By Joseph Sullivan

“So, you’ve travelled along this road before?”

“If I have, I don’t really remember…”

Wayward wizard Reltanna Lirane had hoped that adventuring with one of the greatest people ever to take up a sword in pursuit of gold and glory, her own grandfather, would have given her the opportunity to learn more about the old man’s life. Instead, he seemed as elusive as he was when she was a child, preferring to speak of his past in broad, sweeping statements that offered little in terms of actual detail. It was really starting to stick in her craw.

The road they found themselves on, in a dry plain on a cold day, was beginning to wear her out, and she was hoping the two of them could find some shelter for the coming night soon. But as she looked around to see if there was a village nearby, she heard the faint sound of footsteps in the distance, growing louder and louder by the second.

She wheeled around and saw someone running up behind them, a figure in tattered black robes moving fast towards them, holding a sword aloft as though to strike when it reached them.

“Grandfather, behind you!”

Grandfather turned around to face the approaching threat, but instead of immediately jumping into a defensive stance as Reltanna had grown to expect, he groaned and slowly drew his sword from his scabbard.

“Ugh, not this again…” Grandfather rolled his eyes.

“Excuse me, what?!”

The figure reached them, and as Grandfather wearily assumed a defensive stance, it took a similar posture. Reltanna could get a good look at it now, and could see that underneath its hood was a dead, decayed face, grey and sickly.

“That’s an undead, Grandfather!” Reltanna warned. “Hold him off for a moment and I’ll cast a spell —”

“I know it’s an undead,” Grandfather snapped back. “No need for any of your spells, I’ll handle it.”

“You’ll handle it?”

“Sure, I’ve done it before…”

“You…” Reltanna shook her head, confused. “What are you talking about?”

Grandfather sighed. “Reltanna, this is a revenant,” he explained to her like she was a child.

“I know what a revenant is —”

“Good. Now, a while back, this one used to be a nobleman. I can’t remember his name, but he hated me ever since I slept with his wife. When he got mad and tried to kill us both, I stabbed him right through the heart. Didn’t stop him from coming back every couple of years though.”

“You…hold on…” Reltanna’s head was spinning. “This was a noble whose wife you…you slept with a married woman?!”

“Well…yes,” Grandfather replied, seemingly confused at why the question was being asked. “It’s not my fault this man was too busy oppressing his people to satisfy his wife.”

“He was oppressing his people? So…he was a bad man regardless?”

“I mean…probably?” Grandfather shrugged. “In my experience, nobles tend to be pricks.”

“So you don’t know —!”

Before Reltanna could continue questioning her grandfather’s nonchalance towards cheating and killing, she noticed that the revenant had shifted stance and looked about ready to go on the offence.

“Grandfather —!”

“Like I said, I’ll handle this…”

The confused wizard was content with letting him do this. When the revenant moved in, Grandfather easily parried its strike, then quickly battered away at its hurried attempt to put up a defence. Once its sword was far enough away from its torso, Grandfather thrust his sword through its heart, and the revenant fell to the ground, crumbling into dust.

“See, it’s undead, so it can’t learn new ways of fighting,” Grandfather smirked. “This revenant’s tried the exact same routine on me every single time. I’ve gotten killing it again down to an art form.”

“Well…” Reltanna scratched her head, wondering where to go from there. “You know, Grandfather, now that you have a wizard with you, I’m sure I can find a way to remove its curse so that it never bothers you again…”

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Grandfather chuckled. “If I ever go too long without at least a little challenge, it at least keeps me on my toes.” He turned back to the road. “Now let’s keep moving. We should find shelter before nightfall.”

As Grandfather walked away from his fallen foe, Reltanna’s head was still filled with questions. What happened to the noble’s wife? What was the revenant like in life? Why did her grandfather not seem to care? She would think long and hard about —

“Reltanna!”

“Coming, Grandfather!”

At the latest prompting, she quickly stumbled back on down the road beside him, with adventure still lying ahead of them, or behind them.

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