Excerpt: The Bard's Song

Joseph really didn’t seem to mind the fact that James had joined the group too much. The kid actually knew some cool magical spells (although it creeped him out a bit to see the teenager using the very same abilities that the Shadow Master could use), and he actually knew how to stay away from the battles. He would stay in the back and fire arrows, striking with strangely effective accuracy, and he was able to offer supporting strikes to protect Jenna and Furenti fairly well. Overall, the teenager seemed to be halfway decent as a supporting character, and Joseph welcomed him into the group with a pat on the back.

“James, was it? Thanks for your help,” Joseph said as night began to fall, “You’re not so bad at fighting. For a kid and all.”

“Hah! Thanks, man!” James replied as he stuck out his tongue and worked carefully to fletch a few new arrows to replace the few he lost that day. The mage looked up and smiled at the leader, waving an unfinished feathered arrow at him, “By the way, if you call me ‘Kid’ again, I’ll lodge one of these in your forehead. Got it?”

“Duly noted…” Joseph said with a cluck of his tongue, wandering off to set up the tent that he had bought back in Kyrol.

“Yo, Jenna, how’s everything? You holding up alright?” The princess looked up at the mage as he smiled at her, “I mean, seeing as how you’re a girl and all, you probably need lots of care.”

Jenna was about to get indignant but Furenti was learning how to protect the group from fights, “Now now, James,” the bard said gently, smiling lightly as he started the campfire, “Princess Jenna is a fine addition to the group. You do remember that wound on your shoulder that she healed, right?”

“Yeah, whatever,” James said airily, “not like it wasn’t the poison that I needed to get rid of first, and what was up with your fighting, Fur-renti?”

“What about it?’ Furenti asked, blinking at the tone that James used, as well as the teenager’s purposefully mispronouncing his stage name.

“You don’t honestly expect me to believe that the only thing you do is sing at the enemies? What’s that going to do, anyway?”

“Well, to be quite honest,” Joseph said as he returned to the campfire, “Someone so good at music knows how to utilize it to throw an enemy off with flat notes.”

“Thank you, Joseph,” Furenti replied with a nod and a smile in his leader’s direction before tending to the boiling pot before him.

James frowned at being ganged up on and went back to fletching, “Still seems pretty fruity to me…”

“I beg your pardon?” Furenti asked, looking up from the dinner he was cooking the group, blinking at James from under his wide brimmed, feathered hat.

“Oh, nothing,” the mage grumbled, rolling his eyes and returning to his fletching.