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Archer1eye: Yeah, the other Shard is definitely not as... socialised as our favourite one ;-) Or perhaps socialised in the wrong way... The whole area was a ruined Tenebraian temple, where sacrifices were made and where she created undead. She's not as... nice as our Shard :) Sharein has a lot of shards to collect, but yes... It is kind of a skyrim like map, but only accessible *sometimes*. Please check out World Anvil, I keep updating different things and am trying to really flesh out my world both there and here. No need to apologise for the head poking in time, I'm just glad to hear from you :)
Chapter 89? Day of High Summer? 768 n.c?
Once we reached the mountains once more, we turned westward and rode in that direction for three days. It was quite a pleasant journey with Karalin, her local knowledge of the forests taught me a few new things about the uses of various plants and leavings and also provided better knowledge on where to find certain components. In exchange, I shared with her what I knew; for which she was grateful. The weather was quite nice, though a bit warm for my tastes and the westerly breeze on our faces was very welcome.
We stopped on the third day at a river that flowed down over the great escarpment on our left in the form of a glorious waterfall that cascaded down into a fairly deep and extremely clear pool of water before flowing off into the forest to the north. The trees either side of the river seemed to grow taller and greener than those around them but despite this Celestine's light still shone down through them to make the river sparkle like crystal as it disappeared into the forest.
We were both quick to shuck our clothes, with the horses left to graze on the juicy new shoots of grass that surrounded the pool. The sun and warmth had made us sweat, which in turn made us uncomfortable and with such a tempting solution provided for us we took advantage as quickly as we could.
Karalin was quicker than I to strip, but not significantly so. She jumped into the water just as I reached the edge of the pool and surfaced with a squeal just as I was about to follow. I paused and prepared myself to call upon my magic, but once she spluttered some water out of her mouth she was able to communicate.
"It's…" She spluttered, "it's… cold."
She swam quickly back towards the edge of the pool and I debated the quandary.
"I think I'd rather you had not told me that," I told her, "for now I'm torn between the desire to get clean and the worry at the temperature."
I dipped a toe into the water and realised with a start that it was indeed, very cold. The water must have come straight from the ice-topped mountains to our south.
I was just about to summon my courage to jump in and Karalin was consequently just about to climb out when I realised that Tenebrae could grant us protection from the cold.
"Wait a moment," I told Karalin and knelt down to touch her arm.
I prayed to Tenebrae to grant her the ability to Endure Elements and I observed its effects almost immediately with her widening of eyes and surprised smile.
"You made the water warm!" She exclaimed and I giggled, "no, it's still very very cold, I just made it so that it wouldn't bother you."
"In any case, I'm grateful," she said, "I'd really like to soap up and wash my hair but I don't think that I could have endured it in that water as it was," she thought for a moment then gasped in realisation, "could you fetch the soap out of my saddle bags before you hop in?"
"Of course," I said and once I had fetched the bar I prayed to be granted Endure Elements myself and jumped straight in.
The water did not feel cold at all, in fact it was quite comfortable. We swam in the pool and cleaned our hair and skin with the soap; then once we had finished we washed our clothes thoroughly using the soap and lay them on rocks to dry. We filled our water skins and decided to have lunch while we waited for our clothes to dry. It was while we were working on preparing a meal that I realised that we were both naked and I was overcome by a sudden embarrassment. Not so much that Karalin had seen me naked, but that I had seen her. Suddenly her nakedness had become so much more obvious and I went to great pains not to peek. Karalin of course had immediately noticed my change in reaction and sudden shyness and correctly guessed the cause of it.
"Sharein," she said, and I looked up, "you can look," she said simply, "I don't mind if you look. I love this body," she said as she ran her hands down her sides, then paused and corrected herself, "I love my body. I didn't… Before, but I really do now. So I don't mind if you appreciate it as well. I mean…" she said before suddenly spinning around and pointing at herself, "how great is my bum!"
She looked over her shoulder and laughed at me, likely at the redness that must have taken over my cheeks. I felt the blush spread all the way down my chest.
"So you can look," she said, then blushed herself and added with less confidence, "but no touching, alright?"
I gave her a smile, "of course not. Shard is my one; I couldn't imagine sharing that with anybody else."
Karalin put on a cute face and exclaimed, "aw, that's just so romantic!" She pouted, "I wish that I could find a man to treat me like that!"
"Well…" I said, "I can think of a couple of widowers from Easthaven, though you'd have to be quick as a man doesn't usually stay unmarried for long."
She laughed, "I don't think that I could settle down with a farmer, a merchant's guard perhaps or a ranger like me perhaps?"
We ate our meal in companionable silence and dressed in our already dry clothes.
"It's such a nice place, here," I said to Karalin, "it's a shame to leave it. Should we camp here the night?"
"We could, if you wish it," she replied, "but every monster around would likely be thinking the same thing and when they come out at night we would be often disturbed."
I nodded at her wisdom and together we gathered and packed away our things. The horses were easy to round up and we were soon on our way once more.
It wasn't long before the forest began to thin out to the north and then very abruptly stopped. We continued riding as Celestine began to sink, with grasslands to our right and the escarpment to our left until just before darkness we came across the first farm. The farmer working in the field looked up at us and followed our path warily, only continuing his work once we had passed. The farmhouse in the distance didn't have any lights just yet, but another ahead did. We rode past six farm houses before we came across a path that wound from the right and continued ahead towards the lights of a town.
As we approached, I came to realise that this town was quite a bit larger than Easthaven. Stone buildings abounded with clay tiled roofs and shuttered windows. The dirt of the path made way for cobblestones as we got closer and soon we crossed onto quite a wide stone road that lead towards the mountain escarpment. All of the buildings on either side of this road had merchant's shingles hanging over their doors. It was almost dark, so almost all of the shops were closed but lights, noise and the coming and going of patrons made obvious the local Inns. There were at least three of them within sight with one to our right and two to our left. Looking down the road towards the two made me realise that we had reached our first destination, for the cobblestone road continued into the mountain. A great tunnel darkened the rock, at least three carts wide and at least six people high!
We were in Hillwaeholm!
We determined that we should stay in this town the night and I already had accommodation in mind. I remembered Malkarov's story about the Mink and Shovel Inn and the food that they served there.
The Inn to our right was named The Badger and Tunnel, with it's shingle displaying a badger inside an arch and the first Inn we came to on our left had an eagle clutching a pick axe, The Eagle and Pick. The Inn closest to the tunnel was our destination and had a shingle displaying a mink standing up next to a shovel. A man opened the door to the Inn and stumbled outside onto the road, the noise from inside was raucous and lively. An alley ran down beside the Inn to what I presumed were stables behind. We rode down the alleyway and were greeted by a stablehand, a young man about my age who had blond hair that reminded me of Brahdi. I wondered what had become of her? I had not seen her or her family in the refugee camp and I couldn't remember seeing her body anywhere.
"Ma'am?" The stablehand interrupted my ponderings.
"Yes, sorry," I returned, "we will be taking a room here for the night before we head to Allarth."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, touching his hand to his forehead, "jus' head through tha' door there," he instructed with a gesture towards one of the doors at the back of the Inn, "it leads straigh' to the common room. Jus' let Master Ingrum the Innkeeper know tha' you've horses here an' I'll bring your packs up to your room."
I gave him a nod as I dismounted and passed him a copper bit from my purse, he thanked me profusely and I wondered whether passing the stablehand a coin was not a common practice here as it was in Easthaven.
We followed his directions and soon found ourselves in the common room, it was a very lively and loud place with tables of men drinking ale, laughing and telling stories all about. There was a stage to one side where a minstrel strummed a lute, it's tune hardly audible over the other noise. Serving women weaved through the tables picking up mugs and taking coin for fresh ones, bringing them up to the bar to wait for a barman to fill them from a tapped keg behind him. One man in slightly finer clothes stood behind the bar surveying the scene, his once blond hair turned mostly white.
"Master Ingrum?" I asked as I approached him and he looked me up and down shrewdly.
"Aye," he replied, "are you after a room?"
"Yes please," I asked, "one room with two beds for the night, stabling for six horses, a meal and ale," I turned to Karalin and she nodded, "for each of us."
The Innkeeper paused for a moment and fiddled with an abacus behind the bar, "One gold sun for the room, six silver for the horses, two silver for the meal, eight copper for the ale," he said to himself as he worked the beads, "that'll make One sun, eight moons and eight bits."
I handed over two gold coins from my pouch, which he took and placed into a drawer in the bar.
Before he could give us the change however, I told him, "keep the remainder," and when he looked at me quizzically I added, "we have a bit of luggage to go up to our room."
He shrugged and told us, "I'll have it brought up right away. First room to the left on the second floor. Do you want the meal now, or do you want to get settled first?"
I looked over my shoulder to Karalin and mouthed, "now?" To which, she nodded.
"Now please," I said, "I have heard that you have dishes that are the perfect combination of sweet and hot and am eager to try something like that."
His eyes widened in appreciation, "well now, I'll speak to the cook and have something brought out. Find yourself a seat and Miara here," he said and one of the serving women looked up at her name, "will bring you both a mug of ale."
The woman nodded and approached closer to direct us in a cheerful tone, "there's a table over here near the corner my dears and I'll have those ales for you in two shakes of a minks tail!"
We sat down at a table and she was back in just a few moments with mugs of frothy ale.
I took a first refreshing sip and crowed, "this is Merryman Ale!"
One of the servers walking past paused with a smile, "aye, only the best at The Mink and Shovel!"
"You seem surprised?" Karalin asked me.
"Merryman is the local brewer in Easthaven, or he was until the orcs invaded," I told her, "there will probably be a shortage of his ale for a while until he can rebuild and brew again. As for my surprise, I'm always surprised by how far his Ale has spread and this here is the farthest I've ever been from home."
"Oh!" Karalin exclaimed, "we should probably not tell them then, lest they charge us an entire sun for a mug!"
My attention was taken by a group of men at a nearby table, I thought them to be merchant's guards or the like for a moment. They all wore normal clothing, however each of them had a badge pinned to their tunics. Some of the badges were predominantly brown with a grey archway in the middle and the top corners were also grey, the other badges were a deep purple colour with a black 'Y' shape and three silver birds. I noticed that some of the men at the other tables also had the same badges. Their hair was a mixture of brown and blond as seemed to be normal in this area. The thing that attracted my attention however was that they mentioned their King; and it wasn't King Herrod Carn the second. The men with the purple badges were talking about King Brandewyn of Allarth!
Before they continued with their story however, the door to the Inn opened and a man wearing chain mail armour entered. His armour was partially covered with a brown surcoat and he had a definite air of authority about him. He surveyed the common room with a stern eye and I noticed the Innkeeper let out a sigh.
"Torgot! Algaron! Chomar! Dorsey! The chime has struck seven, you should all be at your posts!" He shouted.
The minstrel playing the lute stopped suddenly at the interruption and the men he had called out, I presume, all stood. They all had on the brown badges.
"Yes Captain!" They shouted as one and together all marched out of the Inn, past the Captain.
The Captain took one more glance around the room and said in a quieter tone, "those from the other side, If it's your turn for guard duty tonight, your Captain will be here shortly looking for you."
Three men wearing the purple badges quickly downed their ale, as well as the mugs belonging to the departed brown badged men before hurrying out of the Inn themselves.
"Every damned night!" I heard the Innkeeper complain, then shouted, "Minstrel! Start singing now!"
The minstrel followed the instructions and began singing, a song and style that I had not heard before. It spoke of long journeys into far-away lands and the loved ones left behind. It immediately made me miss my family and miss Shard.
It wasn't long before dinner was brought to us and it didn't leave me disappointed. The chicken drumsticks were cooked in a sauce that was both sweet and left my mouth burning. It was served on a bed of soft fluffy white grains that sort of congealed together but mixed with the sauce so that even every mouthful of them left my mouth tingling and in need of ale.
We both had four more re-fills of ale before we had finished our meals and another three mugs after before we unanimously decided that it was time for us to go to our room and sleep.
With the combination of exhaustion from our travels and seven mugs of ale in quick succession, it was a wonder that neither of us fell down the steps but we did safely make it to our room and were pleasantly surprised that all of our belongings were there.