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Ch.4 Western Port City of DawnStar

Lady Luck must have been shown the time of her life last night by Father Time, or she possesses a deep affection towards Elric. Because she rain down a heap of good fortune on him and his mother Ciara. For his father to happen to recruit a knight from a farming community on the western outskirts of the central region of the kingdom; for that knight to be assigned the guard his mother the queen's door on the day of his birth/day of the attack on the capital; and for that knight to maintain a relationship with his old neighbors; odds are a billion to one. This knight who was named: Sam Beckett along with Willum Colt, the other door guard, were in the same batch of recruits that trained to be knights. So to pass the time during the trek to farm belonging to Sam's friend and old neighbor Tom Applewood, they began to recount tales of the past "misadventures" they shared to Queen Ciara, as Crown Prince Elric was way to young to care or even notice.

I remember the time when Sam got his foot stuck in a sabaton during training on how to put on and remove a set of armor. He fell face first into a mud hole after hopping around like a mad rabbit for close to five minutes.

Yea well I remember the time you tried to seal the errm.. "cookie" of one of the castile baking maidens. As I recall her father, one of the pastry masters kicked your sorry arse all the way back to the barracks. For Peat's sake it was the eve of here wedding, you could not have picked a worse time to try an woo her into your bed.

This cause the few hours of walking through wooded areas to avoid being seen along roadways to pass quickly. As luck would have it, Tom Applewood had just made it back to his farm a few hours ago. He had been away for around a month taking a cart load of apples and grain to the largest trade market on Tera, the port city of DawnStar. He was going to rest for a few days before going back to sell a few head of cattle, and to buy a new dress for his wife. So when Sam showed up with fellow knight Willun, Ciara and Elric the timing could not have been better.

Tom was sitting on the front patio of his respectable sized home eating a meat pie his wife made him for supper. After finishing his meal he started to nod off. Awoken by the howl of a wolf in the distance, he noticed Sam and the others approaching from the forest east of his lands. So he got up to go see who it was. As the distance was quite a ways of he could only make out the ruff outline of three adults. Elric was to small too be seen tucked in to the bosom of his mother. As he got closer Tom could tell it was a woman possibly carrying a baby on her chest and two men. Considering the fact they came out of the woods after midnight he could not be certain if they had ill intent or not. As such he was a little leary and approached the group with caution. But at this time Sam yelled out "Hay you old fart, how have you been!" "Have your eyes gone so bad as to not recognize me?"

"Samuel Tiberius Beckett, I know you mother taught you better than to talk to your elders like that." Tom scolded. "Or is that something that slipped out of your head to make room for all that learning they done gave you on how to swing a sword." Any how who is that with ya, and what ya doin around here? Last I heard you were living in the capital city serving as a guard in the castile, or did your momma tell me wrong?"

"No, what my mother told you is the truth. As far as who they are; He is my fellow Knight and brother in arms Willum Colt." Sam said to Tom. With a slight bow, Willun said " Greetings Mr. Applewood, you have a fine homestead and I wish you a heavy harvest." "As for who She and the babe are it is best you do not know or ask to many questions. You can simply call her Miss Clare, as for the baby boy in her arms call him whatever you like, it is not as if one so young would care." "Lets first go inside, before we tell you what brought us to your door at such an ungodly hour." Sam added.

After going inside Tom lead them into his living room and added a few logs to the already going fire in the hearth. Being that Ton was a simple farmer, albeit a rather successful one, the living room only contained a few plane wooden chairs, a small square table holding a tea set, and a rather large for the size of the room stone hearth. Once they were all seated, Sam started to tell Tom what happened. "So basically what you are telling me is that the capital city of Vallen Kingdom and perhaps even the royal castile is lost." "Is there any clue as to why a bunch of Hedge Witches that barely avoid being hunted down like dogs by the covens that are under the banner of a main branch family would attack out of nowhere?" Tom asked.

"No"

"So let me guess you came out here to hide them or ask me to help you get them away to some place safe." Tom continued. "If I'm right the two of them must be of some importance as they are in the company of two knight guards only a hair's breadth away from making captain. As it so happens, I was planning on going to DawnStar in a few days for trade purposes."

"What Luck, I was going to ask if we could use a few horses and maybe a wagon to go there." Sam said. " I think it might be far safer to stay there or book passage on a ship than to stay this close to the fallen capital." Tom replied . " If you want the four of you can tag along with me. I was going to go in about a week, but I think is is best if we leave sooner. For now let us get some sleep. If you two help me in the morning I think we should be able to have everything packed up and ready to go by midday." Now off to bed with you lot, there are spare rooms down the hall."

The next morning Ciara tended to Elric and helped Tom's wife prepare a hearty meal while the men went off to get thing ready for the long journey ahead. She may be a queen now but, Ciara came from a family with deep rooted traditions that included all of the members being well versed in the preparation of various ingredients including those used in cooking. While out of practice she could still find her way around a kitchen if she had to. As for Sam he was tasked with feeding and hooking up the swift terarexes to the merchant wagons that they where to use for the trip. Swift terarex are a large and robust reptile know for there extreme speed and ability to run long distances without stopping. Alpha males are known to be capable of running sea to sea without stopping in as little time as a month. This trip while long was not as extremes tearing across the entire continent of Tera. In fact using teams of four more manageable female terarexes the trip typicaly only took a little more than a week if more than one driver was available to switch off with to sleep. Tom oftan takes one of his hired farm hands along with him for this reason. Growing up on a far Sam was able to make quick work of his task. However once he was done he had to go help the struggling Willum Colt who was tasked with the loading of provisions for the road and wares to be sold by Tom at the market in DawnStar. Tom was off working with his farm hands to catch and tie together the cattle he intended to sell. Just as Tom said everything was ready by mid day.

After sitting down the the meal made my Tom's wife and Ciara the group headed off to there respected wagons. Tom, his wife, who decided to go because she missed being with him as he had just gotten home and the promise of a few new dresses, along with 2 hands got into the lead wagon. Sam, Willum, Ciara,Elric and one of Tom's farm hands got into the second. A third that was loaded to the brim had three hands on board to drive it. Tied behind it where two dozen dairy cow like beast. The addition of the cattle was going to slow down the trip by a few days, but there market value made up for the time loss.

With everyone settled in they headed out on the three thousand mile journey to the western port city of DawnStar. Fortune once again smiled upon Elric and his traveling companions as the trip was mostly uneventful. Tom's expert guidance got them to DawnStar in a matter of two weeks impart to the slower travel speed caused by the cattle. After arriving at the city gates and passing the guards' inspection Tom lead them to an inn while his hands handled the process of getting the cattle and goods to the market. After a night in the inn Ciara, Sam and Willum thanked Tom and his wife for there aid in getting for four of them to DawnStar. They all spoke over a stack of hotcakes and eggs in the inn's dining hall. During the discussion it was decided that after helping Tom settle is business at DawnStar's market, Willum would head back to Tom's farm and use it as a base to try and locate as many people as he could that manage to escape the aftermath of the fall of the Vellen capital city. Sam was to continue on as as Ciara and Elric's guide and protector. After finishing up the meal and saying their goodbyes Tom's group headed to the market while Sam lead Ciara with Elric in her arms towards the port area to seek passage on a ship going Southwest to the continent of Fargo.

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