Why didn’t Ward take better care of his mother?
It wasn’t like he didn’t have the money, his being the third richest of the counties according to what Rolph had told him. Tor hooked up the plate to a big, very rooty, tree that he was assured wouldn’t be hurt by water, or the nails he used, and went inside to turn the house drier on. The air dried after about fifteen seconds, the field not taking anything off the surfaces inside directly, but once the air dried, so did everything else in short order. That took about half an hour. The house warmed up as the moisture left, something Tor had been ready for, so he put up a half dozen of the temperature control plates around the dwelling and showed Ellen how to use them.
She went white.
“I… can’t afford to pay for those right now. A slight… difficulty in funds, temporary I’m sure, but…” Her head hung a little as she said it, looking ashamed for some reason. Tor just winked at her, waved his hand a little and grinned, trying to put her at ease.
“Pay? Friends don’t pay, Ellen. You know that.” He tried to give her a confident look as if they’d known each other for years, not just met casually once at a party. Still, it was true enough wasn’t it? You didn’t fly across a kingdom to give things to someone not a pal. Practically what friend meant, someone you went out of your way for, right?
“Anyway, I’ll try to get back soon and see about that wall for you, and some other things… Sorry it took so long the first time, I’ll work on doing better… Hey!”
The idea was probably a horrible one, but made him happy to think about anyway. He went to his case and pulled out two full sets of flying gear and shields. He had more, but he’d only seen two people here so far. He presented them with a small smile.
“I didn’t see a lot around here, so traveling places must be tough, right? Learn to use these and it will help a lot with that. Plus, with the shields no giant lizards should hassle you overly, I don’t think. Just remember to use them when you go out. Here…” He showed her how to use it all, going over everything a few times and then working with her until she had it all down. It took a lot longer than he’d planned on spending with her, but she seemed so happy to have the company that he pushed things. If need be he could camp out for the night somewhere, right? It was worth it to see her eyes light up as she lofted about in the air.
“Of course you’ll need to wear trousers when you fly places, or figure something else out. Otherwise you risk flashing the whole world underneath you. Which might serve to make you popular, but won’t earn you much respect.” The words popped out easily, almost teasing, his mother having said them over and over again to his sisters as they’d grown up and she tried to teach them to control where their skirts went. He froze though, realizing that telling a Countess, even an ex-Countess, that, might be considered rude.
She laughed and flitted down to the ground, smoothing her skirt with her hand, “Right you are! I think I have some old things that will do. Thank you I…” Again she looked embarrassed, but happily so this time.
He waved it away again. “Not a problem. I’ll be back in, well, as soon as I can. I don’t know how long it will take to build a proper wall. I actually have the gear with me right now, but it all needs to go to Galasia, so they can rebuild their sewer system.”
“Isn’t that the city you saved?” She asked, her eyes going to his face, which must have looked sad or something, because she looked concerned.
“Not really. I just built a big water filter for them, which isn’t such a big thing. For one, they aren’t saved yet, it’s just a temporary fix… Really though, seriously, they think I’m a cave dwelling troll that Sara Debri made a complicated deal with in order to get the device their using. Honest, she just brought me a letter from her mother, and I did the work, no bargains at all. I didn’t even get paid for it. They have plays about it and everything.” He chuckled as she swallowed hard, her face fighting a grin.
“Actually, for a kids school play it wasn’t too bad. Even I was rooting for Sara by the end of it. Evil Tor troll…” He mock growled the last bit while shaking his fist a little held by his own face, which made Ellen actually laugh out loud.
She invited him to stay the night, but he shook his head a little regretfully.
“Sorry… I’d love to, this is the most fun I’ve had in a long time, but I have to get to Galasia early enough in the day to show them how to use the new gear and then make it back to school before dark, so I can attend all my classes the day after. It’s a grind, but if I miss too many more, they’ll probably kick me out of school and then my parents will have to kill me, which will make them sad, so I can’t have that, can I?”
He flew off waving over his shoulder, about half an hour later, and then headed roughly back towards the school as fast as he could, left hand pushing out nearly as far as it would go. After about five hours he had to land and make camp in some woods at the foot of the white top mountains, there just wasn’t enough light to fly by and Tor didn’t particularly want to risk hitting the ground. He didn’t bother with a fire or anything, just removed some pine boughs from trees using his little cutter and made a bed. He didn’t get cold at all, but did get wet during the night. Clouds had come in, and while the shield kept the impact of the rain off, the wet still soaked him.
In the morning he blinked as the sunlight glinted off the white earth in front of him. Ah! It hadn’t been rain at all, but snow. He hadn’t even realized it was nearly that cold here yet. Good to know that the temperature equalizers worked in the cold too. Well, he’d actually guessed that, from the ice box in the palace that had felt room temperature to him. It was still nice to know. If he had to now, Tor could just live outside like this all the time with no problem. Shield to keep him safe, and warmth all the time too. Now if he could keep the rain and snow off of him… A little shield hut maybe?
He smiled as he took to the air, trunk buzzing along behind him gently. There was a feeling of peace about the whole thing. A calmness as the land slowly passed beneath him.
For the first time on this trip he noticed someone else flying, as he raced through the skies. That was rare. Well, he’d seen it at school a few times, but that had to have the most flyers of anyplace, nearly, and all in a small area. They didn’t get very close, but he waved to them anyway, getting a wave back. It looked like someone wearing what the nobles were calling “flying clothes”, nice silk and leather. From the way the person had bundled up they didn’t have a temperature equalizer at all. That made sense. No one was even selling those yet. Everyone that had one had gotten it from him directly or at least from someone that had.
He got in to Galasia about mid-morning; it had taken him a while to find it actually, since it was kind of just surrounded by forests, though they had two nice rivers near it as well. Apparently the water from those wasn’t fit to drink either? If it was, then why were the people dying of thirst during the sewer problem thing? Couldn’t they have just gone and gotten something to drink there?
Tor slowly landed in the central square, people looking at him and pointing, probably because flying was still rare enough around here and he wasn’t very royal looking. If all you saw flying were huge people with fine clothes, a smaller one in student brown canvas would get some attention. Then he stood for a while, waiting.
This kind of thing was always hard for him, talking to strangers. Tor did well enough in a retulsional setting, but even then he normally let other people do most of the talking. Who should he approach? There were plenty of people around, most of them suddenly looking away. Not wanting to seem pushy or aggressive? Kind of them, if not overly helpful at the moment.
Before he could make up his mind a boy that looked a few years younger than Tor was walked over, waving in a friendly way.
“Hey! How’d you rate flying gear? Even the Baron can’t get any yet I’ve heard. I’d kill to get my hands on some. I’d get you to lend me yours so I could try it, but I’m afraid I’d just fly away and never come back. I don’t want to be bad or anything, but it might be too tempting….” The boy laughed. He was bigger than Tor, by about six inches but looked to be about fifteen or so through the face.
“Hey, sorry, I’m Conrad. Conrad Gala. Yes, related, but far enough away from anything important that I don’t bother with a title at all. Baron twenty-seven or some such, you know how that is?”
Putting out his right hand Tor nodded. “Kind of. I’m Tor. Torrence Baker. I don’t use any titles either really, about the same reason, far enough away that I’m never inheriting anything. Countier some-muckity Lairdgren, I hear. Such a non-thing my mother didn’t even bother to mention it until a few months ago. Anyway, I brought some devices so that the sewer system can be rebuilt faster, I think I should find… Ferdinand Gala? I don’t know that for certain. He’s just the one I met before and we discussed it.” His voice sounded a little sad and shy to his own ear, but the boy just looked a little taken aback.
“Uncle Ferdinand? I can get you there, no problem. Um, need help with the box?”
The follow float on it worked well enough and was easier than carrying it, so Tor explained it and then slowly followed the boy. It would have gone faster, but the kid kept stopping to watch the trunk stop and move when Tor
