Rabbun Redhammer

Riva was a bard. She was lovely and loved by all. She was tall for a dwarf, with round, welcoming features and an open smile. She had dark hair just starting to grey at the temples.

Before me she was the youngest of three. I was what is called an “autumn gift”, a child born to a couple with grown children and no expectations of a new baby. Riva was married to a prominent family of nobly born Mountain Dwarves, a station to be envied and surely due more to Riva's charm than father's connections. When she returned to the house willfully refusing to return to her husband, it could have been a social scandal but both the High Clerist and the Mountain King endorsed the annulment so nothing was held against our honor.

The normal spinstering period was cut short due to the throngs of suitors and in the middle of the family courtship my birth was announced to the surprise of all. Riva used to say that I was a blessing because I scared off all of the nasty men. She was agreed to marry again but the betrothal was held off so that Riva could assist with mother's recovery which lingered as an Autumn Gift was always rough on a woman of her years.

Riva's second marriage was by all accounts blessed. They visited father's home so frequently that it was joked that Riva was the husband. I always looked forward to her visits. She doted on me in a way that father and mother never did. Not to say that father was cruel or mother heartless but they had little patience for my rambunctious nature. When Riva's second husband was killed fending off Goblins, Riva returned home for a second time. I refused to allow her even a moment's sadness. I was her clown and her confidant and we were inseperable. Father would scold her that she would never find another husband if she wasted all of her days with me but Riva would have none of it.

Father's concerns were for naught, as suitors lined up at the door for Riva despite her “bad luck” with husbands. We made a game of entertaining them, she would tell me which ones were secretly awful and I would harass them until they broke and father would have to send them packing. The two of us found this game incredibly entertaining, though father rarely shared in our mirth.

In time a fine dwarf managed to survive Riva and my gauntlet of tricks and a date was set. I was old enough to be allowed to travel on my own so I managed to appoint myself Riva's “guardian” and we set out to the northern lands of her new groom.

Our journey north was the stuff of legend. I was fearless and foolish and Riva always managed to keep me from harm. We made no pretense at haste, perpetually looking for trouble and helping people in need. No quest was too far out of the way or too dangerous, and before summer was done all of the people cheered the “Redhammer Twins” as we called ourselves.

We were no more than a week from our destination when word of “the Dragon of Dunmere” reached us. I volunteered without hesitation, ignoring Riva's concerns. Surely the Redhammer Twins can drive off a swamp dragon, unless it has already fled at the mention of our names I joked. Riva did not laugh.

Riva asked “Maybe we should just press on, the summer is nearly spent.” I could not bear the thought of the summer ending but I was afraid to tell her that so I kept at her until she relented.

Certainly a real dragon would have ended us both in short order, but the Dragon of Dunmere turned out to be something else entirely. It was huge and scaly, but instead of wings this beast decided to bring five nasty heads to the party. Our escorts bolted at the sight of it and we should have as well but I would not let Riva back down. I was more afraid of watching her wedding than I could ever be of this slobbering ball of teeth.

My thoughts on that changed quickly. This thing was so fast! Riva was ever at my side but her blades could not keep up, every head that she lopped off brought two more squirming from the stump. Soon we were both exhausted and the beast was if anything just as big and twice as angry as when we started. One of the heads latched onto my face and when I pulled it free I felt the cold of exposed bone where my left eye had been.

I looked at her, no hope left in me but she managed a wink. She pushed one of her spears into my hand and nodded toward the beast and I perceived what she had in mind. The heads were circling but there was a scant gap between them where the behemoth's trunk was unguarded. She whispered to me “Just like diving through a window” and I knew what I had to do.

Riva howled at the thing and the heads lunged at her but she was a whirlwind of steel. In the middle of her riposte she broke stride and booted me hard in the backside as I leaped for the gap in that thicket of serpents. I set the spear as deep into the heart of the monster and then caught the butt of the spear shaft with my boot and kicked for good measure. I buried the spear and waited for the snake heads to rip me apart but the beast went still.

I wriggled free of the mass of death with jubilation and made to congratulate Riva but she was sitting in a sea of red reeds. She showed no more excitement than if we had just found a quiet picnic spot. I stumbled to her hooting with joy and I shook her but instead of hugging me back she flopped weakly onto her back. That was when I noticed the holes.

There were so many holes. I could see ribs through one, and another had gnawed her shoulder to the socket. The worst was high on her thigh and a torrent of blood poured from her like a red fountain. I looked to her face, she was barely there. She couldn't even see me it seemed, she just stared up at the sky blankly as her skin went paler than any elf.

I held her and I wailed in a manner that father would have called womanly. I heard her voice so very faint call to me. “Don't cry Raby. Look, the Sun.” Then she went still.

I brought her body to her new husband and the wedding contract was honored. They called me a hero but a real hero would not have let his sister use herself as bait. A real hero would have saved her.