Author's Note: During the time period of the Soulforge when Tanis, Flint, Sturm, Tasslehoff, Kitiara, Caramon, and Raistlin are on their way to Haven. Tanis and Flint plan to sell swords. The Majere siblings are investigating Belzor. Sturm and Tas are tagging along.
These are not real memories of Raistlin's, but merely amusing situations I, the writer, have fabricated to amuse.
The group was stranded in the forest on the trail to Haven. Another wheel of the wagon had broken and they had used their spare for the other already. Tanis was busy attempting to hail passers on the road.
Meanwhile, Flint Fireforge guarded his items he planned to sell in Haven during the annual Carnival from his new kender friend, Tasslehoff Burrfoot. The merchandise was more than swords, but jewelry, daggers, weapons, and other musings the dwarf could smithy.
Sturm and Caramon paced the area, alert bordering on paranoia. They brandished their swords at every rustle from a bush and skewered foliage that blew gently in the wind.
Kitiara, Raistlin and Caramon's half sister, amused herself by observing them and once in a while baiting the knight and warrior by informing them she had heard a noise in a certain direction. One or both of them would herd over, battle ready, and tramp back humiliated but eager for action.
Raistlin merely kept his brilliant blue eyes on all of them as he studied spells he would possibly need to defeat Widow Judith.
Kitiara paused in her game. "I smell smoke," she announced, sniffing the air and turning her head.
"Someone's cooking something good," Caramon inhaled deeply.
"The smoke is coming from that direction," Sturm said, pointing his father's sword toward the deeper part of the forest.
True enough, wisps that weren't snatched away by the breeze were visible. Raistlin smelled the scent of fresh pine burning and meat cooking. He assumed the person or persons were fueling their fire with green pine needles to roast their purloined goods.
"Let's see if they have a spare wheel," Tas exclaimed, ready to charge into the foliage.
Flint grabbed the collar of his impulsive friend's collar. "And what if they are like those eerie snake priests we saw on the road earlier?" the dwarf questioned.
"Or thieves raid the wagon while we investigate?" Sturm put in.
Kitiara stood from her comfortable tree trunk chair, brushing off her butt and thighs. "Sturm, Flint, and Tasslehoff can stay and watch the wagon," she began.
"What?" The kender burst.
"Caramon, Raistlin, and I will see what's cooking," Kit finished, smiling crookedly at her own joke. "Tell Tanis if he comes back that we're checking for danger."
Kit drew her sword and stepped toward the direction the smoke was coming from silently. Raistlin wondered where she had learned that skill. Caramon, on the other hand, winced as he seemed to trample on every snappy twig and crunchy leaf.
"Caramon, you sound like a herd of gully dwarves," Kitiara scolded quietly.
The big man gave a sheepish smile and, somewhat, managed to be less noisy.
Raistlin's long fingers disappeared into a pouch of his spell components, lips poised to say a newer spell. Excitement buzzed through him. He longed to test his magic on a malefactor. Perhaps this was his opportunity. They reached the edge of a clearing. All Majere siblings were disappointed to see a girl no more than thirteen with black hair wearing a crimson shirt and flowing ebony pants cooking meat over a pleasant smelling fire.
Kitiara, Caramon, and Raistlin emerged from the brush and the girl glanced up.
Her face was thin and pinched, but merry and her lips were arched in a wide smile. The girl's green eyes gleamed with joy and surprise yet with much wisdom. Raistlin could tell their little 'vagabond' was intelligent. Her skin was white as the conjurer's robes when he originally got them- now a light brown.
"Salutations, travelers," she greeted, smile in place.
"Greetings," Raistlin returned.
"What are you cooking?" Caramon asked, practically drooling over the cooking meat.
"Kidneys of a rabbit," the girl answered. "Want one?"
Face slightly green, the warrior wasn't drooling anymore. "No thank you," he refused politely. "Why are you going to eat the kidneys?"
"So you don't piss me off," the girl giggled. "Don't worry. These aren't the kidneys."
Kitiara chuckled. Raistlin's lips twitched into a wry smile. Caramon laughed heartily.
"So what's a lone, young girl like you doing out in the world? Why don't you come with us to Haven," Kit offered with her classic charming crooked smile.
"I can't. I'm banned from Haven," the girl admitted.
All three of them arched their eyebrows. "Why?" Caramon asked.
"Perhaps because she is half kender," the perceptive white robe suggested.
It was true. The girl was smaller than the average thirteen year old human yet tall for a kender. Her human clothing was baggy on her thin, tall form.
"No, it's because I drove someone insane," she contradicted, grinning.
"What do you mean?" Kit asked cautiously.
"Damion, my friend, said I was as annoying as a kender. So we built a booth with a glass window for the audience to see through and found a kender. Damion locked a man with the kender and a man with me," the half-kender female explained. "My man dove through the window first, but he lost his mind. The mayor happened to be close by and I'm banned from Haven until I mature. At least in the mayor's eyes or until another is elected," she grinned. "But perhaps my kender heritage does have something to do with being banned."
The two warriors and magician were silent. They watched the banished girl flip her roasting meat with a wooden spatula.
"We're going to take you with us into Haven," Kit told her. "What's your name?"
The girl's face broke out into the largest smile yet. Her green eyes screamed of mischief. "Arihanna."
"I can't believe the guards didn't find her," Tanis muttered as their newest addition to the group climbed from inside the hollow of the wagon's seat where the driver sits.
Arihanna and Tasslehoff hugged one another enthusiastically and began the kender ritual of trading possessions.
"She is part kender," Raistlin reminded the half elf as they both watched Arihanna try trading Sturm's father's sword for a weighty bag of sugar. Tanis groaned as the half-kender girl dashed off into the festivities with the knight's sword with Sturm in hot pursuit. The half elf ran after them to explain to the approaching authorities a kender had stolen his friend's sword. The young magician jumped as he turned as saw Arihanna grinning up at him mischievously. As expected, she didn't have Sturm's sword.
"Are you a good mage?" she inquired.
"I suppose I am," Raistlin replied slowly, wary eyes on her hands.
"Would you like to see a magic trick?" she asked.
The conjurer wordlessly nodded. Arihanna strode over to his tent and lifted a flap, revealing the stick that propped the tent had been replaced with a rather old fashioned, ancient-looking sword.
"Here come the town guards," Raistlin lied.
Arihanna gasped and hit the ground running.
"What are you planning to do with all that sugar?" Flint asked suspiciously, squinting at the grinning half kender.
"I'm going to execute plan S.P.A.Z.," she giggled, dividing a large bag of pure sugar into smaller sacks.
"Plan S.P.A.Z.?"
"Super Potent…" Arihanna trailed off. "Well, I haven't thought of a correct word that means I'm going to have kender spoil the festival."
"You're going to have kender ruin the Carnival?" Flint snorted in disbelief.
Arihanna nodded. "Kender are naturally energetic. Imagine the chaos they could cause if they ate sugar."
Flint paled.
With a secretive smile, the half kender disappeared.
"Banned!" the dwarf roared the day the Carnival was over. "I can't believe we got banned for exposing phony gods!"
"Or Raistlin almost getting burned on a stake by the angry town people," Caramon threw in, shivering.
The white robe shuddered. That had been close, too close.
"I can't believe I'm banned from Haven!" Flint snorted again, scowling at the closed gates.
"I'm banned too," a familiar voice said. "Again."
Flint, Raistlin, and Caramon's heads went down to see Arihanna dressed in a pink blouse and large paint spattered overalls.
"What happened to plan S.P.A.Z.?" The dwarf inquired.
The four heard the town guards shout something about crazy kender. They watched as the officers rushed away from the gates that were shut to them forever.
"It's in effect right now," Arihanna chortled.
Flint, Raistlin, and Caramon stared at her in mute astonishment.
"I was caught dealing the last of my sugar to kender," Arihanna began, a child-sized hand gesturing at the gates. "They banned me forever and kicked out all the kender, but they got back in as you can hear. So I've be-been b-b-banned from Haven," the half-kender female finished between peals of laughter.
Flint shook his head and said something about preferring his doorknob of a kender, walking off the check that his left over merchandise wasn't borrowed by Tas.
Caramon loped to Kitiara as she called him over.
Arihanna sent Raistlin a kind smile. "You are a diamond in the rough. Not many can see that. You will achieve terrible but great things in your lifetime. Success and fame are embroidered on your hem."
The white robe stayed silent in astonishment, staring.
"So," Arihanna grinned, "what were you banned for?"