Ash. The Legends of the Nameless World. Progression Gamelit Story by Kirill Klevanski (essential reading .txt) 📗

Ash smiled smugly as he took a bite of a piece of pie and a sip of wine from someone’s mug. Sitting next to him was a girl of modest appearance. From where Mary was standing she could see that the wench was stroking his knee under the table. Ash pretended not to notice, but he’d occasionally put his hand on hers.

Mary cleared her throat rather loudly.

Ash, swallowing a whole bite of a pie that he hadn’t properly chewed, turned around and was met with a menacing glare. Messy hair, tied in a loose bun, only added to Mary’s demonic appearance.

“I was... Tasting local delicacies... The pies here are delicious! Do you want a bite?” Ash asked with a dumb smile, having realized that there was no way out of this situation.

The next moment, Ash was waving goodbye to the merchants as Mary, cursing, and mumbling, dragged him by the ear. Having seated Ash at their table, she vowed to herself that she’d beat the living daylights out of him the moment their mission was over.

Chapter 11

“O h, how lovely!” Ash exclaimed.

Mary was about to slap him, thinking that the compliment was aimed at one of the ladies, but she put her hand down when she saw that Ash was admiring a red flower that Alice had put in her hair.

Smiling, he pulled a white magnolia from his bag and placed it next to the red flower.

“Now it’s perfect!”

Alice immediately pulled a small mirror from her bag and took a look. Blushing a deep red, she stuttered a “thank you” to the mage. In Mary’s opinion, he seemed to be enjoying the situation a bit too much. The rest of the group seemed to be having fun watching her struggle to control her temper.

“Ash!” she finally snapped. “What the hell were you doing there?!”

“What do you mean? I was hungry.”

“Are you blind or did you not see that we also have food on our table?!”

“I saw,” he said and smiled. “However,” he pointed his finger upward as if he were a teacher lecturing a student, “the food here costs coin, the food over there is free.”

“Neither of them cost your coin!” Mary protested. “It’s part of the campaign budget!”

Ash stroked his chin and pondered. “I didn’t think of that...”

“Do you think at all? Ever?” she snapped, absolutely appalled by his behavior.

“Of course, I do!” he said and put his finger to his temple as if he was contemplating something very deep and important.

“What are you doing?” Alice giggled.

“I’m showing you how I think,” he said, turning red from strain.

The group burst out laughing. Blackbeard patted him on the shoulder, making Ash grin even wider and make faces that drove Alice to tears. A child in an adult’s body, that’s what he was sometimes.

“Good mage or not, at least he makes for a decent jester,” Mary pondered as she continued to hide her smile. “At least we won’t be bored on the road…

After they had eaten, the group went outside. A wagon, parked in a special spot, was waiting for them. When asked where his things were, Ash just pointed at the small bag tossed over his shoulder. He never did like carrying too many things with him as each item had a story to tell and they never stopped bugging you with it, constantly trying to attract your attention with this or that. One of the few disadvantages of knowing a lot of Words was that if you knew how to talk to something, chances were that it would talk back to you.

The rest of the group, of course, had no idea about this, so the lack of personal belongings made Ash seem even stranger in their eyes.

“Where’s your horse?” Tul asked as he climbed onto the back of the wagon. Inside were packed tents, coils of twine and hemp rope, sacks of food, skins of water, quivers full of arrows and boxes of ammunition, as well as wooden tubes filled with scrolls. There were also a lot of boxes full of small bottles and vials, a leather briefcase for maps of all sorts, an astrolabe, and many other items a group of Ternites could need on an adventure.

“In the woods.”

Ash, hands clasped behind his head, was sitting on the edge of the wagon, waving his legs and enjoying the weather and the fact that he’d get to eat for free. In his opinion, free food was second to free housing. Ash was about to ponder more about this when Mary interrupted him.

“In which woods?” she asked, riding alongside the cart. Her horse, who didn’t like Ash from the moment they met, was trying to get the mage’s sandals off his feet. Ash just yawned and moved out of the horse’s reach, not wishing to lose his only pair of footwear. Free footwear wasn’t on the list of things he could get, unlike free food.

He recalled Maverie telling him about a “Bootland,” where everyone could get a perfect pair of shoes for themselves. He, of course, didn’t believe in such nonsense, but this didn’t prevent him from asking travelers if they had ever been to this magical land.

Ash shrugged, basking in the sunlight and pushing the horse’s mouth away from his feet. “He’s a woodland creature. Besides, there’s more prey in the woods than in the city.”

The group exchanged a look. Tul, as if expressing everyone’s opinion, twirled his finger near his temple. Crazy as Ash seemed, he was still a better pick than some pompous schoolboy who never had to use his skills outside the school and never fought with a fiery toad.

The group had to stop at the gates as a huge line had formed in front of it. There were about a dozen other carts at the checkpoint, which was a little more