendary outlaw has made many enemies in his time…”

He looked over at Helmund before he continued, “nobody has seen him in almost 20 years, and his face was lost to time. It’d be a shame if your were to be punished for his crimes, as I doubt he’ll ever have to pay for them.”

Helmund nodded his head once to the merchants and continued down the small hill.

“Listen boy, follow our birds as we fly overhead. Forlond isn’t too far off our path to the mainland.” the merchant said as he began mounting his bird. We’ll go as far as the edge of the forest, you’ll follow the dirt path the rest of the way.”

We followed them to the dirt path, and as we were just about to stop for a rest, the beautiful city of Forlond came into view.