As they reached the front of the line and prepared to enter Aramos village, Dominic heard a pounding on the armoured door of his carriage, and swung the entry open to greet the guard.
As he saw the Guard's clothing, rough linen under his guard issue chain mail, Dominic got a great idea. He had [Minor Illusion] available to him, and it wouldn't take much to change the appearance of his leather apron to a cheaper plain leather one, filthy with soot in a way suited to having been in the forge all day.
A shimmer passed over him as he altered his clothing, but in the heat haze coming from the door, the guard didn't notice anything at all. Only a few seconds later, when the heat of the forge wagon had dissipated a little, did he look back in the door again to actually inspect Dominic.
The man leaned in the door, then stepped back as the wind shifted and a wave of heat from the forge burst out of the entry. But did have time to take note of Dominic's sweaty but smiling face in the entryway.
"Move the Apron aside so I can check your weapons." He demanded in a monotone voice that let Dominic know he was just doing his job.
He nodded as he looked at the crude hilts of the daggers, and then the plain linen clothes under the brand-new, but dirty apron.
"Must have been a rough day if they brought a fresh green apprentice as their smith." He commented.
Dominic chuckled as he remembered the words that the boss had used.
"Some pompous jackanape offered their usual smith a big bonus to go with him for the trip, so I got the call-up at the last minute. Most money I've seen in my life."
The guard laughed along with him. "I'll bet it is. It's not often that an apprentice sees a whole gold coin, and even more rare that he will earn more than one at a time. I suggest that you ask him to split it into golden pennies or silver coins when you get paid tonight so that you don't have to hope that the shops have enough change."
"That is an excellent idea, thank you." Dominic replied, honestly impressed with the professionalism of the guard, who he noticed carried both a sword and a pistol on his hips.
He passed on to the next carriage, and the healer gave Dominic a thumbs up and a sly wink, then lit a cigarette while they waited. He considered saying something about them being bad for his health, but that was the healer, he didn't really have to worry about such a small thing.
Once the inspections were finished, the carriages passed through the gates and the leader directed them down a path that seemed familiar to everyone but Dominic, winding through the streets toward whatever customer had requested their goods today.
They eventually found themselves in a smaller version of the gathering square that was across from Pops' forge in the city, and Dominic noticed that it was set up more like a flea market than a parking lot.
"Do you just sell everything right here?" He asked his driver, confused by the sight in front of them.
"Some do, but we have a buyer. The problem is that the streets get crowded, since the whole village is filled with tightly packed apartment buildings. So we park here, and the buyer sends someone to get it. The big transport vehicles can't make it down the side streets without completely blocking them in both directions." He explained.
One by one, the boss handed out the day's pay as he made his way down the row, but he paused just before Dominic's wagon as a man on crutches with visible wounds and bandages on his face hobbled his way to the convoy.
"Goddess, Tom. What in the world happened to you?" The boss shouted, then ran over to help the man up into the smithy carriage.
The healer followed them in, quickly casting a series of spells on the wounded man, who was slumped in the well-worn bench seat of the carriage like he was home.
"That idiot and his damnable promise of a big trip bonus is what happened to me. We were running from the Goblins, and we had just made the clearing outside town when he ordered that we spread out and fight.
Those idiots listened to him, but they didn't have a decent fighter among them, and the Goblins had three shamans.
We didn't have enough ranged fighters to take on the shamans, and the caravan guards were scraped up from the street, mostly academy dropouts who couldn't tell their ass from a tea kettle. They managed to lose to a bunch of ragtag goblins, and they probably would have even without the shamans help.
When the guards showed up to help, I packed my things and moved to the back to keep them supplied with arrows. It cost me my whole stock, but I made it back to town.
They didn't have a healer left to deal with the injuries, and the goblins got the convoy leader as well. Turns out, he didn't even have enough on his body to pay the wages. He was betting that he would get enough from the sales to make a profit and pay us out the promised bonuses.
The carriages are all trashed now, and the goods are mostly ruined, so the survivors couldn't even sell those to make up the difference." Tom explained.
The healer patted him on the shoulder and pulled a blanket from under the seat.
"Go to bed and sleep it off. We can scold you for greed and stupidity in the morning. It's good to have you back."
The smith chuckled as he stretched out on the seat, finally noticing Dominic in the carriage, sitting next to the forge.
"Is that my replacement? Heck, as cute as he is, I'm surprised you didn't kick me out on my ear." He joked.
"He's a fine spell caster as well. Picks off Goblins like nobody's business, and each spell is a sure kill. If he was a fully trained smith, you might be in trouble." The convoy leader teased his old friend, before handing Dominic his day's wages in silver coin.
"Oh? Where did you find that kind of multi-talented smith?" Tom asked.
"He's Pop's apprentice."
"Well, that's good luck for me. He will want his apprentice back after the return trip, I suppose. The old man doesn't take to very many people, so if he took an actual apprentice, he won't let his new one go so easily."