After looking around for a while and even trying to retrace their steps to find out where the chest had been carried, the trio made no discoveries. It was like it had just disappeared into thin air.
Eventually, they decided to try gleaning some information from the townsfolk who were going back to their daily activities, but they ended up just learning random information about the town instead of anything useful.
“That shipment? It truly is a grace from Enthenglem to be able to move goods at this time of year. With the cold on its way, we will soon be isolated from everything but His warmth.”
Jean Farsue spoke with a slight French accent as he held out a chunk of hard tack to Holl. The captain nodded at the tough bread.
“So, why the hardtack?”
The baker waved the food around in the air, a devout expression on his face.
“It is wasteful to use money on anything else. This is already more than enough for us to thrive on.”
The baker handed over chunks of the hard bread to each member of the crew, then slightly nodded his head to the right. He noted that there was a hot pot of soup continuously cooking in the next shop over, and said that they could take as much as they needed.
The soup was almost necessary in order to soften up the hard tack, and the crew followed his instructions and headed over to take some. Inside the building that appeared to be a butcher shop, there was a small crowd of folks all gathered around the soup pot.
They shifted to the side to allow Roth’s group access to it, and one of them even passed them bowls and used a wooden ladle to scoop some of the steaming mixture for them.
Once again, though, when Holl tried to bring up the subject of the shipment and the jars, the townsfolk quickly changed the subject. It was impossible to get them to leak anything.
It wasn’t even that they were just refusing to tell Holl’s crew. They didn’t seem to know anything themselves, but they also wouldn’t talk about even what they didn’t know.
Eventually, the crew headed back to their cabin. They were running a bit low on firewood, but Holl had previously found a few tools tucked away in one of the corners of his room, including a wood axe and a saw.
After they finished their soups and warmed up, the trio headed out to the woods together to gather some more wood. There was a clear trail of where other people had been going out to get wood, and the crew chatted as they followed the path.
“Captain, what Lia said back on the ship about nationalities. That baker should be Catal, right?”
Holl nodded.
“And the girl was a Fris. When she said to run when you see one, she must’ve meant if it was someone dangerous. Maybe this baker is a threat- he definitely is acting strangely- but so is everyone else in this town.”
There was a large clearing at the end of the trail, with a thick pelt of sticks and branches covering the ground. Further in, the ground was covered by felled trees.
A few townsfolk moved about, two of them sawing the felled trees into chunks while a third split them and loaded the chunks onto a cart. When they saw the sailors approaching, one of the townsfolk waved at them.
“Fellow worshippers! Take whatever lumber you need, all is for the warmth of our people.”
Holl glanced down at one of the fallen trees, then nodded. It would be a lot easier to cut up an already fallen tree than to have to start from the very beginning.
“Kid, you take this.”
He passed the axe over to Roth while he and Cundy held the saw. While Holl bent down to start positioning the saw, Cundy looked over and winked at the younger fellow.
“Ya could use the labor, kid. You might have a face that can pull girls, now you just need some muscles and that red head will fall for ya.”
Roth’s face reddened a bit, and he suddenly became conscious of the cool metal necklace hanging against his chest.
“It’s not like that! I don’t even know why she gave it to me…”
Cundy bumped his elbow against Roth’s side.
“Hey kid, we saw you getting off the boat early with her. Did’cha talk about anything special?”
Cundy wiggled his eyebrows mischievously. Normally, the long-time sailor was stoic and unmoving, but he seemed a bit more jovial now.
After thinking for a moment, he shot a glance over at Holl.
“Kid, if you need any advice, just ask your old man Holl. He might not look it, but this fellow used to be quite the ladies man. Heh, and I doubt he’d decline if you asked to hear some stories-”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Oi! What nonsense are you babbling?”
The captain cut Cundy off and angrily gestured at the other end of the saw. A slight smile remained on Cundy’s lips, though, and Holl eventually responded to it.
“Don’t be polluting this kid’s mind with delusions about me. I’m just an old widower.”
Holl continued speaking as he started sawing, but he didn’t look away from what his hands were doing.
“It’s foolish to bring up this topic in the first place. Until we discover more about the state of this country, it’s better to avoid getting too involved. Also, be careful with who you chase after, kid.”
The saw cut near the bottom of the log, and the two senior sailors stopped moving it.
“That redhead girl probably isn’t the best person for you. From what she said, I’d have to guess that she is related to this war somehow. The cook said that she might even be a turncoat.”
Holl and Cundy lifted the saw out of the slot that it had made, and the captain kicked the chunk of wood, snapping the last bit off and rolling it toward Roth.
“Those types aren’t generally liked anywhere, and if they are willing to betray their country, I doubt they’ll have any qualms about betraying their partner.”
Roth positioned his axe to chop the recently-cut log in two.
“Don’t worry, captain. I’m not chasing after anything romantic. I just want to survive whatever’s on this island and find a safe place to stay.”
The log split cleanly in two, and Roth repositioned it to chop into smaller chunks as Holl and Cundy worked on sawing another piece.
-
-
The next morning, Holl heard news that a few hunters were back. One of the men who was returning was also one of the folks that the captain wanted to speak with the most.
Tolus was a man in his forties, and he was one of the two Regarded hunters in the town. This wasn’t something that was mentioned by any of the townsfolk, and when Roth’s crew asked the surrounding folks about where he might be, they spoke like he was a regular hunter.
Roth’s face lit up when he heard the location of the hunter’s house, and started leading his crewmates toward the nearly empty street on the left side of the town.
“Woof! Woof!”
Five dogs came running out from behind Hendrick’s house, bounding over to greet Roth. They all still looked just as healthy as before, but the mother dog seemed to be a little uneasy compared to before. She only came out to greet Roth for a short while before running back behind the house, likely to check up on her pups.
“Haha, hello fluffies.”
Roth happily patted the dogs, then looked up at Roth and Holl.
“These guys are super friendly. I’m pretty sure they are sled dogs, that’s why they’re so poofy.”
“I see… they seem a lot more interested in you than us, though.”
The dogs only spared a few glances for Roth’s teammates before running back over to the young man.
Roth happily reached into his backpack and took out a small chunk of jerky, then began breaking it off into little chunks and feeding it to the surrounding woofers. A few of them were a bit aggressive in consuming the snacks, but all of them were careful not to accidentally nip Roth’s fingers as he fed them.
Once all of the puppers had a piece, the mother ran over to Roth. When the young man gave her a chunk, she immediately ran back behind the house, then back to Roth.
“Heh, are you giving the chunks to your babies? I’ll give you enough for all of them, then!”
“Kid, I’m pretty sure she’s just eating them. I’ve never heard of a dog that would carry food to another dog.”
Just as Roth finished feeding the dogs, a figure appeared at the far side of the road. It was a tall, bulking man clad in a thick fur coat. Roth could see frost lining the man’s beard and eyebrows.
“Are you Tolus?”
Holl stepped forward, and the stranger nodded his head.
“Captain Wilson of the Algo told me you were a good person to talk to. Where works best to have a private chat?”
The hulking man scanned over the crew’s figures for a moment before nodding at the cabin next to him.
“Here. Say what you wish.”
The dogs surrounding Roth backed away and ran off to join the mother dog when Roth walked over to join the conversation. The street around them was completely devoid of people.
“Ehm… What we wanted to talk about, actually, would be best said in private.”
Tolus just shrugged, not budging a centimeter.
“Alright, then… About this Lord Enthenglem. You should be unaffected by it, correct? What is it, and how is it taking over the town?”
Tolus’s gaze sharpened for a moment, but he quickly hid his surprise at their question.
“Who are you folks? Investigators sent by Wilson?”
‘Not exactly, but he asked us to look into the issue.”
“Then I suggest you stay out of it. This issue will resolve itself on its own.”
Tolus shot a grim look toward Roth.
“And I’d recommend staying away from those muts. Their owner is a treacherous one.”
Tolus walked over to his house and entered it, pulling the door closed soundly behind him. It was clear that he had nothing to discuss with Holl.
“That… is definitely not what I was expecting. Hopefully the other hunter is a bit less prickly.”
The crew started walking back down the road, heading back to the main area of the town. As they walked, none of the dogs came back out to greet them.
“The other fellow, Enric, isn’t back quite yet. If he-”
“Thief! Someone’s stealing the boat!”
A sudden shout ripped through the town from the docks, and the crew, who were already close to them, turned to see what the commotion was about. The boat that’d brought the jars of mist the previous day had been left in the water, and now there were two figures in it, drifting out into the sea.
One of them was upright, paddling as quickly as it could, while the other was barely visible as it squirmed around on the deck.
That… is that Leon paddling away?
Roth pulled out his spyglass and easily identified the runaway person, and also got a better view of who was on the deck. The young man’s wife was still squirming around, struggling to free herself from the ropes binding her.
He kidnapped his wife and is running away? He did look pretty scared of whatever is going on with this island… Shit.
Roth’s frown was intense.
Why didn’t this idiot bring me with?