Posted on 2008/03/26

Joe, with Bramble trotting politely at his heels, follows the guard right across town to the guardhouse and is waved briskly inside. He swallows hard as he steps through the door, trying not to remember the scare stories he was brought up on.

The guard points Joe towards the door at the left hand end of the long thin room and watches, hand on hilt, until Joe taps on it.

“Enter!” the Captain's rough voice growls.

Joe swallows again and obeys, with Bramble pressing up against his leg as if trying to comfort him. The Captain stands behind his desk, still as short and blocky as the time Joe first saw him.

Joe squares his shoulders defiantly and lifts his chin. “You wanted me, sir?”

“I did. Close the door.”

As Joe obeys, Bramble turns her head towards a man sitting in the corner behind the door and wags her tail slightly. Joe follows her gaze and sees a man that is all shades of brown - brown hair, brown skin, brown leathers, light brown bow propped beside him. The man looks up briefly and continues to cradle a steaming mug in both hands.

Joe licks his lips and waits for one of the other two to tell him what they want but neither says anything. The silence stretches on and on until Bramble wanders over and shoves her nose against the brown man's knee. He takes one hand off his mug and scratches her around her ears while she sits there with blissful eyes. “Nice dog.”

“That she is,” Joe says flatly, and continues to watch the two fighting men.

The Captain sighs. “Joe Wood. Fire-spotter and rat killer. Knife fighter. It doesn't show.”

“Good,” the brown man says, tipping the dregs of his drink down his throat and giving Bramble a final pat. “We don't want it to show. We want him to look nice and ordinary, remember?”

“Doing what?” Joe asks. “What do you want of me?”

“We want,” the Captain says, tapping his thumb on the edge of the desk, “you to take a wagonload of goods to a certain village, have a good look round and report what you see there to us when you return.”

“You want me to spy for you!” Joe stares at them in total disbelief. “You have to be joking! Use your own scouts on it, why don't you, instead of risking my skin.”

“Thing is,” the brown man says, standing up with a sigh, “us scouts can't get into this village. They don't let fighting men and the like in without a great deal of fuss. And they have some way of counting heads going through their gate, so you can't hide and be sneaked through. They've put up a spiked palisade around the edge and they just don't let in anyone who they think will be a 'troublemaker'. But they let in ordinary teamsters like you. That's why you're here. How much persuasion are you going to take?”

Joe grins. It's a grin that the market traders have come to know well. “That depends how much you're prepared to pay me…”

Posted on 2008/04/02

The brown scout and the captain exchange glances at Joe's words, roll their eyes in unison and then all three settle down to some serious haggling.

Joe holds out for as much as he can, arguing first for hazard pay in coin, then for an extra sack share on the wagon he will take. “They'll know something's up if I don't have a share,'” he insists.

“And,” retorts the scout, “they'll know something is up if you have more than the usual share. And that, unless I am much mistaken, is a 1 sack share.”

Joe has to admit that a 1 sack share is the usual size and the negotiations move on with the captain and the scout pressing for payment in kind rather than coin. They offer healing on Joe's return in place of hazard pay and armor boosts instead of an escort.

Joe retorts that healing on his return will be a bit late - if he's going to heal, he'll have done it by then and if he isn't, he'll be dead and the healing won't work.

The captain points out that money won't help either if he's hurt and what about portable healing to take with him?

Joe nods at that without mentioning that he already has some and moves on to protection. “What's the point of going in as a teamster if you dress me up as a fighter?” he demands. “I thought you said that they didn't let fighting men in?”

The captain and the scout exchange glances again and the scout grudgingly admits that the village doesn't. He suggests an invisible way to boost armor and another of giving weapons a temporary boost as well.

Joe continues to hold out, as much to see what else he can get out of them as anything else. Being out on the road, away from the hustle and the crowds instead of being cooped up with all the other grooms has been looking more and more inviting over the last few days.

The captain and the scout withdraw a little and mutter together. Joe can't quite make out what they are saying, but when they return to the haggle, the scout startles him by saying, “You live up in that long loft with all those other grooms, don't you?”

“Yes. Why?”

The scout looks over at the captain and after a moment the captain takes over. “We're currently in a position to offer you a small place of your own. But-” He holds up both hands. “-only if the mission is successful. You take what we've already agreed before you go and we'll deliver the rest after you return and we've had a chance to go over the information you bring back. That's our final offer.”

“The house would need space to stable a pony,” Joe warns them, but they just nod as if they knew that already. “OK, I'll take it. But you'd better come good with the pay.”

The scout grins in triumph, pulls out a map and begins to brief Joe on where he's going. “This is Hayketh, here, about four and a half days upriver. There's a new bloke in charge now - haven't seen him, but they say he has his nose so high in the air that his neck is starting to stretch…”

Joe listens hard, trying to take everything in…

Posted on 2008/04/09

Joe goes back to the stables to wait out the three days until the wagon is ready to go. He spends the time training Bramble, finding leather bracelets and hair ties for his 1 sack share and constantly reminding himself that he doesn't have to buy food for himself and the animals - the captain is supplying that too. Sheer luxury!

On the last day, he finds a young priest waiting at the stable entrance when he returns from buying his midday meal. The priest straightens as Joe reaches him and says, “Joe Wood?”

“Yes?”

“I have that which was agreed on,” the priest says, clearly by rote, as he reaches into a belt pouch. Before Joe can snap that he hasn't agreed anything with any of the temples, the young priest produces three small vials like the healing one that Joe already has.

Joe spots them in time to shut his mouth and nod wisely as the priest hands over each one in turn, saying, “This is for healing (CLW), this is for protection (Shield of Faith +2), and this is for weapon enhancement (Oil of Magic Weapon). Don't get them mixed up.”

Joe takes them and stows them in his own belt pouch, nods neutrally to the priest and goes on into the stables. His belongings are already packed, but still sitting in his crate in the loft, waiting to be strapped onto either Nipper or the wagon, depending which can take them better. He spends the afternoon going over his usual charges and making sure that the groom taking over from him knows what their quirks are. He reaches Nipper last of all and gets rewarded with firm nose in the back when he isn't quick enough putting the feed in the trough. Bramble yaps indignantly as Joe stumbles into her, and turns her back so that her waving tail socks him repeatedly in the thigh. Joe rolls his eyes to the sky and notes that Bramble is going through a growth spurt - again.

He is up early the next morning to feed Bramble and feed and load Nipper. He gets away with only one small bite and decides that he won't push his luck too far with Nipper today.

The loaded cart is waiting for him at a warehouse near the guardhouse and Bramble bounces instantly into the back, plants her front feet on the divider and tips her nose up to get all the town scents. Joe has to smile as he tethers Nipper to the side of the cart and swings himself up onto the driving seat behind the placid gelding harnessed in the shafts. He has to take a moment to sort out the reins before he clicks his tongue, flicks the reins and the cart rumbles out onto the main street forcing Nipper to move or be pulled off his feet.

Nipper snorts loudly and gives Joe a glare before lifting head and hooves in a deliberate walk as if he was the one in charge instead of Joe. Joe takes a quick look round. Seeing that the street is empty, he sticks his tongue out at Nipper. “That's for biting me this morning and shoving me last night. Behave yourself, or I'll make you trot.”

Joe takes the east road out of town, driving comfortably along with the edge of the forest on his left and the river on his right. The forest peters out in late afternoon and Joe stops on the edge long enough to check his supplies. He finds that the guards have stashed a small stack of firewood there too - more luxury - so he hops back up and drives on between river and plains for another couple of hours before he starts looking for somewhere to spend the night.

He finds a bare patch of land on a bend of road and pulls over, caring for all three animals before he lights a small fire and digs into the pack of rations. Hardtack, hard cheese, nuts, dried fruit, dried meat, lumps of birch sugar and lentils. Army type trail rations, all of it, but higher quality than anything Joe would have ever bought for himself. He puts a few of the nuts in the fire to roast and settles down to a luxurious meal of meat and cheese and hardtack. When the nuts pop, he eats those too, juggling them from hand to hand.

Comfortably full, he banks the fire and settles down in his bedroll, dreaming of all the things he do if he has his very own house…

Posted on 2008/04/16

Joe travels for nearly three days through lands so similar that it all seems to run together. He savors the luxury of having meat every day, turns the army lentils into hot evening meals and regularly racks his brains to come up with ways of wandering around this 'Hayketh' without being spotted or suspected.

On the last evening, he turns away from the river and heads north between farmed fields that at least provide a varied view. Stopping for the night in a layby, he doesn't light a fire, but eats a cold meal and lets Bramble curl up against him for warmth. It's a cold night, with stars so clear and bright overhead that Joe feels he could reach out and touch them if his arms were just a little longer, but the cold means that he is awake even earlier than usual.

Remembering that Hayketh doesn't like fighters, he tucks his bandolier of knives into his backpack, keeping only a single knife on each hip, and dresses in cloth rather than his leathers. As he sets out again, he sees workers dotting the fields. Each one straightens to look at him, but says nothing and is soon called back to work by their overseer. Joe shivers and pulls his coat closer round him, telling himself that it's because cloth is nowhere near as windproof as leather rather than because of the workers' silent obedience.

By midmorning, a massive wooden palisade looms ahead of Joe and he decides that this must be the fence that the scout talked about. It's certainly big enough to stop anyone entering the village un-noticed. Joe glances back at Bramble, tucked in among the sacks and crates, and then at Nipper who curls his lips back from his teeth in a way that promises a bite as soon as Joe - or anyone else for that matter - comes within reach. Taking a deep breath, and uncomfortaby aware of armed guards appearing above the palisade, Joe follows the road at a patient plod and eventually reaches the fence to find that there is a wide stone arch built into it and the guards are waiting for him…

Posted on 2008/04/23

Joe does his best to play the unconcerned trader and drives in under the arch. There is a soft hum, a tingle that shivers down his bones, and then the arch chimes four times. The guards look him over and then their weapons suddenly rasp free and they converge on Joe and the cart. Joe tenses at the sight of swords and crossbows coming for him and asks as quickly as he can, “What's up? What do you want?”

The words are echoed by another armed man who comes strolling down from inside the village, a pristine white tabard draped over armor so shiny that the man could mirror-preen in the back of his own gauntlet - and, Joe decides, spotting the carefully tidy hair and smooth chin, probably does.

The guards look at the newcomer and pause in their advance. One of them says, “Four chimes and only three heads, sir. So we're checking, like you said we should.”

Bramble chooses that moment to scramble up the crates and stick her head to see why the cart has stopped. Joe reaches back a hand to stop her from bouncing off into the hedge of weapons and silently heaps every curse he can think of on the Captain who sent him here.

The shiny man clasps his hands behind him with a clank of metal on metal. “Four chimes, you said, brother? I count four heads to match it.”

The guards swing back to Joe with muffled grunts and look the cart over again. Looking at their expressions, Joe is sure that the grunts would have been curses if it wasn't for the shiny man. “Yes, sir. Four heads to four chimes. He matches now.” They step quickly back and defer to Shiny.

Shiny simply stands there, staring at Joe, who feels like the man is looking right through him and judging everything he sees there. Joe is reminded of the way the pegasi all studied him when he met them and tries not to shiver and not to think of anything that Shiny might be offended by.

At last the stare softens into a gaze. Shiny looks Joe over and asks, “So who might you be and where do you hail from?”

“My name's Joe, sir,” Joe replies promptly. “I've brung you a cartload of goods from Freetown.”

Shiny nods. “Freetown is a Good town. We can deal with it.” He steps out of the way and the guards wave Joe on in. Joe is only too glad to oblige and get out from under that uncanny arch. But Shiny hasn't finished with him. From behind him comes the question, “What gods do you follow, Joe of Freetown?”

Joe blinks. He doesn't follow any of them in particular, but this man seems to expect an answer - and not that one. After a moment he says, “I'm farmbred, sir. My family looks to Pelor and Erytha (homebrew agricultural goddess).” He's always given the seed and harvest gifts with everyone else - why run the risk of angering gods when there's an easy way to appease them? For that matter, just because you've given the big gods a gift doesn't mean you suddenly stop putting down the milk saucer for the luck-sprites or risk throwing away the corn doll that brings the bounty from one year to the next. Appease them all and you can't go wrong. But of course, priestly folk are never happy with that. They always want you to give everything to their god and none of the others.

Shiny has all the feel of a priestly man, but for the moment he seems satisfied with Joe's answer.

Joe drives on into the village with relief for escaping that trap and nerves singing inside for the real mission that has just begun…

Posted on 2008/04/30

As soon as Joe is fully inside the village, a dwarf girl jogs across to take hold of the carthorse's bridle and lead the cart through the neat grid of lanes to the warehouse.

Joe looks around as much as he dares, but everything seems to be neat and ordered. Even the inhabitants trot down the lanes in neat lines, apparently too absorbed in getting where they're going to stop and talk. At the warehouse, the girl whistles up a brigade of dull-eyed porters to unload the cart and promptly leaves.

Joe hastily jumps down from the driver's seat to retrieve his own 1 sack share and protect the porters from Nipper. They're certainly strong, but none of them seem bright enough to stay out of range of Nipper's teeth. An overseer prods and points them in the right direction with their loads.

With the cart soon emptied, the overseer sends the porters to other work and tells Joe, “You can leave the cart here. No-one will damage it.”

Joe nods and sets about unharnessing the carthorse. Collecting both pairs of reins, he asks, “Can you tell me where I should take the horses?”

The overseer nods repeatedly, but says nothing. Joe is just beginning to worry that the man is as dull-witted as his porters when he finally answers. “The horses? People with horses go to the Two Suns.”

Joe thanks him and leaves before anything else can delay him. He remembers seeing that inn on the way to the warehouse and makes his way slowly back there, looking around as he goes. Everything he can see is very neat, very clean and incredibly quiet. He even finds himself walking more quietly and wincing at the sound of the horse hooves hitting the road. Each house he passes seems to be the same size and shape and built from the same scrubbed stone.

The tavern, he sees with relief, is not one of the identical buildings. Although built of the same stone, it is longer and wider, with extra buildings jutting down behind it.

Joe hesitates in front of it, not sure in this incredibly ordered town, whether to go round to the stables or tap on the door first and explain. His dilemma is solved when an ordinary looking man walks round from the back, sees him and grins. “You're staying the night?” the man asks, and when Joe nods, he grins again. “Come on round and let's get your beasts stabled, then. It'll make a change to have a new face there.” The grin suddenly vanishes from his face and he beckons Joe quietly along the lane to the stables.

Joe glances over his shoulder to see another human in pristine white robes heading down the road towards him. Another priestly sort after him, he thinks and quickly follows the stableman.

“Good thinking,” the stableman mutters as Joe catches him up. “Priests say being lazy is criminal now. As in 'standing still and doing nothing'. Got to keep moving, keep looking busy, keep quiet and hope they don't notice you.”

“What happens if they do notice?” Joe asks nervously, thinking of Shiny at the gate.

“If they find you doing something they don't approve of?”

Joe nods, instinctively calling Bramble closer to him.

The stableman pulls a face. “Mostly, these days, you end up in a work gang 'learning what real work is'. Worst cases, they make you stupid too, somehow. 'To show exactly how foolish these things are.'” He shrugs. “You should be all right. You get to leave again tomorrow. Just be careful.”

As they stable the carthorse and Nipper (with Joe quietly warning about Nipper's tendancy to bite) the stableman suddenly looks down at Joe's sack and bags. “You a trader, too?”

Joe shrugs a shoulder. “I got my share. That's all.”

“Even so, you'd better take a bit of it up to the temple. Keeping it all to yourself would be 'greedy' and you can get workganged for that.”

Joe winces, but brightens inside when he realises that here is another chance to look around…

Posted on 2008/05/07

Joe shuts Bramble into Nipper's stable out of the way, peels one hairtie and one bracelet out of his sack as a token tithe and asks where he can find the temple.

“You can't miss it,” the friendly stableman tells him. “You just go up the third street on the right, take the fourth turning on the left and follow your nose.” He looks at Joe for a moment and adds, “Keep your head down and try not to come to anyone's attention. That's the way to survive here, these days.”

Joe grimaces and nods. Just like dealing with the nobility, really, he decides. You duck your head, smile and thank them a lot if they actually bother to pay any attention to you and generally get on with keeping all the real work out of their way. He makes a show of digging coin out of his pocket to pay for his stay and hands it over to the stableman, who takes it with a grin and a promise to pass it on inside.

Joe takes a deep breath, checks that his two remaining knives are all but covered by his coat, and sets out to follow the stableman's directions. He walks through row after row of all but identical buildings. The first turning takes him away from the general flow of people, but a few feet are still padding along behind him. He glances back and sees two young dwarves and a halfling two and a half houses back. He keeps up the same pace to the second turning, and finds that the threesome follow him down that one too. He thinks of turning and demanding what they want, but no-one else he has passed has turned round at all. He quickens his pace instead, seeing the temple bulk ahead of him, built of the same white-washed stone as everything else.

Hurried steps sound behind him and the dwarves catch him up. One is the girl who led him from the gate to the warehouse. She gasps, “You don't want that temple. They're too strict. They'll catch you out on something.”

The other dwarf, slightly taller and definitely bulkier, grasps Joe's elbow firmly and politely steers him down a different turning. “You don't go to that temple if you can possibly avoid it.”

Joe snaps, “I was told to tithe.”

“We'll show you a different place to take your tithe.” The dwarves hustle Joe away from the temple and out of sight. He glances back once and sees the halfling running along behind them. Then the dwarves steer Joe into a small nook between two buildings.

“Now, sir, if you don't mind, we'd like that tithe you're carrying.” They block his way out as the halfling comes panting up, grinning.

The halfling reaches up and slaps the dwarves in the small of the back. “You got him, then.” He takes up a position between them and holds out his hand. “Come on, sir, this is a robbery. Hand it over.”

Joe sets his back against the wall and pushes his coat away from his daggers. Resting one hand on each hilt, he asks, “What if I decide I don't want to be robbed?”

“No, sir, we're being very nice and polite. We'll take your name down and a list of what we've taken. Then, if-” The halfling breaks off and shrugs.

“If?” Joe echoes.

All three look away and Joe sees suddenly that they're very young. At last, the halfling mutters, “So if we ever get out of here, we can pay it back. We agreed about that.” He scowls at the girl. “Had to. Need three to make this work.”

“Why three?” Joe demands.

“Two to grab and one to keep watch.”

“Don't you have any family?”

Three young faces harden in unison. The halfling snaps, “They got workganged. We don't get any of their wages. Someone has to put bread on the table.”

Joe winces. He knows what it's like to be put out of your home. He drops his hands from his dagger hilts and shrugs. “Fair, I suppose.”

The bigger dwarf pulls a ragged piece of parchment out of one back pocket and a lump of charcoal out of the other. “So, what's your name, sir?”

“Joe,” Joe says absently, digging in his own belt pouch for the bracelet and hairtie. “Joe Wood.”

The girl grabs the other dwarf's arm and whispers frantically in his ear. The bigger dwarf swallows and doesn't write anything. Instead he says, “My sister says you came in here with a pony. You - you wouldn't be that Joe Wood, would you? The one with the demon horse?”

Joe nods and smiles crookedly. “Nipper isn't a demon, he just has a temper.” In his rummaging, he realises he still has some of the dried rations buried at the bottom of the pouch.

“Can you get us out?” the halfling asks eagerly. “Out through that arch? Like you got the demon pony past?”

Joe bites his lip. He really has no idea how the arch works, but it even spotted Bramble coming in… He shakes his head. “Sorry.”

“Oh well. If you can't, you can't.” The halfling looks away. “Don't want to anger a demon tamer by robbing you, neither.”

Joe looks at them and makes up his mind. “You're hungry?”

They all nod.

“Look,” Joe says, “take this instead.” He digs out the two battered strips of dried meat and then the handful of mixed fruit and nuts and dumps it into the halfling's hands. “Not much, I know, but better than leather.”

The halfling clutches the food and the three hastily thank Joe and run off into the backstreets. Joe watches them go (and levels up!) before he makes his way back to the main street thinking that if the whole town is like that, he might as well not try to sell his share …

Posted on 2008/05/16

Joe walks steadily back to the inn and takes a deep breath before walking inside, but the inn is quiet. Only a few people sit scattered about the dim room. A square-shouldered woman glances up from her place behind the bar as Joe walks over.

She looks him up and down, before saying, “You'd be the teamster, right?”

Joe nods. “That's me.”

“Three animals in the stable, one person with bed, all paid up.” She jerks her head at the kitchen door. “You want your evening meal now?”

“If that's acceptable,” Joe tells her, still trying to find his way through what's allowed and not allowed in this town.

“That's fine.” She dishes him out a bowl of lentil stew and pours a mug of small ale. “Any table on the right.”

Joe thanks her, takes his food and drink and, since all the indicated tables are empty, sits at the nearest one. He eats slowly and quietly, pricking his ears to the murmurs drifting from the other side of the room.

“…Looks young…” “…maybe … young and foolish…” “…why here…” “…listening?”

Joe realises that they are probably talking about him and pays very close attention to his food.

“..no, too far…knives…pony…you think?” “…no, too young…demons…normal…shh, the priests….”

The murmurs drop below Joe's ability to hear them, so he finishes his meal, checks on Nipper and Bramble to see if they are fine (which they are) and then takes himself off to his hired pallet upstairs musing about how rumours can have spread even to this isolated town.

He is up at dawn the next morning, eats a breakfast of porridge and collects his re-loaded cart. The arch again chimes four times as he drives under it, but Joe has made sure that Bramble is visible this time! As he drives back down the road towards Freetown, he begins to mentally sort out and list everything he saw and heard, ready to report it when he arrives home…

Posted on 2008/05/21

Joe has a fairly quiet journey home, under grey but dry skies. He takes the cart back to the warehouse near the guardhouse and by the time he has unharnessed the gelding from the shafts, an elderly gnome shows up to lead the horse away. Joe retrieves his own gear - and the few supplies that he hasn't used - and loads everything onto Nipper for the short trip to the stables.

He is just turning into the stable entrance when a small figure in yellow comes dashing out and ducks behind Nipper. Joe curses only half under his breath and tries to pull Nipper away before the pony can lash out a hoof. In the resulting chaos, he only just sees the other stablehands chasing after the first figure, but the yells of “Grab her!” ring clearly through the other noise.

Joe snaps to Bramble, “Flatten her!” and watches in satisfaction as the dog knocks the person over and plants large paws on her middle. When Nipper finally calms down, Joe looks to see who he and Bramble have caught and sees a human girl in a yellow dress trying to fuss Bramble from under the dog's paws. It takes a moment before he recognises Alun's daughter Jessie. When he does, he orders Bramble off her, grabs an arm and hauls her to her feet, telling her, “Don't you ever do such a fool thing again. You nearly had your head kicked in.” He shoves her towards her father, who also grabs her and scolds her.

While she is out of the way, Joe makes haste to get Nipper inside and away from the crowd. He catches several of Nipper's bites on his leather sleeves before he manages to get himself and all his stuff out of the stall and close the door behind him. He carries his gear up to his place in the loft, so that the guards can't take their potions back from him, although if they pay up the price they promised, he won't be there much longer.

Going out again, he finds Alun and Jessie waiting for him. Alun says, “Jessie has something to say to you.”

Joe nods, looks down at the child, and waits for her to say something.

Jessie squirms in her father's grasp and then say tonelessly, “I'm sorry I startled your pony. I won't do it again.”

“See that you don't,” Joe replies. His tongue gets away from him and he adds “Not all ponies will be as nice about being startled as mine was…” He grins ruefully over her head. “I'll be back shortly. I just have to fetch my pay.”

“That's fine,” Alun says. “I have to take this little rascal home before I can do anything else anyway.”

Joe nods his thanks and heads back towards the guardhouse to report in…

Posted on 2008/05/30

Joe walks across town with Bramble at his heels, marshalling his report in his head. When he finally reaches the guardhouse, the guards are waiting for him and send him straight in to the Captain's office. Inside, he sees the Captain and the brown man waiting for him.

The Captain looks him over and snaps, “Well?”

Joe takes a deep breath and begans to list everything he has seen, starting with the quietness of the field workers and going on through the stone arch in the wooden fence. “It chimes the number of creatures passing under it,” he says, “and the guards count to see if heads match the chimes. They pull out weapons if the chimes don't match and don't rest until they've the match. They didn't see my dog to start with. She was too low in the wagon.”

Bramble wags her tail and wanders off to the brown man.

Joe goes on to describe Shiny and the priests, the dullness of the porters and the haste and quiet of the streets. He repeats everything he can remember the stableman telling him and notices the other two men grimace at each other when he mentions the workgang members being 'made stupid'. He skims over the child robbers, mentioning only that they were desperate, hungry and without money.

When he finally runs out of things to say, he clasps his hands behind him and waits for them to decide what else they want from him.

The brown man leans over to the Captain and murmurs something in his ear. The Captain nods. “If you'd like to wait out there.” He points back at the corridor.

Joe grits his teeth at the dismissal, calls Bramble to him and walks out to wait as ordered.

He passes four other people going through the door, but doesn't register more than armor and fancy cloaks. Adventurers, no doubt. Taking the information he has found out and doing everything else to take the glory.

Fine, he thinks, they can keep the glory. Glory and stories won't put money in his pocket or food in his mouth. Thanks would have been nice, though. He sighs.

The ordinary guard on duty looks up at Joe's sigh and raises an eyebrow. “Making you wait, are they?”

Joe nods.

“Here. Room on this bench for another one. Might as well sit while you're waiting.”

“Thanks,” Joe says and sits on the end of the bench. Bramble shoves her head insistently into his hands and he scratches her ears absently.

“Nice dog,” the guard says, leaning over with a creak of studded leather. “Yours?”

Joe nods again.

“Nice,” the guard repeats. “What is she - farm dog?”

“Partly.” Joe thinks back to the kennels. “Her father got over the wall, so her breeding isn't exactly known.”

The guard smiles and says only. “Ah. I see.”

But when Joe really looks at Bramble, now that she is growing into her adult height, she has an uncanny resemblance to his father's old herd dog - the one that died just before his father did. He remembers something else that the kennel-man said.

His High-and-mightiness was mighty miffed when some farm dog got at his best war-bitch before the pedigree beast went in.

And the lord who owned Bramble's mother was same lord that kicked them off the farm…

Posted on 2008/06/05

Joe continues to sit on the bench and brood on whether it might actually have been his father's farm dog that fathered Bramble for another hour before the adventurers come out of the Captain's office. This time he takes in enough to register that it's the group he's passed before - on the road and in the inn.

They barely glance at Joe before they sweep out of the door. Joe scowls at their backs and continues to sit and wait and fuss Bramble. After another half hour, the brown man appears to hand Joe a small pile of coins and dismiss him.

Joe drops the coins into his belt pouch, calls Bramble to heel and walks out into the late evening. Reckoning that he will have missed the evening meal at the stables, he buys a don't-ask pie from one of the few remaining vendors and shares it with Bramble as he walks. By the time they reach the stables it's dark and Joe automatically eases a knife in its sheath before he walks through the entrance. No-one is there and he shamefacedly shoves the knife back down into its sheath as he crosses to the loft.

Bramble looks hopefully at him as he reaches the ladder. Joe looks back at her. “You're getting too big to carry up there. You stay down here for once.”

Bramble droops her ears and head and slaps her tail against the ground.

“No,” Joe repeats. “You're getting too big.”

Bramble heaves a sigh and trudges over to curl up on the hay instead. Joe pats her on the head and climbs the ladder alone to reach his patch of floor. The murmur of conversation from the other stablehands falls abruptly silent as he climbs through the trapdoor and they all turn to look at him. Joe swallows and smiles awkwardly and after a while the conversation starts up again, but quieter and more patchy.

Joe curls into his bedroll and tries not to feel too lonely.

He continues to work at the stables as usual for another two and a half weeks, trying to fit back in and increasingly aware that he doesn't. Finally, he tells Alun that he might be moving out of the stable loft into other lodgings.

“I'll still be available for difficult horses,” he assures Alun, “but-”

Alun just nods. “I rather thought that might be the case. I'd still like to see you around here often, but you've been out on enough teamster duties that you don't have much in common with the regular stablehands anymore. Take as long as you need to.”

Joe thanks him and goes to work Nipper on a lunging rein. He's halfway through the routine when a messenger boy arrives with a message requesting him at the guardhouse - again…

Posted on 2008/06/11

Joe sighs at the message and sets out across town again, feeling that this route is getting awfully familiar. When he finally reaches the guardhouse again, he has to wait a short time before he is shown through.

Only the brown man is in the Captain's office. He nods at Joe. “Your information proved both useful and accurate.”

Joe nods silently back and wonders why they sent him in the first place if they had a way to check everything he told them.

The brown man adds, “Or so the Captain tells me.” He grimaces slightly. “And now, I suppose, we'd better let you have that house we offered.”

Joe nods again and stares stubbornly back.

The brown man looks back at Joe and a slow smile works its way across his face. “That's what I thought you'd say, but the Captain thought you'd have changed your mind. He doesn't know your type and mine as well as he likes to think.”

“He thinks he knows me, does he?” Joe says, curious despite himself. “What does he think I am? A fool?”

The brown man's smile widens. “No, he only sees the weapons and the scouting. He thinks in terms of fighting, not of working or building.”

“He would,” Joe points out. “He's a fighting man.”

“Yes.” The brown man arches his eyebrows. “And I'm a woods scout.” He reaches over and unhooks a battered key from a row of empty nails hammered into the wall. “There's your door key. Do you know where your house is?”

“No.”

“Then I'd better show you.” The brown man walks past Joe to the office door. 'If you still want it of course.“

Joe grasps the rough heavy key and quickly follows the brown man out of the office and the guard room into the sreets.

The brown man nods to him and leads the way briskly down several crossing roads. “You're an outdoorsman too, aren't you?”

“For most of my life,” Joe says flatly.

“It shows. At least to me.” The brown man looks at Joe and then shrugs. “My name, if you need it is Alek. I already know yours.”

Joe nods and files the name away, still looking round to see if he can spot his new home.

Alek sees him looking and shakes his head. “The house is some way from here. Like I said, I'll show you.” He leads the way briskly through town and eventually turns into a wider street lined with small businesses and houses that are scrubbed tidy to hide their slight shabbiness. Alek points out one of them. “That's yours, if you want it.”

Joe tightens his grasp on the key and just nods. The building is a smaller, shabbier version of the place he met the young pegasi with a miniature stable downstairs and living quarters above. He walks forward slowly, trying to convince himself that this is really happening and unlocks the entrance. He finds two stalls, space for storage and space for a small cart opposite a privy and an outside staircase. Everywhere is empty, if scuffed and dusty. When he climbs the stairs and unlocks the second door to the living quarters, he finds a narrow passage linking three rooms - one with a bedframe and a clothes chest, one tiny storage room lined with shelves and one slightly larger room stretching from a fireplace on one side to a rough trestle table and benches on the other.

Joe swallows at the incredible amount of space he has been given, but when he turns to thank Alek, he finds that the brown man has quietly left…

Posted on 2008/06/21

Joe wanders round the house for a while, poking into the corners and mentally checking what he does and doesn't have to bring or find for this new home. He has bedding from his bedroll, but no mattress for the bed-frame, a mug but no plates, a cooking pot but no bucket, grooming equipment but neither straw nor much feed for Nipper. After some hunting, he finds a small pump for water at the opposite end of the stables to the privy and an old broom lying in a dusty corner, but no rake or pitchfork, soap or mop.

Eventually he makes his way out down the stairs and, locking the doors behind him, makes his way back to the stables wondering if he can get some straw from the same suppliers that the stables does. He arrives in time for the evening meal and eats it quietly, still thinking and planning enough that for once he doesn't mind the silence around him.

He'll need several trips to settle in, he decides at last, and several days of hunting the markets for the things he needs. And - he thinks suddenly as he curls into his bedroll for the night - it might be better to clean up the house before he starts taking more stuff in there.

When the morning work eases off, Joe quietly makes an arrangement with Alun to work mornings and evenings at the stables and afternoons at his own new house.

Before he heads for his first full afternoon at his house, Joe buys a bucket, mop and a bar of soap from the market and takes them with him. He starts by pumping water into his new bucket and splashing the water around to stop the dust choking him before sweeping the stable with the old broom that was already there. His job is made rather harder by Bramble jumping happily in and out of the pile he is making, but he perseveres.

With the stable swept, he pumps more water into the bucket and carries it up the stairs. Gingerly picking up the mop, he dunks it into the water. He's swept plenty of yards before but, he reflects, never mopped an inside floor. Still, he decides, it can't be that hard. His mother used to do it all the time after all.

The next hour changes his mind, leaving him with soaked feet, damp shins and a somewhat cleaner floor. He decides that enough is enough and leaves the house for the day.

On the following day, he sweeps the corners that he didn't manage to reach with the mop, and hunts down a straw pallet for his bed. As the days roll on, he gradually finds straw and hay, crockery and firewood, another bucket and a scruffy basket, cooking utensils, and blankets.

Finally, he loads his own gear onto Nipper and sets out to move in completely. Bramble insists on bouncing round him as he crosses the town by the now familiar route. He unloads his belongings into the stable's storage area and settles Nipper into his new stall before starting to carry his stuff up the stairs. There is, he reflects, going to be a lot of space left to add other stuff…

Posted on 2008/06/27

Joe quietly and steadily unpacks, stowing his few spare clothes in the chest, hanging his pot on the hook over the fireplace and his lantern on a hook in the ceiling, spreading his bedroll out on his new bed and lining his potion bottles along the back of one shelf.

There is a lot of space left on the shelves and in the chest even when he has unpacked everything and he suddenly realises that he has forgotten to buy any food for himself - even though he has bought plenty for Nipper!

Swearing at himself under his breath, he digs out his money pouch to retrieve some coins for food and sees the gold coins gleaming among the silver and copper.

With those, he thinks, he could buy his very own cart - and a mule to pull it! He could be an independant carter with his own cart to hire out! And best of all, horse traders are used to gold - they won't grumble like the stall-holders and shop-keepers do. He picks out enough coins for food and makes his way down to the market. Working his way slowly through the stalls, he buys bread and dried peas, eggs and cabbage, onions and a twist of herbs.

He moves slowly on towards the horse fair, wandering up and down the lines with his eyes drifting across the assorted animals, looking for one that will actually fit both what he needs and what he can afford…

This game is DMed by Heros_Backpack from the wizards.com boards. He holds the copyright to all content.

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