by Sami Dougish
I finally opened my eyes and sighted on a wooden post, and quickly took aim, and with a heave, launched the naginata. It sped through the air, and there was a satisfying THUNK, as the sharp blade sunk straight through the wood.
I was barely breathing hard, and I smiled as the adrenaline pumped through my body. Damn, that had felt good. I strode forward and gripped the shaft of the naginata. It was lodged tightly into the wooden post, and I grunted with effort, as I ripped it back out. I inspected the blade and was pleased to see there wasn’t a single mark. I was also extremely pleased with the armor. It hadn’t limited my movement overly much, and was light enough, that I barely noticed it once I had slipped into the rhythm of my movements. It would need a bit more breaking in as time went on, but I was happy with my new armor.
I turned around, to ask Owen about the price, which was when I realized that the crowd of people had swelled, and they were all now wildly cheering, and applauding at my display. I scowled at the humans, if only they knew that I had been imagining slaughtering their kind. I didn’t acknowledge them and moved back to Owen, I saw that the smith apprentices and the man I assumed was his brother had joined him and had been enjoying the show. They all stood there applauding with the crowd, some of the youths were slack-jawed as well.
I passed the naginata back, not seeing the need to test it out anymore, and said, “I will take the naginata, what is the price?”
Owen shook himself, and exclaimed, “By the gods man! Where did you learn to move like that? I have never seen someone fight and handle a weapon with such skill!”
His brother spoke up and said, “I had thought that duke’s son who had passed through here a couple of months ago had been impressive, but he doesn’t hold a candle to this one here!”
I was getting impatient, and pressed, nearly growling out, “Price!?”
“Oh yes of course, normally that would run you one gold pieces, as it is one of our best pieces, but after that display, I would be honored to give it to you for free! Well as long as you are fine with it Trent?”
The brother, Trent waved his hands enthusiastically, and said, “Not at all, I will be happy to know that my work will be in such capable hands, take it with my blessings as well”.
“Hm I guess your playing with toys has paid off here as well,” came Raskorian’s amused tone.
I ignored him, and simply nodded at the brothers, and said, “Then I will see you tomorrow to pick up my mask.” Without another word I brushed past them and made my way back to the market.
Chapter 9
With my new weapon and armor, now in hand, I spent the rest of the afternoon, moving from store to store, looking for other gear I would need. In the end I had purchased a variety of items. I now had a compass on my belt, medical supplies in my sack, flint for fires, and a small blanket. I did my best to keep my purchases to a minimum, as I still had to carry all the stuff with me out of this kingdom. Granted Orizmad had said he would have a mount for me, but I wasn’t sure how much it could carry, and over what terrain, I wanted to be able to carry all my gear if needs be. The only luxury items I had bought, were two books. They had been expensive, but I wanted to expand my knowledge of this world now that I was free. One of the books I had bought was a history of this continent, which had been written by some scholar who had apparently traveled to all corners of the continent in his research. The second book was a bestiary of sorts. It had lists, and descriptions, of known monsters, and animals in the area. I figured it would be smart to have knowledge about what creature I could expect to face.
The sun was beginning to set as I made my way back to the Inn. I was tired, and thoroughly looking forward to getting to my room, and away from the human crowds. Being around so many always aggravated me, at least when I was a slave, most of the humans I had interacted with had been salves too, making it ever so slightly more bearable.
I checked my coin purse as I walked. I had spent over half of my available money, and found that I still had three gold coins, and ten silver ones. Much less then I had, but better than nothing, besides, it had been spent well.
I made it back to the inn, and was greeted with the sight of lights, drunken singing, and the smell of food. It seemed now that most people were done with work for the day, which meant more people at the inn, great.
Still nothing I could do about it now. I made sure my bandage was tight around my face, and pushed the door open, and strode inside. The room was even louder than it had been outside, and I frowned at the crowd of people in here, well at least I wouldn’t be staying down here too long. I intended to pay for a bath though, might as well enjoy a wash before I had to spend more time on the road. A hot meal would be nice as well.
I remembered that the inn keeper had told me to tell one of the workers I wanted a bath, so I glanced around the room, looking for one of them. My height made it easier to see over everyone, and I quickly spotted one of the women. I pushed my way through the crowd of people, and made my way to the women. She was currently at the bar, picking up several mugs of beer. I waited until she turned around, and when she did, she let out a small squeak at my proximity, mixed with the fact that I towered over her. She nearly dropped her drink but managed to save them at the last moment.
“Blessed gods! You scared me sir!” She her tone had a mixture of anger, and fright, which I ignored.
“I was told to tell you or one of your fellows, if I need a bath, and food.”
She looked like she wanted to chastise me for scaring her, but seemed to think better of it, as I leaned forward slightly, and narrowed my eyes.
She quickly nodded, and said, “Um yes sir, uh of course, hot water will cost you three silvers thoug. If you can find a table, I can-”
I cut her off, and said, “I will eat in my room.”
“Oh, well you see sir, Ms. Laina doesn’t usually allow folk to eat up stairs.”
I scowled, but thought I had an idea what to do. I pulled out I reached into my coin purse and pulled out the required coin for the meal. Along with the amount she asked for though, I pulled out one more silver, and handed it to her, and said, “You can keep the change if you get the food up to my room”.
The girl’s eyes widened, and she quickly swiped the coins out of my hand, and said, “Yes sir, what room?”
I told her which, and she hurried off. Not wanting to waste any more time, I pushed through the crowd, and made my way to the stairs.
“You really wasted your coin to get a meal in your room?” Raskorian asked in an exasperated tone.
“You always talk about hating being around lesser races, are you really surprised that I have no interest in being around any of them either when I was their slave?”
The dragon was silent for a moment, but then grudgingly said, “fair point”.
I smiled at the dragon conceding the point, and the rest of the walk to my room was uninterrupted. When I reached the door to my room, I eagerly pushed the door open, and stepped inside. Once the door was closed, I let out a long breath of air. Finally, some peace.
The first thing I did was remove the blood stained cloth from around my mouth, and stretched my jaw. It was nice to get the thing off my face. That was quickly followed by the new armor I had purchased, which I neatly stacked in a corner of the room. Next went my Naginata, which was almost as tall as the ceiling of the building. Next to that went my hammer and mace. Lastly, I set the pack filled with the rest of my belongings on the bed.
I straightened, and stretched, trying to loosen my tight muscles, and flex my scales. It had been a long day, and an even longer week and a half of travel. I was tired, sore, and hungry. I smiled though, as despite all of that I was still free.
That was when I caught a whiff of myself. I really did stink. Hopefully they would hurry up with the bath. To keep myself entertained while I waited, I reached into the sack, and grabbed the history book. I flipped it open to a random page and started reading. The page I had opened to spoke about the Orc tribes, to the west of
the continent. They apparently were a much larger and well-established people then I had known. I had only ever met the dark green skinned variant of orcs, but apparently there were numerous variants of orcs. The dark-skinned variants were apparently known to be organized in numerous clans, some large, some small. While they were known to be some of the biggest and most vicious of their kind, their unorganized numbers made them easier to fend off during their frequent raids, as they involved fewer numbers, with little to no strategy. This was probably why the orcs I had always seen had been of the darker variant.
In contrast the paler cousins, were known to be more diplomatic. It had seemed that their method had paid of, as while their individual strength paled in comparison to their darker cousins, they had managed to unite most of their tribes, and had formed a confederation of sorts, and had trade deals with neighboring countries.
I soon found myself reading the book with great interest. I hadn’t had this chance before to just sit back, and learn new information before, and I was fascinated by all the information this author had managed to record, and this was just one section of the book.
Granted I had a bit of trouble reading it, as I had only a basic knowledge of reading and writing, but Raskorian proved to be quite helpful with this. Despite all his claims for having no interest in “Lesser races,” he seemed to enjoy reading the book as well, and gave me pronunciations, and definitions of all the words I struggled with. Now that I thought about, I made sense. If I was thirsty for knowledge after all the years I spent as a slave, I could only imagine what it would have been like after hundreds of years.
“So, tell me Raskorian, did you have much dealings with orc when you had a body?”
“Well, I never really spoke to them, never saw the point, but I did develop quiet a taste for them during the wars. Oh, especially the fire blooded ones, those are the red one the book mentions. Their blood always seemed slightly spicy!”
He rumbled in pleasure as he thought about the taste of fire blooded orcs, and I chuckled at his pleased tone.
“How about the other variants, what did they taste like?”
“Hmm, well the Thaegarn orcs, the dark green variant, were generally the meatiest of the races, and had a salty taste, that was also laced with a sweeter after taste. The light skinned variant were terrible in comparison, they were smaller, and had stringier meat, that tasted bland. I remember getting their meat stuck between my fangs for days at a time. And let me tell you getting flesh caught between your fangs does not feel good at all! The absolute worse though were the Garin’s, they are a milk white color, and they taste like spoiled milk! I remember my first time eating them, the taste was stuck in my mouth for over a week! Even breathing fire didn’t clear the taste out! Instead it just tasted like burnt spoiled milk!”
“Hmm, I never would have guessed they all had their own tastes, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though, animals are the same way.”
“It is true, orcs were tasty for sure, but oh they don’t come anywhere near to the taste of Gnomes or dwarves!”
As we spoke about the difference in tastes between different races, it occurred to me most people would probably think the pair of us were crazy. One of us was an outcast drayzraac, who wanted to be a mercenary and hated most people, and the other a dragon, who had an overblown sense of importance, and a serious chip on his shoulder. And here we both were talking casually about the taste of orcs compared to the taste of dwarves. Eh, fuck them, I didn’t care if people disapproved of the subject, it was interesting, and I really didn’t have a problem with hearing about how all these other races had been eaten by dragons. I honestly couldn’t care less in fact.
Our conversation was interrupted however, by a quick series of knocks on the door. I immediately sat up, and glared at the door.
“What?” I growled out in irritation.
“Um we have your bath water ready sir,” Came a high-pitched voice from the other side.
“Wait,” was the only response I gave.
I quickly stood up and made sure that all my scales were covered. I also took a moment to tie the bandage around my face again. I then reached down and picked up on of my daggers and drew the blade. Call me paranoid, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I held the dagger behind my back and moved over to the door. I stood on the side of the door, so if someone charged in, I would be able to ram the blade into their face before they realized what was happening. I took deep sniff, and from what I could smell, there were several people outside. I reached out, and unlatched the door, and called out, “Enter”.
The door swung open, and the women form the floor below came in with a small tray of food. She jumped back a step, when she walked in and saw me standing directly besides her, but she caught herself and kept the food from falling.
“Oh, there you are sir, you seem to have a knack for scaring me!”
I didn’t respond and instead looked at the food.
She followed my gaze, and quickly said, “Oh, here is your food. Tonight, cook put together a mutton stew, and baked some fresh bread. I also brought you a mug of water as you requested.”
The food looked simple, but smelled good, and my stomach growled loudly. I was damn hungry.
“Just put it on the bed.”
She nodded and rushed in and set the tray down on the bed. She then turned and called out behind her.
“Tomas, Lindor, bring the hot water in too!”
The two others I had smelled came in as well. They were two boys I hadn’t seen before, and looked to be younger than the girl. They looked strong though, and each carried a large bucket holding steaming water. The caught sight of me, and their mouths dropped open as they took me in. I was a head taller then both of them, and nearly doubly broad in the shoulders. It probably didn’t help that I was glaring at them.
They recovered and moved over to the basin in the corner of the room, and poured their buckets into the basin. It only filled the tub about half way up though, and they quickly left the room. I assumed to get more water. The serving girl had finished laying my meal out, and quickly moved to the door, she stopped though at the exit, and turned around and said, “Please don’t spill the food sir, if you do and make a mess, Ms. Laina will hold me responsible.”
I just nodded at her, trying to get her to leave, and she hurried back down the stairs. I sighed in relief to be alone again, but then remembered that the boys were coming back upstairs, and I decided to just stand there while I waited. Several minutes later, the boys walked back in the room, and hurriedly poured the remaining water into the basin. They seemed as eager as the girl had to get away from me and rushed out without a word.
Now satisfied I was alone again; I closed and bolted the door. I pulled my mask off, and quickly stripped out of my clothes. Though I could still see steam rising off the water, I knew that it would cool soon. I hadn’t had a hot bath in years, and I was looking forward to taking one again. I was hungry though, so I figured I could multi task. I reached over and picked up the tray of food. I moved it over to the bath and set it down beside the basin. I then picked up the hammer, and two daggers. I placed the hammer, and one knife in easy reach from the basin, and the other would be going in the bath with me.
Satisfied that I was safe, I stepped into the water, which was no longer steaming, but was still pleasantly warm. I lowered my sore body into the bath, and groaned in satisfaction, as the warm water soothed my muscles. I leaned back, and closed my eyes, just enjoying the warm sensation of the bath.
My peace was interrupted by the loud protests from my stomach. Chuckling, I sat up slightly, and reached over the side of the basin, and grabbed the tray of food. The scent of the food tickled my nose, and my mouth began to water in anticipation. Disregarding the wood spoon, I simply scooped my hand into the hot stew, and brought a large handful of the stew to my mouth. I greedily wolfed the handful down, and quickly went back for more. Less than a minute later, the bowl had been licked clean, and I quickly devoured the slice of bre
ad. There wasn’t a huge amount of food, but it was enough to give me a warm satisfied feeling.
I swigged the water down quickly right afterwards, and then got back to relaxing in the tub. Like most full reptiles, I too preferred warmer temperatures to colder areas, and the warm water felt especially good as the heat soaked into my cool scales. I then realized that I had been left a small bar of soap as well. I really didn’t feel like washing yet, as just enjoying the heat was so relaxing, but I might as well get myself cleaned up before the water cooled overly much.
Thankfully, the soap didn’t have much of a smell to it, as I had no interest in walking around smelling like flowers. I quickly scrubbed all of the grime from travel, and dried blood from the scuffles I had while traveling here. It felt as if I was shedding a second skin. The water which had been mostly clear seconds ago, now looked almost black. I wasn’t going to complain though. It was better than nothing, and I had certainly had to deal with worse than dirty bath water before. No instead I was simply happy to be clean again.
It ended up taking a couple of minutes of hard scrubbing to get the grim off of my body, and by the time I had finished the water was lukewarm at best. Sighing, I pulled myself out of the bath, and reached for the drying cloth left for me by one of the two boys, I forgot which. I quickly dried off and glanced out the window. The sun was setting, and I planned on turning in for the night soon. I would have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I picked up the daggers, and hammer, and moved them to the other side of the bed.
After setting them down, I glanced at the bed. I had never slept in a bed before. In the mountains It was customary to sleep in leather lined hammocks, and as a slave, rough wood floor, or plane stone were the best we ever had. I was curious to try it, as I had heard many a slave bemoan the lack of beds with mattresses. I slowly sat down on the bed. I was surprised at how soft It felt. I inspected it, and saw it seemed to be a giant bag of sorts that was filled with what felt like hay and feathers and covered in a sheet.