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"Pay attention, David!" Joseph yelled. "Don't you want to join the Order? Or would you rather be a squire until you're too old to carry my sword around?"
"Well yeah, brother, but frankly I don't see how anyone cares who the prince's mistress is or why it makes a difference to whether I can hit stuff with a sword from a horse."
"You have no idea how a knightly order works, do you? The Order of Iron, and all the other orders for that matter, is all about politics. Having the Sir in front of your name doesn't mean a thing if you don't have a noble putting you on the payroll. Speaking of which, your discipline is atrocious. I may be your brother by blood, but that doesn't mean you can address me how others in the Order do."
"I'm sorry... Sir Joseph." Dave always called him that when he wanted to be unnecessarily pompous. There should probably be a word for that kind of thing. The Gods know his brother does it all the time.
"Alright. Anyway, I broke one of my swords while training today."
"Gods, what the hell were you training on?"
"None of your business, squire. Just take it down to the blacksmith's to get it fixed."
Joseph took a scabbard from his bag and handed it over. Dave drew the sword from it, and half of it was missing.
"Other half's in there too. And all the little splinters I could find. Smith's good, he'll know what to do. Take a few coins to pay him. And don't think you can borrow Calibur for it either – go on foot, you hear?"
Dave laughed. "As if anyone would touch your horse. Fucking demon. See you, Sir Joe."
"Still here, Dave?"
The town market was open today, so everyone was out buying and selling. Meats, fruits, and breads of all kinds were being sold in open stalls. The colours and smells were inviting. Dave couldn't help himself – he bought a bagful of apples and oranges. He could never resist sweets.
He threw his apple core to the side of the road outside the smithy before walking in. Always good to be presentable. Indoors, a boy about his age was nailing horseshoes to the wall.
"You, uh..." Dave said. "You get a lot of pixie problems in here?"
The boy gave him a Look. "It's merchandise. Dad's idea to put a whole load up in the front room here so people can see how good he is and buy them."
"Ah, right. Your dad's Ted Smith, then?"
"Yeah. My name's John. What do you want?"
"Is your dad in? I've got a sword that needs repairs."
"No, he's always selling cakes on market days. I might be able to fix your sword, though. Let's see it."
Dave put the scabbard on John's counter. "A blacksmith selling cakes?"
"Stupid, isn't it? It's grandma's recipe. He does it in her memory." John emptied the scabbard. "Hmm, snapped right in two. How the hell'd you do this?"
"I didn't," Dave said, watching John carefully examine the pieces. "I'm just a squire. I wish I could tell you what the hell Sir Joe was doing to break it like that."
"Oh, you're Sir Joseph's squire? Dad talks about him a lot. Guess you must know him pretty well, huh."
"Yeah, we come here all the time. Surprised I haven't met you before."
"Guess you never came on a market day. You got this sword from my dad, right? Yeah, I can fix it. Six silver ought to cover it.
Dave took out his coin pouch. Two silver and a couple of coppers. "Oh hell. I shouldn't have bought that fruit!"
"Not enough?"
Dave shook his head.
"Well, if you're Sir Joseph's boy, Dad wouldn't want me to turn you down. I'll tell you what. I'll fix this sword for you if you do me a favour."
"What's that?"
"Go to the girl in that house out to the west of town – you know the one? – and ask her about my special order. She'll know what you mean."
"Oh, you mean the witch girl?"
"She's not a witch!"
"Hey, I'm just saying what everyone's thinking."
"Well she isn't. But yes, that's the one."
"Alright, John Smith, you got yourself a deal."
"Great! I'll get to work. Send her my love!"
"Sure, whatever."
"I'm everyone's errand boy," Dave thought to himself as he ate an orange on the trek out into the farmlands out of town. "Hell, it's not even a favour for me I'm doing it for! It's for my brother. These fruits better be damn worth it."
To be fair, it was a very tasty orange. Unfortunately, he crushed the uneaten half of it in his hand at the sound of a loud bang coming from a run-down cottage not far away.
"Damn it," he thought to himself. "Can this day get any worse?"
He rapped loudly on the door to the cottage. A dog barked from inside, but there was no human reply. "Hello?" he called. "Witch girl?"
Still no reply. He opened the door – it wasn't locked. Immediately a huge silver beast, more a wolf than a dog, darted out at him, barking. With a shriek, Dave backed away, but the creature jumped at him, pushing him to the ground, and sat on him. It then starting to lick his hand, which was still covered in orange juice.
A girl's voice giggled from deeper in the house, and a head popped out. She had long, scraggly black hair and large round glasses. "Come here, Arc!" She looked at Dave. "I see you've met Archimedes."
"What the hell is that thing?" he yelled.
"Aw, not a dog person?"
"A dog is alright. That thing is a gods-damned devilbeast."
The girl giggled. "He's lovely really! He must have smelled something tasty on your hand. Anyway, what do you want?"
"You're the witch girl, right?"
"No. I'm Jade. I'm probably who you're looking for though."
"Uh... right. Well, John Smith from town sent me to ask about his special order?"
"Oh, that! Could John not come himself?"
"Uh... his dad sells cakes in the market, doesn't he? So he's kind of tied up looking after the smithy. He sends his love, though."
"Aww, that's sweet of him! He's up here pretty often. Okay, follow me."
Jade led him through the cottage. It was not a large building, but movement through it was hampered by all manner of workbenches and strange contraptions in varying stages of completion.
"You're a tinker, then?"
"Yeah! I get all these ideas for things in my head all the time, and I just have to make them really happen, you know?"
"Not... really... oh, hey, there was a loud noise when I was on my way here. Was that you?"
"Oh! Yes! That was this thing." Jade pointed to a metal tube with some wooden bits on one end. "It uses black powder to propel a little pellet faster than any arrow. It works, but it's really inaccurate, and it breaks a lot. Anyway! This was John's thing." She pulled out a hammer. Well, it fit the vague mould that Dave usually categorised in his mind as hammers. Hammers do not usually contain gears. "It's not done yet," she said. "There's still a lot of calibrating to do but I think I've got it hooked up pretty well. You can tell John the principle is definitely possible, but it's not easy to get right! It'll probably be done in a week or two at most. He'll be round to collect it, I'm sure."
"Does he come here often, then?"
"Yeah! He's up here at least once a week. It's really nice to spend time with him. Most people don't like talking to me much."
"Uh. Can't imagine why."
"It's probably because I'm a bit weird! I know everyone calls me a witch. It's all I can manage to sell enough little things in town to pay for food. In fact, John has to bring me things to eat most of the time."
"Huh. Well, you seem pretty nice to me. Maybe I could come hang out with you some time. You've got a lot of cool stuff here!"
"Well I suppose metal does tend to feel pretty cold, but I work with wood a lot too and-"
"I mean it's good. Sorry, the Order tends to use strange words sometimes."
"Order? You're a knight?"
"My brother's a knight. I'm just a squire. My name's David. You can call me Dave."
"Well, a squire is still very important! I'd love it if you came and visited some time, Dave. I could show you some of my "cool" stuff!" She giggled at her own use of the word.
"Hah, yeah, I'll do that. Anyway, better go tell John what you said. See you later, Jade!"
"Bye Dave! Have fun!"
He carefully made his way out of the cottage and onto the road back into town. From the garden, Arc, the dog, watched him leave. Dave nervously returned the stare.
"Oh, so it's not done yet? I wondered. I tasked her with the thing a couple of weeks ago, and she didn't even mention it last time I went to see her."
Dave and John were sharing his last orange back in the smithy.
"So what's up with that hammer thing anyway?" Dave asked. "What's it meant to do?"
"Ah, Blacksmith's secret!" John replied. "Besides, if I told you, you'd say it's impossible."
"Seeing the sort of things she was doing in that cottage? I'm not sure anything's impossible any more."
"Haha, yeah, she's great, isn't she? Pretty, too."
"She is better than I thought she'd be. And she's totally into you, man."
"Wait, really? You think so?"
"Yeah! Go for it, John. You're in with a chance with her!"
John started to blush a little. "Well, I mean, she's really sweet and all, but-"
"Ah, you think too much. Thanks for fixing the sword. Better get this back to my brother, he must be wondering where the hell I've been."
"Okay. It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Squire David!"
"Call me Dave, everyone else does. And yeah, you too."
"Where the hell have you been?" asked Sir Joseph, Member of the Order of Iron.
"You know, it's a long story and kind of embarrassing and frankly I'd rather not say. But I got your sword fixed."
"Took you all day, too. I had to go buy food in the market myself! Didn't even know what I was doing, man. I hope you can cook something nice out of what I did get."
"You know me, Sir Joe," Dave said. "Everything I touch turns to awesome."
"Yes, if only you could get more than one thing done in a day. Just come on."
That night, after all of his brother's needs had been attended to, Dave went out on one of his customary nightly prowls about the town. He always hoped he'd catch a thief or mugger or some other ne'er-do-well and get into the Order of Iron that way. He hadn't yet. Tonight, though, he had a particular destination in mind.
The baroness' manor was not far across the town from the castle that held the knights' court. She would often spend several days at a time without leaving the castle in when she had duties to attend to there, and he was fairly certain that this was one of those days. It was what she left in her manor that interested the young squire.
A guard was posted at the main entrance to the grounds, but it was a tired old man that never expected any trouble. This was a very peaceful town. Dave was able to easily slip past him, and crept across the gardens in the shadows of shrubberies in case anyone else might be looking. Soon he came to a wall with thick creeping ivy growing up to a balcony. He climbed it, and silently opened the large window into the building itself.
"I was wondering when I would hear from the strider," came a voice from the room inside.
"I'll catch you out one of these days, Rose."
"It's not me you need to worry about. If my mother catches you here, she'll-"
"I know, I know. But I'm pretty sure she's at the castle right now.
"She is, but one of these days you're going to be wrong about that."
Dave lay down across Rose's bed. She was sitting on the end of it, wearing an elegant nightdress. She'd been expecting him.
"What was it you called me when I came in? The strider?"
"It's an apt name, is it not? You travelled awfully far for a simple errand."
"The strider. I like that. Hey, how did you know that?"
"A girl has to do something with the long days alone."
"You know, if you told your mother about us, maybe we could actually do-"
"Dave," she clasped his hand, "do you really think she would approve of me being courted by a squire?"
"I won't be a squire forever. When I join the Order and become a knight, then everyone can know about us. We can be proper lovers."
"I hope so, Dave. I really do."
"Oh! I got some fruit from the market today. Want to share it?"
"You know my mother has imported the sweetest, most exotic fruits from all over the world. Even the ones that usually only the trolls can get."
Dave deflated.
"But," she continued, "I'd give it all up for just an apple from you."
It had been a long day. But, in the end, it all turned out to be worth it.