Tylywoch ~ 04

Tylywoch ~ 04 Guiding Prospectors 

By Len Morgan

Galyx and Mynach entered the inn unobserved.  They ordered and paid for a room, then sat down with a dish of rice wine, compliments of the house, to await the arrival of their meal.  Two stocky Meyam prospectors eyed them critically, smirking with perceived superiority, 'just a pair of uneducated bumpkins' they thought, as their leader broke the silence with a question.  “Are you lads locals?” 

“We come from the south, trapping fur animals and deer for preserving.”

“You must be well acquainted with the area then?” he said.

“Pretty well,” Galyx answered in a neutral voice.

“Names Terrek.” The northerner said in a friendly voice, offering his hand.  “These are my helpers Gardon & Spass, we are seeking certain ores and rare earth’s, I suspect exist in this area.  I need them to improve the qualities of my steel,” he explained.  Carefully, he removed a dagger from his belt and slowly handed it to Galyx, hilt first.

Galyx tested it on his palm, nodding appreciatively.  “This is indeed an Excellent blade.” He tested its tensile strength, “fine steel, do you trade in weapons?”

Terrek laughed lazily, “I use them when the need arises, but I am a sword smith by trade.  I produce the finest blades you will ever see, as strong and as sharp as any ever made.  Yes, I do sell them, but there are already buyers queuing up for everything I can produce, so I make to order.  There are certain ingredients in my steel that are hard to come by, which is why I am here in your mountains instead of being hard at work in my forge.  I can predict the presence of chemicals by the rock formations and the nature of the soil.”

“You are perhaps looking for a guide?  Such work doesn’t come cheap in the Sabre Tooth mountains, strange creatures and demons frequent the area, a man does not enter them lightly.”

His companion sat silently seeming to follow the conversation closely, but could not be more than fourteen or fifteen.  Terrek smiled disarmingly, 'interesting pair' he thought.

 “I’m sure what you are saying is true friend.  I’m sorry, but I don’t recall your name?”

“I didn’t give it," Galyx replied. 

A rather forgettable girl entered the inn, dressed in faded drab canvas clothing & shoes.  She was carrying a well-worn canvas sack over her shoulder.  She walked up to the bar and asked to see the Inn-keep.   When he appeared, she showed him something and spoke in low tones.

He guffawed, “Fools Geld!” he cried aloud.  “What make you of this friend?” he called tossing a speckled black rock to Galyx, who caught it deftly, nodding his head and smiling he said “Fools Gold.”  He drew back his arm to return it.

“One moment if you please?” said Terrek.  Galyx tossed it in his direction instead.  “It’s Quite an amalgam,” he examined it and hefted it from hand to hand as though it were a pebble.  “Yes, It contains iron pyrites, but there is also a large carbon content, which is one of the ingredients I am seeking.  There is also some gold, not enough to make it a viable ore for gold alone, but if we extract the carbon as I intend it would also be a simple matter to extract the gold as a by product.  Which would please my companions no end, both Gardon and Spass would rather be panning gold than looking for carbon deposits.  Fortunately, the purse that financed this expedition was mine.” he said with an open smile in Weilla’s direction.  “What ask you for this rock girl?” 

“If you please sir, lodging for the night?” she answered hopefully, as she’d been instructed.

“Show me where you found it, and you shall have that at the very least.”

“I found it…” she began.

“No!  I would prefer that you show me, tomorrow.” Said Terrek interrupting her.”

She nodded.

“What is your name?”

“Weilla,” She replied in a small voice.

“Inn-keep, put Weilla’s food and lodging on my recconing if you please.”  Then turning to his associates, he said in Meyam “if this is a true sample of what we will find, there is carbon here and even a little gold enough to satisfy you two.” 

Weilla was thrilled to discover that she understood most of their ensuing conversation, thanks to her young fertile mind and Galyx’s crash course in the Mayam language. 

“Come girl,” said the Inn-keep, “Jax will feed you and show you to your bunk.” 

His eyes turned her in the direction of a grubby barefoot scullion, toasting his toes at the fire.

“Thank you sir,” she said to Terrek, who nodded and gave her a warm smile.

'Such blue eyes, just like my father's,' she thought.  She instinctively 'took to him' despite his being an outsider.  A glance at his companions confirmed her initial opinion of them, she mentally named them Greedy & Lascivious.  Ill met companions she thought, accepting a bowl of hot soup and a hunk of dark bread from Jax, it was good, she ate hungrily.

.-…-. 

   She set an internal proximity alarm in her mind that would awaken her if anybody or anything entered the room while she slept.  She dreamt of a blue eyed stranger with steel grey hair, old enough to be her father.  But, at her age unrequited love is the stuff of dreams, and just as easily shrugged off.  She slept soundly despite the unfamiliar surroundings and rose early, before dawn, as was the Tylywoch custom.  Even so, others were already abroad.  She went into the common room, to discover the kitchen staff scurrying this way and that, fulfilling the demands of the cook – a chubby red faced woman in her middle years.  She brandished a large wooden spoon like a mace. 

“In less than an hour, our guests will be rising to break their fast on bacon, eggs, oatmeal, hot oven fresh bread, beans, sugar cake, and endless bowls of tea.  If I receive so much as one complaint about the food or the service, you will all suffer my wrath!”  Her face visibly reddened as she reached a crescendo. 

'good theatrical stuff', Weilla smiled, wondering if she gave the same speech every morning.  Catching sight of Jax standing on a large wooden crate, stirring a cauldron of what her nose told her was barley rice & fish stew, she joined him.  Close up, the aroma set her mouth to watering “Mmm that smells really good!” she said, Jax smiled.  “Can I taste it?” she asked.

“Best not,” he replied, “cook doesn’t allow tasting until it's just right!”

“Is this what you do, cook?” 

“Part of it,” he replied “I stir, lay the fires, tend them.  I help in the stables with the horses and mules, feed the chooks, porkers, and other livestock.  I clear up after meals, tidy the guest's rooms, draw and fetch water from the wells, fetch wine and beer from the coolers, and vegetables from the cellars and root clamps.” His eyes were bright and intelligent but his speech and manner appeared doleful.

“Where are your family?”  

“I have none, I was a foundling, left on the kitchen stoop in a basket.  Mistress Karpe took me in out of kindness, so this is my home, and these are my family” he said fanning his arm to encompass all the kitchen staff.

“And lucky to have them!” cook crooned a foot from his ear.

“She’s a guest, she asked me a question,” he replied “I was only being polite to a guest as you always tell us to be. Mistress Karpe.”

“This will teach you to be polite on your own time, and keep your mind on your allotted tasks,” she chided in an overly gruff voice.  Then she struck him a half-hearted clout across the shoulders with her ever-present spoon. Producing an uncharacteristic smile on his face, mirroring the smile on her own face; the action & reaction totally at odds; 'a bond of the heart' Weilla thought conjuring memories of Aldor & Meillo and the warm accompanying feeling. 

She wandered outside, even as a soft glow heightened the horizon picking out the Sabre Toothed peaks in sharp relief.  She waited patiently to ritually greet the dawn with a deep respectful bow, “Good morning Sun, welcome back.” she whispered, filling her lungs with crisp fragrant spring mountain air.

.-…-. 

   By mid-morning, she was leaping up the treacherous moss covered rocks that made up four-fifths of the stream bed.   Her body was warmed by her exertion as much as by the early spring sunshine.   Her feet, now bare, were numbed by the snowmelt waters streaming down in the opposite direction, which only served to increase her speed.    With an occasional glance back, she climbed relentlessly higher into the dizzy heights.  The Meyam and their string of mules floundered and laboured fifty yards behind and far below her.  Even Terrek who looked to be in the best shape of all appeared to be blowing hard, it was the thining air, which she was used to, she simply felt exhilarated.  Looking back and down at them, resting an arm disdainfully on a stunted overhanging tree she felt like a god surveying her kingdom – laid out below in patchwork – her elation bubbled over and she yelled at the top of her lungs, “Come on you Donkeys!”

“We can’t all be mountain goats!” Terrek yelled back grinning broadly.

“Almost there now.”   She assured them, then continued on up the sream bed at a gallop.

Fifteen minutes later, Gardon & Spass were spread-eagled on their backs, gasping for air, lips blue and faces pale. 

Terrek, hammer and chisel in hand, was already tapping a loose rock from a vertical face.  “We need timbers you two.”  He yelled in Meyam, to be heard over the constant roar from the nearby waterfall.

“What say you?” Weilla asked in Meyam.

“I was talking to those two, don’t want them to get too comfortable, there’s work to be done,” he answered pointing down at his companions.

“I wanted to know what the word meant, ‘Timber’?”

“You want to learn Meyam?”

She nodded “Yes”.  From then on, whenever he spoke, he repeated what he’d said in Meyam for her benefit.  She was bright, intuitive, and intelligent, nothing like the girl from his first impression as she entered the inn.

They’d set up a permanent camp and completed their sluice by the end of the second day, and were separating gold and carbon from the sludge – neither being soluble in water.  The gold, being heavier sank.  The carbon could then be captured on a sieve of fine muslin then laid out in the sun to dry.  They pulverised the rock with picks and hammers, whilst Weilla shoveled the dust into the sluice, filled with fast-flowing water.  She laid out and washed the muslin sieves, and assisted Terrek in bagging the carbon.  She discovered a means to pick out small particles of metallic gold from the sluice bed with twigs from a resinous tree nearby, its gum exuding twigs captured the metal on contact, and built up a golden shell before needing to be replaced.  The others were not slow in copying her.  On the third day, they loaded up the mules with sacks of carbon. Weilla was instructed to take them back to the inn and return with the eight fresh mules the following day.  Terrek gave her a letter of authorisation addressed to the Inn-keep, instructing him that she was to take charge of the mules and that her expenses were to be charged to Terrek’s account.  She started off downstream, after the mid-day meal, and within half an hour she spotted the lightning blaze sign on a mountain ash, she tied the mules nearby and followed the trail to her rendezvous with Galyx and the other members of her quad. 

She passed on the information she'd gleaned, to Galyx and the others. 

"Fire quad will be observing the camp, in your absence. Terrek's note to the Inn-keep asks him to hire some additional help with the mules on your return trip.   Touching, he is concerned with your welfare.   Take Mynach with you, he can learn mule husbandry, and you can teach him the new words you have learned.   Tell the Inn-keep Mynach is to assist you on the return trip, to save depleting his staff.

Early next morning, they started the return trip.  After a short stop to check with Galyx, to pass on the details in a return note, then the final few miles trudge to the camp, for a nourishing hot breakfast.  They finished day five busy filling sacks with Terrek’s black powder. 

(to be continued)

                                                                                                    Copyright Len Morgan