Last Dance

The man sitting across from him smiled a near toothless grin. His breath stank of the cheap ale he was drinking.

"Just lookie here." The man replied.

He pulled a pouch from beneath his robe and spilled it's contents on the table. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds...thousands of gold pieces worth lay glimmering in the candlelight.

"I been savin' these a long time...Must be at least several thousand gold worth here" The drunken man grinned again. "And all ya gotta do is kill tha cheatin' wench and its all yours"

Tel'Halda plucked one of the diamonds from the pile and examined it in the low light. 'This man is nuts.', he thought to himself. There was at least ten thousand gold worth of gems before him.

"I require half in advance", Tel'Halda said. "The rest you can give me when the job is finished."

"Fair enough..." His new employer replied. He separated the pile into two. "Its the third house in the row... just east of the boneyard."

Tel'Halda scooped a pile of gems into his pack, nodded to the man and made his way into the breaking morning.

The streets of Jhelom were near empty. Only the inns and taverns were open at this hour. Most people were still in bed asleep. He wandered toward the bank and turned right, headed down the row of homes there. When he arrived at the third home he settled himself well hidden into the bushes just outside the door and waited.

After about an hour the door to the home opened and a thin woman steped outside. Tel'Halda made himself ready to spring. He would cover the woman's mouth and just prick her slightly with his dagger. The poison would do the rest. After that he could leave this life behind him and live comfortably for a while.

Just as he was about to spring on the unsuspecting woman a child burst out of the door and into her arms. Then another child exited the house...and a third.

'Well doesn't this just figure...' He thought to himself. An unfaithful wife he could deal with slaying. There was no way however that he could kill her in front of her children. He remained hidden as the woman and her children walked by.

The woman turned to call to her oldest child and that's when he noticed...Her eyes looked very sad. She was also covered it seemed in bruises about her face and neck. As the eldest boy walked past he noticed that he too had been similarly beaten.

After they had past he leapt from his hiding spot in the bushes and headed back to the tavern. His eyes filled with rage, his hands clenched at his sides. He burst through the taverns door.

The toothless man looked up at him and grinned. "All finished then, aye?"

Tel'Halda forced himself to relax. He strolled over to the mans table and took his seat again.

"Aye. She will never be a trouble to ye again my friend." He said with a slow grin spreading across his face.

"Ahh...very well then" Toothless replied. "Then Id best be be paying ye whets coming."

The man bent to reach his pack on the floor. As he did the tip of Tel'Halda's dagger scratched the skin in the man's side. Without a noise the man slumped to the floor, convulsed once and was gone.

Tel'Halda left Jhelom about half an hour later. He was still without a coin to his name. Every gem Toothless had had was now in a bag sitting just inside the door of the house he would never return to...waiting for the woman and children he could never hurt again.

He stepped through the moongate and the familiar forests of Yew greeted him. He sighed somewhat relieved and began to walk back home.

"Never again.", he muttered to himself. "I have had my fill."