Chapter 7: Four

Keplan was ready to close the supply station. A small store located west of the Great Desert, selling different types of goods, including food, medicines, and often things such as weapons and beasts for the needs of wandering travellers. Folks would stop here to prepare for their journey to Bilra or Esira, the only two lands that allow safe passage to the rest of the Great Continent.

The last customers were hard to handle. Keplan never liked speaking to Stone Golems and found them hard to understand. Took him a whole afternoon to realize that they just wanted three barrels of water and the rest of the evening imagining why a Stone Golem would wish to own three barrels of water.

‘Do they even drink it?’; mumbled Keplan between his teeth while cleaning the counter with a rag already dried out with dust and sand. The dwarf was sure that his pop had once explained why Stone Golems needed water. But couldn’t remember the why. Finally, with the night’s end, he was too tired to care, and Keplan only wished to call it a day and snuggle his pillow tightly. His thoughts were interrupted by a hasty heavy step coming inside the supply station.

‘We are closed, mate!’; The steps came closer and closer, heavier as they approached. ‘ I said we are close! By any God who is listening right now! What does a dwarf need to do to have some blessed rest!?’

Keplan turned his head and felt his copious beard shuddering when he saw a prominent black figure standing next to him.

The face was obscured by a black mask made of metal, with dens and scratches that would show how numerous fights, even battles, it aided. The dark cloak was ripped at the hem and wouldn’t hide the black gear made primarily of leather and raw cloth. The stranger carried two swords chained to his wrist by a leather bracelet while dangling at his waist. Only Battlemages would use that sort of weaponry.

Keplan was not used to feeling intimidated, but this Dark Mage instantly made him feel pure dread.

‘I need supplies and transportation, said the Dark Mage in a distorted voice stifled due to the mask.

Keplan was about to tell him that enough is enough, and they were closed for the night when the Dark Mage suddenly fell unconscious.

 

The Dark Mage woke up covered with a tiny blanket that couldn’t reach his knee, and his head was resting over a bag of potatoes. He touched his face to confirm the mask was still covering his face.

The small-scale dwarf, with golden hair as sand and a beard that didn’t reach yet, his chest was dozing against some crates next to him, snoring rumbles between teeth. By the length of his beard, the Dark Mage presumed the dwarf was still young, perhaps fifty or sixty summers, not more. He also pondered for a moment if this could be the son of old Glish, a very old and dear friend who happens to be the owner of the store station. He sits on the floor, with a pounding head, probably due to the fall. He was exhausted from travelling the desert from east to west.

‘I’m awake!’; said Keplan brutally.

The Dark Mage looked at the dwarf’s muddle and grinned behind the mask.

‘I’m awake.’ He repeats. ‘You awaken too? I’m guessing you must be peckish. Let’s get a snack, you and I. Do you like fresh pomace? Of course, you do. Everyone who steps foot on the desert likes pomace!’; Keplan ran to the counter and fetched some dry jerky from one of the crats, a bottle from the shelve and two cups of clay. He ran back close to the Dark Mage and sat on the warm dirty floor. Puts a cup in front of each one of them and unwrapped the old paper around the jerky, offering it.

‘Eat! There is nothing better than stiff jerky and fresh pomace! It was my old pop who made it! Best sell in the store, no regrets.’; said Keplan vividly while diving in with the salty meat.

‘Is Glish still here?’; asked the Dark Mage, lifting his mask enough to wet his lips with the burning liquor.

‘Aye, the old man still orders me around, but with me in his store, he has more time to visit other settlements and give a hand with whatever is needed. And me staying here, I can work on my little secret projects.’

‘I need goods to travel to Tarsag’Itius and transportation, something fast.’

‘Something fast? To Tarsag’Itius? I can’t see any beast being able to handle all the road from here to there. And you will need to go through Esira or Bilra. That might take at least two moons to reach even the border of Tarsag’Itius, not counting how dangerous it could be.’ Keplan chew on the meat with a thoughtful expression.

‘I was thinking of travelling to Bilra and following south to Quari’Aus, so I can reach Faeriewood from there instead of running the whole countryside of Tarsag’Itius.’ replied the Dark Mage, which sounded much softer without the mask muffling his voice.

‘That is an even longer journey but safer, and how will you carry two moons of goods in your bag? I don’t see it possible, and I have no horse left, and I sold the last one two days ago. Not even sure when I will be able to acquire new stallions. I have the goods for such a journey but how will you carry them? You don’t look to be in your best shape.’ As soon as Keplan finish the sentence, he felt a smash on his head.

An intimidated dwarf stood behind him and smashed his head again with a wooden staff:’This is no way to welcome guests!’ and hit Kaplan’s head for the third time.

The Dark Mage got on his feet and bowed to the old dwarf with a long white bear dragging on the floor. ‘Glish! Old friend, how long!’

‘Heidle, my old war mate, how I missed having you around. What brings you here?’

‘He wants to go to Tarsag’Itius.’; replied Keplan instead.

‘I see, you travelling back to Faeriewood?’ Heidle nodded his head to Glish:’How do you know she returned?’

‘A firefly told me.’

‘I-see-I-see, this is a very urgent matter, and we have no horse, but I might have the perfect solution for you! Come, come, let me show you something!’

They followed the old store station owner behind the storage, and Heidle saw something he had never seen in his very long existence.

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The three of them stand still in front of what looked like a chariot with four wheels made of rubber and a metallic canvas. What intrigued the most to Heidle is that there was no pull to attach the horses.

‘This is Keplan’s little project. Is a true marvel, and it runs by itself!’; said Glish with a proud fatherly tone.

‘It doesn’t run alone, it needs fuel to set the engine in motion, and we don’t have enough drive as far as the borders of Bilra!’

‘What is fuel, and how does it work?’; asked Heidle, intrigued by the strange wagon.

Keplan explained: ‘The fuel gets injected into the combustion chamber and combined with air it ignites with a spark, it is that reaction which makes the machine drive but as soon as the fuel is consumed it won’t move anymore.’

Heidle looked at the machine:’Is it fast?’

‘Faster than six horses together’, confirmed Glish.

‘No way! I’m not selling it; either way, he wouldn’t be able to drive it!’

‘You are not selling. You are going with Heidle!’

‘What? But why? What about the store?’

‘Young dwarf, I ran the store long before you were not even a pea inside my balls!’

Keplan looked at his father, a bit conformed, then to his automatic wagon and said: ‘We don’t have enough fuel. There is nothing I can do.’

Heidle could feel the frustration of Keplan and ask:’ Where do you feed this thing?’

Keplan, at this point, didn’t question the stranger or his father anymore. He opened a tiny door on the side of the machine and pointed:’Here, through this nozzle. That is how you feed it.’

Heidle approached, took his leather gloves off, gripped his sword doing a small cut on his finger, and approached the nuzzle, dropping a couple of tiny blue beads on it. The machine suddenly woke up, and its gear made a loud noise unexpectedly and as quick as it arose, it went to rest again.

‘This should work’, said Heidle.

‘A Blue Blood One…’, said Keplan astonished and more dreadful than ever.

‘They age much-much slower than any creature on the Great Continent, and that should do the trick, son! Very well done, Heidle. As always, you are a true hero.

Keplan was still petrified, glued to his place. For the first time in his life, he saw blue blood and remembered the song his father taught him:

Red, green and stone,

no other colour runs the bone.

Stick, leaf, pitch my speech

And my eye deny with my life!

 

‘That one day the Blue Blood One shall come’, replied out loud Heidle to Keplan’s thoughts.

 

 

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