Carpenter

Mendo took Jonas through the small streets of the poor looking part of town. There, infront of him stood another wooden house, only this one seemed to have some more stone at it's foundation. The wall of the first floor was made completely out of the stone which were held together a weird beige paste, 'probably something like mortar' Jonas thought.

He got over to Mendo who went and knocked at the wooden door. Jonas stood in the still falling snow, wondering how long the seemingly never ending snowfall would subside. He had both of his hands supporting himself with the crutch shaped wooden sticks he had gotten himself at Mendos place. Not taking to long, the door of the sturdy looking building opened revealing another rather young looking man behind it.

The man didn't exactly look any older then Mendo so he was probably at around the same age range as Mendo. He had a light chin beard and was a bit shorter than Mendo and Jonas but was nevertheless well built. The man looked at Mendo and the unwelcoming gaze that had grazed his face instantly vanished as a slight smile appeared on his face. The man wrapped his right arm around Mendo in a friendly manner and said, "Damn Mendo! I really didn't expect you to come back alive, have you heard of the rampaging fullbear? I thought that monster would devour you in one bite!"

Mendo returned the gesture, also throwing his right arm around the other saying, "You wouldn't expect me to go and die just like that right? I've walked that path more times then i could count! Im not going to get eaten by some rampaging bear am i?!" The both of them laughed out loud for a bit and then got out of their brotherly embrace, giving the man a chance to look at the waiting Jonas.

"Who's your new friend over hear? I've certainly never seen you around here, did you come here with Mendo? or wait- i guess you wouldn't really be able to without your second leg". The man chuckled a bit to himself.

Jonas took the opportunity and introduced himself. "Yeah... Nice to meet you, my name is Jonas, your's?" Jonas's face looked to be slightly annoyed. He didn't really care what people thought about him, but just straight up saying it into his face was a different story. As he didn't want to inconvenience himself or his friend he tried keeping the best poker face he had in store at the time and just tried to deal with his annoyance slowly turning into anger. Mendo also seemed to not appreciate the comment as he quickly gave the man a jab as to get him to introduce himself.

The man also looked displeased at this but still complied. "The name's Kirol, im the carpenter around here and the only one you're going to find for about 60 miles... So to get back to the point, what are you doing here Mendo? If you're going to ask me to repair your Galver again im going to cut your throat you hear me!? I am no fucking blacksmith!" Kirol seemed to be yelling at the end of his sentence, Jonas thought that it had to be something that apparently happened pretty often. As he was still a bit angered of Kirols first impression, he needed to have his prosthetic replaced ASAP.

Mendo informed Kirol of the business the both of them had with him to which he hesitantly agreed. Mendo went in with Jonas and waited with him as his measurements were taken. As the only thing Jonas could pretty much do was ask for a few things to be implemented and wait, he asked for a simple suspension to be built in and to just make the thing a bit more comfortable. After everything was said, Jonas walked outside into the snowfall which still hadn't stopped. he looked around him for a bit and remembered the words Mendo had told him yesterday which were that he could just walk around town for a bit. He decided to check out the marketplace again as last time he was there, it was almost dark.

He walked towards the marketplace with a small limp as he still used his uncomfortable stick crutches. As he arrived at the marketplace, the scene which unfolded was pretty incredible. In the last few days, the most people Jonas had seen were 6 which included Mendo and the other 5 weird people who all wore there Galver on their back. And even then, 6 people was more then what Jonas was used to as he excluded himself from society for about 4 years. The only people he got to see was the old lady in his apartment who occasionally gave him some homemade food, but was right infront of him wasn't one person, nor was it 6, no, it were about over 100 who all went over their day busily as they bought food and other stuff one would need for a family or oneself. What sticked out the most though, was the weird board which people were surrounding. As Jonas got closer to it, he got a few stares from other people although that, he could ignore. He went up to it and saw two crude drawings on it with a weird text below it which he couldn't read. It looked like whatever was written on it was in something that resembled Sütterlinschrift. The only thing Jonas could make out among the small crowd were the names of the two people as it looked like. The first drawing looked a lot better then the second one and it had a rather older looking man on it, maybe in his fifties or sixties. He didn't have a beard and had a rather common face while his head looked to be balding. As only the face could be seen on either picture, the clothes of both couldn't be made out. The name below the old man's face read "Enkel Russter".

The second one looked much younger then the old man who apparently was called Enkel. He had a chiseled jawline and had no beard aswell, just like Ernst, but unlike the lather he had something about him that Jonas couldn't describe. It was just like the concept of an aura. Jonas wondered why the man gave off this weird feeling, it was as if the man had seen to hell and back. Jonas quickly looked at the name as it interested him more then the facial features of the man. To his surprise, he recognized the name on the board. The name read "Pete Olf".

'Wasn't this the guy Mendo had mentioned when he talked about the elections? That means this must be the captain of the "village guard", although town guard seemed like a more fitting name.' Jonas held a dialogue in his head so as to not get anything confused with his facts. As Jonas had been through more confusion in the last few days then his entire life, it was the first time that he really had to concentrate so as to not switch and turn the facts he had remembered.

Jonas could already connect the dots of what this board represented, it was to show all the candidates and probably their promises on how to better the town. It resembled something like modern day elections Jonas thought. The writing was pretty incomprehensible to him as he couldn't read connected sentences in it, after all, the writing wasn't used for 80 years, and even back then it was rarely used, as it was just a subject in old schools.

He let his gaze wander away from the board and looked around him, but to his surprise, most gazes weren't fixed on the board but rather him. Jonas felt uncomfortable so he tried to get out of the crowd and just go back to Mendos house, but was rather quickly stopped by another man around his height. Jonas tried ignoring the slight fear he had in the back of his Mind and once again tried to put on the best poker face he had, then he looked at the man. The man who had his hand on top of Jonas's shoulder was non other then the person on the second picture of the board, it was Pete.

The man pointed towards a direction were no crowd could be seen, and then pulled at Jonas shoulder, indicating his desire to talk a "nice" stroll to the corner. As Jonas couldn't really do anything, he tried to follow as nonchalant as possible, making it look like it was no big deal. It certainly was a better option then trying to resist the pretty muscular looking man.

The both of them left the crowd while Pete still wasn't letting go of Jonas's arm. They walked to the other side of the marketplace while the few people that tried to follow them shortly let go after Pete stared at them with a quick glance. His gaze was indeed piercing as Jonas had to acknowledge.

When they finally reached the empty corner, Pete let Jonas go with a slight push which almost pushed Jonas to the ground. He still wasn't used to the weird stick crutches he had got himself on a whim. After catching himself and standing up straight again, he turned around and looked at the intimidating man. As Jonas had already seen a ginormous beast the other day, he wasn't really afraid like he was when the man stood infront of him for the first time. He still had to maintain a poker face though as he was quite angry at the rude push the man gave him. Pete looked at him with his cold gaze, which Jonas felt slightly uncomfortable under but did not particularly feel angst.

Finally after a long silence, the man spoke out "You are new here huh? I certainly haven't seen anyone like you here ever, not even mentioning that i have never met anyone with such weird clothing and unusual beard". The man kept his expression neutral, but Jonas could certainly feel the suspicion in the mans voice. Jonas looked at him and answered "Well, i certainly never have been here before. I didn't even know what direction this village was at first, but that story sounds unbelievable as i already experienced. So? how can i help you?" He readjusted his crutches so as to stand in a more comfortable position.

Pete narrowed his cold eyes, asking "Already experienced? uh huh..." He stayed quiet for a minute as he scanned Jonas from top to bottom and back. He then said "Well, you don't look like you can make trouble here, but it's my job to take out any risks that could endanger the townspeople, although sometimes one doesn't really feel like protecting some". His eyes got back to it's usual cold state and he then followed saying "Remember, don't do anything that could get both of us into trouble! I have to run in the election soon and i don't wan't anything bad happening that could get that sleazy old man into the Mayor's suite again". He then turned around and put his fist towards Jonas while swinging it. Jonas had to admit that it looked quite funny, after all, it was just a wave but instead of spreading his hand he curled it into a fist.

Jonas felt a bit of relief after realizing that Pete was indeed not just a straight up brute, but he also wanted to know how the dock of the town looked like. He wasn't quite sure if it was even open as it was still snowing, although not all to heavy. The problem was that he had no idea how to get to the dock. Actually, what he most hoped was to find if he could actually get saltpeter and sulfur there. If he could, then nothing would stand in his way of making gunpowder. He could try to test it on a tree by drilling a hole inside, then putting maybe 5 kilograms of gunpowder into it and then seal the hole with something like a cork. The most difficult part would be to make a fuse that would give him enough time to run away. He probably only had to use a bit of slow burning gunpowder and a rope for that, but it was still the most difficult part of the process. Jonas imagined the faces of Mendo and the Captain of the Towns guard at the sight of an explosion that would be powerful enough to bring one of those mega pines down in one blow. Of course, the pine had to be quite a bit away from town so they wouldn't damage anything in it's vicinity.

Jonas smiled slightly while he imagined himself as the mayor of this town. If he had the chance to do it, he would probably do it just on the prospect of him having easy food and a warm and big house. As he tried to find his way around to the dock, he slowly thought of a way to get into the election.