Joe ignored the magical outburst and simply nodded, “True, but also because it’s only fair and right.”
Gwenvair smiled, “It is good to hear you believe so.”
Joe laughed and shrugged, “There are … many… who would not believe so, so…”
Gwenvair frowned, “True, but wisdom still calls us to strive for it.”
Joe nodded as he reached out for the door, opening it for her. She smiled and offered a quick odd curtsey but understood its meaning and he waved her through the door with a flourish that she took with grateful aplomb. OK… so… something she’s very much used to, I guess? Huh… although still very … down to Earth, so … that seemed really cool. So… was that polite by her culture? Maybe? Seems like it, so. Joe calmed with that thought, now actually happy from what he’d seen.
They entered the room and Joe found the two guys sitting on the floor with their back rested against the wall. Gwenvair joined Kilniara on her bed and Joe settled on his. The conversation had silenced when the door opened, but soon all three were once again chattering away, Gwenvair soon joining them. Most of the conversation focused on the fights in the dungeon this morning, although Zilnek did make sure to bring up the fact that he now had received a new bow. That prompted Garnedell to leap up excitedly and rush to his room to pull out his own bow, Zilnek also bringing his out as well, and the girls were quickly huddled up around the bows studying them and asking questions. Archery questions dominated the conversation until the bathing equipment came to their room, announced with a quiet knock.
“Hello?”
“Ah, great eccentric. Your bath is prepared.”
“Oh! Great! Come on in, please!”
Joe opened the door and watched with some surprise when the barkeep himself struggled in with a massive tub, rolling it in sideways through the door. Joe immediately stepped forward and grasped the lip of the tub, lifting it with a small grunt of effort before stepping backwards and swinging it around into the room where he set it down, then rolled it over to the side to lay it down cautiously. Wooden tub… not sure how sturdy it is…
He stood back up and looked to the door to see the barkeep staring at him with wide eyes. Joe felt himself taken a back a bit. Oh… right… probably didn’t expect the help.
“Sorry. Hope it was alright that I helped you? You looked short handed down there.”
The barkeep quickly shook his head and offered Joe a small bow, “No. I am grateful that you helped, eccentric.”
Joe nodded, “Now the water. Would you like some help with that? Boys, head down and help them bring up the water for the tub. You can take a bath first if you do it.”
The boys grumbled as they stood but then rapidly changed to eagerness as they heard Joe’s promise. They headed out after the barkeep with alacrity and Joe turned back from the door to see the two girls staring up at him with smiles. Joe smiled back then turned to the door.
“I’ll be right back. I’ll help bring up the water as well.”
“Joe, you do no…”
Joe turned to see Gwenvair staring at him, hand up. Joe waited, staring at her for a moment but she’d paused.
“Yes?”
“No. Nothing.”
Joe nodded and headed out the door, although he did hear Gwenvair softly speak to Kilniara.
“Now I think I understand why Joe is…”
Joe almost paused, curious to hear what Gwenvair was going to say but frowned and forced himself on, allowing the two their privacy. Don’t need to know everything.
Joe headed down the stairs to find five or six buckets scattered around the kitchen with the barkeep’s wife fussing over a massive pot of warming water on the stovetop. Joe found himself immediately distracted as the ‘stove’ turned out to primarily be a giant open fireplace with most of the fire open to the room and only one side pressed up against the wall. All three of the other sides were open and available to the room. What essentially was a pure iron table took about a third of the fire on the left side, stretching from the wall out to the center of the room. The side of the fireplace open to the center of the room was taken up by a massive pot held in place by three massive iron rods. The spikes angled up from the edges of the fire pit and met in the middle, two coming from the front corners of the fire pit while the last came from the base of the back wall. All three met in the center of the fire pit, each hooked together with strange hooks at the end of the rods so that they interlocked and distributed their weight along each of the three. Dangling from the center where the three rods met was a massive hook and dangling from that hook was the massive pot. The other side of the fire pit was left open, for the most part, but three small iron ‘tables’ sat in the fire pit, one of which held a large teapot that whistled away with hot steam pouring out it’s spout merrily. It worked, but the thought of working around so much hot open flame and incredibly hot iron tables, rods, and legs made him incredibly nervous to be standing in the kitchen.
The back door to the kitchen opened and Joe quickly turned to see the two boys staggering in with two buckets of half full water taken from the well outside. They turned and headed out of the kitchen and to the stairs. Joe looked back out the door to see the barkeep pulling up his own bucket. Joe went out the door.
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“How many buckets do we need, sir?”
The barkeep startled back, staring at Joe before stuttering out, “Your apprentices took… four. I will take one… so we should need maybe twenty more. Then we can begin carrying the hot water.”
“OK. Twenty it is. Fifteen more to go.”
Joe picked up two buckets and headed to the well, the barkeep watching him for a few moments before Joe looked at him. The barkeep leapt, startled, before quickly scurrying out of the courtyard with his bucket of water. Joe made it to the well and rapidly began pulling the well bucket up as he looked around. Different courtyard… private for the kitchen? The innkeeper’s family? Not sure… Man! This is… not easy. Annoying. Joe sighed at remembering running water although he also remembered the times some of his older martial arts master’s in China had him running around doing strange tasks as well.
He got the bucket up, dumped it into his own bucket and frowned before looking back at the well bucket. Small… only half full? Ugh! He dropped the bucket back down again and pulled up another four times to fill his two buckets as well. As he stood with his two buckets, the boys had come back into the kitchen and stepped aside to allow Joe a clear path to be on his way. They spoke to each other softly but Joe ignored them, heading up the stairs. He met the barkeep at the top of the stairs and he retreated back to the room, the width of the hallway too small to allow the two to pass easily. The barkeep stared at him as he came in before he fled down the stairs. Joe dropped a bucket on the floor before quickly dumping it into the bath.
Kilniara and Gwenvair sat on the bed and smiled, watching him so Joe posed in a muscle man pose before laughing and heading out. The two girls giggled at him and Joe left with a chuckle. The bath filled to a little over half rather quickly with another three or four trips from both and by then, the water in the huge pot was bubbling merrily. Getting the water from the massive boiling pot of water proved to be much more of a hassle as dipping the buckets into the boiling water without splashing any on hands or body proved difficult.
Despite that, the barkeep’s wife proved incredibly skillful at it, pulling out half bucket after half bucket with little effort, swinging it across the pot in such a way as to allow it to fill and be pulled from the water without splashing it from the pot. She then set it down leaving the bucket to be picked up by whoever was available to take it up. The hot water also took another three or four trips and they soon made it back to find a nice tub full of very hot water. Joe brought the last of the buckets down, allowing the two guys to take a bath while the girls retreated to the boys’ room.
When Joe made it back down, bringing the left over buckets, the barkeep’s wife nodded and spoke out bluntly, “Com’ on down fer more hot water as in you needin’ it!”
“Oh… ah… thank you! I will certainly do so.”
She grunted and nodded, turning back to her food preparation and promptly ignored Joe, saying nothing. Joe stared at her a bit, a bit surprised by her blunt speech and immediate disregard of him before he shrugged and turned away, heading back up the stairs. A bit… uh… weird… something…
Joe struggled to identify exactly what her weirdness was before finally shrugging and dropping his thoughts; his room was in front of him and the hot water of the bath was calling to him. However, when he entered, he found the bath occupied by both boys and frowned. It was just big enough for two people to sit in the large round tub but it would become downright crowded with three and Joe had no desire to find himself seated in and crushed between the two. He paused, then shrugged.
“I’ll head in and talk with the girls. Tell me when you’re done, OK?”
The boys both nodded, lounging leisurely, while Garnedell spoke out, “Sure, Joe.”
Joe nodded and passed into the other smaller room, finding the two girls sitting on the bottom bunk chatting away. Joe joined them, all three speaking together easily for a good ten or twenty minutes before the boys called out they were done. Joe stood at that and turned to the door.
“Why don’t you two take a bath first. I’ll get more hot water for you then watch the door, OK?”
Kilniara nodded happily while Gwenvair smiled softly, “Thank you, Joe.”
Joe nodded and headed back into the room, finding the boys just heading out the door, “Wait up! Take a couple buckets of the water down and bring back up some hot water for the girls, OK?”
Zilnek groaned, annoyed, but Garnedell quickly nodded, slapping Zilnek on the arm, “We’ll do that now, Joe!”
Garnedell returned promptly while Zilnek dragged himself back to the tub and picked up a couple empty buckets, filling them with water from the tub before heading out the door. He picked up two buckets full of now semi warm water and dropped it into the tub since it was at least warmer than the tub. He stirred it a bit before pulling out a couple buckets of water from the tub and taking it downstairs to empty it out.
“Give me just a minute. We’re refilling it with warmer water.”
“OK!” Kilniara called out but Joe heard both girls giggling in the background. Joe shook his head and headed down the stairs and ran into the boys as he was walking through the inn common room. The boys didn’t really say anything to him, running up the stairs with humor, laughing with one another. Joe shook his head and entered the kitchen.
“So, where may I empty the buckets of water?”
The acerbic innkeeper’s wife turned towards him and pointed to the edge of the kitchen, “You’ll fin’ th’ ditch over ‘n on th’ wall there.”
Joe paused, struggling to catch the meaning before simply walking to where she’d pointed. As he came upon the wall, he noticed what really seemed to be a ditch that ran through the kitchen on the wall. It came in from one side, ran along the edge, and emptied out under the opposite wall. It was completely open and full of running water. It wasn’t exactly the cleanest water, with small chunks of something used, old, and disgusting floating down the open water pipe, the wall behind it damp and wet with other water dumped out here.
It was easy enough to understand what was expected of him when he saw it all, and he took the bucket and emptied it against the wall where it slid down into the half pipe without much of a splash. The second bucket followed soon after and the woman took the two buckets and easily refilled them with boiling water once again before she waved him off.
“On ye go, now!”
Joe nodded, taking up the buckets and unconsciously mimicking her speech, “Much thanks, good lady.”
She grunted but said nothing so Joe continued walking out. He came back into the common room just as the boys came scrambling down the stairs, spilling into the common area before sitting down to enjoy a meal. Joe nodded to them but the boys once again pretty much ignored him as they found an empty table and sat down. Joe turned towards the stairs even as he heard the innkeeper’s daughter call out to the two boys saying she was coming to take their order.
The walk up the stairs was normal, if a bit of a struggle because of how narrow it was. He came into the room and shut the door before pouring the water into the bathtub.
“The water is in. I’ll head out and you can…”
The door to the second room opened and Kilniara slipped into the room with a soft towel held loosely over her front. Behind her, Gwenvair stepped out from her shadow, much shyer and more cautious, her towel held more firmly to her body. Joe stared for a few moments, his eyes caught upon Kilniara and Gwenvair before he quickly whipped around.
“Uh… oh… sorry. I meant … you shouldn’t… uh… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come now. I will go outside and watch the door.”
“Joe, you …”
* * *