A few hours passed. During this time Alderich and Thurod sparred in the training area while Makenna sat in his lab mixing ingredients, looking up at a book of potion recipes at regular intervals.

Fons soon came running down the steps into the room. "Ra'Meth is back," he told the others.

Thurod and Alderich put up their weapons and Makenna resentfully put down his mortar and pestle. The three followed Alfonso outside.

Ra'Meth was walking down the path to the ruin. He was leading Alderich's black horse, which had a cart loaded with supplies in tow. Fons, Makenna, and Thurod helped Ra'Meth disconnect the cart from the horse's steel armor while Alderich found a feed bag and placed it on his muzzle.

The group then gathered around the cart and Ra'Meth handed them the things he had bought for them. He first found a set of chainmail: boots, greaves, cuirass, gauntlets, and a shield. He picked them up and gave them to Alderich.

"Thank you Meth," Alderich said to his Khajiit friend.

"You are welcome Alderich," Meth replied as he turned his attention back to the cart.

Next he found two suits of steel armor: helmets, cuirasses, gauntlets, greaves, and boots. He gave Fons and Thurod each a set. The two put their respective pieces of armor in their packs, which easily must have weighed at least 250 pounds each. The Khajiit then picked up a single silver battleaxe. The Orc and the Nord both looked at the axe. Alderich took the weapon and strapped it to his back. Both warriors shot him an angry look.

"We will decide which of you gets it after the rest of the supplies are given out," the Dunmer explained.

Ra'Meth was already holding the next weapon, a dwarven longsword. Alderich took it eagerly and strapped the sheath to his belt.

"These are for me," Meth said holding up a pair of new running shoes.

He then found a journeyman ambelic and retort and gave them to Makenna, followed by a somewhat large sack. Makenna took the equipment then the sack. He looked inside the latter and saw it was completely filled with ingredients.

"Thank you very much Meth," the elf said to his friend gratefully. "Give me a few hours and I will make you something."

Isaiah and Andlaen then arrived. Isaiah was leading his bay horse also with a cart in tow. This cart was weighed down with two bucks and a doe, enough meat for days.

The Cards stopped the horse next to Alderich's and disconnected the cart. Isaiah also got his mount a feed bag then headed over to the rest of the group.

"What do you have for us Meth?" the Imperial asked enthusiastically.

The Khajiit went to his cart and turned back to the Imperial and Bosmer holding a silver bow in each hand. The two grabbed them gratefully. Ra'Meth then took four quivers of arrows off the cart.

"500 dwarven arrows, 125 in each quiver. Good hunting," Ra'Meth said offering each of the archers two quivers.

The cart was now empty except for a small box, which Ra'Meth handed to Alderich. He looked inside and saw five sweetcakes, still smelling like the bakery.

"Dessert," the Dunmer stated simply.

"One more thing," Ra'Meth said, pulling a ring out of his pocket. "I found this one cheap at the Mystic Emporium."

Makenna took the ring and looked it over briefly. "I do not recognize some of these runes," he said. "Looks like some sort of fortification spell though. I will need to refer to my runic translation texts."

"While you do that," Alderich said, "we need to figure out who gets this," he continued holding up the new silver battleaxe.

"Time for a contest," Isaiah replied.