She stared at him silently.
“Anyway. If you’re feeling better now then give me back the chair. It’s about time I lit a candle.”
Holo eyed the things on the desk, then him, then stood up unpleasantly. She didn’t want to go to bed. Instead, she sat on the edge of the desk.
“Why is this so important? Can you not just talk to me?”
“Do you ever feel bad for using such childish tactics? I’d really like to know.”
“Hmph. Well, after all I am just wasting food.”
She drank straight out of their waterskin before poking it into his temple. He took it back from her and reminding himself that he really shouldn’t be serious with someone who was drunk. Especially since he never really knew how drunk this born-actor was, and might just be digging his own grave. Ultimately, he just turned back to his coins to avoid any of her traps.
“We’re passing through a village of woodcutters, and I have to sell something while we’re there.”
“..sell something?”
Her surprise was obvious. Coins were used to buy, not sell.
“That’s right.”
“But these are coins.”
“Nothing stopping me from selling them. In the old days.. well, maybe not by your reckoning, but back then, moneychangers and smiths sold decorative coins.”
Holo’s blinked her bleary eyes, grabbed a coin and held it up to her chest.
“That one’s too small; decorative ones are bigger. For you.. something like this would be better.”
He pulled out a coin that was neither large or small and held it up to her. It was just a worn coin, blackened with age. But remarkably, it seemed that the old wisdom about having to dress nicely didn’t apply to Holo - anything looked good when she wore it.
“Wow! Hey, poke a hole in it!”
He was momentarily swayed by her enthusiasm, but managed to pull the coin back.
“But then we couldn’t use it anymore.”
“Hmph!”
“Plus, it clashes too much with that pouch of wheat you wear so dear.”
She snatched the coin from his hand as he continued.
“That, and the Church frowns upon wearing them, saying it’s like planting coins in the ground.”
Her mind started turning at that, clearly thinking hard about what he meant. But she gave up sooner than usual, owing to the alcohol.
“..what does that mean?”
“Well, coins won’t grow into anything. In fact, they’ll just make the plants around them wilt. So they’re saying that wearing coins is sinful, because it defeats the very purpose of having coins in the first place.”
“Mmm.. mhmm..”
Her ears rolled around and she nodded.
“Indeed, if it will only cause wilting, it cannot be good.”
Seeing a girl like her wear a coin would also arouse people’s sympathy, but Lawrence didn’t want to point that out. He only had one life.
“But then, why do people sell these?”
She meant the Schmi coins in particular, the ones with the image of a wolf on them.
“Well..”
He paused in consideration before replying as a merchant would: because they had a wolf on them.
“Oh, is that all it takes? Then the guy making these is quite clever..”
She happily played with the coin as she spoke, and it wasn’t the wine talking; she was happy with it because there was a wolf engraved on it. Anyone would feel the same warmth if, say, they learned that a figure from their hometown was on a coin. But Lawrence didn’t know how to break the truth to her, so he kept himself silent.
“But, you.. why a wolf?”
He was too anxious to face her, let alone reply.
“Courage? ..Luck? No, wolves are not..”
She kept guessing, but he couldn’t just tell her that it was because people wore it as a charm to keep wolves away.
“Oh.. right.. you were planning to sell them to woodcutters.. ah.. so then..”
When she became serious, she seemed to ignore everything else. Lawrence peeked at her closed eyelids, then turned away again. She really was a Wisewolf, so of course she’d figure it out eventually. Her tail had stopped wagging, and she put the coin back on the table.
“..well, at any rate it is not important.”
She was letting him get away with it. Wolves and humans were supposed to be enemies, after all.
“Um, it’s actually to keep thieves away, so-”
“Hey.”
She smiled a lonely smile and sighed.
“If you care so much, I will only end up feeling more lonely.”
She hopped off the desk and climbed back into bed. It was too late to say anything once she vanished under the covers. Even her tail was gone. He’d been too careless. Now he had to live with the consequences. He sighed softly as he put the coins back into his wallet, then a thought crossed his mind.
“Hey.. you know what?”
He leaned back in the chair and twisted his body to look back at her in bed. She peered at him from under the covers.
“With you here, we could make a killing on these things.”
He paused as an evil smile crossed his face. It seemed to have the impact he wanted, judging from the look on her face as she looked at him.
“Oh?”
“I mean, would you be willing?”
She wore a childish expression that looked so pure and honest that he felt bad for asking, but he couldn’t pass up such a chance. After all, she was the perfect partner for such a scheme.
“Willing to..?”
He averted his eyes.
“Howl a bit and rile them up?”
“Howl? I hate doing that. But it would get their attention.”
It sure would.
“Then you would sell them as a holy talisman?”
“People think those only work if you donate to the Church every day. How about the smell of metal?”
“Metal..”
It seemed they’d finally found a worthwhile conversation. Holo sat up straight and shook her head to reply, then continued.
“What a strange notion.”
“I’ve heard that aprons of lead do the job.”
He’d actually seen something like that for sale before.
“Well..”
“I mean, there’s all sorts of myths of knights and mercenaries not being attacked because they wore metal armor all over their bodies.”
“That is really just because they have spears. I hate facing those. But swords.. sometimes I don’t even see those before I go after them.”
She was being surprisingly honest. Lawrence decided to be honest as well.
“But we could still use a scent that wolves wouldn’t like.”
“Mhm.. spices, for instance. I really hate those.”
He already had several spices in mind, some rather cheap. He hoped they could use one of them. Maybe they should go out and smell the spices in the shops before the sun set.
“Want to go walk off your alcohol?”
“What, right now?”
She smiled in surprise.
“That does sound nice.”
“Great.”
Lawrence put away his things and stood up. Holo had hopped out of bed, still smiling.
* * *
“Hey, let us take our time, ok?”
Holo clutched Lawrence’s hand as she asked. The western sky was still red, but the eastern sky was dark already. People had pulled up their collars and hunched their bodies to keep warm as they headed home.
As they passed the pub they were just in, the barmaid waved to them after lighting a lantern. Lawrence thought she wanted to talk about something, but Holo gripped his hand tighter to keep walking ahead. Perhaps the girl was just joking around. After all, she had no time to talk to them, and was already rushing back indoors to serve customers.
“I think they fell in love with you because you drink so much.”
“Oh? Then should sh
e not be waving a bottle at me?”
“..Are you saying I should wave my wallet at you?”
“Mhm!”
Such inane conversations were appropriate for a slow walk like this. Lawrence didn’t like watching the sad summer sun set, but he loved winter sunsets. The air was cool and dry, and it marked the end of a long day on a dusty road and promised a warm meal at an inn. And really, he did wave his wallet around to keep her affection when they went to pubs, so there was a kernel of truth there.
They reached their first destination lost in thought. The sign hanging over its door made it clear that it was a medicine shop. Spices were often sold in medicine shops as well, together with all sorts of strange dried herbs. The shopkeeper seemed to be tidying up, and smiled when he saw them.
“We’re closing soon..”
“Mind if we take a quick browse?”
“Well.. alright, just don’t take too long.”
He replied as he straightened up the bottles on the shelves.
“Thanks.”
Lawrence smiled back at him until he went into the back for a moment, then he whispered to Holo.
“I wonder why he was staring at me like that..”
“He probably felt sorry for the stupid merchant buying things for the cute city girl.”
Lawrence shrugged as Holo giggled.
“Well, coming here will probably make you hungry, so I guess that’ll come true.”
“More than likely.”
They sniffed every spice they could find. Black ones, blue ones, green ones, red ones, yellow ones.. even some dried herbs and fruit. Even Lawrence didn’t know what all of them were. But Holo kept saying things like “This one is used for beef. This one for cheap wine. This one for dark bread.” In other words, they were spices not added for extra flavor, but to cover up for poor quality.. she was being satirical.
But even the shopkeeper was impressed by her nose. She was right on the money each time. But then, anyone who knew spices wouldn’t find it that remarkable. And so the shopkeeper pulled out a little box for Holo to sample.
“Could you help me out..”
“Hmm?”
Holo first looked over to Lawrence, then the shopkeeper.
“These all look the same, but the market’s flooded with fakes. I’ve been in the business for thirty years, but sometimes there are ones that are so good they’ll fool me. I’ve heard some people train dogs for it, but well.. just this once, would you lend me your nose?”
Each merchant has his problems to deal with. Holo didn’t seem willing to help, but Lawrence interjected.
“She used to work for a noble family. The matron there loves spices, so her nose has grown accustomed to them. That’s why I keep her close.”
He was of course lying, but that was part of being a good merchant. The shopkeeper nodded and replied.
“Oh, of course I’ll be much obliged if you can help me out.”
He weighed out a bit of money on his scales for effect. They had a deal.
“Holo, would you please?”
“Hmm.. for some wheat bread.”
She’d become quite used to being his partner. He nodded in response. Spices were pretty expensive, so the merchant was offering quite a bit. Lawrence would still have a bit after buying her bread, and since this was a one-time deal he didn’t have to feel anxious about abusing his privileges.
“Oh, right..”
Lawrence uttered to himself as Holo looked up at him quizzingly.
“What?”
“Oh.. nothing. I just remembered I wanted to do something. I’ll be right back.”
Holo seemed concerned, but she could handle this on her own. He patted her on the back and sped off somewhere, the coins in his wallet jingling around.
* * *
When Lawrence got back he saw Holo and the shopkeeper having a drink. He was expounding the virtues of being a medicinal merchant, so she’d probably long since completed her task.
“Ah, this young lady has an excellent nose. They were fake after all. Thank God! I was nearly swindled!”
“That’s good to hear. Thank you for the wine.”
“Oh, it’s nothing.. especially compared to what I would have lost. Please accept it as a token of my gratitude.”
He suddenly got up and disappeared into the dark back room of his shop. Holo was proudly drinking, and from her eyes it was clear that she was even more drunk than she had been before their walk.
“I think you’ve had too much.”
“Hnn? ’Tis my reward for working, unlike you. And I am the one who is tired.”
Clearly his absence had rubbed her the wrong way. She poked his chest seriously, but he didn’t apologize. He just plucked a bit of spice off her face, which stank of wine.
“Now we won’t be able to finish what we started.”
She just sipped some more wine and retorted.
“You mean making a wolf smell things she hates? Why should I?”
She was clearly drunk, and was being confrontational. But Lawrence knew it was his fault for leaving her on her own, so he sighed and just took her glass from her. She didn’t expect that.
“My wine..”
She muttered to herself so cutely that Lawrence couldn’t find the words to reply. So instead he just pulled out the reason why he’d left her alone. He’d left her so suddenly because he needed to make it to a shop before they closed, and knew they’d honor his simple request. He now handed Holo that Schmi coin, which hung from a string tied through the hole punched into it.
“But this is..?”
“I don’t mind if it’s just one. Besides, it suits you to a T.”
She stared at the coin, then back up at him. Her eyes seemed moist, though that was probably the alcohol. But he would never forget the smile on her face.
“But..”
She sounded serious.
“Will wearing this not keep away my friends?”
It was a bauble meant to keep wolves away, after all. But Lawrence had an idea. He took the coin and moved to hang it around her neck.
“Then only wear it when we’re in cities.”
She let him put it on her without complaint, staring at his face as she swept aside her hair.
“What do you mean by that?”
There was another fragrance he caught as he completed his task, but it wasn’t another of the spices. It was just Holo’s vaguely pleasant scent, nothing new.
“To keep away the wolves in the cities.”
It was such a good line that he rewarded himself with a sip of her wine. She sat there in shock, all tensed up, her ears having nearly knocked the cap off her head as they pricked up. A few moments later she finally burst out laughing. The shopkeeper came back out in surprise, once again staring at Lawrence. Seeing that, she grabbed Lawrence’s hand.
“Oh my, that was so wonderfully stupid!”
“Yeah, it was pretty good, huh?”
She just kept laughing as she tried to speak.
“This truly is.. the foulest thing.. I have smelled today!”
“Oh, so the other wolves will stay away?”
As the shopkeeper handed Lawrence his money, Lawrence left behind enough to compensate for the wine. The man wanted to hire Holo, but they refused. Lawrence just kept holding her hand as they walked out. She continued laughing, but also holding his hand tightly. Just then, he had one final thought.
“Hey that’s right.. if it really smells that bad..”
“Hmm?”
“..Then you won’t be bothered by the smell of peat anymore, will you?”
She burst out laughing again, then sighed before taking a long breath.
“’Tis my loss.”
The Schmi coin kept swaying as they walked. Even the Wisewolf sighed happily that evening.
Wolf and the Silver Sigh
I gazed behind me, and noted how far I had strayed from the wagon. It was too much fun playing with the rabbits, but in the end I was the one being played with. I
fluttered my robe, signaling the end of our game and smiled at them. They seemed to look at each other in bewilderment, then fled.
“Alright..”
It was time for me to return home as well; that four-wheeled home pulled by a horse. The one made of iron-reinforced wood. It was rare for it to be this empty, and so comfortable. And yet, even if it was less comfortable when fully-loaded, such emptiness felt a bit cold.
I could nestle myself between canvas-covered crates, and they would block the wind for me. Large sacks of grain could serve as my pillows, and there were plenty of blankets to crawl underneath. I could relax away, inspecting the goods, or simply stare up in the sky without a care in the world.
The sun was out today, warming the soft blankets marvelously. I could not help imagining myself surrounded by those blankets, especially as I stretched after lunch. Having human jaws felt limiting enough, and stretching was not nearly as glorious in this form. And yet, despite being accustomed to my wolf form, I did not hate this one.
As a human, I was able to dress in fine clothes, which was less boring than always wearing the same fur. It was even more fun than trying to find ways to change the color of my fur, especially since this way I got to strong-arm my companion into buying clothes for me.
“I want that” was a phrase he had learned to dread, and he fought me tooth and claw for even the cheapest scarf. But I could hardly help the cost of clothes. A Wisewolf would never ask for handouts, but the simple fact was that he had to accommodate me in order for me to travel with him.
Still, he was a fool of a traveling merchant, who cared about money first and foremost. Even when he suggested eating outside due to the nice weather, he had ulterior motives. He could save on stable costs if we ate out on the road. He could also focus on what happened at the last city we had visited.
In fact he had spent the entire night muttering to himself and staring at the stars. Just as he was doing right now. He had not even noticed that I had eaten two of the milky sweets he guarded. He was too lost in his thoughts about coins and furs.
There were many kinds of coin and fur, and each had their own going rate with which he could profit. If he traded silver coins for black fur, he could trade those for brown fur. Then those for bronze coins. Then those for black fur all over again. And somehow, along the way, he would profit. He had spent his entire night scheming on how to do just that sort of thing.
Spice & Wolf XIII (DWT) Page 5