Triple Strength

27. Border: Wiremu

The border is a wide and deep flowing river. It is maybe an average of 50m wide and deep enough you have to swim. The crossing is a solid stone bridge, two wagons wide and on each side were strong barrier gates and a fortified guard post. Both the Empire and the Kirghiz Kingdom had a very strong military presence on their respective sides based in a fort adjacent to the bridge. I could see that the river on both sides was heavily patrolled. On the other side of the border there was a flat plain and then the road curved up into the mountains. There were a lot more trees around, but they were a different type than I was used to in the forest where I grew up. I guess I would know more if I had taken Plant Lore. Apparently Hrothgar was on the other side of the mountains guarding the pass. There was snow on top of the mountains.

With Farsight I could see Masnachwr and the caravan in the queue to cross. They had made very good time and must have kept going through the night. I figured they would have a difficult time crossing as the caravan who harboured a spy. At least they could all honestly say they didn’t know and it would be the truth for anyone with the Skill to tell. I suspect that was the only reason Masnachwr wasn’t detained at the gate with me.

Tabitha and I were planning to ride upstream for quite a way before attempting to cross. We would have to dodge patrols. It would be easier without our horses, with our level of stealth, but neither of us were going to leave them behind. We turned our backs on the bridge and headed off.

The first two days were painfully slow. Stopping and hiding and trying to camouflage a horse. Tabitha’s Shadow’s Embrace was much better. I made sure I told her so. Apparently she had levelled Shadow Predator in the exchange on the wall which really pleased her as she didn’t use Intimidating Aura or Rampage there at all. I guess she achieved the objective of her hunt, which was me. Her Shadow's Embrace was getting a real workout. If we rode really close she could include both of us and it was mid apprentice so there was some muffling of sound. It wasn’t great, but anything to stop the sound carrying was good. When she got it to Journeyman level she would really be awesome.

After the second day we seemed to break out of their patrol pattern and only the river was heavily patrolled. We started moving a lot faster keeping inland. On the fourth day we decided to risk a fire rather than another cold camp. We camped by a moderate creek which was flowing to the main river and sheltered by the trees and the creek banks lit a small fire. The trees around here had needles instead of leaves which I found strange. They also dropped these cone things which burned clean if quickly. The air was getting colder as well and I didn't have a decent cloak. Tabitha did, but at night I was wearing all three of my shirts to stay warm. Pip was also suffering in the cold. He wouldn’t leave me at night.

That night I also finally got back to fishing. I searched the creek for a pebble, then I used Granite Spike to create a very small spike with a hook on the end. It took me several tries to get it right, but I did it. The pebble was still attached at the end, but I used that to tie a spare bow string too and baited the hook with a worm and we had fresh fish for dinner. Granite Spike levelled with that use of it and it was now firmly mid Apprentice level. Granite Spike was really a whole game changer for me.

In the morning we started unarmed sparring again. We were surprisingly evenly matched. I had the reach and weight but she was marginally faster. My unarmed level was at 6 and hers at 5. If I didn’t use my lock joint ability, which she didn’t know about, then she could win maybe one in five matches. We also went through our blade forms but didn’t spar. Neither of us was confident we wouldn’t hurt the other by accident and that could be fatal for us out here. I didn’t feel safe enough to practise my bow and I no longer had my throwing knives.

I was looking to hunt. I needed some fur to keep Pip and I warm, especially at night. I know I didn't have enough salt to properly look after the hide, but using what I had would keep it fine for a while and that’s what we needed to keep warm. I had seen wolf and bear signs and deer and a cat of some type. We travelled another couple of days before I felt it was safe enough to camp early and go out specifically to hunt.

We left Tabitha with the horses and to set up camp while we Pip and I went out to hunt. What I found was a big horned sheep. I managed to get two of them. I got enough meat for several days and two lovely woolly pelts. I really wanted the horns too, but I couldn't think of a use for them so I left them in the end. I cleaned the pelts as best I could then brought them back to camp. I knew the key to preserving the pelts was to get as much moisture out of it as possible. This was the purpose of the salt I used to carry. I didn’t have nearly enough salt with me so I made some frames to hold the pelts close to the fire and collected enough wood to keep it hot all night and hoped that would do. Pip enjoyed the hot fire and we all enjoyed the mutton.

The pelts were quite stiff in the morning, but that was good. I cut some holes and some leather ties and exchanged my vest for a sheep pelt. Wool side out as that had the oils to be water resistant, except for a section around my shoulders where I had a wool lining for Pip. It must have looked terrible. In fact, Tabitha went into quite some detail on how it looked, after she stopped laughing. It was warmer than the vest and I would spend more time with the fit when we stopped tonight. I rolled the other pelt up for sleeping on.

I was thinking we should have chosen to travel down stream rather than up stream. We still had this damned river to cross. We kept checking on it. The patrols had lessened. There was a definite track where they would travel and I figured from the tracks there would be maybe one patrol a week out here. I was thinking they would probably have cabins as waystops for their patrols, but we hadn’t found any. Crossing the river was a problem as it was very cold mountain water. I had heard people could die from the chills if they were in it too long.

I figured we would need a raft or something to keep us mostly out of the water. The horses should be OK to swim, I hoped. We had no axe or anything to chop wood to make a raft. That is really why I was looking for a cabin as it may have useful tools like this. By this time I had added a wolf pelt and a deer pelt to my collection. Tabitha had stolen the wolf pelt to sleep on. And we used the deer pelt, usually as a barrier against the weather. My Hunter class had not levelled, but I did level Bow to 9, so I was now looking for how to get it to journeyman level which would open up other specialty bow skills. Long bow and Triple shot I knew about and there might be others. According to Tabitha it was a triple shot that had killed Warren. I was unclear whether I could get both if I had the attributes, or should I get both? I couldn’t see a downside but maybe there were problems levelling them together or something. Even if I had the attributes I would need to figure out how to trigger the skill. This is where I needed the advice of a master or even an older person like Branik or Kopje. First I had to get Bow to Journeyman and then see what the options were.

Two days later we came to a massive waterfall. Not massive in height, but massive in width. This meant the top of the waterfall looked very shallow except for a couple of deep channels. We might be able to cross there. We would have to get the horses up there and the Empire probably knew about it and may have a permanent presence there.

The first problem was easy to solve as there was a patrol trail we could follow up to the top. I knew it was a risk, but the trail was the only way to get the horses up there. I scouted it first on foot all the way to the top. There were no watchmen or traps that I could see. I was very conscious after the Kirsk wall tower that my detect traps were low levelled. The idea was I would signal Tabitha from the top and she would lead the horses up, but there was no way she could see me and no way to hear over the waterfall. I went back down and we brought them up together. We left the trail as soon as possible and found a place to camp / hide while I scouted.

I found their cabin. It was a log bunkhouse and attached storage shed. There was a squad stationed here. An Empire squad is eight people. Usually two archers and three shield warriors and three other warrior types. I figured the Lieutenant when I first met Branik had two squads with him as he had four archers. He probably also had one or two personal guards as he seemed to be very self important. But that was the past and he was dead.

There was a recognised crossing. There were poles at various positions and a rope across the swifter parts. It seemed more for walking than for horses. They had a watch rotation. They weren't very diligent in it. In my spying, hint, Spy Class, I am Spying. I discovered they had another two weeks before they would be relieved and go back to Kirsk. I also scouted upstream to see if there was somewhere else to cross. The area immediately up from the falls was a big lake. The falls were about 200m across and so was the lake and wider in places. The horses were probably better to swim the lake if we could get them up the bank on the other side. We were better to walk the rocks.

We needed to scout the other side as well in case the Kingdom had a watch set. I spent two hours scanning the other shore with Far Sight and saw nothing but wild life. One of us will need to go over and see. My vote will be for Tabitha, tonight with her Dark Sight and Shadows Embrace. She agreed.

Tabitha didn’t return till near dawn. There was no Kingdom outpost there. The country on the other side was very steep and rough. She had gone right up to the head of the lake and found an old smugglers crossing. It didn’t look to be used for a while. I guess that explained why the squad was based here more than anything. She would rest while I went to the head of the lake on this side and see what I could find. If the squad was here they probably knew about it.

Where the river spilled into the lake it was wider than usual and hence shallower. There was evidence that there had been posts and a rope here too but they had been removed. I think we could make this work. I was tempted to raid the Squads store house before we left as we really needed some basics like rope and an axe etc. I was travelling with a thief. But I didn't want to alert the Empire to our position.

It turns out Tabitha was already planning to raid it before we left. I should have known. The sooner the better in my opinion, so we planned for tonight. It had been two weeks since we left Kirsk and the moon was now full. Tabitha thought there was probably enough light for even me to not trip over my own feet.

As the sun was setting I moved the horses and our gear to the head of the lake. Tabitha went to watch the Squad and to look for an appropriate time to raid the store. I staked the horses and went to look at the crossing and do some prep work. This was going to take a lot of energy. Tabitha arrived about two hours after dust with a pack and saddle bags. The Saddle bags were apparently for Rocky as it wouldn’t be appropriate for Dusk to carry them. I am not sure why not. She found a bag of salt and a hand axe and a machete. And rope. What I was most excited about was the skinning knife. That would help a lot.

What she was most excited about was a bear pelt she found. I looked at it and it had holes in various places and was a very poor skinning job. Seriously the only use for it would be as a sleeping pad. It is a big thing to be lugging around as a sleeping pad. Maybe I will get my wolf pelt back and be able to do something with that. I guess she was happy and apparently Dusk had no problem with that tied to the back of her saddle.

She has also pilfered some trail rations and some oats for the horses. The small bag wouldn’t go far but we did need to look after them. She had also got a spare tinder box and a repair kit for leather and maintenance kit for the weapons and tools. That was good thinking. I was also pleased to see a bundle of arrows. I was being very careful with the ones I had left. All we were really lacking now was some decent clothing.

We lead the horses to the crossing. We would be walking very slowly across. It was about 100m of mostly shallow streams. There were two deeper channels. As prep work I had created some granite pillars so we could tie the rope to it and I had twisted the skill Granite Spike to create a smoother path for the horses. It got me to another level in it. I wondered when I would be able to get Granite Manipulation which is manipulating existing granite rather than make my own with Spikes. Granite was only one type of rock and even in this river there were a lot of different rocks so maybe it wouldn’t be so helpful. Mineral Lore was tugging me to understand them, but seriously it is only Level 1. I had a long way to go.

When we got to the first deeper channel I tied the rope to the pillar I created and the other end to my waist and waded in. It was mostly waist deep with a small section deeper. I was swept off my feet once and Tabitha dragged me back. We couldn’t have done this without the rope. After I tied the rope to a pillar on the other side I used it to go back and then we tried to coax the horses across. That took some time and additional Granite spikes to help. Pip the traitor was staying snuggled in the bear pelt on the back of Dusk.

I needed a rest after that, but I was also shivering and needed to get dry and that wasn’t going to happen in the middle of a river. I kept the break short and then removed the pillar on the other side of the channel freeing the rope and then also the near pillar and the most obvious of the spikes. We moved carefully to the next channel. This one was wider, but shallower, so it was easier overall. It took us four hours to get to the other side, but there were no broken bones and that was the biggest danger that one of the horses would break a leg and we had no way to fix it. If the Squad had potions they didn’t keep them in the store house. Both Tabitha and I changed to dry clothes and I put my sheep skin on. We needed to keep going for a while before we could stop and light a fire. The danger was our feet as neither of us had spare footwear and apparently toes could rot and fall off if we didn’t get them warmed. Thanks for that image Tabitha.

We went for about an hour before we found a good spot to camp. Tabitha rode while leading Rocky and I followed on foot trying to minimise our tracks. Granite Spike had gone up another level and was now ready to get to journeyman level. I was working it hard all night, but at least I got rewarded for it. I loved that skill and I used it every chance I could. I have only had it for two weeks and it is almost at Journeyman level. Amazing.