Ryan was skating along the road on a cushion of water making excellent time as he headed to Ratliff Manor. "Home" was quite a distance away, four days by carriage, including stops, but that was only if one was using public transportation. You could shorten that to two days if you had a dedicated driver and used your own carriage... and the weather was with you, of course.

 

It was currently raining, which would have held things up, normally, but being a water wizard the rain was lubricating everything and making his accelerated movement work even faster. Personally, it felt like a light work out. He'd done such long distance "marathons" before and this wasn't much worse. In fact, since he was only skating, it was going much faster than he expected.

 

~Of course the driver who delivered this invitation was annoyed when I refused the ride, but frankly, I don't want to waste time.~

 

Eventually the road crossed a river as the rain let up. Seeing a much smoother "travel surface" Ryan hopped off the bridge, onto the surface to the waterway, and proceeded to rocket down the river, leaving a V-shaped wave in his wake to rock the few boats he flew past.

 

It wasn't long until the river started getting wider and wider and the famous red cliffs of Redcliff started to appear. Small villages dotted the shoreline. Ryan waved to the occasional person on the river banks. Most just stared. A few actually waved back. Eventually the density of structures indicated he was reaching the delta. The wide mouth of the river could be seen stretching out into the ocean beyond. The sun was starting to dip low in the sky. Not quite evening, but the work day for most artisans was winding to a close.

 

Ratliff Manor came into view.

 

Well, Ryan assumed it was the Ratliff manor. There were no other massive structures set up high on a defensible high cliff wall of red stone overlooking the city of Redcliff, so one might assume that was the manor. Tall. Imposing. Well armed. It not only was his family home, but it also was the city's last line of defense. The fallback in case the naval yards fell. The fact that three fourths of the walls overlooked massive cliffs that dropped off to jagged rocks or crashing waves made it a highly defensible position.

 

Ryan noticed he had traveled too far.

 

Ryan would have needed to have gotten off the river about two miles back to go up the main road to the house. The only way to the manor from this spot, was right up the side of the cliff that watched over the mouth of the river.

 

Ryan finally skidded to a stop like a skipping stone and landed on a long dock among many that was in the shadow of Ratliff manor. A number of salty sailors were hanging around the dock area when Ryan arrived. They just stared as Ryan fell to his knees and gasped for air, "That... was exhausting." Ryan rolled over onto his back to sprawl out on the dock and rest.

 

Slowly three sailors came walking over and peered down on him, "How by the six eyed cat did you do that, boy?"

Ryan shaded his eyes with one hand and looked up, "Magic."

The sailor who asked looked annoyed, "Look boy-" But the sailor next to him swung his arm out and hit the first sailor hard in the gut, "Shut It! Look at tha' eyes!" The other two sailors caught on quickly and backed up, bowing, "Pardon your lordship! We had-"

 

Ryan put his fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. The sailors shut up. Ryan lifted his head, "Lordship? That's my father. You guys can call me Reed." He offered a hand to shake. One of the sailors walked up and shook it gingerly. Ryan smiled, "Help me up?"

The sailors all moved forward to help Ryan to his feet, "We hope you weren't offended by-" Ryan looked stern, "Of course I am offended! You have committed a great offense that can only be corrected by one action!"

 

The three sailors cringed, glancing about and judging their chances of simply running away. Ryan noticed how jumpy they were and so he spoke quickly, "You shall bring me to your favorite bar and I shall buy you all drinks." He cracked his neck, "Hey. You guys know any lumpers with a strong back?"

 

The sailors looked at each other, but one nodded, "Aye, I do."

Ryan gestured, "Lead on ya scurvy bilge rat! The evening ain't getting any younger and there's flagons of ale that needs slaying!" The sailor looked a bit taken aback, then nodded and lead on. Ryan hefted his green duffel bag off his shoulder when they arrived at the harbormaster's building. Several large men were gathered around, obviously waiting for work.

 

Ryan looked around, "Who's up for a bit of a hike? And by hike, I mean carrying fifty pounds, several miles, up hill."

Most of them looked at each other and shook their head, but one in the back sighed and said, "Aye... But it'll cost ya."

Ryan dropped his duffel bag and started searching through it. He found a bag of jingling coins, yanked it out, and buttoned the duffel bag back up.

 

The lumper grunted as he caught the duffel bag Ryan threw at him, "Here's the deal." Ryan held up a silver coin, "You get this now. You get a gold when you get back. The bag doesn't make it." Ryan held up the bag of coins, "I make this a bounty on your head and it becomes my life's mission to eat nachos out of your hollow skull." The man looked a little nervous, but he also didn't see silver coins very often, much less a gold upon delivery.

 

The man held the bag in his hands, testing its weight, "Do I want to know what I'm carrying?"

Ryan blinked, then laughed and shook his head, "Clothes and books, man. Just got back from school. Take that up to Ratliff Manor and tell them that its Lord Reed Raitliff's clothes and he'll be by later." The man looked up the cliff to the Manor way above him. Yes. This was going to be a LONG hike.

 

Ryan continued, "You get the gold when you get back to..." He paused then looked at the sailor who knew a bar, "Where we going?" The sailor pointed at building down the dock. All it had was a sign on a post hanging above the main entrance that had a poorly carved mug of ale on it. Ryan looked back at the lumper, "Over there. Come find me when you get back. Ask the guy you give the bag to what his name is. Then I'll know if you actually delivered it."

 

The man looked at Ryan, then back up to the manor high above, then back down, "Uhhh.... Milord-"

Ryan cut him off, "My FATHER is Milord. Call me Reed." The man blinked then continued, "Reed. Don't... you have servants for this?"

Ryan shrugged, "I'm lazy. My slothfulness is your profit... or don't you want the money?"

The man blinked, "Uh, No! No, I like money!"

Ryan balanced the coin on his thumb then flipped the silver coin to the man, who dropped the bag while catching the coin. He looked worried, but Ryan just laughed, "Don't worry about it. Just get it up there."

 

The lumper slung the bag over his back and nodded, "Aye-aye, lor- errr... Reed."

Ryan nodded and the man started off at a light jog. Ryan looked at the other men waiting for work, "How close to quitting time?" They mumbles a bit and the consensus seemed to be another two hours. Ryan then started to walk to the tavern, "And how long until quitting time if I'm buying?"

 

The half dozen men all looked at each other, started nodding and said, "In that case, right now."

The harbormaster apparently had caught the tale end of what was going on and leaned out an upper story window, "Whar the seven Hells is happenin down there?" He pointed at the departing men, "And where are you lot going?"

Ryan turned around and kept walking backwards as he looked up at the Harbormaster, "And good day to you fine sir! A wonderful evening, is it not? I happen to be in need of some strong backs to do some heavy lifting, so they might not be back 'til the 'morrow."

 

The harbor master looked like he was going to yell when he caught the glint off Reed's eyes and sized up his clothing, "Oh! Uh... I.. understand your lordship."

Ryan reached into the coin purse rolled a gold coin along the back of his knuckles, balanced it on his thumb, then shot it into a high arc to land in the Harbormaster's breast pocket.

 

The harbormaster was utterly dumbfounded and looked at Ryan as if to ask, 'HOW???' Ryan just 'fired' two finger guns at the guy and then turned away. The harbormaster fished out the oddly moist gold coin, bit down on it to make sure it was real, then pulled inside the window. He was heard to say as he closed the window,

 

 

"Mister Smee! We're closin' early today!"