The kid was awoken this time by gentle shakes of a firm hand on his shoulder, with the smokey smell of meats and potatoes heavy in the bedroom’s air. A mild feat for air to travel so swiftly from the kitchen to the bedroom. “Time to get up Korvan, its an hour away from noon. We will be getting to the Mond’dosses by the setting sun now.” The mage said in a soft tone.
The kid groaneda little bit, trying to pull a blanket up higher; until it covered over his habitually short-cut bronze hair and down to his feet. “Give me a couple more minutes please? I’m still tired” the kid grumped, bringing a small grin to the mage’s face. Most kids would be already jumping out of bed to go and eat the food they smelled.
“Sure, that will give me a head start on eating all the food in your honor. Like how some of the priests eat their god’s favorite food in their honor, like the cheesy shredded potatoes on top of that seasoned flatbread.” the mage teased, if maybe a little bit cruelly. But it had the expected response from Korvan.
“Don’t you dare touch my food.” Korvan grumbled, moving his blanket off of his head so he could glour at the mage. “You know the food etiquette here Korvan” Jaero said in a sing song voice, “Now let's get up and go eat some warm, delicious food. We also need to get to packing the camping stuff for the trip we are going on.” The kid groaned as he pulled off all of the blankets he had previously swaddled himself in. Throwing his arms out and wide as he did the universal waking stretch that every human knew by instinct.
Jaero ruffled the kid’s hair, and said “Thanks, I’ll leave and give you some more alone time. Dont go back to sleep or there will be consequences!” The mage got up from sitting on the ledge of the bed, walking out of the kid’s room. He then shut the door behind him to give the kid some more self independence by letting him get ready without Jaero sitting and dictating what Korvan should wear. The mage then walked towards the dining room, with the food ready and the silverware set for breakfast.
The mage sat down at the moderately large wooden table. A table which the mage had previously made by hand with the materials of a wagon he had practically lived out of for longer than he would like to admit, and his back loved to complain about. The mage’s eyes squinted as he focused on the wood grain on the top side of the table, little squiggles would reflect the light, as if it held something in a crevice deeper than one could practically fathom. He would also look at blemishes in the wood from age and weather from its life both as a tree and as a busy wagon.
Jaero heard the footsteps of Korvan, with the slight squeak the dining room and hall door made when opened. He lifted his eyes to the room clock, on its own heavy pedestal with springs and gears chanting their chorus of its master. It said that Korvan had only taken five minutes to get dressed and to get to the dining room. “Kid got here so fast that I wont have to reheat the food, '' Jaero thought to himself as he looked at the food, misty vapor rose off of the thick strips of steak and fried eggs.
Jaero looked Korvan up and down to study what the kid had on for the day’s travel. A pair of forest brown pants that Korvan had stitched on a small grey and red pattern on the right hip. Korvan had also chosen a cream yellow shirt to wear. The shirt had stains from previous projects the kid had been lending a hand to. “I suppose it's passible.” Jaero thought to himself as he nodded Korvan towards the kid’s habitual spot. Jaero then picked up his favorite fork, and some random kitchen knife that sufficed for its duty, to start eating his own portion of the cheese and seasoned cheesy hashbrowns.
Korvan scooted out his chair and sat in it, picking up his fork and kife while studying what was on his plate. He could smell that the cheesy hashbrowns were seasoned the way he liked it. With some butter and salt with a littlest hint of spice. The strips of beef were a medium rare steak cut into said slices, pepper corn and dill dressing it up. Something of a preferred seasoning of Jaero. The eggs that sat next to the hashbrowns and steak were fluffy with milk and had the smell of a sharp cheddar being in them, with little chunks of last’s smoked sausage being added to it.
Jaero looked up from his own meal as he grabbed a mug of light tea, honestly more of a flavored water than anything else. Korvan was eagerly stuffing his mouth as he looked at the desert dish of the breakfast. Two simple pancakes with a little jar of raw honey accompanying it. Jaero looked over to his, an extra third pancake crowning his own.
Korvan caught Jaero watching him. Korvan than made a face and leaned closer to his plate, giving it more gusto than previously, at a speed that would intimidate even the most gluttonous. Which ended up meaning the kid had finished eating his food with in the next two minutes, pancakes included, while Jaero was just finishing up half of his own meal. Going about it in a rotation of a bite or proportional bite of each of the things on his plate. “I literally just swallowed the last of my first pancake, jeez.” Jaero thought while studying Korvan’s plate and taking another swig of his tea.
When Korvan finally looked up again he found Jaero looking at him with his eyes focusing on the floor behind and below him. Jaero then brought himself out of his musings to lift up a palm sized tomato, for Korvan to see. Korvan instantly reacted with a shrink back and a face of disgust towards the “fruit.” Jaero chuckled as he focused back onto his plate, legitimately enjoying the acidic taste of the tomato; independent of his friend’s son’s reaction.
Korvan further shuddered with an almost silent “euughch,” escaping him. Jaero silently rolled his eyes and kept on eating his food, with a smirk sneaking onto the mage’s lips. A tell for Korvan to know that his chain was being yanked for a joke, which made him roll his eyes in return.
Jaero, with a silent smile still on his lips, pushed a parchment being stretched out in a wooden frame, what the country passed as a “tablet”. The frame was bare wood smoothed down by the touch of hand rather than using a shark skin as the coastal nations do or with the Gruff Flax* as the neighboring countries did.
Korvan picked the tablet up, his eyes squinting a little bit as he read. “Probably to see what he can see past the new coat of paint I put on the paper,” Jaero thought, “He probably hasn't realized it's cheaper to paint over old leaves than it is to get whole new ones.” He continued to think, finishing up the rest of his own breakfast. “Plus it hides those… ah best not to think about it, he wont need to know that information in his life.”
Korvan finally focused back onto the list, “He should be bale torea it, I made sure I was using my ‘For Others’ handwriting and used words he should understand know,” Jaero thought to himself as the kid read the list. It was a list of items he wanted the kid to retrieve to put on the porch, “A Postmaul*, a pair of ripsaws, a bundle of nails the long sheers, and the set of the woodwork chisels. Along with the camping equipment.” Korvan then gave Jaero a big nod. Jaero lifted up a simple 5 minute time-glass* and flipped it on the table. Korvan and Jaero looked around the decorated kitchen area, enjoying the habitual grace period after breakfast. Something about just sitting in silence with the kid while looking at the little cravings in the crowing of the kitchen always brought peace to Jaero. “I can even feel it consuming my body less…”
Jaero watched as Korvan looked out through an opened window. Jaero then moved his head to view out of the said window. The view was a hallmark of how rich Jaero had become. Passed the windows were three fruit trees full of health in view. With shrubs and bushes of berries bumble along, spreading apart like splits in ivy.
One strain of the bushes, a particularly delicious mulberry species, led the eyes to a smallish pond. Well small in normal terms. “It is just small enough to be considered reasonable for the garden” Jaero thought to himself. Admiring how the pond was filled to the brim of it’s cobblestone edges, making an illusion that it would about to flood out and make an utter mess of the place. “It took me forever to carve those cobblestone banks for them to drain just right,” thought to himself. a satisfied pride in a project being well done welling up in his chest, just a little.
The mage’s eyes caught the peerless paved pathways he had also worked on during that point. He had spent a full month on making sure the plants in the garden plaza wouldn’t puncture the pavement of the pathway. “The amount I learned about sigils and how to chisel into stone…” Jaero thought, mentally shuddering, pictures of his memory appearing in his thoughts, of playing a sigilized stone just so.
Jaero returned his focus back inside, in the kitchen. The last of the grains of the sand slipped below the little chokepoint of the time glass. The morning ritual of the silent break and enjoying each other’s company had come to a close. It was now time for both to face their responsibilities of the day.
Jaero’s eyes went from the time glass to the parchment tablet on Korvan’s side of the table. The memories going from the sigils on the rocks, to what laid below the layers and layers of white paint framed in the tablet. “At least those rocks weren't the warm ups for my sigil practice,” He thought to himself, “This sigil-making is definitely not what I am accustomed to even now. I know that there are true runecrafters, oh god how they would despise what I have done with their arts. But I cant use it…”
He further thought, it being cut off by habit. But it didn't help this time, he could feel the earth beckon his Will to join it, to command it like how he did before. To join his Will to its power once again, all he had to do was-”NO.” he thought to himself furiously, the feeling of addiction heavy in his veins. He had to focus on something now. He picked the table, looking at it intensely, shutting his eyes as he flushed out the pictures of himself, back when his Will and the stones he walked on…
Jaero focused onto Korvan as he stood up, his ears picking up somethig in the physical universe, his eyes then went down to the table to find the little time glass had started dancing a loud jig, “Artifciers” Jaero thought to himself with a grumpy tone, also glad that the two distractions got him back into present time. He took a breath in as he brought aloof his senses back to him and the current world.
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The mage scooted back his chair as he locked eyes with the kid “You can handle the tools?” Jaero asked, Korvan just silently nodded as headed towards the said tools. Jaero nodded back, talking to himself softly “I’ll go handle the horses to ready them.”
Jaero made sure that he kept his focus on the idea of getting himself to the barn, making sure his focus didn’t lax as a safeguard to not fall to the same trap he almost did just a few moments earlier. Jaero followed the path Korvan had gone through, starting from the kitchen and going down the same hall for a good couple paces. But instead of taking a right, which would have led him into the living room, he took a left. He was now going through the foyer*, his boots making a dulled clacking noise against the lime-stone. The stone was in a mural of the setting sun over a green sea. The sea he travelled on his way to..
He looked out of the doorway he opened up, finding the weather was shiny, with a welcoming wind flying by his side. He took a step out, feeling the sun kiss his skin, obviously in one of it’s gentler moods rather than its angry persona it takes up in the middle of the summers or around the lands of life-scarce sands.
He held up his hand, visually assessing the time of day it was. “Got to hurry up, can’t drag my feet and knees about right now.” He thought to himself as he went down the dirt path, towards the horse stables. He could hear the horses neigh and head to their pens as he headed towards said stables. He could also hear the unique songs of birds decorate the air, almost making music out of the now muffled noises of the mares and stallions.
The doors opened after some negotiations Jaero had with the locks and cross bars. Once opened Jaero had to shut his eyes and open them again, readjusting to the more dim environment of such a building, even with the pens open to the outside. He then found the small flaws that he had yet gotten to, along with new ones that had manifested. “I’ll need…some new paint from the merchants, hopefully they have the same stuff they gave me last time for these stalls…God the rot has gotten to this beam too much now, I’ll have to bolt a whole new peice to it and cut out the bad to add a new chunk. And I’ll have Korvan take a look at and polish up those high up oil lamps I got. Such a brilliant move…truely” Jaero thought to himself
A commotion from one of the pens called for the attention of Jaero. He walked over, leaning into view of the occupant of the noisey pen. “Is that so?” Jaero asked the mare, not really expecting any sort of sane response. The mare decided to give the mage a “Huramf” as a retort to the teasing question. Which just made the mage want to pet the mare, which he did…fervently, along with a “Bwahhh! How’s my Pahsot!?” as he massaged her cheeks.
The mage chuckled, his humor going into a far more simpler and less guarded thing when he found himself in instances when he had become secluded from other sentients like he was currently. He, with the smile still on his lips, leaned back away from the pen. Finding a cubby of a well worn saddle. With a small grunt, Jaero tugged the saddle out of its box, smoothly pulling a rag that was nestled away behind the saddle.
He dipped the saddle in a little container of water and brushed the rag, his eyes studying the bindings with an eye long accustomed to such a thing that it had become a habit. He lifted the saddle up to the light, finding most of the cinches and other bindings showing some sort of wear, but not necessarily a concerning amount.
“These should hold well for another couple months, I think.” Jaero thought to himself, setting the saddle down as he grabbed the packs that would bind onto his saddle. As he sat down on a bench near the mare’s, Pahsot, pen. He then opened up the pack to check if there were any knick knack or nasty surprises left in the packs. “I Really should just check them before I put them away, but nooooo~ I get toooo lazy.'' Jaero thought to himself, with a large dose of self-criticism lacing the sarcasm. His hand came up with a pair of coins and a carved wooden cup. “Like this stuff, why did I get a wooden goblet again?” Jaero asked himself, a blank being drawn up instead of an answer, leading into a small amount of embarrassment.
The mage placed the new loot into a different cubby for him to take back into the house later, when not getting ready to travel. He then grabbed the equine equipment and went into the pen of his personally favorite mare. He stroked the flank of the mare as he got the saddle roughly in place with a careful toss with one hand. Pahsot nuzzled the mage as if she were insisting for him to hurry up on getting the saddle seated correctly onto her back.
He rolled his eyes at the horse’s silly antics,but he obliged her. Tightening and loosening each fastening to get it just so, which only had taken him about a minute since it was already pretty close to what it needed to be for her. He then rubbed her flank before he had to leave the pen. “Patience, now” He told the mare as he closed the gate, she just gave him a huff. He rolled his eyes as he stepped back and started walking further into the barn.
He passed a donkey in one stall, which was named Horse. Don’t ask him why it was Korvan’s idea, and passed this misnamed donkey was another animal named by Korvan. Jaero looked into the pen, and with in it was a large grey and black gelding* horse. It stood 15 hands tall with the grey meandering through th black like river trails. The right eye was a split down the center of blue and brown and the left eye was an unnaturally pure forest green.
“Well, hello there, Tri’Treacle” Jaero said, lightly rubbing the horse’s cheek, smiling a bit as the horse slowly turned away to look at outside. To noon-spring weather while he stood inside to get ready for a journey. Jaero dropped his hand as he walked over to cubbies installed on the wall of Tri’treacle’s pen. He grabbed another saddle from these new cubbies, the saddle now in his arms meant for the gelding instead of the mare. He flipped up the flap covers of packs of the new saddle. Finding nothing “aye aye…He’s better than me on the cleanliness for sure.” Jaero thought, not even finding the small debris dust that collects at the bottom of the pouches.
Finding everything up to snuff on the saddle, Jaero lifted the much larger saddle onto his shoulder, keeping his unburned side in the lead so he could open the pen’s gate with the free hand. His eyes caught the large horse move in a way so fluid it was had to believe the animal wasn’t devine in heritage at all. “Why did I allow the kid name the beast? Such a mouthful of a name too. The damned ‘Horse the Donkey”’ should have been enough for me to know beforehand…” The mage thought to himself tartly, not for the first time, probably not for the last time either. A small huff manifested along with the fruitless thoughts.
Jaero started walking towards the gelding, who casually glanced to and then away from the burdened mage. The mage then looked around and had to walk back to the door, “Forgot the damned step ladder, have to remember that this horse is so gods be damned large.” The mage thought to himself, the legs of the step ladder making clean streaks in the muddy straw.
When the mage did get to the horse, who made no attempt to walk over to the struggling man; unlike Pahsot, the mage flipped out the step ladder and swiftly placed the larger saddle upon the grey stallion. He cinched the saddle on properly to the grey horse, then he stopped for a moment to push a hand firmly against the padding “The most comfort dedicated saddle I have seen yet” Jaero thought to himself.
Jaero then patted Tri’treacle’s neck, something the gelding understood to mean to follow. Which he did while following the mage out of his pen. Pahsot gave out a loud wenny in response to hearing Jaero and Tri’treacle make a cacophony while on their way to her pen. “Yeah yeah, almost there silly girl you can wait another- well hello there!” Jaero said, looking at his mare at the end of his response to her wenny. She just nickered and showed her impatience in response by trotting in place. Jaero just rolled his eyes as he walked over to the pen’s gate, lifting up the latch pushing open the gate. The mare trotted out with her head up in the air like some trick pony. Which made Jaero smile.
Pahsot walked back over, allowing the reins to fall into Jaero’s hand. He then nodded his head to lead both of the equine specimens out to where Korvan would be prepping the equipment they would be taking along with them. Jaero did stop the two at the entrance, getting up on a smoothed limestone block that was knee level. Using the additional latitude, he got himself into the mare’s saddle.
With a firm push against her rump, Pahsot started on walking, following the faint tug of the reins to head towards the house, with Tri’Treacle taking up the rear. They stopped at a stone porch, a sequel to the stone mural inhibiting just on the other side of the doorway. On the porch was a pile of items Jaero had put onto the list he had given the kid. “He has even organized them on what’s whose,” Jaero had thought to himself as he kicked one leg up and over, dropping himself off of Pahsot.
Jaero then led the two horses the last couple paces to the porch, tying up the reins to a specific part of the porch rail meant for just that purpose. He then walked over to the to the closest pile, leaning over to grab up the personalized postmaul Korvan loved to give extra care to. He then walked over to Tri’treacle, slipping the long handle of the maul in a sleeve for just the purpose of holding the mauls. “God that stitching was… gods awful to do” He thought to himself.
Korvan walked out with a pair of large pouches of nails, grunting as he unceremoniously dropped them down by Jaero’s pile. He then dropped down in the mulch nearby taking in deep lungfuls of breath as he looked over to the mage.“I think this is it,” the kid said, with some effort still in his breathing. “You tried to rush it again.” Jaero said simply, Korvan looked away as he nodded.
Jaero just simply nodded back as he grabbed the large pouches with only a simple grunt of exhale. Taking them over to the mare, who looked disappointed in the pouches after a sniff. “She’s so food-focused” Korvan commented. “Much like a kid I know” Jaero thought before just giving the kid a “yeup.” The mage then looked over the piles, mentally checking off the list he head given the kid, then thinking better of he looked over to Korvan and asked, “Do you still have the list with you?”
Korvan pointed to the door, laying just to it’s side was the tablet that Jaero had given him. Jaero walked over, picking it up as he looked it over and checked off the things that he saw in the piles. “Looks like it, good job Korvan.” The mage said, Tri’Treacle silently walking over to the not-so winded kid to nuzzle him with his nose. The kid grinned and pet the horse’s ear spots, rubbing his forehead against the horse. “Hey there my big ol’ Tri’Treacle!” Korvan said with unending fondment layering in his voice like butter in a croissant dough.
“You really had to pick such a mouthful for your horse?” The mage asked of his adopted kid. “I think it fits!” the kid responded, the mage just silently shook his head. “He’s really stuck on that point.” The mage thought to himself, he then told the kid, “Let’s go, we will probably be breaking camp at the darker side of dusk now.”
Korvan grunted, giving Jaero a flat “Oh how fun. I love peak mosquito time.” Jaero just shrugged his shoulders in response as he watched the kid getting up on the mounting block and then up on the black geldling. The gelding turned its head left and right, before just waiting for Korvan to tell him where to go.
“Are we going to be late?” Korvan asked as he hooked his feet in the stirrups. Jaero shook his head with a small grimace. “No, I told them we were going to arrive tomorrow. Though they may have already expected us, my habits of giving out favorably skewed time estimates is apparently becoming more of something people tell each other as a heads up now.” Jaero explained, to which the kid just huffed. “One of many of your habits.” he said playfully.
The mage rolled his eyes, thinking to himself, “Becoming such a predictable creature won't be good. Can’t let the enemy accurately predict.” Before another, smaller yet more powerful part, of his mind whispered back. “You dont have enemies to monitor you, now. You are safe here for a while more.” It said.
He then focused his mind back onto the present, loading up Korvan’s packs, with the kid’s help. He then started filling his packs up, quickly taking long strides to hurry up the completion. Once he was done, he took Pahsot by the reins to the mounting block. He then got up once again onto his mare with a swift leap in the air with a part of his mind keeping track of where his feet were going to get into the stirrups so as not to hit them onto the post maul.
Getting all of his bearings in place, Jaero encouraged his horse to even up to Korvan. Who had taken the jump as the go signal. “Ready?” The mage asked, the kid just slumped into the saddle. “Do we have to?” he asked in a defeated tone. “You gotta have some smarts to ya kid. Nobody can live in this world without knowing a lot of something.” Korvan just rolled his eyes to that.
Taking the silence as confirmation, Jaero started off to where the last ended when on a trip. “Do you remember what to use when you find yourself poisoned by an arrow?” he asked. The kid nodded after a bit, still grumpy “One way, if easily accessible, is the Greater Arrowbolt*. Specifically its roots, best in powder form. I am supposed to pack into the wound as tightly as possible” he responded, looking over to the mage to see his response. The Mage nodded in the positive.
“Good, And what about if-” the mage continued on, asking another question about plants and animals and their uses.