Chapter 30

We’d been running off and on for two days straight with only a brief stop last night to set up a cold camp and sleep for a bit, then we were back up and running. I can’t believe Hammer is running with that massive clanking pack full of steel like it’s nothing. My wounded leg ached, but it was nothing compared to my eye. It throbbed constantly and had made it extremely hard to sleep last night. Still, at the rate we were going I figured we’d probably hit the next town before dark. At least we’re on the road now. I’d been getting a bit concerned about Hammer or knick tripping in the dark and breaking something.

I saw a large bird flying over the road in the evening light and nailed it with a rock from my sling without thinking. Dog barked and ran over to pick it up. He dutifully brought it back to me, wagging his tail proudly, and I quickly gutted it and fed him the entrails without slowing. I tied it to my belt next to the one I’d gotten this morning, it looks to be the same species. I’ve always liked the taste of this kind, the other two that I’d gotten the day before were smaller and less delicious. I’d fed those to Dog last night and this morning respectively. I’d nearly cut myself the first time I’d tried cleaning a bird while jogging, but, four birds in, I was getting pretty good at it. The fact that Dog was able to gulp it down without slowing was a bit impressive in its own right.

Just as I was thinking that, we finally reached the edge of the forest, and I saw the next village for the first time. I slowed to a walk as Hammer and Knick fell in beside me, Dog was barking up a tree at a rather large squirrel. I knocked it off the branch for him with a well timed rock, and he quickly tore it to shreds. I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my death panther furred glove. “Welcome to Springfields gentlemen. Where food is more expensive, and water is free.” I said in the tone of a tour guide. Not that I’d ever been here myself. My friends were breathing hard enough that they didn’t bother to answer as we walked the rest of the way in. “Let’s see if we can find an inn. I don’t think we’ll need to worry about the Califondians, so we’ll spend the night here and see if we can’t get our hands on a horse and a cart tomorrow. I’d REALLY like to spend the rest of the trip sitting down after spending the first couple days constantly running.” They just nodded tiredly in response, and we made our way out of the trees and across the short distance down the road into the town. The sunset was providing plenty of light to see the town by, and it was still pretty lively with folks going happily about their business. It looks like they celebrate Harvestfest here the same as in Tiga as there were more than a few roadside stands doing brisk business selling just about anything you could need.

It was quite similar to Tiga but was a bit larger. It mostly just ran straight north to south along The Mountain Road with just a few dirt roads intersecting the main stone thoroughfare, though there were some outlying farmhouses out amongst the fields. For the first time I was seeing those tilled fields I’d heard about surrounding the town, they were more extensive than I would have thought. The soil in Tiga apparently wasn’t good for wheat, but there was quite a lot of it here. Not sure why food is supposed to be so expensive when they’ve got all those fields though. As we moved through the town I noted that the houses tended towards one story, and, much like in Tiga, they used wooden shingles. As we moved further and further through the town though there were some two story buildings. Most of these sported signs indicating they were various shops. Again, pretty similar to Tiga, you could see woodworks, a couple of apothecaries, no fewer than three smithies, and a large number of bars. Hmm, I wonder if the booze is cheaper here. I flagged down a man dressed like a merchant and asked him where we might find a good inn. I was curtly informed that any of the inns by the spring were the best in town. I hadn’t seen a spring yet so we kept walking. As we neared the north end of town we found a large fountain spewing water high into the air where it fell to land in a large stone basin that townsfolk were scooping buckets from, before heading back to wherever they’d come from. I looked around and noted no fewer than four inns. I picked the most well kept looking one and we headed over.

The Merchant’s Rest, said the sign over the doorway. We headed in. Not bad, I thought. Reminds me of Cal’s place just with a slightly less polished bar. “Grab a table guys, I’ll talk to the innkeep.” They tiredly made their way to the table in the corner of the room farthest from the door as I walked over to the bar. We seemed to be the only customers at the moment.

The innkeep looked up from cleaning a glass as I approached. “Food, drink, or rooms?” asked the innkeep in a bored tone.

“We’ll take all three,” I replied. “Food and drink first. That said, what will that run me for a one night stay?”

“It’s five silver each for the night. Drink varies depending on what you want. Wine, beer, or hard booze is a silver a cup. We’ve got some more expensive stuff for nobles, but I won’t bore you with the price, it’s high. Water is free. Food is five silvers.” He didn’t explain what kind of food we’d be getting. I raised an eyebrow. That was expensive food. Even Cal didn’t charge more than a silver a meal, and his rooms went for three silver a night with five silver for the best room in the inn.

I pulled the two birds off my pack and set them on the bar. “How much to cook these up for me instead?” He set down his glass and rag and inspected the large, turkey-sized, birds, suddenly more interested.

“Tell ya what, hunter, I’ll give you each a room for four silvers each for the night and a glass each of booze on the house if you let me keep one of these birds for the inn. I’ll cook up the other one free of charge.” Judging by the avarice in his eyes I was probably being ripped off, but that bird literally cost me one rock so I don’t particularly care. We still have plenty of apples left after all.

Still, a penny saved is a penny earned. “Let’s call it one gold for the three of us for the night with dinner and a drink then, and throw in plenty of that free water. It’s been a long run here from Tiga.” I slapped a single gold coin on the table and kept a finger on it.

The innkeep hesitated, but his eyes kept going back to the birds on the bar. “Deal,” he said, finally. I took my finger off the coin, and he made it disappear immediately. Must be some sort of barkeep skill they all pick up somewhere along the line.

I made my way over to the table in the corner that Hammer and Knick had claimed. Knick was leaning back against the wall in his chair with his boots on the table and his arms crossed. Hammer was leaning forward with his head pillowed in his arms. They were both dead asleep. I chuckled as I propped my spear in the corner and spun a chair around to straddle it with my back to the remaining wall. I shrugged off my pack and petted Dog a bit while his tail whapped against the floor.

The innkeep stopped by shortly with a platter filled with mugs. He gave Dog a look, but didn’t say anything as he set down three mugs of water and three mugs of beer. I gave the beer a quick sniff and took a sip. Damn, that’s the best beer I’ve tasted in this world. Must help to have ready access to wheat. I nodded to the innkeep in appreciation. Hammer and Knick didn’t even twitch. “It’ll be about an hour until the bird is done, I’ll throw in a little bit of bread since I figure I’ll make out pretty well on that other bird. Haven’t had a hunter come through in almost a year, so meat’s been a bit hard to come by. Last hunter just disappeared as they seem to do.” He said.

I turned my head and ran a thumb across my claw scars. "Hazard of the trade." I tossed him a silver. “I’d love another beer after this one. This inn has the best beer I’ve ever tasted, you should be proud.” He caught the coin and he smiled as he made his way back to the bar. I saw him take out a large slate and write something on it. He walked to the front door with the slate and I noticed it read, ‘Tonight Only One Roasted Cadraw Bird’. Huh, I’d never really learned the names of all the birds. I just killed them, ate them, and noted for future reference which ones tasted better than others. I set my water filled mug on the floor for Dog, and he started slurping away. I’m thinking I’ll stick to beer tonight.

Knick and Hammer slept away the hour we waited for the food. I was on my third beer. A half dozen or so customers had made their way into the bar in ones and twos and were sitting with a mug at various tables throughout. We were definitely getting some glances, but, judging from the way they’d wince and look away, they were mostly looking at my clearly sliced up eye. It was throbbing again, but the beer helped immeasurably. I felt my cheek near my eye, and it was hot to the touch. Fuck. Infected, and judging by the weakness starting to permeate my body badly infected. I’m a little impressed I’m still on my feet, but we may need to extend our stay. Hell, if I’m really honest with myself this will probably be the end of me. I’d literally kill for some antibiotics. I sighed and took a long drink of my beer. At least the booze was good.

Finally the innkeep brought over a huge wooden platter with a whole roasted bird and a loaf of bread and set it on the table. I nodded my thanks and flipped him another silver. By now he knew I wanted another beer. He took his time since he was bringing out plates of meat to each of the other guests, but by the time he got back with the mug Hammer and Knick were starting to stir. I’m not surprised. This bird smells AMAZING. The innkeep had rubbed some sort of herbs onto the skin and it looked fantastic, all golden brown with crispy looking skin. Hammer and Knick woke almost simultaneously and gaped at the feast in front of them. There was no way we could eat it all. Dog put his head on the table and stared at the roast bird longingly. Drool started to pool on the table, so I pushed his head off.

The innkeep had left a stack of three plates, and I slid one in front of Knick and Hammer saying, “Knick, would you mind carving us each some of this bird? I dunno ‘bout you guys, but I’m ready for something other than apples.”

Hammer grinned wryly. “I know what you mean. This looks great. Too bad you never learned how to cook Nameless.”

I chuckled, “Not from lack of trying. Jeck refused to let me cook as he said I’d just use it as an opportunity to steal food…Which hurt a little to hear, but, given that that was the exact reason I’d asked, I'm hard pressed to complain.” Knick cut a large chunk of breast meat for each of us. I tore off a good sized piece of bread and added it to my plate. I took out my snake blade and cut off a small bite of meat, speared it, and popped it into my mouth. It was so much juicier than the meat I cooked over my usual campfire. “MMM,” I expressed my satisfaction with the bird and flicked a small piece to Dog who snatched it out of the air with a loud CHOMP.

It was at that moment that a thin black haired man walked into the bar and looked around. He closed his eyes and sniffed at the air. He smiled hugely, opened his eyes, and made his way to the bar. I froze. “What are the fucking odds?” I muttered.

Knick glanced at the man but didn’t stop eating. “Wha?” he mumbled around a mouthful of bread. I just shook my head in disbelief. Knick shrugged and went back to chewing off a piece of meat from the large hunk skewered on his knife. Hammer was looking at me curiously but didn’t say anything as he cut up his bird meat with his oversized knife and shoveled it into his mouth.

I watched the man speaking with the innkeep. He seemed to be a bit agitated and was gesturing dramatically. The innkeep shrugged, unconcerned, and pointed at our table. The man smiled wide and made his way over to us. I could tell he was eyeing us over as he came. As he reached the table he stopped and gave the most elaborate bow I’d ever seen. “Excuse me, young sirs, might I have a moment of your time?” I gave him a nod, and his smile grew even wider. The man’s posture positively radiated polite deference while his eyes seemed calculating. “It seems the innkeep has run out of the roast cadraw bird, and he mentioned that the only bit of it left in the inn is the bird currently on your table. I was hoping that I might purchase a small meal’s worth, if you don’t mind, as it has been many a year since I’ve tasted it. Not since my last trip to Tiga long ago.” He said wistfully as he looked dreamily into the distance.

“Let me guess,” I said dryly. “About fifteen and a half years ago?”

The man raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Yes. You’re exactly right. How, may I ask, did you know that?” I smiled and looked over to the innkeep who was watching. I beckoned the man with a couple of fingers, and he quickly made his way over.

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“I do apologize if this man is bothering you, hunter. Say the word and I’ll kick him right out,” said the innkeep with a glare at the newcomer.

I shook my head. “No bother at all. Could you please bring him a plate and…” I flipped a couple of silver coins through the air to the innkeep. “Another beer for me, and one for my father here while you’re at it.” The innkeep’s eyebrows rose incredulously, but he gave me a nod and quickly headed back to the bar where he began pulling a couple of beers from the large barrel he kept on the counter behind the bar. My father wasn’t smiling anymore. “Grab a chair, Dad. By all means join us.” I snapped my fingers in the corner of the room, and Dog moved out of the man’s way, taking up the requested position, before going back to staring at the bird on the table.

The man seemed to be considering making a run for it, but his eyes kept being drawn back to the bird. Finally he sighed and dragged over a nearby chair and took a seat. I looked over to my friends where they’d stopped eating and were now staring at the man. "Hammer? Knick? Allow me to introduce my father, Fucker.” I gestured to indicate our guest. “And may I say Father, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” I smirked at his discomfort as the innkeep returned with a plate and two beers as requested before making his leave.

I picked up my snake blade and quickly carved off a drumstick and the attached thigh, stabbed it with my knife, and slid it off the blade onto his plate. He was looking hard at the clearly high quality blade. “No charge of course, Father.” I said. This put the wide grin back on his face, his golden teeth shining brightly through the cuts extending from the sides of his mouth.

“Well thank you kindly!” he said, and then added in an odd sounding language I’d never heard before. “Not that I believe you’re my son.” He tore the drumstick off the thigh.

“Well, you can believe whatever you want.” I responded in the same tongue twisting language. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m the only Traveler born son of a whore ever to make it out of Tiga alive to the best of my knowledge. They never bothered to name me, so my friends just call me Nameless.” He paused with the drumstick half way to his mouth. He slowly set the meat back down and really looked me over hard. I smiled wide and winked my sliced up eye at him. He winced.

“Which whore?” He asked in yet another language.

I matched the language. “I never got a name on account of Mother never saying a single word the entire twelve years I knew her before her death. She was just considered to be simple, but I personally think she may have suffered some sort of brain injury at some point in the past.” I shrugged.

He ignored the meat and took a long drink of his beer, sighing in pleasure as he looked down at the glass. “By all the gods they have good beer down here,’ he said in the Ocean tongue.

I nodded in agreement. “Couldn’t agree more. Best I’ve ever had in fact.” I said in fluent Ocean tongue. Knick twitched as we spoke it, and I saw Father notice. His eyes went to the blade in Knick’s hand and widened.

“That old man Cutter’s blade?” he asked as he continued in the Ocean tongue.

“Not since I killed Grandfather and took it for my own night before last,” replied Knick as he sliced off the other drumstick and took a bite.

Fucker’s eyes widened further. “Blademaster?” he asked simply. Knick just nodded and took another bite. He turned his attention to Hammer, examined his shining gauntlets, and snorted, switching back to the common tongue. “And you’re obviously the smith’s boy unless I miss my guess.” Hammer had been trying to follow our conversation and seemed a bit put out by not understanding the different languages, but he nodded. Fucker turned back to me as he picked back up his drumstick. “So, what brings you to Springfields…Son?” He took a large bite and chewed with obvious relish.

I took a drink of beer and shrugged. “Califondians sacked the town three days ago, killed pretty much everybody but us. So we killed a bunch of them, and made a run for it.” Knick nodded like it was just that simple. Hammer rolled his eyes at my explanation but didn’t disagree. “Now we’re here, enjoying a good meal, and celebrating our collective fifteenth birthdays.” I raised my mug to Hammer and Knick. “Happy birthday, guys!” Knick just snorted in response, but he did raise his mug and take a drink.

Hammer reflexively raised his own mug and then paused. “I’d completely forgotten, but it really is, isn’t it?” He took a contemplative sip and then looked at his mug as if surprised at how good it was.

Fucker washed his bite of meat down with a drink of beer and looked at them curiously. “Tell me about my son,” he requested.

“Nameless is my best friend,” replied Hammer immediately. “And he’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.” Knick nodded in agreement and I felt my face go a bit red. Probably just the beer, I thought to myself as I hid my face behind my own mug and took a long sip.

“Grandfather says…” Knick paused for a moment his face expressionless and then continued, correcting himself, “said, Nameless is only rated expert with the blade, but he’s also a true deathmaster. In Tiga they called him The Bloody Hunter.” Knick took a long sip of his own beer.

“The Bloody Hunter, huh?” Said Fucker with no small amount of surprise. “I’ve actually heard of you then. Your furs are prized north of The Mountain and go for big coin. Nobles up on The Mountain buy them too from what I’ve heard. Sounds like you’ve got a promising future ahead of you,”

I snorted in amusement and felt a wry grin pull at my lips. “Actually, I’ll probably be dead within the next week or two. This messed up eye of mine has gone sour. I fully expect it to kill me here pretty soon. This is probably the last day I’ll be on my feet before I spend a good chunk of our coin on a comfortable bed to die in.” I laughed at the despair on Hammer’s face. Even Knick, in a rare show of emotion, looked concerned. “Nobody lives forever guys.” I raised my glass to them again and took a long drink, draining my mug. I waved over the innkeep who was clearing a nearby table. I flipped him a gold coin. “Another round for the table and keep them coming til that runs out my good man!” I said cheerfully.

Fucker leaned over and sniffed at my face. He wrinkled his nose at what he smelled. “Yup, that’ll kill you all right.” He frowned and stared at his half empty plate, apparently lost in thought. Knick and Hammer seemed to be at a loss for words and were just looking at me as different expressions flashed over their faces. I tossed Dog a finger sized piece of bird meat and he snapped it out of the air with a practiced CHOMP before going back to staring at the steadily diminishing bird.

Fucker appeared to come to some kind of internal conclusion and looked up at me. “Well, in that case, I have a birthday present for you.” He opened his mouth wider than seemed possible and reached in with his right hand. He grabbed his rearmost bottom left molar and began wrenching at it until it suddenly popped out in his fingers. He held the bloody golden tooth out to me. As I watched, the tooth seemed to melt in his palm and formed a gold coin that appeared to have Fucker’s face on it smiling his overly large grin. I reached out tentatively and took the bloody gold coin. “No one in this little town can fix what ails you my boy. Only thing that’ll do is a bit of healing magic, and you’d be surprised how rare that is anywhere in the world. You stick that coin in your eye, and I do believe you’ll find yourself feeling much better. Mind you, it’s gonna hurt like nothing you’ve ever felt before,” said Fucker like he knew what he was talking about.

Knick just snorted. “I watched Nameless take ten lashes on his tenth birthday while he laughed like it was nothing. He lost an eye and then went on to kill more fully armored and armed Califondians than he did BEFORE he lost it. He stitched up his own leg and then spent two days RUNNING to the next town. Pain doesn’t seem to bother him.” He snorted again, amused. “I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve broken his nose. Never slowed him down a second.”

I shrugged with a grin. “Nine, I think. Although, if we’re talking painful memories, on my actual birthday, like the day I was actually born, that horse faced whore Ann dropped me on my face. Now THAT hurt.” I looked at the coin, shrugged, and tucked it inside my left eye’s split eyelids, arranging the coin so that my father’s face would be upright. I felt the coin melt, and suddenly it was burning like it was on fire. I was reminded of waking up in my hut for the first time and thinking my back was on fire after that whipping. The feeling was remarkably similar, so I ignored it and looked back at my father. I shrugged. “Burns a bit I guess.”

Fucker smiled wide. “Give it a second,” he suggested with a dark chuckle.

And then it hit me like an electric shock. I felt my fingers gripping the table though I didn’t remember grabbing it, and suddenly they were drawing four lines through the varnish with my fingernails. There was an audible scratching noise as they clawed into a fist against the table’s edge. That isn’t pain. That is something else entirely. I felt something creaking inside my head, no, inside my mind? The only way to describe the feeling would be magic.

I clenched my eyes shut and hunched over as I tried to acclimate myself to the feeling. “That isn’t pain,” I managed to gasp. “I am intimately familiar with pain. This feels more like magic making some kind of internal changes.” I groaned low in my throat before I managed to choke it off. I was starting to get used to it, and the burning sensation was starting to fade. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Colors were flaring into existence in my vision even though my eyes were closed. I opened them, stared at my father as he calmly sat there eating his meat, and tried to breathe evenly and normally. Finally, it finished whatever it was doing, and I felt normal again. No, I feel better than normal. Substantially better than before. I reached up and felt my cheek, it was no longer hot to the touch. I hesitated but touched my eyeball itself and felt the smooth cool feel of metal filling the socket. It felt like it had changed shape into a sphere that matched my lost eyeball, though I could feel the small protrusion of my father’s face just as it had appeared on the coin. Then I noticed in surprise that I could see something with that eye replacing the darkness I’d been living with since I failed to fully dodge that knife. It wasn’t truly vision persay, but I saw swirling clouds of color that were overlapping the vision from my right eye. My father was overlapped with a swirling dark gray cloud like you’d see from a thunderstorm, small flashes of green lightning occasionally lit it internally. I turned and looked at Hammer. I saw he had a sky blue cloud swirling brightly within him. I looked at Knick to find a thick blood red cloud swirling away. I looked down at my hands and saw the same swirling dark thunderstorm as my father, but somehow I could see crackling green lightning amongst the clouds much brighter than within my father’s. “Whoa, cool. I can see magic.” I looked wonderingly around the room at the few remaining customers and the innkeep. The customers had light white clouds churning wispily away while the innkeep had a slightly pink cloud a little thicker than theirs. I looked down at Dog and found he had a pink cloud similar to the innkeeper's but significantly thicker. “This is going to take some getting used to.” The overlapping vision was making me a little nauseous, so I grabbed my beer and drained it. “How’s it look?” I asked, glancing around the table at my wide eyed friends and my amused father.

Fucker had been finishing off his meat as he watched with a smile in his eyes. He tossed a bone over to Dog who snatched it out of the air and ducked down to gnaw at it below the table. “You were right,” he said to Knick. “He really CAN take pain. I screamed like a little girl for an hour solid when my brother used that coin to grow back my teeth.”

Hammer was looking at me and I raised my eyebrows at him to answer my question. He startled and then stammered. “I-it looks a lot better than before, but-” he hesitated. So I looked at Knick.

Knick shrugged, having quickly gotten over his surprise. “You look way more dangerous.” I looked back to Hammer who sheepishly nodded in agreement.

“Cool,” I said simply. “Thanks, Father. I really appreciate it.” I bowed my head to him respectfully.

Fucker just laughed, “My pleasure, Son. That coin has been in the family for over a thousand years if you can believe the stories, so see it stays that way.” He pushed back his chair and stood up. “Now, if you fine young gentleman will excuse me, I've got to get headed back north. I’d planned to hit TIga first, but apparently that’s a poor idea at this point. That kind of information has value if you’re the first one to bring it, and I intend to make a large amount of coin all the way back to The Mountain.” He smiled his wide golden smile and turned towards the door.

“Just a moment, Father,” I said, and he paused and turned back. I looked to Knick. “Knick, one of the spares if you please?” Knick hesitated a moment, and then took my meaning. He dug into his pack next to his chair and pulled out a sheathed knife, tossing it to me. I slid the knife a bit out of the sheath to find it was one of the hunting knife style knives I’d designed with a bit of serration near the hilt. I tossed it in a high arc to Fucker who caught it adroitly. “Stay safe, Father. I hope we meet again.” Fucker just tucked the knife behind his belt without giving it more than a cursory glance, then turned, smile still on his face, as he made his way to the door with a backward wave and a laugh as he exited the inn.

The innkeep chose that moment to bring over three more beers and cleared away Fucker’s plate and mug. “Huh,” he said as he looked at me. “I guess I can see the resemblance.” He said nothing more as he turned and walked back to the bar.

Hammer was just staring at me. “What?” I asked.

“Nothing. It’s just…I can’t believe you were dying a little while ago and we didn’t even know it, and then you just…fixed it somehow.”

Knick seemed more amused than anything. “He’s Nameless,” he said as if that was explanation enough in and of itself. Hammer sighed, exasperated, but ultimately just nodded his general agreement with the sentiment.

“What can I say guys?” I asked, raising up my mug. “Luck counts.” I drained my beer happily and signaled the innkeep with my mug for a refill. I think I’m going to get a bit shit faced tonight.