The next day I was awoken once more by the wonderful scents of whatever it was that the innkeeper's wife was cooking this morning.

Last night, I had actually taken the time to undress myself before I had climbed into the comfortable bed, so I had to suffer through the wonderful smells for a while as I struggled to hurriedly dress myself.

Back down in the common room the group of three women and their guard were the only occupants and while I ate my breakfast, a small feast of toasted cheese on bread, a different kind of sausage than yesterday with more black tea.

I noticed the group of women occasionally throwing a glance at me.

It made me nervous but not without good reason.

I didn't recognise any of them from Clearwater, but they were clearly minor nobility by their dress or at least from a family of wealthy merchants.

It was very possible that one of them might recognise me.

I had very rarely been allowed to leave the estate but when I had left the estate, it had usually been to attend social functions by order of my uncle, Lord Hendrik.

I came to realise that the only reason I was taken to those things were because my uncle wanted me to be seen occasionally.

That being his goal, they were usually packed with people.

The more to see me alive and seemingly well under his care, the better.

Nobles and other wealthy people, merchants, their retainers, servants, maids and occasionally I had seen actual slaves in collars, who had arrived with important looking people from the south.

If those ladies were nobles, as I suspected they might be, and if they were from Clearwater, then the possibility that I might be recognised was a very real one.

I just hoped that me being here and not in noble finery was enough to push away any association of me possibly being from Clearwater.

If their houses were only very minor nobility then it was possible they had never been invited to the places Lord Hendrik had, but then again they still might have been.

I had never paid too much attention at those gatherings, to the people, especially not once I had realised why I had been ordered there.

I hadn't yet heard or seen anything about my uncle's men looking for me, the last I had seen them had been when they chased me on the other side of the Coldwater Ridge.

Rather than being reassuring, it just seemed to make me more nervous.

The sooner I was back in the mountain the better.

I finished my meal hurriedly and headed out of the inn.

I hadn't planned to leave on my remaining errands quite so soon but I had been spooked.

Moving quickly but not at a suspicious pace, I headed back to the street with the two blacksmiths.

After my short but unpleasant experience with one of the shops, I made straight for the second one this time.

Inside the shop was much the same as the other had been, if not quite as large, but the biggest difference was the older man who came through an archway at the sound of the bell.

His face was neutral and without a sneer.

He just raised an eyebrow at me and asked. “Can I help you, lad?”

“I think so, sir.” I answered, already relaxing a little at his much friendlier reaction to me entering his shop.

“Names Bill.” He told me. “No need for any sirs.”

“Sorry, Bill.” I corrected and he waved it off.

Clearing my throat I looked around the shop. “I need to buy some tools.” I told him with a gesture at all the different things.

“I need to be able to take them with me when I leave town though, I think I need some things for wood. Like an axe and a saw, things like that?” I finished questioningly.

“Things like that?” Bill asked slightly mocking me but there was no malice in it. “What exactly are you planning on doing?”

“I'm not sure exactly but I know I'll need to cut down trees for wood.” I told him. “I might need to try work with the wood too, to make some furniture.”

Bill snorted at my words.

“You need to find a carpenter.” He advised. “But, it's your own coin.”

And with a a shrug he began to show me a few of the things he had for sale now, rather than things he could make to be picked up later.

In the end I left the shop with a woodsman's hatchet, a small version of an axe basically, I also bought an actual full sized axe, a saw that folded up and that had several replacements for it's actual saw blade.

I had a small box of various handheld tools, chisels, nails and a few other things inside that I had no idea what they did.

Bill had told me that they were a basic set of carpenters tools, something an apprentice might buy.

Having shafts and handles, the axe, hatchet and saw were tied together by a strap of leather which both, held them together as one and provided a handle for me to carry it with.

Under my other arm was the box with everything else, it was very awkward to carry not just because of the weight but also because the size was a little large.

I took them back to the inn, the three ladies and their guard weren't in the common room when I returned so I stopped for a moment to ask Jared, the innkeeper, if he knew where I could buy some books.

Jared did know of a place and I thanked him for the directions as well as paying for another night.

I wouldn't be going to buy my books just yet though because the blacksmith Bill had given me an idea to get all my purchases at least most of the way back to my mountain.

After putting my new purchases in my room, which was rapidly becoming smaller and smaller as I filled it with more things.

I headed in the opposite direction that I'd left previously, this time moving closer to the centre of the town.

Finding the street was looking for, with a large square in the centre.

The square was actually a very small park, only a few trees but with lots of grass and flowers, I wandered through the gravel paths then around the square, until I spotted the shop I wanted.

Heading inside the rich smell of fine leathers and treated woods reached my nose and I inhaled deeply.

A women came forward with a small curious smile on her face.

For a change, I was the first to speak.

“Hello, good morning.” I greeted her.

“Good morning.” The woman replied, her face said that she was politely waiting for me to tell her why I was here, so I obliged.

“I need to buy a few travel chests.” I told her, then explained further. “I think I'll need three about this size.” I said pointing to one of the chests off to our side.

“Water proofed and with locks?” She asked me with a suddenly businesslike expression on her face and a gesture for me to follow her further into the shop.

“Yes, and there is one more thing I wanted to ask...” I said was I followed her.

****************

I had briefly stopped back at the inn to empty out one of the packs in my room, I'd emptied the one with my clothing and left them and the other things on the bed.

I'd headed back out again, with the now empty pack, but this time in the direction that Jared had given me.

I was looking to buy books now.

My larger coin pouch was mostly empty now, so I had poured the remaining one silver and few coppers into the smaller pouch that had contained only gold and silver.

I still had my gold ingot stashed away in my room but I had certainly burned through a lot of coin in my short time here in Moreland's Rest.

There were many book sellers on this street and some similar businesses.

A map maker, a shop that sold paper and other things but still the choice for which book shop to enter was a difficult one because I didn't have any specific books I needed.

In fact I needed books that weren't specific at all, I needed them to be varied in their subjects.

With nothing else to for it, I just walked into the nearest one and began to look around at what books were for sale.

I didn't buy anything in the first two shops but I did when I entered the third shop.

The first shop the woman who had approached me as I looked around, did so with the same kind of sneer on her face as that first blacksmith had.

She had asked me if she could help me in a tone that clearly said 'I don't want you in my shop', I had told her that I didn't think she could and left immediately.

In the second shop the older woman who had approached had been much nicer but the books she had were not what I needed, they were mostly on things I had no use for.

Dressmaking, societal histories, memoires or biographies of important people.

I had explained to her that I needed things that were more of a utilitarian nature and even though I had obviously just wasted her time she was very polite and understanding.

She had directed me across the street to the third shop, the shop I now stood in.

Apparently the book shops on this street had a kind of understanding that while there were some books that obviously overlapped in topic, which couldn't be helped, they mostly only sold the kinds of books that were in fitting with no one else's books.

Meaning that, if I did need to buy a book about some important general or about fashion today or a few centuries ago, then I would only find them in one of the shops specifically.

The shops I needed were this one, the one I was in now and possibly a fourth one that was towards the end of the street.

Entering the shop to the scent of paper and the sound of a bell, which was becoming familiar I looked around to for anyone but saw no one.

I walked further in towards the counter.

“Hello?” I asked the empty air and received no reply.

As I reached the counter I tried again.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” I raised my voice slightly and directed my words to the curtained off doorway behind the counter.

A heard something hit the ground, a soft but quiet curse then a woman's voice.

“Yes! I'm here! I'll just be a moment!” The woman's voice called out to me.

“Um, it's OK.” I said. “I'll just look around if that is alright?”

There were a few more quite words that I didn't quite hear then, louder. “That's fine! I'll be out to help right away!”

I turned away from the counter and began walking down the isles of bookshelves.

I read the titles of the books on their binders as I moved up and down the rows, a few I spotted looked very useful and a few that I thought might be.

I don't know how long I was looking but I came back to myself when I heard the voice of the woman from earlier.

“Damn it, they left.” The woman's voice said, sounding slightly dejected.

Feeling slightly embarrassed at hearing this for some reason, I hesitantly stepped out of the end of the row of bookshelves I was currently in and found that the woman's voice belonged to a young girl.

She was clearly a couple of years older than I was but still young to own a book shop.

“Uh.” I started cleverly and raised awkwardly. “I'm still here actually.”

The girls face flushed and I felt even more embarrassed for both of us.

“Oh! I thought you'd left already.” She said and we just looked at each other in silence for a moments.

“I uh, can come back later if-” I began to say but was cut off.

Her eyes widened slightly.

“No! I'm sorry, I was trying to organise things in the back. I'm so sorry, please don't leave. I'm Melissa, how can I help you, sir?” She got out in a rush and I don't know who felt more awkward at her use of 'sir'.

Me, because I was only fourteen or her, for calling me sir when she was clearly older than I was, if not by much.

Deciding to ignore it as best I could I started to tell her what I needed.

“I need to buy quite a lot of books.” I tried to tell her that I didn't know exactly what kinds of books I would need, to give her a general idea but she clapped her hands together before I could and came over to me speaking excitedly.

“That's fantastic, we have lots of books here.” Melissa told me, gesturing to all the shelves. “My uncle, he owns the shop.” She added quickly. “-has books on all different subjects. They are all of high quality materials and are very well cared for.” She assured me as if I didn't believe her.

Taking my arm she turned me around slightly as if I hadn't noticed all the books or hadn't come into a shop that sold books on purpose, as she continued to gesture to them.

“We pride ourselves on our good quality and fair prices, I'm sure that we have everything you need here. We also have a catalogue of books that we can special order from Gresh, Volak, Clearwater and even as far as Suldar!” She told me and I had to raise up both my hands to stop her.

“I'm sorry.” I told her looking into her eyes, I was slightly panicked.

This is not how I had thought my visit to this shop would go.

“I can't order any books, I don't think I'll be in town for long enough. I just need to buy books that you have right now.” I said and she seemed slightly disappointed but her smile turned up to full flame once more.

“I can help you with that!” She told me again. “What kinds of books so you need?”

“Well, the thing is I need books on different subjects.” I began. “I am travelling out of town soon and I'll be gone for a while. I need book that can help me learn things I'll find useful.”

Frowning at my explanation, I continued to try to explain.

“I was hoping that you could help me look through some of the bookshelves for anything that might be useful, but you seemed pretty busy...” I finished a little lamely.

Waving my words away she smiled again.

“Well, what kinds of things do you think you'll need to know?” Melissa asked me as she took my arm and pulled me down the row of books.

******************

I left the shop in a daze.

Melissa, was apparently looking after the shop for her Uncle who was away in Gresh.

She had been tasked with, opening and closing the shop, cleaning, accounting, selling the books and organising the books that were in the back of the shop.

She had told me all this sporadically between obviously rehearsed sales pitches, wild hand gestures that I occasionally flinched at and an endless stream of general chatter.

I don't think I had ever heard anyone talk as much in my life.

She had been helpful though, or at least I thought so.

Maybe she had been too helpful because the empty pack I had entered the shop with was almost as bad as the pack of seeds I had bought from Ms Chapel.

I thought about walking with the heavy pack to the fourth book shop at the end of the street but decided against it.

I couldn't bare the thought of walking any further away from the direction of the inn just to have to walk back with all these books.

I stopped briefly in the map makers next door, which was in the direction of the inn.

Buying then putting away a large but inexpensive map into the pack and even worked up enough willpower to enter the paper maker's shop afterwards.

There, I bought an empty notebook as well as several pens and ink, but had to carry the couple of ink pots in my hand as there was no safe way to store them in my pack with all the hard books.

If they cracked or worse, broke completely inside my pack, then ink would ruin the books I had just bought.

I slowly made my way back to the inn, only stopping twice to set down my burden for a minute of rest.

When I entered through the door and into the common room, the innkeeper, Jared came over to me hurriedly.

“Young master, several men came by earlier looking for you.” He told me and I froze, then looked around hurriedly as I quickly set down my pack with a heavy thud.

I stood there ink pots in hand wondering what I should do.

“-avelling chests, so I've put them up stairs in the empty room on your floor for you.” Jared was saying and it took me a second to understand.

I almost collapsed with relief.

The travelling chests I had paid for that morning had been delivered.

The men were looking for me to drop off the chests, I was almost glad that I had paid for them in advance because if I had come back to find a group of men actually waiting for me, I might have turned around and started running.

“I'm sorry, Jared.” I said. “I didn't think they would arrive so soon, I thought they would be here tomorrow.” I told him. “Thank you for taking care of them.” I added after my explanation.

Jared waved my apology and thanks away casually and moved back to his stop behind the bar.

It was then that I noticed all three of the ladies watching me from the other side of the common room.

The guard was as ever, sitting, looking uninterested but I had definitely caught the attention of the women.

I shouldered my overburdened pack and walked straight up the stairs without another look in their direction.

Looking briefly into the only other room on my floor, I saw the three chests were set neatly on the open floor then ducked back out.

Entering my own room, I gladly set my burden down onto some free space on the bed, then I picked up the other packs once by one and set them onto the bed too.

It didn't take me long to bring all three chests to my room and I began the long process of unpacking all of my packs, putting some of the things into specific chests and in the correct order while repacking by packs.

I ended up with my three chests that all contained different items, including my now repacked packs and was left with only a single, much lighter pack which only contained some essentials.

It had become a travel pack that was something I could actually travel with.

I think tomorrow I will have to go out in search of the possible solution to my chests and transport problem.

For now though, I thought only about rest.

I fell asleep without even going down for the evening meal.