Chapter 4: Where to sleep

The town of Carn, a small little settlement in the midst of a broad valley in the center of the country of Daein. The size of the town would make for the perfect location for a group of brigands to raid and pillage. A town of this size with roughly 100 residents wouldn't be able to stand a solid chance against a functional squad of raiders. However, the town had two factors that added to their defense. One, the town was only a half a day's ride from the capital of Nevassa. Two, the town was a major training point for Daein's military recruits. The town had roughly 100 residents, while the training academy rarely had less than 30 fresh recruits being trained in Daein military tactics and battle skills. This alone would not detour any raiders from making a camp near this settlement. What completely removes any threat of raids is the leader of the training camp, 4th in command of general Gawain's army, Pert. This man was a general class, he had strong steel armor and while he lacked true skill, his abilities were more than capable to raise up the new green recruits for the military of Daein.

Traditionally Daein worked much different in military recruiting than the other beorc sovereign states. While Bengion and Crimea worked in a very feudal state, with local lords, including the monarch funding their own private military, which operates under the sovereign control of the country. Daein in contrast was a military state. The monarch funded all military operations. Only the top leaders of the military were allowed to use monarch funds to strengthen their army in their desired way, approved by the king of course. Now the king of Daein only had five leaders whom he trusted to raise personal armies, other than the king himself. These five were, Gawain the hero, Tauroneo and Bryce the generals, Lanvega the blue paladin, and of course Prince Ashnard, a young man of ruthless might and talent. The king to keep Daein's military strong entrusted these men with the recruitment and training of his soldiers. Each leader had their own camps throughout the country and each camp was designed to train up certain types of units, to keep Daein's military flush with a diverse array of soldiers for strategic purposes. The utmost goal of Daein's king in doing this was to keep feeble nobility who ruled the local towns from having anything to do with military might of his realm. The king knew the weakness and lack of strength that such nobles in his lands held. How people such as the now deceased Dominic were so weak as to be killed by his own slaves. The king, being wise and smart knew that Bengion was immense in size compared to Daein and Crimea was an ally of Bengion. The king knew that the best way to protect his people and crown was to keep such weaklings away from military functions and let them take care of civil matters, freeing the commanders to focus on the protection of the realm. This strategy was effective, and kept the ambitious senators of Bengion at bay for the most part. Most of the conflict had during this king's reign had been against brigand groups full of criminals and escaped slaves or laguz.

Slavery in the realm was tolerated but not widespread or acclaimed. Most of the slave owners were in fact the nobility in charge of the various civil matters in Daein, while the military leaders refrained from such a barbaric practice. The king himself refused to have slaves and insisted on all his servants being paid for their services.

Of course, all of these details were over the heads of the party of four escaped slaves entering the small settlement of Carn. Pan, Gaius, Zell, and Alex, the four of them were flush with emotions as they entered the town. They ran about the town introducing themselves to each person, excited that all noticed them; they were actually greeted rather than ignored. People stopped and waved rather spitting at them or hurling insults. Even with the parties clothes being tattered and dirty from their travels the group was still welcomed to the town. The group never felt such love and acceptance, even though the townsfolk weren't being uncharacteristically nice. The people were simply behaving as they always would and felt obliged to greet their guests.

"Sir!" Gaius called to a man sitting on a barrel enjoying the cool of the morning. "Where is nearest place to eat and maybe sleep?" Gaius tried his best to sound intelligent and informed of the way the world worked, yet the man could tell something was strange about him. The man gave the young beorc a good looking over. He was untrusting of this stranger that has come into town with a small retinue at his side. The group seemed strange to him. However, he looked them over closely and his eyes caught a glance at Zell, a young girl, whose potential beauty has been masked by hunger and lack of proper rest. He felt compassion, pity, and a desire to help her.

"Head down to that building, there be food and bed." The man had stood up and pointed to a large building at the far end of the main thoroughfare in the town. This place was large, but was surpassed and the immense fort positioned just past it a few hundred feet from the edge of the saloon. The group gazed at the immense size of the fort, and how the noise of steel clashing permeated the air and kicked up a moderate cloud of dust that hovered above the town. Gaius bowed in thanks toward the gracious townsman in a rather subservient manner. The bow was so demure that it surprised the townsman and he rose to his feet in disgust at the gesture. Zell and Alex quickly raised the man to his feet hoping to keep him from drawing immense amounts of attention. Gaius began to blush realizing that he was acting as a slave which he no longer was, he felt compelled to apologize yet couldn't find his tongue as he embarrassedly turned and walked with the others down the main street. Pan found the whole situation quite hilarious but never lost focus to keep his mangled arm hidden from sight. He knew his life would be challenging now with only one serviceable arm and being elderly, yet in this moment he was starting to realize the dangers and hardships his future would hold as he tried to blend in with society. His smile turned to a frown as he tightly gripped his cloak and proceeded with his friends.

Arriving at the little inn that doubled as a saloon the group stood outside the doors. In this moment stood a new complex and question of social skills for them…how to enter an edifice. Never before had they entered a building, always before the party had been inside the compound of Dominic their Dominus. Never have entered into the belly of another structure. So recently the group fought fear to leave a building and now they sought to return to one. All stood flabbergasted and confused, scared that entering would cause them to become slaves to this new household, a new master of possibly even worse temperament and wrath against his help. None of the men in the group inched toward the door. Zell noticed the fear in their eyes, she too shared in the fear presented to her. She herself remembered the way Dominus looked upon her and frequently how he would check her gowns for a red sign of womanhood. She was thankful she had never blossomed whist under his roof. Nerves gripped the group to a fault. None dared to make that fatal first move to open the door.

Clenching her fist and gulping her saliva, Zell put on a smile and moved to the door, much to the surprise and chagrin of the men. They never expected her to be the brave one. She opened the door and led the way into the saloon. Amazed at the amount of people huddled around inside the building drinking and talking gallantly about any and all topics The group felt the smell in the air, a smell that showed that this wasn't the best place to be found in for reputable dealings. The room smelled of whine and vomit, a rare but coupling combination that gave a rather pungent aroma to the room. Things were surprisingly calm inside people kept mostly to themselves, yet as the group led by the pre-teen girl inched closer to the bar top in search of the owner or someone able to give them shelter and food the clientele of the saloon found it hard to not notice the strangers in town. They examined their worn out shoes and dirty skin; how their cloaks all matched the others and that they were drastically nicer in material and quality than that of the rest of their apparel. Suspicion rose in several people's eyes. However, Zell kept right on walking over to the bar. "Hello Sir!" she said in a cheery mood to the barkeeper, hoping he was in charge. "Do you have any rooms?"

"60 gold for a night's stay." The barkeep replied with a stern disinterested voice. He could honestly care less about the requests of some small little girl. Zell took no notice to his tone, as anything to her sounded better than the rage and lust in Dominic's now silenced voice. She turned to Pan and grabbed a bag from his belt containing the coin she pilfered from her former master's house.

"Is this 60? She asked having no real clue as to what she just handed over. The barkeep emptied the bag onto the table, coins fell from their purse with purpose. The barkeep looked over the sum carefully then quickly ceased counting as he began to laugh at the lot presented him. He moved the coins back into the purse and tossed it back into the hands of the young girl before him. "This is 6 coins." He gaily proclaimed, "this is not enough to even buy a good drink." The group was wounded by his words they had no clue what to do in this situation, did they offer their service to him, or did they leave, or ask others for the funding. Gaius retorted quickly asking if there was any way that they could find rest in this house of sin. "She can stay." The barkeep said in reference to the young girl as she was of descent figure and possessed a form capable of beauty. "She'll make a solid comfort girl!" his eyes widened as he reached out to touch her cheek and caress her skin. He began breathing heavy as he felt her skin. "Would you like to stay here and sleep under this roof free of charge little girl? All you have to do is help some men calm down once in a while. How 'bout it?" Zell wasn't entirely sure about the remark yet, Gaius and Alex all too well understood the offer as they had seen fellow slaves used for such sport in the past. The idea enraged them both. Gaius thrust his spear in the direction of the barkeep stopping the thrust before hitting the man. Zell cowered back still unsure as to what the request meant. Then she looked up and saw on the second floor several girls not much older than her beaten up and bleeding from the groan as they had been absolutely used up for base sport. The used girl's eyes seemed void of thought or consciousness as they were absent any or all resolve or opinion.

"Guys lets leave this house of wickedness!" Gaius exclaimed to the other as he kept his spear firmly leveled at the throat of the pervert serving drinks to the patrons of the bar. Pan grabbed Zell's hand and moved out the door while Alex and Gaius moved towards the door with their spears raised to attention. The whole bar was alerted and many drew swords ready to fight the strange invaders who so threatened their master of drink and whores. Gaius and Alex lunged back further with each step not turning their back on anyone in the building for fear of not living to see the outside world once more. As they exited the building three arrows and an axe hit the door frame barely missing the scalp of the branded young man. This was a dangerous world they were living in and they weren't aware of the rules.

Once free from building and backed away the men lowered their spears and turned toward their friends still gripped by fear of what could have been. "What should we do?" Pan said

"Why do we need money?" exclaimed Gaius as he hugged tightly young Zell. He in this moment finally showed the affection for her he possessed in his heart for several years now. Despite her age being nearly half of his, she was incredibly special to him and he desire to see her well looked after and not mistreated by ravenous hands seeking great evils to perform to the innocent minds, robbing them of purity. The group was confused as to what they should do next, they lacked money and needed steady food and rest to maintain some semblance of health. The group stood perplexed by the options in front of them.

"Citizens!" a call rang through the air. The group paid no note, as they knew no call to mean them. "Citizens!" the call rang again without the special notice of the party. The group remained thinking about what to do about their pressing problem of shelter.

"Where will we sleep tonight?" Alex asked looking toward Gaius, the rest of the group followed suit as they together felt their responsibility for finding housing shift from themselves to Gaius alone. Gaius felt the sting of their gaze yet couldn't bring himself to speak or even look them in the eyes as he knew nothing of the world and feared putting his friends in harm's way.

A hand tapped Gaius on the back. "Citizens!" the man whose hand touched Gaius exclaimed for a third time. The group looked in unison as Gaius turned abruptly toward the man yelling. They were unsure what to say in response to this figure incased in an iron breastplate and spaulders. The man carried a steel sword still in its sheathe and stood an imposing figure with his armor reflecting the sunlight. "Citizens…are you here to join the military camp of Gawain the hero? The group stood in silence. Who was Gawain? They thought as this man still stood amongst them. The Knight continued to speak. "I am Rascus, the training sergeant of knights wielding the sword. I assume you have come to join up since you are here in this town and carry weapons. Most travelers will only have a knife or more luggage, yet you seem to have nothing and appear ready for war." Gaius perked up he saw this as a possible chance to have a roof over his groups head and no longer be without need of food and shelter. He remembered the guards in his former Dominus' home. They were well cared for and had a their own barracks in which they rested each night. Gaius could think of no better possible plan to get his friends and himself sound food and rest than obliging his offer.

"Yes we are here to join the army." Gaius proclaimed proudly. "So long as you feed us and give us a bed." The group turned their gaze once more toward Gaius, uneased by this statement announced for their collective person. The group just left one building that had mistreated them and wasn't exactly ready to try something else. Rascus belted out in laughter.

"You are a funny one aren't you!" the knight proclaimed. "Of course you'll be cared for as soldiers of his majesty's army under the hero Gawain. The knight extended his hand to shake that of Gaius. Gaius reached out and shook the hand of Rascus, nearly missing his hand as he reached out in haste. The choice had been made and the group felt somewhat excited and hopeful for food, yet they knew from the tales heard through the household of Dominic and from their own personal experience the horrors and dangers of combat. "Welcome to Carn." Rascus said. "Follow me to the fort and to your dinner." Rascus turned and pointed toward the giant structure that caught the gaze of the party before the entered the saloon. The group was in amazement that they would be entering such a structure and perhaps just as astonished that they were to become soldiers, killers for a living. Rascus led the way as the 5 moved toward the imposing wall of the fort, excited and bewildered as to what might happen upon entrance to such as place. However, above all else, the group was happy to know that they would have a place to spend the night, a place for their head.