The Forever Man: Clan War by Craig Zerf

Author:Craig Zerf [Zerf, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Small Dog Publishing
Published: 2014-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Tad pulled the saddle cinch tight.

‘Are you sure about this?’ He asked.

‘Definitely,’ affirmed Nathaniel as he mounted his horse. ‘If I’ve been gone for over twenty years, first I need to take a bit of a tour of the country. Get a bit of first hand knowledge etcetera.’

Tad grunted as he threw another two full saddlebags over the back of the packhorse that they were taking with them.

‘What’s that?’ Asked Nathaniel. ‘I thought that we’d already packed all of the food and stuff.’

‘Goods to trade,’ replied Tad. ‘Told you that things have changed. Can’t just live off the land now. Well, you can, but you also need to be able to trade for goods, places to stay and so on.’

‘So what you got?’

‘Small knives. A few pots and pans. Goblets. Some bottles of uisge.’

The dwarf clambered onto his horse, still holding the long reins attached to the packhorse. He tied them loosely to the back of his saddle and they set off. He had left his cottage unlocked and had allowed one of the village bachelors to stay in it, hoping that at least he would keep the damp out.

They had no real plan of action. Nathaniel figured that he wanted to travel to London and then back. Firstly, they had to sneak across the wall. Then, somehow, they needed to find a member of HAS so that they could obtain the requisite paperwork. Tad had been assured by other travelers that it was pretty much a given that any member of HAS was imminently corruptible and a few bottles of highland uisge would purchase any and all certifications needed.

It took them four days to ride from Tomintoul to Wardrew Wood.

When they got to the woods they used the cover of the trees to cross the remnants of Hadrian’s Wall at that point and then, under the cover of darkness, made their way to the village of Chapleburn where they traded a set of knives for dinner, bed, breakfast and stabling for their mounts.

The next morning they rose early, ate well and, after asking directions, set off to the local HAS office on foot.

Chapelburn was a large village. Before the pulse it probably housed around 7000 souls. Now it was closer to three thousand and more than half of those were aliens. Long armed goblins and pig faced Orcs being the norm

Nathaniel, who had at this point only heard of Orcs and goblins, could not stop staring.

‘Bugger me,’ he whispered to Tad. ‘People had explained what they looked like but, Jesus, they are plug-ugly, aren’t they?’

‘Which ones’ Asked Tad.

‘Both,’ answered Nathaniel. ‘The Pig faces and the goblins.’

‘Stop staring,’ said Tad. ‘You’re like a child. You’re attracting attention. Act normal.’

Nathaniel tore his eyes away from the shambling monstrosities and tried to look as if the sight of them was an every day occurrence to him. But he couldn’t stop himself shuddering involuntarily every now and then.

After a couple of wrong turns they came to the address that they were looking for.

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