Chapter 6: Trade city by the River Glevin

I turned and we fell in beside his men. He kept looking at my rifle but didn’t say anything. It was a few hours later that he gestured off the road, “We make camp there for the night.”

I looked around and nodded before turning with him. The area was beside a moderate stream with lots of tall grass. I picked an area to the side and unsaddled my horses before staking them out on long pickets. It only took me about twenty minutes to catch a couple of large fish. I brought fresh clothes down and stripped beside the stream.

I waded out into the water and was surprised when after a few minutes several male and female dwarfs joined me. I grinned and finished washing before wading ashore while they played. I dressed and went back to camp to clean, fillet and cook the fish. The well dressed dwarf squatted across from me and looked curiously at the fish frying.

I held a wooden plate out to him that I had traded a farmer for a couple of days earlier. I had also found a pepper tree and had a large bag of peppercorns, all I needed now was salt. The dwarf looked at me and then accepted the plate gingerly. He tasted a small piece of fish with his knife point and then stared at the fish.

He grinned and looked at me as he took another bite, “I have never tasted these in one hundred and twenty seven years. You can call me Bris.”

I grinned, “Catching them is just as fun. I’m Sam.”

I talked about fly fishing while we ate and he seemed fascinated. After dinner he went to check his camp and men while I checked my horses and put them on a single picket line. I began my evening exercises as several of the dwarfs watched and finished as the sun sank down over the horizon. It was a quiet night that had me more relaxed then in a long time.

I woke with the false dawn and headed for the stream, hoping to catch another couple of fish. Before I had caught my second fish, Bris was there. By the way he was staring I knew he wanted to try it. I waved him out and started teaching him. Several of the others lined up behind us to watch and on his third cast Bris got a hit that bent the pole.

He was hooked along with every one of the dwarfs that was watching. He reeled in a huge fish and I helped him get it off the hook and he was right back in the stream. After his fourth fish I managed to get him out of the stream so we could clean and cook the fish. He watched closely as I cleaned them and had one of his men bring a small pouch of salt.

We were late getting started and all they talked about was catching the fish. Bris kept looking at me as we rode along and finally turned in his saddle, “How much for your fishing pole?”

I grinned and then laughed, I shook my head no and he looked grumpy until I mentioned that I would make a pole for him. He grinned, “How do you make them?”

I nodded to a stream we were coming to, “Find a strait sapling and cut it to length...”

We spent the day talking about fishing and how to make fishing poles and flies. I tried to explain the difference between wet flies and dry flies and when to use each. We made an early stop for the night beside a stream. I let Bris use my fishing pole and took my bow to go looking for something else.

I was watching a young buck and slowly placing an arrow on the string when I felt something watching me. It was like the times when I was in combat and had felt something out of place. I slowly looked around and found myself looking at several wolves as they crept closer. They were huge, easily the size of a Great Dane.

I dropped the bow and spun as I pulled my pistol. The wolves rushed towards me and I barely had time to aim. I took the first one in the chest and the second through the head. I had to spin away from the third and shot the forth straight through its mouth as it leaped. I shifted sideways and turned to shoot the third wolf behind the ear.

I turned with my pistol following my eyes as two other wolves slowly approached. I took aim and killed one with a chest shot and the other turned to leave. I looked around and relaxed as I realized it was over. I was skinning one of the wolves when Bris and several of the dwarfs found me. He stood with his hands on his hips and shook his head.

I shrugged and went back to skinning the wolves. I rolled each skin up and when I was finally done we headed back to camp. I dropped everything beside where I planned to make a fire. I ate a meal that night while the dwarfs stayed in their camp and talked. I carefully started scraping one of the skins and went out to cut a few branches to use as a frame to stretch the skin.

I rubbed ash from my fire into the skin and stretched it on the frame I had made. Bris came to my camp just as I was getting ready to lie down. He squatted across from me, “You are a strange man, Sam.”

I grinned, “I’ve been told that before.”

He smiled, “You are very skilled with weapons and you have other weapons we know nothing about.”

I lay back and gestured for him to join me, “I’m going to tell you a story.”

In the month since I had arrived, my appearance had changed so that I looked like a man of maybe forty. I looked into the night sky and began taking about my life. Not just about my life but about my world. I told him everything ... about being in the hospital and the rest. The dragon seemed to surprise him and he looked at me speculatively.

When I finished and lay quietly, he nodded, “It is similar to a few other stories we have heard about.”

I looked at him and he nodded, “I think the dragon helped you more than you know.”

I nodded, “I think I do know.”

We relaxed and he sighed, “We will stay with you. The trade City is only three days away but it gets more dangerous.”

I looked away from the sky and he nodded, “Across the river Glevin is the vast plains of Turass. There are large herds of beasts that roam the plains and because of this predators like the wolves you killed are plentiful. The closer we get, the more we will encounter.”

Listening to his talk made me think of the Great Plains and the huge herds of Bison that had once roamed it. I nodded, “We had something like that in my world but that was long ago.”

Bris shrugged, “You need to camp with us and keep your horses with ours.”

I nodded, “Fine but we share guard duty.”

He agreed and then grinned, “And the fishing pole.”

I laughed and we were quiet for a time. Bris kept looking at me, “Could you make more of those weapons?”

I thought about it, the metal of both weapons was made from advanced composites and needed special tools and equipment. I glanced at Bris, “They are made from metal stronger then the steel in a sword. I would need special equipment I probably wouldn’t find here. I could make weapons yes but not using the same metals. They wouldn’t be like the weapons I carry either.”

I looked at the sky thinking about what he had asked. With all the different things I had learned over the years I could make a modern weapon. In fact, I remembered a time when I had designed a Thompson machine gun made from newer light weight metals. It had only weighted half of what a real Thompson weighted.

I had also studied plans for other weapons, an old Colt Peacemaker and a Ruger Red Hawk. I woke early and rolled out of bed. I checked the horses and saddled them before putting them on their leads. They were grazing in the tall grass as I packed up. One of the dwarf women walked to the rolls of wolf pelts and only glanced at me, “We will take care of these.”

I smiled, “Thank you.”

Bris appeared smoking what looked like a long thin milky stone. The smell was like apples and cinnamon. I looked at the pipe and he grinned before nodding towards the stream where several dwarfs were watching one fish. I grinned and cleared a sandy patch of ground. I thought about it and sketched the eyes and brass caps on the section ends, describing everything as I went.

Bris watched and listened until I was done. I explained about curing the wood so it wouldn’t split. I told him about using strong waxed string to attach the eyes and a strong glue to hold the sections caps on. When I finished he called the dwarf that was fishing. When he got to us, Bris took the fishing pole and examined the eyes and section caps closely.

As we rode during the day the guards stayed closer to the wagons and were more alert. Just before our lunch break we were approaching a large slow moving stream when I noticed something moving in the tall grass off to one side. I was carrying the bow and pulled up before swinging out of the saddle and tying the rains to a passing wagon.

I nocked an arrow and moved closer. I was only fifteen feet away when it rose up slightly as it moved closer to the road. I brought the bow up and pulled back in one motion. The release was almost an after thought. The scream of the big spotted cat as my arrow slammed into its body caused the horses to scream and panic.

The big cat was snapping at the arrow as I prepared another. I didn’t have to shoot though, the cat spasmed and dropped to the ground. I carefully moved closer as the dwarves joined me. I recognized the cat as what I thought was a large Jaguar. It took the cat several minutes to die and Bris told one of the other Dwarves to stop the wagons beside the stream.

Another Dwarf moved towards the big cat and I watched as he skinned it with a lot less effort then I could. He rolled the skin and we headed toward the waiting wagons a few hundred yards away. Bris looked at me, “You did a good job spotting that cat. Most of the time we only see them when they attack.”

One of the women handed me a large piece of bread and a chunk of cheese. I grinned and looked around for some twigs. I made a small fire and cut the bread in half before stuffing the cheese inside. I used a forked stick to toast it over the small fire while the dwarves watched amused. I sat back and ate my sandwich slowly, enjoying the unique taste.

The rest of the day went by without incident and we set up camp beside a wide slow moving stream. The water in the stream looked almost crystal clear as I waded out to cast a line. I hooked a big fish on the first try and brought it in. I had noticed several large fish gliding close to me, they looked long and lean like Northern Pike.

When I lifted the fish I had caught out of the water one turned towards me. Something I remembered from fishing in a northern state came back to me. Another man was telling stories of northern pike that attacked a man while he was fishing. I shifted my pole to the same hand as the fish and reached over my shoulder for my sword.

I had just pulled it out when the fish attacked. I struck straight down and impaled the fish on the end of my sword. I brought the sword up with the large struggling fish and wadded to the shore. The dwarves were wide eye and stared at the large fish on my sword and I grinned, “When fishing, watch the water around you for fish like this. They are what is called territorial and may attack your feet.”

The dwarves looked at each other as I offered the fishing pole. I was cleaning the fish when one of the women just took it away from me. I sat beside a couple of the women as they cooked and learned a little about the herbs and spices they used. When I offered the pepper I had gathered, they only looked at me as if they had never heard of it.

I crushed some on a plate with a knife blade and they tried it. I relaxed later with their quiet voices around me. Bris was busy at one of the fires and the women were working on the pelts. I drifted off and was awakened by a young dwarf a few hours before the sun came up. I drifted around the outside of the camp watching and listening until the sun started coming up and the whole camp came awake.

The land around us began to flatten and there were only a few hills. There were a lot more large farms and small communities along the road. Just after our noon stop we were warned by a farmer about a big lion that had been stalking the farms around there. We saw a larger pack of wolves in the distance but they stayed away.

I had switched back to carrying my rifle and rode in the front of our caravan. We camped beside a shallow river and kept the horses between the camp and the river. During dinner Bris handed me what looked like a spice grinder, “The women asked me to get some of your peppercorn.”

I smiled and dug into a pack. I filled the grinder and handed it back, “Next time we pass one of the pepper trees I’ll point it out and get some for you.”

He grinned and nodded as he pulled out his pipe. He saw me watching and grinned, “The weeds are wild. The women pick and dry it along with spices and a few other things. They seem to like the smell.”

I thought of tobacco but when I looked at his offered pouch of weed, I found that it was something else. I tried a few puffs on his pipe and found that it seemed to wake me up and made me feel more alert. There were several dwarves grinning at me as I handed the pipe back. It was almost like I had passed a test.

I had the middle of the night watch and went to bed early. When I got up, I pulled a two foot silencer out and then my thermal scope, I slid it on in front of the sights on my rifle. It was an hour past midnight when the horses became restless. I turned on the thermal scope and scanned the area before moving to the horses.

I took a moment to look out at the shallow river and then along the bank. The lion stood out sharply in the scope and I whistled for the other guard. I was joined shortly by not by just the one guard but by several dwarves that had been awakened by the restless horses. I gestured, “There’s a very big cat along the river bank.”

They nodded and spread out holding their spears tight. I scanned the area above the river bank and froze as I saw another lion, “There’s another one in the grass above the river.”

I thought about it and took careful aim on one of the lions. The muffled shot wasn’t really that loud but it seemed that way to me. I quickly shifted aim as the other cat came fully to its feet. A second muffled shot and it was over. A minute later Bris was there carrying a lantern. I walked out towards the sound of the two lions twitching bodies.

Bris stood beside me and whistled, “Those are big lions.”

I was staring at their fangs and couldn’t believe I had just shot two saber tooth lions. Bris had two dwarves skin them while we went back on guard. I managed to get a few hours of sleep before we headed out in the morning. I had the tanned pelts of the wolves over the last pack horse and he wasn’t to happy about it.

Not only had Bris had the lions skinned but he had the long fangs removed. While we rode along he told me about seeing a pair of engraved fangs. Two of the dwarves driving wagons had the fangs and seemed happy as they relaxed and carved as the horses plodded along. That night we camped in a huge high walled yard.

They called it a Merchants Yard. It had a corral for the horses, a well and several fire pits. Bris said we would reach the trade city a few hours before night fall the next day. I used a bare piece of ground to start drawing and before long one of the women handed me a parchment and a piece of graphite.

I looked at her and then grinned as I went back to drawing, only on the parchment. I was thinking of the night before and the other guard’s inability to see the lions. When I finished, I sat back with Bris across from me. I described what it was and he looked interested. I realized that even after all the time I had spent with him, I didn’t know what he was bringing to the trade city.

Bris grinned and went to the one of the wagons. He returned with a chunk of a silver metal ore. At first I thought it was silver but after examining it I realized it was something else. I had studied geology for awhile but I had no idea what this was, maybe something like titanium. He called it Mytheril or Star Silver.

It was only found deep in certain mountains. He took pleasure in telling me all about this ... Mytheril. He said it was stronger than steel and worth its weight in gold. I handed the raw ore back and we sat talking quietly until we finally called it a night. Everyone was excited as we started out the next day.

I had the pelts of the Jaguar and both lions on one of the horses. Our lunch stop was brief and then we were back on the road. We came in sight of the walls in the late afternoon. I was a little sad to see the high walls because it meant I would be leaving the dwarves. It turned out I would be with them a little longer.

There was a huge yard inside the high walls for caravans. We put the horses in one of the corrals and set up camp. I asked Bris if he knew of a local place where I would be able to do some metal work. I described making a rifle, scope and a night vision device. He was more than willing to help and had a relative that lived nearby.

We walked into the city and down a narrow street like all the rest. The building he led me to was made of thick granite blocks that were joined together perfectly. Inside he greeted another dwarf in a hug. They whispered back and forth before I was led to a large workshop. There were easily thirty dwarves scattered around the room working at forges and hammering at benches.

I was led through an arched doorway where several dwarven women were working. I was set up at a bench that had parchment and other drafting tools. I grinned at Bris as I sat and bent over the bench. In only a few minutes everything around me faded away as I concentrated on what I was doing.

When I got tired, I moved to the side and curled up to sleep on a mat that had appeared. I was back at it early the next day. When I finally stopped, I had plans for not only a scope and night vision device but for two different rifles and ammunition. I hadn’t paid attention to the bread, cheese or even the fruit that had been quietly handed to me as I worked.

I rolled up the plans and made my way back to my camp after thanking the sturdy dwarf that had been my host. I cleaned up and took four horses with prepared packs. I led them into the city and followed Bris’s direction to a large open trade area. It took almost two hours of bargaining to trade the silver and weapons for gold.

The two bags of gold were noticeable as I placed them on the first horse. I had made a list of the things I would need and spent another three hours in the marketplace. I was used to third world markets and kept my eyes open for thieves and pickpockets. Back in camp I put everything together in two packs.

The dwarves were celebrating the sale of one wagon load of Mytheril and I did a little bargaining with Bris for some Mytheril as well. It was an early grey dawn as I headed back into the city with one of the dwarf maids. We were going to a little known market where there were spices and dried herbs.

The narrow street was crowded with people until we came to a small widening of the way. There were six men pushing people and talking loud. They were extorting money or property from everyone that tried to pass. Two men stepped in front of us and one reached for the basket the dwarf maid carried.

It was at the same time that I saw two of the other men laughing as one held up something an old woman called a bond kitten. All I saw was a young, maybe eight week old grey stripped kitten squirming and then it bit the man’s finger. Time seemed to slow as his belt knife came out and swung toward the kitten.

He was trying to fling the young cat away as the knife swiped over its throat in a small shower of blood. I was moving before I even realized what I was doing. My left hand flicked the small throwing knife from behind my belt as I reached out to the closest man with my right hand.