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[Arcalian]

"Why should I travel with you, again?" Viriton asked.

"Kinda wondering that myself," Imoen piped in from the background.

Jaheria sneered. "We were old friends of Gorion. He would want us to look after you."

"Y-y-yes," Khalid agreed.

The Candlekeep kids exchanged a glance. This woman was the ugliest half-elf either of them had ever seen. It was not a matter of looks, but of personality; the fundamental ugliness of Jaheira's soul was obvious to see. In the five minutes they had spoken to her she had been mean, insufferable, and had spared them her overwhelming snottiness and arrogance only long enough to continue to henpeck the daylights out of her poor husband.

The mad necromancer and his vicious little halfling bodyguard were, for all their dirty craziness, more honest. You knew where you stood with them.

"I suppose we could use the numbers, and Gorion did say to look for you," Viriton conceeded reluctantly.

"Exellent," Jaheira huffed. "We will help to guide your way in life, unlike those dirty pair over there," she said, indicating Montaron and Xzar with a sniff.

"We are all going to Nashkel," Imoen agreed sadly. But there was a sparkle in her eye; and Viriton knew that before the tenday was out the snooty druid would come to discover some interesting things. Exploding powder in her backpack, perhaps...

****

"Balance," the Druid repeated in her annoying nasal voice for perhaps the sixteenth time. "Civilization must be in balance with nature. When cities grow too large, they become a blight on the wilds--"

"Och, lassie, can't ye be shuttin up about that fer more than five minutes at a time?" Montaron groaned.

"I would be silent if people would observe the Balance. But far too many do not listen, do not understand nature--"

"Lass, I be from a hole in the ground. My folks worked the earth. I be knowin nature better than ye--"

"Worked the land? That is not respecting nature!"

"Dinna confuse respect with mindless ignorant worship of the bloody tree roots.."

Viriton tuned out the argument. Nature was part of life, and that was all. He had not met many Druids in the walls of Candlekeep, but from what he had read he believed this horrid woman was not representative of their ilk.

Then Xzar started wailing in the background. Khalid and Imoen moved on ahead with him, to avoid the noise.

"How do you stand her?" Imoen asked Khalid. The Candlekeep kids both felt sorry for him.

"I l-love her. I always d-did. B-but....but she was...."

"Not always like this?" Viriton supplied.

"Not as b-bad as this," Khalid said.

"I heard that!" Jaheria shouted.

All three of them groaned.

----

"Greetings Mercenaries! I am Silke. Thespian extroadinare." The woman gave a bright grin with too many teeth. "Here come Feldepost's thugs. Strike when I tell you to."

"The balance demands..."

"I think we know the speech by now, Weedy," Imoen said, rolling her eyes.

"Hush, child. I only want what is best for you," Jaheria snorted.

"Oh yes, like the wonderful work you've done with your husband, there," Viriton sighed.

Silke frowned. "Er...."

Three hooded men came up to the party. "Greetings Silke, we're here with the gems that..."

"Do not doubt my love for Khalid!"

The three men stared. "What?" Their leader said uncertainly.

Garrick, Silke's lieutenant, plucked uncertainly at her shoulder. "Mistress? Perhaps we should...."

"Aye, we be seein what yer love for hubby be doin to him!" Montaron chuckled.

"But-but-but," Khalid protested.

"Ah.....perhaps you could shelve the argument?" Silke pleaded. "These men are dangerous!"

"Dangerous?" The leader of the trio stared at her in blank puzzlement. "We're here with the gems that..."

"Strike now!" Silke screamed. "Kill them!"

"Mistress, no!" Garrick pleaded.

"What is your advice, o guardian of nature?" Viritol asked their self-appointed leader.

Completely missing his sarcasm, Jaheria frowned thoughtfully. "Either we should attack both, or ignore them and let them settle their differences."

"WHAT?" Everyone else chorused, even Xzar.

Silke began casting a spell. The three hooded men ran for it. Garrick backed away. Jaheria frowned, then reluctantly attacked Silke. Viriton's mace and Khalid's sword arrived first. Montaron and Imoen finished her off.

"Jaheria...." said Viriton.

"Yes, child?"

"You're FIRED!"

Xzar took the cue and lightning bolted her on the spot. She went down, stunned and twicthing.

"J-jaheria!" Khalid knelt beside her.

"You can stay with her, or you can find a future with us," Viriton offered.

Khalid looked up at them, his face a portrait of mixed emotions. But eventually he shook his head.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish!" Montaron laughed.

"I don't know...." Imoen said, cocking her head to one side. "He was kinda cute, a little. Without her he mighta been okay."

"But he maid his choice," Viriton said. "Hey you, what was your name, Garrick?"

The bard peeked from behind the building at them. "Er....yes?"

"We won't kill you. Do you want in?"

"With my Mistress dead, I suppose..."

"Great, you're hired. Come on!"

----

The arrived in Nashkel four days later.

"Minsc and Boo need your help! My witch has been captured!"

"Minsc and who?" Imoen asked.

"My giant minature space hamster!"

Viriton put his head in his hands. "Oh boy..."

End