Chapter 127: Talca and Littal

Some things took a lot of getting used to, and some took almost none.

For Arthur, “the town in inaccessible to wagons” was an idea that he took it as an undisputed, unspoken given. It was a fact of nature and a law of the universe, something that had carved itself into granite-like certainty in him over the last several months. They were alone, save for Karbo style rescues, forging their own path in the wilderness.

And yet, unless close to a dozen very excited people were lying to him, there was a wagon at the gates of the town.

“How?” Arthur was very aware he looked stupid, like a caveman being introduced to motorcycles for the first time. He didn’t care. He needed answers. “How does a wagon get here?”

“Probably by rolling,” Milo deadpanned. “Mostly. There was probably some bouncing and jostling involved, unless I’m way off the mark.”

“No, I mean, there are trees, and rocks, and all. Wagons can’t get here,” Arthur said.

“Listen, Arthur, you know how we’ve been building roads inwards? Other people have been building them outwards from other settlements since before we came here. Eventually, a wagon was going to make it. If anything, it only took this long because the terrain on the way here is so bad.”

Milo looked towards the gate and snapped his fingers. “Actually, you know what? We should get down there. You know who would have made the trip first if anyone did? Who even could?”

“Oh, wow, that’s right,” Lily said. “It has to be Talca and Littal. He’s assigned to us, isn’t he? They’re responsible for supplying all the backpackers who bring us items.”

“Yes, it’s likely,” Mizu said. “And my mother will be with him.”

“You think?” Rhodia was visibly surprised. “Just because there’s a wagon doesn’t mean your mom was on it. You thought she was walking before. Maybe she still is.”

“No, if there was a faster way to get here, she’d be using it.” Mizu nodded to herself, grimly. “She’d find out about the wagon. And she wouldn’t let Talca say no.”

“Mizu, you’re making her sound like a villain from a book,” Rhodia said. “She can’t possibly be that bad.”

“No, actually, maybe.” Onna looked oddly speculative. “I met her once. She’s… tough. Not in a bad way, but I’m not sure Mizu’s exaggerating here.”

“Well, there’s no use arguing about something we can just check on.” Arthur stood up and looped his apron off over his head. “Care for a walk, everyone?”

As the others stood and joined the general throng of town-dwellers headed towards the gate, Mizu lagged behind a few steps behind and he dropped back with her.

“You know it’s going to be okay, right? Even just the part where you got the water working again so fast is amazing,” Arthur said.

“I only had to do that because it all blew up,” Mizu said as she brushed a strand of stray hair back. “It was a major catastrophe, Arthur.”

“A catastrophe that could have happened to anyone trying something new. And you were doing that because you are brilliant.” Arthur hugged her into his side and kissed the top of her hair lightly. “I haven’t met your mom. But she has to see that.”

Mizu huffed in faux frustration. “I hope so.”

“You didn’t mean that,” Arthur said. “You have to… believe in it, I guess.”

“Are you saying that I’m lying?” Mizu asked. Arthur would have alarmed if he didn’t know her well enough that she wasn’t actually angry.

“Not that. And no, I don’t think so. It’s just…” Arthur tried his hardest to root through Earth memories to find something appropriate for the situation. He had to go back that far to remember something that was genuinely bad. “This is a little fuzzy, but I remember having a job on Earth. I don’t really remember what I did, anymore. Something in an office.”

“Fun!” Mizu said.

“Not fun. Earth offices were not like here. Trust me. Anyway, I remember that this job was one where it was just impossible to do well. It didn’t matter how much you did. You were just sort of behind all the time, with no end in sight, and no way to catch up. I think. That’s how it felt, anyway,” Arthur said.

“Why did you do it, then?” Mizu said. “I can’t imagine you were doing a bad job.”

“I probably wasn’t. They just wanted to squeeze every drop of work they could out of everyone there. But I remember enough to know that they told me that other people could do that much work. I sort of believed them at the time. I thought that I was just… bad at the work, I guess.”

“Nobody here is telling me that,” Mizu said.

“And nobody should. But I’m just reminding you that you are a good weller. Not even that. I’m reminding you that you know you’re good weller. And you know the difference.” Arthur hesitated a bit, trying to find the words. “Just don’t tell yourself different, okay? Because I feel like if you remember that you’re a good weller, everything is going to be okay.”

“Hmm.” Mizu didn’t respond and Arthur knew well enough to let the silence settle in. He was not, by any stretch of the word, the boss of her. He wasn’t going to be the guy who demanded someone else take his unsolicited advice. All he hoped was, whether she took his advice or not, that she’d end up happy.

The distance from the plaza to the gate was not incredibly far, even with the entire population of the town on the road at once and creating the first-ever traffic situation Coldbrook had ever experienced. It wasn’t jammed. They had too many and too wide of streets for that. But for the first time, Arthur was reflexively slowing-down from proximity to a bunch of other people, and it was a small but real effect.

“Oh, there he is. Yup, that’s Talca.” Milo’s steps got a little faster as he started hurrying to see his friend. “I’d recognize that wagon anywhere. And Mizu, for what it’s worth, it looks like he’s alone.”

When the group made it up to the wagon, Talca was just unloading the last of several crates of supplies, grunting as he set one of the heavier ones on the side of the brick road inside the gate.

“You need help with that, old man?” Milo winked at Arthur as he stepped in. “I wouldn’t want you to throw out your back.”

“Naw, I’ll call you when I need someone to bore me to sleep talking about different kinds of iron, or how much they miss their girlfriend on a one-week trip.”

“Oof. Low blow.” Milo winced.

“I do what I can. Is this the charitable lady right here? She’s pretty, Milo. And looks smart. I’ll try not to tell her how much better she could be doing,” Talca said.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Rhodia squeezed Milo’s arm with her own. “He has his points. Did he really talk about how much he missed me?”

“Starting on day two of the trip and never stopping unless he was crafting something,” Talca said. “You see it a lot in this business. The first trip, maybe the second as well, the passenger talks about missing the girlfriend. By the third, she’s there. The fourth, they’ve got kids in tow. It’s an old story.”

Arthur would have bet his entire tea garden that Rhodia was thick-skinned enough to take almost any type of teasing Talca could throw. But this was different. Talca had thrown a curveball that none of them had expected. It knocked Rhodia out of the game entirely, and she did her best not to sputter at the prospect of children.

“So, as you can see, I’m here.” Talca didn’t revel in his triumph for long. “Though I’ve been here in some sense of the word this entire time. I was bringing your supplies as close as they could come the entire time we were building the road. I probably could have made it through myself earlier, but the leadership in charge of transport thought it would be better if I waited until all the tricky parts were at least tamped down. Better use of my time, they said.”

“So it’s connected now?” Arthur asked. “All the way from your stampers to ours?”

“Oh, no. There’s a good fifty miles that aren’t if you add up all the patches that aren’t done. But all the tricky bits are. They prioritized making a path that some of the better wagon haulers could get through. And as you all know, I’m the best.”

“Littal is, anyway.” Lily was petting the huge Hing, who rolled his head back and brayed in obvious joy. “Are you a good boy, Littal? Do you want to run around after that long trip? I bet you do.”

“Wait, don’t unclip…” Talca’s warning came too late. As soon as Lily loosened the main strap that held Littal to the wagon, he shot off like a loosed arrow out of the gate. “Yeah, I was going to warn you all about that. He saw your Hings on the way in. Hope you didn’t have any big genetic plans set up.”

“It’s all right,” Arthur said. “I’m sure little Littal babies will be a boon for our fine community. Speaking of, what do you think?”

Talca set down the last box from his load and took a good look around the town. “Honestly? You’ve done a lot here, Arthur. There are towns that are ahead of you on little bits and pieces of things, but big picture? You have permanent houses, and it looks like more of them than you need. I don’t know much about agriculture, but it looks well on its way as well. And is that an entertainment area, over there? Or the start of one?”

“The start of one. But it’s pretty good, at that. I have my tea shop up and running already,” Arthur said.

“Sounds like you,” Talca said. “I was pretty sure before, but this clinches it for me.”

“Clinches what? Favorite new communities, as judged by Talca?” Arthur asked.

“Sort of.” Talca looked over the valley, settling his eyes on a big, unbuilt tract of land a good way off from the rest of the buildings. “Does anyone have dibs on that? It looks perfect.”

“For?”

“For my warehouse. I talked it over with some family, and everyone told me I need to set down a base somewhere. For good, this time. I know more people here than in the other settlements, and it’s pretty central. I talked it over with Littal, already. We’ve decided to dominate the shipping in this region.”

“Really? No kidding?” Spiky looked up, suddenly excited. “It’s great for us, but you should know we don’t have much in the way of trade goods, yet.”

“Really. And I’m not worried. You will eventually,” Talca said.

“I’ll get the builders on it right away,” Arthur said. “Or as soon as you know what you need. Just give us a rough idea and it will get done.”

“Oh, wow.” Talca looked at Arthur again. “They told me you were in charge, but I figured it was more of an honorary thing.”

“It is, but I can tell them to build it anyway.” Arthur laughed and clapped his hand on Talca’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you. And just you. Mizu thought you’d be bringing a visitor.”

“Oh, yeah, I did. Where’d she get off to, anyway? Probably to find a bathroom,” Talca said. “I swear the woman seemed allergic to sneaking off into the bushes.”

Mizu suddenly stiffened up.

“Who, exactly?” She squeaked.

“Oh, you guys already have your water elemental,” Talca said. “Maybe you know her?”

Talca nodded into the distance where a very tall, very stern looking blue-skinned demon was walking towards them, actually coming back from the town. Arthur would remember this moment later, and the part that would stick out to him the most was how she walked. She was gliding across the stones, every motion perfectly smooth, like she had practiced the simple act of locomotion until there weren’t any flaws in the entire motion.

“Oh, gods,” Mizu said. “It’s mom.”