Soon we floated around a wide slow curve in the river, and started to see fields and a cluster of houses up ahead. Jimmy started poling us toward a small wharf sticking out into the river. I grabbed my pole and began to help. When we tied up at the wharf 2 kids about 11 years old walked over.

“Hey Jimmy, you want to hire us to watch your stuff, while you grab dinner, 2 copper bits each?”

Jimmy smiled at the boys and tossed them his other rope. “Sure, thing Louis, hey Tariq, I don’t have any change, but I’ll get some at Jenny’s ok?”

“Sure, no problem, Jimmy” and the two boys jumped onto the raft. And sat atop the pile of crates.

I turned to the one called Louis, “Pardon me for asking, but how to you guys protect the raft from grownups?”

Louis waved his hands expansively and said “That’s easy, we just need to make a bunch of noise and slow them down. Grownups know what’s going on and will come a running. Happens about once a year. We lock’em up and the adults and us split any fines the Lord assesses. Everyone likes free money. If they pull a weapon, they take the long swim when the adults get here. Lots of archers on the river. There has to be otherwise, all you can do it shake your fist at them as they float away. I’m saving up for a crossbow myself.”

“Thanks guys, that’s a pretty sweet deal!”

Jimmy grabbed a big bag from the pile of goods and threw it over his shoulder. We walked into the small village, and up to a small wattle and daub building with a thatch roof. Jimmy knocked on the door and hollered “Hey Jenny, can we get 4 skewers, we need to hit the healers.”

From inside the hut an old lady’s voice came back “You okay Jimmy?” followed by the sound of sizzling.

“Yeah, fine Jenny, my buddy here just wants to buy some bandages and poultices and stuff. Maybe sell her a big ass spider he found.”

“Sounds right up Sara’s alley. Hang on a bit. You boys want some water while you wait?”

“Sounds great Jenny.”

The top half of the door opened and showed a lady who was as old as her voice, but spry, and the wrinkles on her face were mostly of the smiling kind. She reached out to pass us two small wooden mugs of clean water. “Here you go boys, skewers will be ready in a jiffy.” She turned and shuffled back into the house where I could see a brazier with hot coals and some extra-long skewers cooking on it.

Jimmy took a drink from his mug and turned to me. “Riversford is too small for an inn, but Jenny does a nice side business making food for boatmen. We’re almost exactly a half day from town. Farmers come here too, so it’s a good stop to buy produce. Pekaton is better to sell produce.”

Jenny came out with 4 skewers packed full of veggies and thin strips of meat. “Jimmy, stranger, here you go.”

Jimmy passed me two and took the next two for himself. “This is Joseph, Jenny, Goes by Joe, I just met him, but he’s been good company on my float down river.”

Jenny smiled at Jimmy “Any friend of yours is welcome.” She turned her smile to me “Nice to meet you Joe. Wander on over to Sarah’s while you eat, Bring the mug back when you are done. Toss the skewers in the fire when you’ve finished them.”

I nodded my head to her and said “Yes Ms. Jenny”. Jenny smiled at us again, and said “now that your hands are nice and full, that’s 4 copper bits for 4 skewers.

I started shuffling everything into one hand “All I have is a Bronze Knut can you break it?” Jenny nodded and took my coin. She quickly returned with 4 copper knuts and 4 triangular pieces I hadn’t seen before. Knuts had clearly been cut into eighths to make the bits. “Here you go honey, comeback if you get hungry.” And smiling at us both the closed the door.

I followed Jimmy to a ring of stumps for sitting and we ate our skewers. They were delicious. Some kind of Garlic marinade combined with the smoky charcoal, yumm.

Jimmy talked with his mouth full “My dad used to bring me here every trip when I was a kid, it’s one of my favorites places to eat, it was always the highlight of my trip. Now that I go without him, it’s tradition.”

“Your dad stay up on the farm?” I asked.

“Yeah, he’s not a spry as he used to be, I’m the youngest you see. The rest are working the fields to plow down the stalks, makes green fertilizer for next year.”

I started getting full and looked to see if we were being watched, I put my skewers down by my side and inventoried them. I hope they stay fresh and warm like in the books. Jimmy saw with his eyes twinkling and passed me his to do the same. Drinking from our mugs of water, we walked to the building furthest from the river, and knocked on the frame and walked in the open door.

Sara's house was a nice prim little cottage, this one was chocked full of shelves with pots and boxes, and even a few books. Herbs were hanging to dry from the ceiling, making it look like an upside down forest.

A girl of about 16 was slouched stirring something by the fire, she saw Jimmy come in and froze for about two seconds. Then jumped up standing perfectly straight with impeccable posture and brightly said “Hi Jimmy, didn’t know you were in town.”

Jimmy smiled just a brightly back and said “Hi Marguerite! I just got here, my buddy here wants to do some buying and selling, Your mom here?”

Still beaming, Marguerite said, “Yep! she’s in back” She said it all cute and girly, with all the tonal curly cues cranked to max. Then she turned her head to holler “Mom Customer!” in a bellow not one bit ladylike, before turning back to shine at Jimmy, who was starting to look a tad uncomfortable, but smiled back gamely.

A perfect image of Marguerite in about 25 years walked through the back door, wiping her hands on her apron. “I’ve got the Infusion Marguerite. You go finish the weeding.”

Marguerite said “Yes mom” turned to jimmy and said “Bye Jimmy! swing by before you leave, ok?” smiled brightly and practically skipped out of the back door.” Jimmy’s eyes followed her out like magnets.

I muttered “Man, she has it bad”. Sara smiled at me and said “Hush you’ll ruin all the fun”.

She turned to Jimmy waiting several seconds before clearing her throat, which made Jimmy jump.

Jimmy turned to her, still slightly dazed looking and Sara raised her eyebrows at him.

After a few blinks I nudged Jimmy and said “Buy and sell”.

Jimmy Jerked again, “Sorry Miss Sara, my buddy Joe here wants to do a little buy and sell with you.”

Sara smiled and said “Sure honey, any reason you have that bag over your shoulder?”

Jimmy pulled the bag back around and stared at it a second before holding it out to Sara and saying “Oh yeah, Mom sent this for you!”

Smiling wickedly at me, Sara said “Jimmy, while your friend and I do some business, could you please go help Marguerite weed the garden?”

Jimmy’s head snapped to the door like a bloodhound said “Yes Miss Sara” and zipped out the door.

She held her hand out to me and said “Sara, I’m the Healer her in Plainsford.”

I took her hand and shook it “Joseph Walker, please call me Joe. I’m very new to these parts and Jimmy has been letting me ride down river with him. Oh, and you are right, that was fun”.

Sara gestured me to the table and sat where her daughter had been. She refilled my water mug from a pitcher, and when I tasted the water, it had a hint of mint in it.

I said “Oh that’s nice, when is she going to let him know?”

Sara smiled and said “When she realizes what’s going on and makes up her mind. She’s going to be twitterpated for days, she always is when Jimmy visits. Walks around humming everywhere. Been doing it since she was eleven. What did you need?”

I pulled out a spider and asked “First off, do you have an interest in this or any parts of it?”

She pulled it over and looked at it carefully, “Sure I can give you a copper knut for it.”

“I have 12, does that price stand.”

Sara thought and said “Sure, the poison glands are useful in several concoctions. I’m in for 12 coppers.”

“Do you have any interest in the queen, I need to harvest the Core, but I have that too.”

“I’d have to see it, but sure”

“Can you help me clear the table?” we cleared it and I pulled out the queen, easily 8 feet across with its legs limp.”

Sara looked at me with surprise “You fit that in your inventory? Impressive.”.

“Ah you have an inventory too?”

“Yes, most but not all mages do, I have 10 slots, and it can hold about 20 pounds. Except for herbs, I can put as many herbs as I want and it’ll keep adding slots and no weight limit for herbs”

“That’s handy for an herbalist.” I said.

“Indeed. Yours is bigger or just good for monsters?”

“Bigger, so they are totally common? I don’t need to hide it?”

“Oh, you are fine, nobody will mess with a mage, what kind are you?”

“I’m not, or at least not yet. My book was stolen. I got the inventory and a few other perks, but no magic.”

Sara reached across the room and grabbed a knife, and deftly cut out the core and handed it to me. Saying “Large Nature core, very nice” and began to cut out the fangs and their associated glands.

“That’s very unfortunate, you might be wise to be circumspect then, until you get a replacement, which book was it?”

“The Dao of Doing” I said, slumping slightly in my chair. “I don’t even know what magic it was supposed to give.”

Sara looked at me kindly and said “I don’t know that one, let’s look it up, then at least you’ll know.”

She wiped her hands on a towel, and pulled down a large book from one of the shelves. She angled her head meaningfully toward the spider, and said “I’m done with that, could you put it back” and I did.

As she flipped to the back of the book, she said “The spider will be worth a few coppers as fertilizer, you can cook and eat it, but it tastes slightly rancid, even when fresh like yours. I don’t recommend it unless you are starving. Ah here it is The Dao of Doing page 347.”

She started flipping to the middle of the book.

I said, “Do you want it and the others for your garden? I’ve got a ton of little ones, too, no idea how to get the cores from them.”

Sara replied absently “Cores don’t form yet when they are below about a foot in diameter. Her glands were a Bronze Crown each, by the way, I forgot to say. The neighbors will complain about the smell, but sure, dump the momma and the babies out back, the others can go here ” she gestures at her table ” Ah found it.”

She marked her place with a finger looked at me with bright eyes and said, “That’s a rare one, By Garabal God of the Eldar. It offers quite a few choices including Magical Engineering and many crafting choices. A little bit of everything. The Eldar excelled at creating and fixing, but were generalists as a species. Luckily for you the choices are not race locked. Will your sponsor be able to get you a new one?”

“Yeah, my caseworker said it’d be like 90 days though. I need to stay alive that long. I came for a combat first aid kit, and whatever healing items I can afford. If you know any place to get armor, I’m up for that too.”

“I can trade you a nice basic medical kit out of what I owe you for the spiders, I can probably part with a few potions. I’m confused why you are asking for healing items though.” Sara said, looking suggestively at my ring on my right hand.

I sigh and look her in the eye “I Know it’s a ring of healing of some kind, but I have no idea how it works.”

“It’s a strong artifact, they are all the same, focus, intent and mana. It will not work as well for you without the mana, but it will respond to your will and focus. Most of the bigger functions require mana to even check them out. But for basic healing, the more you concentrate on what you want, the better it will work. It should cure poisons and diseases too. They are excellent for sharpening the focus on “Get Better!”

“Trust me, I know that, having a giant palmetto bug maul your hand focuses you nicely too.” I said.

Sara perked up again “Do you have it? it’s useful for several concoctions, They are hard to get, because they swarm, and the more there are in the swarm the faster they move. Very dangerous.”

“How did you know I killed it?” I asked her.

“Easy Joe, you are alive to tell the story.” Sara smiled that one at me wickedly. It looked good on her too.

“Thanks a lot. I dropped the pieces of the palmetto bug and the dozen large spiders on the table. “

Sara started examining the palmetto bug, but kept chatting “There is no armorer here, only a very basic blacksmith. There are armorers in the big city. I assume you have silver, if you are even asking about it.”

I pulled back a little and my voice got softer, “A little, depends on the price, I’m not infinitely rich.”

She nodded firmly, “You are about my husband’s size, we may be able to help each other out. We were in an adventuring group together. 10 years of wild and crazy adventures, and he gets run over by a horse drawn wagon. To be fair, he saved Marguerite and Claus, my oldest. But I miss him. I kept his kit for Claus, in case he wanted to go the adventurer way, but neither he nor Marguerite are interested in adventuring. Claus wants to go into Enchanted Jewelry Making. I found him an apprenticeship with an old friend in the city. But we are saving up for his tome. Marguerite already read the healer tome I bought in my adventuring days. Jacob always said going out and earning the money for Clause’s tome together was going to be the best part, whatever path Clause decided to pursue. He was so looking forward to it. Didn’t turn out that way. Are you interested? “ Her voice was softer now. Distant.

“Sure, wheel it out, but like I said, I’m not super rich, it may wind up with me just being able to admire it.”

She went to a closet, and pulled out a shield and a sword in a belt. “I’m keeping the sword, especially as you clearly have one, but since we may just be ogling, I thought you’d enjoy it.”

She set the sword on the table, and handed me a large footman’s shield. It was all metal, though I couldn’t tell what kind. It was scratched and battered, but not bent at all. It was just slightly curved. I prefer a perfectly flat shield, but I could make do. I cast Id on it

[Footman’s shield of Durability, recovers 1 durability a day.]

Not a fancy enchantment, but a great one for an adventurer. I slipped the shield on, it’d take a little adjusting to the hand placement, but it’d work fine. Sara pulled out a Hauberk of 4 in 1 riveted mail, a coif with 6 in 1 around the neck area, and splinted plate chausses. Finally, a Spangen Helmet with a large Norse ocular. Almost a hound’s face. All of the armor was non magical, but in very good shape. I held up the hauberk, it was about the right size, covering my arms to the wrist and just below my knees. In the chest was another bag with an older 4 in 1 byrnie, the Byrnie came down to my hips, and only protected my upper arms. it was well worn, but still in good condition. Lastly, she pulled out the gambesons and padded garments to go under the armor.

I pulled the sword from its scabbard, it sang just slightly when it came out, so I flicked it with a fingernail, it sang joyously. I cast ID on it, assuming it was enchanted.

[Stonecutter longsword of durability, Cuts anything up to and including the hardest stone easily with no damage to the weapon. Durability recovers 1 per day. ]

I whistled at the sword, “That’s a Doozey, it self-repairs too I see”.

“Yes, Jacob always believed in putting all his money in the sword and the shield. He said repairing armor meant you screwed up. It should piss you off to repair it, but your sword and shield should never let you down.” Sara was gazing down at the helmet, running one finger wistfully along the lines of the face. “He’d seen his master die when his sword broke mid engagement you see, that experience always left a mark on him.”

“I can see the logic of that argument, just to help me learn values, what did he pay for the sword, it’s clearly commissioned, not looted. “

“Half a gold crown down, the other half on delivery. That’s 60 silver crowns, if you didn’t know.” She was still playing with the helm.

Gently I asked her, “Are you sure you want to sell this, particularly the helmet?”

“I have a spare helm, if I can’t part with this, I can part with that skull cap. He liked the byrnie and a skullcap as backup. He had a backup sword too, but Clause took that with him. I think that was Jacob’s plan all along, a set of gear for his son, when the time came. Clause would have loved that if Jacob had lived, he worshipped him, we all did. After his father died, Clause gave up dreams of adventuring. Said he could never do that to his family.” Her eyes were getting misty now, her face showed nothing, but you could see it all in her eyes.

I cleared my throat, and gently asked “Do you want to go dump the spider bodies real quick? We can check on the kids, then come back and finish here?”

Sara shook herself a second with a sniff and said “Yes, I think that’s a good idea.” Jimmy and Marguerite were weeding side by side, and jumped up guiltily when we went out the back door. She directed me to her compost pile at the far end of the large garden, and I dumped the bodies there. I grabbed the shovel, and covered them up with older compost to reduce the smell.

After that we chatted with Jimmy and Marguerite, Sara clearly teasing her daughter a bit. Jimmy just looked happily befuddled, then we went back inside in a better mood.

Sara began more business like, “The shield was 10 silver crowns new, I’d take 5 for it as it sits now. As I said the sword is not for sale. The Byrnie and the Cap, were also 10 crowns new, I’d take 4 for both. The Hauberk, was 25 silver new, I’d take 12. The leg armor was 5, I’ll take one for it, if it fits you, much more fiddly then mail. The gambesons are included, though, I’m keeping the nicest gambeson shirt, for the smell when I really miss him. At an armory you’d pay around 75% of the new value, after they polished it up for sale to look new. Anything else?”

“Looks like you want to keep the ocular helm, what about the coif?” I said.

“I think you are right about the helm; I can almost see his eyes smiling out of it. I’ll throw the coif in with the hauberk, they were bought together. “

Softly I said to her, “Why don’t you make a wooden stand, and put the helm and the sword up on the mantle, that way you can look at them whenever you want.”

Sara said back, just as softly “I think that’s a good idea, when Jacob first passed, I couldn’t even look at it all. That’ why it’s packed away in the closet. But yes, I think I’m ready now.”

“Okay, everything you are willing to sell is 26 silvers, would you take 24 for all of it, in one sale? 24 is my hard budget. If not, I’ll skip the byrnie”

She met my eyes, smiling “Really? You’d take it all? That would give Clause enough for his tome!”

“Yes really, if you want to part with more later, when I’m making money adventuring, talk to me. If you’d rather take the Monster cores in place of some of the silver I’m okay with that too. I bet Clause needs those by the bucket load for enchanting. It’s totally up to you.”

Sara looked at me, the tears and the smiles all mixed together. “You have a deal”

“Another question, I’ve seen firestones, are there stones for the other elements, what about a water stone the makes pure water.”

Sara went back to lecture mode, “Yes there are stones for all the primary and secondary elements earth air fire water, then lava, lightning, ice, metal, like the primary and secondary colors.”

“Which is the most valuable? Are they hard to get?”

“Fire is most in demand, then water, then ice. Come summer you’ll kill for a cold drink. The rest are really for specialists. A mage can use them to manipulate the elements, not just create them. Not powerful, but super handy.”

“Would you trade 2 fire stones for a water and an ice? The lowest grade, I just want clean drinking water, and you’ve convinced me on the ice.”

“Sure, I get them all the time, I’m the only one for a way around that has mana to recharge them. Now if only they’d invent the legendary beer stone, we’d all be set.” We both chuckled at that.

I pulled out 2 of the smallest jet fire stones, she picked them up examined them and put them away, she slid me an equally small stone of Lapis lazuli, and one of white moonstone.

“Thanks, that will make long treks much more comfortable, If you get a beef stew stone to go with that beer stone, I’m your man.”