Ryuji decided it was time to be getting to the plaza of his general store. He intended to pick up the cat beastfolk husbands and maybe even the whole family. He would get weapons for the men at the very least. If his plans panned out, he would get some kind of weapon for each of them. He remembered how worried he had been that the cat-women would be killed by the murderous former owner of the general store before he caught the guy.
Miyako was on her way to the market plaza in front of the magic shop when she saw a familiar face. It was the sun-elf that she wanted to talk to! She went dashing after him but lost sight of him in the milling crowd. She looked around a bit further along and spotted him next to the river. By the time she made it over to the river, he was a good ways ahead of her. She tried to catch up but the guards were changing and she had to wait for them to move before she could get by. She finally caught sight of him as she was running along the bank or the river. She saw him turn the corner ahead of her like he was going to the general store and she was sure she could catch him now. When she turned the corner he was gone! She went to the general store but he wasn’t there and the only building close was this old tenement and that abandoned building. She checked the tenement as best she could but it was futile, he had vanished like a ghost.
Ryuji walked deeper into the old building where the cats lived and could hear them busy working on their crafts. The women and the older two girls were there sewing pouches and preparing leather. Ryuji couldn’t see the rest of them and he got a bit closer while shuffling his feet so he wouldn’t scare anyone. The girl was the first to spot him and she shrieked despite his effort to be noticed early.
The other children and the two men came running into the room and Ryuji could see the children at least were still holding broken wood. It seems the ones not needed for sewing were trying to clean the place up a bit.
Ryuji waved at them all sheepishly. “Sorry, I was trying to make some noise so you would notice me and not get scared. I actually came by to see if you were all available for a couple hours. I want to get all of you something to defend yourselves if the need for it should arise. I won’t force you but I will insist on the guys at least having something or there would be no reason for them to be guards.”
Ryuji was accustomed to the cats trying to keep him from spending money on them so he was insistent from the start and it seemed to work. The cats all followed him to the smithy that Karen had taken him to before. It was rather hard to remember where it was but he was able to ask people for directions. A lot of people knew of Brogan Hammerhand, anybody except the cats apparently.
Once he found somebody who could read maps, Ryuji had them list the smithy and the clothiers on the map. This person even knew of the armor shop he had visited and marked it on the map. Ryuji thanked the young woman before going on his way with the gaggle of cat beastfolk following closely behind him.
he hadn’t really considered it until this point but there did seem to be a slight disparity in the male to female population. It wasn’t so skewed that it was glaringly obvious the first moment that he set foot in the city but it was there. He estimated the populace to be roughly three to two in favor of females. He was puzzled by this at first and all the more so because it didn’t seem to be restricted to one race. After a bit, Ryuji remembered that they had been in a war for nearly a century. Who ships off to war? Strong young men, mostly. There were a lot of elderly and women but not a lot of men.
His musings were cut short as he reached the shop of Brogan, the weaponsmith. When he stepped inside, the two apprentices of the master smith spotted him and rushed over to thank him for last time. When he had been there last, he had bought a Damascus blade made by Brogan and a fancy dagger made by the shorter of the two apprentices. He had paid way too much for the items so the apprentices would get a bonus.
Brogan came around the end of a rack after hearing the commotion and was a tad surprised to see Ryuji back. When he spotted the group of Cat beastfolk hovering near him his eyes narrowed and he nodded questioningly at them. “Good day, Brogan, and his worthy apprentices. I’ve come with a challenge and good coin. I need equipment for them, all of them.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Brogan looked at them and then at Ryuji and his eyes narrowed. “Ta what end? Ya not be a planning ta have tha lot a them fightin fer ya? I dinnae be a thinkin they be up ta that!”
Ryuji looked at the dwarf and then at the cats and then back to Brogan. “Why ever not? Look at the little one, trained killer that one. Oh, the adults will kill you soon as look at you but the little ones are the ones you gotta worry about…”
The dwarf got that disconcerting grin that made his face look like it ended at his lower lip. “Brogan, my good dwarf, it’s so they can defend themselves. I’ve hired the lot of them and want to arm them against thieves or drunks. Oh, and the men are going to be guards so they would need appropriate equipment. I was thinking a sword and spear combo for them and short swords or daggers for the rest.”
Brogan waved them all in with a hearty laugh. “Aye, they do look tha part now that ye be mentionin it. So, how’s the sword practice goin, eh?”
Ryuji got a guilty look on his face. “In all the confusion lately, I haven’t practiced at all. I also don’t have a blunted practice sword. Shouldn’t those be a little heavier than the sword you intend to use? Anyway, I also don’t even know how to use the sword, much less practice moves or forms or whatever. Oh, and before I forget, do you have something to keep the rust off of them. I kind of let mine get a little rusty so now I need to know how to take care of it. Remember, I don’t know anything about weapons really.”
Brogan just sighed and waved him over. He cleaned the sword and knife and then handed him a cleaning kit. Ryuji asked for a few more for the cats. He then handed Ryuji a book on sword fighting technique and training and Ryuji pulled a second copy off the shelf. Then he got to work with the cats.
Brogan found the right length of decent steel swords for both of the men. The apprentices took the women and children around to pick their weapons while Brogan found a pair of halberds at a decent price. The cat-women surprised Ryuji when they came back carrying full-sized weapons.
Marlise had picked a rather intimidating single-sided war axe while her sister, Krissa, had opted for a multi-flanged light mace. The children all four seemed to be carrying swords of varying lengths and styles. Ryuji could tell from the gaudy style that the swords were all made by the boys. The other two weapons, Ryuji was fairly certain Brogan had made those. Brogan, Ryuji, and their husbands were impressed with the women’s choices.
Brogan grinned at Ryuji and cracked a joke. “Now I be wonderin iffin ye werna be tellin tha truth abute tha lot of em. I be fearin fer me own safety at tha verra least, lookin at that lot o’ little devils!”
The women looked very proud of their children and of the weapons. Ryuji asked about the heavy blunted weapons and was shown to that section where he even found practice axes, maces, and spears. He asked the family to pick out a weapon for the old cat, Gato, and was amazed to find out that the old man actually had a sword already. He was then told that it was pretty rusty and Ryuji looked at brogan who told them to bring it by.
When Brogan began to tally all of the items up, Ryuji cut him off. He pulled out two large gold and laid them down on the counter and asked if that would be enough or if he needed more. Brogan got his grin back before replying that yeah, that would be enough. The group left bristling with weapons and more than one passer-by wondered if they were all about to go to the warfront.
The next stop was the clothiers shop and the fussy little Gnome and his family genuinely loved the idea of matching uniforms. Ryuji ordered two uniforms for each of them. The cut was simple and durable and the color was a very inexpensive but eye-catching orange for the top and tan for the pants and shoes. As a reward for not complaining about how much he spent on them, he took the women to the dress shop and got all the girls a dress. The guys were allowed to pick one set of clothes from the Brandt’s tailor shop. Ryuji spent another two large gold but considered it well worth it.
Ryuji took them to the armor shop and got the men a leather breastplate in an orange color. It was important for them to look the part. They all made one last stop at the meat skewer vendor. Ryuji had downed six skewers before he realized it but the cats were thankfully, too preoccupied with their own skewers to notice. He wondered about his momentary loss of control.
Finally, Ryuji said goodbye to the cats in front of the storefront. Gato came out and was very surprised to see his family looking like a band of outlaws. Ryuji told the cats that he would be by some evenings to help them learn to read. The men, he told that he would be by to train with them. To Gato, he relayed Brogan’s message about his sword and the old cat began to cry. Ryuji left… quickly.
When Ryuji got back to the inn with the practice sword, cleaning kit, and the book on sword training, Karen got a knowing grin on her face. That night, they had a lot to talk about. Ryuji also talked to Teresa about adding a bathhouse to the inn and he thought that she might propose to him at any second. He was all set, now he just had to figure out how to actually make one!