The rain was pouring down from the sky and Cobal was absolutely miserable sitting on the front bench of the wagon. They were taking turns driving the wagon and the other two were taking shelter in the back. Credit where credit was due, but the fabric was doing a stellar job of keeping the rain out. Unfortunately the little bit of fabric that was hanging over the driver’s seat wasn’t nearly enough to do anything and Cobal was drenched. Luckily they would stop for the day soon. They’d made good progress so far, despite the terrible weather. Cobal was impressed by the quality of the great Rilodar Road. The smaller roads in the Blueyerd Kingdom would be a disaster to try and travel on in this weather, but this wide road with stones and gravel as its base was much more sturdy. There were even drains to each side where the water would go, avoiding the thing from becoming a muddy mess. Cobal was wondering if setting something like this up in his home country would be the way forward. He’d been pondering the lack of proper communication and care for the further regions of Blueyerd, and having easier access to these places could be the key. Cobal and Mana experienced how bad the roads were firsthand when they had to rush back home from Milinia, after all.
“Are you doing alright, lad?” Eliana asked, sticking her head out of the wagon.
“It’s just water I suppose.”
Mana peeked around the fabric as well. “We have a saying where I’m from: You’re not made of sugar, are you?” She chuckled. “It’s to imply you won’t melt.”
“I see, very funny,” Cobal replied.
“Well, we should be calling it a day soon, so we’ll get a warm fire going. Keep an eye out for some cover.”
Cobal nodded as the other two retreated to the dry part of the wagon. He sneezed. “I hope I’m not getting a cold,” he said to himself.
After a little while he found a spot where the treeline was a bit more dense. He finally found a spot with enough cover to put down one of the tents. They’d decided earlier that day that two of them would sleep in the wagon, to avoid having to set up too many tents in this bad weather.
But first Cobal went into the tent. “We’ll eat something cold today I guess. There’ll be a town to restock tomorrow.”
Cobal went to set out some stuff outside, but the wind was blowing things away. “Hopefully it calms down a bit before nightfall, I’d rather not sleep in the rain.”
After setting up camp, limited as it may be this time, they quickly realized that there was no beginning to get comfortable. Giving up eventually they huddled together in the very limited floorspace of the wagon and none of them slept comfortably.
Luckily they were close to the nearby town of Muddon. Muddon was an unassuming village, but due to its close proximity to the main road it saw more travel than it otherwise would. Because of this, it had many inns, taverns and stores. It was only early in the afternoon when our party reached Muddon, but they were drenched and tired, so before the town was even on the horizon the decision to stay there for the night had already been made. The weather seemed to be getting worse and worse, and traveling further today would be miserable and ultimately unproductive.
“You look miserable,” the old innkeeper commented when they walked in the door, as if to point out the obvious.
“Not at all, I like being drenched and cold,” Eliana snapped back. Her temper had not improved in the last few days and this sentence told the innkeeper all he needed to know. No more jokes with these new travelers.
“We’re on our way to Marsolin but we got caught in this terrible rainfall. We’re looking for an early stop today and hope you have a room for three people available.”
“Well, you need to look no further. Our Silver Bolt inn is the best establishment on the entire Rilodar Road.”
“I’ll take your word for it, how much for the room?” Cobal asked.
“One room for three people for one night would run you three silver or four if you want dinner and breakfast included.”
“Here’s five silver, get us a round of ale ready while we get sorted.”
“Thank you for your patronage.” The innkeeper took the coins from Cobal and handed him the key to their room. Cobal could feel the wrinkles in the old man’s bony hand. He was slightly shaking as well, the man must be in his late eighties or perhaps even older. Cobal gave a polite nod before he followed the other two up the stairs. Their room was on the second floor and it seemed to be one of three bigger rooms. As Cobal was already halfway up the stairs the old man got his attention.
“Before I forget, we’re heating up a tub in the back room so feel free to take a quick bath here. It may not be as nice as the natural springs to the north of the capital, but in this weather you probably wouldn’t want to bathe outside anyway.”
“Thank you, I think we’ll take you up on that offer.”
The old man smiled. “Do make it a quick bath so others can get a turn too.”
“I’ll let the others know.” He then went back up the stairs after the other two, who were already impatiently waiting on him, since Cobal was the one with the key.
The room was roughly what they’d come to expect from roadside inns. They were well kept but nothing special. Cobal told the other two about the tub and Eliana went off first to go take a bath. Cobal decided to take a quick nap while Mana went downstairs to warm up by the hearth.
After all three of them had taken a bath and put on dry clothes, they spent their afternoon in the inn’s common room, waiting for dinner.
Although the inn wasn’t crowded, there were still a decent amount of folks sitting at different tables. Cobal couldn’t help but overhear one of their conversations as the trio sat sipping their ales.
“Have you heard about Samel?”
“No, what happened to him?”
“I heard that he traveled north and came back a changed man.”
“What do you mean, he got a beard or something?”
“No, there was something in his eyes. He didn’t even recognize me. He was talking about how he had to go deliver his potatoes to grandmother. I don’t know what it all meant, but he seemed adamant that it was of the utmost importance. He quickly left again, moving weirdly and all.”
“You reckon some demon got a hold of him?”
“I hope not, we’re too far from the wildlands for those to appear.” The man looked around nervously. “Right?”
“He probably just lost his marbles. Samel was always a weird one, after all.”
“I don’t know man, I’ll keep to the main road for a while, just to be safe.”
The two men shifted their conversation to the recent weather and Cobal quickly lost interest in them. Instead, he shifted his attention to Mana, who was bent over one of her books. “What are you reading?” He asked.
Mana didn’t seem to hear him initially so he poked the side of her arm to get her attention.
“Hmm?” She replied absentmindedly.
“What are you looking at?” He asked again.
“Oh, I brought this book from the capital, it’s a recollection of stories people have told about the Feral Wildlands. It mainly documents any mention of people and creatures coming out of the Wildlands to either attack or trade or talk with people from the Blueyerd Kingdom.”
“Is there anything interesting there?”
“So far a lot of these sound like your usual ghost stories. Things that parents tell their children to make them behave and stories that drunk people tell when they need an excuse as to why they passed out on the far side of town. But some of these stories sound like they might be hiding some real truths.” She flipped the book over several pages and turned it to Cobal. “Take for example this story here. A man went missing from his family home for several days only to return exhausted, with a massive headache and completely dehydrated. His story was that some bloodsucking creature had taken all of his energy and left him to die on the side of the road. Obviously this man just went somewhere to drink, got a little bit carried away and passed out somewhere. All the symptoms match and from the way the author treats this story it seems like there are really no telling details that could mean anything more.” She moved to another page. “But then we look at this story of three young women who all saw a rainbow colored fox skip across a river and vanish into the forest and it seems much more plausible. These are three different occasions of the same story, happening at different moments, but all have very similar details. It’s important to look at these kinds of things when evaluating these stories. Does this mean there’s a rainbow colored fox running around on the edges of the Feral Wildlands?” She shrugged. “Maybe, but it could also be some different thing they witnessed. All three retellings of the rainbow fox have things in common, like the skipping over a river and the rainbow colors. But the fox itself looked very different to each of these people. Perhaps it has something to do with the fog that can build up near water and the light it reflects. Just like how a regular rainbow is just a trick of light, this can be the same. Or it’s really just a fox with all the colors of the rainbow. It’s hard to say, but I think frequency can tell us a lot about the reliability of a story.”
Cobal thought for a moment. “I hadn’t quite considered it that way. I always went by how believable a story sounded.”
“Just because something sounds unbelievable, doesn’t mean it can’t happen. And some of the most common lies told are those that closely follow facts. We have a thing in my old world that we call conspiracy theories. These are theories that are unproven but often sound plausible. It’s often driven by a couple of facts that are true and then there’s some real weird things thrown in. But because the other nine things the person says sound true and valid, then perhaps the tenth, crazier sounding thing, is also true. That’s obviously not the case, but that’s how they trick you into believing them.”
“What are some conspiracies in your old world?”
Mana thought for a moment and then shook her head. “To be honest, I think it’s best if we don’t get into that. A lot of them are pretty out there and tend to be hateful towards certain people. Some things are best left unsaid.”
The rain hitting the roof and windows seemed to be getting less and less intense as dinner was served. Eliana was noticeably quiet for most of the day. Even throughout dinner she didn’t speak much. After dinner the trio returned to their room.
“I’m going to hit the sack early tonight. I didn’t get enough sleep last night.” Eliana said. It was already dark out, but it was relatively early in the evening.
“Good night,” Cobal and Mana each said.
After that, Mana went back to her books. Cobal took out the book that Dionil had given them when they first started training and absentmindedly thumbed through the notes he’d made in it. Magic still eluded him most of the time and he would often write about his frustrations with his lack of success. Dionil had said that acknowledging this was a good thing, so he kept up with it. At least it helped him get his thoughts in order. Eventually he put his book away and noticed that Mana had also gone to sleep. He blew out the candles and listened to the soft sound of rain hitting the roof as he drifted off into the best sleep he’d had in a couple of days.
Opal Kaharis 