CHAPTER 6

—--Day 19

Sarah woke up and did her morning routine of, her needs, Azrael's needs, and got dressed in all black tunic, leggings, pants, belt, and boots. She put on her weapons except her bow and arrows. She had thirty gold on her inside coin purse and her regular coin purse had ten gold and various other coins. She braided her hair down her back and put on her pouch, cloak and gloves. She went down for breakfast and tea.

She sat down at the counter and said, "What do you have for breakfast and tea?"

The innkeeper said, "Seven coppers. Eggs, mutton, potatoes and toast." Sarah put the money on the counter.

After eating Sarah went exploring. She had Azrael's big bottle with her so she could venture out and see the stores and look around. She went into a store of women's clothing and got a long dark green skirt, long dark blue skirt and a black long sleeve peasant blouse. She bought a green cloth bag for shopping. The fae lady clerk was eyeing her the whole time.

Sarah went to a tea shop and got more loose tea and another variety of camomile. She found a shop of gypsy palmistry reading and incense. She went in for fun.

The gypsy lady looked at Sarah when she walked in the door. She bowed to Sarah, which puzzled her. The woman said, "You have a titled future. Five silver for your reading." Sarah thought that was a bit pricey but paid her out of curiosity.

The gypsy looked at her palm and peered in her hood. She said, "You're in disguise as a man, but a woman. You're from very… very far away. You have a black wolf and a king that follows you in your life. You will take a child under your wing that will follow you too. You will have much love in your life. Romantic love will be deep and… a consuming rapture. You are kind, strong and smart. You have a powerful magic… of your own… but also magics live inside you, that you don't know you possess. People come to you, they are attracted to your energy."

She looked at her other hand and said, "You will have many children in your very long life. There is a ruby woman of wealth that will be jealous with anger towards you and will commit cruel dark deeds. There is a powerful man of snakes and diamonds, who is jealous with possessive lust and evil intent. Stay close to the black wolf, he will always guide you." Azrael cried out for food. Sarah pulled out his bottle and then him out of his pouch.

The gypsy gasped and said, "The black wolf will always be with you, even his prodigy." Sarah looked at Azrael, then the gypsy while feeding Azrael and rubbing his belly.

Sarah asked, "What of the king that follows me?"

The gypsy grinned and said, "He is a very lusty fae that loves only you. You will change you know? Soon, very soon, you will be one of them like he told you, but you thought it was the babe. You have been bitten long ago and it takes time for it to build up inside of you to cause change."

Before Sarah left the gypsy parlor confused, the gypsy gave her a beautiful green and blue tye dyed silk scarf. She smiled and said, "Keep it with you and you will remember what I have told you, my lady."

Sarah pondered over what she said while walking around. She thought, 'She was spot on with her disguise, being from afar, even the wolf and the king. Romantic love? The fae king that loves me? Magic of my own? I was bitten? I'll change into one of them? Many children? What about a ruby woman and man of snakes and diamonds? Stay close to the black wolf, he will always be with me and his prodigy? Interesting.'

Sarah went to a bakery and got lunch, then visited a few more shops that afternoon and came back to her room at the inn. She put the pouch on the bed and dropped her bag, gloves and cloak. She started a fire in the room and started looking through her bags. She had the scarf, the two kinds of tea, her skirts, and blouse. She also bought a small box of makeup, two pairs of hair combs and brushes to apply it.

The coolest thing she bought for ten gold was a large magical three inch by two inch locket on a thick silver chain. The store keeper said that it would hold anything inside it in any quantities as long as it fits through the oval shape of the locket. He said it will not change the weight of the locket either. He demonstrated by taking a handful of coppers and poured them into the locket and it all disappeared. He turned it face down on the counter and the copper coins all poured out in a pile. Sarah had to have it for her gold coins and to get fifty pounds off the horses back.

She got her gold and started counting it and pouring it inside the locket. She put all 1540 gold coins inside of the locket. She felt much safer now. She put the locket around her neck. It rested on her breast bone between her breasts. She opened her coin purse and counted how much she had on her. She had 30 gold in her reserve coin purse and 4 gold, 27 silver, 34 coppers in her outside coin purse.

She began rearranging her stuff, now that the gold was gone from her baggage. It made more room for clothes in her totes, because her items like her comb brush and mirror could go in her saddlebags. All her things she had kept in her backpack originally and her jewelry pouch with her two pairs of earrings and her necklace all could go in her saddlebags with her soap and towels. She always wears her pocket watch clipped and tucked into her belt.

She put on her pouch and fed Azrael and had him potty. She put on her cloak and gloves and went down to eat dinner.

—--Day 21

Sarah was ready to leave and went and got her horse from the stables after breakfast. She loaded up her horse and mounted him riding off to the west to the city of Rince. Hopefully not as unfriendly as that first inn in Sióg. It was a two day journey so she rode until she could find a campsite before dusk. It started to drizzle and she decided to stop. She found a small lake with a large boulder and a smaller boulder next to it. It would hide her away on two sides from anyone who might see her. She hurried and put up her tent, unloaded her horse and put everything inside. She took out her emergency foil type blanket and spread it over the roof of the tent and pinned it down with safety pins she had in her kit. She staked Nathrach next to the lake and gave him some sweet feed. She went and gathered wood and kindling. She put rocks around the fire pit and got a fire going to take the chill off. She put the fire closer to the tent opening and put up the outer flap on stakes to hold it open like a roof outside the tent opening. Times like this she wanted to be in an inn. Cold and damp wasn't good, but it never came down more than a drizzle all night. She drank a few cups of tea and a small pot of soup from her dried meat and vegetables she had left. She went to sleep that night with her raincoat under her and her blankets over her and her cloak open over that with her pup curled up under her chin and the blankets around them. She was toasty warm.

—--Day 22

Sarah put the pup in his warm pouch and got up and put on her cloak to go to the bathroom. She opened the flap and everything was white. Only a thin light layer but white. She went to the bathroom and came back pissed off because she started her period and this damn world didn't have tampons. She brushed Nathrach and got everything off his back and body. At least it wasn't snowing yet. She saddled him up and packed him up after breaking down the tent. She didn't try to make a fire and eat breakfast because she wanted to get to Rince before it snowed again. Azrael was too small to be out in this and she didn't want to get a cold either.

Sarah rode all day stopping to pee and feed Azrael. She finally came upon the city of Rince. She looked for an inn and found one on the south side of the small city. She unloaded and went inside a toasty warm tavern area inside and went up to the counter and asked for a room.

The innkeeper was a fae man that looked about her age. He said blaise, "Seven silver a night with privy, pump and tub. Meals four coppers, two drinks, one tea."

Sarah said, "Can I stay for seven nights, please?" She put down five gold.

His eyebrow raised and he said, "Sure. Room five." He gave her a key. She took her things up to her room and was surprised at what a nice room it was with an extra blanket on the bed too. She dropped her things and left to take Nathrach to the stable down the block.

When she came back she smelled dinner cooking. She went upstairs and took off her weapons and cloak and put Azrael on the bed. She started settling into the room, putting her two blankets and their blanket on the bed. She got out her towels and toiletries. She fed Azrael before going down to dinner.

Sarah sat down and saw there were about a dozen people eating and drinking in the inn. Sarah said, "May I please have dinner and wine? She put six coppers on the counter. The fae innkeeper got her wine and went to the back and got her a plate of roast duck and veggies. He put it down in front of her.

He said, "You're not from around here are ya?" Sarah shook her head no.

He said, "You're very polite and you talk unusually. My name is Kelvin. Where are you from?" Sarah took a sip of wine to get the food out of her mouth.

She said, "My name is Sar. I come from very, very far, far away. It takes six ships and eight horses to get here." She was tired of being asked that but it was an exaggeration.

Kelvin said, "Wow, that is far. I know you're a girl. I can smell you." Sarah looked up into his eyes, startled. He was taken aback by how lovely her big dark eyes were the greenest green he ever saw and her face was beautiful like a fae.

He said, "I won't tell, but the other fae will know. It's because our senses are stronger than the other races, except Ogres but they don't count." He laughed. Sarah smiled. He loved her smile. It was pretty.

Kelvin whispered, "Sar, are you traveling as a man for security?" Sarah nodded. "You're smart. It's not safe to be alone and a woman."

Sarah asked softly, "Is this your inn?"

He smiled and said, "Yes, my dad retired and it's all mine now. My older brother owns a store next to the stable. It's a jewelry and trinket store. I'll take you there sometime. You don't have to hide while you're here in town this week. My brother and I can look after you."

Sarah asked, "Do you know where I can get goat's milk and unicorn milk? I need a mix for my wolf pup. It's getting low and he's almost three weeks old and too young to eat soft food until 4 or 5 weeks old and that's just to start mixing it in."

He said, "How did you get a wolf pup? I hear the black ones go for three to four hundred gold."

Sarah said, "I found his mother dead and a man who killed her and his litter mates were crushed under the man. His mother killed him. He was the only one who survived. He's black."

Kelvin asked, "Can I see him?" Sarah nodded.

A big man came up and said, "Why ye keep whispering to this runt. I be needin' another ale." He shoved Sarah off her stool into the floor. Kelvin shouted at him. Her food and wine went flying. The pup started crying.

Sarah grabbed her knife and came up on her feet. She said dead quiet to a silent room, "You dare put your animal paws on me? I'll slice them off and tack them to the wall."

The big man was drunk and pissed off and said, "I do as I please in this city! I don't care fer tha likes of ya!" He charged Sarah. She, lightning quick, tripped him, rammed her elbow in his back and his face went down on the seat of a chair. He got up with a bloody nose and split lip. He charged her again, she spun around super fast and kicked him in the face knocking him to the floor face down. The pup was loudly crying. Sarah stepped over him, grabbed a handful of hair and yanked his head back and put her knife to his throat.

She roared, "Do you yield!!!" The man groaned. She roared it once more.

He said, "Yesss…" She dropped his head and hopped away from him as he rolled over to get up. The pup was still crying and scared.

Kelvin shouted, "Get out of my inn, Burr! Don't ever come back! You caused this yourself! Nobody did a thing for you to act like this!!! Now get out!"

The man said, "Who tha hell be ye?! Nobody fights like tha!"

Sarah said, "I'm from far, far away from here." Sarah watched the bewildered man lumber off out the door.

Sarah said quietly to Kelvin, "I'm sorry about the mess, but I'm not hungry anymore. I'll see you in the morning." Sarah put a gold coin on the counter and walked upstairs and locked herself in her room.

—--

Kelvin was in shock. He never saw anyone move like that when they fought. She did moves he never saw before. He saw the gold coin and scooped it up. He started picking up the plate and cup off the floor and did magic to eliminate the food and drink off the floor and wall. He thought to himself, 'She didn't eat enough. She was amazing in her fighting skills and safer on the road traveling than I originally thought. Wherever she came from, she came with skills.'

A fae man came up and sat at the counter and whispered, "Brother, give me some wine. Do you know her? She fights like a human man, but faster than any man I have ever seen before." Kelvin poured him a cup.

Kelvin said, "I just met her tonight. She is here for a week. I hope after tonight, I don't know. She's from very, very far away, talks a little funny but clear and is in disguise traveling. She has the most beautiful face and eyes. She has a wolf pup and was about to show me when Burr ruined it. Devlin, do you know where to get any unicorn milk?"

Devlin scratched his chin. He said, "Darcie might have some not at the market, but at her home. She had me put a stasis spell on the gallon bottle she had about a week ago. Why?"

He said, "Well, Sar asked me if I knew of anyone. She has a black wolf pup she rescued, after a man died killing its mother and littermates. She's been feeding it goat and a bit of unicorn milk."

Devlin said, "That is actually an intelligent mix to substitute. Sar is her name? She's smart too it would seem. It's gonna cost her though for the milk."

Kelvin said, "Oh, I can definitely figure her for a smart person. I'll see if I can bring her to the shop tomorrow to meet you. Maybe you can tell her how much it will cost her for, let's say a cup after you come from Darcie's tonight?" Devlin nodded and patted him on the back and went to sit back down.

—--

Sarah was embarrassed about having to beat down that man and leave the mess, but the man did deserve it. She stoked the fire and calmed down Azrael. She sat in front of the fire and said softly, "I know, baby. People are noisy when they act all mean and stuff. It's ok, Azrael. Shhhh… It's all ok, honey." The pup finally stopped trembling and nuzzled her neck. She grabbed the bottle and fed him a bit to soothe him. She had him potty and just cuddled him in her neck looking into the fire. She thought she would take a long hot bath and wash her hair and clothes. Eventually, she fell asleep warm and dry with her pup.