Tristran stared at the pay pouch in his palm, a pouch containing his yearly payment in coin for serving
Rome, for surviving yet another year at Hadrian's Wall.
"This is what one year of my life is worth to them," he thought.
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Pay day! Oh how everyone's spirits were lifted. Legionnaires, auxiliaries, support personnel, merchants, and knights alike clapped each other on the back, smiled great big smiles, and laughter was heard from the women and children.
Pay day! Better than a festival or celebration, better than a victory in battle.
Tristran took his pay pouch back to his room and tossed it onto his bed. He removed his sword and scabbard and laid them gently, lovingly on the bed next to it.
The memory of a past pay day and an overheard exchange niggled at Tris.
"Bors," quizzed Galahad, "if you could choose from between your weapons or three extra pay pouches, which would you choose?"
"Ha, an easy choice. Pay pouches, of course. I would take Vanora and the bastards and get as far from this place as possible. In fact, I'll trade you my weapons for your pay pouch, Galahad. I'll get more security from extra pay than from my weapons," answered Bors.
In remembering that conversation, Tris's eyes moved from pay pouch to sword as they lay side by side on his bed.
"How foolish," reflected Tristran, dismissively. "Bors could always find a way to get extra coins; all he need do is crawl around on the ground under the tables at the tavern after the customers have gone. There are always coins there, dropped by drunken legionnaires. But to give up so easily that which keeps him alive in battle is unworthy of a warrior."
Part of the yearly pay included a food allocation. Tristran had no difficulty in accepting that gracefully. One always needs food, after all. And there are ways to supplement the allocation, of course, through hunting and through trading some of the drink for more enjoyable treats, like apples.
Yes, food allocations were a good thing to have, and to trade.
In some years, Tristran needed a few of the coins to trade for items he could not make for himself, an article of clothing or a specially crafted dagger. In fact, this year he knew he needed to take three of the coins for a new leather glove for the arm upon which Wylda perched. The one he had was old and there were some rips in it made by Wylda's powerful claws.
As he thought of his need for a new glove, he recalled the first glove he got, before he obtained his first pay pouch.
For the first three years of service to Rome, a knight did not get coin pay, only a food allocation. Most of the young knights found ways of getting coins anyway, through wagers or games of chance. Tristran himself had found a few coins scattered about the fort grounds. He did not know what the shiny metal discs were at first. When he showed Arthur what he had found, Arthur explained what they were and how they were used to purchase things. Arthur told Tristran that he was lucky to have found them and to be careful to keep them safe so others did not try to steal them or take them from him through his inexperience with coin.
By the end of his third year at the Wall, Tris had quite a stash of coins saved. He thought they were pretty and Arthur said they were valuable. Still, he couldn't quite understand what all the fuss was about on that day that came each year when the older knights and the Romans each got a pouch full of them.
He was given or got for himself all that he needed and never used any of the coins he had found and hidden away. Until the time when he found he needed something to protect his arm from the strong and mighty claws of the hawk that had seen him from the sky and swooped down and landed on his arm. Fortunately he had been wearing his leather coat and cloak so his arm was not pierced.
When he realized that this hawk was now a new friend and companion, he knew he needed better protection for his arm. So he went to the leatherworker and asked for something that would provide the protection he needed from Wylda's claws (having decided that since friends have names and the hawk had become a friend, she deserved a name he could call her by; certainly not her name for herself as Tristran would not be able to pronounce it). He also said that he still needed to have his fingers free for using his sword and bow. The leather worker and Tristran came up with a design for a glove that would go high up his arm and be anchored by slots for his first two fingers and his thumb. He told Tris how much is would cost.
"What do you mean 'cost'? What is a 'cost'?" Tristran asked the man.
"The cost is how many coins you must give me for me so that I will make the item you want. I have to buy the leather and spend my time making the glove and that will cost you coins."
Tristran looked askance at the man. No one in his tribe had ever figured a "cost" for something that one person needed and another could provide. Well, this was a different world from his own and so he decided he had learned something valuable to remember, shrugged his shoulders, and agreed.
When Tristran went to the leatherworker to get his glove, he brought with him the number of coins the man wanted, the "cost." The man showed Tris the glove and Tristran looked it over carefully, tried it on, and was pleased with it. He handed the coins to the man.
"I want two more coins from you, boy."
"You told me to bring you two coins and I have done so. That is the "cost" of the glove that we agreed to."
"The leather cost me more than I thought it would and it took longer for me to make than I planned. So the cost to you is more than I originally expected it to be. You must give me two more coins or I will not give you the glove."
Now Tristran felt this was unfair somehow. "He is a leather worker. He ought to know how to judge the number of coins something should cost. I think he is trying to get more from me because I am young and a Sarmatian and therefore easily fooled. I do not care how many of these coins he wants. I have many in my room. They mean nothing to me. But I do not think he should change the number he wants after he has made the glove and before he gives it to me. That is not an honorable way to make a trade."
For a moment, Tristran considered leaving the two coins originally agreed upon and pulling out his dagger and flipping it in the air as his way of showing the leather worker what he thought of the demand for more coins. But he decided, instead, to give the man what he asked for as he knew Arthur would not like it if he hurt this man and it really was such a waste of his time. Tristran had training and practice to attend to and could not continue with this foolishness.
He went back to his room and got the two coins which he gave to the man. He took the glove and by his cold stare, told the man that he was lucky Tris had decided not to explain to him the dishonorable act he had committed.
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Tristran took the three coins from the pay pouch for the new glove he was having made and retied it. It was still quite heavy with coins and, as it did each year, the thought of Vanora's thanks when he gave it to her brought a fleeting smile to his face.
After Tris's first encounter with the act of making a trade for coin, he eschewed the need for anything he could not procure himself.
When he got his very first pay pouch, he checked to see how many coins were in it. Tris smirked as he realized he had more in his hidden stash than were in this pay pouch. All the other young knights who had also received their first pay pouch were already heading for the tavern, thrilled with the thoughts of buying their own drinks and joining in with the games of chance.
But Tris was not comfortable having so many coins. He wasn't sure he wanted to keep them but he certainly wasn't going to give them away to the others.
"Maybe Arthur will have a suggestion for what I can do with them. Although he might suggest I give them to the beggars, and that would not do. Beggars are just lazy, sitting all day, holding their hands out for coins and doing nothing to earn them. There is always something valuable a person can do no matter how small a task. Arthur would call it christian charity but I call it a waste."
As the young knight continued to consider his choices, he spied Bors and Vanora, Bors' girlfriend who was once again great with child. Bors was holding their first born with one arm, and had his other around Vanora's waist. She was looking at something … ah, Bors had given his pay pouch to her who was talking excitedly. Poor Bors. With one child and another on the way, his meager pay would not allow his growing family much in the way of clothing and other necessities ….
"I will give my pay pouch to Vanora. She is a practical girl and very sharp-witted and will make good use of the coins."
Tristran walked over to the tavern and lingered in the corner until Vanora was alone. He then put the pay pouch in her hand. He told her there were families in his tribe that had many children and while they were hardly ever hungry and cold, he knew it was hard work to keep them that way.
"I can take care of all my needs without the coins. I do not want to throw them away and I do not want to give them to beggars or drunks or Romans. I dislike having these coins; it is not my way to make use of them. Please take them from me and use them to help keep your children full and warm."
Vanora considered carefully Tristran's face before accepting the coins. She knew he was not prone to generosity or committing kind acts. But she could see he was speaking truthfully when he said he did not want them, that they were not in keeping with his ways, and so she took them, knowing she was also doing something for him in return.
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Tristran made his way to the tavern, found Vanora in the kitchen, and approached. She saw him coming to her and she moved to meet him. He put the pay pouch, minus the three coins for the new leather glove, into her hand. She smiled and thanked him, quietly so as not to be overheard, and he gave her a nod of his head. Tris then left the kitchen and made his way to the leatherworker. He traded the three coins, "I see the cost has not increased since last year. That is good," for the glove. He walked over to the stable, whistled for Wylda who came swooping out of the sky and landed on his arm.
"I feel you have a new glove for me to perch on. It feels good."
"I am glad you approve. Your comfort is worth every coin I traded for it."
Tristran thought of the stash of coins still hidden in his room; there were many more of them now as he had continued over the years to gather them from the places where they had been carelessly dropped. He knew he would need them when his service to Rome was completed to trade for passage home, home to where there was no need for coins and the problems that came with having them.