Our Odd Little Scout

When Edric and I first fled, it was just us and Edric's horse. We had no allies, no assistance. Worse, no witnesses in case one of us killed the other (and believe me, that was always a possibility). After we'd been on the run for a few weeks, my dear Bellamy tracked us down. Of course, Edric wasn't overly thrilled about that, but I certainly was. Still, as comforting as Bellamy can be, dragons really don't make good scouts. We had no way of knowing how close the Royal Guard were, or whether there were other nearby dangers.

One morning, Edric happened across what he thought was a rather ugly little boy wandering through the woods. When he offered to help the youngster, he learned that it was actually a strangely beardless dwarf named Nobbley. As it turned out, he was ostracized from his hometown owing to his inability to grow a beard (for some reason, dwarfs consider this a very crucial matter). Nobbley tried to play it brave, but we figured out rather quickly that he was lonely.

Edric thought Nobbley might make a good scout, since dwarfs are skilled at tracking and at keeping others from tracking them in turn. Of course, Nobbley does have the unsettling belief that he is a miniature giant rather than a dwarf, but delusions aside, he's a marvelous scout. He seems to have remarkable instincts, even if his speech patterns are a bit bizarre, and he is fiercely loyal. I cannot tell you how grateful Edric and I are for Nobbley's assistance. I just wish that Bellamy liked him more (or perhaps less): he keeps trying to roast Nobbley.