Chương 13: Chapter 7.5: Same Coin, Different Day

I tore a strip from the ruined sleeve, pressed it beneath my coat and used the remaining cord to hold it against my side. It felt like using a small stick to make a dam, but it did the job for now. Skinning showed me the opening lines beneath the jaw and along the rear legs. My hands shook too hard to follow them cleanly. The first cut wandered into the shoulder, and the belly hide tore when I pulled instead of waiting for the tension to release. Every mistake was depleting the value, I knew that.

I stopped before exhaustion ruined the whole carcass, wrapped the body in reeds and sacking, then lashed it to a frame made from two branches. The return took the rest of the afternoon. The reed cat weighed less than the Iron boar, though its long body shifted whenever the frame caught a root, and I had no mule to carry the load. Each jolt pulled at my shoulder. Mud collected beneath my boots, the split heel widened and flies found the blood drying along my sleeve.

By the time Dunmere's markers appeared, I was regretting my decision to hunt that day. Merris saw me before I reached his stall. He set down his scraping knife and came around the counter without the smile he usually saved for other people's poor decisions.

"A reed cat alone?" I lowered the frame. My shoulder refused to help for the final distance, and one end struck the ground hard enough to expose a pale paw. I looked towards the carcass.

"Of course alone," he muttered.

"The gods forbid stupidity be shared fairly among men." He inspected the animal in short, angry movements. His thumb found every damaged section I had caused and pressed nowhere near the cuts that still bled through my coat.

"Iron. Hide's torn across the shoulder. Belly's poor. Claws are good. Teeth are intact. Someone may buy the meat salted if they hate their family."

"How much?"

"Sixty-eight iron." His eyes lifted to my shaking hands.

"It should have been eighty, maybe even a copper. You left the difference in the marsh and brought back blood-soaked skins for free." PAYMENT RECEIVED You received 68 iron pieces for an Iron reed cat in damaged condition. Your Current Coin is now 3 copper and 62 iron pieces. More than three days at Henrick's better wage. More than the room. The amount settled the argument inside me until Merris counted eight coin from his pouch in one pile, and placed the rest beside it. Enjoying the story?

Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Salve and bandages," he said.

"Bellan has both two stalls down. You can object after you stop leaking onto stock I can still sell."

"Do I need —""You agreed to live when you dragged yourself back here, but that wound might do more than the cat without treatment." A drop fell from my elbow onto the edge of his stall. Merris looked at it, then at me, with the satisfaction of a man who had already mentally moved onto his next trade. PAYMENT SPENT You spent 8 iron pieces on salve and bandages. Your Current Coin is now 3 copper and 54 iron pieces. Bellan took one look at me and pointed to an upturned crate.

"Sit, Cael." His dark hair had been tied back with a strip of red cloth, and a row of small jars occupied the stall behind him beside folded linen and bundles of dried leaves. He cleaned the cuts with something that burned like nettles and smelled of vinegar and pine resin. His hands moved quickly, applying care with the brisk irritation of someone who had already decided pain did not excuse poor sense.

"That shoulder needs stitching," He said. I watched him set a curved needle beside the salve.

"It will close." His fingers paused against the edge of the wound.

"It already is." Merris stopped cleaning one of the reed cat's claws. The charcoal lines beneath my other sleeve had never hurt, yet they seemed suddenly present against my skin. Bellan leaned closer. The torn flesh had drawn together around one end of the cut while blood still welled from the other.

"How long," He began, absent-mindedly, "... ago did the cat strike you?"

"Near noon." His mouth tightened.

"Your rank explains but some of it." PAYMENT SPENT You spent 12 iron pieces on wound cleaning and stitching. Your Current Coin is now 3 copper and 42 iron pieces. He left the rest unsaid and threaded the needle. I gave him the twelve iron before he could hypothesize any further. The stitching hurt less than the cleaning. Bellan noticed. Merris noticed his noticing and returned to the claw with unusual care. ⚜ ⚜ ⚜ The Cataract had grown louder by the time I returned.

More travellers occupied the passage, the dock remained broken and the innkeeper recognised the request before I made it.

"Forty-eight," he said, pouring a pint of ale for a dwarf at the bar. This time I counted the price in iron. The stack just disappeared into his tin, and he walked off to grab meals off a serving window. PAYMENT SPENT You spent 48 iron pieces to renew your private room, supper, and breakfast at The Cataract. Your Current Coin is now 2 copper and 94 iron pieces. I had killed an Iron reed cat alone, advanced an ability, and earned more than Henrick would have paid in three days.

The salve, stitching, and one night indoors had taken every iron of it. My torn sleeve, split boot, and the spear still waiting broken upstairs had not yet submitted their prices. I climbed to the third floor with one hand against the stitches. Behind the locked door, the narrow room stood unchanged: bundle at the foot of the bed, broken spear in the corner, cracked basin beneath the window. I set the axe beside the mattress and emptied the pouch onto the blanket. Two copper and ninety-four iron.

The reed cat had bought me another day without making me richer.