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The Players

The plains of the desert looked as if the fire god had just scorched it with all the fire that it could hold in it�s belly. All the green trees and grass that could have at one time grown among the dusty rocks and shrubs left no evidence that they might have grown here. Only the shrubs and rocks live here now, keeping the passing travellers hoping that there might be water ahead. Water, from the mountains that can be seen through the wavy lines of the heat that is rising from the ground. The sun has just rolled around to this side of the planet and already the fire god is starting to blow more fire on the already scorched plains of the desert. Many travellers can�t play the game of life, but these travellers call themselves masters of the game. These travellers are �The players�. And so the game must go on.

Jasta didn�t pick this spot last night for camp just because it was easy to put up a tent, he picked it because he could see over all the rocks and shrubs. Being plagued with having to go through life only being three feet tall was hard. There was other races almost as small like Dwarfs and Gnomes, but none were as small as Halflings. Jasta hated the way other bigger races like Elves and Humans treated Halflings as if they were a race of thieves. A lot of Halflings are thieves now only because the other races will not trust a Halfling to do honest work do to hundreds of years of being called thieves. Jasta is a thief by trade but that was not his fault. His father was a thief and like any father Jasta�s taught him all he knew. After his father was killed because of ten copper pieces Jasta left his home to become something more than just a thief. After being on his own for a few years Jasta finds himself in the company of a Human named Kurveen and a Gnome named Zarta.

"Kurveen! Zarta! Get up!", Jasta was always the first one up in the morning and the last to go to sleep at night. "A wagon is coming maybe we could get a ride to the next town," said Jasta as he ran to the road to wave down the the wagon.

For a few seconds Jasta forgot that he was scared of horses and all other big animals. About ten feet from the first horse in the six horse team Jasta remembered, he started to run as fast as he could back to the camp. "Kurveen! You go see if we can get a ride to the next town. Zarta and I will pack up camp", said Jasta pushing Kurveen toward the wagon.

"O.K.! O.K.! Let me go before I step on you ... Again!," Kurveen laughed out. Jasta just gave him one more push and stood there trying to act tough.

As Kurveen walked over to the wagon he was thinking of how he had met up with, and started to travel with Jasta and Zarta. Him, an animal loving and forest loving fighter, some call him a Ranger, travelling with two thieves that are both under four feet tall. The two thieves needed protection as they travelled in the lands of the bigger races. Kurveen thought it would be rewarding in more ways than one. He was getting paid, getting to see the world and most of all he was getting away from his father. Kurveen�s father never left his home town, he grew up there, got married there, had kids there, and the only other thing he did was love the land there. Kurveen loved his home and his father, but his father never wanted him to leave home. His father thought that the things that made him happy would make Kurveen happy also. One night the longing to see the world was to great, and Kurveen left his home in the company of a Halfling and a Gnome. "One day I will return and show my father how rich in knowladge the world is," Kurveen had said to him self as he left home.

After becoming friends with Jasta, Kurveen stopped taking the money that the two thieves had promised him in return for protection. Jasta had tried to keep giving the money he had promised, but Zarta did not hesitate in not giving money to Kurveen anymore.

�I had better make sure that Kurveen does not mess up our chances of getting a ride,� grumbled Zarta. Zarta ran a bit to catch up to Kurveen and as he looked at his back he was reminded of how mad he got at people that acted better than him. Zarta almost pulled out his knife to kill Kurveen before a rush of memories came to him. He pulled his hand away from his knife as he remembered.

Zarta's family had been killed right in front of him. The man that killed his family was a Human nobleman. The nobleman brutally killed and dismembered his family with a battle axe in the middle of the road just because they were in the way and could never be as important or amount to half of what the nobleman was. After that day Zarta was never the same, he didn�t like Humans that much and if some one acted like they were better than he was he would put them in their place, using any means available. Just before Zarta met Jasta he had killed a queen because she would not see him before some rich men.

Zarta usually never hesitates before he kills a person for being better than he was but for some strange reason he could not get himself to kill Kurveen. He had tried several times to kill him but every time he tried something had prevented it, one time someone started to fight him and at the other times his mind was filled with memories. After being interrupted each time he was never in the mode to finish the killing.

To make all the problems in Zarta�s life worse, he had been in a fire that burned most of his body. His face was all scared up making it hard for anyone to look at him for a long time without feeling sick.

�Stop! Stop!,� Kurveen tried to say over the clatter of the twenty four hooves of the six horse team, �Could you give my friends and me a ride to the next town.�

"Woe! Woe!," the driver of the wagon said. The driver was a human and he had the look of being on the road all night, there was bags under his eyes and he seemed to be stiff. �I�m sorry, I have a full load and my horses are tiered. I have to be in town before I run out of time to sell my things.�

"Please mister we need ... ,� said Kurveen getting cut off by Zarta.

�Give us a ride or you will not get to town!,� Zarta said as he moved his hand toward his knife.

As the wagon driver started to get the wagon moving he said, �You should use the time it takes to walk to town to cool down Mr. Gnome.�

�You stupid Human!,� Zarta had the knife in his hand and started to throw it before Kurveen could stop him. The knife flue through the air and just mist the driver of the wagon and stuck into the wagon. The wagon driver looked back quick and then made the horses go faster with a quick crack of his whip.

Before Zarta could get at another knife Kurveen knocked him to the ground. �It�s bad enough that you scare half the people away we met with your looks, you don�t have to scare away the rest by throwing your damn knives at them!� Kurveen yelled at the top of his lungs right into Zarta's ear.

�Get off of me you fool, before I start throwing my knives at you instead of at that stupid wagon driver!� Zarta yelled back at Kurveen right to his face, while at the same time trying to push him off.

As Kurveen was getting off of Zarta he tried to see if Zarta had any more knives, "I should just take all of your knives!�

�I should just let you have them, you know what I mean," Zarta said looking down to where he was dusting off the dust from his clothing.

�Are you threatening me!�

�Yes, I guess I am.�

�So be it, one of us will soon be walking among the dead. Draw!� Kurveen started to unsheathe his scimitar.

Just then both Kurveen and Zarta got hit on the head with a sling bullet. They stopped and looked over toward the camp to see Jasta standing there leaning up against his staff sling. �Are you just about done?� the two of them just stood there looking at him. �Good! Lets start walking to the next town before the suns burn us to a crisp."

�Oh my, I did not know it was getting so late.� Kurveen put away his scimitar as he walked over to camp observing how the bigger sun was now poking halfway over the horizon.

As Kurveen picked up his things at the camp Zarta was still standing at the ready and he said, �Are you running from a fight!�

�No, I am running from the suns. Come we must get to town before both the suns are at their peek.�

�Do not think that this is over, Human� Zarta put away his knife and started to get his things from the camp as well.

The walk to the town, that could have be avoided, was vary long and hot. There was no desert Creatures to worry about on the way, except for the invisible stalker. An invisible stalker could attack anyone at any time so there was no need to be overly protective, in fact they had no need to even walk with their weapons at the ready because they were safer right now than they would be in a room at an Inn.

In the past few years the number of creatures that have been roaming the land has in crested greatly. There was a time not long ago, maybe ten years, that small children could play in the woods by themselves and be as safe as they could be. Now, if a child is left alone in the woods by him self no one would ever see him again. People say it is just that the Orcs are starting to move around again, but it isn�t just the Orcs that are moving around, all creatures of the dark world are starting to move around more and their numbers are growing. This world of magic, monsters, and warriors is not the place to grow up in. In a way it is better that the children that did die in the hands of monsters, at such a young age, so they did not have to grow up fighting the monsters and seeing hundreds of people that they love and honour dying right in front of their eyes.

As the to suns started to reach their peeks Jasta, Kurveen, and Zarta walked into town. The town was not very big and was not very protected, but it did seem to be very important. It was the only place around for people to trade their goods. All the main roads had small shops lining them and small carts also were being pushed around as the people that were pushing them tried to sell.

Kurveen looked over to Jasta, �Should we get a room tonight.�

�Yes, we should get a ...� Just then a small wagon that was being pushed by a skinny man that was wearing rags for clothing bumped into Jasta. Jasta fell to the ground and all the fruit that was in the wagon scattered all over the ground.

Kurveen and Zarta pulled out their weapons and were about to kill the man but he started to make a scene, �I�m sorry, I�m sorry, please don�t kill me .�

The man put all his fruit into the wagon and apologised to them and started to walk away still trying to sell his fruit. �That was a strange man,� Jasta said getting off the ground and dusting the dirt off of him. As Jasta felt his pouch he noticed that it was not hanging on his belt. �Stop that man! When I fell my pouch must have fallen off as well, and then as he was picking up his fruit he must have stolen it.�

The three of them started to chase the man into the crowd as fast as they could, Jasta had the most money. Jasta did not always have the most money but for some strange reason he was always the one that was in charge. He always had the last say in the groups decisions and was always able to convince other people better then Kurveen or Zarta to help the group.

Before they were able to move the fruit man was already out of sight. They ran in the direction the man ran into the dense group of people that had started to form around the scene. After a few minutes of looking the group was about to stop looking for the man and suddenly they heard the mans voice, �I�m sorry! I�m sorry!� Jasta, Kurveen, and Zarta ran as fast as they could in the direction of the mans voice. The three of them pushed through one last group of people to see the man on the ground picking up the last of the fruit that had fallen out of the wagon.

Kurveen had the man in one hand and a sword in the other and was about to kill him when someone from the crowd started to yell, �What are you doing to that man! He is just a fruit seller!� The man that the voice came from walked out into the small circle of people. The man was wearing a cloak that shaded his face from the mid morning light of the two suns. The mans voice sounded young but the man seemed to move as if he were old. The man started to talk to Kurveen in a low, slow, and calm voice.

�If the man gives back the money and apologises you don�t have to kill him.� After say in that he stepped back to see what Kurveen would do.

Kurveen shook the man a bit. �Give my friend back the money you stole from him and I will spear your life.�

The man started to reach for the in side of his shirt �Here...�

�Easy, if anything other than a pouch comes out of there I will kill you.� The man stopped and then nodded then continued to reach into his shirt. He pulled out this little pouch that made the clinking sound of money and handed it to Jasta.