092 – Rounding Third, Heading For Home

Roxanne went into the weapon smith that had been recommended to her by Master Eklund, and placed her bow on his counter. Three nylon bags of a dozen arrows each were over her shoulder. The head smith came over. Rox pulled an arrow from the rack and presented it as the elf approached. The six arrows on the bow, and one of the bags of twelve had broad-heads on the ends. The other two dozen were blunt tips for target practice.

“These are from my world. They are balanced to my bow. I want some made of local materials, and a few that explode.”

The smith took the arrow from Rox.

“Be careful of the steel tip. The shaft is aluminum, the fletching, nylon,’ she explained.

He kept his hand away from the broad-head, as he weighed the arrow and tested its balance. “Those are not unknown material applications, but the workmanship is different than here. May I try the bow?”

She picked it up and handed it to him. He notched the arrow, aimed across the shop, pulled back, and let fly. The broad-head cut deep into a straw and sand stuffed practice target. The bow was small for him, Rox thought he looked like a skilled adult with a child’s bow.

“Impressive.” Despite the bow being a smaller than comfortable size for his stature, he recognized the inherent quality in the design. The bow had an arrow rack on one side and a shoulder harness on the other for carry in the field.

Roxanne was first taught the bow by her mother, and later refined by a sensei. Since moving to Carson Valley, she had done a bit of bow hunting, but not much, as the closest areas were across the state lines in California and trying to get a permit there was ridiculous. One year she drew out for central northern Nevada, and had her deer on the second day of the hunt. She never submitted for another tag. Still, she practiced with some regularity, mostly by setting a target up in her garage, and then standing across her yard and shooting across into it.

He put the bow down, straps side down. “I can get you some wooden arrows, a bit larger than these metal ones, in a few days. Or if you prefer the metal ones, those will take longer.”

Rox considered. “The wood ones will do, as time is a bit of an issue.”

“Very well. How many?”

“What is the usual number your supplier works in?” Rox had no clue for this and did not want to order too few or too many.

“Most archers around here use the same weight of arrow, so he makes those in batches of hundreds. As yours will all be custom, comparatively, you may name the number.” He had been warned by Master Eklund that she was from elsewhere, so unaccustomed to local ways.

Rox nodded. “Is twenty a good number?”

“Twenty is fine, but you will need a large quiver to carry that many in. It looks like you have six arrows here.” He motioned at the rack on her bow. “Plus a few more there.” He pointed at the travel pouches that Rox had over her shoulder.

“Eighteen arrows with broad heads; twenty four with blunt tips for target practice, which I expect to leave behind, unless you know where to get metal heads here. These pouches are unfit for carry, so I will need a quiver.”

He knew where to get the tips, after having one of the other broad heads used as a pattern in a sand-mold: the hardest part would be the threading on the back of the head to attach to the aluminum shafts.

Before Roxanne was done here, she removed the rack and harness, and the weapon smith replaced the harness with a simple sling. She also specified the quiver was to be worn on her left hip.

After leaving the weapon smith, and getting some lunch, Roxanne went to Master Eklund's Outfitters to continue getting her own costume and equipment worked over.  Roxanne had brought back a vest pack with some toys and one of her own gi’s in it. Master Eklund watched as Rox moved about in a similar abbreviated process to what Steven was going through. The gi was progressively marked up to be a pattern used by Master Senisith's tailors with some extra pockets to be used as an expedition outfit. Her trousers are to be fitted and reinforced with a crotch bellows, double layer seat, and secured within the uppers of her boots, with knee reinforcing on each leg.

When the mark-up of the whole was finished, Master Eklund adjusted the top pieces to be a mid-thigh-length tunic, with a double breasted tabard over this. The tunic and tabard would fit over trousers or skirt, as Rox elected to wear.

Once the patterns were set, these were sent over to Master Senisith's tailor shop.

They moved on to the fitted boots they had partly finished. Tearing her boots from earth apart at the seams they fitted their new boots to the soles. These boots had grieves attached at the inseam, made of a thick single layer, and cover her foot to her toes.

They also made a form fitting belt for between her waist and hips. It formed the lower piece of a harness that Rox would wear. Her quiver would be attached to the belt and a shoulder strap.

Some hand and wrist guards, modified to work with her archery, and a set of elbow pads were also marked out and started.

Roxanne's cloak and cape set were adequate and were put aside, rolled with the bedroll.

The gold chains were taken the jeweler, who would carefully melt, refine and then remake them as smaller rings, without removing the intrinsic magic. These were to be kept as part of her costume, to act as a magical amplifier, along with several large stones, and numerous small stones set in the chains. The jeweler worked with Master Iver's Apprentice to shape things properly.

When Rox did not have the chains on her, she found Master Iver's lessons a bit more challenging. This was just as well, so that she was using them as tools rather than crutches.

Master Iver and Rox worked on her use of her staff. So far she used it less as a magical staff than as a bo-staff. Twist two outer carved spots and the enchantment activated that tripled the effective length magically, but not visibly. Between them, Rox and Master Iver learned that magic sensitive people can perceive the ends. Besides the kinetic damage, the magic extensions also had an anti-magic quality, for canceling other spell effects, but only by physical contact of the magic fields.

Rox often split the staff in half for use as twin batons; she preferred that, as the staff was a bit short unless its primary enchantment was activated. Twist two inner carved spots and the staff came in half as the two fighting sticks; the magical extension did not work in this form.

The Sorceress had told Roxanne that she never stored any spells in the staff. But being magically imbued she could channel magic through it. Rox figured that she herself would not worry about storing spells that might go off at some time, or that she might forget. Instead she would use it like the chains, as a tool for channeling spells through.

Rox picked up Steven from Master Mundrl's. She paused when she saw Steven's hands and arms. Steven held them up, looking them over.

“They wanted to see how I move. So I spared with an elf. Full contact.”

Roxanne looked closer at the strangely colored bruises on his hands. “How did they get that color?”

“A vibrating stone, probably magic. I figure it kept everything fluid, and allowed the debris to be removed. I could use some jow, though.” His hands were multi-colored, but felt fine; at some point he had put the vibrating stone down and had not picked it back up.

That evening, after dinner, Rox and Seven discussed what they had for the kids to wear. Caspian joined the conversation and admitted to some heretofore unrevealed information, more in line of speculation. Caspian suggested that they would want to bring their own clothes for the kids: he reviewed the basic principles of trackers, and that the easiest way was either through a specific object, or like with the trackers he used, using some bodily material, hair and finger nails being the easiest to use. So they would want to take clothes for the kids, to eliminate that avenue of tracking. Also to help the kids more easily blend in to the locals.

So Steven and Rox stopped by Master Senisith's tailor shop and ordered one complete outfit and three complete sets of underwear for their son and daughter. These would need to be light weight, or they would need a magic pocket on their in-process costumes to carry the extra bulk, similar to the pockets in Rox's underwear. Master Senisith happily obliged. Not knowing the children's sizes, they made the clothes with built in adjustments, with straps and buttons to adjust them.

Over the next few days Steven ended up with two pairs of heavy cloth trousers that had a laced up gusset on the outside of either leg from the cuff to the knee, an extra layer of thin padding on his knees, and some leather bellows pockets that ran most of the way up his thighs with a drawstring top with a storm flap over that. The button fly had been a relatively novel idea to the elves. They ended up using local toggles and loops. The double reinforced and gusseted seat and inseam needed loosening up and working. They made the spare pair once the first was finished.

Steven kept his shirts as they were, and his leather belt from home.

Master Mundrl's apprentices built Steven a leather coat that was more of a tabard, to replace his great coat. Steven’s closest experience aside from the great coat was a field jacket but with marked differences. The sleeves matched his trousers for design, with a gusset from wrist to elbow made of cloth, with leather on the upper arm starting from the elbow; this leather was a double layer with a soft inner layer and hard outer layer up to the shoulders. Soft leather backing hard leather rerebraces and pauldrons that overlapped would form the outer layers on the shoulders and upper arms. The back was plain heavy cloth with the front being double breasted soft under hard leather, down to his waist. Then it split in four, front left and right and back left and right panels, each side split; the inner layer of heavy cloth hung below his knees, the outer hard leather hanging halfway down his thighs as tassets. The belt on the coat and on his trousers lined up, with loops and slits that ran through the coat enabling it to be hooked together with a single leather belt.

Over the coat, and secured to the belt went a new vest-pack. The body was cloth, edged with leather, and the leather pouches all closed as his thigh pockets did. On asking, Steven was told that none were magic. On back was a stuff bag with the water bladder and an array of cargo straps. This pack was arranged almost identically to the new one he brought back from Terra, save for the belt with its pouches.

Steven thought he was ready to go, when more was brought out.

A female elf brought a leather chunk that she wrapped around his waist, marked and took away. Then his limbs were measured for gloves and boots, over the trousers and coat. A large piece of cloth was tossed over him and measured for a cloak. The leather chunk was brought back, and put around his waist again. It now resembled a weight lifters girdle or a boxer’s belt for its size. This was drawn on, for a final shape, and again disappeared.

Master Mundrl conducted the comings and goings. He turned to Steven, motioning to the equipment on the table. “Start packing. Just to be sure it all fits.”

Steven went to the table and saw that all the weapons were missing. Quickly he put everything else in their approximate positions, and was shown how to unship the stuff sack on his back without removing the rest. It got filled, only about a quarter of the way, and reattached. Steven had expected to heat up in the leather, but found that it was surprisingly well ventilated on the sides and shoulders

Some glove pieces were brought in and the elves stitched some fingerless gauntlets with gusseted lengths to him, marked some points on a hard leather chunk over the top, and then removed the gauntlets.

The cloak returned, was fitted, rolled into itself, and secured to the coat across Steven’s shoulders, in similar method to the stuff sack.

The girdle returned, was marked for attachment to the belt under it, and other marks around its perimeter, and left again.

The half made boots appeared, the new pair of boots from home had been taken apart, and native leather replaced the nylon outer. This was now fitted to each leg, up to just under each knee with soft leather. As the boots left the gauntlets returned.

Steven put first one than the other on. The gussets matched up to the ones on the sleeves. Then a vambrace attached to the gauntlet was closed, completing that piece. A pair of soft leather and fur lined mittens was snugged on over his hands. Then put away into a thigh pocket. Steven looked the gauntlets over. The palms were reinforced, and the knuckles had an extra strip over them and down each finger to where it ended just beyond the first knuckle. The vambrace was stiff against his wrist, was two layers thick, and ran back just short of his elbow.

The girdle reappeared, was connected to the coat’s belt, removed and disappeared again.

By this time it was well into the evening of this day. Master Mundrl, who had been supervising in and out of the room, reappeared having followed the girdle.

“What’s left to do will wait to tomorrow. When you return we will finish the fitting and should be able to get you on your way.”

Steven stepped down from the stand, tired of standing on it, and hungry, not having had anything to eat since lunch. He put on the older pair of his boots, and left. A carriage was waiting for him.