After Dustin had told his tales from his home town, the four retired to the inn. Here the inn was refurbished; only two months ago the inn had been the only saloon in town. At least the food was good. The lodgings were not so great. There was only enough room for small cots set up in about four different rooms on the second floor of the saloon.
Bingham was a growing village, only about eighty people lived in the village. The numbers were gradually climbing. Dustin had some time to look around before he retired for the night. Around the edge of the village some new buildings were under construction. It was clear that the village had been growing. Dustin did not get much of a chance to talk with some of the people around the village, but he did learn that the new buildings were for people who would be displaced by some coming expansions of the barracks. The inn had been housing most of these people but they had to move on soon. Six families in total would be displaced just for the addition of a barracks in the town.
When the sun returned on the horizon the next morning, Dustin was up and ready. He had already left the room he was sharing and was sitting on the porch waiting for the others to get up. They wouldn’t sleep much longer. There was no celebration for messengers, just long winded stories, food and shelter. No real worries except for the space in between towns and villages.
The four would be leaving Bingham and the forests as well. Grenfell was the only town between Bingham and Colodia. From what Galen was saying about Grenfell, Dustin knew they would have to stay for a while in Grenfell.
Dustin’s mind turned to the apprentices that would be joining the three for the journey. He could remember his time as an apprentice. It was his father that first showed him the ropes. His father had been stern with him, especially on his first trip to Maldor. They had encountered a wolf pack and barely made it out of there; but he was still quite young back then.
He wondered which of the three apprentices the town had would accompany them to Grenfell. They had met all three yesterday after Dustin had regaled the people of tales from Atanna.All three were relatively young, Sandy looked to be about thirteen, Andrew looked to be about twelve and Sven looked to be the oldest of the bunch; roughly fifteen. Of the three apprentices Dustin thought that Sven would be the most useful. As Sven was the oldest he would prove to be more useful if they were attacked on the road to Grenfell.
Draven was the first to emerge from the inn. Dustin was still sitting on the porch watching the few people who were just starting the day. There were only a few people, mostly vendors from the market that were on their way to set up their kiosk to barter their wares. Draven sat down beside Dustin on the porch.
“We move on to Grenfell today” Draven stated. “You should grab something to eat before we leave. It’s going to be a long journey.”
“I know,” Dustin replied. “Is the cook up, I’ll have to enjoy more of his offerings before we leave.”
“I don’t think so; you may have to grab something from the market. We will be leaving as soon as Marcus brings the apprentice by.”
“Which one will be going with us?” Dustin asked.
“I think it will be Sven” Draven replied. “I asked Marcus about him while you were looking around yesterday. Apparently he has been to Grenfell a number of times and is almost ready to make the trip on his own.”
“Really,” Dustin stood up. “I was hoping we’d get the oldest. I didn’t think that he was ready to be a messenger. Looks can be deceiving.”
He started towards the market when he spotted Sven. Sven was on his way over to the inn. He carried with him a few supplies and he was ready for the trek to Grenfell. Sven was the only one of the apprentices that wore a helm, this was uncommon. Most messengers wore hooded cloaks with the hood resting on their backs. This was the fashion for most messengers; Dustin wore a blue cloak without a hood.
Sven walked up to the two of them on the porch; his pimply face partially hidden by the wisp of hair that fell out of his helm. “Are you guys ready?”
“We will be leaving shortly” Draven replied. “We still need to have something to eat before we travel. Sit a spell in the saloon while we go grab something to eat.” And with that Draven and Dustin walked over to the market leaving Sven behind.
Come back next week for Part 4
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