A female voice was speaking loudly, telling us to awaken. I slowly become aware, and see that five others are doing the same. The wagon itself is quite dark, but through the opening in its back, I can see a flat field, parts of some buildings, and a wooden wall. We must be at the guard’s fort.
Wern Ograth asks us to get up and exit the wagon. As we do so, my injured leg reminds me forcefully it is injured. It appears Hesta is feeling something similar. She says, “You will spend the night here, at our barracks. We are fortunate to have a couple of small officer’s quarters available, and each of your families can use one. I am sure it will be a lot more comfortable than even our finest wagon.”
“Captain Pokka, they should be ready for you now.”
He walks up, his wolves behind. “Hail to you all. The duchy is pleased to provide you with a safe and comfortable night’s rest. Are any of you citizens still wounded?”
Hesta and I eye each other, and then the Captain. He says, “I believe neither Young Forrest nor I have completely recovered, although he did finish healing my arm during our trip.”
The Captain responds, “Well done, Forrest Silverstone. I should be able to completely heal you both now. This time I shall do so individually. Overall it will be more efficient than using my aura. I’ll take care of the younger of you first.” My head had almost completely recovered, mostly due to the aura heal he used earlier. He focuses on me, and I feel the wound on my leg mending, like a soft, healing finger running along it. Unfortunately, I do not believe I am experiencing that kind of energizing sensation Arrjee keeps talking about. That said, after about 8 seconds a completely healed leg is a happy leg.
He waits a moment more, then turns to Hesta and focuses on him. It appears to take about 15 seconds. “You experienced heavy blood loss, Hesta Blakeman. Your body is fully healed, but it may not completely know it yet. You will do well to convalesce for the next day or so. Standing up and moving around will be fine, but I recommend skipping the Duchess’ relay tomorrow.”
Hesta gives an appreciative smile at the friendly humor. I don’t even know if there actually will be a relay held by the Duchess, but I understood the intent of the Captain’s calming words.
“May I call you Forrest?” I respond affirmatively. “You are an enigma, Forrest. A hybrid awakened boy who heals using ki from his very first day here. I am intrigued. May we speak again in the morning?”
“Of course, Sir. Maybe you can enlighten me in general about the duchy, and that relay I will be missing.” I smile at him.
He responds, “As respected civilians, you may all call me Randolf. Lieutenant, can you show them to their sleeping quarters, and assign someone to offload the carcasses. I’ll have someone cleanup and take care of the horses.”
The three guards we had first met were standing nearby. Nirran Ograth acknowledged, “Asha Yon and I shall take care of the cleanup and the free horses, Sir.” The Captain responded with a nod, and walked off with his wolves. Other guards in the area walked away as well, leading their own horses. Only the Ograths, Asha Yon, the Blakemans, and the Silverstones were left near the wagon.
Wern asked us, “Besides Hesta’s cart, the goods he had been bringing to market, and your two zebor carcasses, do you have any other possessions with you?” Hesta replied that he did not.
Mom said, “I have my spiked shield around here somewhere. Arrjee also has a well-used sword his master has him train forms with. Otherwise the group of us just have the two dead zebors. What options do we have with them?”
“The guard can behead them and pay you your bounties to split however you wish. If you want to sell the bodies to us you can. We would pay you less than you could get at the market. We would be the ones skinning and butchering the bodies, and tanning the hides. Of course, we had been expecting to do that with all seven of the beasts anyway, so you would still get paid fairly.”
Asha had jumped into the wagon and retrieved our gear. He handed Mom her shield and Arrjee his sword. Mom said, “Thank you, Asha.” He acknowledged with a slight head bow.
Mom asked Hesta, “You are the tradesman. How would you like to handle the zebors?”
He countered, “It is not my decision to make. Without you three Covargh coming to our aid, we would be dead. The full disposition is yours.”
Mom responded, “Your brave blood has already branded their corpses. Add your children’s tears, and it is a harsh bargain indeed. I propose we accept the bounties and sell the carcasses to the guard. Then split all proceeds between our families 50-50.”
He stares at my mother’s resolute eyes, and concedes. “I accept. Wern Ograth, we sell them to the guard.” Wern replied that we would get paid in the morning.
“Honorable wolf”, check.
Nirran and Asha got to work.
The Lieutenant told us that Hesta’s goods would be transferred to his cart once it had been cleaned. Three guards and a loaned horse would accompany them tomorrow, to either his home or the village that had been his destination. They believe the roads will be safe, but it would not hurt to have an escort.
“We will head home to my farm, thank you. That allows me to begin using one of my own horses to pull the cart again. Minor gods willing, my run-off horse makes it back home, too.”
She then asked my mother where we would be heading, and if we had a plan to get there. “Forrest will have a quest, and he will be heading off on his own sometime mid-morning. Arrjee and I will be returning to Cottages. With this extraordinary eveining, I had not yet considered how we would get there. Would it be possible for us to borrow two horses and have an escort also? Arrjee and Forrest could share a horse until it is time for him to leave.”
In blue this time:
Quest: experience your first sixdays
Reward: your second tuesday
Do you accept?
(No sense in having her lie.)
“Thank you, Interface. Yes, I accept.”
Wern looks at me appraisingly, “You will have a quest? You do not have it now?"
“It is something my interface told me about. I may have encountered Arrjee ‘too soon’ after awakening here, and it wants me to have more time all on my own. I don’t understand it all, but I believe I will be fine. My map can now show me the route to Cottages.”
“We can have a guard accompany you,” she offers.
I shrug. “That would defeat the purpose of having time on my own.”
“Do me a favor, please reconsider during the night, alright?” I respond affirmatively but already know what the answer needs to be.
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She finally leads us to our separate family quarters. Each is attached to a larger barracks, and they are across the road from each other. On the way, she showed us a couple of outhouses, the bathhouse, and the mess hall. Due to the sporadic nature of guard work, it is always staffed with at least one cook or attendant. Food can be obtained at any time of day, and it will be provided at no cost
Instead of entering their room, the Blakemans veer off to one of the outhouses. They are going to stop for baths and on to the mess hall after that. We decide to relax and destress for a while in our quarters. Inside there were four sleeping pads, each paired with a footlocker. The room also had four chairs and two desks, along with some sleeping cushions and blankets. The shield and sword were laid on one of the desks.
As we sat, Arrjee started laughing as he spoke. “Wolf, where has the Fifth Duchy’s worst liar gone? He was just here this afternoon. I saw him! He could not lie from a script. When you started telling Wern about your upcoming quest, I swear I believed you.”
I smile at them both. “I only told one lie. A small one. That was when I falsely implied that my map could show the full route back to Cottages. The thing about possibly encountering Arjee ‘too soon’, who is to say? Everything else was factually correct. Mom provided me with a truthful opening when she said that I will have a quest – future tense. Maybe she was thinking she would assign me one tonight.” I paused for a second, looking at her. She nodded affirmatively.
“But she does not have to. Just after speaking those words, my interface popped up a quest to experience my first sixdays. The reward is my next day here.”
Mom verified, “Your interface just assigned you a quest like that? On its own?”
“Yes. When Grandma was speaking with Arrjee and me, she mentioned that her interface had started acting smarter in the void after she died. I did not have an interface in my first life, so I have no personal basis for comparison as to ‘smarter’. But it does act smart. When it heard Mom say I would have a quest, up one popped. I accepted and thanked it, too.”
It was her turn for a light laugh. She said she would like one like that, and Arrjee wistfully said the same. I wish he did too, but considering he has had his family teaching him about Covargh life from birth, I can understand why unborn awakeneds like Grandma are treated specially.
After a bit more discussion, we decided to follow the Blakeman’s example. We would visit the outhouses, take baths, and then get something to eat in the mess hall.
With no taboo against nudity, the bathhouse was co-ed, or unisex, or something. I just have English words for that. Some words are stupid. We stripped off our armor. Underneath we each had a full-body undergarment which extended to our arms and legs. They were made of something that might as well have been cotton. The tear in my garment’s leg had not mended. I analyzed it, and sure enough, it bore no charms or enhancements. It was high quality, though, and in fact called cotton. My leather leggings had fully repaired during the evening.
While not cold, the bath was not exactly warm, either. Our soap was in liquid form, every bit as much a low-foam shampoo. We helped each other clean our backs, and we were clean, dry, and re-dressed in under 15 minutes. Clean is nice.
The mess hall had room for up to about 32 guardsmen at once. The seating consisted of four benches which could easily seat eight each. They were not cramped together, and the room had plenty of space. The diets of Covargh and Humans are the same, which makes feeding an integrated force straight-forward. I think the Blakemans must have finished before us. Inside were one female Human attendant and the three of us.
Hot and available were a vegetarian vegetable soup and one that reminded me of navy beans and ham. Both smelled great. The attendant appeared to be tired and was not very talkative. She was not rude though, and in fact quite helpful. She said if we wanted, she would make sandwiches, either with meat or without.
Some of the people of Heere are probably vegetarians.
I just had the bean and ham soup, but both Arrjee and Mom had both soup and sandwich. Mine could have used a little more salt, but I have always been a heavy salt user with beans. The meat sandwiches contained two cuts, it looked like pork and beef. They were served with some sliced cheese on the side, which could either be eaten alone or placed inside the sandwich. Arrjee offered me his slice, and I accepted a small piece, just to taste it. It was okay, sort of like a bland jack cheese. I preferred sharper cheddar cheeses, and apparently that preference carried over to this new body.
----------------------------------------
After eating our “midnight snacks”, we headed back.
In our room, we were all feeling the lateness of the night after the stress of our earlier battle. Mom asked me, “Do you have any plans for the morning, Forrest, before you leave us for a few days?”
“Grandma’s plan was for me to get up early and begin relearning any of the nascent skills that seem convenient to do so. I already relearned one after the battle. Remember me having Hesta raise his arm and holding a compress over the rip in his arm? You even took over for me after a while. What did you think about what I was doing?”
“It is not a technique I have seen before, but it made natural sense. You were minimizing his blood loss, and by having his arm raised you implied his blood would have a harder time moving above his heart.”
“That is exactly right. The technique is called ‘direct pressure’. It is used on heavily bleeding external wounds for the exact purpose you say. The compress is an important element because the fabric provides lots of little areas between its threads for the blood to start clotting within. A wound such as that is so large, natural clotting of blood against flesh and on the walls of blood vessels is insufficient to stop the bleeding. So until a healer or potion can provide actual healing, it is a very useful combination – raised arm, direct pressure applied to the wound, and the compress helping his blood to clot. Raising the wound above the heart is not essential, but when it is easy, as on an arm or leg, it is well worth doing.”
Arrjee cuts in, “The skill you gained was First Aid, right? You were telling Grandma and me about it.”
“Oh right, that is why I started telling you about the direct pressure technique. It is just one technique of several that make up the First Aid skill. I had needed to know it for my job as a fireman. We were often the first responders to the scene where there would be injured people. Highly trained medical personnel would follow shortly, but often it is best not to wait. You could be helping someone stay alive or uncrippled. My world had no magical form of healing, what we could do was all from knowledge, training, and experience. We also had a lot of special technology and drugs, but firemen did not carry that sort of stuff with us. We just had well stocked first aid kits to handle various kinds of emergency aid, and the advanced stuff would be at a hospital.”
Mom asks, “You are saying First Aid is not magical at all, no mana or ki? Can you train this?”
“Grandma asked me the same thing. Yes, it is taught on Earth to those beginning as young as 11 or so. Not everyone learns it, and not everyone who learns would necessarily be good at it. But on Heere, First Aid operates as a Learned Skill, improving by rank. Let me read you the skill’s description.”
“Query First Aid skill.”
First Aid is a set of abilities which allow you to handle various first-responder medical difficulties without the use of magic, magical potions, or ki. It is primarily knowledge-based, although training and practice greatly contribute to the effectiveness of any given technique. Rank and Dexterity both contribute to the speed and degree of success. Rank D values:
Success rate: +30%
Speed: +15%
Stress: 8 stamina/min of application
I read it to them. They are both very impressed and anxious to later learn it. Arrjee notes, “Rank D! You must have known it very well, at least at B and even A rank.”
“Why is that?” I ask.
“Grandma says that nascent skills are granted at two ranks below what you knew them, but obviously no lower than F. So two higher than D is B. For you, your original skill level might have been A, but nascent skills cannot be granted any higher than your highest ranked skill, which for you is D.”
Mom, looking with expectation at Arrjee, “Do you have any nascent skills, son?”
“Just Forage right now, but I think if I am exposed to other tongues, I may learn a Languages or Translate skiiil”
…
A scared and surprised look enters his eyes, “Mom, how did you know I might have nascent skills?”
She walks over to him and gives a hug. While hugging, “Your Father and I suspected you were a born awakened since you were two and a half years old. By the time you were three, we were sure of it. As a very young pup, you would often talk to yourself when you didn’t see anyone in the room. You would say the strangest things, like:”
“There is much, so much more.”
“I have so few legs and yet I walk.”
“I have toys. I have parents who love me.”
“Other people come to visit again.”
“Why are we not foraging?”
“It was our Beaver who was saying those things, so the maturity of the thoughts themselves contrasted against your ability to enunciate the words. It was adorable. I don’t know if you remember ever seeing us smile for no reason, but I assure you, we had reason.”
“It was clear to us that you were experiencing the world with two sets of eyes. Don’t worry son. We have always loved both of you, whoever the other you is.”
“But Grandma? She did not know a thing. Forrest figured it out and forced me to admit it to her. I was going to tell the rest of you this coming week, while Forrest is gone.”
“I never forced you, brother. I simply offered you an opportunity to speak something which I was quite sure you already wanted to.”
Mom gave Arrjee a final tight hug, and sat back down. “We never told her. It was your story to tell, when and if you chose to do so. But with your new brother being an unborn awakened, I just felt that now was the time. We know you are just as special as him.”
“Grandma is very clever. It doesn’t make sense that she wouldn’t have figured it out on her own. You and Dad did. …?”
“For the several years you were a toddling pup, Mom was very busy with her business. She would be constantly traveling throughout all of the Fifth Duchy and beyond. About the time you turned six, she got tired of being away from home. But by the time you had turned four, you had stopped saying the strange things that might set you apart. You had probably resolved to act fully Covargh, and to keep your earlier life a secret.”
“Maybe we should have intruded and forced the issue into the open. Let you know that we had love for both of your yous. Your father and I discussed it for weeks, and in the end decided the first you deserved respect as an adult. We did not know for sure you had been an adult, but the strange questions and pronouncements of the past few years gave us the strong impression that you were. When and if you would tell us, you would tell us.”
Arrjee took several deep breaths. “I love you and dad for a huge number of things. I now have another big one. Respect for the me you never knew.” His eyes were moist.
“Before Forrest arrived today, I had a plan to tell everyone. In about three months, on the day I receive my Level 1 and classes, I was going to tell Grandma. We have spoken often about awakeneds, and telling her first just felt right. Then over the next days, I would tell the remainder of the family, and eventually not hide it from the Village either.”