Dashyl's Quest: The Tournament Plains

When the three travelers reached the road they found the deadeye's own igwaza runner tied up and anchored off to the side. When Soern rode right past it without saying anything, Dashyl spoke up. "Are we going to take his igwaza with us?"

"Why," Soern asked back, riding on.

"Well, I mean," Dashyl pasued, "He could find his way back to the runner and it could carry him back to wherever he came from and he would be saved...and maybe come after me again."

"Earlier, you wanted me to spare his life and now you are wanting to doom him to die in the these plains by taking his only hope of survival?" Soern scoffed.

"No, I mean, I don't know," Dashyl stammered.

"Let the poor carapid crawl through the ditch and find his runner and ride it to safety. Let him take a longer drink from the tea cup of mercy," Soern said, adding, "it would be delightful to have some tea, don't you think."

"If we are not going to take the igwaza, let's see if there's anything worth taking off the igwaza," Fretly said as he dismounted his runner. He searched through the bags and sacks the deadeye had packed on his runner.

"You're going to steal from a blind man?" Soern asked.

"Well, I am an urchyn," explained Fretly. "Some qu might come in handy in Trader's Haunt."

"Fretly Fast-fingers is what I'll call you from now on," Soern said.

"Not a bad nickname," Fretly replied, pulling out a little pouch that sounded like it was full of coins.

"Bah," said Soern, "an old Kirzan saying goes: 'Fast fingers are quickly lost.'"

"Ha," laughed Fretly, pocketing the pouch full of qu. "As long as I have my fingers, I shall not fast and qu will be quickly lost. That's my saying." The dextrous urchyn had pulled out a coin and ran it back and forth over the knuckles of his left hand. "This day's starting to get better," Fretly said as he flipped the coin into the air, climbed back onto his igwaza, then caught the coin in his right hand.

"Enjoy it while it lasts. If that deadeye does live, I wouldn't want to be the one who stole from him," Soern warned.

"Aye, and I wouldn't want to be the one who stabbed his eyes out," retorted Fretly. 

"See," said Dashyl. "Doesn't it seem like a good idea now to bring his igwaza with us?"

"Leave it," Soern commanded. "We must get on our way. I think we should be good to run the igwaza along the road. We're about a third of the way to Trader's Haunt. We'll have one more night to sleep on the plains." Soern gave the signal and the three igwaza broke into a run carrying their riders ahead smoothly and swiftly, each one secretly hoping the deadeye would die and no one one else would be following them.