Isarnfur

Chapter 9

Will walked into the smoke house, there was just a human in such a large building, something that I picked up by how it was laid out. The man was of the battle-filled history by the skin-written history of the man. The language was that of scars and muscle still present even after years of his prime, and that was only what one could see, a leather mask artiscally covering up burns in all likelihood.

Will went up to him, putting down the coin he had left. "How much can I get of pickled goods and jerky?" He asked the clerk, "One moment," the man said. A smooth spin of the man's legs and he headed into the back of his shop. A small rustle and infrequent pattern of clacks came out of there for a good while. When the clerk did come back from the little adventure,he had two jars of pickled carrots, small thing of some sort of combination jerky and its brother, pemmican, all somehow balanced in his arm.

With a wildly baffling skill of placing all of the items down on to the counter from the clerk, the clerk motioned Will to check the merchandise. Will checked a small wait cloth square that befuddled him, which set next to a thing of filtered water. It was a thick thing of a brown solid, that had salt kernels on it. "Is this some sort of cracker?" He thought to me, something which made me regret not having a body to laugh with. "Nooo, that's what is called 'Portable Soup' or 'Solid Soup' you are supposed to put it in water and let it boil, it'll blend into the water, making a soup to drink or put something in it to make a nice meal" I told him. He shook his head, pushing the coin towards the clerk.

Will carefully stuffed the items in the pack right then, also making sure he wasn't over stuffing such a crude backpack. He looked about, looking for the houses of the village. It took him a bit of looking, it being an unknown place for him. It turned out that the houses started at the center of the village and went down for two blocks.

"Alright so just start knocking on the doors" I thought simply to Will. Will had a baffled look on his face. "You don't go knocking on random people's doors!" he attempted to reprimand me with. Something about his way of tone said that was just the kind of place where grew up in. "Well you do here, especially in your case. Unless you actually want to go sleeping in the forest again tonight." I countered, with as much firmness in my tone as possible.

He mutely agreed with that last statement, going upto the closest house. It was a house mostly of Wattle and Daub, literally wood sticks encased by a mud compound, with an odd exception on the side, where it looks like the mimicked wood with some stone. An interesting taste.

Will sighed, still nervous about the whole ordeal. He grabbed a strap of the sack and finally knocked, cringing as he did it. "Come on in!" said a pleasant voice. "Maybe I should really go, just do this at another time" Will said. "This isn't a coward I'm talking to, this is a man who got himself out of a well practiced slavery trade with small aid, a man who is obviously a well practiced solider" I said, bashing his cowardice. That got him motivated. "So do I go in or..." Will asked, uncertain what to do, but just then, the voice's feet padded over, already making the decision for us.

"I swear if the ki- oh? Hello! How can I help you" said a middle aged lady. Her pretty looks certainly caught Will off guard, something he smoothly covered over with quick action. "Hey, I'm a traveler that came across this village on my way looking for ancient ruins to draw for new sketches. There seems to be no inn." Will blurted out awkwardly.

The lady hmm'd as he spoke, eyeing him warily. "I see, you see that house across the path? Go knock on that door and tell them Hermine sent you to see if you could take a bed as yours for the night." She politely responded. Will nodded his head, "thank you very much," he responded. She nodded her head as both turned away.

At this moment I felt it was an opportune time to tease him, "The great Will Freeman, weak to asking strangers for shelter in their houses and fair maidens" I thought to him. "Oh bite me" he said back, able to be humored by the statement himself however.