Twisted Tales

Contracts and a Dodgy Dinner

          It wasn't that I didn't feel bad for causing such a problem in this young man's life. I just didn't much relish the thought of having to stay alone in the house of a man I didn't know, while doing a carpentry job that I didn't know how to do, all while I didn't actually know where I was or how I got there, or how I was going to get back home.

          "How about you let me be the judge of that?" Erik suggested, obviously not about to let me worm my way out of this. "Unless you happen to have pockets full of gold on you and can pay for me to have it repaired, of course."

          It was obvious from my expression that this was not the case.

          "I don't have time to spend the next week fixing the roof, I've got too many jobs as it is. So it's either pay up, or get to work." He glared unwaveringly at me, despite my most pathetic and imploring expression.

          I glanced up at the hole. It was pretty big. I glanced down at my feet. It was mostly thatch, which didn't seem like it would be too hard...

          I let my shoulders slump. I didn't really have much of a choice, did I? I wouldn't be able to find my way to town on my own, and even if I thought that maybe I could, I wasn't willing to try now that I knew what sort of things were out there. "Okay, fine. Deal."

          Erik grunted with what I assume was approval. He crossed the room and from under a pile of what appeared to be dirty clothes, he pulled out a handmade broom and tossed it to me. I barely caught it, it was difficult to raise my arms very high without my chest and ribs singing with pain.

          "What's--?" I started to ask, but the words died on my lips as Erik gestured to the pile of thatch at me feet.

          "You can start by sweeping all of that up," he said.

          I was almost furious, given the fact that he was putting me to work almost immediately after I'd fallen through his freaking roof, but some of my anger faded when I realized that he wasn't going to just laze about, gleefully watching me toil for him.

          While I did my best to sweep the worst of the straw and wood out the front door, Erik went outside and around the back of the cottage, returning with what looked like heavy canvases. He very carefully climbed up the side of the small house and, standing on the edge of the roof so he wouldn't follow my example and fall through it, he covered the hole with the canvas and used medium sized stones to weight it down. That done, he headed back inside and started rifling through the piles of papers and other crap on the long table, evidently searching for something.

          I swept out the last bit of straw and leaf debris over the threshold, and sort of pushed the entire pile to the side of the front path with the broom. Erik could deal with it himself if he wanted it somewhere else, I thought grumpily. My shoulders ached painfully after even that meager amount of effort, and I figured I must have bruised my shoulders and lower neck pretty badly too when I hit the ground.

          Dragging the broom behind me, I went back inside and closed the door behind me. Night had definitely fallen by now, and despite it still being warm for late summer, there was the slightest hint of a chill in the evening breeze that made me shiver.

          Erik was still intently searching for something on the cluttered table, somehow making even more of a mess than there already was. "What are you doing?" I asked, curious despite myself, as I walked up beside him.

          "None of your business," he snapped almost automatically, but before I had time to feel offended, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Sorry," he grunted. "I'm looking for a contract. It's a parchment rolled into a scroll, with a red wax seal with the mayor's stamp. Seal's been broken, obviously. I think it's in this general direction..." He waved a hand vaguely over what appeared to me to be the entirety of the table.