Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li.

by Brian S. Pratt.

For my Uncle, Uncle, who supplied me with the computer upon which I wrote who supplied me with the computer upon which I wrote The Morcyth Saga The Morcyth Saga. Also for my Aunt, Aunt, who made my times at their farm ones of happiness and are among my fondest childhood memories. who made my times at their farm ones of happiness and are among my fondest childhood memories.

Chapter One.

James walks down one of the many hallways in the Ferdillon Estate which lies in the great trading city of Corillian. Situated at the southern end of the island of Torence, Corillian boasts one of the largest shipping ports in these waters. The trading houses here ship goods to all the known kingdoms, many having offices in every major city and capitol.

He pauses in front of a door he's entered many times over the past seven days, ever since they were brought here by Nate's cousin after they'd fled the destruction of the mines.

Knocking, he waits until he hears a 'come in' from the other side before opening the door. Inside, he finds Miko sitting in a chair next to Nate who's lying in bed, recovering from the effects of the poison he consumed when Black Tooth had tried to extract his revenge upon Miko. Miko had been poisoned as well, but hadn't consumed as much of it as had Nate.

When they'd arrived at the docks of Corillian, the captain immediately took him to the nearest temple where he'd arranged for a priest to purge the poison from his system. Once the poison had been purged, the priest had told them the damage to his insides was far reaching and that it would take a long time, if ever, for him to fully recover from the effects.

"Feeling better today?" he asks Nate as he comes over and sits upon the edge of the bed.

"Some," he replies with a raspy voice. Still wracked by pain, he at least is able to hold down solids and can move around on his own for a short time.

James turns to Miko, "Jiron and I are ready to leave soon for Cardri."

A pained look comes over Miko as he asks, "What about me?"

James glances toward Nate before replying, "Nate's family has offered to let you stay here with them for as long as you desire."

"That's right, Miko," Nate adds. "We'd be more than happy to have you remain here with us."

"But..." he says as he looks to Nate, pausing momentarily. Then he continues, "As much as I appreciate the offer to stay here with you and your family, I wish to return to Cardri with James." He looks to James for his response.

James glances again to Nate and says, "I thought we should at least give him the choice."

Nate nods in reply.

Turning to Miko, James says, "Then we'll be leaving in the morning. There's a trader with whom Nate's father has arranged to carry us with them as they make their way to Cardri. They have several stops before they get there, but said they should be docking at the capitol within a couple weeks."

"Tomorrow?" he asks, sad to be leaving his friend so soon. He turns to Nate and says, "I'm sorry to have to leave you."

Nate lifts his hand and pats Miko on the knee, "It's okay, Miko. I understand. Remember, you always have a friend in me and if you're ever in the area, I expect you to stop by for a visit."

Giving him a sad smile, Miko replies, "I will." He turns to James, "I'd like to stay here with Nate until we leave in the morning."

"Sure thing," James a.s.sures him. "Now, I need to go arrange a few things with Jiron before we go." Getting up from the bed, he goes over to the door. Looking back at Nate, he says, "You get better now."

Nate smiles at him and replies, "I will."

Opening the door, he leaves the room and then closes it behind him. He proceeds down the hallway toward the room that he's been sharing with Jiron.

On the way, he sees Essin coming toward him and he's wearing the livery of House Ferdillon. As they approach each other, he says, "So you've taken service with them then?"

Smiling broadly, Essin replies, "Yes James, both Eril and I have." Eril was the other slave that had jumped aboard at the last minute when they fled the volcanic eruption which had consumed the slave mines. "Nate put in a good word with his father on our behalf and they've made us part of their servant staff. Not a glamorous position to be sure, but better than what we had a few weeks ago."

Laughing, James nods his head in agreement, "You got that right. I wish nothing but the best for both of you."

"Thank you," he replies.

"I don't know if I ever expressed my thanks for the fair treatment you gave Miko when he was part of your team in the mines," he says.

"Well, I've always believed that if you treat someone with respect and fairly, they'll work harder for you," he explains.

"I've found that to be true, too," he tells him.

"I must be off," Essin says to him. "Can't afford to make a bad impression with the master of the house."

"Good luck, Essin" James says as he begins to walk away.

"You too, James," Essin replies.

Leaving Essin behind, he proceeds down the hallway and admires the hanging tapestries on the way to the stairs leading down to where his room is located. Down the stairs, he turns to the right and comes to his room which is the third doorway from the stairs. He finds that Jiron has already left, probably to find another serving girl to spend time with. Leaving the room, he continues down the hallway past his room in search of him. Jiron often takes the serving girls to the inner atrium at the end of the hallway, where he says the plants growing there helps to 'get them in the mood'.

The atrium is roughly forty feet by sixty feet with an open ceiling that allows the sun, and at times the rain, to fall upon the many plants growing there. Three benches are placed along the cobblestone walkways that meander their way amongst the plants. It's on one of those benches that he finds Jiron sitting and talking with Nate's sister, Miriam.

"...that's when we took off and left the soldiers far behind," he says to her.

James can see her sitting there in rapt attention as he relates another tale of their exploits. He's been wooing several of the serving girls as well as Miriam, much to the chagrin of Nate's mother. That's partially the reason why they've agreed to expedite their return to Cardri.

"Ahem," James says, clearing his throat to announce his presence.

Turning to look over his shoulder, Jiron sees him standing there at the entrance to the atrium and gives him a big smile as he says, "Hi James."

James nods his head to him and then says to her, "Good day Miriam."

She nods her head in reply and gives him a shy smile as she says, "Jiron was just telling me about your escape from Al-Kur. It's amazing you both got out of there alive!"

"Yeah, it was," he says to her. "Luck was definitely on our side that day." Turning to Jiron he says, "I told Miko we're leaving and he's decided to come with us."

"Thought he might," he says. "Though if it wasn't for Tersa needing me there, I'd never leave." He flashes Miriam a smile and she gives one to him in return.

"I must go," Miriam says abruptly as she gets up from the bench and rushes past James as she hurries from the atrium.

"Wonder what made her..." he begins to say when he sees Miriam's mother entering the atrium from the other direction.

As she approaches them, Jiron comes to his feet and gives her a slight bow, "Greetings lady."

"Flirting with my daughter again, have you?" she says to him with a not too happy look on her face.

"Just whiling away the time before we leave in the morning," he a.s.sures her.

"I've spoken to Captain Caril, and he said all is set," she tells them. "They'll be leaving at first light."

"Good," exclaims Jiron. "Though I've enjoyed the hospitality of your house, I am anxious to return and find my sister."

"Yes," chimes in James, "you and your family have been most gracious in allowing us to stay here with you."

She turns a warm smile to James as she says, "It is the least we can do for having our Nate back. I had given up all hope of ever seeing my son again."

"Miko will be going with us as well," he tells her. "I told him of your offer to have him stay here, but his mind is set to continue with us."

"That's too bad," she says, "Nate has grown awfully fond of him. We all have to tell the truth, he's a good lad."

"Yes he is," agrees James.

She begins to leave but pauses and turns back toward them, saying, "We're having a banquet tonight in your honor, to send you off properly. I took the liberty of arranging for suitable attire to be brought to your rooms later this afternoon."

"Thank you lady," James says to her graciously.

"You're welcome," she replies as she again turns and makes her way out of the atrium the way she'd come in.

James turns to Jiron and says, "You'd better stay away from Miriam until we leave."

"I don't intend to do anything with her," he a.s.sures him. "Truth to tell, she was the one who found me. I was sitting here just relaxing when she shows up and starts talking to me. Before I even knew it, she had me relating the tale of our escape from Al-Kur."

"Be that as it may," he says, "we're not out of here yet and an angry mother can screw up our way back to Cardri."

"I'll do my best to avoid being around her, okay?" he asks.

James nods his head in reply, "That'll be just fine."

"Wonder what 'suitable attire' is?" Jiron asks.

"Don't know," he replies, "but it's usually stiff and uncomfortable."

A groan escapes Jiron as he rolls his eyes upward.

He walks with James back to their room and as they near their door, they see one of the servants coming out of their room. The servant fails to notice them as he shuts the door and walks down the hallway in the opposite direction.

With trepidation, they open the door and walk in. Lying on each bed is indeed a set of clothes, one which has bright green tights and a darker green upper tunic. The other one is light brown tights with a dark brown upper tunic.

They both race for the brown set and Jiron cries out in triumph as he gets to them first. "Ha ha ha, my peac.o.c.k," he says to James as he's holding the brown set.

"Oh, shut up," replies James as he goes over and holds up the other set. "I hate green," he says miserably. He turns to Jiron and has an imploring look.

"No way, man," he says and then indicates the clothes James is holding, "I'd rather go naked than wear that." He begins taking off his clothes and putting the new ones on. When he sees James hesitating, he asks in all seriousness, "You don't want to insult our hostess do you?" Then a playful smile spreads across his face.

Resigned to his fate, he replies, "No." He takes off his clothes and first slips on the bright green tights. When he has them on, he looks down at himself and realizes they are truly tight and forms to his every curve down there leaving nothing to the imagination.

Feeling naked, he pulls on the tunic which helps to cover his nether regions, though not as well as he would want. Despite being rather revealing, they are quite comfortable. Once he has them on, he goes over to look at himself in the mirror standing in the corner. Aside from the fact he's green, the outfit actually looks pretty sharp on him.

Jiron has his own set on as well and they look at each other, nodding in admiration. "Actually, James," he says when he sees him, "it doesn't look so bad once you have them on." He comes over and joins him in front of the mirror.

"You look pretty good too," he tells him.

"It's still another hour till mealtime," Jiron says. "What say we go and show off our new clothes to some of the serving girls?"

Smiling at his friend, he replies, "You go ahead, I'm going to go and find Miko. He's probably still sitting with Nate, and I need to make sure he gets ready for the celebration."

"Alright, then," he says. Going to the door, Jiron opens it and pauses a moment as he says, "See you there." Shutting the door behind him, he heads down the hallway to find one of the several serving girls he's been 'impressing' since they've arrived.

Under his tunic, he straps on the belt holding his slugs so as not to be conspicuous. He really hasn't felt safe anywhere since coming to this crazy world, and he always likes to be prepared. A couple days ago while they were sight seeing in the city, he'd found a store where he was able to restock his supply of slugs. Sitting over in the corner of their room is a box holding a hundred of them. When Miriam had found out why he'd wanted them, she had bought him the box.

Straightening his tunic so it will hide his belt of slugs, he leaves his room and makes his way back up the stairs to Nate's room. When he gets there, he knocks but receives no answer. Knocking again, he waits but no reply is forthcoming. Opening the door a crack, he peeks in and discovers Nate and Miko are no longer there.

Closing the door, he continues down the hallway toward where they'd put Miko. Being Nate's friend had warranted him a room to himself next door. As he approaches Miko's room, he hears arguing inside and raised voices. Fearing the worst, he readies a slug and bursts through the door.

Standing in the middle of the room is Miko, bright red tights in hand and a stubborn look on his face. Nate is there sitting in a chair and it seems as if they've been arguing. When the door bursts in, they both turn to see James framed in the doorway.

"James," Miko cries out holding the clothes out to him, "do you realize what they expect me to wear?" Turning to Nate, he says, "If I have to wear this, then I'm not going!"

"Miko," James says to him as he enters the room, "we're their guests. And if they want us to wear these things, then wear them we shall. It's the least we can do for the hospitality we've received."

"But..." he starts to say and then stops abruptly when he realizes just what James is wearing. Breaking into a laugh, he drops his clothes to the floor and sits down in a nearby chair. "Man, would you look at you!" he says as he starts laughing even harder.

Turning a little red, James looks to Nate who says, "You do look good, James. It's what everyone will be wearing tonight at the celebration."

"Come on 'Torchy'," James says to Miko as he comes over and picks up the clothes from the floor. Handing them to him, he says, "Put them on."

"Torchy?" Miko asks when he calms down. "Why did you call me that?"

Pointing to the clothes Miko's holding, he replies, "Wearing that will make you look like a flaming candle." Nate breaks out into a smile at Miko's expense when he hears that.

Looking forlorn, he holds the clothes and says to James with a slight whine in his voice, "Do I have to?"

"Yes, you do," he tells him. "Now stop bemoaning your circ.u.mstances and put them on. Our hosts are expecting it."

Under James' glare he gets into his new clothes and sure enough, he looks like a flaming candle. When he looks to James for approval, he does his best to not smile.

"You look good," he a.s.sures him.

"You sure?" he asks as he looks down at himself, not entirely convinced.