MERCHANT ADVENTURER

On The Move Again

As we traveled outside of Mileston, I decided to make a map on a piece of blue cloth, which had once been a tunic. Maps were rare like books. It would be difficult to obtain a map unless I had a source. For the most part, most maps were owned by the knights, who needed maps to carry out errands for the king.

I took in all the landmarks around me. I also noted down the landmarks I could remember from our journey between Guston and Alesburg.

Garlan, the strongest among us, was tasked with pushing the handcart I had purchased along with food ingredients. He was happy to be of service. I had my pack on my back and Raine had his empty basket on his back. He had affixed two braided straps to make it easy to wear.

Whenever Raine was tired, I would release his hand and pick him up to sit on the handcart. Raine would kick his legs in a tantrum, but both Garlan and I told him to stay put. He would sit there fuming in silence. I wondered if this child had developed a habit of holding hands.

As we retired for the night, I surprised the group, by revealing a second tent. I handed this to Garlan who clamored in both excitement and joy. Garlan wasn't suspicious of where I had gotten the tent because I had taken the second tent from among the food ingredients. The tent had originally been used to cover the ingredients from the fierce heat of the sun.

The following day, we were all in a good mood. We hadn't encountered many people on the road, and the ones we met warned us of bandits. Apparently, the road wardens were few on this stretch of highway.

We were resting for our noonday meal, when I came across a familiar face.

"Well good day," the jovial bard said to me.

"Bacchanal," I greeted.

"You know this bard?" Garlan asked me.

"I met him in Alesburg," I said.

Garlan smiled and said, "I also know him."

"Garlan," Bacchanal called out, "Fancy to meet you on the road. I thought you would be over the mountain pass by now."

We invited Bacchanal to sit down. I also offered him a roll of bread, for which he thanked me heartily. Bacchanal had sparse eyebrows and a sorry excuse for a moustache. I had never met such a good-tempered dwarf before. I had heard dwarves all had quick tempers, but Bacchanal seemed to not conform to this image.

As we ate, Garlan and Bacchanal recalled old times. I listened on the side, observing them. When it was time to once again resume our travels, I offered Bacchanal to join our group. Since he was a wandering bard to begin with, he happily conceded. In this way, we added a new member to our group.

On the road, the music turned our spirits up. The dwarf was rather jolly as he sang with the help of his lute. I don't know how he had the energy to do such a thankless task.

Before dark approached, we set up camp. I had my firestarter and soon had a roaring bonfire. Garlan left to scout the surrounding area, while also hunting game. I took Raine to search for any edible wild food nearby, when in fact, I was testing out if there was any treasure in the surrounding area. Because the tradeshop hadn't unlocked anything new in a while, I felt it was worth a try to find some treasure. Sadly, my luck wasn't good.

We had settled down for the night, while roasting some game Garlan had caught, when we encountered two familiar faces.