The woman stood at least 7 foot tall, and she was all legs and arms. She had on a grey, tattered plain shirt and grey pants. Her eyes were huge and rimmed with black, no pupils, softly glowing. Her hair fell down the middle of her back, grey as well. She was devoid of color.
Grup was standing, Lealah clenched her fists.
"Who are you?" asked Grup.
"Here he is." Is the only thing she said, and from behind her shuffled Rikoo Rakoo, thought to be long dead and rotting in the grave.
Lealah gasped, her chest tightened and she felt faint. Grup immediately rushed over, as healers do, and grabbed Rikoo by the shoulders. He stared at the Raki's face, took it in. Something was off but it WAS him, it WAS Rikoo. Grup looked at the woman and wondered who she was. He squinted his eyes but knew that he had never even seen a creature like her, much less one that he might recognize from a bar or a visit to Khal.
From behind Grup flashed Lealah, and she smashed into the woman so hard the the giant backed out of the door and into the sand outside. Immediately Lealah pushed forward, screaming and swinging and spitting. Grup left Rikoo standing there and stepped out into the night to see Lealah making contact with...something...an invisible shield that the woman seemed to push out from her hand. Grup knew that Lealah was more dangerous when the victim resisted, because she would only build up her rage and continue until she either party was dead. The woman continued to hold off Lealah, but she stumbled a bit, her eyes wide at the little goblin's ability.
Suddenly, Lealah stopped, stood straight and put her right arm over her left in front of her. She closed her eyes and within a few seconds a blue light sizzled between her hands. Lealah cocked back her arms and with a CRACK she launched at the woman again, smashing on top, down below, her swings so fast that the light trails left behind were mingling, creating a sphere of light around her, the ground lit up. With each hit the woman was pushed back, her heels pushing the sand up. Lealah was screaming and smashing with thunder and light.
Suddenly the woman stabbed her hand at Lealah. The little goblin flew to the ground, suddenly stiff. Lealah's teeth were showing, her eyes wide with rage. Grup could see that she still wanted to fight, but was pinned down by some force.
"I did not DO this to your friend!" the woman screamed. "I pulled him from the grave, from his rest..but without me he would have laid there, awake..alive..in the pitch black. He had been put there by something else, and I have but brought him to you, to where he needed to be!"
The woman held a palm down at Lealah and pressed. Then she stood up and stepped back into the house as Lealah continued to lay frozen.
Inside, Grup could see the woman kneeling down to Rikoo as he was sitting on a small bed looking at his hands. Grup could hear her say "Remember what I told you." Rikoo looked at the woman, tears in his eyes, and nodded. She stood up and walked past Grup and out the door. "Wait!" said Grup. "What do we do with him?" The woman looked at Lealah and smiled, then at Grup. "DO with him? The same as you did with him before...be his friend."
With that, the woman simply disappeared without a sound.
Lealah gasped and sat up. She ran inside the house and looked for Rikoo, found him sitting on the little back porch, staring at the water. She sat down by him, started to attend to the cuts on her hands. She had so many questions in her mind, so many things to say that she had no idea which one to say first. So she just sat there and played with her hands.
"Ale?" she asked.
Rikoo shook his head.
"Your pipe?" she asked.
Rikoo shook his head.
Over his should came Grup's hand, holding a large ceramic mug filled with hot coffee. Rikoo looked at the offering, considered it. It looked to Lealah like he was shocked, then happy, then sad. His eyes welled up, tears brimming. His hands grabbed the mug and he smelled the coffee, did it twice. He gripped the cup with both hands, tightly. He held it to his chest and looked down into the liquid. He lifted it up, took a drink.
"Thank you." he said. Minutes passed, Lealah wrapping her hands, Rikoo sipping the coffee and Grup standing behind them in the doorway looking out at the moon. "Tomorrow I want to go see Royal...do you know where he is?" asked Rikoo. "Yeh!" said Lealah. "He's in the finest stables in New Targanor!"
And Rikoo smiled at her, went back to drinking his coffee.
