Chapter 44

I woke up in the back of the cart as it bumped along the road behind Goliath. I was laid out in the back of the cart atop some of our softer packs of clothing. We had picked up a respectable amount of clothes over the winter, and, while I hadn’t done too much hunting after my near mishap with the bears, I had still managed to clear a couple of dozen skins that we had ended up having professionally tanned by the best leather workers in Lake City. We hadn’t needed the coin, so I’d decided to hang onto them since they were excellent bedding on the road and were useful in myriad other ways as well. Besides, they might well score a better price on The Mountain.

I heard snoring and looked to my side to see Knick passed out next to me. As my head turned I suddenly realized just how hungover I was. I quickly sat up and bent over the side of the cart to retch as I spewed out a decent amount of greenish yellow bile onto the road we were passing over. I hung my arms and head over the side of the cart feeling generally shitty. “Ugh,” I managed as I pulled myself back in and sat slumped over.

“Good morning, my lord,” said Ara cheerfully. I looked up to see her sitting up front next to a fully armored Hammer who was driving the cart. She was radiant, as usual, and had thrown back her black bear skin cloak’s hood to smile back at me. I quickly ran my healing magic into my head and felt the unpleasant hangover begin to fade.

I straightened up and favored her with a bright smile. “And a good morning to you, my lovely Ara. Thank you ever so much for arranging everything while I was indisposed yesterday,” I said sincerely. “You too, Hammer.” I said, leaning forward to knock my knuckles against the back of his metal covered torso with a small clank.

Hammer just snorted dryly and continued driving. Ara continued to smile back at me. “It was my pleasure and my duty, my lord. I was just glad to see your mood so much improved when you returned. I could tell that losing Dog affected you deeply.”

I sighed sadly, but didn’t lose my smile. “Yeah, I’m gonna miss that dog. He’d been my constant companion for over a year now. I know he saved my life a time or two when we were living together out in the southern forest by ourselves. I daresay he may well have saved Hammer’s life too when they fought Califondians side by side one fine autumn day last year.”

“That would be an accurate assessment in my eyes,” said Hammer, conceding the point. “I didn’t have any armor at all back then, and keeping just one man off me was about all I could handle. Dog valiantly held off a man all by himself. Even after it cost him the tip of an ear he never let up for a second. That dog was as fearless as his owner.”

Ara looked at me with shining eyes, “Is that true, my lord? Are you really fearless?”

I snorted in amusement. “No way. In my experience, only crazy people and fools are truly fearless. I’ve just spent so much of my life being afraid of dying that I’m pretty used to it by now, in much the same way that I eventually became inured to feeling hunger or pain, I’m just so familiar with the sensation that I can ignore it and try to prioritize my actions in the most intelligent way possible.

“Reminds me of the day I took my whipping. I was scared out of my mind and hadn’t eaten in who knows how long. I knew that I was probably going to die of infection from the whipping, if the animals in the forest didn’t get me first. So I focused on the things I could control. I did everything in my power to scare the ever loving shit out of the townsfolk so they wouldn’t attack me while I was weak and hurt in the woods. I felt the pain of every strike of that whip, and let me tell you, that shit stings. I know pain very well. I’ve been feeling it off and on most every day since the day I was born and hit the floor of that brothel so hard I bounced. So I pretended I didn’t feel it when the whip struck, and, when I knew I couldn’t take another hit without making some noise, I channeled the pain into laughter. The more it hurt the more I laughed. I couldn’t scream in pain or the crowd would see my weakness. So I laughed harder than I have ever laughed before or since. Do you remember the faces of the crowd when I smiled at them while you walked me out of town, Hammer?” I asked. “I bet you do, you always had a better memory than me.” .

Hammer sat for a while as he drove and considered the question, then finally he turned his helmeted head to look back at me. “They were scared of you,” he finally said. “Hell, I was a little scared of you.”

“Exactly, that was almost the only thing I could control. I used my force of will to act in the best possible way for the given moment without caving to my fear, my hunger, or my pain. Just never think it was easy. Shit, I was ten years old, and I made a town full of big tough forest folk fear the nameless little whoreson bastard. That’s about the proudest moment I’ve ever had, but FUCK did it hurt.” I laughed quietly to myself.

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“Uuugh,” groaned Knick where he lay and quickly sat up to begin vomiting off the other side of the cart. “Too loud,” muttered Knick miserably.

I smiled and chuckled at him, “Try running your blood magic into your head Knick. Imagine it cleaning out the dregs left by last night’s booze. You know I’d help you out if I could, but your magic doesn’t seem to like my magic.” Knick groaned again and lay back in the cart holding his hands to his head. “Speaking of magic, where’s Demon gotten to this fine morning?” I asked.

Ara gave a small laugh and pulled her cloak to the side. Demon was cuddled up on her lap and looked up, irritated. “Damn it, kid, it’s chilly out here. This metal mage is all warm and soft. I like her, leave me be for a bit, huh?”

“Well, you have excellent taste Demon. I quite like her too as it happens. Metal mage though? That’s new information to me. What about Hammer? What kind of mage is he?” I asked curiously.

Ara’s eyes widened and Hammer turned abruptly to look at the monkey. “He’s not a mage, he’s a fucking GIANT isn’t he? Different thing entirely. Would have thought even a rube like you could have figured that out just by looking at him. I mean, come on, he’s fucking HUGE,” said Demon as he grabbed the edge of Ara’s cloak and drew it closed around himself.

“Interesting,” I said. “Demon says you’re a giant, Hammer, and I don’t get the impression that he just means that you’re large. His implication is that your magic is giant magic. Not that I have any idea what that means. Food for thought, or at least for future consideration.” I shrugged. “But Ara being a metal mage, now that is something that we may be able to work on in the future to try to get her magic unlocked.” I put my hand to my chin. “I’ve got a couple of ideas off the top of my head that we can try in the future, but nothing that will be readily available to us on the road. Wish I’d known that sooner. I figure we’ll want to work on that once we get our next forge set up. Don’t let me forget about that once we do, Ara.”

Ara’s mouth opened and closed silently a few times. “Of course, my lord,” she finally said quietly.

Knick suddenly sat up with a smile. “I feel better!” he declared happily. “Thanks for the tip, Nameless.” He reached over and punched me in the shoulder roughly.

“But of course, my lord,” I said sarcastically with an overly formal seated bow. Knick laughed and punched me again, harder. “Ow,” I said calmly as I smiled at him.

Ara sniffed primly, “Men,” she pulled her cloak around her and turned back to the front to watch the road, but I didn’t miss her small smile.

“Ahhh, that’s it, woman. Yeah, right there. Oh, fuck yes, you’re good at that, girl.” Apparently she was petting Demon under her cloak.

I chuckled, “Demon says you’re good at that Ara. Speaking of which, what do you guys hear when he’s talking?”

“Just chittering and squeaking.” Came Hammer’s slightly echoey voice from inside his helmet up front. I looked to Knick and he nodded.in agreement.

“Hmm, interesting. Hey, Demon, any suggestions on unlocking Ara’s magic? I’ve got some ideas, but you seem to have information I don't, so I'd appreciate your input.” I raised my voice a little to penetrate Ara’s cloak.

“Just focus on the basics, obviously,” came his muffled voice while he groaned in pleasure as Ara continued petting him.

“Fantastic advice,” I said dryly. “And what precisely are ‘the basics' in this context?”

“The basic building blocks of magic, stupid. Natural affinity, belief, necessity, and desire,” he muttered in annoyance.

I put my hand to my chin and considered. “Affinity, belief, necessity, and desire, huh? You make it sound so easy. If belief was all it took I feel like I would have had a lot easier time of things when I was a kid. You have no idea how long I just assumed I’d eventually be able to hold out a finger and pull down a magical drop screen that looked straight out of a video game, showing me my various abilities, telling me exactly what kind of magic I have and what it could do,” I held out a hand in front of me and extended a single finger as I pulled it down as if dragging on a touch screen.

At that precise moment a screen opened up beneath my finger showing my magic’s statistics. My eyes widened as I gaped in astonishment. “ARE. YOU. FUCKING. KIDDING ME?!” I exclaimed loudly. My companions jerked in their seats and stared at me. I was practically jumping up and down in my seat. “FINALLY! I have a magic screen showing me my magic and abilities. I’ve thought I should have something like this since I was little, but it never showed up when I tried it before,” I was so happy I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

Demon stuck his head out and looked at the screen. “Huh, interesting magic interface. I’ve never heard of one being quite that visual before. Most folks, it’s instinctive. Guess you’re too stupid and need to see it in front of you to get it.” Demon chuckled meanly and tucked his head back into Ara’s cloak.

I touched the upper right hand corner of the screen and it disappeared. I ran my finger back down in the air and it reappeared. I did this several times to assure myself I could access it whenever I pleased as I grinned hugely. I glanced over at Knick who was looking at me a bit oddly. “I assume you can’t see it then?” I asked him.

Knick shrugged and shook his head. “Nope.”

“Well, it’s pretty damn cool. I’ve always wanted something like this. It’ll let me gauge my progress with all kinds of things.” I lay back and closed the screen as I stared up at the clear blue sky above us. “Things are looking amazing, my friends. We’re sitting pretty and there’s nowhere to go from here but up.”