He had been without food for two days in the Gorgola forest. Sir Binural, with all his good intentions, did not lead him out of the woods, but agreed to accompany him to the river’s edge. During the trip, Binural began to chant in Latin.
“Puer magnum est!” he yelled.
Poxig had to admit, the gnome was getting on his nerves. The gnome had offered him a scrap of his food, but Poxig could not bear to eat some scarabs that the gnome had caught. He puzzled at the Latin and tried to remember his training in the halls of the great library on Mt. Crump and his teacher Jongleur.
“This loosely translates as ‘The boy is great,’” Poxig thought. Why was the gnome insisting that he be childlike? Perhaps this was a test from Releven to prove that he could survive in the most abstemious of conditions.
Here he was, more tired and exhausted from travelling aimlessly than he had ever been. His Latin was failing him amongst a Latin scholar gnome who was starting to irk him to his core.
He would have to gather up his allies (all gone to Marginalia) , and when he returned it would be more humbling work for him, working as a field grunt, far from his glorious goal of returning the orb to the rightful owner.
The possibility of catching a disease got more likely the longer that he was in the forest. Yet, he had to make it back to Marginalia, and take his business to the king. Perhaps his possession of the sacred orb would gain him an audience…
Andrew J. Wolfram 