Mitford was a city of ten thousand people only a day and a half down the road, so that was their goal. If they could make it there early, they could trade some goods at the market in town, or to a local shop, and have time to relax and eat before leaving town for the night.
It was safer to be out of the cities to sleep, and that let Thor have a proper rest in his space, instead of some filthy barn somewhere.
The number of farms didn’t decline much as they travelled, there was one every quarter kilometre for the entire day. But the quality of the road didn’t decline either, it was a well-groomed gravel double track, wide enough for two fully loaded carriages with guards to pass each other.
It made progress much more comfortable, though Thor didn’t speed up much, for the sake of everyone in the wagon.
There was a conspicuous lack of pullouts, though. Normally, there would be parking areas along the side of a road for wagons and merchants to stop, but along this stretch there weren’t any at all.
There weren’t even any smaller villages, which seemed a bit odd.
Farmers wouldn’t want to travel all day to get supplies, so normally a small village would form every few hours of travel.
Once it started to get close to dark, Karl noticed that there was a different practice here. The wagons pulled into one of the farm houses, and if he was seeing it right, they provided the evening meal, or at least a good portion of it, for their hosts.
They were setting up tents in the yards, so Karl picked a decent looking carriage and pulled into the yard where it was parked.
“Good evening. Do you mind if we join you?” He asked the farmer who came over to greet him.
“Not at all. The General and his entourage were just about to start cooking. If you would like to let them know what you have for the pot, we can make adjustments.”
Karl smiled at the Minotaur. “We have Dragon Clerics with us, so we have rice and beans, and I have some meat stored in a storage item, so it’s still fresh.”
“That will make everyone happy. I will let them know, while you get parked and set up for the evening. I don’t know how much you have stored, but there are a total of twenty-five heads here tonight. The rice and beans are likely enough to go around, though.”
Karl frowned in confusion. “Your family is that large?”
The farmer chuckled. “My family is six in total, then there are your seven, and twelve with the other carriage. Their mounts are in the back pasture, being tended right now.”
Tessa gave Karl a thumbs up, as she already had enough ready, and Karl passed her a roast sized piece of boar meat.
“I will let you go with our host to greet the other cook. Let me know if you need anything else, or Lotus.”
Lotus was their resident spice expert, after all. The small perks of being a nature cleric.
While Tessa went to get dinner started, carrying a sack of rice on her shoulder, the others got the camp set up, hanging tarps over the ends of the wagon that reached the ground, and one stretched out from the back of the wagon so they could get down onto dry ground, should it rain overnight.
The process only took a few minutes, then they were free to go join the other carriage to see who needed a whole entourage of mounted guards. The farmer had said it was a General, but Karl didn’t sense anyone powerful in the area. It could be that the General was a strategic officer and not a combat officer, though.
The Golden Dragon Nation had many such officers in their military ranks.
The General turned out to be a very familiar face. He looked nearly identical to the Naga Overlord, except that he had a scar over one eye that hadn’t healed properly, and he was a Commander, not an Overlord.
“General, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Karl, a travelling merchant.” He greeted the Naga, who seemed more interested in the two silent Naga Warriors who were waiting by the Wagon.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. You seem to have developed quite the esoteric group on your travels.” The General greeted him.
“Travelling with Dragon Clerics makes everything much better. If it were just the guys, we would have a rather dull and silent journey.” Karl joked.
The guards returned as they were talking, and Karl noticed that they were all nearly identical Satyrs, at the Ascended Rank.
“Pardon my curiosity, but isn’t that a bit flimsy of a guard for a General?” He asked quietly.
The Naga laughed and shook his head. “They’re an honour guard, not like the wagon guards to protect your trade goods. If I’m actually in trouble, I just summon a military unit to my location.
Ten honour guards won’t stop much, but a full regiment of mounted cavalry will.”
Karl nodded in understanding. “I forget that it is so easy for some people to use portal magic to get others to their location.”
The General shook his head. “The portal calls are expensive to make, and the other side has to be at a designated portal array, which only exists in the larger cities.
It’s impractical to have it for every mission. But in my case, the risk is low, and I’m only going to the city. This route is pretty well travelled, and there are multiple guard patrols along it every day.”
They had only seen one yesterday, but the first might have been by before they left the city, as the breakfast routine in the mornings at the palace didn’t start too early.
The general nodded towards the wagon. “Where were you coming from that you got so many quality tools? You could likely make a killing off those in the city of Mitford.”
“We picked them up outside Oakhamping, but we’ve been going cross-country to avoid the chaos on the roads. There have been some incidents in that region lately. Then we got picked up by a patrol and taken to Bethoke for questioning, so we’re a good bit south of our original destination.” Karl explained.
The General nodded. “That makes sense. Anyone who has a Royal Rank Cerro for their wagon isn’t the ordinary sort. He seems quite friendly, though. Normally, Cerro get territorial when you hook them to a wagon.”
Karl chuckled. “He knows nobody is after his wagon or his passengers. But he loves people. If we get the farm kids to rub his scales, he will be in heaven.”
Thor nodded in agreement, and the General smirked.
“I can do one better, as this farm has no small children anymore. They’re all grown and unmarried. But I’ve got Satyrs who need to be distracted until the food is ready.”
He whistled and gestured to bring one of the guards over and explained that he had volunteered them to rub down the Cerro for the evening as trade for the quality of dinner.
They got to work, and Thor gave a happy rumble as they began to rub his head and polish his scales, just as they did for their own mounts.
[Maybe travelling on the road isn’t all bad.]
