Through Smoke and Ashes

Five||I'm on my way

After a couple of hours of riding, and since he was so familiar with the mountains, I let Angus choose the best trails to take. The colder weather was clinging to the lands for longer than what I was accustomed to. Occasionally, there were the odd few trees that still had leaves dressing their branches, but they were an odd yellowish-brown colour and were covered in a layer of frost. Other than those few individuals, the rest of them were bare, not yet blooming green buds they would have in the melting season.

It was the ninth night of our travels through the lands of Pontheugh, but finally, the lights of Lancaster's glowing lanterns shone brightly on our path. Physically sighing, I smiled at the thought of finally finding the comfort of a bed, instead of laying on the damp, hard ground covered with mildew and soggy soil.

The sound of Angus's tired hooves pounded on the dirt path as we hurriedly made our way to the town's stables. I'm sure that there were many odd looks sent towards our fleeing forms, but I was too sore and tired to notice.

I paid for Angus's stall, which in my opinion, was far overpriced for just one night. I led Angus to his stall and quickly got to work on taking his leather off and cleaning his coat and hooves.

"Oh, ma'am? You don't have to do that." Someone said from behind me. A young stable boy stood awkwardly in the stall's open gate, watching me with wide eyes. "That's what I'm here for, ma'am. I'll take care of him for you."

"It's no trouble, if you want, go get him some bedding. He'd enjoy it." The boy nodded his head and set to work on forking piles of straw into Angus's stall with a pitchfork.

"Thank ya kindly, lad," I said and rewarded the boy with a copper coloured coag.

"Oh, before you go, where might one find a bed and some proper food?" I asked the boy just as he was leaving.

"The Golden Monkey Inn has the best beef barley stew, and is the only place where there is bedding along with meals."

I nodded my head in thanks and gave an apple to Angus before leaving to find this Golden Monkey. I smiled at the familiar name, remembering Tanix said their signature dish was the beef barley stew.

My eyes scanned the room and watch the people converse amongst each other, most of them were spewing a load of piss from their mouths. I never cared for the taste of alcohol, it blurred the senses and corrupted the ways of thinking. I needed everything to be in a completely efficient functioning way.

Finishing up with cleaning out my bowl, I left a coin on the table and retreated to my room where I drew a steaming hot bath and soaked in the water until my skin was pruning. With the layer of dirt, sweat, and whatever else had previously been clinging to me now dealt with, I was clean and ready to sleep in a proper bed.

As my body collapsed from exhaustion onto the fluffy textures of the newly washed bedding, I barely breathed a whisper as I drifted into a well-deserved sleep.

The light of dawn happened to wake me from my sleep, which had been only a few hours. Though my sleep was short, it had been the best few moments since I had been on the road. My bones cracked as I stretched out my joints, but was left with a feeling of satisfaction.

I made my way towards the smells of breakfast. Having been seated, I placed an order of hash browns, sausage, and eggs, and moments later, a steaming plate full of delicious smells was set in front of me.

While digging into my food, I had taken into listening to a group of men talking nearby. The men had the typical build for a Lancaster occupant, tall and muscular builds accompanied by unruly beards covering half of their faces.

"What does the man need this time? It's not like he'll be short on supplies any time soon." The wrinkles the man had deepened as he scrunched his face together in annoyance.