by Pirateaba
Was she prey? The wolves had thought so, but they were quickly changing their opinion. The creature was screaming and acting afraid, but she was strong, and she didn’t smell afraid like a prey. And then Erin picked up a wolf that had jumped at her and threw it at the others.
That was too much for the wolves. They slunk back as she yelled and threw snow that smacked one of the young wolves in the face and considered their options. They might have stuck around at a distance, watching her and waiting to see if she faltered, but then they raised their noses and scented trouble in the air. The wolves turned and fled. They might be hungry, but even they weren’t willing to deal with this kind of trouble.
The strange two-legged creature stayed where she was, yelling and cheering. She didn’t see the angry grizzly bear emerge from his cave until he was nearly on top of her.
—-
“Oh my god! A bear! A bear!”
Erin screamed as she pushed the sledge through the snow. She didn’t know why she’d brought it with her, but it hadn’t occurred to her to just run.
It wouldn’t have helped anyways. The bear was thundering through the snow, creating massive geysers as he roared and came at Erin. She screamed again.
“Stay back! Stay back! STAY BACK!”
She used her [Loud Voice] skill by accident. The bear hesitated as Erin raised her fists in desperation. He averted his charge and ran sideways before stopping and staring at Erin. She stared at him.
The bear was angry—she’d probably woken it from hibernation. Erin might not have ever encountered wolves, but she knew about bears. Michigan had bears and she knew—what was it?
Don’t leave food out, don’t get between a bear and her cubs…stay calm if you see a bear at a distance…but what about an attacking, angry bear?
Erin didn’t know, but the bear was getting mad again. He tried to charge. Erin screamed at him.
“GO AWAY.”
This time the bear clearly reacted to her voice. He shied away and Erin realized he didn’t like the sound.
“Don’t like that? How about this?
She took a deep breath, and then Erin let loose.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—”
—-
Three hundred meters away, a [Hunter] lowered his bow and looked up. The bird he’d been stalking took wing—as did every bird in the forest. They flew up into the air in a panic and he took aim and loosed his arrow. He missed. The [Hunter] cursed, and then looked around.
“What in the name of Dragons is that sound?”
It sounded like someone screaming, incredibly loud and from far away. The man with the bow—Jerad Riels—hesitated, but then he ran through the forest, heedless of the snow that crunched beneath his boots. He was normally as stealthy as possible to avoid alerting his quarry or dangerous predators, but that sound was drowning everything else out.
He ran out of the forest and saw a bear. Jerad knew this bear. It was an aggressive male that he’d stayed well away from while it was hibernating in its cave. Right now, the bear was loping back to his cave as fast as he could. He was running, yes, running from…a girl?
Jerad squinted. He didn’t have a Skill that enhanced his vision, but his eyesight had always been good. His eyes widened as he saw the young woman standing in front of some kind of sleigh. She had no horse, but perhaps the animal had bolted. The girl was the source of the unbearably loud screaming.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—oh hi there!”
The older man rubbed at his ears, which were ringing. The young woman smiled at him. She was wearing winter clothing, and her sleigh looked like it had been cobbled together in a hurry. There were several jars in the back, and Jerad’s eyes widened when he saw one jar was full of deadly Ashfire Bees.
“Oh hey. I’m lost. My skeleton ran off. Can you help me?”
Jerad looked at Erin.
“What?”
“I said my skeleton ran off.”
His ears were still ringing. Jerad rubbed at them. He could have sworn said something about a skeleton?
“What did you say?”
“What?”
“What?”
—-
About two miles to the southwest, the Goblins paused when they heard the faint scream which cut off after a few minutes. Their sensitive ears twitched and they looked at each other, but they moved on when their Hobgoblin leader grunted irritably.
They were thirteen Goblins in all, and not your ordinary group of Goblins either. Each one was over Level 10 in a combat-oriented class, and they all wore armor and carried swords that were neither rusty nor broken. They were part of the Red Fang tribe, and they were on a mission to kill.
The twelve Goblins and one Hobgoblin that marched through the snow had only one task: kill the [Innkeeper]. Kill the girl and do not tell the Chieftain. Each one of them had been told this by Garen Redfang himself in secret, and so they moved tirelessly through the snow, alert for any signs of this Human.
After a while, the Goblins halted for a quick break. They sniffed the air, studied tracks in the snow. Then they looked at each other. None of them spoke, but they were all thinking the same thing:
Which [Innkeeper]? Which girl? What did she look like? Where was she? Was she strong? Did she taste good?
After a moment the Hobgoblin scratched at his back and pointed in a random direction. The Goblins headed that way. Garen had told them the girl went north, but none of them had any tracking class, so they’d lost the tracks the sledge had made in the snow nearly an hour ago.
The Goblins marched on. They were a dangerous band, armed to the teeth. On a mission.
After they’d walked for four more hours in an aimless circle, it occurred to one of the Goblins that the scream and the girl might be connected. They hastened back to the location of the screamer, but by that time whoever had made the sound was long gone.
The Goblins shrugged and kept on looking. Garen Redfang may have picked some of his best warriors, but none of them were exactly bright. Even by Goblin standards.
—-
It was a longstanding practice among Drakes to make fun of Human [Guardsmen] and the local law enforcement in Human cities. One popular Drake joke revolved around comparing Human city militias and guardsmen to ineffectual shaved Gnolls – a joke that fare poorly in translation and is considered extremely offensive to both Humans and Gnolls.
However, it was a universally accepted fact that if you wanted to get rid of a monster or apprehend a criminal in a Human city, you should hire an adventurer. While the local watch might be capable of apprehending common thieves, the difference in the quality of soldiers employed by Drakes and Humans was vast.
In Drake cities such as Liscor, a [Guardsman] was a prestigious job that afforded excellent pay and required an equally high level of competence. In a Human settlement however, those who possessed high levels invariably became mercenaries, adventurers, or personal guards. Thus, gate guards in cities like Celum were usually bored and not inclined to seek out conflict in most case, their work usually being to break up bar fights and prevent thefts and muggings rather than fend off monster attacks.
But they still did their jobs, and all guardsmen loved anything interesting, which was why they stopped the young woman who was trying to push a sleigh into their city.
“Excuse me Miss, but you can’t bring that through the gates.”
Erin brushed aside her hair and wiped away some sweat from her brow. Despite it still being cold, she was hot from her exertions. She’d pushed the sledge for miles down the road after the nice [Hunter] had helped her get to it.
“Aw. I can’t?”
“You have no horse, and that thing looks like it’d get stuck on the cobblestones.”
They were probably right. Erin sighed and looked around. She was surprised by everything. For one thing, this city had low walls. They were only about twenty feet tall, and the town had a steady flow of traffic. And everyone was a Human!
Erin had had a…reaction when she’d st
arted meeting people on the road. She’d gone around shaking hands and saying hi. Everyone had looked at her as if she was crazy, especially when she told them she was travelling alone. She hadn’t even mentioned her missing skeleton; it didn’t seem wise to mention that bit.
There was a nice spot of open snow just to the left of the gate. Erin pointed to that.
“Can I leave my sledge there?”
The guardsmen exchanged glances and shrugged. Erin pushed the sledge over and wiped at her brow again. Now that she wasn’t in the driver’s seat she felt a little guilty about making Toren pull the sledge everywhere. But why had he just run off? Erin didn’t like the suspect the worst but—
She suspected the worst. Toren had run off, like…a stray dog? A stray undead dog with armor and a sword and eyes that cast a fear spell. She was a tiny bit worried, but right now she needed to get back home.
“You wouldn’t happen to know how far we are from Liscor, would you?”
The [Guardsman] stared at Erin as she carried the three big jars with her. She had to use her blanket as a sack, and the jars clinked together. She really hoped they wouldn’t break.
“Liscor? Are you a [Trader] from there?”
“What? No. I’m an [Innkeeper] and I’m lost.”
He stared at her. He had a fuzzy mustache that wasn’t quite deserving of the name and brown hair. He looked cold in his armor. He was also giving Erin a look of deep skepticism. Erin blinked at him.
“What? I am. I got lost.”
“Liscor is over forty miles south of here. How did you travel this far without knowing that?”
“What? Forty miles!?”
Erin clapped her hands to her head. How would she get back? She wasn’t going to walk that far! And she didn’t have Toren!
The guardsman stared at Erin as she groaned out loud. Then his eyes shifted to her makeshift bag with the clinking jars. They were clearly heavy as they strained against the fabric.
“What’s in the jars?”
“What, this? Honey and, uh, honey-related stuff.”
The fuzzy-lipped man frowned.
“I’ll have to inspect the jars. There’s a trade fee if you bring goods into the city.”
“Aw. Really?”
By this point, the other guardsman at the gate had taken over waving people in to the city. Erin was a sideshow attraction that people stared at as they went through. She sighed as the guardsman nodded.
Reluctantly, she reached into the satchel and carefully pulled out the jar of honey. Everyone looked around and stared at the golden substance. Fuzzylips’ jaw dropped.
“Is that—where did you get that?”
“Uh? From a bee hive? You know, bees?”
One of the armed guards following a caravan burst out laughing. Fuzzylips glared at her as she walked through the gates and then stared hard at Erin. But she just gave him a round-eyed look of innocence. He sighed, cheeks red.
“Are all these jars honey? There’s a tax on them—you’ll have to pay quite a few silvers.”
Erin’s face fell. She reached into the sack and slowly pulled out the jar of dead bees.
“Do these count?”
The guardsman had glanced sideways to flip off his chortling comrade at the gate. He looked back to see an Ashfire Bee the size of his face crushed against the walls of the glass jar.
He screamed and felt backwards, grabbing for his sword. The other guardsman recoiled, and then laughed harder when he saw the jar.
“How did you get those?”
“I caught them. Sort of.”
It was hard to explain if she didn’t mention Toren, and even harder if she did. In the end, Erin just gave up.
“Look, I’ve got bees. And honey! And I need a way to get back to Liscor. So…can I go in and buy a horse or something?”
Fuzzy-lips didn’t look like he was having a good day. He was breathing hard, and he’d told Erin to put the bee jar back in her satchel. He cleared his throat a few times.
“I suppose you could buy into a caravan or a horse. But a caravan’s slow and a decent horse would cost you at least thirty gold pieces. I doubt you’d make much headway with all this snow we’ve had in any case. Even with your…sleigh.”
Erin’s face fell. She scratched at her head. She had some money, but she really didn’t want a horse, mainly because she couldn’t ride one and she had no idea how to make one go. First things first.
“Okay. Um, can I go in the city now?”
“You’ll have to pay an import tax. Bring the jars over here, please.”
Fuzzylips lead Erin over to a small stand located in the gatehouse. To her surprise, she saw they had a bunch of balance scales, crude measuring devices—they were going through a merchant’s wagon item by item, and another guardsman was tapping on parts of the wagon as if he was looking for hidden compartments.
They had to use a big scale for her jars. Erin caused quite a fuss when she took the honey out again—and Fuzzylips got to work weighing the jar. He used colored stones to balance the scale and he muttered to himself as he measured the jar with a knotted rope.
Then he told Erin to place the bee-filled jar on the scale. She did so, ignoring the gasps. Fuzzylips measured the jar fast, and he freaked out when one of the bees twitched inside the glass.
“They’re alive!?”
Erin poked at the bee curiously. It was waving its feelers at her.
“Weird. I know I sealed the jar, but I guess they’ve still got a bit of air left in there. Huh. It’s been like, ten hours since then. I had a long nap.”
The poor guardsman measured the jar fast without touching the glass. When he was done he scribbled on a piece of paper and told Erin how much it would cost to take the jars into the city.
“Four silver for each jar of honey and seven for the jar of…”
Fuzzylips shuddered.
“Bees.”
“That’s a lot of money! And why are the bees more expensive than the honey?”
“You’ll get more for them from any merchant, I expect. And the [Alchemists] pay a mint for monster parts.”
“They do? Hmm…”
She’d probably need some money to get back. More than she had, anyways. Erin fished around in her pockets.
“Where’s my money pouch? Uh oh. Did I bring it with me?”
Fuzzylips stared at her with a pained expression as Erin checked the many pockets of her layers of clothing.
“Coins? Coins, coins…aha!”
She pulled out her coin pouch and triumphantly spilled some coins into her hands. Again, the guardsmen’s eyes bulged as they saw the gold coins that Erin had earned from her successful days of innkeeping.
“How many silver coins is…? Oh wait, I give you one. Here!”
Erin handed a gold coin to Fuzzylips. He took it, staring as she tucked the rest into her pouch. He had to test the coin by scoring it with a dagger to make sure it was real. The gold attracted not a few eyes, and the [Guardsman] had to fumble with his own purse to make change for her.
“Here you are. And here is your signed proof of entry. Present it if you’re questioned.”
Erin had to fumble with the stamped piece of paper. She smiled at the guardsman.
“Thanks! Can you tell me where I can find an [Alchemist]?”
“Go down the main street and take a left when you see the Adventurer’s Guild. There are a lot of shops down that street.”
“Thank you!”
“Ah, before you go—”
Fuzzylips coughed, and Erin turned back. He and some of the other guardsmen—some of whom weren’t actually men—were staring at Erin.
“You said you came from Liscor? And you’re an [Innkeeper]?”
“That’s right!”
“But—only Drakes and Gnolls live down there. I heard a dungeon was found earlier—are you an adventurer was well?”
Erin frowned.
“No…I have an inn. It’s called. The Wandering Inn.”
“Ah. Be
cause it wanders magically?”
“No. It’s, well, it’s sort of a joke. And I found the inn by chance when I was…wandering. See?”
Erin tried to explain. In the end, she gave up.
“Anyways, I run it, but I went out for a uh, ride, and I got lost. So I ended up here and now I’ve got to get back. With a horse or something.”
“I see?”
“Yeah! Well, anyways, thanks for all the help!”
Erin smiled at them. She waved and walked out of the gatehouse. The [Guardsmen] and two [Guardswomen] looked at each other. Fuzzylips scratched at his weak mustache.
“What’s the joke?”
—-
Celum was amazing. It looked like a real medieval town, with tons of rumbling wagons and people who dressed in rough clothing and other people hawking their goods. True, Liscor had some of the same elements, but Drakes and Gnolls were different and Liscor didn’t get nearly as many visitors. Erin walked through the streets looking around in awe.
“Wow. And they’re all Human!”
That was something she could only be amazed by in this world. But yet, everyone who walked by Erin was Human, and…white. They all had variations of fair skin, and a lot of them looked European. Erin found that slightly odd, but she was already wondering if she could wait here for a day before returning to her inn.
It had been so long—she just wanted to talk with some other people. But the glass jars were heavy and they kept threatening to fall out of her blanket-satchel. So Erin resolved to sell them first. She could probably sell the honey to a bunch of places, but the bees had to go to [Alchemist].
What had Fuzzylips said? Something about left at the Adventurer’s Guild? Erin frowned. She tried to make her way through the flow of traffic, but she hadn’t gone more than eight steps before she ran into an issue.
Namely, traffic. In Liscor she hadn’t experienced many problems, but even the main road of Celum had a lot of congestion due to all the foot traffic and the wagons that were constantly moving by. No one wanted their feet crushed by a wagon wheel, and the horses themselves were not keen to have to push through people. All this meant that Erin soon found herself jostled and moving very slowly.
