It was late in the afternoon when we reached Oakhurst. On the way to the vilage I have asked some careful questions from Beldrak. He knew that I was a stranger here, but he thought me a regular travaller from some other land, and I did not want him to guess the truth, so I tried not to reveal him the true extent of my ignorance.

All in all, the little man proved to be very willing to share his knowledge. He seemed to be quite happy to talk about his home region. Now I knew that we were in the land called Misty Hills. It was a land somewhat similar to Italia, where cities, leagues of cities, and tribal confederations were the main political actors. The three biggest cities were Trapper Port, Sheepsford and Golden Grove. The people who sent Beldrak on his current mission were from the latter city, but Trueanvil himself was a citizen of Sky Hall, a somewhat smaller settlement. He was one of the owners of the library in his home city, and he planned to make this instution famous and prospering.

I also knew now that we were in the month of New Bread, and today was the 23rd day. If I understood correctly, that was the equivalent of Quinctilis. The year though, did not start in Martius here, but in Ianuarius, which made Quinctilis the seventh month of the year. September then? I decided against that and resolved to use the names of the months in the order I was accustomed to, but in the fashion of this land's calendar, if I was already here.

It was a surprisingly logical and easy system. The year here was 365 days long, all twelve months being thirty days long, and there were five days which stood alone. No intercalary months, or months changing length according to the year, though there was one intercalary day every four years. As I said, it was surprisingly logical, and what's more every month was formed from three tendays, so even the market periods aligned with the beginning and end of the months.

I was almost done with admiring the simplicity and beauty of this calendar, when we arrived at Oakhurst at last. It was a pleasant little village, plump and rich. So rich, that some houses even had glass windows. Back home, not even our Palatine house had glass panes.

The village was peculiar in other ways too. All the houses had little tubes that were puffing out smoke, like a baker's oven. The buildings themselves were strange, tall, with extremely steep roofs. The villagers themselves proved to be the least interesting of all. Thankfully, no other freaks like Jim were to be seen. The people working or sitting in their gardens, or taking a stroll on the street were humans, like myself. Some were strangely thick and short, like Beldrak, while others were lithe and had curious, pointy ears. All of them were unmistakably humans, though.

I tried to soak up all the new things as inconspicuously as I could, while Trueanvil asked a villager for directions, and then led us to the tavern. It was called the “Old Boar Inn.” A large and old building, mostly oak and pine, not poorly built, but not beautiful either. The main hall was full of thick, fetid smoke that caused me a coughing fit as soon as I entered.

“I hope... we don't want... to take our lodging... at such a place!” I managed to wheeze out the words between my coughs.

“You do what you want to do, boy, but I'm sleeping in a bed tonight”, said Beldrak. The terrible smoke didn't seem to trouble him; in fact, he was sniffing at it like it was a pleasant smell he had already missed. Now that I looked at it closely, the smoke came from curious contraptions that people held in their mouths. These were composed of a long and thin tube, which ended in a bigger round opening. The smoke ascended from these openings, and hung above the hall, making it murky and rancid.

As I debated whether I should just leave, Trueanvil sat down at a table, Jim next to him. Then Beldrak even took out of his pouch a contraption I described before, stuffed dried leaves into it, then set the whole thing on fire. I was part curious, part disgusted: in the end, curiosity won out.

“Is it any good?” I asked, gesturing towards the smoking object.

“The best you can get for money”, he grinned. “Came from Geiras, but not exactly on a straight route, if you know what I mean.”

“Ships sometimes take strange itineraries”, I agreed. “It all depends on the price of goods.”

“He means the stuff was smuggled”, Jim interrupted me. It regarded me with a half-smile. “You don't like tobacco, do you?”

So, the name of the strange objects was tobacco then. “It makes me cough”, I shrugged.

Beldrak looked a little shocked, then made a gesture like saying, “We cannot be all alike.” After that, with seeming pleasure, he squelched on his tobacco.

“We will gather some information now. I will speak to the lumberjacks over there”, he gestured towards the counter. “You can stay here or come with me.”

I chose to stay. I saw that people in the room used tiny copper or bronze coins to pay, which I didn't happen to have. I asked the owner of the inn how many copper coins could he give me for an as. We settled in five coins, a small loaf of bread, and a mug of beer in the end. I would have preferred wine, but it cost thrice as much.

I drank, ate, and looked at the other tables. A few soldiers occupied the closest table to me. Seeing them drinking from their mugs, laughing, and sharing stories caused me a pang of homesickness. One of them even played dice with himself, just like Sertorius did last night. The battle at Asculum has ended by now, and my comrades huddled around campfires just like that. If they survived, that is... I was most worried about my father. The old man said he wouldn't need to devote himself probably, but what if Pyrrhus was stronger than we thought? What if he received reinforcements?

As I was grappling with my worries, I saw Jim walking over from where Beldrak sat to the soldiers' table. I elected to join it. Whatever was going to happen, was sure to be better than torturing myself with fruitless speculations.

The soldiers became quiet when Jim sat at their table and looked at it with unfriendly gazes.

“So”, started the tiefling “you plan to do anything fun, boys?”

“Not with you, I don't think so”, said one of the soldiers.

“We don't mix with your kind”, added another.

“I have an excellent deck of cards”, continued Jim like no one has spoken, and took out a set of small cards. They were thin and flexible, made from some material like wood or papyrus.

“Shove it up to your ass”, suggested a soldier helpfully. It seemed I was not the only one who thought Jim was a freak.

“You want to play with someone else than yourself?” I asked the man throwing around the dices. It took some self-restraint not to cough all over their table because the fetid smoke was especially thick here.

“No one dares to challenge me”, he smiled. “I have lucky hands, you see.”

“A bronze says my hands are luckier”, I offered, and laid one of the small coins I acquired on the table.

“Let's find out if it tells the truth.”

I lost, and all the soldiers were grinning.

“How about another round? This time for two coppers?”

“I have that much to spare”, I answered.

The soldiers were excitedly making bets whether or not I will win this round. We both rolled seven.

“That seems a tie to me”, smiled my partner, and collected the bets, while the other men were groaning. He gave me two coins and then ordered me a mug of beer.

“I am sergeant Irwin by the way. So, what can I do for you?” he asked.

“We are travelling through, and I wondered if there is any danger we should be aware of. Which road to use, which ones to avoid, whether or not we should be on the lookout for bandits.” Is there maybe, a fortress swallowed by the earth somewhere to harbour runaways from the law?

“Well, we do have some trouble lately. First, there are the goblins. The little bastards make a lumberjack disappear every once in a while. Thankfully they rarely ever kill them, and we can exchange them for our prisoners or some money.”

“And they also give us these apples with the prisoners”, snorted one of the soldiers.

“Stupid beasts and their stupid jokes.”

“Anyways”, Irwin continued, “if I were you, I would avoid the old road. Use the new road, if you can, and be on the watch. That should be enough against the goblins. But that other thing...” he shrugged.

“What other thing?”

“We don't know. Some unfortunate fellows got murdered in the last months. One of them we found this very day.”

“Strange business, too”, said another soldier shuddering. “No sign that they fought back, but they still have a hundred or more wounds. Gives me the bloody creeps.”

“Can we take a look at the corpse? The one you found today?” asked Beldrak. He finished with the lumberjacks it seemed and sat over to our table.

“Why not?” said Irwin. “Captain Felosial is taking him in probably. If you wait a little, they'll be back in the village. Tell her; sergeant Irwin sent you.”

“And where do these goblins come from?” I asked.

“Oh, they lodge in the ancient ruin by the old road”, he answered lightly.

 

“The fortress is not much of a secret for the locals”, I said to Beldrak as we walked to see the corpse.

“Regrettable”, he answered. “But locals tend to know about all sorts of secrets they really shouldn't. After all someone had to spread those rumours that attracted me here.”

“What have you found out?”

“Same thing as you. The goblins take some lumberjacks prisoner. Some others were murdered recently. And there are the apples.”

“Irwin's soldiers thought it's some kind of sick joke those goblins came up with.”

“Their superiors lie to them, then sell the apples for profit. Probably.”

At the edge of the village, a procession emerged from the dark forest. It was headed by a woman with those curious pointy ears I have observed on some villagers. She had a fair number of scars, wore a good armour and a sword, and radiated the competent authority of a seasoned officer.

How can a woman be a veteran fighter, and still live? I wondered in myself. Women were not well-suited to soldiery in general. The strongest women are still weaker than most men. Maybe in this land, women are stronger than in my home? If creatures like Jim existed, and I could learn a language in a night, this was but a trifling difference.

“Who are you?” asked the woman harshly.

“We are travelling through and wanted to get acquainted with the perils waiting ahead of us. Sergeant Irvin permitted us to take a look at the corpse captain”, I answered.

“That so? You have names as well?”

“Beldrak. Beldrak Trueanvil at your service”, said the little man. “Fellow with the halberd is Jim, the one with the big shield is Arnold.”

“A dwarf, a tiefling, and a human dressed like the warriors of olden days. A company attracting trouble, no doubt. Or even stirring it up”, the woman regarded us sharply. Then she shrugged. “I had a long day. I will let others worry about you. You may see the corpse. And tomorrow, you will leave Oakhurst.”

The body was hideous. I counted more than fifty wounds. All had blood around them. Which meant the poor devil was still alive or not yet long dead when he received the injuries. So many stabs in quick succession... I shuddered at the thought. The man had an excruciating death, no doubt.

“Rapier”, said Jim after examining the wounds, “I would say that was a rapier.”

“Is that what these goblins use? Did they do it?” I blurted out. I had no idea what a goblin or a rapier was, and my mind was desperately racing to connect the dots and find explanations.

“No, my boy, that's not how they do things. I doubt they could even use a proper rapier. Thing would be too darn big for them.”

“Let's get back to the inn”, said Jim. “We saw what we came for.”

In the inn, the owner offered us lodging and three meals for twelve silvers. I was incredulous at first, but my companions seemed to think it was a generous offer, so I swallowed my anger, and noted that silver is worth much less in this land. Thankfully, Beldrak offered to cover our expenses for the night, so I didn't need to spend any of my few silvers.

***

Author's note