To the groups relief, the trip back to Tonbura village was surprisingly uneventful given the events that had transpired. Now that it was past noon, the forest had grown fairly lively. Groups of players could be seen hunting for monsters in the undergrowth, scouring the forest for wolves, demonic rabbits, and other fleshy bundles of experience.
As the now familiar walls of Tonbura Village came into sight, the forest giving way to tilled farmland, Eric sighed in relief.
"We"re finally back," Eric said happily.
"We only left like an hour ago," Griffin remarked.
"Yeah but an hour spent being attacked by a giant cat and then a zombie feels more like five hours," Eric shot back.
Ignoring the two bickering friends, Mark was cradling Ulfir in his robe, cooing softly to the tiny wolf pup.
"That"s Tonbura Village. It"s where we"ll be living for a little while. I"m sure they have plenty of yummy meat for you to eat," Mark told the wolf pup in a serious voice.
Looking over the farmland, it almost looked like Ulfir understood what Mark had said, Eric thought as he watched the pup give a short bark as if to say, "Roger!"
Pa.s.sing through the Northern Gate, Eric waved to the sleepy guard who was dozing off at his post. Receiving a half-hearted salute from the man, the group entered Tonbura Village.
"Do you guys have money to repair your gear? Or did you want to visit the militia barracks first to hand in our wolf pelts?" Eric asked, thumbing towards the nearby militia barracks.
"We"ve got some money. Let"s get our stuff fixed first. I don"t want to give Tonbura"s militia captain a bad impression showing up looking like this," Griffin replied.
Receiving the same answer from Mark, the group headed for Tom"s forge, looking to have their gear repaired for the second time in as many hours.
Unfortunately, Seryllia wasn"t at the forge to behold the trio"s tattered appearance; however, Tom"s reaction when he saw the group"s tattered looks was one of the funniest things Eric had seen. His mouth dropped open as he beheld their pitiful appearance, his eyes drinking in the torn armour and the ruined shield. Eric almost felt bad pulling his sword from the scabbard and showing Tom the notches and dents in the metal.
"Inriona have mercy," Tom muttered as he looked over the trio standing sheepishly in front of him.
"Sorry, Tom. We ran into a Swordclaw Lynx," Eric explained.
"A Swordclaw? And yer alive? By the G.o.ds that"s a fortunate thing!" Tom said, almost dropping his hammer in surprise.
"Yeah it nearly killed us, but we managed to drive it off. Sorry to trouble you but would you be able to fix our gear? Again?" Griffin added, presenting his shield and chainmail to the blacksmith as he did so.
"Aye of course. It"ll still cost ye though."
"Naturally we"re willing to pay. We wouldn"t try to take advantage of you," Eric said smoothly.
Tom nodded, his face breaking out into a huge grin as he began to calculate just how much it was going to cost the three unlucky adventurers, "Aye. Well it"ll take me aboot an hour to fix all this. Yer gear is in a much worse state than it was last time."
"How much will it cost?" Mark asked.
"Fer you it"ll be fairly cheap. Your mace isn"t in too rough a shape. At most a single Silver Srick. Fer the half-orc it"ll be aboot six Sricks, the armour, shield, and weapon are all in dire need of repairs," Tom explained.
"As fer you," he said, turning to Eric, "I"d suggest ye just buy a new sword. It"ll cost ye two Sricks and a few Cirts to get this one fixed, but I can offer ye a brand new sword for only four Sricks. It"s up to you of course, but I"ll throw in a discount if ye trade yer old sword to me. What do you say?"
Checking his available funds, Eric pondered for a moment before nodding, "Sounds good. I"ll come and choose one later once I"ve gotten Doreen to fix my armour. Is that okay?"
Tom laughed, a hearty sound that caused his belly to rumble as it reverberated through the forge, "Sounds good! You go visit Doreen. I"ll fix yer friends gear while yer gone."
Saying goodbye to Tom, the trio split up, Eric headed for Doreen"s Leather supplies, while Mark said something about talking to Maria about his healing spell. Waving goodbye to Griffin who"d decided to stay behind and watch Tom work, Eric left the forge.
Doreen"s reaction was far more subdued than Tom"s had been, probably because they hadn"t visited her to get new armour only a few hours previously, Eric thought with a grin.
Chatting briefly with Doreen, or at least as briefly as was humanly possible with a chatterbox like Doreen, Eric left his armour with the woman for some quick repairs while he checked in with Craig to see if his bow was salvageable.
Pausing for a moment in front of Craig"s shop, Eric took a deep breath before throwing open the door.
"Welcome to Craig"s Archery Shop! Home to the best bows in Nova.n.a.lba," said Craig, his jovial voice welcoming Eric into the shop.
"Hey Craig, I have a question," Eric replied with a slight smile.
"Oh? And what would that be?" Craig asked curiously.
"Do you do repairs? Specifically are you able to repair something like this?" Eric asked, taking his bow out of his inventory.
Craig"s face twisted when he saw the bow, extending his hands, he took it from Eric"s hands, observing the splintered wood and bent limbs. Checking the string, Craig grabbed the still intact middle of the bow and applied pressure.
As Eric watched, Craig performed a few more tests on the broken bow, his expression pensive as he considered something. Nodding slightly to himself, he seemed to have made up his mind about something as he looked back at Eric.
"You were lucky that this was a fairly clean break. It looks like something stepped on it, applying enough force to snap the upper limb in two. There"s also some residual fractures that have spread through the rest of the frame, and the string will certainly need replacing."
"Can you fix it then?" Eric asked expectantly.
Craig nodded, "If it was any other fletcher in this part of Nova.n.a.lba, you"d have to buy a new bow. Luckily for you I know how to use magic to fix broken wood," Craig said proudly.
Eric made a surprised face, "You can use magic to fix bows?"
"Of course! Craftsmen use magic for quite a few things. As a fletcher, I use magic to dry the glue I use to attach the vanes to arrows, to speed up the treatment of the wood I use to make bows, and to help mold the shape of the bow when the wood is of lower quality than I"d like, or has a knot in it or some other defect," Craig explained.
Eric nodded, "I suppose that makes sense. I just didn"t think people used magic for more than fighting and healing."
"Bah, what do you otherworlders know? Most of us don"t know any combat magic at all. I use magic to cook, help clean my store, and to amuse myself and my family. My daughters love when I conjure up the few small tricks I know. Magic is far more than simply a tool for killing, it"s something we all rely on," Craig said heavily.
Eric was rendered mute by the seriousness of Craig"s speech, it almost felt like he"d been slapped, such was the intensity in Craig"s voice. Seeing the half-elf"s stricken expression, Craig laughed, his face breaking out into a huge grin as he looked at Eric.
"Good speech, eh? It"s something that the village mage, Lucy, told me when she first moved here, her speech was far more eloquent than mine just now, lots of big words you see," he informed Eric conspiratorially.
Coughing slightly, Craig recomposed himself, "Anyways, the point is that yeah, we use magic for more than just fightin and killin. It"s embedded in the daily life of everyone in Nasvencia. Not sure if that"s how it is in your world, but that"s how it is here. If you want, I can let you watch as I fix your bow. But if you want to really learn magic, I"d suggest you visit Lucy Morningstar. I will warn you however that she is a bit… Uhhh…"
"We"ve met," Eric said bluntly, saving Craig the trouble of continuing.
Letting out a small sigh of relief, Craig flashed Eric a relieved smile, "Ah then you know what I mean. But anyways. It"ll cost you one Srick and twenty Cirts if you want me to repair your bow. It shouldn"t take more than a few minutes. Did you want to watch?"
Informing Craig that he did indeed want to watch, Eric handed over the coins, following Craig through a door at the back of the store and into a well lit workshop full of unfinished bows and various fletching supplies.
The thing that immediately drew the eye was a large workbench in the middle of the room, various bottles covered the surface, filled with strange liquids and mixtures. A wooden bucket full of unfletched arrow shafts was placed next to the workbench, while a variety of arrowheads filled a set of small pots at the corner of the desk.
Striding over to his desk, Craig cleared a s.p.a.ce on the workbench, placing Eric"s bow in the middle of the works.p.a.ce. Grabbing the bow, Craig began to realign the limbs, forcing the ruined wood back into place.
Grabbing a bottle of clear liquid, Craig quickly applied it to the bow, smearing the liquid liberally over the splintered limb.
"Alright watch carefully," said Craig, looking towards Eric.
Nodding in response, Eric watched as Craig picked up a wand from where it lay next to the glue pots. Pointing at the shattered limb, Craig began to weave runes in midair, slowly and methodically drawing four different runes which shone brightly above the workbench.
As he drew the final rune, a vaguely tree shaped rune that gave off an earthy green light, Craig breathed out a sigh of relief and tapped his wand against the bow, causing a strand of liquid to attach itself to his wand. Ignoring this, Craig focused as the runes began to spin, a bright light filling the room as the runes merged together. With a sudden flash, the runes disappeared, a brownish light flowing into the bow from Craig"s wand.
As Eric watched, the wood around the shattered section of the limb began to regrow at a visible speed. New tendrils of wood sprouted from either side of the broken part of the limb, twisting together as the limb slowly became whole once more.
Holding his wand to the bow, Craig concentrated, rivulets of sweat flowing down his dark face as the magic continued to work. As the last tendrils of wood joined together, the bow whole once more, Craig collapsed backwards onto the bench, his shoulders slumping as he beheld his work.
Staring at the man, Eric was unsure of how to proceed. Just as he was about to tap the fletcher on the shoulder, Craig straightened up.
"Whew! Not bad for a mere professional fletcher, eh?" Craig said with a grin, inspecting the bow for flaws. Satisfied with his work, he reached into a small drawer of the workbench and brought out a coiled string. Quickly unhooking the old bowstring and stringing the new string on, he strummed the string lightly.
Nodding with a pleased expression, Craig handed the bow over to Eric, "Now I hope that that"s shown you a little of how we use magic in our everyday lives. Not all of it is as exciting as that of course, but hopefully you get the point."
"I think so. It"s a lot more intense than I thought it would be," Eric confessed.
Craig grinned, "Well that was a pretty high level spell if I"m being honest. I worked for years to learn how to cast nature magic and bend it properly to my will like that. But most spells I use in my day-to-day work are far less intensive, one or two runes at most."
Checking his bow, Eric could just barely make out where the limb had been broken. The wood there was slightly newer than the surrounding wood, with a freshness to it that the rest of the bow did not have. However, apart from that, it was identical to the rest of the bow in every other way. Tw.a.n.ging the string experimentally, Eric smiled, the bow was as good as new, it was as if the Swordclaw had never stepped on it in the first place.
Seeing this, Craig turned solemn, "Now, as for your bow. Try to take better care of it! I understand that as a militia member sometimes you"ve gotta run and live to fight another day, but it still pains me as a fletcher to see my creations in such a state, you understand?"
"Aha sorry. I"ll do my best to take better care of it this time," Eric replied, putting the bow on his back.
Waving goodbye to Craig, Eric collected his armour from Doreen"s shop, before heading back over to Tom"s smithy.