The evening in the Inn of Serpents passed without incident. Caelan woke early and slipped out to pick flowers for Cerise – taking them to her house and narrowly avoiding climbing in her parents’ bedroom to deliver them. She was surprised to find him knocking at her window but thankfully, let him in and bid him farewell with a blush.
We left well provisioned and headed for Misty Vale. The journey was simple enough and the only thing of note on our three day journey was the frequent sighting of unusual-coloured crows and ravens, spotted singly, or in pairs. On arrival we headed for the tavern where a familiar face (to Olvir and Song) greeted us - Iaen, the innkeeper, who offered us food and rooms. We accepted gladly and introduced Caelan as “Swift Arrow”, his alias we’d picked out on the three day journey.
All was well until we started showing off with some circus tricks. Olvir’s feats were applauded, though he wasn’t quite on form; however when we set Caelan up to shoot apples off strings suspended against the far wall his bow snapped clean in two at as he pulled it and the arrow flew off into the crowd, striking a woman in the arm. Screams erupted and as Song moved swiftly to administer treatment Caelan read the mood of the crowd and fled into the night. Thankfully while the injury was severe, Song had the victim swiftly stabilised as Olvir pulled the arrow shaft from her arm.
They carefully moved the woman, with the help of her husband, back to her house where Song checked over the wound and applied a salve to numb the pain and stop it scarring badly. Meanwhile Olvir tried to calm inflamed emotions in the tavern. He examined the bow and discovered the weak point: a hidden knot in the wood right where it had snapped in half. He declared as much to the villagers listening, trying to convey the right tone of sorrow and dismay at the accident.
Song made her way back to the inn a little later, listening to the mood of the village as she went, relieved to hear that there were no plans to run them out of town. She came across Caelan huddled in an alley and told him as much, suggesting (quite firmly) that he head back to the tavern rather than stay outside and imply further guilt.
It wasn’t the best atmosphere for Caelan to walk back in to, though thankfully Olvir’s earlier work and Song’s declaration when they entered that the woman was recovering well helped to appease any still hostile. He proceeded to get very drunk and eventually Olvir put him to bed.
The morning went even less well as he woke with a thumping head and a stomach that felt like it was tossed on stormy seas. Olvir sighed, and went downstairs to fetch a mop and bucket to clean up the inevitable. When he got back he found Caelan had crawled under his bed – not that this stopped the strongman, who simply lifted bed, frame and all, and neatly stacked it against one wall while he mopped up the mess, allowing the mop to flip into Caelan’s face a few times, before leaving him to his misery. The boy eventually roused himself, tempted by the smell of cooking bacon - though by the time he made it downstairs Olvir’d eaten all but a slice.
Song checked on the injured woman, redressed her wound and left her husband with a couple of pots of salve and instructions on how to apply it. Olvir had already offered financial recompense the night before, and his generous nature had got the better of him, so leaving the village in the best state we could, we left it for Selene to take over when the circus arrived, and moved on to Eagle’s Point.
With Caelan half-asleep in the saddle, we made good time. That night Olvir tied up a few apples on strings to hang around the campsite and loom at Caelan when he woke in the morning – however he didn’t factor in a hungry Teyra and by the morning, only a couple of apples remained – the rest were nothing but knotted string. By the next night Olvir had moved on to teasing a recovered Caelan about a new stage personality, suggesting ‘Death’s Executioner’ and variants thereof. He really wasn’t keen.
We’d only been on the road for a couple of hours the next day before we spotted the spires of Eagle’s Point peeping out between the trees in the distance. We arrived by midday and made our way into the walled city with a nod to the city guards who were alert but saw we posed no threat. We recalled four taverns from our last visit – the River Rat, the Wolf’s Pelt, the Golden Flame Tavern and the Golden Auroch. We’d have headed for the Lizard’s Lips, but sadly it had closed down several years before, so settled on the River Rat, as from memory it had the best food.
Kimir was working front of house and greeted us by name. He knew us fairly well and there was the usual jovial banter about meals and money, though the food was as good as we remembered and we agreed on a rate to stay. Song did some negotiating on wares before the three of us sat down to agree on what we had to get done before the circus arrived. First on the agenda was a place to pitch up...