Chapter 5, Friends in unlikely places
***
"I am still unsure, Oh Great Father. The memory still haunts me. What path do you intend for me, what am I supposed to do with this? I can only do as you ask, I can only hope that you approve of what I do here. Maybe one day I can... though I do not understand. I ask you, please. Grant me yet another day..."
***
Year of Wrath 1231, Season of Heat, D.87
There was the Kobold tribe again. Where were they headed? I stalked along the tree line and followed them. They yapped the entire time, over the stream, and up it's mossy stone face, right near that waterfall. Still yapping as they crossed the root ridden clearing in the oak grove just north of the stream. After some time they came to a fenced in area, that was new to me. I had never explored much this way, I always like going more south on the peninsula more. The fenced area was over grown with poplar saplings and sumac, but if I looked more closely I could see the chimney poking through the foliage. "This must have been set up in the last year and a half, I wasn't a raid leader yet, I wouldn't have been allowed this far out the village. Of course I wouldn't have seen it until now." I thought to myself.
Huh, they all have little bags. What do they have? I moved to a better angle to see the opening in the fence better. There was a wagon in a clearing in the sapling grove. An old man, at least he looks human. The kobold tribe was trading with him, he inspected the items they brought, and made some fast gestures. The kobolds yapped. He looked like he was nodding, agreeing to something? The kobolds left, and I watched a while longer. I saw smoke start to rise out of the chimney, and a little while longer I heard a hammer striking metal. A smith?
I noted the spot and headed back to the clan. There was something I wanted to try, maybe this smith would be more willing to work with a goblin than the city was. The city was still hostile toward the clan, they did not tolerate our presence, attacked us on sight. It wasn't our fault that they left the roads so undefended. Besides we didn't do as much killing these days, they should be happy about that at least. A few days back, they boys had cornered a traveler against the river and a bluff face. I tried to get him to just had over his bag, but he lunged at me. I didn't even see the spear tip as it slashed my leg. It wasn't a deep cut, but it still hurt. I pushed my knife up into his jaw while he was in that prone position after his lunge.
I didn't want to kill him, I still don't like killing. The boys hooted and I told them to shut it. Adrenaline had clouded their judgement, I told them we didn't know who this was. Was he someone important, would he be missed? This is exactly why we shouldn't be murdering everyone we hold up. It's always a risk, will the city retaliate? The boys quieted down after my lecture. Either way, we took everything off him. We buried his body, and I made a little cairn for him after the boys left. I kept his chain shirt.
That shirt though, I wanted to see if the smith would be willing to fit it to me. I wonder what he would ask for to do it. I grabbed the leather pouch I made for the shirt and brought it back along the path I saw the Kobolds use. I tried to walk as softly as I could, I didn't want to spook the old man when I showed up. He jumped anyway as he saw me.
"Wait, wait wait. I don't have anything to steal here! I have some food put away, you can have it if it means you'll leave m'alone." He squirreled out.
"Now, you know, goblins don't steal all the time. Besides I'm the only one who knows your here. I saw that Kobold tribe trade with you. I wanted to know what you are doing out here?" I asked him.
He paused for a long time, he had a confused look about him. "You're not going to rob me? Kill me if I refuse? Beyond that, since when did goblins speak common?"
"No, and now."
"Alright, why did you come to my home? You said you saw the Saith tribe? Um, yes, to answer your question, I'm a smith." He said nervously.
"Why set up all the way out here? Trade with only the locals here? Wouldn't you have a better chance with the humans?" I asked him.
"Well, yeah. Y'know I don't know if you know much about the city, but once there are too many of one kind of worker, It gets hard to find work you're good at. An over saturated market is not always the best thing" He scratched his bushy chin.
"What does over saturated mean?"
He paused, thought for a minute. He looked back at me and smiled. "It means there are too many damned smiths in the city, and they didn't want what I could do."
"Well, I could use your help Mr. Smith."
"Mr. smith... My name is Caleb. You are awful polite for a goblin. Might I add, I didn't think you'd have such a pretty voice either. I thought all goblins spoke that strange language and sounded like birds cawing." He said, finally relaxing a little.
"You mean like this" I said this in my peoples language.
"You sound just like a warbling bird. In all my years, I never thought I'd have a peaceful conversation with a goblin. What is your name?" He sat down at a stump and began stoking a fire.
"Ilgor" He was a nice old man. "What do you want for this?" I took out the chain shirt out of my pouch.
He raised his eyebrow "You want to sell it to me? It looks like good steel. Can I see it?"
"Oh, I'm, sorry, I meant what do you want for you to fit this to me?" I said, a little clumsily, common was getting easier, but sometimes I forget that everyone doesn't hear what I want them to.
"Ah, well it looks like a full grown mans, I'm..." He looked at me, and hesitated "Not going to ask where you got that."
I smiled wide for him and walked into his fenced area and handed it to him. He inspected it for a while, tapped a few rings against his anvil. He took out a pair of pliers and tested on of the rings and rivets. He grunted, and popped the ring open and dropped the rivet on top of his work bench. "Well, its good carbon steel, it'll need oil to keep it from rusting. Well lets get your measurements" He stood up and grabbed a twine string. He measured my shoulders around my arms and my waist. He paused when he was measuring my chest.
"You know, I wasn't expecting to measuring a woman, I apologize for any offense. You should have told me." He said sheepishly with a tint of color on his cheeks now.
"No offense, I figured you would need to do that. Why are you so..." I struggled for the word, but ended up saying 'flustered' in my language. He just looked lost, but he shook his head and finished the sentence for me.
"I'm embarrassed, yes. In my culture, it is deemed undignified to go poking about a woman's chest, even in a professional capacity. This type of thing is usually done by women doing the measurements for women. I haven't done any armor work for a woman before, so I suppose I didn't know how to deal with this" He rambled on. But, I put my hand on his forearm and smiled.
"I mean it, no offense. Please just calm down" He breathed out, seemed to gain his composure. "Please, speak to me as you would any man. I am not used to that, to be treated so delicately. That's the right word, yes?"
He looked down at me, "Aptly put." He continued measuring me from where he left off. He also asked me to stand in a way I would attack. He measured my hips again, and the distance between my knees. He mumbled to himself about needed to add slack to the skirting to account for movement.
"What do you want for the fitting" I asked him.
"Well, since you are about the third the size of a man, I'd say if you let me keep the rest of the material from the fitting would be enough. I can make quite a few things out of that quality metal." Looking at me, he stated flatly.
"That sounds like a good trade."
"Can I also request, that you do not tell your people I'm here? I feel I can trust you to a degree, but I honestly don't feel that comfortable being this close to your village now that you have shown up." He said nervously.
"You know, I can keep them away If I ask my Chief to do so. But, then again..."
"Yes?"
"The Chief would want to talk with you, maybe ask for some work. But, he would keep the other away, if you are as nice to him as you are to me." I told him. I also told him that it is our custom to reward hospitality. That we don't really feel any desire to raid everyone. It's just what's best for clan. So if he could demonstrate his usefulness to be more than if raided, the smith wouldn't be touched.
He huffed, but agreed. "How long do you think it would take to finish that shirt?" I looked up and saw the sun at near noon.
"Only an hour or so. I'm not making a lot of alterations. Only taking material away."
"May I watch you work?" I asked him. "I'm curious to see how it is done."
"With enthusiasm like that, you could be my apprentice if you want." He chuckled, smiling at me. His eyes going squinty.
So I watched him pop each ring, re-rivet them. Move onto the arms and collar, doing the same. He made a few adjustments for the skirting. He said this was so I could drop into that crouch I showed him, and it wouldn't bind my legs up, limiting my movement. When he was finished, he handed me the shirt, and began scooping up the fallen rings into an old wooden bucket.
I started to pull my shirt off to put the chain one on, and it wasn't even past my neck before the old man stopped me. Flushed he told me "You haven't worn armor before have you?" He blocked his eyes with his hand and continued "Ill tell you what, you better keep a soft shirt on under that chain. Because with tits like yours, you'll regret it. Chaffing in the middle of a fight, or open sores because the metal binds up as you move, is very uncomfortable and distracting while you are trying to focus. I can only imagine how sensitive you are, but if you are like humans, your skin isn't as tough as you think it is. Keep your shirt on, and then put on the chain shirt."
"I didn't know" I said, thankful he just saved me from the experience. "Well, this is the only shirt I have with me, I suppose I'm about to be asked a lot of questions when I get back to the clan. Can I wear anything over this and it will do that same thing?" I asked him.
"It's common practice in my culture to hide ones armor, I would suggest a dress for you, but I don't think your people have dresses. From what I see, goblins tend to prefer those vests and open faced robes. I suppose that would be enough to hid most of it though." He said scratching his chin again. "Here, take me sons old fighting shirt. He's far to old for it these days. You'd fit in it though. I hope you can get some good use out of it." He handed me a jacket with a flared tail and a wide tassel down the front. It was a pleasant blue color, faded, but still nice.
"Thank you, what do you want for it?" I asked him. As I thought all humans only traded.
"Keep it. Give me a good word to your Chief, and Ilgor. Thank you for the company. Those kobolds, I can't understand them well." He paused a moment, "I wouldn't mind if you came back and wanted to learn a bit more, or just to chat with an old man."
"I'd love to" I smiled at him widely again.
***
I was enjoying the sun on my skin, It was a nice day, warm breeze, light clouds, not too hot. The raid my boys went on today brought us a great bounty for the Clan. Merchant caravan, nine wagons. We came back with three of them, full to the brim. Food for weeks, cloth for the children and women, more leather to cut up and put to use for the boys.
The wagon didn't see what was coming. Boys snuck up on all the wagons from behind, slit the rear guards throat's. Didn't let them hit the ground, too much noise from falling bodies. Told them to catch them and drag them off to the side. Snuck up on the main guard. We targeted the wagon drivers at the same time, hit all them at the same time. We didn't let them hit the ground either. Needed to get everything nice and confused for the wagon passengers.
Dragged them all out, dealt with them. Three got away, and I scolded the boys for letting that happen. Told them to go hunt them down. Get what they could out of them. All in all, not bad. Piled all the goods in the three wagons, and dumped the other wagons and bodies off the bluff edge where I saw that Basilisk nesting at the bottom. Pretty sure there were Serpent Beasts there too. Maybe we should avoid that spot next time, bound to be a fight there between them after we gave them such a bountiful feast. City would blame them, as long as the boys caught the survivors.
I heard a rustle behind me, now who could that be? The Priestess? One of the boys? I opened my eyes and took in the glorious blue sky. Let my eyes adjust for a moment, and I saw Ilgor in front of me, on her knee, hands in the air with the palms up. So she wants something. What would she bring me today, maybe a new tactic, maybe some information we can use from her scouting.
I really should make the boys go with her, ah she's be too impatient to deal with them. They could all track and stalk, but she was just better at it. She had the Blessing of Bhal's good will, never really seemed to get caught all that much, even if she did go toward the city like the insolent child she is.
"Ilgor" I sighed, she always seemed to be a handful when she came to me privately.
"Chief, I found something interesting. Someone who can help the Clan." She said quietly.
"Someone? Who would help us? Those kobolds surely aren't that helpful." I chuckled.
"No sir, not the kobolds. There is a human in the woods, in a clearing, well hidden in an young overgrown patch of trees and grass. He's a smith, he helped me today." She said confidently.
I said very slowly, digesting the words, "A human. Helped you. One of the Clan" I was shocked, this didn't happen.
"May I Chief?" she asked.
"Very well." I put my hand on my chin and leaned on it. Watching as Ilgor took her shirt off and revealed a shiny set of chainmail. My eyes grew wide. "Where did you get that?"
"The smith took that chain shirt you gave me from the traveler we had to kill not long back. You know the one by the waterfall" she made a motion with her hands to demonstrate a waterfall, it amused me to think that she still did that "He fit it to me, barely asked for anything in return." she smiled widely.
"You didn't just make him do it for you? Why not force him to do it, so we don't have to waste resources" I asked her, slightly annoyed.
She frowned at me, here we go I thought. "Because he was far more amenable with a bit of courtesy shown to him. He was very polite, I had to honor that, like the way you always taught us. If shown respect, give it in return, right Chief?"
"Do not use my words against me" I growled out.
"But, sir, I'm not. Only telling you that there is a human smith who is willing to be polite, and work with us. We should offer him the same courtesy, that is all. He even showed me how to deal with the armor chaffing the boys, all that cloth you won off your raid could be used to help the rest of the raiders." She smiled at me. That wonderful little smile, ah she was still like a daughter after all, all the young ones in the Clan were like kids to me. Her parents had died long ago, like most other kids, she was raised by the Clan, Me and the Priestess.
"I want to see this Human."
"Yes sir!, should we go now?" I could see she was clearly excited.
"Fine" I grabbed my axe, and my leather shield. "Lets get going." She hopped to her feet, and quickly put her shirt back on. checked her knives and we were off.
As we were leaving the Village and number of my boys asked if they could go with us, they were curious to see what I was doing with Ilgor. I told them no, that we were only going to see something. I wanted to see if keeping the boys away from this human would be worth it. Maybe he was worth more dead than alive.
We staked though the tall grass north of the village, and entered the forest. The season had been good, the trees had thick foliage, let the light filtering through hide us as we shift from massive oak to oak. The roots seemed more raised up than what I remember, the forest floor was cleared of leaves. I wondered why, what evil stalked the woods now?
We got to the stream that had a rock wall on the other side. I halted Ilgor, and told her to look along the ridge at the top. "I know you are used to keeping hidden, but you need to learn to look around potential hiding places as well. See that tail poking away from the rock wall" I pointed to a light green tail end poking out from the ridge. Ilgor noticed it finally as well, I heard her sigh.
"What do you think it is Chief? she asked me.
I took a stone from the ground behind our cover, and threw it as hard as I could right next to where I saw the tail. The rock shattered on impact and jolted the thing away from the hiding spot. I was a young Basilisk. Three of it's six legs gripping the rock, as it looked back down to stream bed. They were skittish if I remembered right. Ilgor picked up another stone and threw is down the stream making a small plop as it hit the water.
The reptile swung its head toward the noise and made its way down the rock all to investigate. She stalked after it. Crept up close to it while it was clawing at the water. A bit of pride welled up in me as I watched her sink two of her knives in its neck, and dropped it. I walked over to her as she was quickly cleaning it. She looked up at me and smiled. Patting her head I told her good work and we cut the reptile up and put it in her bag.
We climbed the rock wall, and found the sapling grove she mentioned. There was indeed a fence, how did this get here without me noticing? Oh well, we didn't stalk the woods very much, humans were far more profitable. We walked up to the break in the wood and grass and entered the smiths work space.
The smith was old, he had a long grey beard tied in a bushy braid. His silver hair was swept back to stay out of his eyes. Man stood at about two feet more than me, arms heavily muscled. He had his hammers on his belt and a war axe at his side.
"Caleb! I'd like you to meet my Chief" She said to him in that strange language the humans and others used. I could follow along, but not well. The man bowed to me, raised his hand to his chest and an arm out with his palm out. Standing back up and set his hand on his axe and handed me his other one. I sneered and grumbled.
"Oh Caleb, I'm going to have to teach you a custom of ours." She started saying words I didn't understand, but she walked up to him and grabbed his axe, and he knelt down to grab her knife and they took each others weapons and dropped them. She smiled and said something else to the old smith.
He walked over to me, I grabbed the biggest hammer he had on his belt, and he grabbed my axe. We took each others and dropped them. "What was... hand?" I asked in the common language.
Ilgor cocked her head confused. "Caleb?, What...gesture...about?" I couldn't understand well at all. She turned to me, "He wanted to shake your hand, I suppose it's a human and Dwarven thing. A sign of politeness and respect shown to strangers or people they wish to be on good terms with."
The old man smiled at me, and raised his hand again, I grabbed it then shook my arm. Old man had one hell of a grip. Felt like he would crush my fingers. "Odd..." I waved my hand in the air, trying to think "Custom" I finally said. The old man chuckled and said something I couldn't understand. So far, the old man was being polite, just like Ilgor said. Good.
"Ilgor, Why shouldn't we just demand what we want from him?" I asked her. She frowned a little, and said something to the old man, like "One... Discussion"
"Why would we demand things from him after he has been kind thus far?" She asked me.
"Why not? I already told you. We need what we have for the Clan." I told her.
She sighed heavily and pinched her brow between her fingers. "Sir, Ill introduce you to a concept that is used in the City a lot. Actually, everything seems to revolve around this concept for the Humans, Gnomes and Dwarves. Something called markets, economies, and trading. The others, they offer a service, and people pay for that service with something. Those little round metal discs we find all the time raiding. They are called coins. The City uses them to get things from others and services beyond that. This smith is not used to the way we do things. He doesn't care about the welfare of our Clan, or how many recourses we have to spare. He will only ask us for something in substitution, or for coins. He asked if he could keep the rest of the martials from the chain shirt for fitting it to me." She explained in as simple a way as she could. I started to understand.
"But you could have used the rest of the material for more chain mail for the others." I stated.
"Yes, but I over hear all the time in the human lands about trade skills, they aren't easy. While yes, we could have made him make more armor for us, but he had to be compensated for his years of practice. Most things seem like they have an amount of coins or exchanges, simply because humans feel cheated if they put all this work into something, if they don't get what they think it is worth. Besides, I didn't have anything else for him, and I wasn't going to let him have me."
"So he will ask what he thinks is fair for what we want from him. So he can have those...coins. Why?" I asked.
"Because he is still human, he still trades with the City for food, material, and other things. Occasionally he sells to the City, but he mostly trades with the Kobold tribe that lives here."
"Fine. Will he always want coins, no never mind, you just told me about the shirt." I set my shield down and leaned against the fence post, confused about this. I ran my hand through my hair, and scratched my brow. I heard the smith tell Ilgor something. I thought I understood, "birdsong...beautiful" I looked up at him with an annoyed expression. Was he trying to pursue Ilgor, in front of me no less?
But, she laughed softly, and smiled at me. "He thinks our language sounds like birds singing, he thought it was pretty." I still looked at him distrustfully.
"I have armor that needs repair. Armor to fit to the boys. Leather that needs tending to. I do not know how to do these things, what do you want in return? Ilgor tell the man that" and she did.
I didn't bother trying to listen to him this time. Just annoyed at the whole situation, but I could see the potential to make the Clan Great. My boys would survive more. More annoyed I couldn't understand economies, this language, the humans odd customs. "He says that if the Clan is about the same size as you, refitting things shouldn't take long. He just asks that he gets to keep the excess material. No, sir! Before you say something. I already asked him if he would take less."
I was curious now, she had my attention again "I told him that the Clan can protect him from the things in the woods at night, like that Basilisk. He said he'd be willing to consider it more if he could have help around his workshop to get things done easier. So if you agree to this, he'd only take a quarter of the material left and use the rest of it to outfit the Clan more."
"So he wants a quarter of the material, he wants our protection, and he wants help. Is that what I'm understanding?"
"Yes, Chief"
I waved my hand, and gave my approval. I heard her speak that language again, the smith supposedly agreeing. She ran back up to me, she was nothing but smiles and cheerfulness the second we were out of sight of the smith. She hugged on my arm and told me she appreciated the tolerance I was showing. I ruffled her hair "He seems more useful alive. He knows how to work the things we take. This will be a benefit to the Clan."
She stopped walking, I turned to her and she was paused in small opening in the trees. The rays of light illuminating her eyes wonderfully. "Chief, could I be one of the Clan to help the smith in the workshop." She looked at me, with those bight purple eyes, that soft eager smile.
"What of your raids." I told her.
"We don't raid everyday, besides along with my scouting, the smith does go to town a lot. He might be able to bring me information. Plus I can be more useful to the Clan!" She bounded up to me.
"You will not stop raiding, but, very well"
