Chapter 98

We were running a bit late when the two of us rejoined our party, leading us to rush through our final preparations before we got back on the road. I was honestly rather glad that we didn't need to worry about food at all on the trip. Getting nice freshly prepared salads each morning was a good way to get started. Since our run in with the stream stalker we had some... interesting meat to go with. Unfortunately the only way to get some of it would be to send the twins to get our food for us since the people serving the food didn't even ask me if I wanted meat. Understandable considering I looked like an herbivorous beast folk. I don't like sending the twins on 'chores' even if they didn't mind, so I just accepted the vegetarian salad.

Nikka nuzzled my hand when I got close to her the last few days. I was apparently quickly growing on her and some of the other riders were even complimenting me on how well I was handling her. I found out that assigning me to the same uuna regularly was intentional, uunas preferred to be familiar with the people riding them. Even though they tended not to complain if they got a new rider, they would get cranky if you switched their riders out too frequently apparently.

I held out a bowl of stream stalker meat to the uuna who really gobbled it up after a few sniffs. From what I've been told it's important to feed the uunas some of the spoils from a fight otherwise they can refuse directions later on. Despite their feline looking heads they are pack animals and start to get rebellious if they think their pack leaders aren't sharing the spoils of their fights with them. It's not uncommon to hear about a greedy merchant who was too stingy with the spoils, only to have their goods left behind when the mounts decided they would rather run from a fight instead of listen to commands. Uunas are powerful and intelligent mounts that cooperate really well with humanoid riders when handled properly but need to be handled differently than animals like horses, they can be a little too smart for their own good.

The day went by pretty uneventfully, dragging on like many of the others. The terrain had been mostly the same the entire way, just large open green plains with basically nothing in them. It seemed that farm land was not likely to be in short supply in this kingdom based on how much open farmable land seemed to be around. It wasn't until late afternoon, maybe an hour before the sun started to set that the sights started to change. Rather than empty fields with nothing in them we started to see farmland and small villages of people along the roads, the first hints of civilization.

While the farmers were a bit more interesting to look at none of them made a point to talk to any of us and notably stayed away from our passing group. The only exception were handfuls of kids who waved or were too interested in playing that they didn't even stop to watch us pass. The sight actually reminded me of how odd the town I had been staying in was, a town with almost no children and basically no farms. Certainly relative to the stretches of farm land we passed on the road.

For the first time since we started our journey we stopped in a town with tall stone walls and their own town guards rather than take up one of the empty forts along the way. It was quite a bit smaller than Traehall but the towns in this world were still much larger than what I would consider a town in the world I came from. This town had been here longer than those magically built forts and it showed. I wouldn't say the town was any more affluent looking than Traehall though. The walls were rougher, more of the buildings were built with wood and everything looked much less utilitarian than Traehall did. It was subtle, I probably wouldn't have noticed any of the differences if I hadn't been so fascinated with the way Traehall had looked compared to the cities that vaguely existed in my memories.

A thought suddenly struck me that explained a lot of my interest in these buildings. I didn't recognize the architectural style. Like a flash I could run down more than a dozen different styles I suddenly remembered and not a one looked all that similar from the buildings I was looking at. Sure they had similar elements here and there but none of the buildings looked like any one identifiable style. It struck me as odd that I seemed to know so much about architecture, I had thought I was some kind of artist but perhaps I had actually been an architect?

"You're gaping like a bumpkin. I am not sure why, this town is even smaller than Traehall is." Without me noticing Tarklin had pulled up next to me on his own uuna.

"I was looking at the architecture."

He squinted at me confused, like he didn't know what I was talking about.

I pointed at one of the houses we passed as we got closer to the gates. "The style the buildings are built in. It's a personal interest."

"Well alright... architecture huh?"

That's... odd. Did architecture not have any equivalent in the language I was speaking? It seemed like an odd blind spot to have.

"Anyway, we're coming up on the gate. Make sure to pull your guild card out. Once we get into town you're going to have to follow me to the stables. Since we're staying in a town this time we can't just tie them up wherever we want."

I scratched my horn. "What about Silva? I have no idea if she has any kind of identification."

He nodded. "I already talked to Fae about it, leave it to me. Do your other girls have identification?"

I felt a little uncomfortable by how he phrased it but I just let it go, "Yeah. All of them are registered with the adventurer's guild, I've seen their cards."

"Good, that means you can focus on getting Nikka here checked in alright. You seem to be able to ride well enough but I can tell you're rusty on a lot of the procedure stuff. Since we're back in an actual town we can't risk you doing something that will get us in trouble." He pointed one of the other riders ahead of me. "Just follow Cecilia there, she'll know where to go. If they ask you anything just say you're new and to ask Cecilia instead. Got it?"

"Sure. Saves me the trouble."

"You would be better off learning how the procedure works here in Torlimal now, rather than later. I've already told Cecilia to help you out."

"Is that the name of this town?"

Tarklin laughed. "Don't jest, I don't mind but if you compared this little town to the whole kingdom they would be livid. Fae even may be livid in fact. Not sure how patriotic she is after everything that's happened though."

Fuck, that's right. This is the Kingdom of Torlimal, I just compared the whole kingdom to this pit stop.

He continued, "Anyway, this town is named Norta. It's much older than Traehall is but it's mostly just a small farming town. Where were you from again?"

"Arala," I answered. It's been a while but Bella drilled into me the name of the queendom I supposedly came from.

"Ah, that makes sense. Came to Traehall through Port Korland then?"

I smiled wryly. "Would you believe me if I told you I already forgot the name?"

He laughed. "Names are important, don't forget that. Anyway, I need to check on a few things before we reach the gate. Like I said, give the gate guards your ID and follow Cecilia to the stable."

"Sure, got it," I said.

***

Perhaps it's my history with things like the DMV but that whole check in process wasn't nearly as bad as I had been warned about. It might have been that [Sightspeak] combined with [World Traveler] made it easy for me to read everything without any problems but it was just fill out a form, show ID, and wait in line. It even took less than half a bell.

"Careful newbie, you get too good at that and you'll turn into Silvergrove's personal scribe," Cecilia said with a laugh. She was a pretty cool person. A human with dark hair and eyes, tough like any female adventurer would have to be. She carried a large axe in a leather sheath that made the guards quite wary of her.

I walked back to my group that was waiting for me by one of the carriages. Silva was shifting around a bit looking uncomfortable.

"Is everything okay?" I asked quietly.

Silva glanced around again. "I saw one of those guys in the black brigandine from the other night while you were in there. The guys who were looking for the lady are here."

I nodded. "Don't look around too much, you're acting suspicious."

Torien came up next to me. "What should we do now Lilith?" she asked quietly.

"Does Tarklin know?"

She nodded. "Silva told him right away. He said not to worry about it... but I have a bad feeling."

"Do you know where she is now?" I asked.

"They slipped into the back of one of the inns our group is staying at. There are enough of us that we couldn't all fit into one place."

I glanced up and down the street. "Do you know if there's a weapon shop in this town?"

Torien shook her head. "Mori and I checked, they don't have anything like that. They only have a regular blacksmith. Horseshoes, nails, and things like that."

I suddenly got an itchy feeling and looked up to see a pale looking man walk by with a trail of miasma clinging to him. A demon summoner. I looked back and could tell I wasn't the only one who saw it, everyone in my group save Silva noticed the pale man walk by.

I took a breath. "This town is dangerous. I don't think it's safe to stay here."

Torien shook her head. "No, as worrisome as this place is, trying to push through the night would be even worse. It's too late anyway, now that all the mounts are checked in we're stuck here for the night."

"We should find Tarklin."

"No." Silva shook her head.

The twins both looked shocked she talked back to me.

"Why not?" I asked simply.

"At this point we would just draw attention to them. The guys in black brigandine are looking for me too. We could lead them right to her." The rabbitkin shifted her weight again.

"Lets get off the street at least then. There's a tavern nearby."

Without further argument the five of us slipped into the busy tavern. Luckily we were able to swoop in on a table that had just emptied. Bella sat next to me, she looked perfectly calm and relaxed on the outside but I could feel her tension through our link. It was quite surprising to see how little of it showed in her body language.

"Are you okay Bella?"

She tapped on the table a few times before answering. "Just a little anxious. I've never been in a situation like this."

Silva sighed. "I need a drink."

Morrigan squinted her eyes at her. "Do you really think now's the time for that?"

"I said I need a drink, not that I was going to drink one. Besides, how is a slave supposed to order one for herself anyway? And with what money? I probably shouldn't even be sitting at the table like a person" Silva seemed the most tense out of all of us, she was wound up like a spring.

"Stop squabbling, we need to pay attention," Torien barely finished when the tavern suddenly got a lot quieter.

The tavern had two entrances and standing at each of them were three people in black brigandine for a total of six armed people. Four of them were holding unsheathed longswords and the other two were wielding spears. They were a mix of beastfolk and demi-beastfolk with one human among them. All six were looking at our table.