The North, to many, was a terrible and harsh place filled to the brim with cold winds and snow within every inch of land, even so, the rest of the world wasn't any better. Further down south, for example, it was rumored to only be slightly warmer and according to records of the many travelers who couldn't take the harsh weather, it was still constantly snowing and it took ages to clear any of the dirt roads that cities had tried and been trying to establish within their wooden walls.
There were also recordings of men living on the west side of Duren, the biggest known continent within the world, that discovered how to build something they called water transporters only to discover the small islands they found were also frozen, according to some gossip the salty water seemed to barely prevent the water itself from freezing over and this prevented men walking over the ice to explore further away from the main continent, it was also one of the reasons that the west had an abundance in fish that thrived despite the cold weather.
Either way, with the transporters or by foot, there was no escaping the cold wherever you went.
As was the norm up north, a snowstorm was raging hard, and the wind speeds whirled together like an enraged hurricane. Within said Storm, there seemed to be a light moving forward, and a carriage came into sight soon enough. The horses huffed air and pushed themselves to move forward through the winds. The coachman sitting atop the carriage shouted out and yipped at the horses to push them and battle the cold, also fighting his hardest.
He was covered in a black cloth outfit and seemed to wrap himself to the brink, leaving only a small slit over his eyes, which themselves were covered with glasses that protected his eyes from the piercing hail that mixed with the flurries of snow.
His breath, coming through the snow-covered black cloth that covered his face joined the winds and showcased the immense effort it took to lead the horses through such a treacherous environment. However, in this world of cold and brutality, this was the norm for every single occupant who lived within it, and luckily, the animals also adapted to such a harsh environment.
Within the shaking carriage, there were two passengers. One covered in cloth same as the coachman, only this time wearing a hat. The other was covered in furs and a cloth mask. Neither of the two occupants conversed and the atmosphere was seemingly as cold as the piercing winds, only in reality the temperature was much warmer thanks to the copper tubing that seemed to be kept at a constant heat from what seemed like an unknown source.
With a slight shake of the carriage, the two bodies swayed side to side, and finally after who knows how long the carriage seemed to come to a stop. The coachman atop seemed to be making his way down and accompanying him was the sound of snow crunching underneath his boots as he jumped from his seat and walked to the door. Finally, after a few seconds of knocking on the carriage door, he opened it and the piercing winds immediately flew into the carriage, breaking up any sort of warmth that was initially there.
"We're at the Balled Iron tavern sir in the furs, as for sir in the cloth we'll be here for a little bit to let the horses rest inside the stables and to let both me and the horses warm up." the coachman said loudly trying to make sure his voice wasn't overpowered by the shear winds blowing around him.
"No problem, I'll see if I can't buy something to drink from here anyways," The rough voice from the clothed man sounded out at a similar volume.
Unlike the other, the man in the furs simply nodded and as the coachman moved aside he jumped down onto the crunchy snow and into the storm. Holding tightly to his hat he moved past the coachman after passing him some coin and walked towards the flickering light that lit up a door.
The man in the carriage wearing cloth also followed suit, though he wasn't as close so neither of them had any conversation, same as within the carriage. While the two men moved towards the door that was lit up by the flickering lantern hanging by the door protected only by a wooden barrier on all sides of it, the coachman himself led his horses to another silhouette in the storm, that was most likely the stables.
The crunches of footsteps in the snow seemed to be easily drowned out and soon enough after a bit of struggling against the wind and making sure their hats didn't fly off, both men made it to the door that seemed to be the entrance to a two-story building and the man wearing furs opened it. Not taking their time they both hurried in before the winds could blow any more cold air. Though it was mostly the clothed man who made sure he wasn't gonna get the door shut in his face.
With the door now closed the man with furs covering him removed his hat and a face came into view. It was a rugged one at that, with messy eyebrows and a scar running across it down to the man's cheek, black messy hair that while cut short seemed to be everywhere, and green eyes that featured sharp glints as if to express his rugged nature surviving in the wild. With pale lips, the man spoke aloud to the barkeep just across from him, who himself was sitting down reading a small booklet.
"I would like something to drink, barkeep, anything will do."
The barkeep acknowledged him whilst nodding and put his booklet down pages first and stood up to make a drink.
The other man covered in black cloth sat down at a table near the door, he neither ordered a meal or drink nor did he talk to the barkeep or even any other patrons. No attention was paid, however, and just as usual, business resumed, the inn was back to normal after heating up a bit more from the copper pipes working their hardest to fight off the cold winter air alongside the fireplace that was constantly being fed wooden logs that were cut in half and eventually the temperature of the building gradually began to become nice and comfy.
Alongside the two new patrons from the carriage, there were three others, two on the right side of the inn next to some stairs that likely led up to rooms and another on the left, much closer to the fireplace. It was a male and a female on the right, both wearing bundles of cloth same as the coachman and only leaving their head exposed with the hats. The left was likely a man due to his sturdy build and the fact that his face sported a hefty beard.
Not paying much attention to the other patrons the barkeep walked up to the man in the furs with a wooden cup, "Here you go, I didn't expect to see ya here so soon Corvus," The barkeep spoke aloud, whilst setting down the cup.
"Well, I got a job from one of the mayors a little further down south, apparently some furs from up north are a hot commodity over there," Corvus answered while taking a swig of the cup.
Seemingly familiar with each other both the barkeep and Corvus continued to converse for a minute or two later until Corvus finished his drink and finally after one last gulp and a sigh he spoke once more, " Get me a room for the night, this storm doesn't seem like it'll let up anytime soon."
"You got it, usual price, just two bronze coins for a single bed, the bath should also have the clothes in place, and if not just give a holler," The barkeep now turned innkeeper replied.
Tossing the two bronze coins down after digging into his pocket Corvus took the key that was handed to him and picked up his hat from the counter. Nodding one last time to the innkeeper he moved away and walked past the other occupants of the building to head upstairs.
Walking up the stairs and to room one listed on the key corvus inserted the key and pushed himself into the room. Sighing to himself he put his hat on the hanger that was just left of the door and also took off some of the layers that he had put on himself for protection handling the coats alongside his hat.
He had been traveling for what seemed like tens of days now and still had not completed his objective, which of course was to collect furs like he had mentioned to the innkeeper. Compared to the North, the South, while slightly more liveable in terms of natural weather, wasn't as seemingly abundant in resources as the North.
Corvus had heard from one of the landscape guilds that a new mine was discovered not even a couple of weeks ago up north and from what he knew it was likely a coal mine. Which was almost hundreds of times more valuable than many other resources on account of its burning ability. He hadn't heard of it much after, but it was likely that some settlement was going to be built around it, or the original finder of the mine would sell it off to a city mayor. Either option would rake in profit, though building a settlement requires a lot more work and manpower.
Sitting down and letting a breath out Corvus took off his boots and laid down on the bed, relaxing his somewhat aching back from the shaky carriage ride that brought him further up north. Closing his eyes and relaxing for a moment he once again went over the details of the mission within his head.
First, acquire pelts from deers, the southern mayor wanted twenty pelts preferably and he had also requested a few furs from any animal that could be found up north. It wasn't definite that Corvus or anyone for that matter would be able to get their hands on such things, but it was also still the easiest objective given to anyone within this line of work, it would only take a little bit more time.
According to some of the information that Corvus acquired, the southern city mayor was likely trying to exploit the many wandering mercenaries with lower wages and circumventing the actual hunters that sell their goods in stalls between the north and south roadways, and in doing so making a greater profit selling to any wealthy families living within his own city.
Corvus got up from the bed and walked towards a doorway that was simply a frame instead of an actual door and after entering said doorway he came across the sight of a wooden bathtub that had been fashioned from wood. It also seemed glazed or polished which was one of the miracles that the North had invented when trying to find ways to prevent wood from deteriorating so easily and also to keep water in a container without being absorbed or spilled, and it just so happened that it could also be used on the salty oceans to prevent transporters from sinking.
Discarding his equipment and clothes atop a wooden stool just a bit to the right of the tub, corvus stepped into the tub that had a cup to hold water as well as wooden handles that produced water when turned. Turning the handle to the left water began spewing out and as it warmed up quickly corvus took the wooden cup and began filling it. Once done he poured it over his hair and body.
There was a cloth on the side of the tub and not far from it was a soap bar that had been recently made from some plants by the looks of it.
Washing any of the sweat that had accumulated, corvus eventually finished wiping himself down from head to toe with the soapy cloth and after turning the handle that emitted water he stood up and took the final cup of water he had gotten and poured it over himself.
Sighing aloud he took a step out of the tub and grabbed yet another cloth to use as a towel. This one seemed to be made out of a different material than the previous one, but he didn't exactly know what it was. Paying it no mind he eventually dried himself and after at least twenty minutes of cleaning and drying himself he finally put on the clothes he was originally wearing.
Although not a very hygienic thing to do, it wasn't like he had brought extra clothes on this journey. Most mercenaries wouldn't bring another set of clothing unless they were planning on spending weeks out somewhere and Corvus was at most planning to spend a few days. Either way, he didn't have that much money to spend on clothes anyway.
Walking to the bed and lying down once more corvus brought his hands up and behind his head to rest and finally after a long day of traveling he closed his eyes to sleep after covering up with some of the fur blankets laid out. It was going to be a long next few days.