The morning after

Esmiralda and her companions, the Optimist Monk Broo Fang Tane and the odd, loutish warrior Seymurh, have paused to rest in a tavern outside of Veral Ski, one of the largest cities in all of Korin. Here they wash the blood, gore and dirt of their recent adventure from their bodies but Mira finds the memory of their lost comrade Merrick is as restless as the living dead that claimed his life. In a dream, he hints at a new quest that Esimralda must undertake...

I basked in the warm rays of the sun and ignored any impulse to leave the bed and find my companions. My dream still troubled me and I rolled the images around in my mind, poking at it from every angle, equally afraid that it would fade or come true. Find him, the dream Merrick had implored me. Find who?

Eventually, I pushed aside the scratchy blanket and rolled to the side, placing my feet reluctantly on the coarse floor and stretched, my hands clasped over my head. My hair had grown into a tangle overnight; my fingers snagged as I brushed them through it. the ache of the road and the recent fight still tightened my muscles and I sat for a some long time listening to the sounds from the tavern room below or the slow parade of people guiding their wagons to the market in Veral Ski. I pulled on my boots, arranged my skirt and blouse and navigated the stairs like one of the undead minions we had so recently sent back to the ground.

Seymuhr and Mallyn sat together, their heads close. She had a smile on her face and a hand buried in her mop of reddish hair. Seymuhr leaned back, fingers entwined over a slightly swollen belly, tapping his thumbs together. Broo Fang Tane was nowhere to be seen. I sat down heavily beside the girl and gave her a weary nod.

"Good morning to you," she said, getting up.

I grunted.

"I've seen that look before. I'm on my way," Mallyn chuckled.

Seymuhr looked me up and down. If he felt as sore or tried as I did, he showed no sign. "Trouble sleeping?"

"Why do you ask?"

"You look like you slept in a barrel."

"Well, thank you for that." I ran my fingers through my hair again, then patted it down. "I thought you meant something else."

"I didn't."

"Obviously," I snapped. Mallyn was on her way back, a steaming cup of liquid in her hand. "Was your sleep...untroubled?"

"Like a hound by a fire," he said cheerfully.

"Hmmm." Perhaps his mind was too dull to dream. I thanked Mallyn for the brew and asked her what the tavern served for the morning meal.

She brightened up immediately. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of it! We call it Traveler's Temptation."

"Sounds...tempting," I said, unable to come up with a better word. The liquid she served was slowly peeling away the fog in my brain. "What's in it?"

"We take three eggs, mix 'em up with some special spices--we're not supposed to talk about those--cook them up and fold them over some chopped spider that's so fresh it twitches when you bite into it." She beamed at me. "Would you like that?"

"Can I get it without the chopped spider?"

Her face fell. "Why in Korin would you want to do that? That's the best part!"

I patted my stomach and shook my head. "I'm sure it is. It's just that we've just come in from a long expedition in the wilderness with nothing much else to eat. I'm afraid I've had my fill of spider."

"Wha...? She said she's had her fill of spider!" Mallyn called out to the room.

Silence followed, and then the creaking of benches as the few people left in the main room turned to look at us. I felt their eyes run over me, floor to hair and back again."

"Looks like she's had her fill of something," someone muttered and Seymuhr chuckled.

"Please," I said to Mallyn after shooting Seymuhr an irritated glare. "I don't wish to cause a scene or offend your cook. Can you just ask?"

She sniffed. "I will. But it's a bit weird." Her short skirt snapped around her hips as she whirled away. Seymuhr watched in appreciation.

"You have a gift for making friends," Seymuhr said.

"I just don't understand it. Just because spiders are everywhere doesn't mean we have to eat them with everything."

Seymuhr adopted a grave expression. He nodded slowly. "You're right. They're like people that way."

I didn't respond right away, but just looked at him, blinking. Then  gave up. "I. I...guess so. Look don't mind my foul mood. I had some unsettling dreams last night." I recounted the entire thing to him, right down to Merrick's urgent request. "Did anything trouble your sleep?"

Seymuhr shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Women. Always overthinking things."

"What do you mean? What have I done now?"

"Chances are, it was just a dream," he started, but then his eyes grew wide and he leaned in, his raspy voice little more than a whisper. "You know, you're right. It probably was a sign, a message of great import."

"Do you think so?" I glanced around the room. Seymuhr's sudden conspiratorial tone made me think that others were listening in. It didn't look like it.

"Of course! It was from your bladder. Those messages are always the most urgent. This 'him' Merrick spoke of probably had the chamber pot. Tell me, Mira, did you find him in time?" He leaned back and laughed like a donkey, obviously pleased with himself. I just pressed my lips together and kept my response to myself.

Then Mallyn appeared a plate of steaming eggs in her hand. She looked fondly down at Seymuhr, then placed the plate in front of me with a suspicious look on her face. "He said he did the best he could."

Sure enough, the Traveler's Temptation was nearly spider-free. I folded back the top layer of egg to find a single long, hairy spider leg placed conspicuously in the middle of an otherwise light and fluffy fare. I ate around it.