by Jeff Sproul
"I figured there'd be a catch," Chaxin murmured.
"We need to check the grimoire, then see if there are still ships here. That should be our current course. Are… we in agreement, Chaxin?" Verun asked.
Chaxin nodded. "We are. I'm with you."
Chapter 21: Hunt
Once the two of them had packed up their newly acquired assets, they proceeded to the front door. Verun stood nearby and gestured to the door with his head. "Alright, out you go. We're going to head to the right, and just follow the street."
"If you know the way better than I do, why am I opening the door?" asked Chaxin.
"Because if something attacks you within seconds of the door being opened, I will have a higher chance of dealing with such a threat, as opposed to myself dying, and then you trying to fumble your way into figuring out what your options are."
Chaxin gave Verun a hard look. He wanted to refute the man's analysis of such a simple action. All he was doing was opening a door. What was the worst that could happen? Surely if something was close enough to attack them, they would have already been assailed by it.
"Fine. Let's just go," Chaxin murmured, as he turned the knob on the door. It was only then that he realized that the door's lock had never been latched. It had been unlocked the entire time they were inside. Chaxin remained still for several seconds as he contemplated the lock, but decided it didn't have much bearing on the current situation.
He pulled the door open and slowly stepped outside.
The sky was filled with clouds, further obscuring the meager light that made the current time 'day.' Despite this, there was still an adequate amount of illumination for them to see in an unlit room. Now that Chaxin was outside, he took the city in.
Grittin had been the largest city he'd seen, but he'd only seen it from a street view, and then up near Lord Karnith's castle.
Trillin's buildings rose up higher in places, while remaining shorter in others. It was a strange architectural hodgepodge of structures, ranging from stone and wood construction. Sheets of metal were used on several of the buildings. Windows came in all shapes and sizes. No structure looked completely identical to any of the ones near it. Street lamps littered the sides of buildings. Some were placed outside the windows of second floors, while others were on the ground level outside of doors. Occasionally there were posts out in the street which had hanging lamps. None of them were currently lit, as it was day time. And also probably because no one was around.
Chaxin took a few more steps outside the door and glanced to the left, and then to the right. He headed right, as per Verun's instruction.
A moment later, Verun stepped out to join him.
Chaxin held the mage-caster firmly in his right hand. Before leaving, he'd practiced reaching back to grab a bolt, and was fairly certain he could do so quickly, if they got into a fight.
The street itself was made of flat patchy stones with some sort of mortar in between. Their footfalls became the only sound in the vicinity.
"Walk a little slower, quieter," said Verun in a low voice.
Chaxin did as he was told and slowed his pace. He became more mindful of the noise he was making, and sought to alleviate it as best he could. Soon enough, Verun was walking beside him on his left.
"No detail is too small," Verun whispered. "The sooner we know what happened, the better off we'll be. If something looks as if it doesn't belong, say something."
"Not sure I'm going to be the best judge of what doesn't belong," said Chaxin, keeping with the quiet tone Verun had set.
"Something of such a scale as this should be noticeable," said Verun. "Raiders would leave a terrible mess. Monsters would leave corpses, or at least blood."
"What of an evacuation?" asked Chaxin. "Should we check inside any of these buildings for clues?"
"Doing so would bring further attention to our presence," said Verun. So far, the two of them had kept close to the right side of the street.
"But an evacuation is possible. If that's the case, then we won't find a ship at the docks." Verun pondered the notion a bit longer. "But if it was an evacuation, then they were trying to get away from something. Perhaps monsters, or a disease. And there wouldn't have been enough ships to have carried everyone away. Which means that people may still be here, but might be in hiding. We’ll just have to see what we find at the wharf master's office."
Chaxin's eyes scanned their surroundings. Everything looked pretty… normal. It was a large city, with structures and roads. He kept waiting for something to jump out at him, or to spot a monster looming somewhere, but the city was simply empty.
"Strange," Verun murmured.
Chaxin came to a stop. "What is?" he asked, unsure if they should keep going.
Verun stopped as well. His attention seemed to be drawn to something up ahead, in the middle of the street. He lifted his hand and pointed to a circular metal slab in the road. "That's a sewer cap," he said. He then turned and pointed to another one, one they'd passed about ten feet back. "And there's another."
"Is that important?" Chaxin asked.
"Hmm, I suppose not," Verun murmured. "It's just odd that there are two so close together. They're used as entry points to get down into the sewers beneath the town. You see, there's a sewer system that takes wastewater out to the sea. It's also how seawater gets pumped into the innermost sections of the city, to then be purified for drinking. It's just… I'm trying to spot anything unusual, as I told you to do, of course. And I just can't imagine why there'd be a sewer cap so close to another. Hmm, perhaps there were some new tunnels, and the two aren't connected? Surely that's it. It's nothing, let's keep moving," he said, working his own way out of what he seemed to think was unusual.
"Alright then," said Chaxin, as they resumed their walk.
"How long ago has it been since you were here?" asked Chaxin. "Aside from the time that we're unsure about?"
"It’s been a number of years," said Verun. "Perhaps six? Maybe seven. I've been here several times, but not most recently. I don't recall the specifics of the scenery but it appears as though it has grown some."
They soon reached the end of the street, which then branched to the left, right, and straight. The two of them stopped, and Verun took a glance down both side streets. "Hmm," he murmured, just as he'd been doing numerous times since they'd arrived. "Let's just continue on straight.”
Chaxin didn't put up any argument as they crossed over to the other side of the street and kept walking. Minutes passed, and Chaxin realized he didn't have any good sense of how close they were getting to the docks. All he could see were the tops of buildings.
A glint on the stones beneath their feet caught Chaxin's attention. He slowed and stopped in front of a fallen coin. He stooped down and snatched it up.
"Find something?" Verun asked, looking back to him.
Chaxin turned it over several times. "Just a silver coin, but more money than I had," he said with a meager half smile, pocketing the coin.
"Every little bit helps, I suppose," said Verun, and they continued their way.
"Speaking of money," Chaxin spoke up, "I've seen copper, silver, and gold coins. What are their respective values?"
"Ten copper equals a silver, and ten silver equal a gold," said Verun. "It's very simple. Usually, you use copper to pay for food and drink, while silvers are used for bartering for items. If what you're trying to buy is on the more expensive side, then gold is what comes into play. Some people are so wealthy that they only carry gold around with them, and just use it for everything."
Now that Chaxin had a silver in his pocket, the two of them continued their long trek through Trillin.
Chaxin looked up at the sky from time to time. The clouds never seemed to alleviate. At least it wasn't raining. The weather could be worse. And it was still daytime.
His attention lowered, and he spotted something he hadn't seen since the moment they'd left Verun's mitigator friend's home. He stopped and seized Verun's arm. He promptly po
inted ahead and across the street.
Verun stopped and stared at what Chaxin was directing him to. It took a few moments, but he then spotted it as well.
"An open door," Chaxin murmured. "So far, every one I've seen has been closed."
Verun stood still, his eyes roaming the single-story structure. The door was partially open, about a foot and a half. It was dark inside, but there were several structures near it which helped block the daylight.
"Hmm," Verun murmured. "But I would say that the door isn't the most peculiar part of that home."
"What do you mean?" asked Chaxin.
"It doesn't have any windows," said Verun. "What sort of place on the street doesn't have windows? All homes have windows. All shops have windows too. Very strange."
"Should we check it out?" asked Chaxin.
"No, no, I don't think we should," said Verun. "Let's keep going. I get a bad sense about that place, and I always trust my senses."
"Alright," Chaxin murmured, as the two continued on their way. Chaxin slowly turned his head as they passed by. He kept a close eye on the building, waiting to see if anyone might come out of it, but no one did.
"Haven't seen any rats, mice, birds," Verun said after a few minutes. "No animals of any kind. Very odd."
"If you say so," said Chaxin. "How much further do you think it is?"
"A dozen more streets, at least," said Verun. "And these streets tend to be rather long."
Chaxin sighed and shook his head. So far, despite the eerie sense the city gave him, there hadn't been anything that was directly a threat.
After another few minutes of silence, Chaxin noticed something on the street they were on. "What are those white vegetables outside people's doors?"
"White vegetables?" Verun asked. He then glanced around. "Oh, those are fruits. They're combelons. They're a melon that's grown in the caves beneath Trillin. When they grow to a certain size, you set them outside your house to… ripen."
"Oh, I see," said Chaxin.
Verun came to an immediate stop. His eyes were now wide as he glanced at the various head-sized white melons which sat outside some of the homes.
"What's wrong?" asked Chaxin.
"Everything," Verun whispered. "Combelons are only set out when you're planning to eat them that night, or the next day. They ripen from the light of the Graymos. They remain gray until they absorb enough light, and then they turn white, like the ones we see around."
"And that worries you?" asked Chaxin. "Ripe fruit?"
"What worries me is that no one seems to be around, and all the combelons are white. They're eaten a day after they turn white, and if they’re outside for more than two days, they turn black and rot."
"So people were going to eat them and disappeared yesterday, or before we got here?" asked Chaxin.
"Chaxin, I don't think those are combelons at all," Verun whispered. "We should keep our distance."
"What does that even mean? You said yourself they were fruit," said Chaxin, confused.
"I know what I said, dammit!" Verun hissed. "But something is terribly, terribly wrong. Things are… they're off. It's like, this is Trillin, but there's all these things that are just wrong with it, that don't make any sense. First the sewer caps. Then that strange windowless building. Now, these combelons!"
Chaxin's brows furrowed. He took another look around and shook his head. "Well, what do you want to do? If they're not actually fruit, what are they? Do you want me to shoot one?"
Verun was still looking at the fruits. "They look like fruit," he whispered. "But how can they be? The town couldn't have been emptied a mere day before we arrived. There was dust… dust covering everything in that house. But what if Malmont had been gone prior to something happening in Trillin?"
"We can solve this puzzle if you just let me shoot one of the fruits," said Chaxin.
Verun turned to Chaxin, his eyes wide. "But what if it's not a fruit? It can't be a fruit!"
"Then by shooting it, we can find out what it really is," Chaxin urged.
"But what if we shouldn't learn such things?" asked Verun. "Sometimes, it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. And in this case, that goes for mysterious fruit. We shall… simply walk a safe distance around the fruit, yes?"
"Sure," said Chaxin, thinking that Verun was starting to lose his mind. "Let's just… walk around it. No big deal."
"Good, we should be able to just pass safely down the street, and continue on our—"
Chaxin lifted his arm and pressed his thumb to the middle X on the mage-caster. The string drew back as he lined up the shot and pulled the trigger.
Verun was about to take a step forward, but stopped when he saw the sudden bolt fly past him.
The sharp metal rod sunk into the outer flesh of one of the fruits further up the street. The inside of the melon didn't slow it down much, as it went right through and clinked off the stone wall behind the fruit.
The puncture hole in the melon began to gradually leak out a pale white juice.
Verun stared with fierce intensity and wide eyes, his lips slightly parted.
"It's just a fruit," said Chaxin. "Can you stop acting so crazy now?"
Verun didn't move for several seconds. He watched the melon leak its juices onto the cobblestone street. Then, he slowly inhaled and exhaled. "Yes, yes let's keep moving. Obviously, I let my paranoia get the better of me," he said, as his demeanor seemed to soften. "I'm not sure how I could've been so foolish. Still, things are strange around here, but… yes, I do apologize for my mild… insecurity of some melons." He shook his head and blinked several times. "Let's go," he said, and began walking once more.
Chaxin walked by his side. For good measure, he took one last glance back at the combelon he'd shot, but nothing about it was amiss. Some of its fluids had seeped down around it, but for all intents and purposes, he'd shot a fruit. Perhaps he needed to watch what Verun was saying a little more carefully. The man certainly knew far more than he did when it came to the spheres, but he couldn't help but question the man's mental state at this point.
Chaxin let a few minutes pass before speaking up. He wasn't sure if Verun was still thinking about the oddness of some of the things they'd seen so far in Trillin, but he couldn't let the man veer off on a crazy tangent again. So he decided to ask him a hopefully innocuous question. "How close to nightfall do you think we are?"
Verun looked to the sky, then down to the street. "Who can say?" he answered. "Some days are longer than others, as are the nights."
"Really?" asked Chaxin, as if that notion appeared strange and foreign to him. "Are all days different lengths?"
"Some days may be made up of twenty hours, some may be made up of fifty. I've seen a night last for thirty hours before," Verun replied.
"How do you manage to tell time over long durations? If we've been gone for several years’ worth of time, how is that determined?"
"By the growth of some plants," said Verun. "Certain plants, given the proper nutrients, will take a certain amount of time to grow. Despite the strangeness of day and night, Wake still has seasons. A year is four seasons, regardless of the days. On other spheres, I hear that things can get far more complicated. But on a sphere such as Wake, we manage with what the world provides."
"Interesting," Chaxin murmured. By now, between the two of them, they hadn't been the quietest of souls, especially with Verun's barely-restrained outburst. If there was something around, Chaxin was certain that they might've garnered its attention, if it were anywhere close by. But he hadn't seen anything yet.
"I bet Trillin would be quite the place, if people were here," said Chaxin. "I only spent a little time in Grittin before my death. Kamber wasn't very lively, and I spent the majority of my time there between the clinic and the town hall."
"Yes, cities can have a number of interesting facets," said Verun. "The library, the market district. Even the—"
A figure ran out into the middle of the street about a hundred feet away. He frantically t
urned both ways. He was about to rush the same way Chaxin and Verun were heading, but upon catching sight of the two of them, he stopped and stared.
Even from the distance, Chaxin could make out the man's rough face and wide eyes. He gripped a small round wooden shield in his left hand, which protected most of his forearm, while also carrying a short sword with a line of runic writing with his right hand. He wore mostly cloth. A black pair of pants and a gray tunic, but overtop of it, he had on what looked to be leather armor, made up of mostly different shades of brown. It definitely didn't look like common attire.
With purpose, the man headed toward Chaxin and Verun. The two of them had stopped and were standing, staring at the harried man with black hair to his shoulders and a fair complexion.
His eyes flit between the two of them, but he kept looking over his shoulder, back the way he came. He didn't appear to be rushing to attack the two of them; if anything, it looked as though he was catching his breath. When he reached them, he spoke up in a quiet tone, but it was evident that he was fatigued. "Who are you two? You got a ship nearby?"
Chaxin glanced to Verun, then to the man.
As Chaxin sought to figure out what all he should tell the man, Verun spoke up first. "We traveled by mausoleum, actually. What's befallen this city? We've been away for quite some time."
The man blinked and gave Verun a strange look. "Travel by mausoleum? The hell does that mean?" he grunted. "You've just arrived then?"
"That is indeed what has happened," said Verun. "We know nothing of what is going on. Could you please enlighten us?"
The man shook his head. "Is it just the two of you? Ya shouldn't even be here," he said, before glancing over his shoulder again. "It isn't safe. I need to get back to my captain. But what are you even doing here?"
"As I said, we've been gone a long time," said Verun. "Captain, you say? So you have a ship?"
The man nodded. "Aye, we have a ship. Thought that was the only way you could get here. But you go spouting nonsense of traveling by mausoleum. You must be one of them mage types, eh?"
"That's correct," said Verun. "Could we speak with your captain? We'd very much like to charter passage away from here, as it seems something is terribly wrong in Trillin."
