"Leo!"

  He wasn't far from the Marsh's cottage when the door creaked open. Marsh stood in the doorway, a half-eaten piece of potato in his hand. He looked terrible. The bruise on his throat had blossomed into a spectacur ring of purple and sickly yellow. He also had dark circles under his eyes, evidence of a night spent on a very lumpy, uncomfortable floor.

  Marsh was also shirtless. Leo saw several faint scratches and red patches of skin across his brother’s chest.

  "What in the gods' names..." He blurted out, unable to stop himself. "Did Dar take her anger out on you with a fork?"

  Marsh just blinked at him, and followed Leo’s gaze toward his chest.

  "Oh, these?" Marsh let out a ugh. "Woman found a broom. And a feather duster. Gods, I didn't even know we still had that thing."

  "Sorry to hear that," Leo tried, biting back a smile.

  "Don't 'sorry to hear that' me, you little twerp," Marsh grumbled, but there was no real venom in it. "You dragged me into this mess. You owe me."

  "Yeah, yeah. I'm here about that, anyway," Leo said, changing the subject as he patted the leather pouch at his belt. "Figured you'd want your share."

  "You know that's not what I meant," Marsh waved dismissively, taking another rge bite of his potato. "No need to hurry. You wouldn't cheat me out of a single copper, but more importantly..."

  He swallowed, then his expression turned more serious.

  "...go with me to Rockhaven."

  "Rockhaven?"

  Leo dug through 'his' memory. It wasn't a big town, just a few streets worth of real buildings, maybe a thousand souls calling it home, but compared to Ashwick, it was a metropolis. The old Leo had only been there a handful of times, usually for a market day, or to sell off whatever big prey he hunted.

  "Why? You need something from there?" Leo pushed the old memories aside and focusing on his brother.

  "A peace offering," Marsh shrugged. His free hand unconsciously went to a particurly nasty-looking scratch on his shoulder. "I don't wanna sleep in the coop again. The smell still hasn't come off my only good shirt. Ugh..."

  He took another bite of the potato.

  "Now that we have the coins, I'm thinking of getting her something to...smooth things over," he looked at Leo then, hope warring with a familiar self-deprecation in his gaze.

  "Or you could just give her the coins."

  "Nah, coins are shallow. I'm thinking a gift and a good meal. Meat. We haven't had it for a while."

  A hopeful glint entered Marsh's eyes, and the way his gaze went distant made Leo suspect he was already imagining the taste of grilled meat.

  He didn't question Marsh for going all the way to Rockhaven for some meat. They had a butcher here, but if he were to make his purchase there, everyone in the vilge would know that he came into money by the afternoon.

  Money made tongues wag in Ashwick. He wouldn't be able to completely hide their spending from everyone, but a rumor was better than concrete evidences. The coins would remain a quiet thing between him and his family, at least until he's powerful enough to keep trouble from finding their door.

  "Are you sure that you aren't buying those for yourself?" He shot his brother a look.

  "Saw right through me, hah!" Marsh ughed and patted Leo's shoulder. "But Dar is getting the bigger portion. And don't tell me you don't want some too."

  "Whipped..." Leo mumbled under his breath, a grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  Though he had to admit that meat sounded very tempting after a week of bnd potatoes and cheap grains. Now he had the money, and could always earn more, there was no reason to keep eating the same boring things.

  Besides, a strong body and a banced diet will serve me better in the long run.

  "Alright," he said finally, handing Marsh the money pouch. "Here's your share. Five silvers and twenty six coppers. I didn't bring my own money with me, so I need to go back home. Let's meet up at the vilge gate."

  Fifteen minutes ter, Leo stood at the weathered wooden gate that marked the eastern edge of Ashwick. He had returned home and taken some money with him, not all of it, Sera would kill him for that. In his pocket right now were three silvers and twenty coppers.

  He also asked Sera if she wanted to come, but she refused, saying that their small plot of farmnd needed someone to look over. They already skipped their work on the field the day before, and might need to hire somebody to take care of it the next time they went into the dungeon.

  Leo surprised Sera by pulling her into a deep kiss in the middle of their yard and dodged her swat, before escaping the house, heading toward the vilge gate.

  He didn't have to wait long.

  Just a few minutes after his arrival, Marsh trudged toward him, moving with a slight stiffness. The spectacur bruise around his throat was even more lurid in the bright morning sun. He'd managed to find a clean, if threadbare, tunic.

  "You took your sweet time," a smile touched Leo's lips.

  "Had to turn the house upside down to find this tunic," Marsh just grunted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Maybe I'll buy some linen and have Dar make me a new one. Come on, we should start moving if we want to get back before the sun goes down."

  They started down the rutted dirt track that led away from the vilge and toward Rockhaven.

  "Well," Marsh said, squinting up at the sun. "This is going to be a long, boring walk. My blisters are going to have blisters."

  Leo ughed. He knew that Marsh was just compining for the sake of it. No vilger of Ashwick worth their salt would find walking two hours a difficult task. Time consuming, maybe, but not something to compin about.

  Before Leo could form a witty reply, he heard it. The familiar clomp-clomp, and the creak of a cart approaching from behind. He turned.

  An older man sat perched on the driver's bench of a rickety wooden cart. A scrawny donkey trudged along, pulling the cart with an unenthusiastic gait. The cart itself was den with sacks and baskets, the kind a farmer would use to bring goods to market.

  Old man Hemlock was a leathery farmer with a face like a well-used map. He squinted, then his crinkly eyes widened in recognition as they drew near.

  "Leo! Marsh!" He called out, raising a gnarled hand in greeting, not bothering to slow the donkey's steady pace.

  "Good day, Mr. Hemlock!" Leo called out as the cart drew abreast. "You heading toward Rockhaven?"

  "That I am," Hemlock grunted in agreement. "Got some eggs and a wheel of my wife's cheese to sell. Hope to make enough to buy a new hoe handle before my old one splits clean in half. What are you two boys up to?"

  "Just some business in town," Marsh said.

  "Would you be willing to take on a couple of passengers?" Leo stepped closer to the donkey and asked. "We'd be happy to pay for the ride."

  "Two coppers to drop us near the market," he offered, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the squeak of the cart's wheels. Marsh shot him a look that was equal parts betrayal and disbelief at the price.

  "Two coppers?" Marsh muttered under his breath, his expression horrified. "Leo, what in the seven hells are you doing? I know I compined, but we can just walk there."

  "I want to go home soon with my wife," Leo shrugged. He could walk, but that didn't mean he wanted to waste four hours on the road if there was an alternative.

  "And you call me whipped," Marsh shot him a gre, but stopped protesting.

  Hemlock squinted at the offered coppers in Leo’s palm. The old man's gaze flicked from the coins to the two young men standing beside the road, and a slow smile spread across his face.

  "Alright then, climb aboard," he guffawed. "Just don't jostle the cheese. My wife'd have my hide for a week if I cracked a wheel."

  Leo tossed the two coppers into the old man's outstretched palm and hauled himself onto the cart's bed, the pnks groaning under his weight. He settled himself atop a folded sack.

  Marsh stared after them for a second, a scowl deepening the lines on his face. He looked at the long road ahead, then at the rumbling cart where his brother was already making himself comfortable. With a sigh that spoke of great personal sacrifice, he hauled himself up beside Leo.

  "This is a ridiculous waste of good money. Could've bought some shit ale with that amount," he grumbled, kicking at a loose splinter of wood.

  The donkey plodded onward. The morning sun climbed higher, beginning to burn away the st of the mist clinging to the fields. They passed another farmer heading in the opposite direction, who gave them a curt greeting before continuing on his way.

  After a few minutes of silence, Marsh shifted on the sack, pulling at the colr of his tunic.

  "Ma...she came to see you, didn't she?"

  "First thing this morning," Leo confirmed, watching the fields blur past. "She wasn't pleased."

  "Damn," Marsh ran a hand through his messy hair. "Sorry about that. I couldn't hide this neckce from Dar. I should've known she'd go straight to Ma."

  "It's okay," Leo said, his voice even. "Honestly, I didn't pn on keeping it a secret for very long anyway. People would have found out sooner or ter."

  Marsh just grunted in response, his gaze fixed on the road ahead.

  "Better sooner than ter, I suppose," he said quietly.

  A beat of silence passed, filled only by the donkey's footfalls and the squeak of the wheels.

  "Is Dar feeling alright?" Leo asked, changing the subject. "With the baby, I mean."

  A slow smile spread across Marsh's face. It was the look of a man who was terrified and thrilled in equal measure.

  "She's good. Tired, mostly. compins about her ankles swelling up like river toads and her back aching," he said. "But...she's good. We saw the healer st week. Her guess is around three months 'til the baby comes."

  "Three months," Leo whistled softly. "That's not much time."

  "That's what I said," Marsh nodded, the smile fading slightly, repced by a shadow of worry. He looked at his calloused hands. "Three months to earn some real money. I haven't even had the time for the tavern tely. There's so many things to prepare. The healer's fee, then things for the baby after...I don't know if it will be enough."

  "We'll make a few more runs. It'll be fine," Leo patter his brother's shoulder. He didn't know what else to say.

  Will I be like this too once Sera is pregnant?

  Looking at Marsh, Leo thought that he needed to prepare as soon as possible.

  The cart rumbled across the Stone Bridge, wheels cttering against ancient stonework worn smooth by centuries of passage. Leo gripped the wooden sideboards as they jolted over an uneven seam.

  Rockhaven spread out before them.

  Old Leo's memories said this town was big and important, said this was where things happen. Maybe, by the standards of a boy who'd rarely left his vilge, that was true.

  But the man who'd spent twenty-three years in a world of skyscrapers and highways saw something else: a medieval settlement that had gotten slightly too ambitious for its own good, buildings crammed together, mud streets churned to soup by cart wheels and livestock, and a market square that couldn't have been more than a hundred feet across.

  Still. There was something charming about it.

  The smell hit him before they'd fully crossed the bridge - river water and fish guts, woodsmoke from a hundred cooking fires, and underneath it all, something frying in oil that made his stomach growl.

  The sound came next - voices yered over voices, merchants calling prices, a bcksmith's hammer ringing somewhere nearby, chickens squawking, children shrieking. More noise than Ashwick produced in a week, concentrated into a single chaotic morning.

  The cart trundled into the market square, joining a slow-moving queue of other vehicles. Hemlock reined in near a stone trough where his mule could drink.

  "This is where I leave you boys," he said, jerking his chin toward the bustling square. "Got to find a buyer for these."

  Marsh was already swinging himself down from the cart, nding in the mud with ease. Leo followed more carefully, his feet squelching in the muck as he found his bance.

  "Hemlock," Leo said before the old man could flick the reins. "Will you be heading back to the vilge ter?"

  "Pnning on it. Got no reason to stay the night."

  "Would you take us back? Same rate as the trip here."

  "You boys rob someone?" Hemlock asked, not entirely joking.

  "Nah, I borrowed some coins from my Ma. The pot at home got a hole in it and needs to be repced," Leo shrugged.

  Hemlock was silent for a second. The look on his face told Leo exactly what he thought of him leeching off his parents at this age. Leo didn't care. He even hoped that the story would spread.

  "Meet me back here two hours past midday," finally, Hemlock said. "I won't wait."

  "We'll be here."

  Hemlock grunted, flicked the reins, and the cart rumbled off toward the traders on the square's eastern edge.

  Marsh was already scanning the crowd, orienting himself. He'd been to Rockhaven dozens of times - for market days, for drinking, for the occasional ill-advised scheme that had contributed to his current debts. The town held no mysteries for him.

  "Right," he said, turning to Leo. "Where first?"

  "Harwick's."

  "General store?" Marsh raised an eyebrow. "What do you need there?"

  "Things for the house. I wasn't lying about needing a repcement for the pot either. Sera's been making do with scraps since we married. I should be buying all new stuff to welcome her, but you know..."

  "Harwick's then," Marsh said. "This way."

  They pushed into the crowd.