Braandu clambered up the slope, clean as a fish. He shut the trunk, slung it over his shoulder, and took it into the cave. Then he opened it and set out a few items. Klaatu gave his large son some instructions, then chattered a bit to Andimia, in Common, as he pulled strips of meat out of the trunk. After soaking them in water "to remove the excess salts" as he put it, he warmed them up in a clever rack that pulled down over the fire. The delicious smell of sizzling bacon filled the cave, but was vented out overhead as before.
"First things first. Tactics. Tactics. At the risk of sounding obvious, remember that my sword is too light and sharp to be much good for normal blocking. It can cut clean through lesser weapons, causing you to be hit by the shards, the shards. Of course, your enemy may be surprised to find his best armour to be useless. ...Oh... I see you already discovered that. Excellent, excellent."
"Practice with the arrow points when you can. It will be easier for you to recover them, recover them if you know where they're capable of going. I don't have many more of them, and the dense mineral is mined out, mined out at this location. Here is a sintered-diamond hone I made that you can use to sharpen the blades, the blades or the arrowheads if they get damaged. Nothing else can be used to put an edge back on." He gave her a small flat piece of metal that glistened with thousands of tiny rainbow points.
"If we encounter orcs again, or other strong groups of enemies, don't expect me to fight to the last, the last breath. I am not a coward, but I am not a fighter, either. My specialty has been equipping, equipping others to do their best in battle. So expect me to dig in and prepare a counterstrike if necessary. Good fundimentalism takes, shall we say, a bit, a bit of time. There is no shame if you run, you run. Braandu will probably walk away from battle, and if anyone tries to stop him, so much the worse, the worse for them." He paused. "It was not my intention to have him kill orcs" (at this he looked at his son who was sharpening his shovel with a file) "but I suppose he has to grow up a bit more every day."
Returning to his little speech, "If you run, which is well, please keep an eye on Braandu. He is only 8, only 8 after all. He cannot speak, but he hears quite well, and can see in some surprising ways, surprising. Talk to him, and feel free to play with him... if you can find any way to do that without injury... To you, I mean."
"If you get separated from me, stay near to Braandu and I will find him, or vice versa, vice versa. He and I feel each other." Reaching into a pocket in his vest, he gave Andimia a plain looking piece of rock.
"This is a Cersi stone. It contains my essence, since I have carried it for a time. Keep it with you. This is important... (he looked directly at her face with the glassy spectacles) Keep it warm, on your person, your person. If it gets cold it will be useless. If you need me to come quickly, swallow it and it will become even warmer and I will know that you need help. I will come as soon as possible. You should know, should know that I also gave one to that Elf-Girl we met, the one with the wounded shoulder. I plan to check up on her later, after we've gone to Brendolo's house. I hope her companion is all right."
"Finally, I don't wish to sound pretentious, but don't play with my belongings, my belongings, like my staff and such. They are sometimes not, not what they seem. You could get hurt."
"I apologize for talking so much, but it is our way to be prepared, prepared as best we can. 'Make Ready The Land When War Is At Hand'."
He picked up several deliciously thick pieces of bacon from the fire rack and put them on thin metal plates. "But now, dinner is at hand! You look hungry, young lady. I expect these will warm your center. If you'll allow me later on, I will help you rebalance your fundimentals and you will heal all the faster, the faster."
Without further chatter, he started chewing on one of the crispy strips of salted venison with obvious glee.
