Chapter One

**Three Mules, a Donkey, and an Arsonist**

Day Thirteen

The knock was like a pebble in a shoe, just enough to be noticed. Jason’s eyes flickered in search of light but all he could see by the weak light of the dying embers in the fireplace was the outline of the shapes of the room. Byron didn’t lie, Trent did plan on leaving early. Jason pushed his blanket away and immediately regretted the act, without the fire raging constantly the cottage quickly lost heat, but Jason crept toward the door regardless. He tried to blink away the sleep from his eyes as he walked the few steps, we’ll have to do something about keeping the house warm at night.

Behind the front door, Jason found a lithe figure shrouded by a black cloak. Jason's heart raced with alarm but he was quickly put at ease when he saw the face hiding beneath the hood. “Morning Jason, sorry to wake you,” an increasingly familiar voice chimed.

“Jax... what…” Jason began hoarsely, he needed a drink to clear his throat.

“Don’t worry, Trent sent me. I’m joining your trip, the Sheriff wanted an extra guard on the road in case anyone got smart and anticipated our move,” Jax whispered then pushed himself into the door. “Sorry,” he said as a startled Jason closed the door behind him, “I didn’t want to risk anyone seeing me any longer than I had to. Are you ready?”

“What?... um no,” Jason said recovering from the shove, how is he not tired? “I haven’t even woken up Vanna yet but it shouldn’t take us more than a minute or two.”

“Alright, be quick then. The Sheriff is waiting for us outside of town,” Jax said urging Jason away.

Jason braced his shoulders in a stretch, they popped satisfyingly, then he turned towards Vanna’s room. Since moving into the cottage, Jason hadn’t even seen the other room besides when he toured it with Felix and it was strange seeing a place so close to him yet unknown. Despite how well Vanna and Eliza got along their personalities were a juxtaposition and their room mimic the fact. Each slept on cushy cots, Vanna closest to the door. On Vanna’s side, her few possessions were sprawled haphazardly across the floor. On Eliza’s side, shirts and cloaks hung from pegs on the wall, a table stood against the wall with sewing tools and other small trinkets organized on top, and a rug even softened the floor.

“Vanna,” Jason hissed, he didn’t want to pass any farther than the doorframe.

The warrior's body shifted slowly then shot up suddenly. Vanna’s fist sprung up in a defensive stance but then lowered when she made out Jason. “It's time?” She asked quietly.

“Yeah, come on.”

Vanna looked over at Eliza sleeping next to her. They told the woman that they would be leaving early in the morning but hadn’t told her the reason why. Eliza had accepted the news without any fuss. Now Vanna’s hand hovered over the woman and Jason wondered what she was contemplating. Vanna stood up slowly ultimately deciding not to touch Eliza for whatever reason. They had placed all their gear in the main room the night before so Vanna didn’t stop as she followed Jason out of her room.

“Morning Vanna,” Jax said. The hunter had helped himself to a cup of beer and drained his cup in one gulp. “Good stuff you got here,” he winced satisfyingly. Jason’s lips went a little drier and he wished for a drink.

Vanna balked back surprised like Jason had been that Jax was coming. “Morning Jax, nice to see you’ll be joining us.”

“Similarly,” Jax said back with a nod.

“It's Hessian Stout,” Jason said as he poured himself a cup. He took a long sip and let the cool liquid wet his throat. He sighed happily and put his cup down.

“Maybe I’ll have another before we go,” Jax said reaching for the tap but Jason stopped Jax's hands with a smile.

“Trent’s waiting for us,” even in the poor lighting Jax could make out the whites in Jason’s teeth. “I'll show you where you can get a barrel in Laxtar,” Jason offered Jax with a wink.

Jax grunted but pulled away, “alright let's go.” The hunter threw his hood up and Jason and Vanna followed suit.

“Wait,” Vanna said, “how are we going to lock the door when we leave?”

Jason and Jax looked between themselves and Vanna. Jason shrugged and Jax said, “don’t worry, there aren’t any thieves in Finchead.”

“Still,” Vanna insisted looking towards the door to her room.

Jax shook his head then moved towards the door. Jason reached out and stopped him. “We can go out the back and jump the fence. We’re less likely to be noticed that way.” Jax hesitated for a moment considering the idea then nodded. Jason turned and led the way.

Outside, they were smacked by the cold, and Jason wrapped his cloak tighter around himself. He opened his mouth and could see his breath condensing into white mist. Above them, the moon shone brightly in the sky and the stars twinkled.

“How late is it?” Vanna hissed.

“Still a few hours before sunrise,” Jax laughed, the cold didn’t seem to bother him. “Don’t worry we have torches waiting we can light up when we’re outside of town.”

The thought warmed Jason slightly but then he went cold when he realized they would have to travel through the forest in the dark. “Jason,” Vanna said pulling him out of his thoughts. He turned to her. “I’ll help you up first,” she said then bent to a knee and cupped her hand. Jason put one foot on the hand sorry that he hadn’t bothered to clean the mud off them, then with Vanna’s help, he was vaulted over the fence. He grabbed the top of the fence and hoisted a leg over then gently lowered himself without a sound to the soft dirt ground on the other side. A moment later Vanna joined him and then Jax. Without a word, Jax took off in a crouch towards the outskirts of town. They stuck to the alleyways and off the main streets but they were still detected by a few watchdogs. Thankfully their barks weren’t enough to draw their owners from their beds and Jason’s party was able to get out of the town without being seen.

“Where is Trent?” Jason asked. They were walking through the hills rather than the road to be extra cautious in case anyone had wandered outside of town in the night.

“Quiet,” Jax hissed, “sound travels fast and someone could hear you still.”

Jason shut up and continued following. The need for hoods vanished when they were far enough from town to not be seen but Jason still kept his up to fight the cold. The group continued walking for ten more minutes until the hills started fading into plains and the outline of the forest could be made out against the backdrop of the night sky.

Jax pointed straight out and Jason squinted. He could barely make out a few large dark forms hiding away from the road. After a few more minutes of walking the forms turned into the rest of their party.

“Morning Vanna… Jason,” Trent said nodding to them from atop a short pony. Next to him were two other people, one, Malcolm bound to one of the mules they borrowed from Fallows with his mouth gagged; the other, a hooded man on top of his own pony. Trent held onto a lead connecting Malcolm’s mount to his own. The captive’s face wasn’t masked and in the moonlight, Jason could see Malcolm giving them dirty looks but he stayed silent. The unknown man lowered his hood to reveal a familiar face.

“Morning Jon,” Jason greeted.

“Morning,” Jon replied to the newcomers. He pulled his reins and his pony stomped in place. “Alright Sheriff, are you alright if I go?”

“Yes Jon, thank you again for helping me smuggle everything out of town,” Trent said.

Jon turned to Jason and cocked his head to the side. “I loaded them up for you, you can pay me back tomorrow,” he said then took off towards Finchead.

Jason looked at what Jon had been gesturing to and saw that not only Skippy but also the two other Fallows mules waited for him loaded with wool. “We’ve got ourself a caravan,” Trent muttered. Jason ignored him then walked over to the animals. He rubbed Skippy’s noses and fed him some oats from his hand then inspected their load. Each of the mules carried four sacks and Skippy had eight on his cart for a total of sixteen bags of wool. “We can’t waste any more time,” Trent announced then ready his horse. “You can daydream about gold coins while we walk, Trader.”

Jason smiled then readied the animals. Vanna helped Jason by holding the reins to one of the mules and he attached the other mule to the back of Skippy'ss cart forming a train. When that was all settled they started moving west. At first, it was hard moving over the rugged terrain but after a few minutes, they made it back onto the road. How did they get all this out here without anyone noticing, Jason wondered? When they were at the mouth of the forest Trent stopped his pony.

“There are some torches in the back of your cart. It safe to light them up now,” Trent said. Jax broke away from Malcolm’s side, the hunter had been walking guard next to the prisoner while Trent had taken the lead, and went to the cart. The hunter pulled four unlit torches from under a sack of wool and began handing them out. When he handed the last one to Trent, Jax pulled a fire starter from his belt and went around lighting all the torches.

Let's see, if I can get a good price say 35 coppers for a sack and I have to pay Jon 21 copper tomorrow that means I’ll make a profit of 14 coppers per sack. Times 16 sacks that’s 224 coppers or just over eleven silver coins, Jason calculated as they walked through the woods. He was trying to keep his mind off the shadows surrounding them. Ugh but I still have the handling fees and hopefully, I don’t have trouble getting into the guild otherwise I’ll only be able to sell ten today. Jason grumbled to himself, let's hope prices are good.

He shifted his thought to the night before and pulled back open the notification he received after taking the citizenship oath.

**Note This: You have been made an honorary citizen of a settlement. While honorary citizens and normal citizens have the same right, honorary citizens receive additional privileges or duties depending on the settlement they are sworn to. As a citizen of a settlement, the player is also sworn to all higher powers the settlement is sworn to. In your case, the player is now also sworn to the Earldom of Cullen and as a result the Kingdom of East Tumlohn. The player's allegiances are now displayed on the character sheet.**

Jason had told Vanna that she had been offered honorary citizenship but she surprised him by responding timidly to the news.

“If Byron will let me, I think I’m going to take some more time to consider it before I accept,” Vanna had said the night before. They were sipping cups of ale after they finished preparing for the trip. “Citizenship sounds great for you, Jason. But for me, it would be more a liability than anything else. I don’t want to be tied down to one place as a mercenary,” she explained. Jason agreed with her but was still surprised by her choice.

Jason closed the notification and focused on the road. No one bothered talking and they all walked on to the quiet mush of boots and hooves stomping the mud.

By the time they broke through the other side of the forest, the sun had yet to rise but the first purple hazes of daybreak were appearing in the sky. Trent sallied his pony around and said, “alright let’s take a rest for a moment. Jax give Malcolm something to eat.” Trent slid down from his mount without waiting for a reply. Vanna helped Jason settle the animals then the two of them walked over to Trent. Jason watched warily as Jax undid the wrap around Malcolm’s mouth. The captive didn’t yell out as Jason had expected but remained calm and contorted his mouth trying to massage the stress around his lips. Jax snorted and spitted in Malcolm’s direction but the hunter displayed no further protest and drew a heel of bread from his bag and tossed it to Malcolm. With bound hands, the man greedily gnawed on the bread. Jason hoped it was stale.

“How did you get everything out of town without being seen?” Vanna asked drawing Jason’s focus back on Trent.

Trent sat himself down on the ground and began digging through his bag. “Jon helped a lot with the animals, no one would find it suspicious for him to be moving animals around. The hardest one was your donkey, we waited until night to move him,” Trent explained. He pulled an apple from his bag and began to eat it. “As for that bastard,” he said looking at Malcolm. “There’s a secret door in the town hall. Don’t tell anyone I told you that,” he said seriously to the two of them. Jason nodded warily, he’s probably talking about my hiding spot in the barn. “Stuffed him in a sack and snuck him out after dark. If anyone saw us they wouldn't know what was in the bag. The bastard wasn’t happy,” Trent added with a smile. The sheriff went quiet and ate his apple.

“That’s what he gets for being a bloody arsonist,” Jax snorted then sat down next to them.