Raan walked into town later that morning.  His ankle was wrapped heavily in a leather brace.  He was carrying and using a branch to walk with.  He went first to the morning sermon; he was late, and not happy about it. Ms. Ysena wasn’t partial to people walking in halfway through her sermon.  Raan limped into the church as quiet as he could, and nearly yelped as the wind caught the door on the way closed, and slammed it.  Causing Ysena to have to stop mid sentence, and start over.  Raan just lowered his gaze, totally embarrassed, and listened closely to the rest of what she had to say that day.<br/><br/>After Priestess Ysena’s last words, and as she started her goodbye’s Raan slipped out the door he was standing next to.  He walked, leaning heavily on his stick to Serion’s shop.  He waited nearby till there were no current customers, and then approached the man.<br/><br/>“There’s a fresh group of orcs on the road near the southeastern edge of the forest, on the side of the road that follows the river.  There are four of them this time.”  Raan adjusted his stance on his ankle with a hint of pain in his face.  “That’s five this month, and 2 this week.  They are getting stronger too.  One of them actually closed the distance on me.  That’s never happened before.”  Shifting again, he continued.  “I need to ask more than the usual rate for these I’m afraid.  I need some thick hides to make armor with, and to buy something better than this hunting knife to defend myself with.  Help me with the hides, and give me enough for a decent blade from the smith, and we will call even.  Deal?”<br/><br/>Raan was a little worried.  Never had one of these brutes made it to even close enough to him to see his face clearly before.  This one even managed to hurt him.  More accurately, he hurt himself.  The first rolling dodge he did sprained his ankle pretty bad.  He didn’t even notice until halfway down the road when the adrenaline wore off.  He wanted Badly to ask Ms. Ysena to look at it, but was just too nervous to talk to her, and too proud to admit he was truly hurt.<br/><br/>