by Darkbringer
“Sounds fair,” I agreed. “I’ll see the two of you in a little bit. I don’t think you’ll have any problems with her, but if you do, I’ll straighten it all out once we all get back together.”
“Okies!” Jess bounced slightly and then grabbed Dino’s hand and started to drag him down the street. “Since that’s all settled, we’ll go meet her. It’ll be nice to meet a warrior woman! If she doesn’t have a healer yet, maybe she’ll let me be hers. Let’s go, Magey!”
Magey? I couldn’t help but smirk to myself as she dragged Dino behind her and around the corner. I’ll have to remember that nickname and be certain to rub it in some time. It’s almost as suitable for him as Dino is. Laughing lightly to myself, I turned and walked on into the town.
First stop was the local moneychangers since I’d given all my loose change to Crystal earlier. Showing the woman behind the counter my card, I withdrew a thousand gold from my account and received a handful of coins to put in my pouch – one King’s jeweled crown, four Queen’s crowns, a King’s crown, and five platinum coins. The King’s crown was an Andorian coin with an image of the king engraved upon it and was worth fifty gold. The Queen’s crown was Andorian, and since it’s a Matriarchal Kingdom, it was worth a hundred gold. The jeweled crown was very similar to the normal crown, except it had a small gemstone embedded into the center of it; it was worth five hundred gold. And, of course, a platinum coin is worth ten gold coins.
Since the lady behind the counter didn’t comment any on our transaction; she was completely businesslike and indifferent to me; I left the moneychangers and went immediately to the first general store I could find. Garthe’s General Shoppe was the name of the place which I’d found, and the shopkeeper was an old white haired gentleman with a beard which fell almost all the way to his knees. He was sitting in an old wicker rocker, rocking back and forth and smoking a pipe as I browsed up and down the aisles and laid a large selection of things at his counter.
“Camping?” He asked, but didn’t seem to care if I answered or not as he was more preoccupied with chewing on his beard between puffs of the corncob pipe in his old, gnarled hands.
“Yeah,” I told him with a shrug. “A few friends and I are. Anything you’d suggest for us to take? I’m in charge of gathering the travel supplies, and I’m new at this type of thing.”
“How many?” He asked.
“How many, what?” I really wasn’t certain what he was wanting to know.
“How many peoples ya gots?” He clarified.
“There should be four of us. Two guys and two girls,” I told him simply.
“Then yer gonna want two pup tents fer sleeping in, at least.” He told me. “But if’n ya got some coin to spare, I think you’d at least want to get one of the square tents instead. It’s large enough fer four people to lie in, but it’s also tall enough to stand up in. Them girls will probably appreciate the chance to change clothes in it.”
“Well, that makes sense,” I agreed. “Where would I find those at?”
“Over yonder in the far corner.” He waved his pipe vaguely and I wandered off to search where he was gesturing. “These?” I asked, holding up a rather large bundle.
“Nah!” The old man cackled and coughed. “Them are more what those merchants use. That’s a pavilion tent, boy! You could put it up and then put a table and chairs in it and do business out of the wind and rain. I doubt you’d want to carry something that size with ya. Look on to the right of it. Them smaller bundles is whatcha want.”
Sitting down the bundle, I grabbed up two of the smaller packs and dragged them over to the counter. “Anything else, it looks like I might be missing?” I asked the old man.
“Let’s see whatcha got here, boy.” The old man took a few moments to look over the other supplies I’d gathered and listed them all out one by one. “Cook stuff, blankets, lantern and oil, rope, different food things.” Finally, he shrugged. “Looks good ta me, but I’m not the one who’s going out and camping. If you going to be roughing it, it’ll do, I ‘spose.”
“So how much for it all, pops?”
“Them tents is the most ‘pensive thing ya got. They’re about fifteen gold each, so whatcha say to forty gold fer it all?”
Digging in my coin pouch, I pulled out the King’s crown and flipped it to him. “I’ll grab me a couple of those backpacks to toss a lot of the food and all in, and we’ll call it good. Deal?”
“Deal.” The old man held out his hand, spit on it, and then held it out for me to shake. Trying not to wrinkle my nose, I repeated his actions, and then wiped my hands on my pant’s leg. The old man simply grinned as if he found my distaste amusing, and went back to chewing on his beard and smoking his pipe.
Spending just a few minutes to pack up the food and supplies into the different backpacks, I then struggled to try and toss two packs across each shoulder and tug one of the tent bundles uncomfortably under each arm. The old man simply sat, rocked, and laughed merrily as I fumbled and stumbled my way towards the door. Old coot didn’t even get up to open the door for me, which made me drop everything in a disastrous crash as I tried to juggled things around.
By the time I’d gotten the door open, held with my foot, the bundles back in my arms, and FINALLY outside, I was soaked in sweat. The old man’s merry laughter burned in my ears, and in a moment of petty spike, I gathered a small smidge of earth magic and shaped the cobblestone at the entrance to raise it up and around the bottom of the door. If he’s going to treat his customers with such disrespect, he can just do without any!
Glancing up and down the street, I whistled towards some of the young ragged looking children loafing at the entrance of a nearby alley. “Hey, fellows! One of you want to help me with these packs? I’ll donate something for your time.”
“Piss off!” One of the oldest of the boys spat in my direction. “We don’t want nuttin to do with asses like youse. Can’t ya see we’re busy?”
Busy my ass! All they’re doing is standing there and twiddling their thumbs! I was becoming convinced more and more every day, that everyone in the city was either hateful, lazy, or just a complete pain in the ass. If good useful people lived in the towns, they were probably in the minority!
Snorting, I struggled to drag and carry everything back to the north gate. By the time I arrived, I was soaked in sweat, out of breath, and exhausted! Dino, Jess, and Crystal were all standing off to the side chatting along together like old time friends, and none of them noticed my labored approach – or at least none of them reacted to my labored approach. From where Dino was standing, he should’ve been able to see me, but he made no offer to come and help me with my burden until I was completely upon the group.
“Oh! Michael!” He jumped and acted as if he noticed me for the first time when I was less than a dozen feet from where everyone was gathered. “Do you need me to help you with that?” He asked, magnanimously.
“Just fuck off,” I told him, out of breath. “I made it this far. It’s here now.” Exhausted and disgusted, I tossed down the two bundles which held the supplies for the tents and then let the packs slide off my shoulders and drop off the ends of my arms. Plopping down beside them, I had a sinking feeling about how things were going to work on this hunt for us. We were all gathered up now, and we had supplies for traveling, and I was already exhausted.
Honestly, I was dreading whatever might come next.
Heading Out
“Are you OK?” Jess came running over to where I sat exhausted and worked a little magic on me. “I think you’re going to be fine,” she informed me solemnly. “You really shouldn’t be carrying all that much stuff! What is all this?”
“It’s supplies for everyone,” I told her, out of breath. “Neither you nor Dino had a tent. It didn’t look like either of you had any sort of cookware or even any food for the trip. Just how the heck were the two of you even planning on surviving out there?” I asked exasperated.
Jess giggled and simply hugged me slightly. “It’
s OK! I learned how to create food with my magic, and Mageflame can create water. We don’t really need to carry a lot of food with us.”
“And what if you get hurt and can’t make food for us?” Crystal spoke up all at once, and then quickly smacked Jess across the back of her butt cheeks. “What if we need to use your magic for healing, and not just making meals. Are you a healer, or a cook!”
She sounded angry, and I couldn’t help my smile in appreciation. Jess simply pouted and rubbed her bottom. “I didn’t think we were going anywhere dangerous,” she said, sulking. “Mageflame said we were going to go take a walk up into the forest, and bring his roommates back. That they’d probably just broken a wagon wheel or something and needed some help fixing it.” Her lower lip quivered and she looked almost like she was going to cry.
“Dino...” Glaring daggers at him didn’t even seem to make him flinch. Either he has nerves of steel, or else he’s simply completely clueless! “Why didn’t you tell Jess that it might be dangerous where we’re going?”
He simply shrugged. “Well, we don’t know that it is dangerous; now do we? For all we know, they’re just out there somewhere partying, indulging in several nice bottles of wine that they found that someone had buried in their crypt. We don’t know that they’re in any real trouble.”
“And we don’t know they’re not!” Crystal snapped back at him. “You idiot! Always prepare for the worst, and then be pleasantly surprised when it turns out you’re wrong!”
Finally having caught my breath, I took the time to do a closer inspection of my traveling companions. Dino and Jess both looked as if they might be prepared for a pleasant evening’s stroll to a picnic. Neither of them was wearing anything that even slightly resembled armor – Dino was in his normal wizard robes, and Jess’s leathers were too old and frayed to be any real protection – and neither of them seemed to have the first weapon on them. I suppose Jess, being a healer, didn’t think she needed a weapon; she was used to people protecting her in a group, and Dino probably couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag without using his magic.
Crystal, on the other hand, was wearing an elegant, pristine white, pair of leather pants and tunic that clung and snuggled her tightly. Sensible leather moccasins protected her feet – not sandals like Dino was wearing – and she was wearing what looked like a chain-linked robe over it all. A long sword hung on her left hip, and she had a shining metal helm tucked under her arm. The overall image she projected was one of wealth and status, and yet held an air of readiness as if the gear was for use as much as fashion. All in all, she looked like someone I could depend on with this task, a lot more than the others.
“And where’s your packs and supplies?” I asked her, wearily. “I don’t see where you brought anything with you either, except what you’re carrying.”
She nodded slightly. “I have a few changes of small clothes over there.” She pointed some ways behind them, where a small travel pack sat up against the wall which went around the city. Honestly, it didn’t look any larger than a medium sized pocketbook that many women carry to me. “Your friend; Dino I think you called him; told me that you were acquiring the necessary travel supplies for us, or else I would’ve packed my own tent and travel gear.”
“Dino…” I said with a growl.
“What!” He tossed up his arms and shrugged. “You did say you were going to get the supplies while we got the Lady here to join us. I didn’t lie!” He declared, in a huff. “Besides, you never told us that we were looking for a Lady! I don’t know why you couldn’t find her – she was sitting at home relaxing in her own house, you know!”
I couldn’t help but blink a few times at that. “Wait a moment...” Turning to Crystal, I asked her in bewilderment, “You own a house?”
“Well yes,” she answered simply. “I just purchased it the other day. It’s not the grandest of places; with only two floors and a basement; but I did need a place to live while staying in the school here. They told me that only people with residences inside the city could pass on living in the dorms, so I purchased a place not far from here. It’s over on 8th North Street, house 8N13. It’s a small walk to the school, but not much further than the dorm building you were staying in.”
“So just how the hell do you know a Lady who buys a house, at the drop of a hat? And why the heck would she pack up, skip school, and come running just because you asked her too?” Dino was looking at me suspiciously now, and it was my time to squirm uncomfortably.
“Umm…” Think brain! Think! What the hell would be a decent excuse that an idiot like him might buy?
“Michael is an old friend of the family,” Crystal spoke up and told him for me. “His grandfather and mine fought together in some old war, back when they were younger. Gramps said that Michael’s grandfather saved his life and that we still owed a debt of honor to his family. Is there some reason why I shouldn’t pay back the debt of my grandfather’s life?” She turned and glared at Dino. “Is there some reason why it’s any business of yours to even begin with?”
“Uh... Err... Not really, I don’t guess.” Dino was now the one squirming and looking all uncomfortable once again. Gods, Le’Nara had a gift for picking out a keeper! I think I could fall for this girl!
“Regardless of all that,” I coughed a few times to change the subject. “Everyone grab a backpack and carry it. It’s got food and a few basic things in it that we’re going to need. Dino, you’re the other guy here, so you grab one of those tents and strap it to the bottom of your pack and I’ll strap the other to the bottom of mine. Let’s get on out of here, while there’s still some daylight left for traveling.”
“Me!” Dino whined. “Why do I have to be the one to carry the other tent? I’m a wizard, not a pack mule!”
“Surely you don’t expect one of the girls to carry it. Do you?”
“Well…” He sounded undecided for a moment and glanced over at Jess and then Crystal, who was ignoring him. “I don’t guess so.” Sighing deeply, he finally walked over and starting tying the other tent to the bottom of one of the backpacks, just as I was mine. Ten minutes or so later, I tossed my hobo pack into my backpack, worked the bundle over my shoulders and firmly planted my staff on the ground.
“We all ready to go, finally?” I asked.
“I guess,” Dino answered sullenly as he slid his pack and tent on.
“I’ve been ready!” Jess half bounced to show her enthusiasm.
“Of course, Michael,” Crystal confirmed coolly. “Whenever you’re ready, we’ll follow. Lead the way.”
I really didn’t want to be any sort of leader at all, but if I wasn’t, who would be for this ragtag group of misfits? At least we were finally on the way to find out what had happened to Skeet and Mongo! As long as we don’t get ourselves killed, I guess I’ll finally get to meet my other roommates soon. Sighing, I slowly started out past the gates and up the north road.
What a start to my first grand adventure!
The Serpent Spirt
The first afternoon’s walk was actually rather quiet and uneventful for us. Dino and Jess walked huddled together some ways behind Crystal and me, whispering about gods know what. Crystal herself was silent; watching everything and everyone. I suppose she was being careful not to say or do anything that might put a further strain on the fact that I was pretending to be a nobody.
As the sun was finally starting to get low over the horizon, and the sky was starting to take on shades of brilliant oranges and red, I finally held up my hands and stopped. “Dino, how far up the road this way do we need to go? Is there some place we’re trying to get to tonight before we stop for the evening? Some place where people normally camp out this way?”
“I dunno,” he answered with a shrug. “I’ve never been out this way much. I just know the others were going this way, and that they were entering the forest to check out a graveyard a few days to the northwest of town.”
“Wait a moment!” I exclaimed. “I thought you knew the way
? Didn’t you listen to them talk and look at their map? What were they planning on doing?”
“Yes, I listened!” Dino said in a huff. “They were leaving after breakfast, and going to walk all day up the north road before camping at a crossroads which turned off westward and led into the forest. We left a lot later in the day than they did, so we’re not going to be close to where they camped at, so I guess we’ll just have to find some spot suitable for ourselves. After that, they were going to walk that westward road for about a day and then head off the road and go northwest into the trees and look for the graveyard.
“It's supposed to be out there somewhere,” Dino said, starting to sound a little peevish. “They talked about some trails or creeks or something which could help them find it, but I don’t remember ALL the details. Weren’t you going to track them for us? Or hunt the graveyard? Aren’t you a hunter and tracker?”
All I could do is sigh and try not to walk over and smack him. “I can hunt and track, but it’s nice to have an idea where to start from! I could spend a month checking all along the south road, and I’d never pick up their trail, no matter how good I was, now would I? What do you think I brought you along for, anyway?”
“Why for my ability with magic, of course,” he said without a pause. “And so I could talk Jess into joining us and we’d have a healer in case the others had gotten injured somehow, too. Was there some other reason?” He asked confused.
“No. No, you’re right,” I told him while shaking my head from side to side. “The only way I’d ever find you useful is through your magic. Heaven forbid someone might want to rely on your brains for anything. EVER!”
Disgusted, I stopped and tossed my pack and the tent off to the ground. “We’ll camp here for the night. Crystal, if you don’t mind, would you set up the tent I have? I’m going to go do some scouting. Or tracking. Or hunting. Or at least something that might be a little god damn useful!” I yelled the last part as I was storming off. A little Dino I can handle. A whole day’s worth of Dino, though? It just wears me down! Men are almost never born with magic in this world, and he was the first male besides myself whom I’d ever met with even the slightest ability to do magic. To think that there was even the smallest thing alike about us was actually rather embarrassing and upsetting. What a putz!