Future Glories - Part 4

He even noticed, that when he went to push himself to his feet, it was his left arm that he was using. The same left arm that just the day before had been too numb for him to even try moving his fingers. The same left arm that had been so useless to him that he'd used it as a meatshield against Usar's attack.

Whilst the others had been busy getting ready for the day, he stealthily tore off the sleeve of his bloodied tunic, so that he might better inspect the wounds.

They were half-closed, and scabbed over. A miracle, for wounds of that size. He'd have been lucky to stem the flow of bleeding by this point, but now, on all three of the wounds, they were well on the road to recovery, as though they'd been healing for two weeks under perfect medical attention, rather than a mere night in his dirty clothing.

When he tried to move his left arm in a swing, he only felt the slightest twinge of pain doing it. Blackbeard was watching him from across the cave, an odd look on his face. Vol looked back at him, but the man showed no signs of coming over, and they had not spoken of it since.

After another night of rest, Vol's arm was completely recovered, to a state that he'd even dare to say was better than before. There was not even any scar tissue left over from the wound. The skin was left perfectly smooth. The System's regenerative effects on it seemed near impossible. That was certainly something that Varsharn's Blessing could never do.

!! SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: OBVIOUSLY.

The System spoke with a near-emotionless feminine voice, but there was a sass behind its words at times that pointed to a clear personality.

Along with his recovered left arm, on the same day, Vol also saw his riding skill increase by another mastery point, until it was at 3/5. He'd hoped to evolve it before getting to the fence's place, but with each new point that he gained, his acquisition of further points slowed down.

He would have liked to have offset the slow speed of riding acquisition by doing other things, like training his axe slashes, or trying to finally evolve his axe-throwing skill, but with so many people around, it was hard to get a quiet moment alone to test the System like he would have wanted to. These people, after all, were potential enemies. He didn't want to let them know what he could do, or let on the fact that he had a Blessing.

Besides, the System itself had remained quiet. No further quests had been delivered. It too seemed to be telling him to remain patient, and wait for an opportunity to present itself, so, he did just that.

They drew into the fence's place in the evening of that same day. As a destination, it didn't look like much. In fact, it looked worse than the cave that they'd camped in. It was an unimpressive and ill-tended longhouse. The thatching on the roof looked like it could have done with a change years ago.

But for what it lacked in appearance, it made up for in location. It seemed to be the only house for miles around. They'd had to fight their way off the main track for a good hour, following a steep incline further into the mountains, before finally the trees gave way to a clearing, and at the centre of the clearing was that darkwood snowcovered longhouse.

Two men had been sat outside, sharing a smoking pipe when they arrived. The minute the first of their party broke through the clearing, the men rushed inside.

Vol was surprised to see that it was a woman they dragged back out with them. A woman that they clearly served, from their reserved posture around her. She had the blonde hair that was typical of many Yarmdon, and a stern-face to go along with it. She did not wear the dresses that would have been customary for one of her gender, but tight fitting leather, with a fur cloak over the top of it.

She received Blackbeard with folded arms and an irritated expression.

"You brought your whole party here, Yusman?" She said, not bothering to hide her dissatisfaction.

"Didn't have much choice. Was an interesting road here, and we acquired a handful of things that we needed to get rid of. That, and we needed to resupply," Blackbeard told her.

"If word of this place gets out, if any of them let it slip—"

"And who would they tell? The law? We're all wanted men, Talin. Besides, I'd cut em' down if they did. Can't have anyone exposing the Raider's secrets to the lawmen. Be getting rid of the only upper hand we've got," Blackbeard said.

Talin heaved a long sigh, before nodding to her two underlings. "Take stock of what they've brought," she said. "Buy what's worth selling, refuse the rest… And you brought mules with you?"

"You interested in buying them?" Blackbeard asked.

"And where would I stable them? They'd be dead in the cold if I left them amongst the trees. Though, I suppose a butcher would pay well for the meat… Mm. I'll take three of them," she decided.

"How much you givin'?" Blackbeard asked.

"A silver," she said.

"A silver!? For a bleedin' mule? Just the meat alone is worth far more than that," Blackbeard said.

"Why don't you ask all your other buyers what their offers are then?" The woman said pointedly. "It's a fair price, considering all that you've saddled me with. I'll need the mules just to transport all that damn armour you've bought."

"Fine, fine…" Blackbeard said reluctantly. "I'm keeping mine, though. Who wants to get rid of theirs?"

There were more than a few eager voices ringing out. Just like Vol, they found what a pain it was to keep the animal fed, without any stores on hand from which they could buy feed from.