Chương 113: 112: A Return

Just as I hit the log to cross, I noticed the tone of the shouting changed from one of alarm to one of joy. The massive blackberry bushes blocked my view of what was going on, but once I made it to the other side, I couldn't believe my eyes! Hari and Glenn were there! They looked like absolute homeless vagrants. But they were back! Both men's leathers were torn and stained, and it was clear they'd both lost a ton of weight over the last four months.

As they looked my way, I was still taking the priming caps off my pistol.

"Did we alarm you?" Hari asked with a smile. I laughed, "I heard shouting so I came running. Then I thought I saw two dirty vagrants, so it took me a few moments before I knew what I should do." As I was giving them a hard time, I noticed that Glenn was favoring his right side, and his leathers were bloody.

"By the System, Glenn! You're hurt!" He gave me a tight smile and said, "Aye, but I'll live until we get back to the manor. Now that I don't need to run, I don't suppose I could get some help getting there though?"

"Of course!" I exclaimed as I rushed to him and put his arm over my shoulder. Then I realized what I'd heard.

"Oh shoot, do we need to be concerned you're leading something our way?"

"No!" Hari said quickly.

"We lost the goblins a day ago, and we ran into the squad an hour ago. Them and Colin are backtracking right now." Emily looked concerned when she heard Colin's name, and she asked, "How many goblins were following you?" As we began walking back to the house, Hari said, "Fewer than a dozen. No Shamans." When we got to the log, I said to Glenn, "Now this might be embarrassing, but you're just going to have to accept it," then I picked him up in a princess carry and carried him over the log.

He wince laughed the entire time.

"Sorry. We've been running on adrenaline for days. Now that we're safe, I just don't have anything extra left to give."

"Don't worry," I said.

"Sounds like you two have a hell of a tale to tell though!"

"We sure do," Hari said with a grin. We got Glenn back to the manor, and I threw a blanket down on top of one of the tables. I helped Glenn peel out of his leather shirt. And peeling him out was the right word. His leathers were practically a second skin at this point. They were filthy and caked on his body with blood and sweat. He winced and apologized, "Sorry John. We've been in a running battle for almost a week. I haven't changed or even stopped to wash the entire time except to change the bandage."

Emily and Cara came in right then with a bucket of water, and Cara gently pulled the bandage away from Hari's side. The wound was jagged. It was also red and inflamed. Glenn winced and growled as he attempted not to cry out as Cara began cleaning around it. Hari came in, and while he wasn't wounded, he was just as filthy as Glenn. Hari was quite a bit shorter than I was, but he'd left some clothes at the manor when he and Glenn had left, so I told Emily I'd go grab them.

I went upstairs and found them in the spare closet. When I came back down, I told Hari to go and clean up. He protested, "I don't want to leave Glenn right now. Let's get him patched up first."

"You're filthy. I don't want you touching him after Emily and Cara get him cleaned up. Follow me. I had a shower installed. You can get cleaned up fast." Once I had him situated, I left and came back to the manor. The entire homestead had crowded into the downstairs. Luckily, it had plenty of space, but still. We had a task for the day, and it was still only 11 a. m. Even with the early start, we still needed to pick a lot more blackberries. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road.

If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. I shouted out, "Hey! Listen up!" When I saw I had everyone's attention, I said, "Alright, we had a task today. I'm glad Hari and Glenn are back with us, it'll make tonight's feast even better, but we need to get those blackberries picked, then get to cooking them. Emily and Cara can attend to Glenn. Everyone else, we have a couple more hours of picking to do." With that, I clapped and motioned for everyone to follow me.

Even the men whom I couldn't actually order around followed me out. I checked on the grill. I had left it as soon as I'd started the fire. Luckily, it was still hot, and the coals were glowing a soft red color under a thin layer of ash. I moved some coals around with the tong to get the hot spots where I wanted them, then I put the metal grill back on. It was built with two levels or racks, and I threw the ribs on the top rack to keep them off the direct heat. I'd already had a rub on them since last night.

I'd keep an eye on them, but I didn't need to check on them for an hour or two, so I joined in on the blackberry picking. By noon it was already in the mid 80s, and Tess and Anne decided we had enough for the day. If we needed more, we'd come back tomorrow for a smaller round of picking. We'd made a huge dent in the dense thicket, but it stretched on for almost a mile, so we hadn't come anywhere near to exhausting its bounty. I checked on the meat, then made my way back to the manor.

I liked to stay near the grill all day if I could, but I didn't need to for now. It was tempting to open the lid all the time to check on the meat, but all that did was let the heat out and mess with the temperature. Back at the manor, I saw a now clean Hari helping Glenn into one of the unoccupied cabins. I stopped Emily and Cara and asked them what they thought. Cara answered first.

"He had an arrow wound. It went all the way through him. That helped since we didn't have to cut it out, but he's definitely got a mild infection that could get bad if we didn't have Lorcan available. He's not gonna die in the next couple of days though, so he'll be fine."

"Well that's good," I said.

"Indeed," said Emily.

"He said they both got their evolution notifications. I did not get much of the story, but I know they did a lot of fighting and running, especially the last week." I nodded.

"I'll get the full story from Hari tonight." Emily said, "I shall go grab them some food for now." I shook my head.

"Let me do that. You two need to coordinate cooking and jarring up the preserves. I think I heard Ginny taking charge for now, but you two should probably make sure she doesn't insult someone." I laughed at the end. Cara grinned.

"Maybe we should leave her to it. I saw Delyth come down when she heard all the commotion." Emily gently squeezed Cara's arm and said, "Oh stop, but you are probably right dear. You grab them something and we will help with the blackberries." She gave me a kiss, and I followed them to the kitchen where I grabbed a fresh loaf of bread and then went to the cold storage to grab some cheese and cured ham. I got a pitcher of cold water and some mustard, then went back to the cabin.

When I got there, I knocked and when I heard Hari say, "Come in." I pulled on the latch and made my way in. When Hari saw the food, he said, "Oh thank the System. We haven't eaten a proper meal in a week. Once we hit our evolutions, we started making our way back and somehow we must have triggered a ward or something. There were a dozen of them with a Shaman. Luckily the Shaman was an idiot, and I put a bullet between his eyes before he ever saw us."

Right then, Glenn started coughing, so Hari poured him a glass of water.

"Alright gentlemen. I'm going to leave you two to rest. Eat something. If you want more you can take it from storage, you know where it is. I'm grilling up a side of beef for tonight. If Glenn isn't up for coming out we'll bring him a plate."

"Thanks," both men said in unison.

"Does Lorcan know you're wounded?" I asked Glenn. He nodded.

"He checked me real quick and said I'd live for another few days and said he'd be back tomorrow." I didn't know if Glenn was joking or not, but it didn't matter. Things would be okay.

"Alright, well I better get to it." I gave Glenn's blanketed foot a squeeze, then noticed how hot it was in here.

"You two want the cooling rune turned on?" Hari raised his eyebrows.

"You splurged for cooling runes for these cabins?" I grinned and pointed at my chest, "I made 'em myself." He laughed.

"So you're at least level 10 now?"

"Yup," I said with pride.

"And I hear you two got your evolution notifications. Congrats, but I need to go check on the meat. We can talk all about your experience later. Everyone will want to hear the story." Hari shook his head, "I'm sure they will. I think I saw some new faces too."

"Yeah, a couple of old veterans who seem to have made this place their retirement plan for a while at least."

"Anything important to know about them?" Glenn asked from the bed.

"Jac has a Distiller support and Bryce has a Brewer." I said.

"Now seriously, I need to go check on the ribs." With that, I turned on the rune, then left the cabin. I had really missed those two. They were my real first friends in this world, and I hoped I got to keep them around now that they were back. They were Weston militia, so they should at least be staying around. They weren't active duty full-time, so they could even base themselves on the homestead if they wanted to. They both leased out their own ground. Hari to a Rancher, and Glenn to a Farmer.

Once they'd recovered a bit, I'd ask them what they wanted to do.