Chapter 13
Freshest Before
Several hours passed before the giant named Tear came out from his personal cave. Discovering the continued absence of Break, Tear set about preparing the pot for the stew. “Inta tha pot goes tha poe-tay-toes, poe-tay-toes, poe-tay-toes, inta tha pot goes …”
Seeing the giant clearly in the beginning throes of distress over a lack of a rhyme, Jym whispered, “Tomatoes.”
“Yeah! Toe-may-toes, toe-may-toes, toe-may-toes …” The giant paused for a moment, looking at his available ingredients then snickered loudly. “Lemme start that a-gen,” Tear pretended to clear his throat, which resulted in as much phlegm as were he to have actually done so, and spat at Jym, who deftly avoided a small fraction of the total.
“Inta tha pot goes tha poe-tay-toes, poe-tay-toes, poe-tay-toes. Inta tha pot goes tha toe-may-toes, toe-may-toes, toe-may-toes. So were done wif tha veggibles, veggibles veggibles, inta tha pot goes tha smarty-pants, smarty-pants,” in between the beats Tear yanked the goblin free without bothering to untie him first, several loud popping sounds and a scream later, “Smarty-pants.” The giant looked down at the goblin, and said, “Hows ya like my singin’ now? Gonna be tha las’ song ya ev’r hear. Gonna teach it to the boys later.” With that, he bound, gagged and dropped the goblin into the water. “Breev deep when ya can gobber, I will deal wif tha body later.”
“As for you,” Tear gestured at Leira, “Gotta get that armor off. You will sink too fast.”
Leira responded as if it were her last moments alive. She spit in his general direction and made a rude hand motion.
Tear picked her up, brought her very close to his right eye and said, “I guess you got no brains at all, for all the good the ones you should have are doing. Now I gotta break yer bones and slide you out.” Leira’s face went pale as the first bones broke, though she did not scream. As Tear carefully moved his fingers up her right arm to her shoulder a trumpet sounded far in the distance.
Forgetting his chore, he dropped Leira back into the cage she had been stored in and rushed to grab his weapon, a large club and a sack of something. Leira cried out as she went to arrest her fall, and landed instead on her right forearm causing her to momentarily black out. Tear, seeing his captive was unconscious after he retrieved his weapons, thought it okay to leave her cage unlatched.
After the giant had gone to whatever the trumpet signified, Jymgreen surfaced from the water and breathed a deep breath of relief. The first sound he recognized was Leira moaning softly nearby. “Leira,” he shouted, “Are you awake?”
Wearily, Leira responded, “Yes, Jym, I am.”
“Good, I am in a bad way, I think he dislocated something. Several somethings.”
“It sounded awful, Jym. Can you get out?” Her words were accentuated by sharp breathing. Her broken arm now hugged tightly into her body.
Sheepishly the goblin peaked his head over the rim of the massive stew pot he had been dropped into. “Sounds like you have a pain somewhere. I will be right with you.”
Hopping up and out of the stew pot, his injuries almost forgotten, Jym looked at the cage and said with the utmost certainty, “It is unlocked, unlatched, and unhooked. You are welcome to thank me but I did nothing.”
“Jym, I have to ask, where is Davien? Did you see where he was taken?” A note of desperation in her voice gave Jymgreen a moment of pause.
“Yeah, where is my ‘Family’? Oh and Davien. Yeah, where is Davien? He is missing out!”