Drueda
Years after he vanished and was presumed dead, Addasha Risea has found her long-lost brother. But where has he been all these years? Why didn’t he come home?
~ ~ ~ Written by Rafe Langston ~ ~ ~ “Gods, it really is you!” Addasha Risea said, as she looked at the haggard man standing before her. “We all thought you were dead, Oryn! Why didn’t you come home?!” They stood in a small clearing far deeper in the Bramblemire Jungle than the halflings of Coral Haven were permitted to travel, but Addasha had never let rules limit her curiosity before and, as usual, it paid off. As for her long-lost brother, he had been bent over a stream trying to catch a frog when she found him. “I… got lost.” he finally said, pausing oddly as if struggling to remember the words. “Fell… hit my… head… couldn’t… find the way back… tried… wanted… to be home…” Tears welled up in his eyes. “Missed you.” Addasha hugged him. He felt frail, like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. She dug into her pack and pulled out some salted meat that she had been saving. Oryn took it and ripped off a bite. “Drueda…” he said with his mouth full. “What?” Addasha didn’t recognize the word. Oryn shook his head. “Sorry… difficult… to speak… since…” and he mimicked a hit to his head. “That’s okay.” Addasha said as she put her hand on his thin bicep. “Let’s get you home.” Oryn chewed at the salted meat, his eyes full of uncertainty. “No… first… need to go… back… drueda! The word… name…” Addasha looked at him, worried. He patted her pack and pointed at himself. “A pack? You have things you want to get before we go?” “No… show… drueda!” The last word was like a curse of frustration. “What’s that mean?” “Na… nothing… come… then we go…” ~ ~ ~ Twenty minutes later, the pair stood in front of a rickety hut built between several large trees. It reminded Addasha of the stories they told little kids back in the village about the Bramblemire Hag who lived in the jungle and ate children who wandered too far. She lived in a scary hut with a conical roof and strange, twisted, gnarled edges – just like this one. “Did you build this?” Addasha asked. “No.” Oryn answered as he opened the door and gestured for her to enter. “Found.” Addasha stepped into the hut, which was lit by a single candle. Strange trinkets lined the shelves, and the hundreds of furs that covered the floor and furniture gave it a thick, musty smell. Sitting in the singular chair next to the table that held the candle was an old woman. She sipped from a steaming mug then turned her head to look at Addasha. Her mouth curled into a malicious smile under her long, crooked nose, and her eyes flashed. “Welcome home, Addasha.” she and Oryn said in unison. Then something heavy hit Addasha on the back of the head. She spun and landed on her back, seeing her brother holding an iron pan and looking down at her with tears streaming down his face, then the blackness took her. ~ ~ ~ “Rise and shine, pretty girl!” The old crone’s voice felt like claws tearing into Addasha’s throbbing skull. She was tied to the chair in the hut, which now glowed with an orange light that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Oryn stood in the corner, his head bowed but his shoulders shaking as he quietly sobbed. “What do you want?” Addasha asked, trying to blink away the pain in her head. “You, deary!” she said, cheerily, as she grabbed Addasha’s face in her cold, bony hands. She turned Addasha’s head as if she were inspecting a piece of meat. “Poor Oryn here has been so lonely. I can’t have my pets sulking around all day. That’s just cruel!” Suddenly, a realization dawned. “Let him go.” Addasha demanded. “And what would be in that for little old me?” the hag asked. “I won’t tell anyone your name.” The woman laughed, her voice tinged with nervousness. “My name?” “Yeah, every kid knows of the Bramblemire Hag, and that the only way to control her is with her name. Release him now, Drueda.” The woman’s eyes grew wide, violent, but she stood as if she were glued to the floor, and screamed in rage. “Good to know the stories are true. Now, Drueda,” Addasha said her name with more force, and the crone sneered at her. Addasha continued, “You will untie me and leave this place forever. Go find yourself a miserable spit of land somewhere in the ocean, far from people, and never leave it again. And be happy I’m merciful, hag.” Drueda seethed as she struggled to resist the commands, but stepped forward and began untying the knots…. ~ ~ ~ The party celebrating Oryn’s return lasted until dawn. There was song and dance, a feast, and wine that flowed endlessly. It was the happiest time that Addasha could remember. Later, while they stood in the cemetery looking down at the smashed bits that had been Oryn’s headstone, across the ocean an old woman sat in a hut on a tiny island, humming cheerily to herself as she finished sewing a tiny halfling doll, sealing a lock of hair inside…. ~ ~ ~ CREDIT ~ ~ ~ The character art was created using HeroForge and public domain imagery. The resulting composite image was created with GIMP. No GenAI was used in the creation of this story, and no part of this story may be used to train or enhance machine learning models of any kind. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. For more info, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/