Chapter 4

Ledger spent the rest of that day walking as well as he could, as fast as he could manage. He paused a few times to relieve himself and drink enough water to stay hydrated. He also would stop to check that his boots were still holding up. He figured he was two hours from sunset when his legs finally started giving out. He was in a lightly wooded area now and he hadn’t seen any other farms since he had left the one earlier in the day.

“Ok Ledger,” he said out loud. “We need to set up a camp and get some rest.” He knew that talking to himself like this was silly, but he had found he missed talking to others. He looked around hoping to see any sort of good place to stop for the night. He was hoping to find a small clearing to set up in away from the road. All he found was a cut out in the trees along the road with a stone-lined fire pit built next to the road. This took another half hour of walking to find.

“I guess this will have to do,” he said as he looked around. He dropped his packs and bags then studied where the best spot to put up the tent would be. He saw one flat spot with all the brush cut out that seemed to be the same size as a small tent. He looked it over and could see where the tent stakes had been driven into the hard dirt in the past. “This will have to do.” Having figured out most of the steps on setting up the tent the night before, he quickly had it up and tied down. He saw that a fair amount of seasoned, dry wood was under a nearby tree. Even though it had been cut to fit in the fire pit, he decided to leave the firewood alone. Instead, he started a flat stone in the bottom of the pit producing heat enough to take the place of a warm fire. His enchanting was working better and he seemed to have greater control when he compared it to just a day earlier.

He soon had his cooking pot with a small stew in it cooking on the stone. This he made from travel rations of meat and dried vegetables. The meat was dried but usable still for this. He would need to find a town or even a medium-sized village soon and hope that they had a general store where he could buy or trade for more supplies. As he ate, he thought about his mother again. He could still feel her if he focused his thoughts on her. Rather than worry about her any further, he made ready to sleep. Sleep quickly took him as he rested in semi-comfort.

Ledger woke to a wet and dreary morning. It was raining, not a soaker, but a steady cold mist that soaked into the bones and made them ache. Ledger looked deeper into the pack and found fresh clothes and a cloak with a hood that would keep the rain off as he walked. The problem was, now everything involving the tent was soaked. If he rolled it up now, mold and mildew would quickly set in.

“Ok Ledger, think. We can make things heat up and cool down. Can we heat it enough to dry without setting it on fire?” he wondered aloud. “I keep talking to myself. Have to be careful about that,” he said, then smiled at his silliness.

Taking the tent in hand, he tried to bring just enough power into play to warm and dry it. Nothing seemed to happen at first, then all at once, it became too hot to handle, forcing him to drop it or risk burning his skin. Stopping the power was easy enough, but he was almost too late in doing so. The leather and cloth had dried, then it started to overheat, one corner had started smoldering and darkening. He stopped that by wetting it down a little bit. The remaining heat in the material dried it out again, but it no longer wanted to try to catch fire. He rolled the tent up, secured all the parts and covered them with an oilcloth he had found in a pocket on the top cover flap of the pack.

Packed, loaded and ready to go, he trudged off into the morning’s cold mist. He found the road to be even more dangerous now. The mud was slippery and footing could get iffy at times. “If this is the life that my parents lived, I have even more respect for them,” he thought.

It was nearing mid-day when he finally came upon a small farming community. He was pleased to see that they did have a trading post and it was open. As he walked through the small village square and market, he noted that the weather had caused most of the shopkeepers and vendors to not open. At the wooden steps of the trading post, he saw a boot scraper on each side of the steps. He used the one on his left to scrape his boots free of as much of the mud and crud as he could. At the top of the steps was a rough matt to wipe the bottoms free of what couldn’t be scraped off. “This owner likes keeping their floors clean,” thought Ledger.

With the cleaning of the boots completed, he stepped into the open door of the store. The interior was well lit by oil lanterns and candles scattered around the shelves. Ledger smiled at seeing this. He could make some good trades here if the owner wanted light stones in trade for goods. As he looked at the shelves of goods, a woman’s voice spoke out.

“Can I help you boy?” she asked.

Ledger started for a second then smiled. “I hope so Ma’am.” He made his way around a shelf to the sales counter at the rear of the store. “I am in need of some travel food and some camping supplies I am low on or just never had.”

The woman, older, in her forties, with long grey hair down past her shoulders and grey-green eyes looked back at him. Her dress was well made but simple, made from a light green woven cloth. “Well, boy, you have come to the right place.” He could see her better now. He could tell she had had a hard life. Her face was wrinkled and hard. When he saw her hands, they had hard calluses and showed the wear of age. Many of the lines on her face though showed as laugh and smile lines.

Now Ledger had a worrisome thought and asked, “Will you take in a trade or do you only accept coin? I’m Ledger Fireham by the way.”

She cocked her head to one side and frowned. “Matilda Greham. It depends on what you’re offering in trade son.”

Now it was up to Ledger to prove himself. He removed a small stone from his ever-present pouch of pebbles and willed it to light. It lit up immediately and responded to his voiced command to brighten and dim. He set it on the counter when he had it too an even glow, but not too bright to cause problems.

He watched her face as her jaw dropped. “You just made that, didn’t you boy?” she said.

“Yes, Ma’am. That is my talent. I can enchant stones to light and few other things,” he said.

“Boy, that stone right there will get you whatever you want from me,” she said.

“I could make enough stones so you could replace the candles, and place these inside the lanterns to save on oil.”

She paused at the thought then got a worried look. “Son, I don’t know if you are aware of it, but your talent could very well get you killed in a hurry.” She thought a moment. “Two more glowers and if you can, two heat producers, one for a room and another for water heating and I will help outfit you properly for the road.”

Ledger smiled and relaxed now. “Done and done. The heat stones will need to be larger than these pebbles. In fact, if you have stones or plates that will blend in, it would be better for the lights.”

“I’ll be right back, boy. I have just the things in the back.” Ledger glanced around while he waited for her to return. He spotted dozens of items he wished he had had the other day after the bridge mess. One item, in particular, was a medic’s pouch. He went over to it and found it was empty.

“I can fill that with all the things needed for on the road fixing of scrapes, bumps, and bruises.” The woman had come back out as he was looking at the pouch. She held out several clear quartz gems and two stone plates. “Will these work?” she asked.

Ledger accepted the proffered items and studied them for a minute. He ran a faint enchanting over each item to look for faults. The larger plate was cracked. “The larger plate will break if I try a heat enchantment on it. It has a faint crack in it on the underside.” He handed it back to her.

“I’ll be right back.” She took the bad plate and vanished back in the rear area of the store. She was back in less than a minute. This plate she carried was slightly larger and much thicker. She handed it to him and he studied it carefully. He didn’t find any notable faults. “This one should work. Do you want it for air or water?” he asked.

“Make that one for open air. Will I be able to control it?” she asked.

“Yes, I set it up so you can tell it to get warmer or cooler. It also has a limit on how hot it can get so it won’t start any fires.” He handed her the stone that had just a hint of warmth to it now. He picked up the smaller plate and thought about it. “This one will only heat up when in water. I don’t think you wanted it for cooking, so it will get hot enough for a good bath. Just put it in a tank of water and it will heat it up for you.”

She looked at the stone in wonder. “I can have hot water all year round now without the fire to heat it.” She smiled at him coyly. “Looking for wife kid? My daughter is of age, not much older than you in fact.”

Ledger fought to keep a look of abject panic off his face when he answered. “Not at this time Ma’am. I have to get to the Cove and train up my ability far beyond these simple tricks.” He picked up the aid pouch and set it on the counter. He then began gathering the other items his little kit was missing. She watched him as he went around the store gathering the materials he felt would make his journey easier.

He paused at one point when a traveler with a huge pack walked by the store. He noticed the two crossed poles and walking pole the man had. Hanging from the pole were several smaller bags. “That is what I am missing,” he thought. Ledger almost ran out to talk to the man but he had continued without stopping.

Returning to his gathering of material, he saw a set of three long matching poles. Looking them over, he saw that two of them had notch’s cut along the upper third of the length. “That is how the bags stay put,” he said quietly. He added the poles to the items at the counter. Next, he picked up four small pack bags that could be hung on the poles. These he decided would hold food and clothing. Another thing he had seen on the traveler was that he had a haversack over the front of his left arm. He wasn’t sure at first what would go in that, then face-palmed himself. Med-kit of course, and a few other items at need items.

He looked at the pile and groaned. He would never be able to carry so much. Staring at it he thought about when he had tried to reduce the weight and it had tried to kill him on the bridge. Rather than reduce it, could he make something that would lift the bag a little, and keep it controllable? He didn’t know and was afraid to try. He might send himself skywards.

“No,” he thought, “I will just have to struggle and gain strength.”

“I see what you’re thinking boy. I can show you the best way to pack and hopefully be able to manage the load. My husband used to be part of a company that did this sort of thing.”