[Never in my whole life have I met someone so astonishingly full of gossip. If I ever want to spread a rumor, I'll know where to go.]
It took Roth and Jackie no more than 10 minutes to reach the area of the forest that Jackie used as his hunting ground, but in that time Roth learned of so many inconsequential scandals happening in Mosswell that it was almost hard to believe that all of them were current. Jackie also regaled to him the story of Mosswell's founding, complete with the corny jokes Roth had feared were common to the locals.
Jackie was still in the middle of one such story when he cut himself off and gestured to a marking on a tree. It apparently indicated that turkeys had been nesting nearby. Jackie maintained his silence while communicating to Roth with primitive gestures. The message of "follow me and keep quiet" was very clear but Jackie himself looked completely ridiculous. The silent turkey impression didn't help.
[Would it freak him out if I started using telepathy? It probably would, and then he'd definitely scare away the turkeys. Maybe it's best to save that trick for another time.]
A few minutes and several terrible gestures later, Roth and Jackie finally saw a pair of turkeys feeding on wild berries. Jackie produced a brace of throwing knives from his knapsack and crept towards the turkeys, taking great care not to crush anything noisy underfoot.
The silence was broken by a pair of popping noises, almost like air bubbles escaping as a canteen is opened. The noises were accompanied by the turkeys' heads falling neatly to the ground, and Jackie yelping like something had bitten him.
"What the hell was that? Was that you, Roth? Was that magic?"
"Yeah. I've never hunted turkey before but I figured it would be best to remove the heads so that we could drain the blood more easily. Is that wrong?"
"It's fine Roth, but you should really warn a guy before you go shooting off magic like that. You scared me half to death."
"Sorry about that. Do people in Mosswell not use magic very much?"
Jackie shook his head and gave Roth a sort of half-grin. "Other than you, Sister Esse is the only mage in town, and she can't use much. Just enough to help keep the kids at the orphanage from going hungry. We have to buy magic tools for anything she can't do. "
"Orphanage? Is that why you hunt game for the church? You hadn't really specified before."
"Oh yeah, that's what we're here for. Sister Esse takes care of all the kids in town who are too young to work and don't have anywhere to go. I myself actually grew up at the church, which is why I know how well she treats the little ones. The least a guy like me can do is try to pay her back with some turkey sometimes."
[If this Sister Esse is as kind and magnanimous as Jackie says, getting on her good side might make it easier for me to integrate into Mosswell. I don't intend on staying here for too long, but learning how to make peace with village churches will certainly be important. Especially since I don't think most churchgoers are too fond of demons.]
It was now Roth's turn to smack Jackie on the back. "You're a good man, Jackie. Feel free to grab me any time I'm around and you need an extra pair of hands to help with hunting."
What should have been a moment of camaraderie between new friends was ruined by a deep bellowing sound from behind the duo. Jackie's face went pale as he and Roth turned their heads to face what appeared to be a bear of no less than three meters in length. Its fur was dark brown, but its coat was void of luster and had clear signs of mange. Its eyes were bulbous and bloodshot, giving it a fearsome visage which was only accentuated by the sheer enormity of its jaws.
Wondering if there was anything he could do to help the bear, Roth failed to pick up on Jackie's intense fear and was startled when Jackie shoved him away and ran towards the beast.
"Run, Roth! Leave the birds! I'll handle this!"
[Should I be offended that Jackie thinks I need defending, or touched that he would risk his own safety to protect someone he just met?]
The brief window of time between Jackie shoving Roth and Roth coming to his senses was long enough for the bear to lunge forward with its claws, tearing a deep gash in Jackie's right arm. The seriousness of the situation finally dawning on Roth, he dashed in between Jackie and the beast, separating its head from its body with the side of his hand.
"Idiot! I told you to run-" began Jackie before trailing off in stunned silence. His reprimand no longer seemed necessary, as it was clear that the bear was not in any condition to be hurting anyone.
"Hold still," said Roth as he tore the right sleeve off of Jackie's shirt. Examining the wound, Roth noted that it was too deep for conventional first aid to be effective in their current situation and that magic would be necessary. He had not been able to find any records on whether or not demonic healing magic worked on humans, so all Roth could do was hope for the best and stop immediately if the magic seemed to have an adverse effect.
Roth used his left hand to hold Jackie's arm steady and used his right to pour mana, the essence of magic, into the wound. Damaged tissue began to regrow immediately, and the wound was fully closed in a matter of seconds. Jackie began to move his arm, but Roth stopped him.
"No, keep holding still. I haven't healed part of the wound on your bicep yet, it already looks partially infected. That bear looked quite sickly; it may have spread a magical disease to you."
"You're already done," said Roth as he pulled his arm away with a smile, "that unsightly black patch on my arm isn't anything new. Nasty stab wound I got from a jealous man. Not my fault, I didn't know she was married."
[That's one hell of a scar for a simple stab wound. I've never seen anything like that before.]
"You sure you don't want me to try looking at it? I know a bit about magical disease, even if I'm no expert."
"Not a chance. You already saved my life today by killing that bear and fixing my arm, I couldn't ask for anything more. I don't know why a man with your talents is out helping simple folk like me, but if you ever need my help with something just ask."
"Maybe I'll take you up on that someday" said Roth with a grin. "Give me a second to purify the bear's meat, just to make sure that whatever made it sick won't infect the kids. Then we can take it back with us. We should hurry though, we're probably already late for the carriage."
After gathering up the turkeys and purified bear meat, the two men made their way back towards the logging site. Jackie was still feeling anemic from blood loss, so their pace was slow and it came as no surprise when they found that the carriage had left without them. Jackie explained to Roth that he had often stayed in the site's cabin overnight when hunting in the past, and suggested that they sleep there. Unfortunately, Roth had other plans so that wasn't really an option.
"Jackie, I can't really afford to stay in this cabin tonight. It's a bit of a long story. If I have an easy way to get us back to town, can you keep my method a secret?"
"Your first night in town and you already can't stay at the cabin? Did some sweet young beauty catch your eye?"
"Nothing quite so scandalous, I simply have some other matters to attend to. Can I trust you to keep a secret or not? You seemed quite the gossip earlier."
Jackie feigned offense with such a dramatic pose you'd almost think he was no longer anemic. "Betray the trust of the man who saved my life? Never. Also, smart men don't break promises to men who can slap the head off of a bear. What is this method though? I'm terribly curious."
"Now that I believe. To answer your question: we're going to ride my horse."
Before Jackie could protest and point out that there was no such horse present, a blinding flash of golden light appeared at Roth's side. When the light subsided, in its place was a massive steed, larger than any Jackie had ever seen. Its coat was black as pitch, with glowing golden streaks appearing and disappearing in the black, almost as if the horse's fur itself was changing. At the base of its mane, where its back met its neck, the horse sported a pair of black wings.
Jackie was so dumbfounded at the creature's sudden entrance and mesmerizing form that he offered no response to it beyond a mouth agape and some incomprehensible stuttering.
"This is my steed, Weyer. I don't like showing him off because some people think he's frightening and I'm not keen on spreading any strange rumors about myself. Rest assured, he's perfectly tame and a very smart animal. You have nothing to fear from him."
The introduction now over, Roth took the liberty of loading the turkeys and bear meat into Weyer's oversized saddlebags and mounting the horse. Roth's outstretched hand helped to pull the wounded Jackie onto the back half of the saddle and Roth issued a simple warning.
"Weyer moves fast. You'd best hold on tight."
Jackie barely had time to heed Roth's warning before the world around him became a blur. Weyer followed the same path the carriage had taken, and yet Jackie could barely recognize the scenery around him. Even stranger was Roth's response to the breakneck speed, or rather his lack thereof. Jackie couldn't imagine anyone ever becoming accustomed to this terrifying pace and yet Roth seemed more comfortable on Weyer than he did in the carriage.
Roth halted Weyer before reaching Mosswell, making sure to dismiss his steed (who disappeared with an anticlimactic puff of smoke) without being close enough to the town for anyone to see them. With the meat loaded into sacks that Jackie had on him, the men began walking the final leg of their journey.
"Roth, what the hell kind of horse was that?"
"I told you, his name is Weyer. He's descended from a line of horses which are all but extinct and rarely show themselves to humans. Which, unfortunately, is why I can't afford to let him be seen by most people. I mentioned that it was to prevent rumors from spreading about me, but its also for Weyer's own safety."
"That doesn't answer almost any of my questions about your shiny horse with wings, but I'll drop it."
The conversation turned back towards Mosswell's latest gossip and before too much longer the glow of the evening's lights met the pair as they arrived in town, ready to deliver their catch and call it a night.