34: Get apple?
Their horses were frisky when they set out, and Daisy especially seemed eager to be away from the stables. She kept looking around, commenting happily over all the sights and sounds. When the other dires, and Socks, tried to mock her excitement, she called them broken toothed old swaybacks for failing to have fun.
Their play gave Cerise something to concentrate on other than all the people. She still kept close to Daisy, feeling a bit safer with the bright eyed mare. Foxlilly, her own mount, also seemed to appreciate being closer to the dire mare.
Jaxin was waiting for them in front of the Free Lancer's Compound. They made introductions for the rest of their traveling group, and were about ready to go when Heral asked, "Those [Tamer] guides you mentioned, Mister Rhene, would they be sold here?"
"Oh!" Cerise brightened. "I forgot to check for those!"
Mykhal said, "I didn't. They are sold here, and Honorable Miss Mahayan and I picked up a copy for her and Honorable Miss Izrai yesterday. I was planning on giving you the copy I picked up this evening to add to your kizamelium."
"I don't have that many books!" Cerise said, blushing.
"Mm-hmm. Yet." Mykhal teased.
"Called to Kiz-Am-El?" Jaxin asked.
Cerise shrugged. "Respectful of them, not a dedicate. Papa's warned me of how jealous gods can be of their dedicates, and I want to be sure before I make any such choice. There's so much to thank each god for."
They didn't say much more until they were out of the city. About a league out, Cerise put up her Triage Aura.
Heral found that an agreeable enough point to ask, "Shall we discuss our travel formation?"
Mykhal asked, "What do you mean?"
Heral nodded to each person as he named their specialty. "We have one [Scout], three [Warriors], a [Mage], a [Healer], and two [Laborers]. [Mage], [Healer], and [Laborers] should be with the cart and protected. These are fairly settled lands, so one of the [Warriors] can take the vanguard while our [Scout] watches for anyone coming up behind us. In more wild lands, we should reverse that, and we may tighten up the formation to maintaining line of sight in more hostile lands."
Jaxin nodded his head in agreement, and Mykhal said, "Reasonable enough. We're on a well used caravan route so around every three or four leagues we should find resting places where cattle are unhitched and cared for to allow them to recover their Stamina. We should stop there for our own recovery, especially new riders."
Cerise said, "You know, Daisy and your mount are close in size. If you're going to be riding solo, I would be happier with her partnering you. The horses are yours, Honorable Mister Heral. Would this change be agreeable to you?"
"By all means," he agreed. "Though, how well does she respond to a rider?"
Cerise turned to Daisy. «Daisy, my beauty, have you been taught saddle and rider signals?»
«Of course! Daisy smart horse!» the dire mare said, arching her neck.
«Alright. When we stop, we're going to switch you and Dapples. Mykhal will need your support when he rides to the back to watch for trouble. We know how well you can stop out trouble.»
That praise got Daisy prancing.
Dapples asked, «Pull cart?»
«Yes, you'll pull the cart,» Cerise confirmed.
«Get apple?» he slyly asked.
«Apples?» all the other horses asked, including Jaxin's.
Cerise laughed. She looked around her human traveling companions. "Before I make any promises, is there a reason not to give the horses apples at the break?"
Jaxin asked, "Is that what perked up this old nag of mine?"
"Dapples wants a treat for becoming the cart horse, and all the rest of the greedy guts want in on it," Cerise confirmed.
"Should be fine," Jaxin agreed.
"I have no objections," Heral said, and his cousins echoed him.
«If you're all good, you can get apples,» Cerise said.
All the horses began prancing. «We good!»
Jaxin looked at his horse with a confounded expression covering his face. Then he turned a sober mein to Cerise and said, his voice deep and serious, "This power you have must only be used for good."
Cerise turned a bright-eyed, inquisitive look his way, then imitated the Mort-el and practiced a sultry sly smirk. "Define 'good'." She winked then burst into giggles at Jaxin's slack-jawed response.
When he laughed with them, Cerise figured Jaxin could be a friend.
As the laughter settled, Mykhal asked, "Training and hunting times -- better in the morning or evening?"
"Morning training, evening hunts," Heral replied. "We should be able to cover a caravan's pace in half the time on horseback, and I estimate that the beasts that aren't dire yet will be in a few seven-days. Once we're all on dire horses, we can easily triple a caravan's pace, and double-double it at a push.
"We will be slowed by the need for Miss ban Silverwood and me to stop at all the nobles we pass for diplomacy's sake, but with our party composition, we can at least decline their hospitality with grace and giving no offense."
Jaxin shrugged. "I'm willing to try that, and adjust as needed. I have Hunting as a general skill and Observation as a re-list from it. Point out what you think to be one of these caravan stops and I should be able to recognize one when I see it again."
Heral asked, "Are you looking for a [Scout] and [Warrior] synergy for your Initiate class?"
Stolen story; please report.
Jaxin smiled, but shook his head. "Not really. I've just had time to gain a breadth of skills."
"Then I suggest we [Warriors] rotate. If you want to lead today, then tomorrow I shall and," Heral glanced at Izrai, then back to Jaxin, "when Izrai earns back her swords, she can join us in switching off."
"I-- Hey!" Izrai exclaimed.
Heral calmly stated, "I have a lot to teach you before you're ready for such responsibilities. Your class is excellent for high damage, but you need more than just combat skills to be an asset to a team or to gallivant alone. You wouldn't risk Cousin Ilyse's wrath, would you? Why should I?"
Izrai's shoulder's slumped, and she looked away, but accepted the chastisement. Then she sputtered. "I got a division in listening for that!?"
Everyone bit their lips to keep from laughing.
----------------------------------------
At the first rest stop, Mykhal took the Honorables and Jaxin around to point out the signs of other well used such stops, and the road manners of using them, like not destroying the fire rings, and setting up to the side in case of another caravan coming along.
While he did that, Cerise went around with her parents and Mahayan, seeing to the horses, including giving them apples. She had seen bit-bridles on other beasts, but dire horses could bite through metal easily enough, and were too stubborn and, frankly, aggressive to respond well to being pulled around by their corners of their lips. Instead, dire horse bridles included a chest piece through which a reinforced strap rap, and could be shortened if the rider needed to exert more control. It worked on the premise of 'control the head, control the body'. The strap might not be able to force the dire horse to turn, but any horse -- dire or not -- with his nose in his chest could neither rear nor run, and bucking and walking like that became difficult.
That meant their mouths remained unimpeded and that could be both a blessing and curse. Dire horses ate, needing a larger volume to make up for their need for mana-rich forage. Their hunger could be managed by providing nutrient dense foods, especially mana-enriched grains, but they still had a horse's need for roughage, too.
Still, this was just a rest, not a full stop over, so the cinches on the saddles were loosened, but no tack actually removed. Cerise uses small applications of Greater Cleanse to take care of spots of irritating dirt or vegetative matter that got into their coats, especially under the tack. Then she checked their hooves. After all that was seen to, then she gave them each half an apple, and a small bundle of mana-rich grasses, bitters mixed sparingly in with the more palatable sweets and starches.
When Cerise reached Dapples, however, she stripped him of all of his tack, Cleansed it all with simple water, and then again with an alchemical oil her mother made for leather care, and set it aside. Her mother had unharnessed Daisy, and Cerise gave the same treatment to the cart tack, though she also used a wax for the wood parts.
By that point the [Warriors] returned. Jaxin looked surprised that his horse was calmly grazing with the dires and riding horses, already seen to. He thanked Cerise and her parents, and got handed one of her mother's recent cooking experiments. Today's was leaf roll, a broad pamas leaf the size of a woman's outstretched hand covered in mashed trail loaf and then rolled up.
While he was distracted, Cerise asked the group at large, "Do you think it would be a problem for me to ride in the cart for a bit? I have an Etiquette book to read if I'm going to be presented to nobles at every town along the way."
"Which book?" Heral asked.
Cerise pulled it out of her pack and showed Heral "Lady Resala's Book of Manners".
His lips twitched. "Are you comfortable reading aloud?"
"As long as folks are kind when I stutter my way through new words, that's one of the ways Mykhal and I have worked to grow our Scribing skill. After all, the better one reads, the better one writes." Cerise wasn't sure she wanted to have to read this particular book in such a way, but learning was learning.
"Oh!" Mykhal perked up. "Maybe you Honorables can tell us the real stories behind those rules! Cerise and I couldn't figure out why [Warriors] rise when a [Mage] in their House enters a room."
Izrai's shoulders slumped. "Wait, really?"
Heral grinned even as he shook his head at his cousin. "The [Warriors] of a House are the ones who fight any challenges to the members of their House. They stand for not just the [Mages] but also the [Administrators] and [Artisans] and the non-combatants of their House as a declaration that they will defend their House from insult, violently if need be."
Izrai perked up.
Heral continued. "The standing should be an instinctive reaction, so even though it is formal manners, many Houses insist upon that behavior at all times."
That did not diminish Izrai's happiness. "Hey!" she said. "When Miss Cerise reads out some of the rules, could you tell us the story of them?"
Cerise looked up at him with hopeful, bright eyes.
Heral smiled. "It would be my honor."
----------------------------------------
Heral's estimate of their speed failed to account for the cart. While the horses could certainly go faster, the road wasn't paved, and so even at a trot, the cart bounced along in a haphazard fashion that threatened to break the axles.
They did still beat the caravan standard of eight leagues a day between towns, but only by two or three leagues. That meant they reached Va'Savine in six days of travel instead of the ten Mr. Aldo had expected, with layovers at two of the bigger towns.
Cerise and Heral were able to ride ahead, perform their diplomatic duties, and then rejoin their travel group without holding up their travel schedule.
Sadly, Cerise calculated that they reached Va'Savine about the day they would have made it to their turn off, had they been able to stay with Mr. Aldo's caravan. They over nighted in Va'Savine and Cerise's mother decided to take advantage of the last big town on their way to the Sea Crest Dungeon Village.
When Jaxin heard her listing out her shopping wants, he said, "Hey, you know something great? You're family. Cerise can buy things for you from the Free Lancer's Consortium at her rate." He looked to the Honorables and said, "Our contracts prevent us from doing the same for you. We can ask that you be extended Companion rates, but there is no haggling that cost, and if you have haggling skill at Intermediate, you can probably do better."
Turning back to Cerise's mother, Jaxin said, "You can probably also get a discount or do some in-kind trade if you're willing to sell fresh brewed Healing Potions. Even the Healing Salve Cerise makes for the horses is worth a lot to those of us without healing skills."
Cerise asked, "Do you want healing skills?"
Jaxin blinked. "Doesn't your Hall prevent you from teaching ...."
He trailed off because Cerise was laughing and shaking her head. She calmed down quickly and explained. "You heard the fast version of our story. I've never been in a [Healers] Hall, and we've been on the road from the day Mykhal was classed. No, and I've no idea how these Halls can be the only places you find [Healers]."
She sighed and shook her head, the smile on her face one of bemused incomprehension. "You need the desire to heal, an understanding of anatomy, Herbalism, and practice making bandages and splints and putting them on people. The anatomy skill you can get by paying attention while butchering meat for the cook pot, if that's your intent. Cleaning skills and something with Sewing, Tailoring, or Leatherworking help, but General Craft will aid with the splints. That will get you started. With it being that simple, how do these Halls have such a strangle hold on [Healers]?"
Jaxin said, "Probably because the Halls know how to get [Healers] out of their Novitiates. That you've opened the Intermediate rank without a Hall to explain how, that's rare. Abyss take it, that might be Legendary rare."
Heral added, "The [Healer] Halls also protect [Healers] from themselves and those who would exploit them. It is not a simple or easy matter to resist the core purpose of your class, and often requires the familiarity of an Adept, someone of High Advanced or Expert skill ranks."
Jaxin nodded. "The Halls do benefit from keeping their secrets, but the [Healers] protected by those Halls also benefit."
"Sadly, at a cost, though," Heral added. Jaxin quirked an inquiring eyebrow his way, and Heral explained. "The Halls keep their Novices sequestered, especially from family, and a good number of Initiates, too. Family, after all, are the hardest people to deny."
Cerise stilled. "Deny what?" she asked.
"The Hall's secrets," Heral said.
Suddenly, the monopoly on healing that the [Healer] Halls had took on a more sinister cast in Cerise's mind. "How much danger am I in from these Halls? Will they kill to keep their secrets, or kidnap me, or threaten my family?"
Izrai and Mykhal looked horrified, and Jaxin disturbed. Mahayan's expression turned sad, but Heral and her parents took on a grim countenance.
Heral said, "Were you not an Authority bearer, they might be quite heavy handed in attempting to convince you to join their ranks. As it is, they are more likely to pressure the Free Lancers guild to put you in situations that make their aid seem more beneficial or your silence the wiser course."