Dámian Vasquez - El Camino a Santiago

"You're not ready. There is much yet to learn, mi hijo." 
"I'm done! I'm leaving. He's out there somewhere and I need to go find him. Ahora." 
"No." 
Her answer is final. The topic is closed for discussion. He picks up the chisel and glowers at the piece of dull metal on the anvil. 
"Again."

---

The voyage over is fine. There's food, the cots aren't crawling with flees. People leave him alone most of the time. He's been in worse places for much longer. 
Port Ffirst is perfectly average, but too small for his liking. He stands out too much, to the wrong people. And there aren't enough jobs. As cheap as the Shank is, he'll have to put some drunkard down within a fortnight and he doesn't have the energy for it. Some old fashioned legwork reveals that mercenary companies are generally thin on the ground - adventuring, the dockworkers tell him, that's where the real money is. "Go east, some 20 miles and change. Throw in with the lot at the Ettin. Get rich, or die trying. Or maybe both."

He hitches a ride with a caravan easy enough - a big man with a large sword offering to shut down trouble for free isn't bad to keep around. He's dropped off south of what looks to be a.. pink fort? Without a front gate. Nonetheless, the food is better than he's had in a good long while, and the people are friendly enough, if a little eccentric. He tries not to think about how he's probably counted as equally odd these days.

Technically, he could afford one of the private rooms but it's too.. strange. Comfortable. Quiet. He claims a free bed in the bunkhouse and lays down, immediately settled by the familiar noise of mismatched people sharing living space. The clink of coin and armor, the sharpening of blades. If he closes his eyes he can almost pretend the people around him are The Hounds. 

In the morning he'll chat someone up by the large notice board and see what jobs are on offer. One thing at a time. 

"Go to the place they call Kantas. Wait for him in the Dawnlands. He will find you there."  

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