It may have been ridiculous, but I clutched my bludgel close to my chest. “I’ll never leave you again.” I didn’t care how I looked right at that moment.
Nell raised an eyebrow. “Are you talking to your bludgel?”
“Yes, shut up.”
She laughed. “Fair enough. Be sure to give your dad’s hat that same reverence.”
And I did so. I took it off my head, held it against my chest, and bowed my head in prayer. “If you get lost again, I’ll throw myself headfirst into a Fissure—teeth, claws, and all.”
“Lovely, Griff, lovely.”
I cracked a wide grin. Then, the search began. I found my pack and shoes by the pile of shoes and bags, but not all of my things were there. My largest pack was absent, and as I looked around, it didn’t become obvious where it was until I realized that the pack bison was gone.
I cursed. Nell pointed west. “Bison went upriver if that’s what you’re looking for.”
Once I gave her thanks, I set off. The pack bison had apparently gotten spooked with all the fighting, so I went and retrieved the animal on the off chance that some of my gear was already packed on the bison. The beast hadn’t run too far upriver, thankfully, and it didn’t resist when I took hold of the harness and guided it back. Animals were well adept at sensing kindness and intention, and the bison knew I wasn’t going to hurt it.
When I returned to the bandit camp, Nell sat on one of the logs positioned around the fire. The blood on her face wiped away, she was currently working with some effort on stitching her arm wound. She’d shed her coat, and her arms were bare. Her skin was more tanned than I remembered, and of course, there were several tattoos adorning her skin that had not been there when she left Parroia years ago.
Card Detected: Scythe Proficiency, Uncommon, Tier 2
Card Detected: Pathfinder, Uncommon, Tier 1
Card Detected: Cooking Proficiency, Common, Tier 3
Card Detected: Wrestling Proficiency, Common, Tier 1
The [Scythe] tattoo showed a cloaked figure wielding a scythe shrouded in inky smoke, very much a play on the myth of the grim reaper. The [Pathfinder] tattoo, which I had seen before on Snyder, the old hunter in Parroia, was a stylized hound dog. I knew it was good for tracking people and animals as well as finding routes through dangerous terrain. She had the card tattooed on her shoulder. The [Cooking] tattoo was one I’d seen more than probably any other—half the residents of Parroia had one. The [Wrestling] one depicted two figures grappling for dominance. I didn’t think a lot of brawler types got it, always opting instead for [Pugilism], but if someone took you to the ground, then your fists wouldn’t be useful.
“You’ve been busy,” I commented.
She looked up at me, confused, but then she gathered what I was referring to. “Well, yeah, I need to have some skills to survive out here. And it really isn’t that hard to get cards. I bet this lot has a few on hand.”
I nodded, eager after hearing that. I could use a new card if they had any. I went to her side and offered her a hand. “Do you need help?” I asked, referring to the stitching. I didn’t have a [Sewing] or [Stitchwork] tattoo, but both of us knew how to stitch a cut. Deebo taught us both after we got into a bad scrap as kids with some older boys. Of course, it was harder doing it on your own arm.
Nell hesitated for a moment before acquiescing. The needle and thread were ready to go in for another jab, and she’d done a serviceable job at sewing half the wound already. It was a long cut over the middle of her [Scythe] tattoo, deep too, though she’d stemmed the bleeding. Thankfully, getting a cut on a card tattoo didn’t diminish the power of the card. Only an awful burn that erased the entirety of the illustration could take away the power, but that was a rare thing, and I didn’t even know what happened after that. Did the card extract itself and become a card again, or was it simply lost forever? I was sure it was documented somewhere, but I hadn’t read about it.
We stayed quiet as I worked, though I could feel her gaze on me. She reached her other hand to my face and let her fingers trail down my stubbled jaw.
“Look at you,” she said, her words softer than I ever remembered them being. “All grown up.”
I felt my ears grow hot. “Same to you. You’re a full-grown woman now, and quite the looker, I might add.”
She snorted like a pig, and that blessedly shattered that illusion. “Yeah, right, Griff.” Then we were both laughing so hard, I had to stop stitching her lest I cause more damage than I healed.
It took a few more minutes to finish up with the stitching. She made me pause what I was doing a couple times when the pain got bad, but she held up well to my generally unskilled jabs. After I finished, she grabbed a small metal flask from her hip pocket, popped the top, and downed a swig of something thick and syrupy that smelled alcoholic. A whisky of some kind. Then, unceremoniously, she dumped another splash of it right onto her wound. The sizzle was audible. She and I both yelped, but hers was piercing.
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“Gods above, what the hell, Nell?” I demanded.
Even though she was wincing, she flashed a smile and raised the flask to me. “Disinfectant. Second application.”
I rolled my eyes hard before taking the rag she’d used to wipe her blood and clearing away the wound again. “A clearer alcohol woulda been better, you know?”
“I don’t have one. We work with what we got.”
On that, I agreed.
Nell stood up abruptly, shrugged on her duster again, and marched away as if she just remembered a critical mission. She took tall stomps, her knees rising almost to her chest. She was loosening up her limbs. Then she went to a large coil of rope near some of the bandits’ barrels.
“Can you help me move the bodies together so we can tie them all up?” she asked.
I tipped my hat to her, happy to oblige. I started with the Tamer. He was the farthest removed from the group, and I figured it would be wise to start with the hardest first. He was heavy as sin, and even though I was strong, it still took more effort than I expected to bring him to the center of the camp near the now-dead fire. As I dragged him by his legs, I risked a glance up and found the Needleback staring at me.
Those bright eyes didn’t break contact, and I was scared to look away, even though I knew there wouldn’t be any way for the creature to hurt me or escape. Still, it was unnerving, and I cast my eyes down to avoid that stare. We had been very fortunate that the beast hadn’t gotten out of the cage.
Nell brought the rope over, and then together, we leaned all of the unconscious bandits against one of the trees, propping them up with their backs pressed to the bark. It was hard work, and I was drenched in sweat by the time we were finished. Dead-weight bodies were hard to move, no matter how strong you might be.
She tied them up. I worried that there wouldn’t be enough rope, but with them all sitting around the same tree, she wound the rope around their arms and middles until they were covered from collar to belt, and there would be no getting free from that. I hoped. She pulled the rope tight and tied the knot even tighter. You’d need to cut it away to get them free, because no one was untying that knot.
When she was done, she clapped her hands together, smiled, and gave me a thumbs up. “Excellent job, Deputy.”
“Don’t call me that.”
She laughed. “Okay. We’re not done though. Now come the spoils.”
I raised an eyebrow. “The spoils?”
“Yeah. Stolen loot is up for grabs. We’ll never find the original owners, and it does us no good to let the law take all of it. I make a decent living, but I can always use more gold. They might have fragments or even full cards.”
My interest was immediately piqued. “Oh! Yeah, that would be good.”
We went through all of their packs and boxes, and though we didn’t find any whole cards, there were a couple of card fragments! [Common] ones, but still. Nell took one, and I kept the other. We also found a fair amount of coin. There was my coin purse, which had been in my smaller pack, but they’d clearly robbed a lot of people, and we ultimately found ten gold worth. Most of it was in silver, but it added up.
“How about a sixty-forty split?” Nell said. “I did most of the heavy lifting with the bandits, after all.”
“Oh yeah, and what about the bounty? You’re gonna take all of that, I imagine.”
“Well, of course. I put the work in tracking them down.”
“Well, so did I.”
“To get your stuff back, not for the bounty.”
“Fine, 60-40 for this haul, and 70-30 for the bounty.”
Her eyes narrowed. “85-15.”
“75 and 25,” I shot back.
Nell opened her mouth, fully prepared to argue that position, but then she let her shoulders sag. “Fine. You got yourself a deal.”
We shook hands, and I smiled, feeling very pleased with myself. Not bad for a first day on the road, eh?
There was more stuff to find, including a stash of potions, though half of them were unlabeled, and I was hesitant to drink anything I didn’t know the effects of. We also gathered up all of their weapons and bound them in a roll of hide and tied it securely with some leather straps. I agreed to carry those.
“What should we do with the Needleback?” I asked Nell.
She looked to the beast, her mouth set in a pout as she puzzled the question. She shrugged.
“Leave it be. I don’t want to deal with it. Sometimes the lawmen have a Tamer with them, too, and we might get a commission for the find. If not, I’m sure they can sell it, or kill it for a fragment.”
I nodded. That made a lot of sense to me, so I didn’t argue.
After one more sweep around the camp, we didn’t find anything else worth taking. We only had our arms and our backs to carry things, and we already were carrying plenty. The law could have everything else.
Not a bad day’s work, I concluded to myself.
Together, we climbed out of the embankment and back to the higher ground of the deep wood. We walked side by side in silence for a time. I was tired and hungry, parched too, but I had my boots back on, my hat on my head, my bludgel on my back, and my packs secured.
Nell broke the silence. “Where are you heading?” she asked.
“Mushyon Ridge.”
She gave me a quizzical look. “Why? I’d think you’d head east, at least for a time. If you want to earn money and cards faster and easier, that’s where I’d go.”
She was right, but it wasn’t about earning money. I mean, I did have to do that to survive, but after the money I’d just made, I’d be set for a while.
“I have to find my brother. That’s why I’m out here. Gareth left about a year after you did. He got into an argument with Uncle Deebo and then left without even saying goodbye. I woulda gone after him right then, but my uncle made me stay, insisting I wasn’t ready. A year later, when Deebo died, I knew I still wasn’t ready. Now I am.”
Nell fell silent. She’d known my brother well and Uncle Deebo too. He was like an uncle to her as well, and she’d had a brief crush on my brother, though I was sure that was done.
“I—I’m sorry. I didn’t know. If I had, I . . .. I could have come back. Not to stay, but I’m sure you could have used a friend.”
I smiled weakly. “It’s okay. You were out on the road, getting stronger, seeing the world, and living your dream. You never wanted to stay in Parroia.”
“Yeah, but still, I’m sorry. About Deebo especially. I always liked him.”
“He liked you a lot too. And don’t worry. We both know my brother is tough as nails. I’ll find him. And then I’ll kick his ass.”
Nell beamed. “I’d love to see that.” She stretched her arms high above her head. “Well, I’m actually heading toward Mushyon Ridge. We can travel together for a time. I don’t like the idea of you going on your own. You clearly need my protection. Besides, the Barrowdown will have a large enough posse to come out here and get these jokers.”
“I beg to differ, Miss Newton. I seem to remember coming to your rescue there, but I will accept a good friend’s companionship.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Gunnar. I can’t promise we won’t part ways once we get there, but we can go there together. I, too, would like to give your brother a piece of my mind.”
“That’s not the only thing you want to give him.”
She punched me in the arm with all her strength, and it hurt, but I was laughing too hard to feel any pain.
Eventually, we exited the forest, the sunlight streaming warm and bright upon us. We got back to the road and headed west, and I felt even better than I had the day before. Filled with hope, purpose, and now friendship. What more could I ask for?