The language of the Costermongers is not the easiest language to learn it is however the widest spread. The Costermongers a group of travelling merchants who hawk goods of all manner, some even run travelling circuses have spread their language to the point it is often known as common.

This nomadic lifestyle of theirs means the people, as they call themselves, have reached pretty much every corner of civilised land. It is for this reason their tongue is so widely spread and known as the trader’s tongue. It provides a common language for those from all countries and is learnt by all but those on the lowest rungs of society.

This language is especially important for nobles who require it to negotiate trade deals and navigate the politics of faraway lands. It is such an important language that it is viewed as one of the foundations of a noble’s education, no self-respecting family would allow their children to rename ignorant of this language.

Volume one of A History of Pangea, His Valor Enzyme

Garrick found himself sitting on a log, hunched over sharpening his daggers facing away from the noble when the noble woke up. He could hear the slight change in the nobles breathing and the quiet rustling of the noble’s clothes as he tried to move silently.

Garrick decided to give the man sometime to come to terms with his changed surroundings, not wanting him to panic. Once he thought enough time had passed he turned around to face the noble and asked “What are ya doing all alone out hear in the plains?”

He was met by a confused face, as the noble replied in a dialect he had never heard before. Garrick realised this young man was either from very far away or not a noble. Garrick had spoken in the trader’s tongue, a tongue spoken widely across these lands, a tongue that nobles were drilled into learning. The lack of response was thus telling of this young man’s isolated life suggesting he came from a land so far away it boggled the mind to think of the distance or he was in fact not a noble.

After a few more attempts in a couple of different languages were met with failure Garrick gave up trying to communicate, only getting the name Jacob out of the man. After giving Jacob some time to check his belongings Garrick tapped him on the shoulder before moving out. He couldn’t afford to miss the rendezvous with the hunting party, which was two days away.

As Garrick led the way he started to activate a rare skill of his that enabled him to get the measure of a fellow traveller. The most notable sense he got from Jacob was that of innocence, a rare occurrence in a world as violent as this. Alongside this was a sense of trustworthiness despite the lack of communication, and it gave Garrick hope that Jaocb would be able to provide another sorely needed sword in defence of Haven.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully as Garrick gathered herbs along their walk that when combined into a paste could help increase health recovery. After reaching a suitable camping place Garrick went straight to work at creating a healing paste, Jacob needed to be in as good a shape as possible when the hunting party met them. After all Garrick could not spare the time to guide Jacob back to the village, it was his job to thin out the goblins before their numbers got too large.

Offering the paste to Jacob, he mimed putting it on the injuries hoping to get across its use, and at the same time attempting to teach Jacob the language of the Castermongers. Gesturing at his wounds and various appendages.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Garrick spent the rest of the evening teaching Jacob some words in Castermongerian repeating their names as Jacob pointed at different objects. Requiring little in the way of Garrick’s attention he started to also put together a plan for the next 2 days until the hunting party arrived. In essence he needed to test Jacob’s combat readiness as despite seeing the aftermath of his fight with the goblins Garrick was unsure as to his level of skill.

Uncertainty was only likely to lead to someone’s death in a situation as dangerous as this, one in which Jacob would surely be required to fight alongside him. He therefore planned to test Jacob’s fighting skills first thing tomorrow, as well as seeing if he could fire a bow and arrow.

Plan decided on he kissed his lucky teardrop charm and said a quick prayer to Wodem the good of nature before activating Camp’s Perimeter, a skill which would notify Garrick of anything dangerous that came within a 50 yards radius of their campsite.

The next morning Garrick woke up with the Sun as usual, he began to prepare a light breakfast of trail mix. He decided to give Jacob the extra sleep as he looked like he could use it after a tough couple of days, and only woke him up once the mixture of berries, oats and water was cooked and ready.

The ice broken between the two of them last night, Garrick attempted to broach the topic of sparring. Unfortunately, communication attempts where still somewhat lacklustre resulting in a farcical attempt by Garrick of acting out sparring. A show which Jacob enjoyed immensely, cracking the first smile he had in days.

Preparing to fight Garrick drew his sword and motioned for Jacob to attack him with all he had. He noticed his movement spoke of a novice sword user, with only a minimal of training leading to Garrick to frown as Jacob rushed in too quickly swinging his sword diagonally down from over his right shoulder.

Garrick nimbly dodged to the side, merely thrusting his leg out tripping Jacob as he was unable to arrest his momentum skidding along the ground face first. Jacob got up gingerly and approached Garrick much more hesitantly this time, eliciting an approving nod from Garrick. While a poor swordsman he could at least pick up and learn from some of his mistakes, giving Garrick hope that he may not be entirely useless.

The next passage resulted in a flurry of swings from Jacob, all of which Garrick calmly and fairly easily parried, blocked or avoided. Garrick had to admit he was grudgingly impressed with this young man, who despite only sparring for 20 minutes, albeit with Garrick only defending, who had shown a noticeable improvement. He clearly had some level of natural talent.

Deciding to take things up a knotch Garrick started to counterattack, making his swings rather noticeable and telegraphed to give Jacob a chance. He noticed an immediate change in Jacob’s posture who instantly became more wary, crouching slightly and attacking with more hesitance.

Once again as Jacob settled into this new rhythm he grew increasingly more comfortable and seemingly learnt very quickly. However this learning speed while very helpful worried Garrick, who thought that Jacob may become increasingly complacent. He therefore judged Jacob’s next swing, closing the space between the two so that he could parry it up and duck under the attack. He swiftly swept Jacob’s legs from under him dropping him on his side while simultaneously ramming his pommel into Jacob’s gut.

This was met with a pained gasp and a glare, causing Garrick to quickly back off to show he meant no further harm. He decided to give Jacob some time to rest while he strung out his bow to see Jacob’s skill.

The majority of the morning and early afternoon, post lunch, preceded in a similar fashion as Garrick tested Jacob’s non-existent archery skills, hand to hand fighting and dagger skills. While by no means great at any of them Jacob showed a proclivity for picking things up quickly and learning at a speed that almost belied the mind as far as Garrick could tell. In fact rather than learning something new it seemed as if Jacob was merely remembering something he had previously learnt but somehow forgotten.

Garrick decided that if this continued he would put Jacob through an intense sparring programme for the remainder of the day and until the hunting party arrived, or until Jacob was no longer able to continue.