The small layer of frost that set itself on him during the night was the last thing Gale expected to wake up to a few months ago. Well, at least waking up in this state wasn’t the problem, he could have been sleeping under a pile of dirt instead right about now. Forever.

He quickly made a mental note about sleeping under the night sky without a roof and added it to his growing list of things to fix in the short future.

The main problem was, he couldn’t even be upset about it, since half the camp had the unfortunate luck of having to sleep outside just the same as him. What he could be upset about, however, was his lack of heavy furs and tents that everyone else had, or a guaranteed spot next to one of the campfires that was constantly tended to by someone.

Getting up with a groan was enough to wake up his neighbor, a tower of a man in charge of keeping a watch on him who seemed to be lucky enough to find enough sleep in this deplorable state. Not that Gale hadn’t had enough sleep in terms of time, it was just very tiring shaking from the frost in his sleep all night.

The human body is a funny thing, and any defense mechanism it presents can somehow be bypassed.

Take sleep for example. Any change in the environment that would affect the body itself would set off an automatic alarm to the brain and wake up the body. It worked in a passive manner - but slow down the process enough through gradual and subtle changes of temperature, the body would get lazy and wouldn’t take it under consideration, even if you would eventually end up freezing to death. It was a scary thought.

As such, Gale found it rather important to check on all the important extremities and figure out the amount of damage done during the night. Luckily, he was still a few hours off from losing his toes, but the weather was only going to get worse, and it would only be a matter of time until the unfortunate time when he would have to either get rid of it, or have another part of his body removed.

Nevertheless, he was more than happy to be alive.

Yesterday’s whole debacle and the finer details of his agreement with the leader of these savages hadn’t been fully set. After a clear attempt at intimidation by that dreadful woman, he found himself agreeing to much lesser terms than he had hoped.

He would prepare his case for today, and, if acceptable, he would receive the opportunity to show a much wider variety of his talents. During this time, he would also present and explain in better detail what services he can offer. Alicia seemed wise enough compared to the less than enlightened group she was leading, but she clearly lacked patience.

Taking a look around camp, there seemed to be some form of order and respect for leadership as everyone found themselves something to do. Nearby, a few men were cutting firewood and preparing a campfire, while some of the women were cutting roots and vegetables in a pot, most likely meant for breakfast. Even the guards seemed to be on their toes, constantly focused on the line of trees closest to the entrance of their encampment.

Gale whistled towards one of the girls preparing the food and made a come here gesture as he tried his best to keep his balance on one arm.

“Good morning, dear. Could you be so kind as to go to your lovely leader and tell her I find myself anxious to get our little adventure started. I seem to have lost my ‘footing’, so I would be most grateful.” he quickly said, gathering the attention of everyone else in the vicinity.

It did not take long until Alicia made her way towards the nearby campfire Gale decided to crawl over to, and was rather impressed with how early he decided to wake up. Pompous people like himself seemed much more inclined to sleep their troubles away, or at the very least avoid most of them.

She had seen her fair share of rich blokes that slept through their deaths in warmer weather than what they were currently having.

“Well, you certainly look more than eager to begin.” she said with a grin, staring at the man trying to peel a potato while leaning onto his elbows. He threw the horribly peeled vegetable into the pot and made sure to ignore the awkwardness of his posture.

“Eager to get myself out of the cold, more like it.” he replied. “Hardly a big priority for a group of bandits to think about their prisoners freezing to death. I could have used a blanket, you know.”

She slightly frowned, slightly annoyed at the “bandits” comment.

However, before she could defend herself, she got cut off, “Ah, but it is not the appearance that tells me what you are, but in the very nature of your actions. You might think you can fool yourself into believing otherwise, but your small gestures and the way people act is enough to prove otherwise.” he said, unimpressed by her defensiveness. “But I guess I should give my savior the respect they deserve. Sorry for the rude comments.”

They both stared at each other for a good minute, the chill in the air somewhat focusing on their presence. It was intimidating enough to stand next to Alicia and Gale, that the two other women preparing the soup found themselves subconsciously walking away before finally clashing heads and waking up from their daydreaming.

“Maybe I’ve misjudged you.” Gale visibly relaxed. “I really am sorry, it's just the lack of sleep pressing on my nerves.”

“Apology accepted.” she finally felt like a small conversation barrier had been broken. She had to deal with plenty of people that thought she would get intimidated by big words before, so this wasn’t something to get upset over. It was a minor thing, but trust comes from breaking through small hurdles like these. “Now, if you feel like being useful, how about telling me how you plan on helping us out?”

Gale suddenly found himself looking around the camp, somewhat entranced by the depressing sight. It wasn’t that hard to find flaws that could be fixed, but it was much harder to find something meaningful to fix. The first impression is always the best, and telling someone that you need more supplies is hardly helpful when the person you are trying to convince already knows the fact.

Yet, there was a general problem that he always came upon whenever he stepped outside his former home. It was also one of the few things he was more than convinced people lacked that he could provide no matter where he found himself in the world.

Ever since the calamity, reliable people and knowledge have been hard to find, after all. Yet the amount of useless information that people deem important has increased the burden of living.

In truth, anyone could see the main problem, just by entering camp. A few coughs here, a few sniffs there, and plenty of people that seem to drag their legs around are a clear indication of what needs to be fixed.

“When I was sold … well, … kidnapped, I had a few belongings with me. Nothing majorly important, but I would love to have them back and I would praise the gods if your men didn’t sell anything I had on me at the time.” he finally replied, still staring at the walking dead around camp. “They held quite the sentimental value to me.”

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“That’s not really the answer I was looking for. And you’re hardly in a position for demands.” she said rather amused by his sudden turn-around.

“While we could sit here and debate on what I can do for you, it would be much more productive if I showed you, no?” he switched to a more serious tone, moving his piercing gaze back to her.

True, it would save both of them a lot of time, and breakfast was almost done, so this would definitely help in her decision to feed him or not. Calling for whatever the boy had with him when he was found, she was soon presented with an interesting array of items, much more valuable than he had described.

Inside a large sack there were two leather bound books - a small one around the size of a grown man’s palm width and thickness, and a much larger one about twice as big. They were curiously tied together as if forming a set. There were also three leather belts, one holding small glass bottles of different sizes and shapes, but left empty and sparkly clean - another belt with five small bags filled with rocks and pebbles of different sizes and colors, and the final belt with two pouches filled with colorful dust and a small intricate dagger on the back. She kept the dagger, just in case.

Gale took the books and carefully untied them, scrolling through the pages and making sure nothing was damaged. “Tell me, Miss Alicia, do you know how to read and write?” he finally asked, keeping his gaze on his books.

“Some, but I’m much better with numbers than letters.” she said, a bit proud of herself. In fact, without a doubt she was the best reader in camp, the only other capable of such a feat being Arnold, and he could barely make sense of a few words like ‘money’ or ‘food’. “Why? Don’t tell me you plan on teaching us something so useless as reading. Unless you haven’t noticed, we lack a library in the woods..”

“While I disagree about the useless bit, that’s not what I have in mind. Tell me if you understand what’s written here.” he replied, handing over the smaller book opened about halfway.

“Let’s see … Three tablespoons of fermented Tomaro Syrup, four leaves of Nightshade, one seed from a Bluegrass nut, stirred thirty to fifty times depending on thickness …” Alicia’s thoughts quickly trailed off in a concentrated silence. Taking a peek at the contents and reading them out loud seemed to have been a bigger shock to her than expected.

Suddenly one of the women next to the two gasped in shock and looked surprised at the words written in that book. “Witchcraft…” she whispered, barely heard by the people sitting around the campfire.

Of course, nobody seemed to take the woman seriously as, unbeknownst to Gale, her claim at things being witchcraft was a daily occurrence.

However, it finally ticked in Alicia’s mind what this all was. It was a recipe book for concoctions, most likely medicine and potions. It was an alchemist’s treasure trove. *Maybe witchcraft for those less knowing* she thought as she glimpsed at the woman in question.

“So what’s stopping me from just taking this book and throwing you away?” she replied suddenly, very interested in all the interesting information stored on these pages. It seemed like such a waste to simply give them back to the young cripple.

Books were considered a luxury nowadays depending on the contents. Information was sold at the highest price, yet her camp did not need luxury, but supplies, so she never really bothered with things such as books and scrolls. If Gale hadn’t pointed out the contents of this book, it would have most likely been sold on the next run towards a settlement without knowing what they were about. Lucky find.

“Well, you could do that, or you could just think for a moment and decide to actually keep the author of the book rather than the small amount of recipes he decided to write in it.” he said, rather insulted by her comment.

In those few moments, the camp seemed to freeze around them.

Hearing only bits and pieces of the conversation was enough to draw attention, and everyone seemed to slowly form a small circle around them, yet when he had replied as such, everyone else’s presence dwindled to the equivalent of grass on a field.

Even the fearless leader was at a loss of words. It was almost unbelievable that she stumbled upon such a rare thing as this book, and while she still had her doubts, the possible author of it as well. It was somewhat unbelievable that she was lucky enough to meet the person to write something so valuable. So unbelievable, that she doubted the fact for a few seconds before realizing that he had little to gain from lying about it.

Sure, he could be desperately trying to make a case so he is spared, but with enough time his lies would come to the light and his neck would see the blade of an axe regardless.

Either way, it was by far her luckiest day since setting up in this place. Worst case, the boy is lying about being the author of the book, in which case she gets rid of him and takes time to decipher what the recipes were about. Best case scenario, she found herself a young herbalist or alchemist. She never really believed in all that witchcraft bullshit that people talked about, and her adoptive father was kind enough to provide her an enlightened view on what really was possible and what not.

Potions, afterall, were something seen in daily use in most rich regions before the calamity, and witchcraft simply became the term used by people that did not have the possibility of getting their hands on something as expensive as potions or that did not understand the difference between a curse and a cough. It was one of the old beliefs that witches cursed people so they could cure them, but sickness could come from anything, really.

The most unbelievable thing though was the fact that he was so young. If he was at least thirty years older, she would believe him in a heartbeat that he possessed such knowledge. But he looked barely a few winters past his teens.

Her train of thought was suddenly broken by a sudden realization. He had the equipment. No matter how much you think about it, why would he have all these items and knick-knacks if he had no use for them. At worst he was some sort of apprentice, but even that is a huge leap in usefulness from just a random cripple they happened to stumble upon.

Now, the real question was, what else he knew. And as that question came into mind, she couldn’t help but stare at the larger tome he was holding defensively on his lap.

“What else?”

She couldn’t help letting her curiosity show, as far as she knew, there were no other major powers in their close proximity with even something close to a doctor. She would know that, since she had looked for a very long time when her Captain was on his deathbed.

Gale, on his part, was pretty happy how the whole thing panned out. Mainly because he expected to be killed by now. While he was seemingly a pillar of calm and focus, he was still in a vulnerable enough state that he wanted to avoid getting his throat slit or causing any misunderstandings.

He slowly patted the larger book on his lap and made a suggestive wink at her. “For now ... are you going to listen to my terms?”

“What do you need?” she replied, completely ignoring his question. Alicia took the small book and handed it back over to him, somewhat reluctant to give up such a jewel.

“A tent, a table and a chair, some cutlery, two meals per day and an assistant.” he said, convinced that he can ask for more on a later occasion.

“You got it” she replied faster than her mind could hold her “Wait. What do you need an assistant for?”

“You might think I can do everything by myself, but being a cripple isn’t an easy job. Moving things around would be both time consuming, and annoying.” he said, gently stroking his still bleeding stump. ”Someone that can work well with their hands would be preferable, maybe one of the cooks or someone that can sow. And a bandage would do wonders to stop my leg from getting infected and potentially killing me before I do anything meaningful.” he sarcastically added.

Frowning slightly, she agreed to his terms. It would be an interesting gamble, and if he proves to be useless, his books would still be worth much more than the tent and furniture he asked for. With a huge smile on her face, Alicia left to make preparations, completely forgetting about the breakfast that was about to be served.

Eagerness overtook her hunger.