Rose Red

Rose Red held the empty vial loosely in one hand, gazing at it, as she held her mug of mead in the other. She could use a refill, but Peter was regaling a new patron about his adventures in Never Never Land, before ‘the fairies went home’. He still had an elven look in middle age, but with the graying hair and the slight paunch around the middle, he was definitely no longer the young boy who had led a collection of other fae-stolen. She drank her remaining mead in one swallow and then pocketed the vial. It wasn’t what she had wanted or expected at the meeting, but it’s what she got. 

She threw some silver on the bar and headed for the front door of Peter Pan’s Hideout, but was stopped in the doorway by a young orc fellow. He made an imposing figure. Towering over her, wearing only a loincloth and leather boots, she recognized a fellow countryman. Her home country of La Verne was populated by many nomadic tribes, each with their own leadership, laws, and territories. Only after the death of Queen Grimhilde ten years ago did conversations of unity amongst the tribe begin, out of fear of another being able to exploit their division.

“Commander!” The young orc saluted.  

Rose felt the mask of Commander Red, leader of the largest military force of La Verne, slip into place. She smiled politely:

“How do you do?” 

He smiled at her; she noted his tusks were carved with pleasing abstract shapes. “I fought in the attack against the Evil Queen,” he said in a pleasing baritone.

She wondered if this orc was older than he looked. She judged him to be about 19, but the final attack that killed Grimhilde, most often referred to by Vernes as “The Evil Queen”, had been ten years ago. Furthermore, her unification of the largest single military in La Verne had taken five years of diplomacy and compromise for her to amass a force large enough to lead the attack that would take down Grimhilde. 

The fellow sheepishly grinned at her as he confessed, “You caught me the first time I tried to join up, so I joined once the fighting had already begun.”

“You were 9!” She laughed incredulously, “Urgan!”

“Yes!” The teenager laughed.

She shook her head, but smiled. She remembered the reason he gave back then as to why he wanted to fight. Grimhilde had killed his parents when he was five, and it hadn’t been a fast death. They had made him hide and be quiet, no matter what. He had obeyed his parents. 

“Well,” Rose shrugged, “Glad to see you made it, soldier.” 

“Thank you, ma’am. I hope you have a good evening.” Urgan saluted her once more before wishing her a respectful farewell and joining his friends at the bar.

“You as well,” she smiled once more before leaving the bar. 

A part of her was pleased to have seen Urgan, and that he appeared to be well, but any mention of the Evil Queen always made her feel out of sorts. The death of that madwoman had brought relief and peace to a country that Grimhilde had tormented for decades. It also meant the death of her mother, and most likely, the death of the only person capable of removing the curse.

“In my final act as your mother, ungrateful child that you are! I gift you a chance to start anew!” A shiver went up Rose’s spine as the twenty-year-old echo of her mother’s words sounded in her mind.

She shook her head, as if she could physically shake the memory away, before sighing and collecting herself. With an expression of pleasant neutrality, she walked towards the inn near the docks. Weather permitting, she would be off Toy Island and on the way to the first ship back to La Verne tomorrow morning. 

Rose awoke with a start to the sound of screaming and the clang of weapons. Years of battle and adventure came to her aid as she quickly dressed and armed herself. As she dressed, she listened acutely to the noise from the streets outside; she heard mostly screaming and the pounding of running feet. But coming from further away, in the direction of the docks, she estimated, came the sounds of a fight. pulle

She secured her gray leather armor to her person, fitted her leather boots, roughly tied her long black braids back, and then, finally, grabbed the black and gnarled peat bog staff that had once been in her father’s. She quickly headed out of her room and out the front door of the inn into the dark street. 

The fire still glowed within the globular street lights, but the meager flames still left most of the now-empty street in darkness. Now, outside of the inn, she could confirm that the fighting was coming from the docks. She began to make her way to the docks, quickly and silently. With everything but her head and hands covered in gray leather, she would be no more than a shadow as she moved. As she moved closer, it sounded like multiple combatants were in the water. Rose’s stomach clenched. 

An attack from the sea. Pirates? She thought to herself as she crouched and moved from shadow to shadow cast by the streetlights. She quickly reached the docks and saw a small contingent of island security forces fighting off the scaly merfolk that made up Neptune’s armed forces.

“Damn,” she muttered to herself at the sight of the king of the northern seas' army attacking Geromonian territory.

Rose took a moment to assess the battlefield before joining. She saw quickly that the merfolk were trying to pull the guards into the water, giving them the upper hand. She ran into the fray, the familiar mist-like sensation of magic covering her hand as she willed vines to grow rapidly and cover the wooden dock. The guards’ movement would be impeded, but it would also make it more difficult for the merfolk to move and pull the guards into the wine-dark sea. 

The entangling vines ignored her as she lightly stepped on the wooden slats of the dock and bashed in the head of a merfolk climbing up the pilings. She noted four more merfolk soldiers throwing spears and trying to climb up the dock, but only four. Such a small force attacking made her suspicious, and she risked her gaze towards the docked ships. It was too dark to tell, but the water seemed to churn more around the edges of the boat than seemed natural. 

“They are trying to sink the ships!” She cried out to the guards before turning back to the sea once more.

Rose wasn’t as aquatically attuned as those of the sea-faring druidic circles, but even as a druid of the land, she had a form in her arsenal that could make her formidable underwater. She felt her back hunch and her nostrils filled with the smell of ozone, as if a thunderstorm was rolling in. Her body morphed and enlarged until a polar bear was standing on the dock. The guards yelled and began to make their way to the now-sinking ships, as Rose hurled her hulking bear form into the water and began to dive downwards.

Polar bears are gifted with low-light vision, so Rose could see the shapes of merfolk swimming underneath the ships and making stabbing motions upwards into the hull. She swam downwards, hoping to take advantage of the darkness to take Neptune’s forces by surprise. She swam until her paws skirted the silt of the sea floor and looked up. She was right below the merfolk, their tails swishing back and forth to keep them under the hull. Spears and other implements were being thrown into the water, only a danger to the merfolk who weren’t directly under the hulls. 

She pushed off from the sea floor and swam quickly upwards. By the time the merfolk noticed her, it was too late. She reached out with her massive paws and clawed a merfolk down into her open jaw. She ripped at the merfolk’s tail, and the blood began to cloud the waters. Rose mauled the invader as the others fled outward,s where they then had to contend with the spears and pikes of the guards now manning the ships. 

For two minutes, Rose was able to stay submerged to claw and bite the invading soldiers before she had no choice but to go up for air. Only her massive bear head emerged above water, and she panted hard as she looked around. There was no sign of the merfok, and the guards were already celebrating. She swam back to the dock and pulled her massive bulk free of the water before letting the transformation go and changing back to her natural humanoid shape. 

“Well well, if it isn’t Commander Red,” a friendly voice said from the edge of the dock that connected to shore. 

Rose turned and was surprised to see a familiar grey-haired dwarf. His once brown hair and beard had fully gone gray now, his broad, muscular arms were becoming sinewy with age, but his green eyes were just as sharp and bright as she when she had first met him 15 years ago. He smiled up at her as she bowed respectfully. 

“Councilman Hammerbeard,” she greeted the member of the dwarven council of Erebor, the mountainous ancestral home of the dwarven people and one of the most powerful countries in the land.

Councilman Grimnar Hammerbeard had impressed his people as an army medic during the battles that led to the death of the evil Queen of La Verne. His prowess, along with his personal connection with Snow White, Queen of Germonia, and the respect he earned amongst the multiple tribes of La Verne, had made him an easy pick for the Erebor council. 

“What brings you to Toy Island?” He asked, his tone friendly but curious.

“This was just a stop on my journey back to La Verne. And you? Business or pleasure?”

“Business. An outbreak of some warts amongst the workers here is being brought back home. I’ve been treating patients here, but now my itinerary has drastically changed.” He gestured towards the bloody water that churned with sea life feasting on the fallen. 

“Yes,” Rose agreed, taking in the carnage, “My schedule has also been adjusted.”

“After I attend to the wounded, I will send word to the council.” The councilman slyly looked at Rose out of the corner of his eye. “What will you do, Commander?”

Rose chose her words carefully and spoke them slowly, “I will help Toy Island forces establish increased security protocols in the event of more attacks, and then I will send word to Major Jataka of what has happened here.” 

“Major Jataka…” The councilman stroked his beard, his brow furrowed in thought, “The brown eagle gentleman?”

“Yes, he is an Avianite,” Rose replied. She pictured the humanoid bird, his avian claws the same way she used her hands. His upright posture on two large bird legs, in appearance exactly like the animal, an evolutionary cousin. The large brown-feathered head and large, sharp yellow beak completed the image of her comrade and friend. 

“Yes, I remember him when he was Captain Jataka, good fellow.” Councilman Hammerbeard smiled up at Rose. “Well, I believe I will be seeing you again soon. Goodnight, Commander.”

“Goodnight, Councilman.”