Tuesday's chapter, a bit late.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 22: A Scholar of Lesser Renown

The once blazing sun hanging over the heads of the farmers finally started to sink towards the western horizon. As farmhands and laborers started to come in from the fields and back to the village, a young man started to walk closer. He looked to be a traveller, with his well-worn clothes that were patched up in various places. Nevertheless, the young man’s was full of vitality and purpose. Walking into the village center, he quickly caught the attention of the village chief.

“Hail, friend, and welcome to the village of Abaza. Where do you come from, and what is your purpose for visiting?” With a huge smile on his face, the village chief pressed a fresh apple into Kaz’s hands as a greeting.

“Hail. I’m a travelling scholar performing my Trial of Tradition. I’ve just started my journey and yours is the first village that I’m going to be visiting. I hope you and yours won’t mind too much.” Breaking into a bright smile of his own, Kaz bit into the bright green apple. With several crisp crunches, Kaz began to enjoy the tangy fruit.

“Ah, I see. Welcome! Welcome!” Holding his right hand over his heart and the left extended towards Kaz, the village chief recited the first half of the Words of Welcome.

“Hail, traveler, and come hither. Rest your tired feet, and partake of food and drink at our fire.”

“Many thanks, sentinel, and may good fortune follow you and yours for the rest of thy days.” Effortlessly, Kaz returned the second half of the ancient greeting. Beckoning for him to follow, the village chief started to walk towards the village’s inn.

It seems that these folks pay much attention to the old ways. All signs so far point to them being very conservative. I should be careful not to reveal too much information about myself or the fact that I’m a mage.

Walking with the chief, Kaz watched the villagers dart to and fro completing their daily tasks before the sun set. The livestock were herded and put into a smaller pen, each farmhand put their tools away in their houses, and the children came back and started to wash clean their hands. Smiling wistfully, Kaz looked towards the village’s only inn.

“Welcome to the Drunken Cossack! It’s probably not the finest place that an educated man like yourself has stayed at, but I’ll be you a barrel of vodka that it’s the most cozy.”

“No worries, no worries. I’m just happy to have a roof over my head and a hot meal. There will be a hot meal for us, right?” Grinning cheekily, Kaz sat down with the village chief at one of the inn’s tables right next to the bar.

“Of course! Why, it’d be horrific hospitality if any guest stayed over without a hot meal in them! Gerel! What do you have for our young scholar today?” Hollering at one of the waitresses, the chief wasted no time. Some of the farmhands had started to come into the inn for dinner, and the waitresses were busy. However, one of them came as soon as the chief’s voice cut through the noise. Making a short bow, Gerel beamed a smile at Kaz. She was dressed in a moderately long brown dress, which ended at her knees. Her auburn hair was tied up in a bun towards the left, and her black eyes were shining with excitement.

“Good evening, sir! Tonight we have pork chops, vegetable stew, and rye bread. You can wash all of that down with some Abaza Stout.”

“Oho, there’s fresh pork tonight. Olga’s pulling out all the stops to make you a delicious meal tonight. What do you say, scholar?” Excited at the prospect of fresh meat, the chief tried really hard to hide the fact that his mouth was watering in front of others.

“All of that sounds wonderful. I’ll be honored to eat the madam’s cooking.” With a huge grin on his face, Kaz looked towards the chief.

“Then it’s settled. Two set meals for the both of us, and make it quick! Oh, it’s been nearly a week since I’ve had fresh meat. Plus, I had to kill fresh game myself for that.”

Gerel nodded quickly, and went to bring out the drinks. As she started to walk away, the chief smacked his forehead.

“Oh Gods, I’ve been so excited at the prospect of having a guest in our village that I forgot to even ask your name. My name is Temur. May I have the honor of knowing your name?” His ears red from embarrassment, Temur looked at Kaz sheepishly.

“Haha, it’s not a big deal. I know that you’re a busy man. My name is Kir, and I hail from Samara.” Having come up with a plausible background in advance, the deception flew from Kaz’s mouth smoothly.

“Haha, I didn’t realize that you were so distinguished. Imagine, a scholar from the capital of the Empire...that reminds me, what exactly is the Trial of Tradition? We get scholars like you from all over the Empire attempting it, although years may pass before another comes to the village.” Leaning in, Temur looked like a curious child. But, that was only his attitude. The chief was a large man, larger than Kaz by nearly half. Years of harsh farm work and life in the rural community had created a very hardy person. Amused, Kaz could barely keep himself from chuckling as Temur’s behavior was contrary to his appearance. At this point, Gerel came back with two foaming pints of stout. Thanking her quickly, Kaz wet his throat before he started to talk. Opposite, Temur took a huge gulp of his own drink. Smacking his lips, the bear of a man sighed contentedly as Kaz detailed his mission.

“The Trial of Tradition is a test from the Imperial Library. They are the Empire’s collection of highly studied scholars in the natural sciences and humanities, which is different from the Arcane Library which studies mostly magic. The Arcane Library recruits and oversees the Imperial Magi while the Imperial Library recruits and oversees the Imperial Scholars. Both are quite different.”

As Kaz was talking about the differences between the two main centers of academic learning in the Klavan, Gerel arrived with two steaming trays of food. Placing one tray each in front of the two hungry men, she grinned at their expectant faces.

“Don’t wait on me, dig in boys!” Laughing, Gerel walked off to help other patrons of the inn. Kaz and Temur both looked at each other, and spoke at the same time.

“May this meal not be your last.” Having said grace, both men started to eat. Kaz scooped a spoonful of the stew into his mouth, and made a small noise of contentment.

Whew, how long has it been since I’ve had a proper meal? Ever since that disaster at the Blood Citadel, I’ve only had dried food or my own terrible cooking. These vegetables are so fresh and crisp, and the broth itself is so savory. I feel as if I’m back home. But I have no home now.

Having saddened himself at a rather inopportune moment, Kaz shook his head and downed a good portion of his stout. Setting the stew aside for now, Kaz started to cut his pork chops into bite sized portions. Looking across, he was surprised to see that Temur was done with one pork chop already and about halfway into his second. Smirking, Kaz poked lightly at Temur.

“Hey, Temur, slow down will you? That pork chop can’t grow legs and run away anymore.” Snorting, Temur ripped a chunk of his rye bread apart from his half loaf and started to dip it into the meat juices that were left by the pork chops. Popping that into his mouth, the man seemed turned his attention to his stew and started to consume that at a shocking pace. Stunned, Kaz decided that he should focus on his own meal as well.

While eating the rest of his meal, Kaz’s senses of taste and smell were pleasantly surprised. The food wasn’t the best looking, but it was hearty and delicious. Mopping up the last of his stew with what little remained of his half loaf of rye bread, Kaz popped the last bite into his mouth. Sitting back in his chair, Kaz sipped his drink slowly. Temur let out a burp that he tried, and failed miserably, to conceal. Signalling for a refill on his drink, he leaned back in his chair, hands over his belly.

“Sorry about that, supper time is for eating, not talking. Never could understand why you city people liked to have conversation throughout a meal. Bit daft, in my opinion, the food’s getting cold while idle chit chat happens. I could understand if there was some really important news that had to be said, but that could happen before the meal if anything.”

“Ah, but Temur, what if the bit of news was bad news? Depending on the severity, the appetite of the people present could be ruined, and now the food’s going to be cold at best and wasted at worst.”

Walking over, Gerel brought over fresh beers for the two of them. Nodding in thanks, Kaz downed the rest of his first drink and handed the empty mug to Gerel. Temur, having long finished his first drink, simply started to take large gulps of his second before speaking.

“But there’s the catch right there huh? Food’s important, and it should never be wasted. If food is cooked to be eaten when hot, what happens when it’s cold and unappetizing? We’re getting off topic here, though. You still have yet to tell me what the Trial of Tradition entitles.”

“Mm. I forgot when the food arrived.”

“Heh, and me as well. Those pork chops were really well made. I’ll have to give Olga my compliments when I see her later.”

“The Trial of Tradition requires the applicant to travel to a certain location within the Empire, and live there until their work is done. That work is the study of a certain subject in the natural sciences. For example, some scholars study natural phenomenon like the hot springs of Altan Gal. Others study the medicinal herbs and plants native to their area of choice. Some, like myself, choose to study the local animals. Each of these areas of study are new, previously never recorded before. We have to prove our worth to the Scholars before we are admitted entry as an official Imperial Scholar.”

“Huh. So all of you are studying different things?”

“Well, not exactly. Multiple scholars can study the same field, but all of our project choices are extremely narrow. For example, my master studied the mating habits of the Grey Spiked Wyvern. My subject of study is the physiology of the Giant Southern Groundhog. Here, these are some of the notes that I’ve gotten so far.” Pulling out his brown notebook, Kaz flipped to the page where he sketched the outward appearance of the giant groundhogs. Taking the notebook into his hands, Temue was astonished to find out the level of detail that Kaz had written down. There were so many different details listed: size dimensions, weight, coloration, even behavior. Passing the notebook back, Temur chuckled. These were not lies, Kaz truly wanted to make his way through the Imperial Library as a scholar. Being a historian was only one path available to him.

“You already have so much written down, are you going to be headed back soon? I was hoping that you would stay for a while in our little village.” Smirking, Kaz spoke back without missing a beat.

“Please don’t joke, Temur. I’ve only scratched the surface of what I need to gather for my Trial project. I need to spend at least three weeks here studying the groundhogs. I noticed that their mounds are all over the place, but not in the fields.” Kaz’s words made Temur sigh in exasperation.

“That’s because we spend at least half of our time taking measures to make sure the damn vermin don’t come into our crop fields. They eat anything, really, and breed twice a year. In addition to that, they’re such large bastards too. You’re studying their physiology right? What does that mean, exactly?” Ever curious of outside matters, Temur took advantage of Kaz’s presence to ask any questions that he had about things that he did not understand. Smiling like a teacher with an eager student, Kaz obliged to the best of his knowledge.

“Studying the physiology of an creature means that I am studying the physical features of the animal, as detailed as I can. What this means is that I need to record and study the outside of the animal as well as the insides of the groundhogs.” Hearing that Kaz needed to study the insides of the groundhogs made Temur very excited.

“Do you mean to say that you’ll need a lot of these creatures’ dead bodies to study?”

“Well, yes. I don’t think I can studying the guts of the animal while it’s still alive now, can I? I’m prepared to compensate you and the villagers fairly for every groundhog corpse that comes my way. I’m even prepared to help you set up traps to the best of my knowledge.”

“How much compensation are we talking about here?” Ever the businessman as the head of the village, Temur naturally had a better understanding of money and the economy than anybody else in the village. Thinking back to his gains from the soldiers, Kaz decided to offer a bit above what he thought was fair.

“How about a five groundhog corpses for a gold coin? I believe that should be fair compensation considering that trying to kill these things is hard work.” Temur’s face went blank as he struggled to contain his excitement. Five useless vermin corpses for a single gold coin! What was a gold coin? It could buy supplies from the trading caravans that passed through Abaza for a month. The villagers killed on average two of the groundhogs a day. Based on this exchange, they could earn a month’s worth of supplies for about two and a half day’s work.

“On behalf of everybody here in the village, we’ll take your offer. Oh, you’ll need a place to stay, won’t you? We’ll need to build a place for you here in the village.” Frowning, Temur tried to figure out where there was enough space in the village to construct housing for Kaz.

“Oh, it doesn’t have to be in the village. I’ll be delving deep into the guts and inner workings of the dead groundhogs that you give me. The constant rotting smell might be unpleasant if it’s in the village somewhere. I saw a small bunch of trees a short distance away from the village towards the south. That will do nicely since it’ll be close enough for me to come to and fro, yet far away so that the smell doesn’t drift over to the village unnecessarily.” Hearing Kaz’s proposal, Temur felt that the problem had been solved. Taking another huge mouthful of his drink, he sat back in his chair.

“Then it’s settled. Kir, my new friend, I’ll send some of the lads over with you first thing in the morning tomorrow to help you build a small hut. We also have some unused old furniture in the village storage. I’ll have the same lads move them to your hut tomorrow after the construction is done. It’s the least we can do for our temporary guest.” Matters settled for the time being, Temur’s thoughts went to which villagers were the best at killing groundhogs. Even though he genuinely enjoyed Kaz’s company as a person, the lure of easy money still tempted the chief.

“Mm. It’s settled for now. However, I’ll be renting a room for tonight in this inn. I’ve had enough of sleeping out in the open on the ground.” Grinning, Kaz stood up and went towards the innkeeper Olga as the bar. As he approached the woman, she turned to face him.

“You enjoy your meal, then? I gave you the biggest pork chops that we had today. Normally Temur gets the biggest ones, but my sense of hospitality is stronger than my sense of village loyalty. Just by a bit, heh.” Olga was a rather hefty middle aged woman, very matronly. She had on a full length working dress, with a huge stained apron on top of that. Her face, while aged, was warm.

“I’d like a room for the night, ma’am. I’ve been sleeping on the ground for days, and a nice bed under a roof seems most luxurious to me at the moment.”

“Oh, nobody should have to go through that in these times. It’s been so long since our ancestors came over the mountains. Here, take this key. It unlocks the second to last room upstairs on your left. Latrine is at the other end of the hall on the first floor over there. Ah, it’s been so long since we’ve had a guest as important as yourself.” His ears red from embarrassment, Kaz quickly tried to downplay things.

“Oh, stop. I’m not that important or famous, I’m only an aspiring scholar. I’ve only just begun my Trial of Tradition.”

“Well, you’re going to be a hell of a lot more important than any of us will probably amount to. What do you scholars do, anyway?”

“We record and study the natural world, seeking to understand why things are the way that they are. My project is going to be figuring out the inner and outer workings of the Giant Groundhog’s body.”

Shuddering, Olga thought to when she saw one of the creatures attack another villager. He had survived, but with a multitude of scars.

“Nasty critters, they are. Large too. See, your work is going to make you famous. At least around these parts if not any other in the Empire. We’ll remember you, master Kir.”

Smiling bashfully, Kaz took his key. Turning, he spoke once more.

“I’m only a scholar of lesser renown. Nothing to be mentioned in the inner circles of society. But I’ll get up there one day, and I’ll invite all of you for a celebration.” His confident words amused Olga. Laughing, she waved him off as she got to cleaning the dishes left behind from dinner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading! Leave comments/feedback below!