There was a bell as the door closed behind them, at the counter was a portly fellow. "Welcome to Winston's Goods," the little man said. "What can I get for ya's?"
Amelia stepped up to the counter and proceeded to tell the man they needed traveling rations and a tent to see if he had what they needed. The man nodded, quite emphatically and scurried away to go get their order together. Setting the tent on the counter, he grabbed a pile of field rations and set them beside it. "Anything else?"
"A water canteen, please." Amelia said, sweetly.
Joedan found that odd because she had never been sweet to him since he'd met her. The man tallied it all up and said "that'll be 12 coppers, for the lot." Amelia simply looked back at Joedan and said "Pay the man."
Joedan counted out 12 coppers and dropped them in the man's hand. Hefting the tent over his shoulder, he asked for a sack to put the rations in and the man handed him one, on the house. Packing the rations into the bag, Joedan shoved the bag into Amelia's arms.
"You get to do some of the lifting, too," he said, as they walked towards the door. The shopkeeper chuckled at their back and forth. "Young people," he muttered.
Stepping back onto the street, Joedan headed for the blacksmith shop, not giving Amelia a choice, as he went where he wanted to go this time. There were weapons of all kinds adorning the walls. Spiked maces, spears, short swords and even bows adorned the walls. Joedan had always loved the look of weapons but being a farmer, there was never a need for one, so he always kept it to himself. There was a giant of a man tending the forge, they could hear the pounding of metal and steady thack, thack of a hammer striking.
"Hello," Joedan said. The thacking continued.
"Hello," a little louder this time, Joedan said. Still thacking away.
Amelia touched one of the axes on the wall and it fell, clattering to the floor. As it fell, so did a few more. Joedan looked at her with eyes wide. She simply looked back at him the same, as if to say, "What? It wasn't me." Joedan palmed his forehead and shook his head.
The thacking however, had stopped.
Out of the back, the giant of a man came, a "not happy" look on his face. He looked right at Joedan, as if to say "I know it's your fault." Joedan didn't know what to say or think, but he quickly picked up one of the axes and attempted to put it back on the wall.
The big man let out a hearty laugh. "Kid, it aint no harm. It's metal. Take a lot more than a fall from a wall to break it, or I don't deserve to be doing this at all," the man chuckled.
"Name is James. This is my shop. What can I do for ya, lad?"
Joedan didn't like being referred to as a kid, since he was nearly twenty summers already, but he let the big man call him whatever he wanted.
"I'm looking for a sword. Oh, and something for the lady." He threw in as an afterthought. Amelia looked surprised as she turned back towards the walls of weapons.
James took Joedan over to the section of his shop where the swords hung. "Now we've got daggers, short swords, broadswords, long swords, great swords, cutlasses, scimitars, katanas…what kind of sword were ya thinkin?" Joedan took a minute to register all the different options. "Honestly, I have no idea. This is all kinda new." Joedan said to the man.
James proceeded to make a square with his hands, taking Joedan's measure, after a minute, and a couple of muscle squeezes on Joedan's arms, he walked over to the wall and pulled down a long sword. "I like a long sword, because you can use one hand or two. It's versatile. You've got the strength for it. Here, give it a test."
James handed Joedan the sword. As Joedan felt the weight of the sword in his grip, he once again, was struck by how awesome this was. To think, he would be holding a sword in a shop in the middle of Lincoln, even a week ago, would have had him calling himself crazy. Yet, here he stood. He gripped the sword firmly in his hand and held the sword up. Keeping it straight, he lifted his arm and brought it back down, giving his first sword strike. To an onlooker, they would have seen how green Joedan was, but to Joedan, he was the happiest he'd been in a long time. James smiled and grasped his arms.
"Thought that'd be the right one for ya. Now for the lass'," he said.
Amelia had wandered over to the maces. She didn't know what it was exactly, but she just liked the look of 'em. Not the spiky ball, that's just too much, but the flange one. There was just something about it that almost felt like swinging a hammer. She felt proud to wield something like that. James had walked over and was standing off to her right.
"Didn't really peg ya for a mace kinda gal, but I can dig it," he said warmly.
James pulled it down off the wall and handed it to her.
"It's not too heavy, but you'll wanna get your strength up if you plan to be any good at using this," James told her.
Amelia was not soft, like so many people seemed to think she was. She liked to work hard and felt like this was easily something in her ability to do. She just looked at James and said, "I intend to."
James chuckled and said, "Sure enough."
Walking back to the counter, James turned, "one longsword and a mace for the lady, total comes to 5 silver." Joedan clenched his teeth a little bit at that. 5 silver was 500 coppers. That would be almost all the money he had, but they needed it for their journey, so he decided it was worth it. Pulling out almost all the rest of his money, he handed it over to the funny blacksmith. James bid them farewell and told them to come back again soon.
Amelia walked out the door first, her new mace strapped to her back and the bag of rations in her other hand. Joedan followed behind her with his longsword by his side and their traveling tent over his shoulder.
"To the inn?" Amelia asked.
Joedan smiled at her and nodded. They entered the inn together and Joedan grabbed the bag of rations and told Amelia to head over to a table while he ran upstairs to put up their stuff in their room. Coming back downstairs, Joedan came over to the table and sat down across from Amelia.
"The innkeeper said the meal will be out in a few minutes." Amelia told him. "Some kind of fish," she said. Not really giving an indication whether she was excited or not.
As they waited for their food, Joedan tapped his fingers on the table and Amelia was looking around the room at all the different decor hanging off the edges of the ceiling.
"What was it like growing up in Restin?" Joedan suddenly asked.
"I've lived there all my life. It's home for me. It was harder than people might think being the daughter of a duke. Most people think she had it easy, a life of privilege and all that. But every minute of every day was scheduled. From the moment I could walk, I've been instructed in "the way to behave". I didn't get to just be a kid. Responsibility was there before I could be." she said. She didn't seem upset about it, just stated it matter of factly.
"What was growing up as a farmer like?" She asked, seemingly interested for the first time since Joedan had met the strange woman.
"Well, My da's, da was a farmer, he's a farmer, and so guess that made me a farmer. Don't get me wrong, it's good, honest living. But I guess, I just always thought there'd be more to my life. Thought maybe, God, or whoever, had a bigger plan for me, ya know?" Joedan shrugged, looking away from Amelia for a minute.
"Well, why not do something different?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders also, and smiling at him when he finally looked back at her.
"I guess, I just always assumed that being a farmer was my lot in life. Wasn't my place to question it. I felt how much my da wanted me to continue in his footsteps."
"But you can't live your life for other people. No matter how much you might feel those obligations, it's your life." she said back to him.
Joedan started to shake his head, "You don't understand. For me, it's not that simple."
To this, Amelia got that look in her eye again, "What do you mean, for you?" She was irritated.
"You think you're so special? Somehow you're different than everybody else? No one else has to juggle the weight of other people's obligations on their shoulders while they try to determine their own course in life?" she said firmly. The look she gave him said don't even try to argue with me.
Joedan bowed his head even further, the moment sullen now. He chose not to say anything and Amelia backed off. As they were both back to awkwardly looking anywhere but at each other, the food finally came. Hungry from a day of traveling and preparing for their journey, they both started to eat.