Chapter 31
I woke to dawn’s sunlight shining in through the window, but it was Dog’s whining that had woken me. Dog looked at me, whined, and scratched at the door. “Ah, sorry buddy. Guess you need to use the facilities, huh?” I stood up and got dressed. I didn’t remember a whole lot after my father had left, but it had definitely included a large quantity of that delicious beer. My head was throbbing with the effects of a mild hangover. Ugh, I put my hand to my head. Where’s that healing magic when I need it? I could see the clouds of magic inside my friends still laying in their beds in the next two rooms. Huh, guess I can sort of see through walls now. That’s going to be convenient. Hmm, I focused on the cloud I knew was inside me and tried to bring the green lightning feeling to the forefront. I’m not entirely sure how, but I brought its attention to the pain in my head and felt it migrate there. The pain almost immediately faded to nothing. Whoa, I can use this for curing hangovers?! Damn, talk about the best birthday present ever.
I put on my cloak and headed to the door, locking it behind me. The innkeep had mentioned that I get the room for the whole day, since I hadn’t purchased it until after nightfall it was mine until sundown this evening. I headed down the stairs and saw the innkeep already at his post behind the bar cleaning a mug. “I’m just headed out to walk the dog for a bit, if you could let my friends know if they wake up before I get back?” The innkeep gave me a smile and a nod and we headed out the front door. Dog immediately took it upon himself to pee against the wall of the inn, and I headed north up the street to see the part of town we hadn’t seen on our way in yesterday.
It was still fairly early, but this was primarily a farming town and there were plenty of folks up and about. As I passed large alleys and the few dirt roads that intersected the main thoroughfare I could see farmers out in their fields doing whatever it was farmers did. I really don’t know much about agriculture, so I have no idea. Weeding maybe? Dog was taking this opportunity to sniff about curiously and was peeing on various buildings we passed. I noticed that some of the shops had glass windows in front and had displayed various wares in them. First time I’m seeing glass in this world. I’d wondered if it even existed here since Tiga had had absolutely none, but then Tiga has dangerous creatures that could break right through glass and eat you so maybe it makes sense to just use heavy wooden shutters down there.
I stopped in front of a smithy that looked higher quality than the others I’d seen in town. It had a display window that was holding what I would imagine were the higher quality iron items the smith within was capable of making. Honestly, it didn’t compare to Anvil or Hammer’s work. What had drawn my attention was the sheath that was displayed with its accompanying sword. That was some fine leatherwork, as good or better than what Norbert had been capable of. I wonder if Norbert managed to make it to the woods or survived the Califondians. I shrugged, nothing I can do about it now. Really need to get a sheath for my sword, though I’m not planning to stop here long enough to have one made. I want to put at least one town in between me and the Califondians as soon as possible, just in case they try to get cute and send someone after us.
I turned away from the window and continued my stroll. Dog’s attention was drawn to the barking of another dog from a backyard somewhere up ahead so I snapped my fingers and brought him to heel. He was getting really good at obeying commands. I’d had a couple of dogs over the years in my past life, but they’d never been this well behaved. I scratched Dog behind the ears and thumped his side lightly as we walked, and his tail wagged away. As we neared the end of town I saw what I’d been hoping for. A stable with an open fenced off paddock behind it with a few horses idly chewing at the tall grass. I put a foot up on the lowest rung of the fence and leaned my forearms against it as I watched the horses. Dog started to move through the fence so I clicked my tongue at him, and he darted back out, looking up at me sheepishly. The horses had clouds of magic in them the same as the various people I’d passed in town. None of their magic clouds were particularly dense, but I could sense a large, thick, white cloud inside the barn that was drawing my attention.
Most people and animals didn’t seem to have very much magic in them, although everyone had at least a little it seemed. No one I had seen had compared to my friends or me, with Fucker being the only exception. Hell, even Dog has more than most people, but that large cloud in the barn, that cloud might even be a little thicker than his. As I stared at the barn a bit I noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with the cloud though. It was somewhat dim and swirling oddly near the ground on one side. Wonder what that indicates.
At that point I noticed a middle aged man walking out from the stable towards me. He must have wondered what I was up to. I gave him a friendly wave and a smile. The man raised a hand in return as he approached and asked, “Hello, sir, you looking for a new horse this morning?”
“Well, I’m definitely in the market for something along those lines,” I responded. “Was hoping to find a horse or two and a good cart while I was at it, if there’s anything decent for sale. Don’t think any of these out here are necessarily going to cut it though. Think you’ve got anything that might meet my needs?”
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“Hmm,” started the man thoughtfully, stroking his gray flecked beard. “I’ve got a couple of carts that might do, but one of them is built for a rock horse, and the only one I have right now is lame. The other cart is a bit run down, but why don’t you take a look and see if it’ll meet those needs of yours. We’ve got a few horses still inside if these don’t suit ya.” He pointed back at the stables with a thumb pointing over his shoulder.
I nodded, “Let’s take a look then,” I said and followed him back to the stable. I whistled for Dog, and he came running as he finished taking a shit.
The man was looking Dog over with a knowledgeable eye as we entered the stable. “That’s one fine fighting dog you’ve got there, young man. He for sale?”
“I quite agree with you, but no he’s not. Couldn’t possibly part with him after he saved my life from a real monster of a bear down near Tiga,” I said apologetically as we entered the large stable. Dog chose that moment to lunge to the side into a pile of straw and came out with a wriggling rat in his jaws. With an audible crunch the rat died and was subsequently swallowed whole.
“Why thank you kindly, pup!” the man laughed.
He took me around to a few horses one by one and extolled their merits. The first horse seemed old. I could just tell by its cloud of magic that it didn’t have much longer to live. The second and third were comparable to the ones in the paddock outside. Then we got to the rock horse. He led it out of its pen limping painfully but obediently. Seems well trained. It was seriously fucking huge though. It looked like one of the Budweiser clydesdales on steroids. “Real shame about this’n. He’s trained to the sadle or to the cart but managed to lame himself swimming across the river. I could let him go for ten gold I suppose, but he’s not going to be good for much more than meat at this point. As I got close to the horse I could see its leg was badly injured, and its hoof was hanging limply, dangling down from where it held it up, at an awkward angle that almost certainly indicated broken bones. Then I felt it, the lightning in me was moving to my hand and it wanted me to touch that leg. Shit, I know this magic can heal me, but can I use it to heal externally? If healing magic is as rare as Fucker said it was I could make myself insanely rich with that. Hmm, it’s worth ten gold just to find out if you ask me, but a penny saved is a penny earned.
“If I bought the rock horse, how much for the cart to match him?” I asked with a doubtful tone.
The man’s eyebrows raised, “Now, sir, he couldn’t possibly pull a cart in his condition even with how strong rock horses are.”
“Noted,” I said, “But I asked for a price, not a lecture on horse care. I’ll be asking for that lecture later after I have my horse purchased.”
He seemed doubtful but pressed on, “Well, the cart isn’t much good to us as it stands, so I suppose I could let it go for two gold seeing as it’s just going to take up space for who knows how long.”
“Seems to me I’d be doing you a favor dragging it out of your way really, and that horse is worse off than I thought. I mean that leg is seriously broken, no way you could get anything other than meat out of him, and I don’t see you getting ten full gold out of the deal. That said, I’ll give you ten gold for the horse and the cart right now, sight unseen,” I said matter of factly and held out ten gold in my left hand without taking my eyes off the horse's hoof.
The man hesitated, but not for long, “Deal!” he said, taking the coins out of my hand. “Not sure how you’re going to get that cart out of here without a rock horse though. You’d need four normal horses to manage it.”
“Well, first I’m going to fix my new horse,” I said and reached down brushing my fingers lightly against his leg. The green lightning crackling through my dark cloud of magic suddenly jumped over into the horse’s white cloud of magic and down into the broken part of his leg where his magic was sluggish and fading. I instinctively moved my magic into its and felt it begin swirling more strongly and thickly as I pumped more and more of the lightning into the horse. The leg gave an audible crack and pulled itself back into place. I pulled my hand away as the white cloud of magic got to the point where it matched its healthy opposite leg.
The man was gaping at me openly. The horse tentatively put its leg down to the ground and slowly put its weight on it. Then it neighed happily, nuzzled its nose against my chest, and blew snot all over me. Ugh, gross. I picked up a bit of stray straw and wiped it off me as I petted the horse’s neck a bit. “I’ll be back around noon to pick up the horse and the cart. I’ll take that lecture on horse care then if you don’t mind,” I said, nonchalantly. “I need to get back to my traveling companions and let them know I’ve secured transportation. Hmm, suppose I’ll need to think of a name for my new horse while I’m at it.” I chuckled as I turned and headed back out the stable door with a wave over my shoulder as Dog dutifully followed.
I really need to get back to the inn and sit down. That took way more out of me than I had thought it would. I’m extremely light headed and a little worried about passing out in public. Hell of an experiment though. If I can heal a horse I’d lay dollars to donuts I can heal people, and I can use that to make some REAL money once I get to the mountain with all those rich-ass nobles. I chuckled to myself as I walked. I’m gonna make them pay through the nose and make myself insanely rich.