With our plan for the day pretty much made we finished breakfast. It wasn't much of a plan, but we were doomed to wait for Zul'gar and the rest of the caravan anyway. We left the inn without most of our luggage or gear. Quu'za essentially only brought the bag with the ogre teeth. Kaele only brought her familiar along and had her hands full trying to keep the little rascal out of trouble. I in turn left most of my war gear behind, arming myself only with a hunting knife in a sheath at my side. We probably still looked like a quite adventurous group anyway. Not that I did mind. At least most pickpockets and the like would give us a wide berth that way. I really didn't feel like dealing with that kind of trouble. Things like that were essentially unheard of back home. Here in the bigger town there were bound to be some less than fortunate individuals who had to make a living that way.
I wanted to believe that no one had to resort to such means and ways to make a living, but that probably was wishful thinking. The king's reign was pretty benevolent. It was efficient as well. And the nobles, at least the ones I knew, ruled their domains equally well or at least to the best of their abilities. Most people worked pretty hard too. But hard work and the best intentions were not always enough. Sometimes people just ran into a spot of tough luck and sometimes good intentions, preparation and hard work were not enough to deal with it. At times such down on their luck people would do desperate things. To them banditry and the likes might just sound like a good idea. Sadly some of these people never found their way back onto the righteous path of virtue. Some of them even made a career of their thievery.
I got to see evidence of that as we reached the lords mansion which doubled as the seat for the lord's officials during daytime as well. There were a number of wanted posters put up on a large wooden board in front of the building. Most of these were standing bounties on monsters like ogres, but a few featured more or less accurate portraits and descriptions of the more notorious, local outlaws. I studied them just in case. As I started looking at them Quu'za prompted me to read them to her. We weren't in a hurry, thus I complied with her request. Who knew, maybe she knew of the hideout of one or another of these. I wasn't very comfortable with the idea that the cheerful harpy might turn to bounty hunting, but there were probably worse things she could do with her time.
In the end she seemed more interested in the other bounties for dangerous monsters anyway. Maybe that was for the better. Maybe I could hire her and a few of her people as mercenaries? I might just have to do something like that. The king had called the banners to arms after all and Caer'zoth couldn't really field a full banner right now. Certainly not without leaving our home completely defenseless. Harpies were fast and their senses were pretty keen as well. Judging by their nightly fight against the ogres they could even operate at night and they certainly didn't lack in courage either. Maybe I could persuade some of them to relocate to Caer'zoth? Our densely forested hills weren't exactly their preferred habitat but maybe we could come to a compromise?
I was so lost in these thoughts that I almost missed the official calling us up to his writing desk once the petitioners that had been ahead of us were finished with their business. It was Kaele's elbow that roused me from my thoughts. I picked the notice about the bounty for ogres from the board and stepped up to the official together with Quu'za who presented her bag of teeth as proof of our deed. “We ran into some trouble with ogres on our way here. We dealt with them and would like to collect the bounty.” The official nodded and accepted both the notice and the bag of teeth, although he didn't seem all too pleased to deal with the latter. I could relate, knowing where the things came from and what their previous owners used them for. They probably would get sold to an alchemist later on to cover for the bounty.
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The man emptied the bag on his desk and counted the teeth without touching them, moving them about with a short stick he probably kept about for just such occasions. “Four ogres and one of them was a pretty darn big one judging by those fangs.” I nodded in confirmation and so did Quu'za. He looked a little impressed. There was a hint of curiosity as well. He turned the slightly blackened teeth of the biggest ogre about with his stick. “What did you do with this one? A fireball to the face?”
I shook my head. Flashy offensive spells had never been my specialty and even if I knew how to cast a fireball I wouldn't have used it. Sure a fireball sounded impressive but they were not terribly effective. A continual flame lance, a little like a dragon's breath attack, was a much better use of Mana. Never mind though. That had been the ogre I took down with the lightning spell I had improvised as the muse kissed me in a spur of the moment decision. “I took it down with a lightning spell. Might have been a little overkill. There was nothing left but blackened bones.” I grimaced a little. “Almost did myself in as well. If I had been any closer to it the spell would probably have cooked my flesh of my bones as well. Might be just my imagination but sometimes I can still feel my toes tingle.”
The clerks eyes widened slightly as I told him about that particular part of our fight with the damn man eaters. Before I could say anything else though I received another elbow to the side. Kaele looked more than just a little irritated. “You didn't tell me. Is that why? You almost got yourself killed again through your reckless actions? You, you … dummy!” The cat jumped from her arms onto me as well, swatting me on the head with a paw, as if to emphasis her mistress words, before jumping back into Kaele's arms. Well, yes, I might have not been too forthcoming with details about that encounter. She hadn't really pressed the issue either though. I had expected her to be irritated if she knew what I had done and she probably hadn't wanted to know in detail as well. She probably was wishing right now that she still didn't know. Improvising spells like that was beyond reckless after all.
The clerk was amused though and probably not just due to our antics. “That was you?” He kept talking while he wrote two copies of a receipt, one for us, the other for the books. “That lightning strike is something people will be talking about for weeks at the very least. The storm was bad enough and then, BAM, with one strike it was all over. People probably still saw that one all the way in the great plains in the west! Some say that the rolling thunder that followed blew out lanterns all the way here in town!” As he was done he started counting coins into Quu'za's bag. Thirty for each of the ogres. I counted along in silence. Kaele probably did so as well, although it was hard to tell. She still looked mighty mad. Finally he handed the bag with the coin back to our harpy friend together with our copy of the recipe. “Well, here you are. Pleasure doing business with you.”
Quu'za accepted the bag, weighing it in her hands, now that it was heavy with coin. She probably would have to carry it in her arms as it was too heavy to wear it at her belt now. I patted her on the back before turning back to the clerk. He was already about to call for the next in line when I stopped him by raising my hand. “We are waiting for a caravan from Caer'zoth. We had to part ways with them east of the hills. The guards at the gate suggested that they could pass along a message to us if we let you know where we stay.” He didn't look surprised and just nodded, taking out another slip of paper. “We are Keza'zoth and Kaele'zoth from the domain of Caer'zoth and we are staying at the Horn & Antler.”
He noted down the essential details on the slip of paper in big, easy to read letters. Once he was done he pinned it to another board, next to a number of similar slips. He and the other clerks could easily access it there. He flashed us a smile. “Consider it done.” Before I could turn to leave though he quickly grabbed the notices about the ogre bounty and handed it to me. “Could you put that back on the board on your way out?” I accepted it and nodded.
Quu'za, still cradling the heavy bag full of iron crowns lead the way, followed by my sister. I stopped at the notice board and put the ogre bounty back up before hurrying to catch up with the others. “Well, with that taken care of, how about we go shopping?”