Posted on 2007/12/13
Joe stays off the road for most of the day, using the spear alternately as a walking staff and as a probe. He slips through the bushes to check the road every few hours and strains his ears the rest of the time, but nothing seems to be happening. If the hunters' bodies have been found, no-one is making any fuss about it and no more hunters have turned up looking for Snow and Ice. Still, he continues to push the pace as much as possible.
That evening, Joe risks a fire just long enough to turn his flour into flatbread. Since it is alight, he also makes himself some stew with two strips of dried meat from the travel rations, a small onion and half a carrot. He cut the other half of the carrot into neat pieces and scowls at the pegasi. “If you start bickering about this, I'm eating it myself. Understand?”
They nod and wait while he feeds the first piece to Nipper, only then coming forward for their own pieces of carrot. They swallow the carrot quickly and go back to grazing. Joe rolls his eyes at the speed it vanishes and flips the flat bread to make sure it cooks evenly. While he is waiting, he fusses and trains Bramble.
Eventually, everything is cooked and Joe reluctantly puts the fire out. He eats his stew, feeds Bramble, grooms Nipper and the pegasi and settles them all for the night. He decides that if there still isn't any sign of more hunters in the morning, he'll take to the road again. It's quicker and easier than trudging through brush, if more dangerous.
As soon as Bramble wakes him in the morning, Joe checks the road and finds it clear. He eats a quick breakfast and leads the rest of the group out onto the road while the going is good. The day passes without alarms, and so does the next.
Late on the third day, however, the trees stop abruptly. Open land fans out in front of high wooden palisades and a solid looking closed gate.
An archer appears on the wall above the gate, bow drawn and arrow aimed straight at Joe's heart. A voice calls out in elven, “Halt where you are, human!”
Joe prudently obeys, and doesn't even try to reach for his knives.
The voice continues, “What your name, human, and what your business with Hafumin?”
Posted on 2007/12/19
“My name's Joe, Joe Wood,” Joe calls back in elven. “I came as a - um - escort to-” He looks over his shoulder towards Snow and Ice.
They look back at him for a minute and then pace forward to stand on either side of him and stare up at the archer.
There is a startled yelp and the archer vanishes. Joe is sure he can hear him swearing all the way down to the gate. Joe just has time to mutter thanks to the pegasi and take a tighter grip on Nipper's rein before a gate just big enough to take one pegasus at a time slowly swings open.
Snow half prances through it first, followed by Ice. Joe hangs back and peers warily into the dim interior.
The archer's voice growls, “Well come in if you're coming. Don't make me leave the gate open all day.”
Joe hurries through, although he is ready to turn Nipper loose on any attackers if he has to. To his embarrassment, Bramble bounces past him and by the time he can catch up, she is jumping all over the archer's feet.
The archer hops past her and slams and bars the gate. “Sorry about that,” he says, and Joe sees for the first time that he is half-elven, “but apparently there's some evil flame mage riding around this area on a fire-breathing demon-horse and we're having to take precautions.”
Joe glares sideways at Nipper. “Well,I haven't heard that tale before,” he says. “I'm certainly no mage. All I throw are knives.”
The half-elf shrugs. “The pegasi wouldn't asscociate with you if you were evil.” He hefts his bow. “You can go on in, but I'd ask you to stay in the visitors' sector. We don't care much for humans round here.”
Joe ducks his head and leads Nipper through the wooden tunnel and out into a sparse collection of houses. Looking round, he spots a shabby inn-sign and heads towards it…
Posted on 2008/01/02
As Joe heads along the edge of Hafumin, he can't help noticing that almost everyone he passes is half-elven like the archer at the gate. Even when he reaches the inn, the inn sign shows a half-elf carrying a backpack and the name reads 'The Strangers' Hall'.
Taking a tighter grip on Nipper's rein and moving round the side to the inn stables, Joe finds his way blocked by a massive black carthorse. Joe sighs and mutters, “Just my luck.” He bends quickly and takes an equally firm hold on Bramble before she can start bouncing around hooves nearly as big as she is.
As he stands there, the horse's rider comes round into view - a half-orc 7 feet tall and nearly that wide, with bearskin hide armor (with the fur still attached) bristling out around him, and leaf patterns tattooed across his face and hands. The half-orc says over his shoulder, “…and give Smash a good feed - he's been working hard recently.” and veers away from Joe just in time. “Sorry, didn't see you there,” he says and adds over his shoulder, “Lily, you got another customer waiting!” before heading on into the inn.
A woman calls back, “Right, I'll be there in a moment!” as the cart horse plods forward and vanishes into a loose box.
Several minutes later, as Joe finally decides to let Bramble go and straighten up, a woman looking more human than elven bustles out of the stables and over to him. “This your pony?”
Joe nods and she looks Nipper over. “I've heard tales of a demon horse that looked something like this one.”
Joe winces and shrugs, wondering why that tale has to follow him everywhere. “I've never seen anything that suggested he was one. He's free with his teeth but he doesn't spit flame or sprout horns.”
She snorts with laughter and reaches for Nipper's reins.
“He nips,” Joe warns her, edging back a pace.
She grins, pulls thick leather gloves out of her belt and waves them. “He can try. I've dealt with biters before.” She pulls on the gloves and reaches for Nipper's reins again.
Joe reluctantly lets her take them and lead away a startled looking Nipper while he heads inside to haggle over the price…
Posted on 2008/01/09
As he makes his way round to the inn door, Joe decides that he might as well spend a bit of the hunters' silver on a decent hot meal and a real bed for the night and fishes out a small handful so that he doesn't have to show the whole pouch of money to whoever is in there.
When he does push the door open, he finds the half-orc blocking his way again as the half-elven innkeeper asks “What is it this time? Yakk smash?”
“Caylen,” the half-orc rumbles, “you know perfectly well that Smash is a horse. I'll have my usual.”
The innkeeper fills a mug and plate and pushes them across to him before turning to Joe. “Busy day today,” he comments. “What are you after, young human?”
“Room and board for me, my pony and my dog.”
The innkeeper nods and names a figure that makes Joe wince. He haggles quickly and when it gets down to something more reasonable, pays up in mixed silver pennies and farthings. The innkeeper scoops them onto the scales, nods and tips them off again. “That's fine,” he says. “Now, for food, right now I can offer you rabbit stew or rabbit stew. The homity pies won't be done until late.”
Joe grins and pretends to think. “In that case I'll have the rabbit stew.”
The innkeeper ladles him a plateful and pours a mug of small beer to go with it. Joe takes it to a table and dives into the first hot meal he's eaten in a week. He's just finishing when a half-elven girl sticks her head round the inn door, says, “They want the human down at Hoof Court,” and runs off.
The innkeeper nods at Joe. “That'll be for you. No other humans here. Do you know the way?”
Joe shakes his head as he gulps the last mouthful of small beer and puts his mug down. “Can you give me directions?”
Before the innkeeper can reply, the half-orc pushes his stool back and stands up. “I'll show him.” He beckons Joe and ducks out of the inn.
Joe hastily follows, feeling ridiculously small and skinny beside the half-orc's looming bulk. As they wind down tree-lined paths, he can sense the half-orc staring down at the top of his head.
At last the half-orc rumbles, “I expect this is about your - travelling companions.” When Joe edges away a pace, he holds up a massive hand, “I saw you come in - and just because I prefer nature to books doesn't make me a fool. You travel with them, you should expect attention.” He glances at Joe. “Hoof court is just round that bend. If you want me, the name is Yakk.”
He nods briskly and turns back towards the inn, leaving Joe to brace himself and walk round that bend…
Posted on 2008/01/16
Joe swallows hard and pats Bramble for comfort before he lifts his chin and strides openly round the corner.
He finds himself in an open square of pounded dirt, flanked on both sides by what looks like a row of loose boxes that have lost their doors. The whole end wall on the left hand row is made from a single smooth slab of slate and a rack of large chalk lumps is fixed beside it. Two ragged cloths sit half in and half out of a bucket of water. On the end wall of the right hand wall hangs a bell with a rope trailing almost to the ground.
Before he can take everything in, Bramble skitters away from his side and dashes round the left hand row with her tail wagging so hard that it slaps her sides. Joe swears under breath and lunges after her - too late. With another curse, he follows her round the corner and finds himself under the noses of Snow, Ice and a third, even larger pegasus.
Ice looks at him for a moment and then bends his head to touch noses with Bramble. She sniffs a little, sneezes and backs away behind Joe's legs.
Snow just nods and the third pegasus stares very hard at Joe. It almost looks through him.
Joe squares his shoulders and tries to stare back just as hard. This pegasus's wings are fully fledged and furled softly on its back and a light blue ribbon twines through its mane. Eventually, though, it tosses back its forelock and walks round him to the slate wall and lips up one of the lumps of chalk.
As Joe turns, it uses the chalk to write on the slate, “I am Sahiya.”
Joe swallows and says, “Hello, Sahiya.”
“Thank you for escorting my foals.”
“You're welcome.”
“Here is your payment.” As Sahiya writes the last sentence, Snow steps around the corner with a small bag in his teeth. He drops it into Joe's hands and backs away.
“Thank you.”
Sahiya looks at Joe to see if he has any questions, but when he shakes his head, Sahiya drops the chalk back on the rack, nips a cloth out of bucket and swipes it across the words, wiping them out.
As Joe hesitates between staying and going, Sahiya bends her head and nudges him back towards the entrance. He thanks her again, nods a farewell to Ice and Snow, calls Bramble to heel and walks out onto the path back to the inn, feeling as if he has finally escaped scrutiny and wondering if he came up to standard or not…
Posted on 2008/01/23
Joe weighs the money bag in his hand as he walks. It feels very light for the number of silvers he was promised, so he stops on a quiet corner and peers in. There are only a few coins inside, but when he pulls one out for a closer look, it's gold rather than silver or copper!
He stares at it and tips the other eight coins out as well. They're also gold. He stirs them round in his palm for nearly two minutes, then hastily tips them back into the bag and hides the bag under his coat.
How on earth is he going to spend that much gold? he wonders, pacing on down the path. The odd golds he got for his pelts were bad enough and they often as not came as farthings and half-pennies. All the shops and stalls he knows prefer silver and copper - or at most a gold farthing. The only two places he knows that seem familiar and comfortable with gold are the alchemist who identified the fire flasks and the fur shop where he sells his pelts. Neither are places he feels comfortable about going into as a customer. They're too flashy, too expensive, too much of a rich-man's shop for a common farmboy turned teamster.
He shrugs, deciding that he'll figure out what to do with them when he needs to and hurries the last length of path to the inn with Bramble bouncing around him. Right now, he's going to have a full night in a real bed inside a warm building. And a hot breakfast! And he's already had one hot meal! This is real luxury!
He also, he reminds himself, needs to find out where he can get travel food for himself and Nipper and Bramble.
In the end, he asks the innkeeper, who nods and asks, “We have feed for both horses and dogs. We can let you have some. Can you cook at all, or do you need it packaged up in 'meals' like most adventurers do?”
“I can cook a bit. If it's something simple.”
“In that case, I could do you up with a bag of dried peas, some nuts, couple onions, a twist of herbs and a handful of dried fruit. How does that sound?”
“Sounds good.”
“You got something to soak those peas in? They'll need at least overnight.”
“I've got a cooking pot…”
The innkeeper pulls a face. “You do that and you'll have to travel all day with half soaked peas slopping everywhere. Tell you what, I'll trade you that old spear you're lugging around for a soaking flask. That's got a stopper, so you can just drop the peas and water in and forget about it. How does that sound?”
Joe thinks about it. He can't read the innkeeper's face so he shrugs. “Fine.”
The innkeeper nods again. “I'll get your food. The whole lot - yours and the animals' - will be 8 silvers. Then the spear for the soaking flask. That do?”
It sounds fair to Joe so he nods back, hands over the spear and digs out the silvers for the food. He does check the food itself before handing the coins over, but everything is fine, so he packs it away and takes it and himself up to one of the attic and his paid-for bed.
He stretches out with his pack beside him and stares at the roof above his head until Bramble flops down against his pack, her tail thumping one leg of the bed. He reaches down to scratch her ears and just has time to muse that this is the first time he's had a real bed since he left home before falling asleep.
When he wakes early next morning, he takes the time to trickle a small handful of peas into the metal soaking flask and top it up with water before he nudges Bramble awake and heads down for breakfast.
The innkeeper hands Joe a bowl of pottage and puts down a smaller bowl for Bramble - who gulps it down, licks the bowl clean and turns hopeful eyes on the innkeeper.
Joe takes his own bowl to the table and tries not to follow Bramble's example. He's still finished in time to be at Hafumin gates before the sun has risen very far, Bramble at his heels and Nipper sulking along behind.
The day passes quietly, and Joe finds the peas easy enough to cook, but fairly plain. As he tips a replacement handful of peas into the soaking flask, he decides to set a couple of overnight snares and see if he can get some rabbits to spice up tomorrow night's meal.
He finally manages to set them up and settles down in his bedroll cursing out-of-practice hands and swearing that he won't get so out-of-practice again, but in the middle of the night he is woken by Bramble growling softly…
Posted on 2008/01/30
Joe lays one hand on Bramble's neck to quieten her and feels all her hackles on end. He sits up and squints through the darkness to try and spot what Nipper is doing. For a moment he sees nothing. Then Nipper moves in front of the dying fire and Joe sees his pricked ears and sharp attention.
With a silent curse, Joe crawls out of his bedroll and yanks on his shoes. Ducking his head through his knife bandolier and snatching up his lantern he stalks slowly towards Nipper. Suddenly, he too hears a sharp squeal and scuttering movement. He shoves up the hood of the lantern in time to catch three huge rats squabbling over the empty (but not yet washed) cooking pot.
As the light hits them, the rats freeze. Nipper springs forward, stamping hooves just missing the nearest rat.
Joe snatches his first dagger and hurls it. With satisfaction, he sees it sink deep into the rat's side and circles sideways so that Nipper doesn't block his next shot. Bramble bounces between Joe and Nipper, ears flapping and tail waving merrily.
The rat that Joe hit lunges at Nipper, yellow teeth bared and catches Nipper's hocks momentarily. Nipper shakes it off and brings the same leg down on the rat's head, crushing it.
The second rat swings round and snaps at Nipper, but its teeth close on air. Bramble, on the hand, takes advantage of the long thin tail presented under her nose and her teeth close on bony flesh.
Joe hurls a dagger at the third rat, but the dagger goes wide as the rat charges him, its yellow teeth sinking into his arm. He drops the lantern, grabs for another knife and stabs frantically at the clinging rat. Bramble let's go of her rat's tail and chomps her way up the tail of the rat hanging onto Joe instead.
Nipper turns his back on the second rat just long enough to let fly with both hind hooves, sending the rat headfirst against the cooking pot and then rump uppermost into a tree.
Joe's rat lets go of Joe's arm with a squeal and drops down to fight Bramble. Joe takes advantage of the distraction to slam his dagger through its neck. The rat shudders and falls still.
Joe drops to one knee to retrieve his dagger, cradling his bitten arm against his body. He cleans the dagger on the rat's fur and sheathes it before scratching Bramble's ears. “Thanks, Bramble. You're a good dog.”
Bramble wags furiously, bounces off a little way and picks up his second dagger. She brings it back, drops it proudly at Joe's feet and sits back waiting for praise. Joe fusses her one-handed for a while before he climbs to his feet and begins to collect everything back together.
Maybe, he thinks tiredly, there will be a bounty on these rats like there was on the other one…
Posted on 2008/02/06
As Joe cleans and binds first Nipper's wounds and then his own, he makes a firm resolution never, ever again to leave the washing up until morning. His sack has another chewed corner to it and there are a few toothmaks on the straps of his new backpack, but luckily - or maybe thanks to Bramble - no major damage.
Joe scrubs out the pot, collects and cleans his knives and cleans out the rats for transport, in case there is a bounty on them. Collecting two rabbits from his snares, he straps the rats to one side of Nipper's pack and the rabbits to the other.
Bramble promptly bounces over to see if she can reach to eat the rabbits and Joe has to haul her away by the scruff of the neck. She puts her ears back, her tail down, and stares hopeful adoration out of big brown eyes.
“No,” Joe tells her repeatedly as he completes packing up ready to head on down the road. “No and no and no. They are not for you.” He swings his pack onto his back, picks up Nipper's leading rein and calls Bramble away from her nose-on-the-rabbits pose to walk at his heels.
The day passes fairly quiely, with only infrequent rustles in the bushes to betray the local wildlife, but as the sun moves down towards setting, Joe finds himself starting to shiver.
He manages to feed and groom both Nipper and Bramble before crawling into his bedroll in the hope that he'll stop shivering when he warms up…
Posted on 2008/02/14
Joe wakes up in the twilight before dawn, feeling much better than the night before - or at least, better enough to light a fire, skin the rabbits and start breakfast cooking.
While he's waiting for the peas to cook, he cleans the rabbit skins and stores them for sale when he gets back to Freetown.
Moving carefully on legs that are stil slightly shaky, he packs away everything he can, grooms Nipper and checks his injured leg - which seems to be healing fine. Joe wishes that his rat-bite was healing as well, he's sure he's going to have a scar there, but there's nothing he can do about that. He decides that if his arm isn't any better by tomorrow, he'll use that healing potion that the priest piled into his arms with the young thief's stuff. Meanwhile, he has time to feed Nipper and Bramble and check Bramble over as well.
By the time the meal is cooked, the sun is well up, peeking through scudding grey clouds and producing intermittent dapples on the forest floor.
Joe eats slowly and sets aside half the cooked rabbit for later, before he paces the clearing a few times to test his legs. They aren't nearly as shaky as they were, so he puts the weakness and clumsiness down to not having eaten for 24 hours. He scrubs out the cooking pot and stows the final few things in his and Nipper's packs.
Nipper starts to sulk almost as soon as his pack is fastened on but Joe ignores that, swings his own pack carefuly onto his back and leads Bramble and Nipper out onto the road for another half day of travel.
However, by mid afternoon, it is starting to rain. Joe curses out loud and quickly begins to collect firewood before the rain can soak it into smoky havoc. Bramble trots miserably at his heels, her fur slicking down over gangly bones. She shakes herself frequently in an attempt to dry out, but without success.
Joe sighs, curses a little more, and starts looking for a tree with enough leaves and sloping branches that the three of them wil actually find a little dry space underneath…
Posted on 2008/02/20
Joe eventually finds a pollarded tree to shelter against and carefully starts a small fire simply to try and dry himself out. He rubs Nipper down as thoroughly as he can and scolds Bramble every time she tries to shake her coat out all over the fire.
He warms up the cooked rabbit on the tip of a knife, but ends up sharing it with Bramble. He does manage to keep the fire-roasted nuts and dried fruit to himself and set some peas to soak in the flask before he settles down for a cold, damp night. He flatly refuses to let Bramble bring her wet coat inside his bedroll and she eventually settles for flopping beside him and planting her head on his middle.
He is up and about early next morning, feeling pretty much back to normal and not looking forward to a long muddy day. He eats a quick, scant breakfast, loads up and starts out. Occasional drizzly showers spatter from a still grey sky and by midday, Joe and Nipper are mud to the hips. Bramble is even worse, so much closer to the ground that she resembles a punk hedgehog more than a dog.
Early in the afternoon, he hears horses ahead on the road and coming towards him. With the rain, only the center of the road is firm enough to easily ride on. The rest is slick with mud and getting slicker, but as the group of riders turns the corner onto Joe's section, he can see that they have armor and weapons and no doubt money. They'll never get off the road to let someone like him past.
Reluctantly, he nudges Bramble across onto the mud and leads Nipper carefully after her before staring glumly at the approaching riders.
The first rider gives him barely a glance, but she does slow her chestnut horse to a walk and tuck her short black hair back behind slightly pointed ears. Even though she wears elven style grey-green coat and breeches, her face reveals her as half-elven at best.
Behind her, a fighting man in full plate armor glances over at Joe and nods an absent thank you. He wears a spiked chain coiled on his hip and over everything, a bright red cloak embroidered with interlinked circles.
The third rider is a full elf, her long black hair knotted at the nape of her neck and her split skirt the exact blue-green of her slanted eyes. Her darker green cloak is edged with embroidered clusters of flowers and the golden yellow vest with nested rectangles.
At the back, Joe recognises the man who made his mug run away, despite the helmet jammed down on the man's head and the rain spattered breastplate engraved with Fharlanghn's road and moon. A quarterstaff wobbles in a holder beside the man's knee and the man himself jounces around in the saddle.
Joe scowls harder at their backs when he realises that their passing has splashed mud into places that would otherwise have stayed dry and hopes they have a long uncomfortable ride…
Posted on 2008/02/27
The rain eventually dries up, but when Joe reaches the clearing that he hoped to camp in, he sees at once that it has been churned into little more than mud - probably by the adventurers and their horses. He curses over his shoulder and hunts a little further down the road for somewhere drier. The memory of those giant bees means that he doesn't want to go too far because, if he remembers the landmarks correctly, he's getting close to them.
After a while of hunting, he goes back to the muddy clearing and picks his way over it to find a less churned patch deeper into the trees. Despite the trees persistantly dripping cold water on the back of his neck, Joe settles in the driest spot he can find, scrapes the worst of the mud off his clothes and builds a fire to dry off.
When the fire is well alight and the soaked peas are set to simmer, Joe straightens with a sigh and begins to brush and scrape the mud out of first Nipper's coat and then Bramble's fur, cursing the adventurers and the weather under his breath with every stoke.
Eventually, he gets most of the mud out, although you can still see the stains where it was, and hunches down beside the fire to eat his one hot meal of the day. Bramble turns round three times on the spot and curls up close to the fire. Even Nipper drifts over with wisps of hay sticking out of his mouth.
Joe sleeps fitlfully through the cold damp night, waking often to shove the star log further into the fire and straining his ears to try and pick up the buzzing that filled this area last time he came through. When the dawn sun breaks through the few remaining clouds, he is already up and moving.
As they reach the bee area, Joe slows down and whistles Bramble close to his heels. He turns the corner cautiously, prepared to dash back round it if he needs to get away from giant bees, but there are only a few live bees moving around and even they look fairly battered. Joe decides to take a chance and go straight past the bees on the road.
Nipper flattens his ears back and bares his teeth when Joe first tries to lead him through, but after Joe has tightened his grip on the reins and glared angrily back, Nipper scoots past the bees at top speed. Joe and Bramble have to run tio keep up, but Joe prefers that to having to drag Nipper all the way along that stretch of road.
With another day of trudging through increasingly dryer mud, Freetown and home finally come into view. Joe checks how much food and fodder he has left and decides to spend one more day outside town cleaning up before he goes looking to collect the rat bounty and return Nipper to the stables…
Posted on 2008/03/05
As clean and tidy as he can be after two weeks of travel, with his arm nearly healed and his one-night fever long over, Joe ties the three rats together and heads into town shortly after the gates open. He works his way slowly across town to the guardhouse to collect his bounty payment, while simultaneously readjusting his eyes, ears, and nose to the bustle and racket and smell of a crowded town.
Eventually, he reaches the guardhouse and ties Nipper to the hitching rail outside, giving him a long scolding mutter of instructions that boil down to, 'Behave and don't bite anyone you shouldn't'. Nipper just snorts and ignores all Joe's mutterings, while Bramble flops down beside Nipper's hooves and plants her head on her gangly paws.
Joe takes the three rats and edges nervously into the guardhouse. Everything he learnt as a child screams that only bad people end up coming here, but he doesn't reckon that he's done anything wrong and anyway, it may be different if you live in a town. He finds himself in a long thin room facing a man at a desk. Assorted slates, wax tablets, hornbooks, truncheons, bells, lanterns and shields dangle from wall hooks and heavy wooden doors lead out of the ends of the room.
When Joe explains his errand to the man at the desk he receives a brisk nod, although the man's bushy eyebrows start to climb when he realises that Joe is talking about killing 3 dire rats at once. With eyebrows still risen halfway to his hair, the man notes the kills on a tally-slate, notes Joe's name and bounty payment on a wax tablet and counts out the bounty in neat stacks of silver.
Joe takes the bounty and hastily retreats outside to Nipper and Bramble, glad not to have come to the attention of the guard captain this time. Once was quite enough!
Unhitching Nipper from the rail and whistling Bramble to heel, he works his way back to the stables and an honest day's labor…
Posted on 2008/03/13
As Joe comes into the stable yard, two or three of the other stablehands look up, clearly anticipating custom. They stare for a moment and then break into grins and come striding over. “Joe!” they say. “You made it back! Did you have much trouble with the bandits?”
Joe blinks. “What bandits?”
One of them, Mark, elbows his neighbour. “Told you not to wager on Joe meeting them. You owe me a farthing now!” To Joe, he explains, “There are rumours of bandits and monsters all over the north road. They've found two dead hunters along there already.” He lowers his voice and adds, “They say that the hunters were all beaten and bruised and stabbed many times - and someone had taken everything they owned before they were found.”
“So you wagered on if I'd get back?”
“No,” Mark says cheerfully, “Jak there wagered on 'if'. I wagered on when.”
“That's more like it,” Joe grins and takes a tighter grip on Nipper's reins as more and more stablehands come loping to join the welcoming crowd, treating Nipper just as if he was an ordinary, docile pony.
Joe hears a new, young voice mutter under the general babble of greetings, “Just who is this, anyway?' and a gruffer one snap back, “This is Joe. He deals with the troublemakers. Been taking a couple of them to new owners. And he's handy with a knife, so keep a civil tongue in your head.”
Then someone notices, “Hey, isn't that Nipper?” and the crowd edges back a bit. Joe retorts cheerfully, glad to be back among his own kind of people, “Yes, but don't worry. He's been much better since he stomped a pair of rats into furry puddles…” and starts to lead Nipper toward the stables so he can unload him. As he goes, he spots Alun at the back of the crowd.
Alun walks a few paces beside Joe, saying, “Good to have you back. We've missed you. Nipper's old stall is free, and if you could come see me as soon as you've settled him, I'd be grateful. We've got a nasty new mare that no-one can get near…”
Joe nods and works quickly to unload Nipper, brush him down and take his own stuff up to the sleeping loft. The new boy has taken Joe's original pallet, but there's another one nearer the entrance that Mark points out as empty. Joe dumps his stuff in the crate and jumps down the ladder to the ground. There is real work to do here, for a real wage. No lazing along on the road today….
Posted on 2008/03/19
Joe throws himself back into his stable work, uncomfortably aware that despite their welcome, the others are treating him more like a specialist brought in for specific problems and less like one groom in the crowd who just happens to be better with horses than most.
The mare, he discovers, is more nervy than bad-tempered and the fact that she has an infected and probably painful hoof hasn't helped matters. With the hoof dealt with and healing, and the other grooms warned to move slowly and gently around her, the mare becomes much more handleable, and Joe is almost sorry to see her sold off to a woodsman.
He continues to work at the stables for nearly three weeks, teaching Bramble new tricks, handling the more troublesome horses and keeping Nipper occupied and exercised enough that he doesn't bite everything in sight!
At the start of the fourth week, Joe comes back from buying his lunch to find a town guard waiting in the stable yard with Alun pacing nervously nearby. As Joe enters, Alun jerks a thumb in his direction and says, “That's him.”
Joe freezes in the entrance, trying frantically to think what he has done wrong - what he can possibly have done to bring a guard down here looking for him. He can't think of anything wrong he's done - unless they've found out that he saw and stabbed the two hunters. But he hadn't stabbed them until they were already dead - and anyway who was going to talk? Nobody saw him.
“Joe Wood?” the guard says, marching over.
Joe nods tightly.
“The Captain wants to see you. In his office. I'm sent to escort you.” No manacles appear. No rope. No attack. no accusations.
Joe holds his ground and asks, “Am I allowed to know why I am honoured with the Captain's summons?”
The guard shrugs. “I am given to understand that he requires a teamster for a delivery wagon going somewhere.”
Joe sees Alun relax a little. He grins helpslessly at him over the guard's shoulder and, with a shrug of his own, turns to follow the guard…
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