by Sami Dougish
From what I could make out, she was selling a variety of foods that could be stored over a long period of time. I didn’t know what had prompted the small women to open such a shop, but I wasn’t going to complain. Instead, I resigned myself to waiting in the slow-moving line until it was my turn.
Roughly an hour or so later I was the next in line. I could now see the products of display more clearly now and marveled at the variety of food for sale. I didn’t know some of these foods could be preserved, but I was excited to know I would have a nice variety of rations.
“You are a strange person vessel. I am surprised that you would take such delight in these hard and dried foods. You spend your time killing and reveling in it, but here you are now eyeing this food, well food if you can actually call dried plants and meats food like I did when spying a particular plump boar.”
I mentally shrugged, and said back, “after years of eating threadbare stew, and then after that almost exclusively meats, I am looking forward to being able to eat what I want. Sure, its dried food meant for travel, but I’ll take it!”
“Bah, I will never understand such foolishness.”
“Well, it’s a good thing that this is my mouth, and my food, you will not have to force yourself to try it.”
The dragon snorted disdainfully and returned to his pastime of ignoring me.
“Next!”
I heard Rosie call out. I eagerly moved forward and stood there in front of her looking around at all the assembled goods. I guess I stood there for too long as huffed and barked out, “Well?! And questions? Know what you want? Or do you just intended to stand there like a teenage boy looking at his first bare pair of tits?!”
I shook myself, and said, “I need supplies.”
She rolled her eyes and said, “Well of course you do boy, why else would you come to a shop that sells travel rations?! Now you are holding up my line! Ask questions, make a decision, or leave!”
I resisted the urge to growl at the human, she was right this was her shop, and I was wasting time.
“Fine, what are the prices on the preserved meats? And maybe the fruit?”
“See was that so hard?! Well to answer your first question, the salt pork and beef, are all twenty coppers a bundle. I have salt raptor as well as salt green scale, but as these are lizard meats, they are double the price of the beef and pork, at forty coppers a bundle. I have you know that hunters always charge me extra for that meat, something to do with nearly losing hands and fingers while trying to get a hold of those beasts. Still, I can sell it for a profit, so I don’t grumble about it overly much. We have some fish too, but it has a bit of a smell, it’s the cheapest of the lot, at ten coppers a bundle.”
Well, I knew now that at least forty coppers didn’t equal a silver. Wasn’t sure how many equaled a silver, but hopefully, I could find out here, as I had coppers, but not enough for the pricier meats. I focused on Rosie again, as she continued to describe her goods.
“Now the fruits, vary a lot more in price, as I run out of them more often, as the fruits are harder to come by, but I have a variety of them currently on hand. Dried apples and pears are the cheapest, at three coppers a bundle, while the rarer fruits like zemia, or adnut, are going to be fifteen coppers a sack.”
The stand had a surprising variety of foods that had been turned into rations that would last on the road. I had expected something like hardtack, and a cheap quality salted our cured meat. While they had those items, they also had a wider variety of dried and travel foods, then I had seen of regular food in my whole life. I was tempted to buy a bit of everything, but I knew I was on a budget, and I was sure that the rest of the gear I needed to buy would more expensive than this, and I would need to save my coin for that.
I settled with buying as many bundles of the salted and cured fish as I could, along with a decent amount of the hardtack. I estimated that if I kept myself disciplined, I could manage to live off half a bundle of the fish a day, along with some of the hardtack. Cedric had said that Stenao was a six-day horse ride from the village, and double that on foot. Unfortunately, he had said that was if I used the roads. I had not, and cut across the forest instead, which had seriously slowed my travel. I had already traveled roughly a week and a half, and from what I saw on the map, Ravengrove was two thirds between the village where I came from, and the border. Which meant I had roughly a third of the way to travel to reach the border. Of course, my travel would speed up now that I wouldn’t have to hunt or look for water.
I wanted to buy extra supplies as plans tended to never go as planned, and even when I was out of Thuum, I would still need something to live off of until I found another town. Might as well buy extra.
“Ten bundles of the salted fish, and double that in hardtack.”
Rosie raised her eyebrows at me, and asked, “You sure lad? No one ever buys that much of either of those two choices. Even the soldiers I supply don’t buy much of those. I only have to make a new batch of hardtack once every few months, the stuff lasts for years, and tastes like a salt lick mixed with some flour and water, which technically it is, and the fish really? That is the last resort for most, even though I sell it, even I admit that it smells like cheap fish that was left out in the sun for too long.”
I mentally sighed, couldn’t she just sell me the damn things? Though I could smell the strong scent wafting from the fish, I had dealt with worse smells in the slave pens, and I wasn’t a particularly picky eater when it came to food. Sure, I wanted to enjoy eating now that I was free, but I wasn’t going to waste money I couldn’t afford to waste just for slightly better tasting travel rations.
Instead of answering her questions, I just asked, “Price?”
Rosie scowled at my ignoring of her question, and I had to hide a smirk. Still, she opened her mouth and said, “That will be 2 silvers for the fish bundles, and one silver for the hardtack.”
Hm, well maybe the gold the dwarf had given me was worth more than he had made it out to be. I had just purchased quite a bit of food, and it still hadn’t equaled one of the gold coins I had taken from him, let alone the gold pieces from the village stash. I did some quick math in my head and figured that fifty coppers were equivalent to a silver. I still didn’t have a point of reference for gold coins, but I hopped it was a similar conversion of fifty silvers to a gold. Hopefully, I would be able to find out sooner than later, might help stop me from getting ripped off. I could give her a gold piece and try to get money back to reference the amount, but I decided to do that around the crowded market wasn’t the best idea, I could try that in a more private shop. Instead, I reached down to the pouch where I kept my coin and pulled out the specified amount of coin required.
I pushed the money across the table, and Rosie expertly swept it all into her hands, and then made it vanish into the folds of her outfit. She then turned around and began gathering the supplies I needed. She came back faster than I expected and placed all of the goods in a pile on the counter between us. I unslung the sack from my back and dropped all the supplies in no certain order into the bag.
I looked back up when I heard Rosie sniff, I eyed her with an irritated expression, as though asking her, “What her problem was.”
She replied by saying, “You, tall man, need to improve your appearance and attitude. Didn’t your mother teach you that basic conversation is considered polite when buying goods? Also, what kind of fool walks around with a bloody rag on their face. Get that cleaned up and make yourself more presentable. You stink too!”
I didn’t even bother to reply, instead just glared at her with narrowed eyes. I really hated humans! Still, this wasn’t the place to start a scene, so instead, I just spun on my heal, and marched away, as people moved out of my path. I had my supplies, but being around so many humans, was putting me on edge, and I needed to get some space. Looks like I would be heading to one of the more established shops, hoping they would have more space.
It took me a bit of time, but eventually, I pushed m
yself out of the throng of people, and now stood on the edge of the crowded tent market. I shook my head in disgust, as I looked at the humans milling around like bugs, and spun around, and examined the shops in my view that had their own buildings. While I didn’t see anything that resembled an armory, I knew there were more stores around the rest of the market, so I just followed the road, which ran in a circle around the entire area. Eventually, my nose picked up the scent of fire and coal. I assumed that would be the forge area, and I guessed where there was a forge, there would be arms and armor as well.
I followed my nose, and soon enough I caught sight of a large fenced-off courtyard, where I saw a big burly man hammering away at hot metal. Sparks flew in all directions, in time with each hammer blow from the blacksmith. Aides and apprentices that I saw running around the forge held different tools, and some completed weapons as well. Yes, this seemed to be the place. I saw a small crowd that was standing around the fence, watching the smith work.
Attached to the fence, was a brick and stone building. Overhead was a simple sign that read Smithy. Simple, I liked it. There were several windows in on the front wall, and from what I could see, there was only a small grouping of people inside, which was good news to me.
I strode forward, and gripped the iron handle on the door, and pulled it open. I stepped inside and was greeted with a sight that made me smile. Weapons and assortments of armor were displayed all over the shop. I always loved weapons and armor, and there was a wide array for me to look through. I would feel a lot more secure with some proper armor again, and maybe a spear, and if I was lucky a trident or crescent polearm.
The man standing behind the counter in the back of the shop looked similar to the smith outside. They were both powerfully built and looked to have been smiths their entire lives. Short black hair, face cleanly shaven, with hard squarish features. He was currently flipping through a ledger and did not look up as I came through the door.
I made my way over to him, and he looked up as I approached. He straightened and closed the ledger. He eyed me briefly, taking in my weapons, and the rag on my face. He then caught sight of my bare feet and scowled slightly.
“Look, we don’t give out charity, or free work, if you can't pay, then get your ass out of here!”
I narrowed my eyes, and almost let a growl escape my lips, but I was able to force the urge down, and instead pulled my coin purse off, and thunked it down on the counter in front of him, not taking my eyes off of his face.
He looked at the sack of coin, and then back at me and shrugged. “Had to be sure, I get all sorts of beggars, who come in here trying to get their hands on a sword or something to try their luck at adventuring. You have coin though, so I don’t care if you came in here stark naked, you have coin, I’ll sell to you. Welcome to my armory. You look new here, never seen you before, though judging by your size, your weapons, and your wound, you are a fighter. You seem to be missing armor though, that why ya here?”
The man had a gruff voice that was louder than normal. It had the sound of someone who was used to shouting over the noise created by forge work.
“Yes”.
“Well we are a bit slow today, so I can personally work with you to find what you need. You looking for anything in particular? Heavy, medium, light? Oh, and what is your budget?”
I thought about that for a moment. I had usually worn light to medium armor as a pit fighter. It had allowed me to fight for longer periods of time without tiring and did not compromise my speed the same way that heavier plater armor did. Granted in the larger battle style events in the arena, heavier armor was generally appreciated in the push of men trying to hack each other to death.
Heavier armor would be more expensive however, and I wasn’t sure how much a decent set would actually be, but from what I had gathered in the arena, good armor wasn’t cheap. In the end, I decided on light armor. I still had traveling to do, and having to lug around heavy plate armor, or something similar would slow me down, especially if I had to remove it and put it back on. If I wanted something more protective, I could get it later when I wasn’t on the run.
“light, and I can give you ten gold coins.”
The smith raised his brow in surprise at that and eagerly clapped his hands together, “Well with that my good man, I can get you some of the best armor we have in stock. Now granted we deal in heavier sets of armor, but we still have an impressive collection of lighter varieties. Granted you are bigger than most I have seen, but you are in luck friend. My brother and I recently had a commission to make some leather armor, for a group of northmen who traveled through the city. They were, shall we say, detained by the city guards, and will not be able to pick up their orders any time in the foreseeable future. The sets of armor probably would be your best bet. We can however make you your own set, that would cost more though, and you would have to wait about a week and a half until it was ready.”
I shook my head at his last statement, “I leave tomorrow.”
“Well, northmen leathers it is then! I am Owen, by the way, Me and my brother Trent have been running this forge for twelve years!” He said with a proud tone.
I didn’t respond instead just waited until he came out from behind the counter and gestured for me to follow. To my surprise, he didn’t take me to any area inside the shop, instead, he led me out a side door, which led to the main forging area. I was greeted once again with the sounds of hammering, and bellows being worked, and I saw several of the apprentice’s gawk at me as I passed by them, I was nearly a foot and a half taller than any of them.
Owen led me through the throng of people working, and back to another enclosed area, that was walled off from the public. He pulled a flap aside and led me inside. I didn’t see any armor, but I saw a stool, a mirror, and several tools that looked to be for measuring.
Owen stepped around me, and went over to the tools, and pulled out a roll of measuring line. I had seen the arena armorers use something similar when they had fitted me with armor.
“Now come here please sir, I need to get your measurements, so I can get an idea of which set we have would work best for you.”
I nodded and stepped over to him. I was actually curious to know how tall I was. The armorers in the arena never bothered to tell me, and now I could finally get a straight answer, it was strange to not know how tall I actually was. Once I was in front of the mirror, I set down the pack I had been carrying, and also removed my weapon belt. I had to be careful here though, if he pulled up my sleeves, he would see my scales, and then I would have to kill him as quickly and as quietly as possible.
“Just hold your arms up and stand still sir,” Owen said as he moved the stool over to me.
He stepped up on it and reached up to my head with the measuring line and held it to the back of my head. He then let it drop, down to my bare feet, He whistled, and stepped down.
“Six feet, and ten inches, you are a tall one, that armor should do nicely, most of them were a bit shorter than you, but were wider overall as well, with a bit of adjusting, you should be able to fit into any of them.”
So, I was nearly seven feet tall, it was taller than I had assumed throughout my life, but at least now I knew.
I turned my attention back to Owen, as he began to measure my shoulders, hips, legs, and even my feet. I saw him wrinkle his nose slightly at my smell, but he took it in stride, I assumed as a smith, he was used to the smell of grime and sweat. Overall, it took him about ten minutes of taking measurements and making notes. To my relief, he hadn’t tried to remove my sleeves or roll up my pant legs.
“Well you are a big man that is for sure, but I feel that with a bit of adjustment, and such, we should get you suited up nicely. Come, I'll take you to where we have the armor stored.”
He set down his tools, but kept his notes with him, as he led me back out into the forge area. As he led me further back into the forge, I realized that the space it occupied was larger than I had first thought. The brothers must have
paid a lot for this much space in the crowded market area.
Owen pulled me around the rear of the forge, where a small shack-like building was standing. It looked sturdy though and had a large metal door with a lock on it. Owen moved forward and pulled a large key from his belt. He slid it in, and with a loud CLICK, the lock came free. He set it aside, and with a grunt of effort, swung the large door open.
“Wait here please.”
Own moved inside, and I heard him shuffling around. About a minute later he rolled two large carts out. He pushed them to the side, went back in, and came back out with two others.
“Well here they are, we keep em stored back here in the vault, where we keep lots of our goods that aren’t for the public, or that we don’t have much chance of selling. Don’t get me wrong, these sets, are some of the finest me and my brother made, and we put them together personally, but as I said, they are large, and no one in town has been able to fit them. Because of that, I will give you a great price, here come take a look.”
Curiously, I moved forward. The smith was right, these looked to be very well crafted. I carefully looked through all the sets until I settled on the first set. The first set was dyed black. I picked up the chest plate and was surprised that even though it was made mostly out of leather, it had a hefty weight to it. It was still relatively light though as far as armor went. I ran my hand over the leather and felt hard pieces of what felt like metal plates sewn in between parts of the leather. The chest plate itself had reinforced shoulder pads, that had several layers of hardened leather with metal studs on the borders of each layer of leather, which would help keep its integrity. The shoulder pieces would work well in providing protection to the wearer’s shoulders. The front of the chest pieces had four overlapping layers of leather that made their way down the front in triangle shapes overlapping each other. These two had matching studs that the shoulder pieces did. The shoulder pieces connected to the front of the plate, directly in the center. Down the front of the leather, were intricate designs that had been carved into the leather, depicting mountains, with a bear in the center, where the shoulder straps connected. The back of the armor had similar designs. All of the carved lines had been painted with a light silver color, which against the black of the leather made the armor almost shine. It was certainly an impressive piece of craftsmanship, and I nodded in grudging appreciation of the work. I held it against my torso and was pleased to see that it fell down to just above my waist.