We had just come into the city, pulling our string of horses along behind us. The guard had told me to go right, so that was what I did. I figured that I might get ripped off, but since the horses were free, it shouldn’t matter too much.

I slowed down for Kasidy to catch up. “Kas, Do you have any merchant skills that could help us get a better sale?”

She smiled and nodded. “I should be okay on negotiation the real question of course is what the going rate is.”

We pulled up our horses at the stables, and a boy came up to let us in. The building was right on the outer wall. It ran down what appeared to be maybe a hundred yards which was a third of the length of the wall. On the outside, it had a deep area walled off with a short stone wall. In the walled area, there were numerous hands working with the animals.

Once our horses were through the gate to a stable, we dismounted. The boy at the gate ran back into the huge barn structure, and soon an older teen came out. He waved to us and gave us a great big smile.

When he was just a few feet away, he asked. “How can we help today?”

Kasidy looked over at me, and I nodded. She stepped forward and started to speak with the boy. As they were talking, I looked over the stables. The people with the horses were running them in circles or brushing them down. Others were moving the ever-growing piles of droppings.

On the other side of things, I saw several wagons, both small for a single horse and huge. They looked like they would need something other than horses to pull them. This might have been why there were large ox-type things near the wagons as well. Slower but had greater pull which made sense in my world. What didn’t make sense was why a horse couldn’t get strong enough to pull a massive load.

I sighed and muttered. “Yet another thing that I need to ask Sam about.”

About five minutes after we got to the stables, another man came out. He started to look over the horse. I could tell that he recognized at least some of them. I watched as he went over to the boy that was talking with Kasidy. Soon the boy left, and the man started to get aggressive as he was pointing at the horses.

I walked over to them. “What seems to be the problem?”

The man turned towards me. “The problem is I know those horses and they aren’t yours to sell!”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh and why is that?”

He tightened his fists. “Because they are mine!”

“They are?”

“Yes, and I have half a mind to call the guards to come take you away as horse thieves!”

I nodded. “So how did we get them if they are your horses?”

He set his jaw and stared at me. “You must have come in early this morning and stolen them over the wall!”

I sighed. “Okay lets just say that we got here nice and early. We got in and took your horses out of the stable and took them out of the city and then came back in right?”

He sneered and nodded, then he shouted to a passing guard. “Guards help thieves!”

Two guards came running over. “Where’s the thief?”

The man pointed at me. “He stole my horses and now is trying to sell them back!”

When the man said that to the guards, I started to think about what would happen if I just killed the guy. I wanted a happy, easy life, not one where people were out to steal from me all the time. My guess was the horses were on loan to the bandits from this stable, and this guy didn’t want to get caught up in this mess.

The guards each raised their clubs to their shoulders. “Is this true?”

I sighed and shook my head. “No it’s not at all my guess is my friend was doing a better job at haggling than the boy we were talking to. So his guy comes out and tries to take all of horses without paying.”

About that time, an older man with clean clothing came out of the stable. I could tell as soon as I saw him that he was the owner. His white beard was well groomed, and everything about him said competent. He strolled over raising a hand to the guard.

When he got within about ten feet, he asked. “What’s going on here?”

His employee started to speak, but he cut him off. “No, I want to hear what this man has to say then I want to here why the guards came over.”

I nodded to the man. “We just got in town today. The guard at the gate told us if we were selling these horses to come here. So we did. My friend was handling the sale with a boy. This guy came out and looked over the horses and then started to get mad. He accused me of stealing the horses early this morning taking them out of the city and bringing them back now to sell them. Then he called the guards over.”

The older man nodded and then looked at the guards. “Okay and you came with he called?”

The two guards nodded. “We were doing a patrol when he called that there was a thief we came running right over.”

The old man shook his head and smiled at the guard. “We are sorry to have disturbed you. You can leave now.”

The guards waved and headed back out.

Then the old man turned and looked at the lier. “Okay and why don’t you tell me how we lost twenty horses and no one told me about it?”

The man gulped. “Umm I don’t know. I just know they are ours.”

“Your lying. Now tell me the truth or this will be bad for you.”

The man looked down and then away. He looked at me with hate, and then he ran. He jumped over the gate and headed the other way from the guard.

The old man sighed. “Its hard to find good help. Most of the time them knowing that I have a skill that lets me know when someone is lying is enough. However, I am guessing that at least some of these horses are ours. I am also guessing that he knows how they got lost.”

I nodded. “Nice skill to have. I bet it helps a lot.”

The man smiled. “Yes and no. It helped me when I ran the guard more than it does these days. However, for things like this it helps! Now you wanted to sell these horses off?”

I turned to Kasidy. “You want to work this out now?”

Kasidy, who had been quiet the whole time since the other man started to yell, stepped forward. A few minutes later, we had a total of 26 gold and 40 silver, and 18 copper. I didn’t have a clue how that would wash out for us in the next few days, but we would figure it out.

Kasidy passed me the bag with the money, and I shook my head. “Blink, you take the money. There are people here that will try to take it from us without us knowing. Keep it from them. Kas, let’s see if we can find someone who wants to buy this stuff.”

The bag disappeared from my hand, and I smiled. I picked up the bundle of weapons and bits of armor from the bandits. Then we headed to the street.

Kasidy looked both ways and then shrugged. “I don’t know this town but main roads tend to have shops and I am sure someone will buy.”

I nodded, and we started to move. “So Kasidy, did you sell all the horse?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I could tell that you were having problems on one and so was Blink. I figure when we leave we can buy a wagon and draft horse. It would make travel faster and easier as long as we were on the roads.”

We moved through the town. It was every bit as odd as I thought it would be. There wasn’t the press of bodies like in big cities back home, but there were more than in common cities. It was odd everyone was moving around, shopping and selling. Small hand carts were moving goods around the city, and so were horse-drawn wagons. There was a loudness that I hadn’t missed.

It took us a good twenty minutes before we found the shops. By that time, I was done. The press of people was more than I wanted to deal with. So before we went to a shop, we walked into the closest inn. It was crowded as well but more like a restaurant and less like a farmer’s market.

Kasidy pointed to the bar. We pushed through to one end where no one was drinking. A few minutes later, the barkeep came over.

He smiled at us. “Welcome to my inn and tavern what can I do for you today?”

Kasidy looked back at me, and I nodded. “We need a couple of rooms for the night might need them for longer.”

He nodded. “Two copper a night per room. You get dinner with that and bread in the morning. You need anything else? I have hot baths that we could make ready for you as well.”

I was about to speak with Kasidy beat me to it. “Yes we both will need a bath can you get them ready? Also can you have dinner brought up early we had a long day and would like to eat up there.”

The inn owner smiled. “Sure can. It’ll cost you an extra two copper for the baths. You get thirty minutes per. So that’s be 6 copper. Want a beer too?”

Once again, Kasidy beat me to the punch. “We’ll each take two beers and make sure he gets two bowls of dinner.”

“Will do so four beers and two rooms a second helping of dinner and a bath. Your total is going to be 7 coppers.”

I smiled. I had that much on me so I fished it out and passed it over to the owner. He whistled, and a young lady about 16 came out from the back. She looked our way, and the owner pointed upstairs.

She got about 10 feet from us when she almost shouted. “Come this way. I’ll show you the room. Oh rooms.”

We headed up the stairs. The inn was larger than the safe room, but I could tell it wasn’t near as nice. Of course, that could just have been that the inn was real and not magically kept up. Unlike Dave’s place, the stairs went to a full second floor with doors on both sides. She took us down to the end and pointed at two rooms.

She turned to go. “Oh I’ll have your bath ready in just a few minutes it’ll be at the end room down there.”

I walked into one of the rooms. It was all of eight feet long and about six wide. Just big enough for the bed and a small drafty window. I dropped my gear on the bed and closed the door. The lock was a bar from this side. Which meant that I didn’t want to leave things here.

I left my pack and the bundle on my bed and walked across the hall to Kasidy’s door. I sighed. We were in town now, so that meant that we could split up again if she wanted to go her own way. I would give her money and just hope that she didn’t tell people about me. She seemed to have earned my trust.

I knocked on the door. “Kasidy you still in there?”

The door opened. “Yes Arn?”

I smiled a little. “Look we never talked about this but we are back in a town now. So I get it if you want to split and go your own way. You are a city girl and now we are in one so you should be safe.”

She shook her head and gave me a sad smile. “Are you telling me you don’t want me to follow you around anymore?”

I took a moment to respond. “What I am saying is if you were just staying with me to stay safe in the wild we are are of that place. You should be good now. I’ll split the money with you and you can get a fresh start here.”

She laughed a little, not the super happy laugh but almost. “No I will keep following you. I was told to help you and from what I have seen already you need help in town. I might need it on the road but here you do.”

I nodded. “Okay lets talk about what we are going to do over dinner and then figure it out. Oh and when the bath is ready you get the first.”

She smiled. “I knew I got the first bath that’s why I asked for it and I will see you at dinner.”

Kasidy closed her door. I turned and went back to my room and moved the gear to the floor. Then I lay down on the bed. After a few moments, I was missing my yurt or even the safe room bed. This one was no good at all.

Then I felt Blink push into my brain. “Daddys! Its fun huntings coins here!”

* * *