Chapter 11: Two young men

In the evening, Jace, not finding Grider at his tenement, went to the Pig and Whistle Inn in Old Town.

He knew that Grid often drank here, and not only Grid, but many veterans of the Darkgate War, and immigrants who came to Stormwind from all over the world loved it.

The Old Town, or East End, was also one of the best-preserved sections of the city during the war, and so this is where the reconstruction efforts were based.

Untold numbers of laborers, merchants and tradesmen lived here in the early days of the rebuilding effort, giving the Hog and Whistle Inn such a high status as it has today.

As expected, as soon as he walked into this inn, he saw Grider sitting in the corner drinking, it was that same corner every time, it was that same big mug of ale every time, Jace was used to it.

Grid remained staring blankly at the empty glass, his expression grave and serious, as if he had been blinded by it.

Jace padded over and said, “Grid, I have something to talk to you about.”

“Talk, all of it.” Grid burped, making one wonder if he had a half-dead young dragon living in his stomach, causing a few of the girls and boys nearby who had been laughing heartily to lower their voices for a moment, peeking quietly this way from time to time.

Jace frowned and sat a little farther away.

“I have something quite important to tell you, which is tomorrow or the day after …… Are you awake now?”

“Of course sober, listen.” Grid’s eyes slowly turned to stare into Jace’s.

Jace was getting uncomfortable with the stares, and he knew that something not so good was probably going to happen next.

Grid inhaled slowly, grew his mouth stiffly, and suddenly read in an unnaturally loud voice in a stiff, high stick.

“Barbarian Hammer’s warriors are tops, elves and trolls beat down, elves can’t be fucking found, then trolls and trolls beat down! One on the left, one on the right, two in one sentence. Two trolls with four eyes, four teeth cocked to the sky, beat up one after another, all knocked out and go home!”

By the end of the “setting poem,” Grider had become the center of attention of the entire inn.

It took Jace a long time to catch his breath, and he coughed awkwardly, waiting for Grid to refocus his attention on his own glass and return to the baffled state he’d been in not so long ago.

It was only as the inn returned from its frozen atmosphere to its previous bustle once more that he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Grid mumbled something so silently that Jace missed it completely.

“What?”

“I’d say it’s perfect.”

“What perfection.”

“It’s a poem that I memorized perfectly.”

“That’s a poem? You made that up, didn’t you?”

“Come on, I’m not that talented.”

“What, talent?” Jace froze for a moment before realizing the conversation had been carried away.

He tapped the tabletop with the knuckles of his index finger to pull back the dwarf’s attention and said, “On a serious note, now I have a job that will make money, are you interested?”

“Not really interested, to be honest, since I’m planning on joining the Warrior’s Guild.” Grid said, “I was approached by one of their people with a regular paycheck and the ability to take on jobs. Probably rounding up wanted criminals, cleaning wolves from farms or something, Stormwind City’s guard force isn’t enough right now, bandits and robbers, orcs, jackals, and I heard that the fishmen over at Crystal Lake have a new leader, it’s all messed up, and this whole Warrior’s Guild thing, I thought I’d give it a try.”

Seeing that Grid was intent on rediscovering his passion for fighting, Jace was all of a sudden embarrassed to bring up his business.

But the dwarf quickly added, “But the Warrior Guild’s current members are basically half-aged guys with a few copper-bearded pups as well. A lot of them have their own families, ah, usual livelihoods, and it’s not like they can force everyone to work full time, even if I get roped in I can still find work on my own. Why don’t you talk about it, Jess, and we’ll see if your job has any appeal.”

Seeing him say that, Jess said, “I’m going to go out of town and pick herbs and sell them for money, what do you think?”

“Picking herbs?” Grid asked with a frown, “Isn’t that always a job for women and elves?”

“Aren’t your girls over there pretty much the same as the men over here?” Jace lowered his voice as low as he could to make sure there were no female dwarves next to him, then said, “So the men over here should pick them up, no one will say anything.”

He then went on to give a rough idea of the prices the alchemy merchants in the mage district were paying for herbs, and after hearing this the dwarf stood up with a slam of the table and leveled his eyes at Jace across the table and growled, “Really?”

“What a warrior’s guild, it’s like a club for middle aged people!” Grid yelled at the bar, “Girl, give me a black one as usual! Ironforge’s fine too!”

After yelling he slowly sat down, thought for a moment, and then asked in a pressurized voice, “But it might be quite dangerous, right? So much money. Moreover, do you know about picking herbs, you’re so young, it’s hard not to have followed a lesson on herbalism in Lordaeron? It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s …… uh, mostly because I don’t really trust you.”

Is this one really sober? Why is he full of crap.

Jace stared helplessly for a moment at the dwarf who was barely keeping his eyes open, and said quietly, “Look, even the owner of Herbology believes me, and is willing to take my medicine, and shares the purchase price with me, so why don’t you believe me, Grid, isn’t herbalism a woman’s job in your neck of the woods? An old man like you is a complete layman.”

“That’s true, but I’m not old.”

“Well, young man, after going out, the two of us cooperate, I come to find medicine, and then we deal with the possible trouble, of course, the main thing is you, you this former Griffin Knight’s gold is definitely enough. Finally sell the medicine we split thirty-seven, how about, you seven I three.”

“This is not good, right?” Grid forced himself to hold back the laughter that he was about to stifle, and said embarrassedly, “In this aspect of picking herbs, since you know a lot and have a sales outlet, give me back the big head, fifty-fifty would be good.”

“Of course I have a personal agenda.” Jace explained, “The Royal Blood Grass, and the most expensive Graveyard Moss, I have my own use for them, and I can’t sell them.”

“So that’s fair.” The dwarf said.

“And I’d like to be able to keep the Evil Claw if I can find it.” Jace added.

The Dwarf asks, “Claws of Evil, you mean the nails of those unearthly beasts with the black aura of the dead?”

“You know?”

“Of course, trolls like to make medicine out of that stuff, and applying it to their weapons to hurt people will have a terrible curse, and those sinister Shadowhunter’s cursed weapons will probably grow untreatable ulcers once they graze a dwarf’s skin, maiming them in the end, fatal, and vicious as hell.”

“Growing knowledge.”

“That’s right.” Grid grunted a couple times and asked, “Where are you planning on going?”

“Raven Ridge.”

“Raven Ridge?” Upon hearing this place, the dwarf said with a bit of hesitation, “Isn’t it too far, it could take a week to go back and forth.”

Jace said, “If you want graveyard moss, that’s the only way to go. Let’s get there and back quick, no delays on the way, four or five days if we’re lucky, and don’t forget I’ve got to come back and work for my mage boss, he’s out on a bit of a trip, he’ll probably be back in a week, and I’ve got to check in with him, so I won’t be delayed too long.”

“Now the question is, do we go from the Red Ridge Mountains to Glen Town, or do we take a detour west to Raven Ridge? What a pain in the ass, why can’t we just cross over the Elwyn Forest and the Nafriti River and go straight to Raven’s Ridge?”

The dwarf’s finger drew an arc in the air and said, “Unless you can fly there.”

It occurred to Jace that there was no griffin service in Stormwind at the moment; after all, there weren’t even enough human nests to build, let alone griffin nests.

He’d never seen a real griffin up close since he’d arrived in this world, not even in Lordaeron, and wondered if the game’s griffin keepers were “teleportation points” that had been subjugated for the sake of gameplay.

“Otherwise, it’s better to go farther around to Sentinel Ridge.” Grid said, “I heard that the road in the middle of that canyon from Red Ridge Mountain to Glen Town is often occupied by jackal clans, and it’s broken for days at a time, the western wilderness side is a bit safer, even the church people don’t go that way anymore.”

“Sentinel Ridge then, at your service.” Jess said.

The dwarf shook his glass and said, “Want to stop by Moonbrook? Could do with some resupply or something, I hear the pork liver pies there are twice as good as the ones in Stormwind.”

Jace said helplessly, “That’s a full day’s delay, and the fare, and the road, and the pies …… Griddle, are just too expensive.”

“Well, is there anything else?” The dwarf asked, “Like preparations before going out or something.”

“A bag big enough to be sturdy and preferably waterproof.” Jess said, “The bags they sell in town are too small and expensive, do you have any good choices?”

Grid said, “My traveling bag is a sack woven by people back home, strong enough and cut resistant, I’ve carried him from back home to here with weapons in it without breaking, and it’s somewhat waterproof, so as long as it doesn’t soak in water for too long it should be fine. Most importantly it’s big enough to hold a few dozen pounds of herbs, I think.”

“Enough, definitely enough.” Jace said, “And don’t put too much in and slow down our trip. Besides, it’s our first time out and we don’t always recognize accurately, so maybe we won’t be able to find so many herbs.”

“Load in all the likenesses and let the connoisseurs pick them out for themselves!” Grider asked, “So when do we leave?”

“Tomorrow morning?”

“Let’s do it this afternoon, I have an appointment with the warrior guild to fight here tomorrow morning, so they can see what I can do.”

“I thought you didn’t want to go to the Warrior’s Guild?”

“Going to the Warrior’s Guild or not is secondary to the fight, the fight is mandatory, my little Jace brother. Do you want to come watch your big brother show off some moves tomorrow?”

Jace watched as Grid clenched his fists, as if he were forcing down the shaking energy in his wrists.

“No problem, I’ll definitely come and see. Speaking of which, you always call me little brother and say you’re the big brother, how old are you, I’ve never asked.”

“I’m in my 60’s, I think I’m 64, you don’t lose anything by calling you a little brother, do you?”

“You’re young for this? I …… you ……”

“What you what you, what I what I, don’t take your age to us. Iron Furnace Fortress’s Muradin was over 200 years old and still participated in the Battle of Black Stone Mountain, I think he’s in his prime. They Copperbeard can’t do anything else, they just live long! Of course, we’re not bad either.”