On The Road ... Or More Accurately, In A Ditch On The Side of The Road

[conner_el]

"--and as soon as I hit the ditch the horse shook free and bolted," The addled farmer finished, gesturing out into the field running along the winding, dirt road. Conner follows his eyes, and lo and behold, there's the horse, nibbling on some wheat out in the distance - still rigged up in all it's gear.

"I gotcha," Kon nods from where he kneels in the dirt, inspecting the farmer's overturned wagon. It was ... y'know, a little banged up from tumbling into the ditch, but the wheels hadn't cracked and the neither axel had broken.

"You might need to replace a couple boards when you get home, but you're actually in pretty good shape here." Conner says, standing up and stretching out in anticipation of some heavy lifting. "You go grab that bad boy out there, and I'll get you back on the road, okay?"

The farmer blinks, looking from the Conner, to the overturned cart, and back again. Conner's a big guy, but he doesn't look that big. "A-are you sure? You can wait until--"

Conner cuts him off, waving away the idea. "It's fine. Seriously, no problemo." He unsheathes his sword and sticks it into the dirt on the road side and lays his shield down next to it. "Trust me, I've got this."

The farmer starts moving as Conner walks around to the front of the cart, but he still seems unsure about all this as he looks back over his shoulder ... just in time to see Conner grab a hold of the shafts at the front of the cart and pull it clear of the mud with one, solid heave. It wasn't exactly a piece of cake - there's some visible strain on the young paladin's face as he pulls the cart back onto the road - but he did it.

"My gods," The farmer breathes.

Kon throws the startled man a wink over his shoulder and gives him a thumbs up, which seems to remind the farmer that he's got a horse to wrangle.

Comments

[no_love_potions]

Walking isn't typically a first choice for getting from place to place, but sometimes there just isn't much of an alternative to work with. There isn't a Lightning Rail stop in just every village and, well, when money's tight there isn't much to spend on an earth sled trip. Maybe catch a ride on a carriage but a little walk never hurt anybody.

Besides, sometimes you run across some interesting stuff out on the road. Take for instance, this kid who just hauled a carriage out of a ditch with his bare hands. Huh. Now that's... something else.

"Pretty impressive." With the farmer heading off to reclaim his horse, Harry takes his chance to approach the cart, setting the carved oak staff he carries aside and reaching out with one hand to test the weight of the thing and finding it pretty unmovable for him. Probably not surprising, considering his build. Tall, but lanky with a long black coat. "How many carts you have to drag out of a ditch before it gets that easy?"

[conner_el]

"This'd be the first, actually," Conner replies with a shrug, giving the guy a once over as he picks up his shield and scabbard. The robes and the way he dresses screams wizard, but Conner's never seen one just hoofing it across the open road before.

[no_love_potions]

Coat, actually. Although the length and volume of the thing might take another glance to confirm that. The rest is probably clear enough for an assumption. At a close enough look one can even spot the crystal-tipped wand hanging from his belt beneath the coat and the thick roughbound book stuffed into an interior pocket of the coat.

"You don't say." He glances at the weapons being gathered up. A knight by the looks of him. Maybe a paladin but the lack of posturing and gratuitous flame designs rules out Thranish. He'll find out. Switching his staff to his other hand, he extends his right. "Harry Dresden."

[conner_el]

"Conner," He answers, accepting the offered hand as soon as he's got his swordbelt fastened. "Conner Kent."

His eyes briefly flick down - the wand's crystalline tip caught the light, and the glint caught his eye. So his wizard hunch had been on the money. His eyes move back to Harry's.

"So. Where you headed?"

[no_love_potions]

"Back into Sharn. Just finished up a job." He gestures up the road toward the cluster of buildings up ahead and the string of crackling crystals running through it and off into the distance on either side. "Catching the Rail."

One that wouldn't be running through town for awhile yet which left him some time to kill.

"You from around here?"

[conner_el]

"Not exactly, but close enough," Conner shrugs. "Little farming village maybe a day away from here."

There's a second where Harry can read the curiosity on Conner's face before he finally decides to ask, "What kind job? Y'know, provided you don't mind talking about it?"

[no_love_potions]

"Sounds nice." There isn't a hint of sarcasm in there. Although Harry's been a city guy for at least the parts of his life that he'd lived during peacetime.

"Nothing world-shaking." He shrugs. "Some Morgrave kids got their hands on some dusty magic machine and bit off more than they could chew. Somebody needs to come in and shut it down."

He blew it up. It was great.

[conner_el]

Judging by the glint in his eye? It sounds great.

"What kinda dusty magic machine are we talking about?" He asks. "Raise the dead, portal to another plane, fire from the sky ...?"

[no_love_potions]

"Food processing." A moment's pause and then Harry shrugs, realizing that probably needed a little more to it. "Some Dhakaani thing, probably made to dispense rations but rookie spellcrafters and nine thousands years without a tune up. Things got..."

Another pause. This needs the right kind of word.

"... Messy."

[conner_el]

Well. That's disappointing. And a little confusing, actually.

"Define 'messy'."

Because he's not really seeing how this could really go all that far south. Seems like you could end up with a lot of hardtack dough, but ...

[no_love_potions]

"Clearly you've never tried goblin food."

His grimace should say it all.

Look, he said it wasn't world-shaking.

[conner_el]

Maybe not world-shaking, but definitely ...

"Gross."

You ever have those times where you're trying really, really hard to think about something but your brain just won't leave it alone? Conner's got a whole lot of that going on right now.