CHAPTER 78: A villager and a girl
“Ah yes. Forgive me, we went a bit off track. I couldn’t help but notice that the riders delivering lumber to the capital are using storage skill rings. I always wondered when we first met in Shimmerstal how you managed to transport those huge rocks at such short notice. Even now I wouldn’t bother you about such an issue, but the ability for our men to transport large amount of rock with such speed, I could not overlook. Would it at all be possible that you have two rings available for them?”
I looked at Mr. Papadopoulos trying to fathom his motives and the risks and only came up with a blank. I trusted him, that’s why I had the conflict but releasing more storage skill rings would cause problems. Hana broke my closed cyclic thinking.
“Shane, I trust him.”
Only to be confirmed by the rest of the folks sitting around the fire. That Karato agreed with them was a surprise, he once gave me a lecture about how I shouldn’t hand out storage rings like lollies at a carnival.
“Shane, I recommend you give the rings to Mr. Papadopoulos and make him be responsible for them.”
To be honest to myself, I probably would have given it anyway, I trusted him that much. I handed three to him. I could see the question in his eye. He had only asked for two and yet I offered him three.
“It’s not only roadworks that your team are responsible for, but I might as well include your team at Camp Endeavour.”
Mr. Papadopoulos didn’t argue, he knew that there was sense in my statement and realised that the improvement in performance would be worth the ring.
“Thank you for your consideration Mr. Karosaki.”
“No problem, thank you for asking. Remember that you need to hand these back for recharging every time you are back in base. As for the men on the road, I will arrange a recharge bar once a week delivered with the riders heading to Shimmerstal. For the men in the west, we’ll arrange the supply as part of their regular supply runs.”
And so, the arrangements were made. Orilay realised that we needed to add value to the wood we sold. One quick way to add value was delivering the sizes of wood customers wanted. Since the palace was our main customer, I asked one of the camp’s riders to deliver a message to Mr. Waldeheim at the palace requesting more details around the types of timber and the sizes they wanted. In that way we could ask higher prices and we could more easily process the wood on site. It turned out to be a lucrative arrangement and once again we discovered a need to build a large milling workshop where men could operate, while protected from the weather. Once again Mr. Papadopoulos was able to pull a rabbit out of the hat and together with the woodcutters, they produced the milling workshop which proved to be a large warehouse type building, supported by massive wooden beams, about the size of a small football field.
As usual, the children were relegated to assisting with the camp routines. One day, as Hana and I walked along the walkway, I discovered a young boy I recognised.
“Hi Kris, how are you doing?”
“Hi boss. I’m doing my chores.”
He replied in typical kid fashion.
“How are you finding the camp?”
He looked at his feet for a moment then replied.
“It’s much better than Camp Marmot, but I miss playing in the tree branches.”
It took me a moment as I figured out what he was talking about until I realised he referred to the previous woodcutter’s camp. It seemed that the children somehow cottoned onto the name, Marmot.
“Where did you get the name Camp Marmot?”
“Oh, I heard Mr. Papa calling it that.”
“Mr. Papa?”
“He’s the boss of the building guys.”
“Oh, you mean Mr. Papadopoulos.”
“Yeah. His name is hard to say. He said we should call him Mr. Papa.”
“What do you call this camp?”
“Camp Endeavour!”
Kris smiled as he shouted. I liked that kid; he knew when to suck up to the boss. As we watched him run off to carry on with his chores, I recalled the children climbing over the tree branches when they first arrived. Since most of the boughs had been cleaned up, they were looking for a jungle gym. That gave me an idea, I would work on a jungle gym design with Ara. Then I got another idea.
“Hey Hana. Do you have any ideas for a jungle gym?”
“Jungle gym?”
A few days later a completed jungle gym covered with the noise of playing kids made for an excellent addition to the camp. They scampered up the high poles on ropes and bounced on the rope netting like chimpanzees in a zoo. It became a well utilised playground attraction.
That afternoon a gate guard approached my tent as I tarried with some paperwork Elle managed to throw onto me. Even with Elle holding back the paper tide, I couldn’t get away from signing things, although I used stamps with wax seals, rather than quills and ink. Hana helped me sift through the more higher priority issues
“Hey boss, do you have a moment? There’s a villager here to see you.”
“A villager?”
The man the guard called a villager stepped into my tent with a demure attitude, his hands respectfully clasping a hat in front of him. The villager looked somewhere in his mid-thirties, the tanned lines on his stubbled face and the dirt under his chipped fingernails confirmed his subsistence farming life. His clothing looked worn but tidy.
“Sir. My name is Hornblend, but people just call me Horn so you can call me Horn. I’ve walked three days from my village near the edge of the Ironwood Forest in the southeast, I was heading to Obon to see if I could find an adventurer to help us. We’re really desperate.”
That guy walked by foot through monster infested forest without a weapon and yet there he stood in front of me, untouched.
“Help you with what?”
“We are desperate, can you help us? The area around our village has been invaded by a bloodthirsty monster from deep within the Ironwood Forest that has made its home near our village. We are terrorised by the monster that has already killed seven villagers in a moon cycle. This creature is too powerful for us. Is someone from your camp able to help? Otherwise, I must leave immediately and continue on my way to Obon.”
I thought about it for a short while as the man stood there waiting for my answer. We could probably help him, and I was keen to network with the outlying villagers, perhaps an opportunity arrived.
“Before accepting to help you, what are you offering in return?”
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“Are you saying that you’re an adventurer?”
“Both of us are.”
I indicated to Hana and me.
“We are but a humble village sir. We don’t have much in the way of money, nor do we have much food because we need to prepare for the winter and the travelling merchants have been absent of late. The villagers discussed what we could give, and…well…its best to show you.”
He headed out the door, leaving me somewhat puzzled. He entered again a moment later, holding the hand of a young girl with brown hair of about twelve years old. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was considered somewhat rude for villagers to introduce children as part of a conversation. Adults were the initiators of the conversation and children didn’t play a part in that. If required, the guardian or parent of the child would then introduce them to the conversation otherwise the children remained respectfully quiet. The girl’s brown eyes studied me carefully. Her brown hair, neatly tied, came down to her shoulder blades. Her face looked pretty and her body firm, not starved but as if hardship were a constant companion. Experience told me her trip had been a tiring one because despite her attempts to tidy herself, she couldn’t hide the subtle signs of a long trip.
“This here is Antonetta. Her father was one of those villagers killed by the forest creature. Her mother died a while ago from an illness, and she has no siblings or grandparents that can look after her now. We are caring for her in the meanwhile, but my wife and I have our own children and since we are a small community, we will struggle to look after her. The village chief agreed to sell her as a servant or betroth her to a future suitor so that we can afford the adventurer fee for fighting the monster. Personally, I wouldn’t want to say goodbye to her but given the circumstances it’s probably best for her.”
I was at a loss. Somewhere in my limited cultural experience I missed something.
“Hana, do you know what is going on here?”
She shook her head. The gate guard stood outside the tent door looking at the proceedings in interest, after all, it wasn’t often exciting things occurred around there. I caught sight of him and asked,
“Do you know if selling the girl is normal?”
“Yes boss, but he isn’t trying to make the girl a slave. It’s not unusual to find villagers selling off their daughters for a future betrothal if they have financial difficulties. In a way, they can be used as a financial guaranty of a required service or commitment.”
To me, with my western culture it certainly looked like slavery, I mean, what choice did the girl have? Looking over at Hana, I caught a glimpse of a strong emotion in her. I knew she was sold into slavery at a young age, and I wondered if she identified with the girl. Those villagers, however, couldn’t look after the girl so they were looking to offload her sooner rather than later.
“Antonetta, my name is Shane. I’m the boss of this woodcutter’s camp and I live in Obon. This is Hana, she’s my assistant. What would you like to happen with you?”
The diminutive looking girl answered with a more authoritative voice than I expected. I think she understood her situation better than I thought.
“I’m happy to live as a servant with you sir. I’m not educated, and I don’t have anything to give you, but I can cook and clean. My mother taught me well before she died, and my father taught me how to respect others. If you would be willing, I believe you would not make a mistake in taking me on.”
She had the bravery of a salesman.
“To confirm what I’ve just heard, you have no-one that you would prefer to be with in your village?”
“No sir.”
Well, that was a short reply. Frankly I expected a few more tears or regret. But I wanted to get her true feelings on her situation first.
“I don’t need a cook or a cleaner, nor do I need a wife. What could you offer me?”
The girl turned red in her face.
“I don’t have any family anymore. I am what I am.”
I wanted to test her resolve a little first, she looked like a dam running over with emotion and starting to burst under the strain. However, for her to break here might not enamour these men to me even if she needed to cry.
Hana’s hand she placed on my shoulder was enough to convince me.
“Very well, I understand. I’ll accept your proposal under one condition. I’m not going to betroth Antonetta or take her on as a slave, but I’ll adopt her and become her legal guardian. In return I will take over responsibility for her upkeeping, education and training and I’ll also remove the monster from your village.”
I expected a bit more delight at the news, but the village man looked perplexed.
“Excuse me sir, I am happy with your offer but how can you guarantee you’ll fulfil your part of the bargain?”
“Call Karato, Olivia and Elle here for me please.”
I asked the guard who promptly disappeared. When he returned a few minutes later with Karato, both Olivia and Elle also turned up after hearing his summons. My tent was becoming a little bit cramped with all the people in it.
I explained the situation to them and then pointed Olivia out to the villager and the girl.
“This is Olivia, she’s a representative of the adventurer guild and can issue quests. She will officially register your request to subjugate the monster. This man here, is the king’s representative for this region. If he is willing, he can witness our arrangement and will confirm that the girl is being looked after should you ask him in future.”
Olivia was quick off the mark.
“To officially designate a request, you need a financial payment from a third party, someone other than the adventurer accepting the quest. We do not trade using people, so whatever decision is made over Antonetta is not our concern.”
Olivia wasn’t being unfeeling, she also looked concerned for the girl, but as a guild administrator she couldn’t be seen to be involved with the girl. Karato, understanding the situation stepped forward.
“As the palace representative for this region and as the third party, I’ll offer a reward of three gold to the Goldcastle team for the subjugation of the forest monster. I’ll also accept the recommendation to act as witness to Antonetta’s adoption and as guarantor to the conditions attached.”
The village man looked shocked. Neither the nobles nor the palace had ever concerned themselves with events of small villages in the region, only the tax collectors ever showed their faces while demanding their due taxes. Normally, leather, cattle, grain, or other harvested food was viewed as acceptable tax.
To see a man like Karato, one that reported directly to the king, in a place like a woodcutter’s camp, was beyond his wildest expectation. And that he would show such generous favour to a humble villager, overwhelmed him. Both the villager and then the girl dropped to their knees and started bowing to Karato.
“Please stand up. I have my own reasons for supporting you. Are these conditions acceptable to you?”
“Yes, I accept them. For the sake of my village, I would ask how soon you could come to kill the monster?”
I could sense his urgency. However, I wasn’t planning to go into that quest unprepared.
“Olivia, I’ll accept the quest and the Goldcastle team will go and investigate. Karato, would you be willing to look after the camp until I return?”
“No problem. Consider it done. I have one thing to add though. I’m also giving you provisional powers from the palace over any decisions that you need to make in that village and surrounding area. Don’t get too hung up on it, there’s no military authority involved, and I trust you with the rest.”
My eyes opened with that statement. He just made me a provisional representative of the king. That was no small thing. But I needed to focus on the issue at hand.
“Thank you Karato. Horn, there are a few things we need to do first. It’s going to take a while to prepare, so we’ll only leave first light tomorrow morning. Follow the guard, he can help you find a place to stay for the night. Elle, would you be willing to look after Antonetta tonight?”
Elle shook her head.
“Heck no. She’s your daughter now, you adopted her, you look after her.”
That unexpected response was no doubt the stubborn elf in her.