A quite noticeable pillar of smoke was rising from the forest relatively close to Losdon, the wind most likely masking the presence of said smoke column to the residents of the village.
“Brutus,” Gale focused intently on the site before her. “You think you can carry everything?” She asked.
Brutus who was talking to Shigeo responded, “think I can, we followin’ the pillar’ ‘a smoke?” He got up, a stern gaze claiming his face.
“Yup,” Gale replied, turning on her heel towards him. Brutus nodded, startling Jamey and Shigeo as he picked them up and placed them on his shoulders, then crouching so Gale could climb onto his trapezii to sit like a little kid does when their father places them on his shoulders. Brutus stood up and started to walk towards the pillar of smoke, slowly gaining speed as he descended the small hill. Once they arrived in an area opposite of both the smoke and Losdon, Brutus lowered his passengers to the ground carefully. Shigeo walked further behind Brutus while Jamey and Gale walked closer to the smoke’s origin point. She peeked between a section of the foliage to see who might be to blame for the smoke-inducing fire. Jamey, leaning over to see as well, saw a small group of bipedal creatures that seemed reminiscent of cats, birds, fish, and other creatures. Jamey looked toward Gale, slightly spooked when he saw her in another place entirely, bow drawn.
“Calm down, we dunno’ if they’re hostile ‘er not,” Brutus motioned for Gale to lower her bow.
“They seem to have some malicious motive,” Jamey said, causing a small silence, “... just my opinion.” He broke it awkwardly.
“Guess we gotta show them who’s boss.” Shigeo punched the air jokingly, imitating a boxer the way he jumped slightly from side to side.
“If you want to face them head on, be my guest, don’t forget they have weapons though.” Gale hummed, pulling an arrow into firing position.
Shigeo, curling his lips into a fine line, replied, “I think I’m fine, unless I have a minigun or something I think I’d rather not.”
“Whatever you say chief,” Gale fired her arrow, quickly stepping into further foliage. Jamey, noticing the action, dove into a nearby bush. Soon contemplating why he did so as the branches profusely clung to his clothes and prodded his skin. Shigeo diving behind Brutus once he realized what Gale had done. A suspenseful silence flowed like a thick fog from the nearby area, then strange, foreign noises that seemed like some language. After a few exchanges, the creatures burst through the verdure, seeming to echo a battlecry. Brutus, who was immensely taller, and stronger, simply glared at them. The hostile gaze having them turning on their heels frightened, leaving their fire unattended.
A few moments of silence passed before Brutus spoke up, “They shoulda’ left that fire like that, coulda’ caused a forest fire.” He walked calmly into the creatures’ previous rendezvous point.
“Hah! They didn’t even put up a fight!” Shigeo commented, almost like he didn’t face plant into the forest behind Brutus once he realized they were coming.
“Either way, they didn’t seem like goblins, or any other Goblinish speaking race.” Gale pondered aloud as she emerged from the foliage, Jamey following suit from the nearby bushes. All three walked towards the fire that caused their descent down the hill, as they came through the foliage, Shigeo, being last, was whipped with a plant upon entry. The fire was being put out by Brutus, it seemingly was fueled by papers most were unreadable, now only ashes.
“That… wasn’t as eventful as I thought it would be,” Shigeo commented, rubbing his cheek, (where the branch whipped him).
“It normally is, but I wish they would have put up more of a fight,” Gale noted, waiting patiently for Brutus to put out the fire. He, after a while, found an abnormally large leaf to place over the fire, causing the fire to dissipate like a candle. Gale walked over to the leftovers of the fire to inspect it, her dog nose twitching as she inspected it closely. She, soon after, picked up a charred stack of paper, the words on it unreadable. The only thing representing their past purpose was a colored corner on each one respectively.
“Guess we gotta’ tell the mayor ‘bout this,” Brutus mentioned, inspecting the papers Gale held up.
“Seems like it,” Gale replied, “let’s just hope he isn’t taking his second midday nap when we arrive,” she lowered the papers slowly.
“Oh, do you want to come with or head back to the cave?” Gale turned to the cadets.
“I think if we even tried we'd end up on the other side of the world somehow,” Jamey eyed Shigeo, knowing he would most likely be the cause.
“Whatever you say,”Gale shrugged, “just warning you, the mayor is a little bit… old.”
“Wasn’t ‘is 570th birthday this year?” Brutus asked as they were walking to Losdon.
“His 572nd birthday, yes,” Gale commented.
“Five hundred?! Really? That old?” Shigeo entered the conversation, a surprised look adorning his face.
“Well, yeah, he is Dwarven.”
“So he’s really short?”
“Hah! Yeah, but don’ say it to ‘im.”
Once they arrived at Losdon, Jamey surveyed the scene. The city was like… a medieval one, or just a more old-timey feeling. There was a main street that cut through the middle of the city, smaller streets branching off of it. The main street was where merchants and vendors took the sides of the street. People windshopping (minus the windows) walking up and down the street.
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“Want something to give your girlfriend?”
“Need some snacks for the road?”
The vendors called as they walked by. Shigeo started to drift as they passed the vendors, perking up when they called Gale one of their girlfriends. Jamey, noticing this, grabbed his arm and yanked him back into the group, making Shigeo yelp in shock. Out of the corner of his eye, Jamey saw Gale try to hide herself the best she could, blushing with embarrassment.
“Ight, Imma go see if we can see ‘im,” Brutus said once they arrived at a building that, on a sign, read:
Losdon Town Hall [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lWtuTw-NbUoEPCWefRsyDplOF9gBMuhf8S_q9Lpsovg/edit#heading=h.5zr8gpksf882]
You would think it would say ‘city’ rather than ‘town’ Jamey thought. A while after Brutus left, he returned motioning to follow him. They did, Gale first, the two cadets tied for second in line. After a minute they stopped at some double doors. Gale reached towards the doors and opened them, Shigeo then stepped forward to take them from her trying to be a gentleman. Behind the doors was a large, office-like area, equipped with an array of lounge furniture all about the room. It was… more modern than what the city outside looked like.
Slowly, Jamey entered the room to be greeted by an old, grandpa-like voice, “why hello there! It’s very nice to see some new faces ev’ry now and then.”
Jamey lifted his chin to see a quite old, portly looking man who was more on the short side than Jamey expected. That’s the mayor?
“Mayor Lambar, sir, we would like to discuss a matter with you,” Gale announced awkwardly. In a classic elder fashion, the mayor gestured to the lounge space in front of his desk. Brutus, Gale, and the cadets walked over politely. Each taking a seat respectively as the mayor dad-sighed his way onto a reclining sofa chair.
“What were you goin’ ta’ say Gale?” He asked, feet just barely reaching the end of the leg rest.
“Oh, uhm, while we were scouting we saw a smoke pillar near town so we went to investigate. The people who made it were some strange, goblin-speaking, Tabaxi-Lizard-Seafolk creatures. Once we chased them off and put out the fire we saw these in them.” Gale explained as she shuffled through her things until she pulled out the paper stack and handed them to the Dwarvish (at least Jamey thought he was) mayor for inspection.
“Hm…” The mayor inspected the papers with glasses that came from the void. “They seem like instructions for some spell or something of the sort.”
“Do you know what they might have been written in?”
“I think I mighta seen an Fey character, not entirely sure though. You can try to see if the library can restore it and translate it.
Gale nodded, “I guess that’s the next stop,” she took the papers from Lambar’s small, frail arms.
“If you need anything else, just call for Tyler Lambar. Or the mayor, whatever’s more comfortable for ya’,” the mayor said as they walked out.
“Okay,” Gale nodded swiftly, a polite smile adorned her face. As they shut the door, Jamey saw the mayor hobbling back towards his desk.
“Next up: library,” Shigeo animated, swiveling on his heel after a sigh of relief.
“Guess we’ll have to stick around in the city a little longer,” Gale shrugged as she pocketed the papers once more. They left the building and started for the library, well for the cadets more of where Gale and Brutus were going. Once they stopped they were at another building quite similar to the Town Hall, this time the sign read ‘Losdon City Library’ below another line of strange, non-earth characters. Jamey came to the conclusion that the characters were just from some other language. Gale did say it was founded by Dwarves. As they walked in Jamey, for a split second, thought he was back on Earth (yes, he previously did wrap his brain around the fact he’s on an entirely different planet).
The library seemed like the nearby library back where he was raised. The room branched out to a long desk where the librarians sat behind what seemed to be levitating, translucent computer screens.
“Wow,” Jamey said as if out of breath.
“Cool…” Shigeo gasped, “what are those…?” He pointed toward the computers.
“Those are erqua.”
“They look like computers.”
“Com- okay.”
The two followed Gale who was walking to a librarian. The woman she came up to was a pale, Elvish looking girl with simplistic glasses and long, glistening silver hair.
“Sareif,” Gale muttered, grabbing the elf’s attention, “we need some help with restoration.”
“Mhm, let me get Imloth from the back,” the elf (that seemed to be) called Sareif nodded and walked off quietly. After a few minutes of awkward silence, another elf greeted them.
“Oh, hi! Are you the people I need to restore something- oh hi Gale!” The elven woman had dark skin and golden hair and wore a baggy tee and a denim skirt.
“Hi, and yes,” Gale responded and took the stacks of paper out.
“Hmmm…. Fire damage….” the woman analyzed.
“Yeah,” Gale verified, “how about we sit somewhere?”
“Of course! Right this way please,” She chirped. They went to sit down in an area outside of the ‘teen books’ section. She placed the papers down and grabbed a toolbox from behind the counter, instead of walking behind leaning over the entirety of it. Jamey noticed a librarian roll her eyes at the way that was chosen. “Y'all can chill wherever, I’ll call you when it’s all done,” she dismissed them, opening the box. Gale walked out, Brutus following.
“Could I stay and watch?” Jamey requested shyly.
“Yeah! Why not?” She beamed, “oh! I can’t believe I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Imloth, but most people just call me Imli, or Emi. Whichever fits.”
“I’m Jamey.”
“Shigeo,” he offered his hand.
“Oooh, so different. Reminds me of Weta and Ulfense.”
“Who?” Shigeo retracted his hand.
“They’re some traders that come by every now and then, they normally trade things from the Doren half,” she responded, immersed.
“So this is the Varen half?” Jamey chimed in.
“Well yeah, the only way to access the Doren half is to go over the Jenun either by Ness or boat,” Imloth tilted her head.
“Ness? Like Loch Ness?”
“Yeah, Loch Ness is the mother of all Nessies.”
“Oh cool,” Shigeo commented, internally scheming how to woo her .
“Yeah, Papa Angus takes care of them all.”
“Papa Angus?” Shigeo blinked, his thoughts resetting.
“Mhm!” She nodded.
The three talked as Imloth repaired the papers to the best of her ability. Once she finished, she told Sareif to call Brutus and Gale back. After a few minutes they came back.
“So you finished the restoration?” Gale asked.
“Yup! And if you need any Fey translation books they’re in the 600s-700s nonfiction section,” Imloth smiled before taking her and her stuff out of sight of the group.
“Okay, can you take the papers outside and wait for me there, I’m going to get an Fey translation book,” Gale waved the boys off toward the entrance. Brutus and Shigeo nodded and walked off, Brutus holding the papers, Jamey soon following after them.
Once outside, Shigeo asked, “could I see the papers? I wanna see what’s written on it.”
“Sure, why not,” Brutus handed him the papers.
“These remind me of Korean,” he said, not noticing Gale’s return.
“You can read Fey?”
“Kind of… This says ‘blood of desired creature’ I think.”
“Guess we have to get back to Athol and double check if she can read it before we give you full reign.”