Master blacksmith's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Morning came, and the crew was hungry. Aldric watched them chew hard bread by the barrier. The elf archers said nothing, but their eyes tracked every crumb. A crew that starved would scatter, and then the wolves would take the quarry back. Aldric had stone and no food. He set down his hammer and thought about what a bear knew. A bear knew where deer walked to drink. He found the four elf brothers on the high stone. "You loose arrows fast," he said. "Can you hunt meat, not just wolves?" The gray-haired one grinned and drew an arrow across his bow in one motion. "Point us at something that runs," he said. Aldric led them into the trees below the quarry, following the tracks he'd smelled all week. A deer stood at a shallow stream, slender and spotted, ears turning. Two bowstrings blurred. The deer dropped before it could bolt. In the brush nearby, the brothers took a pair of rabbits too. It was meat, real meat, more than the crew had seen in days. But Aldric looked at the carcasses and knew a hard truth. He could kill food. He did not know how to make it feed five people well, day after day, without waste. They carried the kill back through Deadhead. Near the market stood a wide wooden hall with tall glass windows and a peaked roof. A round man in a white coat and tall hat swept the front step. His mustache was thick, his sleeves rolled. He watched the bloody deer go by and set down his broom. "You'll ruin that," the man called. "Gutting it like that in the sun." He came down the steps, wiped his hands, and lifted the deer's leg to feel the meat. "I'm the best cook in this town. I have a kitchen and no reason to light it. You have food and no idea what to do with it." "I have five hungry fighters and a mule," Aldric said. "And stone to sell once my forge stands." The cook smiled under his mustache. "Then bring me your kills. I'll turn them into meals that keep men loyal. A fed crew stays. A hungry crew runs." He nodded at the hall behind him. "That kitchen is warm and waiting. Feed me a share, and I'll feed your whole camp." Aldric shook his clawed hand with the cook's. The deal was done. That night the crew ate roasted meat and rich broth in the warm hall, and no one spoke of leaving. Aldric watched them laugh and knew he could hold them now. But the cook wiped his knife and looked up. "One deer, two rabbits. That fed us tonight. Feed us like this every night, and you'll strip these woods bare in a month." He pointed his blade at Aldric. "Then what? Your crew won't eat stone."