Man of Heart

A couple of days later Moss was back at the healer's hut. Mireya was looking over Moss's head injury. She looked at him ruefully. "You just love getting injured, don't you? Or is it that you want to see me more often?" Moss isn't quite able to hold back his expression which causes her to chuckle a bit. "I'm kidding. I know you're actually here to see my apprentice. You just can't get enough of her"

Moss almost jumps in protest, "What? No, I really am just injured."

Mireya chuckles and shakes her head. "I was just joking."

The young woman was there too, she seemed a little red in the face, but didn't say anything. Moss wondered if the heat was getting to her. After hesitating for a second, Moss decided to speak again, to the younger of the two this time. "I remember your parents, I think. Miriam and Jason. They were nice people, who treated the people working their land well. Can I at least get a hint at what your name is?"

The redness in her face was fading. She sighed, "I suppose. Let me think what hint I can say, without outright giving it away." The apprentice thought for a moment before speaking again. "When we first met, it was my father who introduced you to me. He said you were more important than you realize. That I should introduce myself. I gave a curtsey and introduced myself as the Queen of Greensfield. My father then told you my actual name."

Moss sighed. He vaguely remembered that. Her name was on the tip of his tongue but couldn't quite get it out. "Does it start with an L?" Shaking his head, he continues speaking, "I'm sorry I can't remember. I can only guess. Lydia, Linda…" Moss then shrugs his shoulders.

Mireya is stifling a laugh while she applies a poultice to his head. "Lydia? Linda? Hmmm. I wonder what it could be?"

The young woman seems like she can hardly hold something back, which Moss catches onto. "Wait, did I get it?" The apprentice looks away to hide her face, and Moss tries to hide a smile. "I did, didn't I? Lydia?"

Lydia composes herself and nods. "Finally, took you long enough." She hands the healer another ingredient and continues, "so, what now? Doing anything tonight?"

…

Moss looked at himself in the water's reflection. He tried getting himself as clean as possible, and his clothes as neat as possible. "Why am I fussing over how I look," He thought to himself. Moss and Lydia had agreed to meet for dinner at the only tavern in town. After a little more cleaning up, Moss decided there was little he more could do without visiting the local bath house.

He only had to wait a couple of minutes once he got to the healer's hut. Lydia looked pretty as usual, but she wore cleaner clothes that she hadn't been wearing out to go tending the garden. She also was wearing her hair down with a braid around her head, rather that tied back as she usually did when she was working outside.

When she came outside to greet Moss, she immediately caught him looking her over. She suppressed a smile and raised an eyebrow, "checking me out again?"

Moss coughed awkwardly, "I was ah, looking at your dress. You look good."

This caused Lydia to smile. "Thank you."

The two headed over to the tavern, The Frozen Goblin. As taverns went, this one was actually quite nice. Although, its name left a lot to be desired. There was supposedly a story behind the name, but Moss had yet to get the tavern owners to tell him.

Once inside, the two quickly found a table and one of the owners made her way to them. The Frozen Goblin was owned by a married couple who were the ones to establish it. They were traveling merchants when the old baron convinced them to settle down there and establish a tavern. They were free from taxes the first few years as a payment for them settling there.

The old baron was always looking for ways to grow the town and increase its prosperity. Moss wouldn't be surprised if it grew back to its original size within the next few years. Tenglholm had been a lot bigger and more prosperous decades ago, but entered a decline. The old baron had stopped that and even turned it around. He actively sought out merchants and craftsman to settle there. He also had brought a lot more peasant families to the town for farming. He treated everyone well to entice more people with his invitations. Although he had to get permission from the local lords before he could invite people from their lands. Therefore, he intentionally sought out lands where there were not enough jobs or couldn't support the number of people living there.

The middle-aged woman smiled at the two before speaking. "Lydia, would you like your usual?" Lydia nodded and the woman then looked at Moss, "I haven't seen you in a little while. What would you like?"

Moss thought for a second before responding, "I'll take the fish and chips." The woman nods and heads back towards the kitchen.

Taking a look around, Moss can see an assortment of travelers. There are some traveling merchants and their guards. There are also some who look to be explorers, probably heading east towards the march and likely into the wild lands beyond.

The wild lands were the lands that were yet to be conquered by civilized people.

Orcs, goblins, ogres and other humans formed into tribes ruled those places and made it dangerous to anyone intruding there. Many adventuring companies made a profit of exploring, mapping and exploiting those lands.

Lydia ran her fingers across the scratches on the table before speaking. She looked up to say, "So, I will be trying to finish my apprenticeship soon. I'll be a journeyman before long, but Sir Greenston is trying to convince me to study more to become a master before deciding whether or not the try to join the adventuring guild here. I really would like to join A Few Good Men and go out on an adventure."

Moss nodded and thought for a second before replying. "Adventuring can be dangerous work. As well as you may have to travel long distance on foot to complete jobs."

The girl quickly replied, "True, but wouldn't it be great to go and explore new places?" she leaned forward excitedly as she spoke. "Didn't you have fun seeing new places when you were in The Big Sticks?" She flicked her hair before asking another question. "Why did you leave The Bick Sticks anyway? Something happen?"

The "retired" adventurer didn't want to admit he way overestimated how much money he needed to retire. Or that he had tried to retire without any real practical plans on how to. Instead, he responded with the same half-truth he told Sir Greenston. "I got tired of being told what to do and having so little say in my life."

Lydia rolled her eyes, "So you joined the baron's men to become a man-at-arms? Yeah sure, you now have even less say and more rules to follow."

Moss suppressed a smile of embarrassment. "Well, I suppose I've found it wasn't as bad as I thought."

After giving out an audible sigh she responded, "you could've gone back or joined A Few Good Men."

He shrugged before saying, "yeah, I could have. You got me." After thinking for a second, he decided to come clean. "I thought the money I had could last longer than it did. I didn't expect things could be so expensive." He smiled meekly. "I grew up in The Big Sticks and didn't really understand how the outside world really worked."

Lydia looked surprised at the sudden honesty and words coming from the young man. "Oh, well I guess that was a bit silly. It would be hard to go back and admit failure, at least I know it would be for me." She gave a gave a cute smile to Moss and it seemed to cheer him up a bit.

The food that was ordered was placed before them and while that was happening a middle-aged woman approached them with a smile. The woman was wearing some robes from the local temple. She seemed happy to see Lydia here and spoke happily, "Hey Lydia! Who's this here?"

After glancing as Moss, Lydia smiles and introduces him, "This is Moss, he's the ex-adventurer I told you about." Lydia then looks at moss and introduces the woman. "Moss, this is a good friend of mine, Elaine. She's a Priestess at the local Sun Temple."

Elaine offers her hand so Moss stands and takes it, slightly bowing his head. He then offers her a seat, "Would you like to sit with us? We've just received our food; I'm sure anther order wouldn't take too long to come out."

After glancing back and forth between Moss and Lydia, Elaine smiles. "No, it's okay. You two look like you could make a cute couple, so I won't ruin your date."

Lydia's face turns red and Moss's eyes go wide. Lydia stammers, "Wait, it's not like that! I mean, it is sort of a date, but not like a date. I mean I'd like it to be." Lydia covers her mouth and looks down at the table.

Moss clears his throat, "I suppose this is technically a date." He looks away as his face turns a little red. "I don't think I'd mind it being a date like that."

Elaine gets a big smile on her face, "Good, you treat her right. Otherwise, I'll show you why I used to be called on to help train some of the Sun Watchers, they're the Sun Gods Clerics of Battle."

Lydia is now staring at Moss, having looked up after hearing what he said. She takes a deep breath before speaking. "Moss? Is this a date like that?"

Moss nods and Elaine's smile gets bigger. Elaine pokes Lydia's cheek, "Alright, I'll leave you two alone. You two behave now." She winks at Lydia and walks away before anything else can be said.