Blue Blue Caravan

[deathwalk]

WHO: Wilde, Emery, Johanna and two open starters
WHAT: Stuck in NCP until the snow clears enough for him to gtfo
WHEN: Early - Mid February
WHERE: Various
NOTES: Screaming goats - may update as needed

Open -


• Market - Wilde had found a nice spot to unload the two-wheeled cart, unfolding its various panels to put his wares out for display. Various goat cheeses took up most of the display. Most were simple, but there were a few fancy ones with nuts and herbs and such mixed in. There was also a quantity of yarn skeins, soft as anything. Some were dyed in shades of green, red, or yellow, but most were plain.
  
  Wilde had taken to relaxing on the wagon seat while Pehj had found a spot relatively dry and free of snow to stretch out, occasionally bleating at any passersby who looked like they might give him some dried fruits.
  
  
  
  
• The Hammer and Spoke - It was getting easier to avoid the soldiers in town now that they had taken shelter in the mines, but Wilde was still on guard. He'd heard they acted like they had the run of the place, and frankly he wanted to avoid getting conscripted if they were on the prowl for hale young folk to fatten their ranks.
  
  Fortunately, the inn was too crowded for him to stand out much. There wasn't much else for the townsfolk to do on these cold winter nights aside from the usual drinking, dice, and occasional brawl. Wilde kept out of the thick of it, but observed the goings-on with what might have been a wistful smile before whatever reverie he was in the middle of was interrupted by a few soldiers barging in.
  
  The goatherd ordered another drink, and then abandoned his place at the bar as he slipped into a chair across from a stranger, setting the drink down as though he'd been asked to do so.
  
  "Sorry," he murmured, never quite taking his eyes off the soldiers, "I won't stay long. I just didn't want to deal with- well."
  
  He inclined his head to the soldiers who were already hassling the others sitting at the bar to go drink elsewhere.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• For Emery -
  
  Traveling in the mountains was always a gamble - but it was especially bad during the winter. Wilde had finally made it home, lighting the lanterns along the narrow, dangerous path that split off from the Pilgrim's Path and led to his homestead. In case there was anyone mad enough to be traveling in this snow (himself excluded). It wasn't uncommon for the faithful to make a bit of a detour to spend the night somewhere warm and dry or trade for supplies, but that was the extent of Wilde's company.
  
  He wasn't particularly surprised to see someone coming up the path while he was out seeing to the Ladies of the House (four fat hens) who clucked disapprovingly at Wilde when he scattered the rest of their feed. He stepped around two young bucks who were playfighting, their horns locked and heads pressed together as they grunted and pawed at the snow, and opened the gate.
  
  "Sorry," he said, "haven't had much time to clear the path. There's stew and a bit of bread if you're hun-"
  
  He blinked, realizing his impromptu guest wasn't some random pilgrim, but someone from the town proper. The bloody magistrate to boot! Wilde promptly straightened, feeling a growing tension in his gut. Something must be amiss to risk coming up here.
  
  "Er. Magistrate. Sir."
  
  
  
  
  
  
• For Johanna -
  
  One does not generally apply the term majestic to goats. That's because, in general, it doesn't really fit.
  
  But no one would argue that there was a certain dignity to Wilde's flock. There had been several generations where his ancestors had bred them with the wild ibexes around the mountains, and then further selective breeding until you got the fine specimen that was currently standing on top of some poor soul's roof.
  
  Pehj was a proud looking creature. From the curve of his horns to his sleek chestnut coat, he cut a striking sight, silhouetted against the gray light of early dawn.
  
  And then he opened his mouth.
  
  "AAAaaaaAAAAA!" screamed Pehj from the roof, echoing across the village. "AAaaaaAAAA aaaAAA AAAaaAAAAAAA!!!"
  
  It hadn't taken Wilde long to find the creature. The snows were deep and there weren't exactly many goats of Pehj's size down from the mountains, so the trail from where he'd untied his reigns to his current perch had been pretty easy to follow.
  
  "Get down from there!" Wilde hissed, gesticulating wildly. Pehj ignored him, and bleated somehow louder.
  
  Wilde searched around for a ladder. This was not, in fact, the most infuriating place Pehj had managed to park himself (he had once gotten about three quarters of the way up some ramparts - gravity for goats was not so much a law as a suggestion) but Wilde could already feel hot embarrassment creeping up the back of his neck. The last thing he wanted this morning was the scrutiny of grouchy villagers woken from their beds by Pehj's temper tantrum.
  

Comments

[bythegrace]

Johanna did not live in a place that was easily accessed by random wandering. It took really very pointed wandering to arrive at her doorstep and, frankly, somewhat more effort to get onto her roof. The waterwheel covered most small sounds (for instance: the sounds of hooves on the ceramic tiles) but nothing, neither the gods' nor any creation of man, could have covered the unbridled screaming of that goat. In the early morning air, why, it carried so well that Johanna would not have been shocked to hear an echo of it come back off the mountains.

As it was, Pehj managed to wake Johanna from a dead sleep and did so with such a startling abruptness that she actually started and tumbled from her bed. It screamed again, once she was awake, and she stared up at the roof in mixed alarm and groggy anger as she scrambled to her feet and charged out the front door.

This was where she found a young man gesturing and whispering loudly toward her rooftop. She glowered at him blearily, her dark hair askew at all sorts of strange angles and her whole face still mussed with sleep. Her chemise was an overtly lacy affair and, had she been from Maireglenne she might have been embarrassed to be seen in it. She was not from Maireglenne and, despite the flowy garment being both ridiculously inappropriate to be seen out in, as well as being far too thin for the weather, she stalked out, barefoot and bristling, to give this young man a piece of her mind.

She jabbed him square in the chest with her finger before even saying so much as hello.

"Do you know what time it is?" Johanna demanded, her tone rough from sleep. "Why in the world are you out here screaming at the ass-crack of dawn?"

And, in timing so delightful that it might as well have been a defense, Pehj screamed from the roof again.

[deathwalk]

Wilde startled and then hung his head in utter shame.

In any other circumstance, he might have asked if Johanna was cold in her bare feet and impractical nightdress. Perhaps offer his surcoat to keep her shielded from the winter air because he hadn't been raised in a barn*. As it was, all he could manage was to point at aforementioned goat who had now migrated to the chimney.

It is important to note at this time that this is why Wilde didn't really bother keeping more than one cockerel at the homestead. He already has plenty of large animals content to scream their heads off at the crack of dawn at the most minor inconvenience.

"I don't suppose you have a ladder," Wilde asked sheepishly to the fuming woman.

"AAAAAAAaaaaAAAA!" Pehj screamed to an uncaring universe at large.

*(Actually, he practically had been. Probably not the best figure of speech.)

[bythegrace]

He pointed and Johanna turned, gradually, and with an expression that was split, evenly, between fury and resignation. It was an odd look. She saw the assorted sets of hoofprints on her roof, she saw the places where large lines of snow had been disturbed and fallen to crush the plants sheltered by the awning. She then spied Pehj on her chimney.

He screamed.

Johanna stared for a long moment and then scrubbed her hand over her face.

"No, I don't," she responded, her tone carrying the threat of impending shouting without actually being shouting of any kind. She looked back at the boy and then sighed again.

"Come on," she ordered, the irritation in her voice less restricted, and marched back toward the house.

The only way for a normal creature to get onto her roof was to stop the waterwheel entirely and climb up it. If they wanted to retrieve the goat, that was what they would have to do. It was a cumbersome and difficult process that would result in both of them getting soaked in icy river water. She was going to make him do most of the work.

[deathwalk]

Wilde shot one more disgruntled look at Pehj and then followed after Johanna. He didn't even bother an attempt at the dread 'small talk' - neither of them seemed in the mood for it and frankly he just wanted to get his goat off her roof.

"...So how exactly am I getting up there?"

Only the important questions, of course. He hoped there was a trap door leading up to the roof or something of that ilk.

He really hoped so.