tagged by @dr4gonwriter tysm!!
Here's an excerpt from Chapter 15, as they're packing up camp before moving on to the Act 2 area. I love this scene, but it's slightly irrelevant to some other things happening in the plot, so it's at risk of being cut. At least it'll be posted here if it does!
I tie the bedroll to my pack, and deposit it with the rest of the supplies in a pile at the north edge of our camp. Not much else left to do, so I head over to Gale, who's struggling to cram a book into his bag, which already is full to bursting and sporting odd corners of hardbacks trying to stab through the leather.
"Might be too many," I say, startling him slightly.
"Rubbish, there's no such thing as too many books. I only lack the fortitude to carry all the books I may have need of."
I crane my neck to catch the title in his hand. "Basics of Beginner's Dwarvish?"
"But of course. Even the bare minimum of another language can carry you far in negotiations. Especially as we attempt to traverse the Underdark. Lots of dwarves down there, you know."
"Ah. You seem to be out of room."
Gale lets go of his pack, and to his dismay, Basics of Beginner's Dwarvish falls and flaps open on the dirt. He makes a sound of distress, picking it up and hastily brushing the dust off its pages.
"I may have to rethink my priorities, and limit myself to ten books instead of the fifteen I had planned," he says with genuine disappointment while admiring the cover, smoothing a thumb over the silver embossment.
"I could carry a few for you. There's not much in my pack."
"Oh, you're terribly kind to offer, but no. I must show restraint. I'm quite sure I could pick up copies once we arrive in Baldur's Gate, anyhow." He says, as though he's trying to convince himself more than me.
Mournfully, he begins removing books, handling each with care and putting them in a neat stack. Two more thick, crusty tomes emerge, and then, to my surprise, a frayed paperback novel.
I sit down across from him with the pack in between us, picking up the novel as he reorders his things.
"Where did you even get all these?"
"Oh, just here and there. In the abandoned village, mostly. Lots of poor, unowned books laying around. I hope you don't think I'd be so careless with my own collection." He says, pointing out the warps of water damage on the novel's pages.
"This lost soul is an old favorite of mine. Dashing tale, full to the brim with swashbuckling shenanigans and romantic endeavors. Unfortunately, not terribly useful, though I have a lovely first edition copy at home in Waterdeep. Have you read it?"
I shake my head, amused. "The library at the Kudzu Monastery had many historical records, religious texts. I've never read any fiction."
"By Mystra, you haven't read any fiction? None at all?" He says incredulously, as if it were as unthinkable as not breathing or not drinking water.
"Surely, someone must have read a bedtime story with you as a child."
My throat tightens. Mother and Father didn't have any books in the worn-down cottage I grew up in. There was my room, with just the straw mattress in one corner. I wasn't ever allowed in my parent's bedroom, and the living room hadn't had much more than a crumbly fireplace.
No, I learned to read after they left me at the monastery.
I shake my head, gripping the novel a bit too tightly, trying to push the memory of that bleak place out of my mind. "I don't think so."
Gale frowns, clearly perturbed. "I nearly can't believe you. How in the world did your parents, or whomever cared for you as a child for that matter, get you to bed? You're certainly not a heavy sleeper."
"Maybe I used to be. I don't know." I shrug.
His lips form a thin, disbelieving line, but he presses no further.
"Well, this one is a classic. A good place to start, if you're inclined to do so."
tagging @bingbingzscruffz, @another-middlechild, and @lissad27!!!
