Chapter 3: Duck Duck Goose

For what started out looking like an easy Damsel to rescue, this was turning out to be a very long chase. Jon Tumble moved from town to town it seemed daily. As I followed along after him there were usually some unhappy people who wanted to find him too. A few seemed to think I might be a friend of his and needed to be persuaded otherwise.

I spent over a month looking in different taverns or inns before my first break. I had given up waiting for other gamblers to tell me and was now talking to the innkeepers and bartenders. So when I checked in for the night the innkeeper responded that he had actually seen the cock burner. He wouldn’t forget one that pretty but Jon had laughed that he would think so when his cock burned for a month.

They had left going west he thought but couldn’t be sure. He recommended my talking to the stable owner in the morning. I had some information and while it wasn’t certain, I was hopeful. That didn’t help the stew go down that night easier but the thought of being with Jasmine and Cassie and then Beth certainly did.

I went and checked for the tavern in town but couldn’t find one. They were playing dice back at the inn so I sat in the corner and watched for a while. Either the game was fair or he was very very good at hiding his cheating. Since there wasn’t much really going on and only a few gamblers, I just sat and waited until I was tired and then went to my room. Over the course of my time living the low life while hunting for one I had accumulated a fair amount of funds when I would confront the cheaters for information. Living in the inns cost me most of it but I was basically even at this point.

I missed a toothbrush this trip. Funny what little things you miss but something about using my finger or whatever object with either salt or baking soda to clean my teeth was not cutting it for me. If Ted and Jed came begging me again for some community service they needed fixed I was going to get something in return. I did not see the Chaos society falling apart if they had better dental hygiene.

I was up and over at the stable just after sunrise. Jon and his woman had left heading west he was certain but one of the kids working there spoke up. “Mister, I saw them riding east later that morning. I had to deliver some things from the store out to the widow’s place. I saw a really pretty woman and a man riding east then.”

“Thanks, son,” I tossed him a pinch and headed east.

It made sense now he would say one thing and do another. I just happened to cross paths after he had been somewhere likely by accident. So I headed east and spent the next two weeks hoping he didn’t change his pattern and head off in a different direction.

I met up with the famous Jon Tumble in a most peculiar way. He came riding towards me at a fast gallop, Cassie on the horse behind him. There were three men chasing them on horseback, no doubt to seek some type of justice, Chaos style. My problem was that Cassie was right in the middle of it. I drew my sword and charged at him and went right past him. Seeing this new wrinkle in their plan must have made the three decide that whatever they were seeking to get was not worth engaging a sword-brandishing fighter.

They came to a stop and then scattered in different directions. I watched them go and then turned to head back after my Damsel, although I kept looking behind every so often to ensure that the others had indeed departed.

I found them standing beside their horses about a mile down the road. Jon was using his hands on Cassie for some reason and continued to hit her until I got closer. It was his right to do as he wanted to his property but given that she was my responsibility in the end I was damn pissed.

I was off the horse with my sword in my hand before he knew what hit him. I shoulder blocked him and we went flying through the air and came to find my sword pointed at his throat. He was a slight build of a man and rather effeminate when you looked at him.

“You’re a hard man to find, Jon Tumble.”

“Do I know you, friend?”

“You have something that is mine and I came for it.”

“We have never met. What could I have of yours?”

“My Damsel of course.” I heard Cassie gasp at that but I kept my eyes on Jon.

“I won her fair and square from her prior owner.”

“I understand that ownership transfers at death.”

He croaked out a meager “Yes.”

“Well I just saved you from a likely death. So we can either settle up on the cost for that or I can arrange for a simpler exchange.” I pushed the point in a little to keep his attention.

“I have invested heavily in that one.”

“You don’t believe my letting you live is a fair exchange?”

“Oh, I see your point, feel it too. Fair, yes quite fair indeed given the alternative.”

“I thought you might feel that way. I would suggest we start back for town as I don’t know if I put enough of a scare into those three for them not to come after us.”

I never took my eyes off him but he was a damn sneaky man with fast hands. He pulled a short sword out from his bed roll and turned swinging it at me. I deflected the blow but the edge caught the outside of my wrist drawing blood.

“You’re going to die now. No matter what happens to me the poison will...” Those are the last words of the late Job Tumble as his head was no longer attached to his neck.

If what he said was true I either needed to find the antidote or get to the chamber on Crossroads. Cassie came over and then went to find some supplies to clean the wound.

There were tears in her eyes as she helped me out of my shirt and then cleaned the cut. We left it open to bleed out what poison it would. I had her tie a tourniquet on the arm above the cut. It would be difficult to fight like that but if we avoided having to and could find a bank we could be in Crossroads. The problem was we were a more than a day away from the last bank I knew of and had no idea if the town ahead had one.

Thoughts of never seeing Beth again and my child were racing through my mind. We didn’t stop to search his body but simply got on the horses and took off for the bank. Dropping our things at the stable, we went and got a room at the inn. I wasn’t feeling all that badly just a small headache. Cassie went down and got our food and the watered wine. By the time I had finished eating I was feeling warmer than normal.

I remember vivid dreams of Beth, our times together at Crossroads and Earth. I got dressed in the morning but it was Cassie who brought our things to the stable with us. The young man who had told me the direction that Jon had gone was there again. He and his father were tying me in the saddle my legs under the horse. He was coming with us now.

We left and I remember dreams of the women I was with over the eleven years and then nothing. There was cold water pouring over my face and Cassie with me at the vault. We needed to get my things put away. I put my finger in the receptacle and the vault appeared. We got undressed and she was trying to take the ring off. I fought her and said “Nooooo. Need it to get through the portal.”

I don’t remember if we closed the box but she dragged me through the portal and Jasmine was there. I was in the chamber and then it was dark. I have no idea how long I was there or how close to death I had come but when I came out I was feeling perfect.

Of course Jasmine and Cassie were crying, not knowing if I was going to survive they said later. Cassie went and took her turn in the chamber while Jasmine went and washed me in the shower. Cassie joined us a short time later. Jasmine disappeared then and Cassie took over.

“I thought I had lost you.”

“I don’t remember much after being cut.”

“He had made some type of poison when we stopped and he would dip his blades in it. The men that were chasing us had lost two friends to him. I thought he would kill me at some point before they caught up with us.”

“He didn’t look that hardened of a case.”

“That was what made him so dangerous. He had been abused all of his childhood and when he was a young man. It took away his conscience; he didn’t feel pain, and lacked wanting to know right from wrong.”

“He was a psychopath?”

“That would be the term for him. He fucked me every day and never stopped even with the burning.”