Chapter Eleven

**Sightseeing**

After they finished their meal, Byron took Vanna and Jason back to the town hall. He indicated the left wall of the building, “the hay is fairly fresh so you should be comfortable. Here you go,” he handed each of them a thick blanket. It felt scratchy in Jason’s hands. “When you wake up, feel free to walk around and introduce yourself. If you’re not awake by supper I’ll make sure to give you a good kick,” Byron said with a wink.

When Byron left them, Jason turned and looked at Vanna. She was already setting herself down on hay. Looking back on the last few days Jason realized that he had only slept in a bed one time. “Vanna?” He said.

The woman peaked an eye open and looked at the still standing Jason, “yes Honey? I don’t know about you but I’m still tired as a sloth and stiff as a board.”

“How often have you actually slept in a bed since you started playing?” Jason asked concern showing in his voice. He was already feeling sore from sleeping on the ground the previous night.

Vanna let out a laugh, “Honey, you get used to it after a while.” She closed her eyes and in seconds was snoring.

Jason sighed then laid down on the hay. The dried grass wasn’t as bad as he expected and it didn’t smell but that didn’t stop Jason from making a promise to himself. I’m going to get rich in this game if only so that I can sleep in a real bed.

*****

Jason had been more tired than he thought as he didn’t realize it when he fell asleep. When he woke up his back was still sore, but he did feel better than before. He turned to where Vanna had been resting and saw that she was gone. That old bat walked off on me.

He let out a long yawn then got up. His vibrant clothes were coated in strands of hay. No matter how hard he tried, he failed to completely pick away all the grass. Eventually he quit trying to clean himself and left the hall.

They hadn’t been sleeping for too many hours Jason found out when he saw the sun was only slightly past noon. Incidentally, a quick glance down the main street told Jason that most of the villagers were still off in the fields or pastures. He tried to spot out Vanna, or Bryon, or the sheriff, but came up empty handed.

It turned out to be a nice day and Jason decided to take a walk around the town. He was curious to see if there were any shops or other points of interest, in addition to wanting to find his companion. Before he walked away from the town hall he remembered Skippy. Jason turned to where he had harnessed the donkey and found his animal was gone. In a moment of panic he looked around furiously trying to find any signs of the animal, but was stopped when he heard a familiar voice, “He’s alright, I just put him in the stable.” The voice belonged to Byron he was walking towards him from the side of the hall.

The reeve saw Jason sag his shoulders and relax his face as he calmed himself. Jason walked over to meet the man.

“I see you’re awake now,” Byron commented. “Your friend has been up for a while, I think she went somewhere with Trent. How would you like for a little tour of the town? I’m still waiting for people to return from working to get you some customers.”

“Yeah sure that sounds great,” Jason replied, glad he wouldn’t have to walk around aimlessly.

“Well you’ve already seen the town hall and my wife and I’s cottage. We hold meetings in there and also use it for festivals, feasts, weddings, and such. The inn burned down a while ago so it’s also where we let travelers stay, so that’s where you’ll be staying tonight.” He started moving away from the building and Jason followed.

Jason caught up to Byron and asked, “are there any craftsman or shops in town?”

Byron frowned then replied, “we’re mostly farmers and herders here. Their use to be a brewery attached to the inn, but as I said that burned down. Everyone has a skill here and there and we go to them for some basic; repair an old boot sole, sew a rip in your trousers, that sort of stuff. Otherwise we wait for a tinker or trader like you to pass by or after a good harvest some folk take trips to Exton or the capitol to get things we don’t know how to make ourselves. There’s a blacksmith in the lord’s castle a little less than three miles north across the river. Close enough for folk to rely on, but still we need our smith shop. Been trying to get the blacksmith to take one of our boys as an apprentice but he’s not willing.” They had walked to the eastside of town and were now standing in front of a large two story building. A roofed balcony wrapped the second floor, but almost all of the building was blackened char; the roof had caved in and an entire wall was missing. “This is the old inn.”

Jason was impressed by the building even in its current state. “It must have stayed busy.”

“Aye,” Byron said pridefully, “the brewery brought many traders into the town. The ale sold out faster than old Finnan and his sons could make it.” Byron sighed, “all of his equipment was destroyed in the fire and his sons died off fighting in one of the king’s wars before he could rebuild. By then he was too old to restart on his own.”

“That’s a shame,” Jason said remembering the struggles he went through when his business first started, “the town could really use an inn.”

“I’ve been hoping that someone would build a new inn one of these days, but no one has shown interest. And many are afraid to put up that kind of money. Most folk around her keep all their wealth in cattle, sheep, or land.”

“You’re probably going to see less travelers until you fix your problem with Fallows,” Jason said.

Byron looked irritated by the comment, but nodded his head in agreement. “Maybe I’ll get Trent to post a guard on the road into town at nights for a while,” Byron mumbled forgetting Jason’s presence. Byron continued to mumble ideas and notes to himself. He didn’t breakout of his daze until Jason let out a fake cough. “Oh forgive me, I have a lot on my mind right now Jason. Come on let me show you something else.” Byron waved his hand and started walking north.

Finchead was shaped like a oval compass. The east-north highway was perpendicular to the north-south road that led to the river and farms. One oval road circled the town and Byron led Jason around it’s northwestern bend. Jason assumed this was the wealthier part of town because all along the row were large halls obviously capable of hold multigenerational family units. Each hall also typically had its own small stable or garden or chicken coop or other sign of prosperity.

Byron confirmed Jason’s suspicions. “These are the halls of the seven families that make up the town council. My job is to manage the town for the lord and report to him about production and other important matters, but the council makes the rules and comes to other important decisions. These families have been in Finchead since its was a tiny hamlet. They employ most of the other townspeople to tend their fields or livestock in the public pasture.”

They had reached the intersection and started to head north. Quickly the houses faded away to open hills and Jason heard the clanging of metal. Instinctively Jason reached for his dagger but stopped when he saw Byron was laughing at him.’

“Don’t worry son, it’s probably just Trent over in the militia grounds, come on.” He walked off the road and began to make his way up the hill. When they were at the top, Jason saw that there was a small dirt field on the other side, partly fenced and with a small shed. More importantly, Jason discovered Vanna was part of the source of the noise. The two were too intent in their training to notice Byron and Jason until Byron called out, “ho!”

They finished their last volley then relaxed their weapons to their sides. Jason could see that Vanna was breathing heavily and her hair was slicked back by sweat while Trent breathed steadily.

“Beating up on our guest now, Trent?” Byron said jokingly.

“Just testing her mettle. She trained under someone I knew in my old army days and I wanted to know if he was as bad of a teacher as he was a soldier.” He looked at Vanna then said, “I haven’t made my decision yet.” Vanna blushed but stayed quiet.

“If only we could get some of the young men to come out here with you more often,” Byron sighed.

Trent turned to Vanna and said, “its good to have someone to spar with again, even if I’m rusty and you still have much too learn. If you’ll oblige me, I would like to continue this another time.”

Vanna nodded her head, “yes sir. I would like that.”

Trent nodded his head and turned to the mayor, “If you’re not busy, there are thing I would like to discuss.”

“Yes, I have done some thinking as well,” Byron replied. To Jason he said, “I’m sorry but it looks like our tour will have to be cut short. Their isn’t much to this town either way. Feel free to walk around or you can wait in the townhall if you’d like. Supper won’t be for some time.”

“Don’t worry about us, we’ll find something to occupy our time,” Vanna said. “I don’t think I’m quiet done training yet,” she said with a sinister grin. Jason worried she intended to use his as a training dummy.

Before he could protest Byron smiled and said, “good. I’ll have an informal gathering arranged for after dinner for some trading, so don’t worry about that.” Then he and Trent turned and walked towards the town.

“Pick up a weapon,” Vanna said.

Jason put up his hand defensively, “Vanna I have zero combat skill, I’d only get myself hurt.”

“More reason for you to learn,” she shrugged. She went to the training shed and returned with two wooden swords. She tossed one at Jason, “here.” He reached out a hand to catch the wood but failed. The sword slapped his fingers and fell leaving his hand searing with pain. Vanna lowered her head and sighed.

“Sorry, sorry,” Jason said as he fumbled to pick the weapon back up.

“Never mind, watch me, I’m just going to show you the proper stance. That should at least give you the first skill level.” She turned to her side. She spread her legs and lowered herself slightly into a squat.

Jason tried to mimic her and thought he had done it right, but Vanna walked over to him and pushed him sending Jason off balance and crumbling to the dust.

“Keep a firm center of gravity,” she said then moved back to her spot.

Jason dusted himself off and got back into his stance. That time he put equal weight on each of his feet and felt firm against the ground.

“Good,” Vanna said. “Now practice pivoting,” she demonstrated then watched as Jason did the same. “Now do it all but with your sword up and your arm slightly bent.”

Jason must have done the stance correct because a notification appeared.

**New Skill: One Handed Weapons (Beginner I): 1% damage boost to one handed weapon damage (does not include small weapons or throwing weapons). Chances of being disarmed in combat, 2%.+50 Exp.**

**Note This! Combat skills can be raised in either live combat or training. However, live combat results in faster skill gain than training and to increase a skill level via training you must be training with someone of a higher skill level than your own.**

That sucks that it doesn’t count towards my dagger, I guess I need to look into get a cheap sword to carry around. The dagger doesn’t seem practical in a fight. “Alright that’s enough, it looks like you got the skill,” Vanna said breaking his thoughts. “I can’t really teach you much else I’m only in the Trainee stages of one handed weapons still. We can work on it some other time so that we can spar with each other on the road.”

Jason nodded, he was panting already and glad that they had stopped. Out of curiosity he check his stamina and saw that he had used over half of his points during the short training session. “Good, those exercises were killing my stamina. I think I’m going to head back to the town hall and wait there.”

“I’m going to walk by the river, maybe find someplace to bathe or someone to wash my clothes. I haven’t had money for either in a long time,” she said. The companions put away their borrowed weapons then walked back to the road where they parted in opposite directions.