Chapter 96: Dark Clouds
The next day, Aaric greeted Simon with sweetbreads and more questions about what it was like to fight centaurs. Apparently, they were a growing problem in the region. Simon was careful not to be anywhere near the door that might or might not be a portal, and when the boy opened it, it was to Simon's great relief the child did not vanish into a shadowy netherworld.
Instead, the two chatted for a few minutes as they looked for his father and found the man already hard at work. “I trust you’ll be on your way then?” Millen asked in a tone that made it clear that it was time for Simon to move on.
“Of course,” Simon agreed, “but before I do, I’d be happy to lend you a few hours if you have any work that needs doing.”
He’d thought about slipping the man a coin, but all he had right now was gold, and the man was likely to be suspicious, insulted, or both if he offered him such a lordly sum. Besides, he still hadn’t figured out what it was he was supposed to be doing here.
Every portal was supposed to door to a place that needed fixing, but other than Millen’s complaints about how the harvest wouldn’t be as good as it had been last year or mentions that banditry was on the rise further to the north where Simon had claimed to be heading to, it looked pretty damn idyllic.
It would have been the easiest thing in the world to give up on this level and move on, but even though he was rushing to level 30 so he could give Helades a piece of his mind, having some idea of what he was up against for next time would be nice.
"Well, if you want to chop a cord or two of firewood while me and Aaric start reaping the wheat and barley, that would be mighty nice of you," the man said with a thin smile. “Still, I think you’d best be back on the road by noon or so. It’s a long walk to the next village.”
Simon nodded at that. He was still woefully out of shape, and a little time with an axe would do him some good. He struggled a bit at first to cut the logs that had been dragged near the house into smaller pieces, but once he gave the axe a good sharpening, things went faster.
For the next few hours, Simon lost himself in the easy rhythm of steel against wood as he delimbed the dead wood and then chopped the log into smaller pieces that he could break up into billets. This wasn’t the first time he’d done this since he came to The Pit, but it was enough to make him wonder how it was that humanity had ever managed to do this before they’d invented the chainsaw.