Chapter Thirty Seven - The Road

Jason woke up early, kissed Stella and hugged her. They both put on clothes and left for the main gate with Bronson. Jason hugged his father before he left. When they got to the gatehouse, they saw breakfast for the soldiers being made under a tent, eggs on a big griddle. They were served with bread rolls and raisin oatmeal biscuits.

Four Carriages and twenty horses were being readied for travel..

Jason watched as Redran commanded two scouts to go ahead. They galloped to the next town. They would be watching the road ahead from afar. Occasionally waiting for the group to catch up.

The carriages were loaded with a month’s supply of potted meats, sacks of flour and spices. Also some pickled vegetables and some wicker cages of chickens.

Jason walked over to a tent where they marked off his name. The man attending estimated by eye Jason’s armour size and called out a colour to the squires behind him.

“Red.”

The squire collected a pile of armour with a small red ribbon attached to the inside plate of each armour piece. I’m Red sized, I suppose, Jason thought to himself. He thought it was funny.

The armour fit him quite well. He looked like his father. It was quite a simple, but nice armour set. Not incredible, but it did the job. He put it on while Stella helped him tighten the buckles. Around him, similar things were happening. Wives buckling husbands, soldiers buckling other fellow soldiers. Some of the rangers had moved onto the next step, training. They were hitting straw puppets with wooden training blades. Jason now had two swords. His fire blade, which was modeled after a very similar style sword, and the now assigned guard’s sword.

He put his enchanted sword on his hip and the new one on his back.

He tied the hammer to his belt on the other side. He felt good holding it, he didn’t know why.

He saw Freya arrive and approach the armoury tent. She was wearing simple clothes, no armour. She was a yellow size.

The attendant gave her the armour and she quickly buckled it all by herself. It fit her nicely. Jason was unsure why she wanted it, but then thought about it for a while. Free armour. He realised she was actually pretty smart for arriving with no armour on.

He nodded at her and she smiled. She walked to the horses nearby and started patting one. Her ghostly horse spell was off-putting to most humans so she was just trying to take the nicest horse she could find.

Nathaniel arrived and approached the tent. He was also a size yellow. The attendant smiled as he handed the armour to Nathaniel. Nate smiled back.

Redran arrived, he was already dressed in elegant gold and silver armour and a long blade sat on his hip. He buckled up Nathaniel quickly and shook his hand. The king arrived shortly after, he was standing on top of the gatehouse walls. He didn't say anything, just watched.

The king hired some trumpet players to play some slow triumphant sounds as the knights rode away. The band started to play.

Stella kissed Jason and he walked over to the carriages. He took the initiative and attached bronson to a carriage and then he got on the carriage reigns. The soldiers all mounted up, and Lord Redran began leading the large convoy. The trumpets played a hopeful, but sombre tune.

The Castle of Flowers disappeared on the horizon behind them.

The small army marched towards the ice mountains. They ventured through peaceful landscapes. Occasionally the group would have to traverse through shallow rivers. Other times they rode past meadows brimming with large yaks, and wild bucks. The party rode over a rickety wooden bridge and into a small town.

Breadtown was named after the founder of the city. Geoffery Donald Bread. He was the son of a famous king, In order to claim his own lands and namesake, Geoffery travelled to a small forest north of the Castle of Flowers to settle a new town.

This forest was just above sea-level, and located ten minutes from the beach. The weary travellers walked through the town to the stables and parked their carriages and horses in the courtyard. Redran approached the stablehand who immediately recognised him.

“I’ve read every single one of your books, are you kidding? Will you sign one, maybe two?

‘The Beasts of Belixic Hall’ is my favourite one. The romance was great, and that scene with the crossbow, and the giant alligator.” The stable hand started ranting.

“Yes, I can sign maybe something. But, I have news from the king. There is a drag-...

“A dragon!” The stable hand hollered. “Everyone saw it fly over the town a few weeks ago. We’re fucked. That thing is huge.”

Redran began to explain the mission of the convoy, and bartered to buy horses from the stables. Jason got off the carriage and gravitated towards the only person he knew. Freya.

“Hey, Freya.” He said, smiling.

“Hi,” she said with a huge smile. She’d just made a lot of Dime selling his enchanted items back at her homeland. “What’s new these days, Blacksmith?”

“Just, trying to kill a dragon.” He said offhand, and then raised an eyebrow. They both laughed.

“Maybe you need three swords, instead of two.” She said, pointing to his dual carry. They both laughed some more.

Nathaniel walked into the town, he was looking for the magic shop. Just to browse, although he did have gold mosaic tiles to spend. And ten golden swords to trade with. He wandered through the shops looking for the sign to the magic shop.

He saw it at the end of an alley, and stopped. The alley had a few doorways, a book shop, an ink shop and a magic shop. On the stoop of the magic shop was a coiled up sleeping brown striped cat. He had four white paws. Nathaniel approached and spoke to the cat to wake him.

“Excuse me little buddy, can I get past you there?” Nathaniel said. “Meow”

“Hey, Jackass, I was sleeping, but sure, I’ll get up, you look like you’re gonna walk out of here with a bag full of weird shit, might as well let you through.” The cat said, as he yawned and stretched. Then he jumped off the steps into some grass and wandered down the road in a slow, confident walk.

Nathaniel was taken aback, he had never seen a talking cat before.

“Sorry for waking you up.” Nathaniel said.

“Yeah, thanks for that, mate.” the cat said sarcastically, without looking back at him.

Nathaniel stepped inside the shop and found a dusty, cluttered shop. There were shelves filled, almost overflowing with every manner of magical type of item.

Nathaniel chuckled. He wanted to see what he could find among the junk. A few old dusty wizard robes hung from a bamboo pole. There was a male mannequin decked out in a blue robe, and a pointed blue hat. The sleeves and collar were painted gold. The shopkeeper was an old asian woman. She spoke with very good english.

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“Welcome, Nathaniel. You are welcome to browse anything you like.” She said, and then smiled. She looked at Nathaniel like he was the most handsome man she’d seen in years.

Nathaniel was a bit unsure how she knew his name, but it was a magic shop, she was probably a seer or mind reader. Nathaniel waved to her and replied.

“Hi there, what’s your name?” He asked.

“My name is Grace.” She said, “My inventory is always changing. I buy items too, if you are selling.”

“Have you got anything interesting?” He said with a nervous tone.

“Many things. Have a look.” She said, with a winning smile.

Meanwhile Jason and Freya had made it to the market. Freya saw a bandit she recognised. He was trying to blend in, but she knew she was being hunted. The man was staring straight at her, snarling.

“Watch this, Jason. Do you see that big fly, about to land on that donkey’s back?” Freya said. She distracted Jason by throwing an apple from a market stall at a fat fly. Perfect hit. The fly was definitely dead, the apple landed against a wall and half of it exploded. She then threw a dagger from her sleeve at the bandit. He fell backwards into a water trough. Nobody saw it happen.

“You fucking nailed that fat fly.” Jason turned back around and Freya was innocently picking up another few apples and she paid the man and she tipped a few extra Dime.

“I’ve never been to Breadtown,” Jason said. He was just talking to fill Freya’s silence. He could sense she was unsettled.

“I come here normally for the inn.” Freya said. “You can get drunk on ale and walk right onto the beach. There are normally some campfires, and groups of travellers singing. Depending on the night.” She was eyeing everyone they walked past.

“Would you like to see the blacksmith with me?” Jason asked.

“Sure.” Freya said, eager to get herself out of public view.

Freya and Jason walked to the blacksmith shop. They stopped outside the door. Freya saw a bandit on a roof, peeking over at her. She pushed Jason inside and stood by the inside of the door.

Jason started talking to the blacksmith.

“Hi mate, I’m a blacksmith too, how is it going today? Have you got any Emeralds, or any gold ingots?” Jason asked the Blacksmith, who was sitting in a chair reading a book behind the counter.

“I don’t have anything like that here. We don’t have enough fancy customers to get something like that in stock often.” The blacksmith thought for a moment. “I’ve got a bunch of iron, about fifty cows worth of leather hanging on some racks out back, a whole bunch of wood, but feel free to browse through my stock on the shelves. I sell other items. I made a whole lot of this gear. Pots, pans, anything you need.”

Jason looked behind the shopkeeper. This guy had a warehouse that continued for a long stretch. There were racks of tanned leather hides, and a few shelves of wood and iron.

Right above the blacksmith was a wall of swords and battle axes.

Jason walked around the shop for a little while. Freya slipped outside while he was distracted by the blacksmith’s wares.

She quickly conjured her angelic wings and floated into the sky, she saw the bandit perched on the rooftop. She shot him with three arrows and he was pegged to the roof. She landed next to him and conjured an almost invisible spectral hand. The hand picked up the dead man and she tossed him three hundred feet away, into the ocean. She jumped to the ground and walked into the blacksmith. Her wings were still ignited. She looked like an angel.

She walked inside and Jason was still distracted. The blacksmith was reading his book. She approached Jason, touched him on the shoulder. He jumped and turned. He looked at her wings and blinked rapidly.

“Hey Freya” He said. Freya’s wings vanished as she cancelled the spell. “Did I just see you have… Uh.” Jason was doubting what he saw. He only saw the wings for a brief moment before they turned completely invisible. He was about to say she looked like an angel. Jason decided not to embarrass himself.

“Do you think I should get this?” He showed her a tiny wooden carved frog. It was very silly looking.

She laughed and grabbed the toy to look closer. She smiled at the frog’s simple but goofy face.

“Definitely get the frog.” She handed it back to him.

Jason purchased the small frog and they both went back outside.

“There’s a magic shop around here somewhere.” Freya said. She was scanning the people in the street. Looking for any aggressors.

“I’ll bite.” Jason replied.

“This way,” she said.

Jason and Freya walked into the magic shop and saw Nathaniel holding a long mace. It was about the length of a sword, it was thin, but held heft. The end was spiked in a gothic fashion. Nathaniel picked it up and it started to glow purple. The light came from runes that were etched into the steel.

“That’s a pretty good weapon for you, love.” Grace said, waving sweetly at him. “I will give you a special price.”

“Where is it from?” He asked.

“It is a prison guard’s baton, from the Forbidden Castle.” Grace said. “It’s a standard issue. The light is really just a light for seeing in the dark. It looks cool though. A prison guard came out here to retire and sold it to me. Very cool, very scary.”

Nathaniel liked the look of the weapon and decided to buy it. He put it on the counter.

“I’ll take it but I’ll keep looking if that’s okay.” Nate said, curious to see the shop.

“Take your time, take your time, handsome man. Okay?” Grace said with a lot of speed.

Jason and Freya started walking through the shop, looking at the shelves.

“Have you got any health potions?” Freya asked the shop owner.

“Sure, I have plenty. They are twenty five Dime each.” She said with a smile.

“I’ll get fifty.” Freya said. Jason was stunned.

“No problem,” Grace said. Freya pulled out one of her treasure chests and started counting out the Dime. Grace was happy to watch and count. After the Dime was counted, Grace went to the back of the shop and started shouting at her asian husband. Shortly later, a fat, short asian man appeared carrying a crate. The crate was clinking gently with the sound of potion bottles. Freya opened her bag wide and the shopkeeper gently lowered the crate inside. Grace came out with a smaller box and also stashed it into the bag.

Jason and Freya walked outside.

Nathaniel approached the counter with a wicker basket filled with a few trinkets.

A shiny, silver goblet, a live scorpion in a jar, a spellbook, some jars of salt, a shiny, elf-made cutting knife, a deck of tarot cards and a forest green cape and hood. There was an assortment of potion ingredients and herbs too.

The shopkeeper smiled at Nathaniel. He pulled out twenty pieces of gold and showed them to her.

“These are some golden mosaic tiles.” Nathaniel said. He whispered to her after that. “They are from Vaelinnor’s tomb. We found the lost tomb and robbed it.”

She inspected the gold, and weighed it on a brass scale. She pulled out a big iron weight and placed it on the other side. The gold passed her test. She accepted the trade and smiled.

Nathaniel loaded the items into his bag of holding, leaving the basket on the counter. He waved to Grace and then left through the door. He came face to face with Jason and Stella.

“Hi, I’m Jason.” Jason said, reaching out a hand.

“Nathaniel,” Nate said, shaking Jason’s outstretched hand.

“City guard in the magic shop, hey, what’s your story?” Freya asked the young man.

“I’m not a city guard,” Nathaniel said. “Oh well, I am a city guard now. I mean before I was. I used to make. Um. Dead bodies. Well I would, um, magic, and then they talk and fight and stand up and walk around and.” Nathaniel said. He was really nervous because Freya was intimidatingly beautiful.

“Necromancer.” Freya said, casually. “I thought so.”

“Yes, I’m a necromancer.” Nate said.

“I’m Freya, by the way.” She said and waved politely.

“Well, I got your back Nathaniel, with all this dragon stuff. I am an enchanter.” Jason said. He pulled his sword from its sheath and it immediately caught fire. Freya was blown away.

This farm boy was impressive.

“I can do a lot of magic. Let’s eat, I’m hungry,” Freya said dismissively, walking away.

The two boys looked at each other and shrugged. Then they followed her back to the market.