Chapter VII

Bergskort

The small group walked through the gates into the small town. Situated at the foot of the mountain and the end of the pass between north and south, the town of Bergskort is home to the southernmost settlement of north men. Although it started as a simple boarder post when the old pass was the main route between the kingdoms. It had grown upward and prospered for a short time at least.

The town now however looked to the newcomers as a very grim place. With its gloomy wooden rooftops, dark walls and the menacing mountain tops to the south, Bergskort had a grisly atmosphere. And an equally troubled past, having lost its most vital source of income when new routes were discovered through the snow mountains. The town was now mainly supported by hunting, and the little trade that flowed from both the southern territories and the great mountain still visible on the northern horizon, however since the fall of most of the south, trade and by extension the towns incomes had disappeared, and it was showing here and now.

As Codsworth followed by Dmitri who limped beside the old commander, using a rifle as a crutch, not that it was comfortable, but it had been the only solution other than to carry him. The group walked towards a large open square by the town entrance the inhabitants of Bergskort stared down at the group. It had been a long time since newcomers had come to their little town, they were used to the occasional merchant traveling through, but the survivors looked even worse than they did. As they approach the square itself a voice called out to them from the largest of the building around it.

“Stop there!” Sjur Aaraas, a guard shouts as he walks towards the group, he wore a simple wolf fur cloak, over his regular cloths and a simple crude helmet, other than that though he was unrecognisable as an official guard. Codsworth looks back at the group, gestures them to halt before walking forward towards the guard. “What business do eleven southern have in the north?” Sjur said, he lowered the hood of his cloak to reveal an ugly face, with cold grey eyes and unkept hair that reached his shoulders.

“We’re simply here looking for shelter.” Codsworth said walking forward as he spoke his hands raised in mock surrender, this was about what he had expected as a welcome, the hostility of the north-men was well known, he just hoped that no-one in the group would do anything rash.

“Well then.” Sjur said, looking at the group with distaste as if he would rather be anywhere but here right now, dealing with the newcomers. “You better go and speak to the governor.” He continued staring at the group, looking around to see if he could find a reason not to. However, obviously he couldn’t so he relented and gestured for Codsworth to follow him. The commander nodded and headed towards a small stone building at the end of the square followed by Charlie, Vernon and Dmitri limping along at the rear. Leaving the rest behind.

As they reached the place where Sjur had shouted from, a large three-story building that was now obviously some kind of town hall, the guard turned around to face the four who had agreed to meet with the chief of this place.

“Right. Hand over your weapons.” Sjur said, obviously looking for a reason to throw them out of the town, Codsworth thought. Determined not to give this man one he handed over the pistols and rifle that he carried. As did the rest. However, when they made to go in the guard once again stopped them and pointed at Dmitri. “The rifle under your arm. Hand it over.” Sjur said with a grimace. Codsworth was about to interject, but Dmitri got there first.

“You wouldn’t deprive a veteran of his crutch, would you?” Dmitri asked, trying to appeal to this man’s humanity, if he had one. Sjur looked at the ground, thinking about something before continuing.

“Is it empty?” Sjur asked, and Dmitri shown him, holding the trigger and aiming at the ground, he pulled the trigger several times and all that came out was a series of clicking noises. Confirming the gun’s lack of bullets. This seemed to satisfy the guard who nodded and opened the doors into the rickety looking town hall.

As Codsworth and the other three were talking with the guard outside the government building, Barca kept watch as the townsfolk continued on with their daily business as the group waited for the rest of their party to return from the governor’s residence. As the lieutenant was keeping watch, Jack and Dave were talking to each other about the journey so far, when someone collided with Jack. He turned around to see who had knocked into him, and his heart skipped a beat.

Erika Hjort, A red headed girl about his own age, give or take a few weeks was on the ground picking up the collection of tankards that had crashed to the grown when she had collided into Jack.

“Sorry.” Erika said looking up at the group as she continued to pick up the tankards. Jack kneels down to help her, this seemed to take Erika by surprise, as if no-one had ever done this before in her life.

“Here.” Jack said collecting up the remaining tankards and putting it back on the container that she was carrying.

“Thanks.” Erika said getting up and looking at Jack. He sighed. ‘This was it’ Jack thought to himself and waited for the flinch or recall that he was used to whenever someone saw his face. After all, that’s what happened every time he had built up the courage to talk to any girl of his own age, but to his surprise Erika did neither of those, she simply smiled before walking away, towards a building that the sign said it was called ‘The Mountain Base Inn.’ Which looked to be the largest building in the square, even compared to the town hall. Jack smiled back at the retreating girl as he felt his face going red whilst he did so. he had suddenly lost all awareness of his surroundings. That was until someone behind him spoke.

“You might want to close your mouth kid.” Bruce said from behind him, making Jack jump in surprise, he hadn’t noticed the translator walking behind him. What was worse though was that the Barter was right, he closed his mouth hurriedly to the sound of laugher from Dave, who seemed to have found the whole encounter extremely assuming.

“Shut up.” Jack said to his younger brother and turned away from Dave who was trying his best and failing miserably at containing his laughter.

Inside the town hall was dark, even though it was still daylight outside. Combine that with the spartan nature of the place, and it all added up to a building that you didn’t want to stay in for too long. Codsworth though as he noticed the governor in front of the four of them.

Forrest Mccoy a forty ish year old sits on a high back chair overlooking the room where Codsworth, Vernon, Dmitri and Charlie are waiting for him to pass his judgment. Whilst he was a lot thinner than Osmund, the mayor of the imperial city, the man in front of them had a similar stare to him. He glowered down at the newcomers, sizing them up and looking like he was deciding if they would be a threat to him or his position.

“You may stay.” Forrest said, looking at the new people, he sounded almost bored, as if he had so many more important things to do rather than be here right now.

“Thank you.” Codsworth said bowing and making to leave but the governor raised his hand for them to stop.

“On the condition that those of you that are able bodied will pull your weight. How many are there in your group that can contribute?” Forrest asked, looking at the commander, waiting for his answer with about the same level of patience as his counterpart from Metropololis. Meaning not a lot.

“Seven.” Codsworth said quickly, before any of the others, especially Vernon and Dmitri could answer. Forrest nods before continuing.

“And who can't?” Forrest asked, with a little more interest this time.

“Vernon, the two youngest; Nick and Martin... And Dmitri here.” Codsworth said, gesturing at the old butler and the crippled captain. Vernon only nods, but Dmitri looks towards the commander who does not meet his gaze.

“What?” Dmitri asked, this had not been part of the plan, and he was slightly hurt by the fact that his old comrade thought that he couldn’t contribute. Sure, he had lost his leg, but that meant nothing to him. But McCoy seemed satisfied with the answer and nodded.

“Very well, have your group set up in the nearest house, it's now yours, for the duration of your stay, and be ready for my men to meet them. They'll have their assignments by tomorrow. You may leave.” Forrest said getting up and leaving by the door, where something foul smelling made the four of them retch and hasten their withdrawal from the building.

“Well, how’d it go?” Barca asked as the four returned from the town hall looking pleased, all except Dmitri who face only showed a pained expression, partly due to the walk back here, partly due to how useless he felt without his leg.

“We have a place to winter at least, so long as we pull our weight.” Codsworth said looking relieved for the first time since leaving Wolfrick manor, whilst this was the most hospitable of places, it would certainly do, potentially for longer than just the winter as well. He thought, but as he didn’t want to get his hopes up, so he supressed that particular thought for the time being.

“That’s good.” Barca said, it felt like a lifetime since they had left the relative safety of Brutus’ home and it felt good for to be back in civilisation again. No matter how backwards it was. Codsworth began to look around the square and spotted the house that would be their home for the next few months.

“Aye. Now if you’ll excuse me. I want to go and inspect the house that we have at our disposal.” Codsworth said, at this Martin looked up at this, as if all his wishes had come true at once.

“House?” Martin asked, looking around the town square, having spent the past few days living in caves. This was the best thing that could have happened to him.

“Aye kid. It’s small but it’ll do.” Codsworth said, gesturing at a modest, two story, stone brick house, just off the town square. Martin and Nick upon seeing the building, run towards it with Charlie and Vernon following them albeit at a slower pace.

“Are we allowed to go and explore. Just to erm… See the surroundings?” Jack said stumbling slightly, over this lame excuse. Apparently, his younger brother had thought the same thing about it. As at this latest statement Dave scoffs as his older brother’s face goes a deeper shade of red, than it had been before.

“Later lad. We got to meet with some of the governor’s men to get our jobs.” Codsworth said before looking around at the square, spotting the red-haired girl, and then returned his gaze back at Jack. “Don't worry though lad. I’m sure the erm… surroundings will still be here later on.” The old commander finished in a tone that stated that he knew exactly what Jack had wanted to see, he wasn’t stupid, he had been the kid’s age once and had noticed the brief conversation that he had had with the red headed girl, albeit from a distance. At this refusal, Jack walks off towards the house with Dave following on behind, trying and failing to hold in his laugher at his brother’s humiliation. Barca, Bruce, Jimmy and Abi follow behind leaving Dmitri and Codsworth alone.

“Why did you say I couldn’t contribute?” Dmitri almost blurted out, wanting to get the question of his chest, wondering if the commander was going to sideline him from this, what else he had in store for him.

“Because you've lost a leg comrade. I'm not going to have you putting undue work on your shoulders. Plus, I need someone to guard the house whilst the rest of us are out.” Codsworth said, before he began taking a look around the square again but this time with a different purpose in mind, seeing the townsfolk as potential enemies.

“Wait. You don’t trust them then?” Dmitri asked looking around as well and noticed a thick set man eyeing their current location, Dmitri noticed that the man had been leaning up against the same barrels for the entire time that they had been talking and was willing to bet that he had been watching them from before the conversation as well. The man’s act in this new light certainly had a more sinister nature about it than it had a few moments ago.

“I don’t know. But I do know that I’m not letting my guard down. Like Brutus said, these people are more dangerous than anyone down south.” Codsworth said taking one last look around before making off to join the group. Dmitri took one last look around the square as well and limped off. However halfway towards the house Dmitri suddenly stopped and began coughing almost to the point of retching, he reached into his pocket and brought a cloth to cover his mouth, he retched for a few moments before withdrawing the cloth revealing that it was spattered with small droplets of blood.

“What the hell.” Dmitri said quietly, looking around to check if anyone had seen him, mostly his own group, but also keeping an eye out for the potentially hostile townsfolk. However, when he spotted nobody, the thick set man having just left, he hurriedly pocketed the cloth and limped to catch up with the others.