Leaving Home – Part 1 (Aztryd)

 Lihan Taifun

It was a brisk and sunny spring morning when Aztryd left. She paid the weather no attention at all. Day or night, sunshine or snow storm – all that mattered was that now was her chance to escape. She, and those of her clan-sisters who were helping her, had been waiting for this opportunity for weeks. And now she was on her way. She had done it, really done it, and there could be no turning back.

Aztryd

It was unheard of, what she was doing. Women didn't go out among strangers. Women – nor any Dwarves – didn't leave their positions. If you were on guard duty, you guarded. If you were a cook, you cooked. If you were married, you stayed with your spouse. How could a society function if people left their duties whenever a whim struck them? And how would the race survive if the few – far too few – women and children were not protected?

And if there was a conflict in your duties, then you took the matter to the clan-lord, who was responsible for solving such problems. Ah, yes, that was the real issue! What happens if the clan-lord is the problem? Then she would appeal to another authority! To her mother, to the matriarch of her mother's clan, and to her mother's clan-lord!

Unfortunately, there were hundreds of leagues between her present home in Ibirgathol, in the mountains that looked down toward the Human city of Guard Tower to the south, and her mother's home in the Blue Mountains of the north. And her husband and his followers could walk those leagues just as fast as she could.

That was why she had endured these past weeks of waiting. But today everything was right. The post rider had come, on errands from the Human King. She had claimed to be going up into the hills to the gardens, carrying as always Nizl, that dear treasure of her people. Instead, she had snuck down seldom-used trails, finding the road, out of sight of the gates of Ibirgathol. Found the pack that her clan-sisters had left for her, with food, and clothes, and all the treasure they could spare for her journey. She had stopped the post rider (more difficult than she expected.) and bribed him (ridiculously easy, since he had no idea at all of the true value of that jewel, a mere garnet). And now she clung precariously behind him on his horse, who was making a most gratifying speed, in a direction her husband would never expect!

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