[Nogrod]

”You’re a good rogue but you have the brains of a sparrow!”, Novgorod snapped to Chang-Liang. “I’ll take my share and leave!” he called the party. “You, Whin-Ding, are just a parrot with no real capabilities. Sorry to say that, but I’m not not sticking with amateurs like you any more...” His words died into a silence. The others were looking at him keenly and somewhat nervously. No-one had questioned the leadership and the command of Whin-Ding before. It had been self-evident that he was the leader, and now this guy who had only been with them less than a month was making this speech...

“You just rush yourselves to every ambush around and get yourselves killed whenever you want to. Maybe tomorrow? I don’t care.” He picked his bag and took himself to Whin-Ding. “My share, please”, he said and opened his sack.

Whin-Ding looked at him with a faked surprised smile that hardly hid his anger and stared back to Novgorod. “You really think you can get out this easy?” he said at last, pronouncing the words slowly enough. He had his charisma still.

“I call for only my share. It was according to my own free will that I joined you, and it will be of my own free will to leave you. If Chang-Liang would have more brains, I would like to take him with me, but you know the facts. I’ll go alone as I came, but with my share...”

“You are not leaving with any booty that has not been shared already! You want to go, you go, but keep your hands away of our haul” Whin-Ding answered rapidly, staring Novgorod into the eye and tried to draw his blade to assert his authority.

Novgorod drew his blade faster, and before anyone could react, the head of Whin-Ding rolled over the grass. The beautiful Easterling sword was covered with blood. Novgorod wiped it clean on the tunic of the newly-deceased. Then he took the purse of Whin-Ding, counting on the valuables in it, taking every fourth of them to himself. The others just stood aside and watched the counting, not daring to raise their hands. "I'm Novgorod from Dale and have taken my share. Without me you wouldn't have earned even half of what Whin-Ding tried to keep as his own. Anyone to disagree?”, he called the others around him after he had finished re-dealing the property of Whin-Ding, ponting his still blood-dripping sword towards the others. The other men drew back as he mounted his horse and got on it. “Think twice whom you pick as your next leader!”, he called as he rode away.

He had his inventory while he rode: there was tea and some dried bread in his pakckages, there were thirteen darts and seven arrows with a bow he was very bad in shooting on; he had a tinderbox, a lengthy rope and some spare clothing: another pair of cotton trousers, a red silken shirt to add to his yellow one he was wearing at the moment, and a scarf embroided with silvery threads.

The next day he came to the River Running, near the shores of Rhûn and bathed there. It was a luxury rarely afforded. As he was getting back to the shore he noticed a bottle in the stream. He got back to the swiftly running river, pulled a few strokes and grasped the bottle. He read the message while the fish was quietly cooking over the fire.

A quest! That was just something he needed.