The Traveler

by Xander Jade

  From what I gleaned from the book, it seemed enchanters were rare outside of the dwarves. The process was arduous and needed specific talents to execute properly. The enchantments, as the tome called them, basically enhanced the original item. It gave some examples. Strength runes could be on shields in battle and they could make them last for some time without breaking, or I could engrave one to prevent even denting the metal ones. Mages could wear jewelry to have a backup mana source or a fire rune could be etched on swords. Basically, the book advised, if you could think it and implement the complex language, then you could either prevent or destroy, depending on your attitude. It was for this reason the rune language wasn’t well known outside the dwarves. People let emotions run their lives and things go downhill quickly when those are involved.

  It was a disturbing thought that enchanting came down to morality and character. Evil minds could take this valuable information and destroy towns easily if their army fought with enchanted weapons.

  Yep, good thing most people can’t read this language and decipher the codes. But, why the fuck would someone bring me here and give me this information freely?

  I put the book down and ate two bowls of stew. I had nothing to cover the pot, so I placed a plate over it to keep unwanted critters out. For the rest of the day, now a novice enchanter, I taught myself the beginnings of the rune language. Even though I didn’t have an engraving tool, I practiced sketching the strength and durability runes, until I felt comfortable transferring the drawing to an item. In this case, it was an ordinary knife.

  Once the sketch was complete, I recited the spell:

  ferrum ferro ab rune transferrem ad vinculum.

  It startled me when the paper disintegrated. I picked up the knife and saw the icons were being slowly engraved in small font onto the blade of the knife. Cool. Now for the actual test: signum activate.

  A bright light flashed and blinded me. I ended up dropping the knife on the table, then blinked many times, trying to get my vision back to normal. After a few minutes I could see properly again, so I picked up the knife to test it. Raising my arm up, I drove the knife deep into the table. Not really thinking it would work well, it surprised me when it went halfway through. Whoa! Not expecting anything like this, I pulled it out and went straight outside to a nearby log that seemed to be durable and did the same thing. I wanted to test how many times it would take for the rune to malfunction. It took thirty times stabbing the log before the effect tapered off to hardly going in at all, and then the blade snapped. The test was successful performing at the lowest amount of time available, it also accounted for durability as well. The rune for durability would have to be etched too for the item to remain enchanted.

  The enchantments were complicated. The enchanter would need to figure out what the item needed and transfer all the runes applicable. Sighing, I went back inside to check over those runes again. Two hours later, with two additional knives to test with, I tried again with the levels that would last for a month and six months when used regularly. When finished with those runes, I felt nauseous and dizzy. Sitting down, it took minutes to get my stomach to settle down and my mind to clear.

  Wow, guess I got carried away. That crap about mana building was legit.

  I took it easy for a while and when I could walk without stumbling, I went back to my testing. The first knife with the lower amount of time took almost two hundred stabs before diminishing, the second went for just under a thousand. It was eye opening for sure.

  I moved on to the next lesson; it was about a rune that kept items sharp. Shrugging, I drew up the runes for strength, durability, and hone. I then spoke the enchantments on the knife in my hand. I had made this one the lowest level of power. After the bright light, the etchings were on the knife and ready to be tested. So, I did just that.

  First, the table. The knife dug in further than before. After that little trial, I went outside to find another log. But first I pulled up blades of grass to try the hone rune to see how sharp it was. The blade went through the grass with no problem, so I tested after it declined in productivity. Twenty stabs later, it still worked. Thirty-one stabs later, the knife was basically back to its original form of strength and durability, but I tried the blades of grass again. It went through, but with more difficulty than before. The runes worked together for the time allotted and then diminished together as well.

  The next lesson was on rune destruction. Picking up the knife, I spoke the words to destroy the strength rune: rune firmitatem atque delerent.

  Another light flashed, and after a moment, I looked at the runes again. The strength rune vanished, and only the edge rune remained. Speaking the enchantment for the lower level again, I found a big rock and struck with the knife. The blade broke off. Now I had two pieces. Picking up a leaf, I took the broken off blade and easily sliced through the green foliage. Interesting.

  Picking up the handle and blade, I went back to the cabin for more research. Laying the pieces of the blade to the side, I went back to studying and found the rune I wanted to try. I sketched the symbol until my mind was certain it would take on two pieces of paper, spoke the transference spell and the papers vanished. I picked up the blade and handle to see the repair runes on both broken pieces, and I wasn’t certain this would work. My theory was about to be put to the test. After activating the runes, I sat there waiting. The pieces remained in their positions, apart. A minute later, still nothing. I was about to give up when a slight movement caught my eye. The two pieces inched toward each other, and when they touched, a bright light blinded me again for a few minutes. Damn, I’ve got to remember to close my eyes. When my vision returned, I observed the knife had mended itself. Awesome! I grinned. My mind went crazy with ideas for lots of projects. But I would have to put off my plans for now until I could acquire the necessary test materials.

  For the next couple of weeks, I followed the same routine: eat, study, sleep, and try to befriend the panther. He had somewhat allowed me to get close to him without snarling or trying to kill me. His wounds were healing, and the critter was gaining some weight as I fed him regularly. I ended up giving him a name, Scar, even though he probably didn’t want one. He was still leery of me, but the fact that he came closer and didn’t snarl made me think he was gradually starting to trust me.

  I engraved my weapons with runes. Strength, durability, and hone for the dagger. Strength and durability for my bow. Speed and durability for the arrows. I would wait on the elemental runes to make sure my brain had them down precisely and not waste my weapons or materials.

  When I finished etching the runes on the weapons, I tested them. Latching the dagger sheath on my pants, then picking up the quiver and bow, I headed outside to set up some targets to practice on. Taking the dagger out of the sheath, I tested the durability and strength on some fallen limbs. The dagger passed the test, so I went on with the bow test. I took a deep breath, grabbed an arrow out of the quiver, nocked and released. The target was a hundred yards away. When I let loose of the arrow, it left in a hurry and embedded in the target a little to the right of the center. Whoa, that was awesome! I ran down and checked where it hit; it was almost through to the other side of the target. If it went through with basic rune combos, what would an advanced rune combo allow a master to achieve? Shit, that’s scary. Shaking those thoughts from my head, I took the weapons back into the house and sat down, smiling at my accomplishment. I didn’t dwell on that though, I knew other things needed doing.

  During these days, I traveled in the surrounding forest to see if anyone lived around me but couldn’t find any evidence of housing in the area. Not one residence. It was surprising and at first, I didn’t know what to think. I wasn’t always a socialite by any means but would need to have some adult conversation soon. My exploration wasn’t a total loss as I discovered a stream not far from the cabin. I also found two additional buildings out back. One resembled a barn, and the other was a forge. Checking inside the barn, I found farming tools, supplie
s for repairing the house and roof, metal ingots, tools for metalworking, replacement equipment for the forge, and fencing equipment for pigs or chickens. There were also many bags of seeds, with labels on the bags. The barn could also house horses and cows.

  Hmm. It seems whoever placed my ass here wants me to survive, even though I’ll have to work for it.

  Unfortunately, neither farming nor blacksmithing were in my resume. A twenty-six-year-old engineer geek/outdoorsman didn’t have a clue how to proceed in planting a garden or metalworking.

  But guess what? I found books on those trades in the library. I took a couple days to read them and made plans for a vegetable garden and how to proceed to light the forge first, before trying any molds. I also found a book on healing remedies and it advised, by a legible note left in the book’s front, that I would need this skill and knowledge.

  I came up with a design for my veggie and herb gardens. They would not be large by any means, but would do for little ole me and perhaps a couple others. I went out to the barn and grabbed the right tools to get started with breaking up the land for planting.

  I found out quickly that the lightweight tools on hand would not work the soil properly. I would have to take a trip to town and see if they had a mule to purchase that could pull the plow in the barn. Sighing, I went and stored the tools back in their spots.

  I checked to see if I could find any currency. I found a leather pouch on top of a shelf in one of the bedroom closets. When I grabbed it there was a clinking sound. Inside there were many gold, silver, and copper coins. There was also a crumpled note advising on the way money worked in this world. Ten coppers were a silver, ten silver equaled a gold, and a thousand gold was a platinum. No mention of paper money. I emptied the pouch and counted the currency on the table. The amount came out to be three hundred gold, a hundred silver, and a hundred copper. I wasn’t sure how much anything cost, but I had an idea that the gold was a steep price for things, unless it was for animals, equipment, or housing. That night before going to bed, I had devised my next step.

  Chapter 4

  Medum looked down at the world below him in deep thought, interrupted only when he felt a presence beside him.

  “How’s the experiment going?”

  “Ah. Hello, Alena. He seems to be doing okay, though he hasn’t realized that he won’t be going home. That will be troublesome for all involved.”

  She sighed, “I hope this works, Medum. The others weren’t convinced bringing an outsider here would be the best way to test our theory.”

  He nodded. “And you heard my response. I think I was clear about that. People that live in Risona, grow up with knowledge of the past. An outsider like Dominic, who doesn’t relate to that time, may be able to help with changing others around him.”

  “I know, and I’m pulling for Dominic to achieve great things… Do you really believe that Risona has learned its lesson regarding war and genocide?”

  “I hope so. Time will tell. Hopefully Dominic will help by setting an example for the males down there. Most of them need a backbone, the pussies. And the others need a lesson in humility, arrogant fools.”

  Alena giggled. “You’re right about that. The women coddle them too much.”

  Medum grunted but didn’t say anything further.

  “I will leave you to your observation, do let me know if anything interesting happens! If not, I will see you at the next assembly.”

  Medum nodded and Alena left.

  He sighed, “I hope you prove me right, Dominic.”

  He observed for a few more minutes before he disappeared.

  ~~~~~~

  I woke up to a sunny morning and ate some leftover berries for breakfast, polishing them off in a couple of minutes. Standing up, I went to grab the map and check where the nearest town would be. It was named, Capena. Shit, it seemed to be about ten miles away. Well, no time like the present. I got dressed and walked outside. Scar was in his usual place over in the shade of the barn where the weather wouldn’t bother him. I took a breath and started making my way toward civilization a bit sweaty palmed, unsure of what I would find. I was finally going to talk to someone other than a panther.

  I walked down the access road behind the barn area. I had discovered this when exploring the land around the cabin. It wasn’t that hot of a day, and I made good time when I found the road, then turned left, humming some tunes from memory. One of them was Old Town Road and the other was pure hope: All Roads Lead Home. As I walked down this unfamiliar road I start thinking of trying to find a way home. This clearly wasn’t a dream and was probably not a coma either. Even though my life wasn’t that great back home, I missed talking to my friends and family. What would mom and my sister Susie be thinking? Were they in a panic? Shaking the bad thoughts off, I continued down the road, humming off and on. It was a couple hours before I actually came upon another being.

  A covered wagon and escort were coming in my direction, so I got over and out of their way, then checked out the entourage as they passed by. It seemed to be some type of merchant going by the name on the side, Manny’s Trinkets. The guards around the wagon looked to be all female, at least that’s the notion I got from the armor they wore. Understandable, since this society was female driven. The man was probably inside the wagon. When they passed by, the guards stared for some reason, so I just nodded at them and kept walking towards my destination.

  I observed the scenery around me, it was beautiful. Dotted with trees and shrubs. I also recognized some of the plants and flowers from the manual at the cabin. My eyes picked out familiar oak and spruce trees in the distance. Minutes later, I saw violets and geraniums. Flying insects were buzzing around as well, but I wasn’t sure what to call them. They looked to be a cross between a bee and hummingbird. They were strange. Some things were so familiar but these…creatures made me think I definitely wasn’t on Earth anymore.

  I wasn’t even another mile down the dirt road before I caught sight of a dust cloud, more people coming my way. Another out of town merchant it seemed, more guards this time but I just went on my merry way, not paying attention to anything. The merchant wagon trundled down the road and it was quiet once more. Sometime later, the town of Capena came into view. I couldn’t really see how big the place was from where I was. Only a little more traveling and my feet could take a break.

  As I came up to the outskirts, the town wasn’t like the cities I was used to for sure, but it was quaint and clean looking. I walked down the main path through the town, taking in the easy-going atmosphere and the noticeable families as they moved around the stores or merchant booths that lined the streets.

  “Definitely more ladies than men, even a mixture of races it would seem,” I said in a low voice seeing a short lady with blonde hair, my mind picked out the word gnome. I also caught sight of a tall, thin woman with pointy ears talking with a short stocky lady with muscles. Elf and dwarf.

  Walking around, I tried to locate the stores I needed, but had issues finding them. I strolled over to the nearest booth where a gentleman was selling farm goods. A couple of females were behind him. His guards, no doubt.

  The merchant spoke first, “Good afternoon. What can we do for you?”

  All three were staring intently at me and then for some reason looking behind me.

  With my newly acquired language skills, I understood their foreign tongue.

  I replied in their language, “I’m looking for the livery and general goods store. Can you point me in the right direction?”

  The man looked at me for a few moments before responding. Then he pointed, “Keep going down the path to the end of town, livery and corrals are down there, can’t miss it. General store is three stores down on the left.”

  “Much obliged,” I said and started walking away, but only got five steps before the females spoke out.

  “Where are your women?”

  “Why are you out here alone?”

  I turned around. Both females, a blonde-haired blue-ey
ed beauty and a brunette with brown eyes, were standing there looking confused. I smiled, “I’m not alone, but thanks for your concern,” and turned to walk away quickly before any more questions were asked.

  It didn’t take me long before I saw the sign labeled Brighton’s Premium Horses, and walked up to the front where a couple customers were waiting in line. I waited patiently before someone called out to me, “Can I help you, sir?”

  Turning my head, I saw a middle-aged woman smiling at me. “Yes ma’am, I need a good riding horse and a mule with full kits, saddlebags, and panniers.”

  “We can help with that sir, follow me and I’ll show you our inventory. My name is Helen Brighton.”

  “Nice to meet you, my name’s Dominic Williams.” I followed the woman outside to the corral.

  We walked around and the names of the breeds started popping into my head. Coming to the one I was searching for, I spoke out, “I want to see that black Friesian.”

  Helen smiled, “Good choice. Let’s go take a look.”

  I grinned when we got closer. The Friesian was magnificent. A tall, all black stallion. I looked over him carefully.

  “He looks healthy. The mules?”

  Helen nodded and walked over to another corral. I followed behind looking at the many choices, but came across a gray one that seemed to stand out from the rest.

  “That one over there, the gray one.”

  She nodded and together we looked the mule over and decided it was satisfactory.

  “Alright Mr. Williams, the two with full kits, saddlebags, and panniers will set you back ten gold.”

  I didn’t even have time to think about it before words started spouting from my mouth. I recognized it for what it was, bargaining, something these people – I would later discover – reveled in.

  “You must have mistaken me for a novice ma’am. Five is the right price for this particular sale.”