Today’s story is "Eagle's Splendour," originally written for the Confuzzled convention by Ryan Campbell, author of the award-winning Fire Bearers series and Koa of the Drowned Kingdom. Follow him on twitter at ThePenDrake.

Speaker: 00:00:00

You’re listening to The Voice of Dog.

Speaker: 00:00:02

I’m Khaki, your faithful fireside companion,

Speaker: 00:00:04

and today’s story is

Speaker: 00:00:06

"Eagle's Splendour,"

Speaker: 00:00:07

originally written for the Confuzzled convention

Speaker: 00:00:09

by Ryan Campbell,

Speaker: 00:00:11

author of the award-winning Fire Bearers series

Speaker: 00:00:13

and Koa of the Drowned Kingdom.

Speaker: 00:00:17

Follow him on twitter

Speaker: 00:00:18

at ThePenDrake.

Please enjoy: 00:00:20

“Eagle’s Splendour”

Please enjoy: 00:00:23

by Ryan Campbell

Please enjoy: 00:00:25

Caleb’s little plastic gryphon stood just where he’d been

Please enjoy: 00:00:28

at the end of the game’s last session:

Please enjoy: 00:00:30

surrounded by giant spiders.

Please enjoy: 00:00:32

Caleb wasn’t worried.

Please enjoy: 00:00:33

Greywing was strong.

Please enjoy: 00:00:35

Experienced in battle.

Please enjoy: 00:00:36

Nothing frightened him.

Please enjoy: 00:00:38

“Hey, cat.” Juniper stood at end of the table, unfolding her GM screen.

Please enjoy: 00:00:43

“Hi, June,” Caleb said to the caribou.

Please enjoy: 00:00:46

“Antlers coming in, huh?”

Please enjoy: 00:00:48

“Every year, my dude.

Please enjoy: 00:00:49

Itches like hell, too,

Please enjoy: 00:00:50

so I’m probably gonna kill the lot of you out of sheer irritation.

Please enjoy: 00:00:53

You… you ready for this tonight?

Please enjoy: 00:00:56

The thing you wanted to do?”

Please enjoy: 00:00:58

She placed a little figurine of a bipedal dragon playing a lute on the game mat.

Please enjoy: 00:01:03

Caleb flattened his ears.

Please enjoy: 00:01:04

He was trying so hard not to think about it.

Please enjoy: 00:01:07

His stomach felt about ready to go fleeing down the street

Please enjoy: 00:01:10

whether he was with it or not.

Please enjoy: 00:01:11

“I’m not,” he said. “But Greywing is.

Please enjoy: 00:01:15

Just give him a good moment, okay?”

Please enjoy: 00:01:17

“Hey, I’m only the GM. I’m not a goddess

Please enjoy: 00:01:20

—well, I am, but not here.

Please enjoy: 00:01:22

You gotta make the roles, my dude.”

Please enjoy: 00:01:24

Caleb rubbed at his cheek ruffs

Please enjoy: 00:01:26

—a bad habit when he was anxious

Please enjoy: 00:01:28

—and sat at the table,

Please enjoy: 00:01:29

threading his tail through the back of the chair.

Please enjoy: 00:01:31

“Yeah, but you’ll give me a moment when he can cast Eagle’s Splendour, and then he can—can—”

Please enjoy: 00:01:36

“Yeah, I got it, profess your undying love—”

Please enjoy: 00:01:39

“No!” Caleb covered his face with his paws

Please enjoy: 00:01:42

as though he could hide the heat radiating from it.

Please enjoy: 00:01:44

“I just want to ask him out.

Please enjoy: 00:01:46

I got Firebirds tickets right here.”

Please enjoy: 00:01:48

“Whoa. What’d you do, rob a liquor store?”

Please enjoy: 00:01:51

Juniper placed the hyena-like figure of a gnoll

Please enjoy: 00:01:54

on the battle mat near the spiders.

Please enjoy: 00:01:56

“You know some people can actually save money, Juniper, and not spend it all on fantasy costumes.”

Please enjoy: 00:02:01

Juniper looked down at her forest ranger outfit.

Please enjoy: 00:02:04

“It adds class to our games, and you know it.”

Please enjoy: 00:02:06

“Waddup, nerds?” Lauren elbowed her way into the room

Please enjoy: 00:02:09

and thunked a liter of carbonated coffee down on the table.

Please enjoy: 00:02:12

“You ready to stomp some spiders?”

Please enjoy: 00:02:15

Caleb hunched down a little in his seat.

Please enjoy: 00:02:17

Lauren was awfully intimidating for a coyote,

Please enjoy: 00:02:19

and it didn’t help that she played a gnoll with pretty much the same personality.

Please enjoy: 00:02:23

“I think so. Just as soon as Cass gets here.”

Please enjoy: 00:02:26

“He brought me. He’s parking.”

Please enjoy: 00:02:28

“Heyo!” Cassidy stumbled into the room with gaming books and lunch containers that smelled of lemon chicken

Please enjoy: 00:02:33

and twice-cooked fish under one arm.

Please enjoy: 00:02:36

Caleb tried to stop the stupid, adoring smile from creeping across his face,

Please enjoy: 00:02:40

but he couldn’t help it.

Please enjoy: 00:02:41

Something about the coati pushed all the right buttons.

Please enjoy: 00:02:44

He was big, soft, happy, and he was the one who had gotten Caleb into gaming in the first place,

Please enjoy: 00:02:49

despite also loving football and beer and being kind of a bro.

Please enjoy: 00:02:53

He was just a friendly guy who liked people and enjoyed doing the things they loved.

Please enjoy: 00:02:57

The kind of person who should be easy to ask out.

Please enjoy: 00:02:59

He plunked down in the chair between Lauren

Please enjoy: 00:03:01

and opened steaming containers of food,

Please enjoy: 00:03:03

nearly knocking over the little figure of Sir Milford, the dragon. “How’s it

Please enjoy: 00:03:07

goin’, folks? We ready to do this thing?”

Please enjoy: 00:03:10

Caleb glanced up at him,

Please enjoy: 00:03:12

felt the heat return to his face,

Please enjoy: 00:03:13

and focused instead on his character.

Please enjoy: 00:03:15

They had spiders to kill.

Please enjoy: 00:03:18

The sickly yellow and black spiders skittered around Greywing on long, spindly legs,

Please enjoy: 00:03:22

salivating. The gryphon tried to recall if he’d heard of these spiders in any of the local stories,

Please enjoy: 00:03:28

but what did it matter?

Please enjoy: 00:03:29

One giant spider squashed as easily as another.

Please enjoy: 00:03:32

He swung his mace

Please enjoy: 00:03:33

and splattered arachnid ichor across the rocks.

Please enjoy: 00:03:36

Its companions seemed unfazed,

Please enjoy: 00:03:38

and one tackled his boot,

Please enjoy: 00:03:39

biting hard, but its fangs couldn’t pierce the toughened leather.

Please enjoy: 00:03:43

Chumpstabber, the gnoll, pulled a round, glass flask from her pack, uncorked it, and grinned.

Please enjoy: 00:03:48

“Choke on this, you dumb bugs,”

Please enjoy: 00:03:50

she said before hurling the flask directly at the swarm of spiders.

Please enjoy: 00:03:53

Cool liquid soaked the ground and the chittering enemy,

Please enjoy: 00:03:56

as well as Greywing’s boots.

Please enjoy: 00:03:57

He’d seen those flasks before.

Please enjoy: 00:03:59

Oil. Which meant he knew what was coming next.

Please enjoy: 00:04:03

Sir Milford had apparently decided the two of them needed some encouragement

Please enjoy: 00:04:06

and had unslung his lute.

Please enjoy: 00:04:08

He gave it a few strums with his claws

Please enjoy: 00:04:10

and sang. “Don’t worry, guys! You’re the best! You can defeat the… entire…

Please enjoy: 00:04:15

rest!” At the end of the song he beamed and gave them both a scaled thumbs-up.

Please enjoy: 00:04:21

“Wow, that one’s going to the top of the charts, huh?”

Please enjoy: 00:04:24

sneered Chumpstabber.

Please enjoy: 00:04:25

Despite her dismissive tone,

Please enjoy: 00:04:27

Greywing could tell that she felt encouraged,

Please enjoy: 00:04:29

her back straightening,

Please enjoy: 00:04:30

and shoulders going back.

Please enjoy: 00:04:31

It meant a lot to have this minstrel believe in them,

Please enjoy: 00:04:34

and they knew the songs at the local tavern tonight

Please enjoy: 00:04:36

would be about their deeds and full of praise,

Please enjoy: 00:04:38

if not exactly well-worded.

Please enjoy: 00:04:41

With Sir Milford at their side,

Please enjoy: 00:04:42

he felt sure they could face any threat,

Please enjoy: 00:04:44

defeat any foe. He cocked one leg back and, with a fierce kick,

Please enjoy: 00:04:49

punted the spider at his boot as hard as he could.

Please enjoy: 00:04:51

“The itsy-bitsy spider launched up into the sky!” he shouted

Please enjoy: 00:04:55

as the thing sailed away like a football,

Please enjoy: 00:04:57

legs flailing. He turned

Please enjoy: 00:04:59

and dashed out of the oil-soaked grass,

Please enjoy: 00:05:01

but as he ran, one of the nearby spiders lunged at him,

Please enjoy: 00:05:04

its fangs penetrating his leonine fur

Please enjoy: 00:05:06

and sending a cold numbness through his flesh.

Please enjoy: 00:05:09

Crap. “I dunno why I always have to be the one lighting fires when we have an actual dragon with us,”

Please enjoy: 00:05:15

Chumpstabber grumbled.

Please enjoy: 00:05:17

Sir Milford gave a whimsical strum in answer.

Please enjoy: 00:05:20

With a deft flick to her tinder box, the gnoll lit a small wad of paper and flicked it toward the grass.

Please enjoy: 00:05:25

There was a loud whump

Please enjoy: 00:05:27

like someone billowing out a bedsheet,

Please enjoy: 00:05:29

and then the air was filled with flames

Please enjoy: 00:05:31

and the hissing and wet pops of giant spiders sizzling in the fire.

Please enjoy: 00:05:36

“Huh. That was easy.”

Please enjoy: 00:05:38

“Yeah, it was!” Greywing wiped his mace off in the grass.

Please enjoy: 00:05:41

“Because we’re badasses.”

Please enjoy: 00:05:44

“You did amazing, guys.”

Please enjoy: 00:05:46

Sir Milford’s talons danced a magical pattern over his lute strings.

Please enjoy: 00:05:50

Greywing got lost for a moment, staring at him.

Please enjoy: 00:05:53

In a world as hostile as this one,

Please enjoy: 00:05:55

it felt so good to have someone like him on your side

Please enjoy: 00:05:58

—someone always positive.

Please enjoy: 00:06:00

Strong, but with soft edges.

Please enjoy: 00:06:02

“Hey, without you helping us…”

Please enjoy: 00:06:04

he trailed off. It was a perfect moment.

Please enjoy: 00:06:08

He muttered the incantation for Eagle’s Splendour

Please enjoy: 00:06:10

and felt divine grace fill him.

Please enjoy: 00:06:12

He didn’t need it, he knew.

Please enjoy: 00:06:14

He was confident enough,

Please enjoy: 00:06:15

charming enough. But why chance it?

Please enjoy: 00:06:17

Spiders could only wrap you up in butt-thread, liquify your organs, and drink you for lunch, but love?

Please enjoy: 00:06:22

That was dangerous.

Please enjoy: 00:06:24

But he knew how to handle fear.

Please enjoy: 00:06:26

You acknowledged it,

Please enjoy: 00:06:27

but you didn’t let it control you.

Please enjoy: 00:06:29

You moved past it.

Please enjoy: 00:06:31

He strode over to Sir Milford,

Please enjoy: 00:06:32

giving him a smile as wide as the world.

Please enjoy: 00:06:35

“Say there, Milfy! What do you say you and I…”

Please enjoy: 00:06:38

He faltered. Something was wrong.

Please enjoy: 00:06:40

“You and I…” It felt like his brain was drowning in hot maple syrup.

Please enjoy: 00:06:45

“Uhhhh. We killed spoidas and they was a bad.”

Please enjoy: 00:06:50

Sir Milford tilted his head.

Please enjoy: 00:06:51

“Huh? Oh no. Oh no, bro. You didn’t get bit, did you?”

Please enjoy: 00:06:56

Bit? Greywing looked down at his leg. “Me got

Please enjoy: 00:06:59

spoida holes in leg!”

Please enjoy: 00:07:02

“Oh man. These spiders, they do intelligence damage.

Please enjoy: 00:07:05

I should have thought of it sooner.”

Please enjoy: 00:07:07

Greywing gaped at him,

Please enjoy: 00:07:09

drool sliding down his beak.

Please enjoy: 00:07:11

“I’m a stupid?” “Ha!” Chumpstabber fell over laughing.

Please enjoy: 00:07:15

“Nice going, dumdum.”

Please enjoy: 00:07:17

Sir Milford fixed Greyson with a concerned, reptilian stare.

Please enjoy: 00:07:21

“It should wear off by the end of the day.

Please enjoy: 00:07:23

We’ll look after you until then, bud.

Please enjoy: 00:07:25

Don’t worry about it.

Please enjoy: 00:07:26

So. What was it you were trying to tell me?”

Please enjoy: 00:07:30

The venom finally wore off about four hours later.

Please enjoy: 00:07:32

Greywing hadn’t needed much mental power to swing his mace around,

Please enjoy: 00:07:35

but the conversation hadn’t exactly been stimulating.

Please enjoy: 00:07:38

The spiders had been carrying about twenty gold,

Please enjoy: 00:07:41

which— “Hold on,” Caleb interjected.

Please enjoy: 00:07:43

“What are spiders doing carrying all this gold around?”

Please enjoy: 00:07:46

Juniper shrugged. “What are they going to spend it on? They’re spiders!”

Please enjoy: 00:07:50

“Yeah, come on, dumdum, keep up.”

Please enjoy: 00:07:52

Lauren tossed a popcorn kernel at him.

Please enjoy: 00:07:54

—which was more than enough to cover their stay.

Please enjoy: 00:07:57

Greywing sat at a tavern table, sipping his ale and watching Sir Milford serenade the tavern with songs of their epic battle.

Please enjoy: 00:08:04

Now, he thought. His mind was finally clear,

Please enjoy: 00:08:07

the numbing effects of the venom having finally worn off.

Please enjoy: 00:08:10

It wasn’t as perfect a moment as after the battle,

Please enjoy: 00:08:12

but at least here they weren’t likely to be attacked.

Please enjoy: 00:08:14

Plus, the list of good times to ask someone else out

Please enjoy: 00:08:17

had to include right after their song about how great you were.

Please enjoy: 00:08:22

He waited until the song had ended,

Please enjoy: 00:08:24

quaffed the rest of his ale in a few manly gulps,

Please enjoy: 00:08:26

and stood up from the table.

Please enjoy: 00:08:28

He turned away and muttered the spell for Eagle’s Splendour again.

Please enjoy: 00:08:31

The tavern seemed to brighten,

Please enjoy: 00:08:33

as though all his feathers were radiating divine light.

Please enjoy: 00:08:36

He turned toward the dragon,

Please enjoy: 00:08:37

leaving his fear and worry behind him.

Please enjoy: 00:08:39

“Sir Milf—” he began.

Please enjoy: 00:08:41

He blinked. Sir Milford was sashaying across the tavern,

Please enjoy: 00:08:45

singing directly to a slim little kobold sitting at the bar.

Please enjoy: 00:08:48

No. Not singing. Flirting.

Please enjoy: 00:08:51

“Hey there, buddy, you’re lookin’ kinda fine.

Please enjoy: 00:08:54

Do you come here often? ‘Cause hey, it’s my first time.

Please enjoy: 00:08:57

I know this place has bedrooms but I really don’t know wheres.

Please enjoy: 00:09:00

Would you do a drag a favor and help him find the stairs?”

Please enjoy: 00:09:05

Greywing rubbed his temples.

Please enjoy: 00:09:07

He should have seen it coming;

Please enjoy: 00:09:08

Sir Milford did this at every tavern.

Please enjoy: 00:09:10

And he was good at it.

Please enjoy: 00:09:12

Apparently no one could say no to a pudgy, grinning dragon with a voice like an angel

Please enjoy: 00:09:15

and lyrics written by that angel’s four-year-old nephew.

Please enjoy: 00:09:18

The little kobold was already scampering excitedly up the stairs toward the tavern’s guest rooms,

Please enjoy: 00:09:23

with a grinning dragon lumbering up behind him.

Please enjoy: 00:09:26

Greywing pushed himself to his feet.

Please enjoy: 00:09:28

The timing was awful

Please enjoy: 00:09:29

and the moment was weird,

Please enjoy: 00:09:30

but if he didn’t do this now, he wouldn’t get another chance until the next morning.

Please enjoy: 00:09:34

“Sir Milford, before you go—”

Please enjoy: 00:09:36

The dragon turned around,

Please enjoy: 00:09:37

a huge grin plastered on his face.

Please enjoy: 00:09:39

In fact, plastered was exactly the right word

Please enjoy: 00:09:42

—Sir Milford was very,

Please enjoy: 00:09:43

very drunk. Greywing only now noticed the impressive array of tankards that had accumulated around the tavern hearth.

Please enjoy: 00:09:50

The advantage of being a

bard: 00:09:51

your drinks were on the house.

bard: 00:09:53

“Hey there, Birdbrain,

bard: 00:09:55

what’s up? You want—hic!

bard: 00:09:57

—you want in on this?

bard: 00:09:58

We got room for three upstairs!”

bard: 00:10:00

He lurched, stumbling down a few steps and nearly falling.

bard: 00:10:04

“S’gonna be—s’gonna be a great time.”

bard: 00:10:07

“No. I mean, no thank you.”

bard: 00:10:09

Greywing felt his shoulders go slack. You couldn’t ask a

bard: 00:10:11

guy out when he was wasted.

bard: 00:10:13

Sure, you might get a yes,

bard: 00:10:15

but it’d be the ale saying yes, not the guy.

bard: 00:10:18

“We’ll talk tomorrow, okay?”

bard: 00:10:19

“For sure, bro.” The dragon gave him a thumbs-up, then belched loudly,

bard: 00:10:23

then giggled. “For sure.”

bard: 00:10:26

He followed the kobold upstairs.

bard: 00:10:28

That night, Greywing lay in his own room with the pillow clamped over his head,

bard: 00:10:32

trying to muffle the loud sounds of enthusiastic reptiles two doors down.

bard: 00:10:37

Tomorrow, he told himself.

bard: 00:10:39

Tomorrow, I’ll ask him.

bard: 00:10:40

No matter what. “Hey, drunky, gimme a fortitude save,”

bard: 00:10:45

Juniper called up over her game screen.

bard: 00:10:47

Cassidy gave the caribou a rueful grin

bard: 00:10:50

and sent a d20 bouncing across the table.

bard: 00:10:52

It rolled, skidded,

bard: 00:10:54

and finally came to rest,

bard: 00:10:55

a number one staring toward the ceiling

bard: 00:10:58

like the slitted eye

bard: 00:10:59

of Sauron. “Oh ho ho ho,” Juniper giggled.

bard: 00:11:04

“Ooh hoo hoo.” Sir Milford groaned and shielded his eyes from the sunlight.

bard: 00:11:10

“Oh gods. Oh gods, my head.

bard: 00:11:12

And my stomach!” He lurched from side to side on the trail through the grass.

bard: 00:11:16

“Serves you right,”

bard: 00:11:17

Greywing snapped. “Drinking so much the night before a big hunt.”

bard: 00:11:22

They’d been sent on the trail of some monster that had been devouring livestock every night and,

bard: 00:11:26

if the villagers were right,

bard: 00:11:27

was even responsible for a couple of missing children.

bard: 00:11:30

No one had seen the monster,

bard: 00:11:31

but they’d found its tracks:

bard: 00:11:33

enormous, three-toed, reptilian.

bard: 00:11:36

Some said dragon, but the tracks were bipedal and elongated.

bard: 00:11:39

Whatever it was, it was huge

bard: 00:11:41

and terribly dangerous.

bard: 00:11:43

Sir Milford gave Greywing a watery stare.

bard: 00:11:46

“What’s wrong with you?

bard: 00:11:47

I’m the one suffering here.”

bard: 00:11:49

“I just wish you’d take things a little more seriously sometimes, that’s all.”

bard: 00:11:53

Greywing stumped ahead. “Ha.

bard: 00:11:55

He’s jealous,” Chumpstabber snickered.

bard: 00:11:58

“He wanted to get in on that bow-chicka-bow-bow.”

bard: 00:12:01

And then she apparently invented the cabbage patch dance move.

bard: 00:12:04

“Ugh, not so loud.” Sir Milford put both hands over his ears.

bard: 00:12:09

“Anyway, I did ask if he wanted to—”

bard: 00:12:11

“I’m not jealous!” Greywing shouted.

bard: 00:12:14

“It’s just… it’s just that we’re a team.

bard: 00:12:16

We’re supposed to be working together.

bard: 00:12:18

Can you even fight like this?”

bard: 00:12:20

Chumpstabber wagged her tail.

bard: 00:12:22

“I fight better with a hangover.

bard: 00:12:23

Makes me mean.” Greywing’s train of thought

bard: 00:12:27

briefly jumped its tracks as he tried to imagine

bard: 00:12:29

what a mean version of Chumpstabber would be.

bard: 00:12:32

“Don’t worry, little buddy,” Sir Milford said.

bard: 00:12:34

“I will sustain you through my gift of song,

bard: 00:12:37

no matter what the, uh,

bard: 00:12:38

the uh, bad stuff happening.”

bard: 00:12:41

Greywing rolled his eyes.

bard: 00:12:43

They were following a dirt path the villagers had pointed out to them the night before.

bard: 00:12:47

The rains had turned the path to mud,

bard: 00:12:48

but Greywing could still make out the remnants of massive, three-toed footprints,

bard: 00:12:52

each so large he could lie down in one

bard: 00:12:55

and stretch his arms into the ruts created by the toes.

bard: 00:12:58

The path led them out of the fields and into the shade of a wooded area.

bard: 00:13:02

Sir Milford looked glad to be out of the bright sunlight.

bard: 00:13:05

Greywing stared up into the trees.

bard: 00:13:07

High up, the branches were twisted and broken.

bard: 00:13:09

Something massive had come this way.

bard: 00:13:11

“Does anyone even have any idea what this thing is?”

bard: 00:13:14

he asked. The bard frowned.

bard: 00:13:16

If anyone had a clue,

bard: 00:13:17

it would be the guy who collected stories.

bard: 00:13:20

“I’m not one hundred percent sure,

bard: 00:13:22

but from the tracks, I think it might be a mallasque.”

bard: 00:13:26

“What the heck’s that?”

bard: 00:13:28

Chumpstabber wanted to know. “Sounds dumb.”

bard: 00:13:31

Cassidy looked up from his gamebook.

bard: 00:13:33

“It’s dinosaur thing, sort of.

bard: 00:13:35

Like a t-rex, but smaller and wimpier.”

bard: 00:13:38

Juniper cleared her throat.

bard: 00:13:39

“But uh, highly dangerous

bard: 00:13:41

and worthy of respect,

bard: 00:13:42

your bardic knowledge tells you.”

bard: 00:13:44

“Also,” said Cassidy,

bard: 00:13:46

“my bardic knowledge wants you to know about the danger thing.”

bard: 00:13:49

“Oh, okay. Dope.” Lauren clenched a fist.

bard: 00:13:52

“Let’s kill it.” “Hey, my dudes, give me a Perception check,”

bard: 00:13:56

Juniper said. Three dice hit the table.

bard: 00:13:59

“Six.” “Eleven.” “Four.” “Never mind.” Juniper shrugged.

bard: 00:14:04

“You don’t see it.”

bard: 00:14:06

The shadows in the forest seemed to darken and deepen.

bard: 00:14:08

It was quiet, Greywing noticed.

bard: 00:14:10

No birds were singing.

bard: 00:14:12

No insects buzzed in the air.

bard: 00:14:13

This was a bad place.

bard: 00:14:16

“So, what should we do to fight it?”

bard: 00:14:18

he asked. “Any weak spots, anything we should try to avoid?”

bard: 00:14:22

The wind under the trees was hot,

bard: 00:14:23

stale, and strangely humid.

bard: 00:14:25

It carried the stench of decaying meat and fetid flesh.

bard: 00:14:29

And a moment too late, he realized:

bard: 00:14:31

that wasn’t wind.

bard: 00:14:32

It was breath. A low growl came from behind him.

bard: 00:14:36

“Guys?” he called to the two ahead of him,

bard: 00:14:38

but he barely got the word out before two rows of sharp, hot teeth

bard: 00:14:41

sank into his shoulder

bard: 00:14:43

and pulled him off the ground.

bard: 00:14:45

He tried to grab his sword, but his arm flopped uselessly at his side.

bard: 00:14:48

“Oh, crap!” Sir Milford shouted.

bard: 00:14:50

He clumsily unslung his lute from his shoulder and gave it a strum,

bard: 00:14:53

but winced, his ear fins flattening against his skull at the sound of offkey notes

bard: 00:14:57

piercing his hangover-stressed eardrums.

bard: 00:14:59

“Aggh! So loud! So loud!”

bard: 00:15:02

Greywing swung back and forth from the thing’s jaws,

bard: 00:15:05

the ground rocking below him,

bard: 00:15:06

pain piercing his arm and shoulder,

bard: 00:15:08

blood and saliva running through his feathers.

bard: 00:15:11

Then he was falling.

bard: 00:15:12

There wasn’t time to twist and land on his feet;

bard: 00:15:14

he hit the ground with a thump

bard: 00:15:15

that knocked the wind from him.

bard: 00:15:17

The beast standing over him was enormous,

bard: 00:15:19

so huge that each of them only reached its knees.

bard: 00:15:22

It stood on two legs but crouched so low that the scythe-like talons of its forepaws

bard: 00:15:27

nearly dragged along the ground.

bard: 00:15:29

It had a pebbled, scaly hide

bard: 00:15:31

layered with bony armor through which many horns and spikes had sprouted haphazardly.

bard: 00:15:36

It roared in pain,

bard: 00:15:38

a terrible, grinding, raspy bellow

bard: 00:15:40

that made Sir Milford drop to his knees,

bard: 00:15:42

clutching at his ear fins.

bard: 00:15:44

Just behind the monstrous creature,

bard: 00:15:46

Chumpstabber appeared,

bard: 00:15:47

as though she’d been there the whole time,

bard: 00:15:49

her blades dripping with the thing’s dark red blood.

bard: 00:15:52

“Lucky you guys have me, huh?”

bard: 00:15:54

Greywing rolled out of the mallasque’s path

bard: 00:15:56

and quickly gulped a potion,

bard: 00:15:58

clamping his beak tight at the feeling of muscle and flesh knitting itself back together beneath his armor.

bard: 00:16:03

“You said it was a tiny little wuss dinosaur!”

bard: 00:16:05

he shouted at Sir Milford. “This?

bard: 00:16:07

This is what you call tiny?”

bard: 00:16:09

“I’m sorry! It looked smaller in… my imagination!”

bard: 00:16:12

Sir Milford worked at his lute

bard: 00:16:14

with the tuning key.

bard: 00:16:15

His talons plucked at the strings and produced a chord that was only slightly dissonant.

bard: 00:16:20

“Our party does not fear,” he sung, “For Chumpstabber stabbed the mallasque in the rear. This monster might as well take flight, for we came here prepared to fight.”

bard: 00:16:29

His lute must have been a bit out of tune,

bard: 00:16:31

because Greywing didn’t feel the usual surge of confidence and capability

bard: 00:16:34

that usually accompanied Sir Milford’s lyrics.

bard: 00:16:37

He rubbed at his barely healed shoulder,

bard: 00:16:39

assessing his opponent.

bard: 00:16:41

It appeared to have

bard: 00:16:42

no weak spots, but Chumpstabber had sliced it across the back of the knee

bard: 00:16:45

with her short sword,

bard: 00:16:46

and it was already limping.

bard: 00:16:48

It lurched to one side, and for a moment Greywing thought it was about to fall—but no,

bard: 00:16:52

it was only turning.

bard: 00:16:54

And sweeping its massive, spiked tail toward him,

bard: 00:16:56

the ponderous weight of it crushing the underbrush,

bard: 00:16:59

snapping small trees away.

bard: 00:17:00

He barely had time to spring away.

bard: 00:17:03

The wind of it ruffled his feathers,

bard: 00:17:04

the jagged, horny spikes furrowing

bard: 00:17:06

through his feathers and just missing his flesh.

bard: 00:17:09

This was bad. Very bad.

bard: 00:17:12

A single bite could end any of them.

bard: 00:17:14

He took a deep breath

bard: 00:17:15

and let his fear go.

bard: 00:17:17

So, the backs of its knees were vulnerable.

bard: 00:17:19

Its hide looked less armored there,

bard: 00:17:21

as well as inside its thighs and beneath its arms.

bard: 00:17:24

He might be able to get his sword in there.

bard: 00:17:26

He danced closer,

bard: 00:17:27

dodging first a deadly swipe with one of its arms

bard: 00:17:29

and then ducking below a sudden lunge

bard: 00:17:31

of its dripping,

bard: 00:17:32

tusked jaws. This close,

bard: 00:17:34

he could see that its teeth grew jagged and irregular,

bard: 00:17:37

thrust haphazardly through gums

bard: 00:17:39

and even its lips.

bard: 00:17:40

Its breath stank of blood and decay.

bard: 00:17:43

Holding his sword overhead,

bard: 00:17:45

he slashed across the only tender-looking place he could reach from here

bard: 00:17:48

—its inner thigh,

bard: 00:17:49

leaping to reach.

bard: 00:17:50

It was a good hit, a solid hit,

bard: 00:17:52

and the thing’s hot, red blood spilled across his armor.

bard: 00:17:56

It roared again in pain and fury,

bard: 00:17:58

its voice like a giant fork being dragged across a massive slab of slate.

bard: 00:18:02

Sir Milford went cross-eyed mid-strum

bard: 00:18:05

and a string on his lute snapped.

bard: 00:18:07

Chumpstabber leapt onto the mallasque’s tail

bard: 00:18:09

and scrambled up its back,

bard: 00:18:11

using its many spikes for purchase.

bard: 00:18:13

She ran all the way up to its head, dodging tree branches as the monster lunged about, trying to catch her,

bard: 00:18:18

and she sunk her sword into its eye.

bard: 00:18:20

“My mom always told me if I ran with this,

bard: 00:18:23

I’d put an eye out.

bard: 00:18:24

Thanks, mom!” The mallasque bellowed in agony one final time,

bard: 00:18:28

lurching from side to side,

bard: 00:18:30

clawing uselessly at its face with curved sickle-talons, trying to pry free the sword.

bard: 00:18:34

“Ha! We got you!” Greywing crowed up at it.

bard: 00:18:37

It would lean down soon,

bard: 00:18:39

trying to scrape the sword in its eye free, and when it did, his own sword would be at the ready.

bard: 00:18:43

Its throat was unarmored,

bard: 00:18:45

the flesh soft and loose,

bard: 00:18:46

but out of reach.

bard: 00:18:47

He hopped nimbly over another sweep of its tail, sidestepped a swipe from its claw.

bard: 00:18:51

“We got you, you stupid, monstrous piece of—”

bard: 00:18:53

It stepped on him.

bard: 00:18:55

The last thing he heard was the sound of every single one of his bones breaking at the same time. #

bard: 00:19:00

Caleb stared at the table.

bard: 00:19:02

At his character sheet.

bard: 00:19:03

The monster had rolled a natural twenty.

bard: 00:19:06

Critical hit, double damage on a blow that would have taken him to zero even without the critical.

bard: 00:19:11

“No!” he shouted uselessly at the dice. “No!”

bard: 00:19:15

Juniper peeked between her fingers.

bard: 00:19:17

“Oh my gosh, Caleb. I am so sorry.” “There

bard: 00:19:20

has to be something we can do.

bard: 00:19:21

A potion.” “I wish there was, man, but… wow.

bard: 00:19:25

Greywing is super dead.

bard: 00:19:27

I don’t even think you can rez from that.

bard: 00:19:29

There might be a way.”

bard: 00:19:30

“Ha. You’re a footprint.”

bard: 00:19:32

“It’s not funny, Chumpstabber!

bard: 00:19:34

Lauren!” Caleb clenched his dice in his paws.

bard: 00:19:37

“Okay,” Juniper cut in.

bard: 00:19:38

“I think we need a break.

bard: 00:19:39

Let’s all take ten and we’ll figure out what comes next.

bard: 00:19:43

What came next was a lot of feverish checking of the rules,

bard: 00:19:46

followed by a few moments of quiet dismay,

bard: 00:19:48

and then a burial ceremony in Juniper’s backyard.

bard: 00:19:52

They dug a little hole next to her persimmon tree

bard: 00:19:54

and, with great solemnity and an impromptu song from Sir Milford via Cassidy

bard: 00:19:59

—one that dared to rhyme

bard: 00:20:00

“Greywing” with “may sting,”

bard: 00:20:02

along with other lyrical debacles

bard: 00:20:04

—they laid Greywing’s character sheet to its final rest.

bard: 00:20:08

Caleb stared into the hole

bard: 00:20:09

as Lauren filled it in with a few shovels of earth. It wasn’t as though

bard: 00:20:13

anyone real had died,

bard: 00:20:15

but Caleb felt a heavy dismay pressing down on him

bard: 00:20:17

like a wet bedspread.

bard: 00:20:19

Greywing had been his courage.

bard: 00:20:21

His bravado. A voice he could speak through.

bard: 00:20:24

Being the gryphon had felt more real, somehow.

bard: 00:20:27

It was stupid to cry over a dumb character you played in a game,

bard: 00:20:30

so Caleb didn’t. But once or twice, he felt like it.

bard: 00:20:34

Cassidy’s meaty hand fell on his shoulder,

bard: 00:20:36

nearly making him stumble.

bard: 00:20:38

“Always sucks to lose a character.

bard: 00:20:40

But hey, now you get to roll up a new one!

bard: 00:20:41

That’s exciting, right?”

bard: 00:20:44

I think you’re amazing.

bard: 00:20:45

Bad poetry and all. I like you so much.

bard: 00:20:47

Will you go to a Firebirds game with me?

bard: 00:20:48

And dinner? Fear knotted in Caleb’s stomach.

bard: 00:20:51

“Yeah,” he said. “I guess so.”

bard: 00:20:55

Cassidy went back inside with Lauren.

bard: 00:20:57

They were already joking.

bard: 00:20:58

And why shouldn’t they?

bard: 00:20:59

Nothing really bad had happened.

bard: 00:21:01

“Hey, man.” Juniper walked up next to him.

bard: 00:21:04

She scratched at her budding antlers with one hand.

bard: 00:21:06

It looked painful.

bard: 00:21:08

“I know that was important to you.

bard: 00:21:09

It coulda been a cool moment.

bard: 00:21:11

Even if I

bard: 00:21:12

really didn’t understand how it was going to work.

bard: 00:21:14

Was Greywing going to date Milford and then the two of you would have to date because your characters were? I didn’t quite get it.”

bard: 00:21:21

Caleb sighed. “It’s easy for you to talk to people.

bard: 00:21:24

You just say whatever’s on your mind, and it comes out.

bard: 00:21:27

But me… there’s so much in my head and—and in my heart. And when I talk, most of it doesn’t come out.

bard: 00:21:33

My voice isn’t big enough for everything that’s inside me.

bard: 00:21:36

But Greywing’s was.

bard: 00:21:38

When I was him, I could say anything.

bard: 00:21:40

I know who I am. If I had a character sheet, my charisma would be ten.

bard: 00:21:44

Eleven, maybe.” He had that stat on hand because he’d worked out all his stats before.

bard: 00:21:49

Strength 9, dexterity 12,

bard: 00:21:51

constitution 10.

bard: 00:21:52

The physical stats were never his best.

bard: 00:21:54

Intelligence was his best, at 16.

bard: 00:21:56

Wisdom at 14, if he was being generous.

bard: 00:21:58

Charisma 11. It was what made you good at talking to people.

bard: 00:22:02

It was what made people like you.

bard: 00:22:05

Greywing had had a charisma of 17.

bard: 00:22:07

Everyone had liked Greywing.

bard: 00:22:10

Juniper flicked her tail a few times.

bard: 00:22:11

“Hey, you know what I like about games?”

bard: 00:22:14

Caleb could guess where this was going.

bard: 00:22:16

“That they’re not real?”

bard: 00:22:18

And I should just get over it.

bard: 00:22:20

“Kind of, I guess.” She rubbed at her chin.

bard: 00:22:23

“I was thinking more about what they’re for.

bard: 00:22:25

Like, when you’re a kid and you run around playing, it’s never just play, right?

bard: 00:22:29

You’re a bobcat, you must have…

bard: 00:22:31

you know, when you were a kitten, done the stalking thing, and running real fast around the house, driving your mom crazy, climbing up walls or trees.”

bard: 00:22:37

“Yeah, I guess. Every kid does that stuff, not just bobcats.

bard: 00:22:41

bobcats.” “Right, but it’s all hunting stuff too. Like,

bard: 00:22:44

if we all lived in the wild,

bard: 00:22:45

you’d have to go hunt…

bard: 00:22:47

prey. As an adult bobcat. To eat.

bard: 00:22:50

And do stuff to survive, and find a mate, and whatever.”

bard: 00:22:53

“Oh… kay…” He wasn’t exactly comfortable with the mate talk.

bard: 00:22:58

“Look, the point is,

bard: 00:22:59

it’s practice, right?

bard: 00:23:01

You’re learning how to do all the stuff you’ve got to do as an adult in a way that’s safe.

bard: 00:23:05

Games are the same, I think.

bard: 00:23:06

A way to try all the stuff you’re gonna have to do in life before it’s real.

bard: 00:23:10

That’s what they’re for, right?”

bard: 00:23:12

Caleb folded his arms.

bard: 00:23:14

“Some games, maybe.

bard: 00:23:15

Sports, for sure, I can see how you learn pack behavior and improve your strength and dexterity.”

bard: 00:23:20

“Yeah. It’s practice in a way that’s safe.

bard: 00:23:22

To help get you ready for the real thing. Yeah?”

bard: 00:23:25

Juniper gave him a pat on the back.

bard: 00:23:27

“These guys have a monster to kill and a friend to avenge.

bard: 00:23:30

I better get back to them.

bard: 00:23:31

Let me know who you want to be next, okay?”

bard: 00:23:34

Caleb watched her head inside.

bard: 00:23:36

He wasn’t dumb. He saw what she was getting at.

bard: 00:23:39

But roleplaying wasn’t practice for anything.

bard: 00:23:41

It was just make-believe.

bard: 00:23:43

He wished he could be as confident and unafraid as the gryphon.

bard: 00:23:47

It hadn’t been that way at first, of course.

bard: 00:23:49

His first few sessions, he hadn’t really known the character,

bard: 00:23:51

hadn’t been able to play him well.

bard: 00:23:53

After a while of walking around in Greywing’s skin, though, he’d learned,

bard: 00:23:56

and it had become easier.

bard: 00:23:59

He walked up to the glass door of Juniper’s patio and looked inside.

bard: 00:24:02

Cassidy saw him and gave him a cheerful wave.

bard: 00:24:05

Caleb waved back, his mind stuck on a point that it couldn’t quite pull free of.

bard: 00:24:10

He’d learned. How to be Greywing,

bard: 00:24:13

a little. He’d played, and he’d learned. He’d practiced.

bard: 00:24:17

He hadn’t behaved very likably just now,

bard: 00:24:19

but no one liked to lose a character.

bard: 00:24:22

But everything he’d practiced

bard: 00:24:23

didn’t go away just because there was a piece of paper in the ground with some dirt on it.

bard: 00:24:27

Did it? Mentally, he pulled up his character sheet,

bard: 00:24:31

the one with all his real-life stats.

bard: 00:24:33

Charisma 11. But he’d been working on it.

bard: 00:24:36

Playing had to be worth something.

bard: 00:24:39

He opened the patio door.

bard: 00:24:41

Cassidy sat at the table,

bard: 00:24:42

engaged in the game.

bard: 00:24:44

It was a terrible moment for this.

bard: 00:24:46

And Cassidy could laugh at him.

bard: 00:24:47

He could give him a kind,

bard: 00:24:48

pitying look and say that he could never think of Caleb that way.

bard: 00:24:51

There were lots of reasons to fear.

bard: 00:24:54

Caleb mentally nodded at that fear,

bard: 00:24:56

acknowledging that it was there.

bard: 00:24:58

Then he stepped passed it.

bard: 00:25:00

He felt, for a moment, the weight and strength of huge eagle wings on his back,

bard: 00:25:03

shining with glory.

bard: 00:25:05

He gave Cassidy a smile as wide as the world.

bard: 00:25:10

This was "Eagle’s Splendour"

bard: 00:25:12

by Ryan Campbell,

bard: 00:25:13

read for you by Khaki,

bard: 00:25:14

your faithful fireside companion.

bard: 00:25:16

Thank you for listening

bard: 00:25:17

to the Voice of Dog