It wasn't very long ago that I scarcely had a thing to do to fill up a day. Now, I've too many things and not enough time. While trying to fall asleep -- hard to do, with so many thoughts of coming days racing in my head -- I realized that this felt right and proper because it's harvest season. Even if I'm not doing any gathering, I am still, as pa says, busy as a mountain stream in springtime. Overfull of too much and moving fast and loud to try to make up for it.
Miss Brynleigh has been teaching me how to be of use in the stables at Hookworth for some time now; but as I'm looking to find a trade, something that I can use to feed myself and perhaps one day a family, whether that be back home in Rohan or somewhere else, I'm now making it, as far as I can at my age, into a proper apprenticeship. And that means I have to put a lot of time and dedication into it, and still keep up with the work. That alone would probably fill my days.
But I'm also interested in Miss Sareva's idea of being a guide. I can't decide which trade is more interesting. Ostlery is more a sure thing, but scouting does more to use what I already know, from having traveled so far and seen so much, and the work I did earning some measure of trust from the Woodmen. The trouble though is having to learn swordplay. Seems that it'll take years of training to be good enough even for defending myself, let alone those who hire me.
I've got to try to learn what I can anyway, though, if only because I might need to defend myself on the way back to the Mark next spring, to report my failure. Though even if I did nothing but train, I would have much left to learn by then. But how much time can I spend on training if I'm also apprenticing in ostlery? And then I also have to take some time to earn the coin to pay for the training. Miss Tylva suggested someone to train with, but doesn't know what it'll cost; but it's sure it'll cost something, and that means I have to spend days earning the coin to pay for the lessons, days I can't be training. I have almost saved up enough from odd jobs to pay the Beorning's tolls; yesterday I earned a bit fetching butter, of all things, for Master Butterbur. But it's nothing steady enough to pay for lessons.
So with enough to fill three days for every time the sun rises, you might think I'd keep to that, but what's the first thing I do? Offer to escort Miss Haritha to Trestlebridge, a journey that'll take a day each way, plus a day for me to spend fetching a horse from Éogar for her to use, and then two days afterwards doing an errand for Éogar to pay for the use of the horse. (I'll be bringing three horses from his farm to Trestlebridge for him. In a way it seems a pity to add three days to a two-day trip when Kestrel could carry both of us easily, but Miss Brynleigh pointed me to the thought that sharing a horse with a young, unmarried lass might be an impropriety.)
Miss Tylva thought I ought to ask some coin for my time, but I didn't. All I asked, other than Miss Haritha's company, is her good word: when we return, if she tells people I was a good guide, that'll help me make good coin on guide-work with other folk. More than most trades it'll depend on having a good reputation. Of course, the real reason is because she was in need, I offered, and I stand by my word. It's only proper. But I do have to think practically as well.
Especially when the first thing I'm having to do in my apprenticeship is ask for five days away from the stable! It's lucky Miss Brynleigh is so kind and so full of encouragement. Folks keep telling me how lucky I was to make it so far without having to swing my sword, but I think the greater fortune was finding kind folk in far places. Far-Scout, and that lore-master in the archives in Dale, and Miss Brynleigh, and Dalton, the dock-worker in Lake-town who showed me that unused garret, and Miss Tylva (though I expect she wouldn't recognize herself in a description that included the word "kindness", though even her hurtful appraisal of my value was a kindness in its way), and that elf maid of the Woodland Realm, and the Beorning I met in the Forsaken Inn, and too many others to count. Maybe it's folk like that who got me this far, more than any luck in not running into danger on the road.
Let's hope that luck holds through the trip to Trestlebridge. I can hardly hope to sleep thinking about it.
