Chapter 10: Help

While following the path towards the wall there was a holler from what I imagined must be a viewing platform on the inside of the wall.

“Oy there! Grey one! Stay back and I can send a guard to you if you want to enter God’s Bath!” It was a rough female voice, but it cut through other sounds from inside the wall and I could hear it clearly.

Without pause, I came to a stop and yelled back, “I’ve an injured man here! I’d request a medic to accompany the guard, or at least be notified he will need help! His name is Buckle and he told me he does business here, if that makes a difference!”

After about 10 seconds the rough voice yelled, “The goblin tanner?! Go around on the path to your left and to the gate!” I thought I could hear at least a hint of concern in the yell this time, for what that was worth.

Following the path towards the wall, then left I was able to take in a bit more of what I had been seeing. After the field and pathway there was a rise in the land, rather like it had been built up to support the wall atop it, 3 meters of stone and dirt rising above the level of the crops even before the wall standing on that rise.

The wall itself looked to be 2 more meters of stone before an additional 2 meters of wooden logs, fused together and pointing at the sky. As I’d been drawing closer I also noticed an irrigation system that ran along the path and was bringing water from the right side of the wall towards the crops.

Upon reaching the corner of the wall and berm to the left, I could see a winding path leading up to a small stone gatehouse with a guard apparently watching for me, or any traveler, waving me forward once I came around the corner.

Still attempting to walk swiftly, but without jostling Buckle, I was closing in on the guard when an unexpected wetness on my arm captured my attention. At a glance I could see blood now welling from a leg wound on the trapper and running down onto my arm that was supporting his lower limbs.

Before arriving at the guard I started to speak, “Buckle’s been holding in his own blood from the wounds while I’ve walked us here. I think he is running out of energy, or losing control. Please help him?”

With a frown on his face, the brown eyed man in weathered leather gear looked into my eyes before responding. “Stop there and set him down carefully. Then take the weapons and go back until I tell you to stop. Soon as you’ve done that we’ll get him looked at.”

Coming to a stop, I crouched down and lowered Buckle to the ground as gently as possible, propped in a half sitting position because his pack was still strapped to his back. Before I could stand to move away, Willy jumped from my shoulder onto Buckle’s chest, croaking loudly.

With the axe and bow with a broken string in hand, I fled from the gate and wall glancing back every few seconds. At about 30 meters away from Buckle the guard approached the goblin and then called out, “Dominick, c’mon out! See if you can help the tanner!”

A few moments later there was a sound of thumping wood and the gate creaked open revealing someone even shorter than Buckle, but with a brown robe and spiky green hair. After the short figure stepped through the gate it slammed behind them. After a few bouncy steps the little person knelt beside the goblin, placing his hands on the wounded man’s chest.

Even without trying to focus on perceiving magic, there was a pulse of colors that wrapped around the two short figures before the green haired newcomer talked to the guard.

Sadly, they were too far away to hear much, but I was able to pick out a few words like ‘stable’ and ‘bath’ that raised my hopes. Rather than continue to wait around, I hollered at the pair.

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“Thank you for helping him. If you want I can carry Buckle for you wherever you need him to go…” Waiting for a moment and noting a lack of response, I sighed and quietly finished. “Or I can just wait here until you bother to talk with me.”

Still with the pack on my back, I carefully lowered myself to the ground to sit and wait. After a minute or two the gate opened again and two people came out with a stretcher far larger than was needed for Buckle. The gate didn’t slam this time but the Guard who was watching Buckle and I called something over his shoulder, perhaps to whomever was behind the gate.

As for the two with the stretcher, they approached and helped the green haired person slip Buckle’s backpack off the goblin, and then rested him out on the stretcher. After laying him on the stretcher they carefully lifted Buckle and Willy, taking them into the gate.

Dominick exchanged a few more faint words with the guard, pointedly glancing in my direction and then followed the others inside the gate. As soon as he was out of sight the gate thunked shut again.

One additional wooden thunk later, I heard the guard holler. “Glinda, have eyes on the one that brought Buckle in?!”

The rough female voice from earlier answered back, “Yeah, Tom! I’ll cover ya!”

I glanced in the direction of the corner of the wall that I’d turned around on the way to the gate. Not seeing anything obvious, I still felt sure the voice was coming from that direction. Trying to focus with the magical perception I’d learned with Buckle last night, I could sense a blur and a few wisps of light up where I thought the voice was coming from. ‘Maybe some magical camouflage?’

“What are you lookin’ at?”

Blinking,I saw that the guard had finally approached within a few meters of where I’d sat. Shaking my head at my own foolishness for not paying attention, I looked closer at the guard.

My brain told me that this was a male human, and somehow I had a sense that he was in his late 20’s or early 30’s. Uncertain how I knew such things, I simply took the rest of him in. Brown hair poking out from under a leather cap, matching brown beard and brown eyes. A strong nose, hawk-like with the bend and grim tight lips. Fit looking muscles were visible on his arms around the elbow joints in his leather armor. His leg armor was strapped over blue jeans, but the shape of them spoke of fitness in lieu of them being more visible like his arms. Brown leather boots completed his armored look, and his weapon was a spear that matched his 190ish cm frame.

“Sorry Tom, I was trying to see where Glinda’s voice was coming from. There is a blur there,” I pointed at the spot where I had seen the wisps, “so I thought it might be magical camouflage on a watchtower or something like that.”

The guard just stared at me.

“Sorry, I’m Monday March. I met Buckle yesterday and he was going to bring me here and introduce me to the guild, I think? As well as pay for my room and meals for a couple days if I helped him with chores and carrying his hides. We were attacked on the path, and he tried to protect me, but got pretty hurt….”

The guard’s lips parted, but sound was rather lacking so I continued on talking.

“So he was holding his blood in with water magic, I think. And Willy made sure I didn’t get lost on the way. Is he okay?”

With a blink and a start the guard finally spoke again. “Is Willy okay? Who is Willy?” Tom said as he looked around.

“Oh, you knew Buckle, so I thought you knew that his toad’s name is Willy. And I meant is Buckle okay? I mean, I would still like to come inside, but you seem like you don’t trust me. Which is fine I guess. Why would you trust someone who came out of the woods carrying a wounded person that you do know? I mean, I might have been why he was injured, and I guess I was because he tried to protect me. So that’s a perfectly reasonable conclusion, I think. This IS God’s Bath, right? That is where he said he was taking me…” With the realization that I’d been rambling I pulled my eyes from looking about and put Tom squarely in my sights and stopped yammering.

Nothing…

Nothing…

I would have raised my eyebrows if I had any, ‘whee, no hair anywhere!’

The brown haired guard suddenly shook his head and squinted at me before speaking. “How… How old are you?”

Blinking at the unexpected question, I had no reason not to respond, so just shrugged. “Not sure, Tom. I woke up yesterday and can’t really remember anything before that, which is one of the reasons he was bringing me here to talk to… the Guild I think he said?”

Pinching his crooked nose, the guard spoke again. “So, you’ve no idea where you… Do you know where you are?”

“Somewhere in central California?”