#grizzop drik act amsterdam

Day 7 of @the-line-is-erased:Rome - Sacrifice - Things hidden in history that will never come to light. 

Thinking bout those goblin kiddos

“Grizzop?  Are you asleep?”

“No.  Are you?”

“Obviously not.”

Grizzop let out a huff of acknowledgement, but a faint sob escaped his lips at the same time, just loud enough for Sasha to take note.  She rolled over to face him.

“Are you alright?” She asked.

The obvious answer for both of them was ‘no.’  They were trapped in the past, and Grizzop had the added bonus of his surroundings being particularly hostile to anyone who wasn’t human.  But the life he left behind was so much fuller than anyone may have realized.

“I have… I have kids,” he said quietly.

At that, Sasha’s eyes opened wide with surprise, and she practically bolted out of her makeshift bedroll.  “You’re a dad!?”

“Me and Vesseek, we-”

“You and Vesseek!?”

“Sasha!”  He cried in a whisper.  “We’re supposed to be laying low, not waking everyone up because we’re yelling.”

“Fine.  It’s just a lot, you know?”  Despite her protestations, she lowered her voice to a more manageable level.  “I had no idea you were a dad.”

Grizzop sighed.  It wasn’t something he liked to talk about, but he trusted Sasha, and it wasn’t like he had much to lose since they were stuck in the literal past anyway.

“Yeah, Vesseek and I, we have a clutch.  Vesseek looks after them while I do my paladin stuff, and I send whatever money I make back to them.”

“Must be hard to leave them all the time.”

“It is.”  Grizzop tried not to think about how he might never see them again, never hold Vesseek again, never hear his kids call out ‘Papa!’ again.  “But if I can make the world a little safer for them, then it’s worth it.  Got to make sure they have a future, right?”

Sasha nodded, but said nothing, silently scanning Grizzop’s features.

“Here, this is them.” He handed over a magical photograph of his family.  “It took almost an hour to get everyone to sit still for that.”

“I believe it,” Sasha chuckled as she looked over the image in the dim light of their safehouse.

Grizzop continued. “And it just hit me…  I always knew there was a risk that I would die while doing my duty, and that I would leave my family behind.  But now… now I’ll be living out the rest of my life without them.  The thought of spending however long I have left without ever seeing them again, it…”

There was another sob again, building up in his throat, but he swallowed it down and shut his eyes tight.

With his eyes closed, he didn’t see Sasha reach out for him, but he felt her place a hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to get back,” she insisted. “You’re going to see them again.”

“I hope so.”  He let out a heavy exhale, then took the picture back from Sasha and tucked it carefully into his armor.  “And if we arestuck here, it’s not like I’m going to be overly reckless or anything.  There’s still plenty that needs fixing here, plenty of good to be done.”

“Don’t worry, Grizzop, we’ll get you home.  After all, you have to introduce me to all your kids.  I can’t wait to teach them some knife tricks.”

“Absolutely not!”  He shrieked, and Sasha burst out laughing.  “That’s a disaster waiting to happen!”

“Well, we’ll just have to see about that.”