Chapter Twenty Six

Joe felt the tension of passing the guards flush from his body and followed Garnedell towards their inn. The boy seemed giddy with excitement at passing the gate but Joe only felt relief. Joe understood the likely need to bribe their way in because of their lack of ID, or at least his lack of ID, but it still bothered him a bit, not necessarily for the illegality. While what he’d done was technically illegal, he wished no harm on the people and only wished to enter. What bothered him was the clandestine nature which would obviously stick out in their minds. I really need an identity card, then I guess. Another thing to bring up after I’ve learned the language enough. Joe followed behind Garnedell and soaked in the sights of the city around them. The city was strangely uniform, and ultimately uninspiring, and Joe felt a bit of dismay. The dirt and refuse that covered everything was overwhelming. Joe found himself hugging his nose for several portions of their trip, as the smell was that of the worst latrines he’d ever visited, mix with a bit of rotten food.

The smell dropped after some time as they wandered deeper into the city, and Joe realized that the building quality and basic cleanliness was increasing. At least it won’t smell that bad at the inn, then… I hope! As the smell began to dissipate, Joe was able to begin enjoying the nature of the city and found it to be a typical construct of the old world: cramped, narrow, drab, and sturdy. Despite how lackluster the materials looked, and how poorly they seemed to be maintained, it was obvious they’d been built long ago and weathered the environment well. Most of it was either wood or stone, but almost none of it was colored or protected in anyway; simply bare wood or stone. The wood, though, seemed a bit strange as it seemed to weather time well enough despite what seemed to be untreated wood. Joe wanted to reach out and touch it to see what was protecting it, but was a bit too worried about what he might end up touching so kept his hand to himself.

After they’d made a bit deeper into the city, Joe soon noticed a rather strange dichotomy. Amongst the people walking through the streets were those that seemed to be hardly clothed at all. Some of the population were clothed by standards Joe had come to expect of a medieval society, but others seemed to walk around in what would be barely acceptable on even some of the most risqué of non-nude beaches back home. They all wore something, but that something really wasn’t much. Despite all that Joe tried to observe, it didn’t seem like he was able to come to any judgment as to who or what these people were or what set them apart. Gender or race offered no answer. The only thing that seemed a bit uniform about them was their general lack of wealth, or at least the appearance of it, since there were a good number of the near nude figures that sported some quite expensive weapons and shields, from what Joe could see.

Joe spent the rest of the trip trying to figure out what these people were. However, they soon found their inn only a short while later but Joe quickly pantomimed getting rid of the extra armor and weaponry he’d taken from the bandits last night that now festooned his bag. He really didn’t want to lug the stuff around any longer than he had too. It took a bit of arm waving and a couple poor single word sentences for Garnedell to understand, but he quickly led him on another path, asking once or twice for directions before they ended up at an armory combined with a smithy shortly after. A series of interactions that seemed to include haggling that Garnedell lost at and Joe had rid himself of the armor and couple weapons. He didn’t really care. Wealth was easy enough to come by with the cores he got from killing monsters but easy coin to spend was something nice to have in his bag instead of all the monster gems.

They returned to the inn shortly after selling the armor. A large sign stood over the door with a strange animal standing on its hind legs dancing while playing some kind of string instrument. Joe couldn’t really understand what it was and he didn’t know the language enough to figure out the name. It looked a bit like the ratfoxes he’d seen on the road so decided to name the inn The Dancing Ratfox. It seemed like a good enough name and Joe left it at that.

They entered the inn and the common room was lively with joyful banter of a myriad of people. Joe was surprised to find that most of the people didn’t seem to be the standard human. All but the wait staff were nonhuman of some kind, strange nonhuman parts scattered across their bodies: arms, legs, ears, jaws, faces, horns, tails, or any other of a hundred different mutations. There were even several that were fairly human except for being slightly different either in height, size, or breadth. That’s a dwarf! Right! And there’s a … halfling? A gnome? Something. This is…!

Joe stared at everyone, surprised at the variety of sapient people but just as surprised by how uniform they all were. Several moments later, Joe realized that the roomed had quieted and the people were staring at him. Oops! Joe smiled and waved at everyone before turning away and sidling up to the bar next to Garnedell. Joe refocused on what Garnedell was doing and saw that the inn keep and Garnedell seemed to be discussing the price for staying. It took several moments for the two to come to an agreement and Joe had to pull out a single slime gem to give to the inn keep for their stay. Joe was careful to slide it out, keeping it cupped under his hand as he slid it across the bar. The inn keep slipped it from the desk into his hand and called out to a passing maid before tossing the key onto the counter. Garnedell scooped it up and turned to follow the maid, Joe quickly following after, taking some time to take in the sight of all the strange creatures that populated the common area.

After dropping off their equipment in the room, the two returned to eat supper and Joe spent a good couple hours struggling through the language with Garnedell. Unlike the inn back at the small village, the crowd was quite large and loud and only grew more so after the sunset. Despite the boisterous crowd, Joe was unable to interact with any of them and soon found the language lessons mind numbing. Joe soon after waived Garnedell off and turned to people watch instead, staring at the various people around him. He was fascinated, avidly people watching for some time until a stray gust of wind blew his hair into his face, tickling across his nose and covering his eyes.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He sneezed and grumbled under his breath while clearing away the hair cover his face, now quite long after almost six months on the planet without access to any barber. I’m… really going to just chop it off with a knife tonight. It’s … wonder what… Joe’s thoughts meandered and he returned to people watching, this time taking in a look at the men in the room and even some of the women. The women seemed to all have quite long hair, with the shorter brushing their shoulder blades and the longer draping almost to their legs. Most seemed to average out in the middle, although closer to the shorter end of things.

The men all had long hair as well, although they seemed to have it only about shoulder length and all had it tied up in strange little knot with some kind of thick string, maybe even leather. It wasn’t quite a pony tail, but it was enough to keep the hair well away from their faces. Joe’s eyes flickered back to the women and noticed that they also had a portion of their hair tied back as well, but with some big puffy yarn ball like string of some kind. OK… so… when in Rome? Maybe time to buy one for myself tomorrow? Something … how am I going to tell Garnedell? Maybe… Joe glanced to Garnedell and noticed that his hair was also tied back with a similar thick string and Joe grimaced, almost berating himself verbally. Been obvious the whole time! Time to ask him tonight… easy enough!

Calling an end to the night, Garnedell and Joe headed up to their room and settled themselves in for the night, taking a sponge bath that was dissatisfying and making sure the door and window were will secured. After their baths, Joe spent some time pantomiming his long hair and the desire to tie it up, pointing out Garnedell’s hair tie. It took a bit of time, but he seemed to quickly understand and Joe made plans for a shopping trip tomorrow.

That done, Joe decided to head to bed. When both were in their beds, Joe blew out the light and soon found himself struggling to sleep. Even though his rest was interrupted some last night, he’d been able to get excellent amount of sleep despite his watch and the bed proved just as uncomfortable as the village inn’s bed. He’d hoped the bed would be much nicer, considering the greater wealth and abilities a city offered, but he found no appreciable difference in comfort.

Finally growing annoyed at trying to sleep, Joe popped open his status, flipping through the various pages but stopped with some surprise when he noticed a new tab! When did… WHY did that happen? Joe excitedly stabbed at the new blessings tab and blinked in surprise when he saw a single entry. It really wasn’t very useful and simply was a single word: Instinctual (B). Joe glanced at the entry with a bit of confusion, not understanding what exactly it meant. It was obvious that this was a blessing, since it was under his blessing tab, and somehow that blessing had to do with his instincts. What… wait! Maybe I can click on it! Joe clicked on the entry and a quick pop up flashed before his eyes.

Instinctual (Greater Blessing): You have gained the favor and blessing of a greater natural power. You are blessed with a hyper aware instinctive ability that allows you to react and respond at a subconscious level to accomplish conscious goals or to protect yourself from harm. You have an instinctive awareness and understanding of what and who is around you combining all your senses to achieve understanding and awareness.

Well, that’s nice, but what does it mean? I’ll instinctively… what? Joe closed the popup while he pondered for a moment then decided to try, figuring he’d just be lying in bed waiting to fall asleep anyway. Help. What is the blessing of Instinctual? Even as he asked, two popups came up and one of them was the same as the first, and Joe slashed it away with a bit of frustration. The second one came up and made him growl a curse with quite a bit more anger since the only thing it stated was already intrinsic in the first. The second popup simply said: A blessing helps you.

Garnedell popped up his head when he heard Joe’s growl and called out, “Zhoe. What?”

“Ahh… nothing, kid. Sorry about that. Just…” Joe stifled a sigh as he swapped to the local language with a bit more halting cadence, “Garnedell sleep! I good.”

Garnedell nodded but still looked at Joe for a few more minutes before dropping his head back to the pillow and drifted back to sleep. Joe turned back to his study of his blessing. After reading what his blessing was, he felt a bit grateful. Huh… nice… this … is really nice! Joe’s curiosity drove him on and he decided to continue with a few more questions. Please help me know where blessings come from. The response was worthless, simply stating they came from powers. Joe sighed with exasperation as he asked his second question. How long does the blessing last? He waited expectantly but nothing replied and Joe grimaced and growled softly as he realized he’d forgot the keyword. Please help me know how long a blessing lasts. This time the response was simple: indefinite. Huh… OK. Can I lose a blessing? The popup was immediate: Yes. Joe almost couldn’t control the growling anger that rumbled in his chest but swallowed it quickly as he didn’t want to bother Garnedell. OK, another easy question: Are blessings always and only a positive for a bearer, help? Joe was expecting a similar popup as the last and he turned out correct as a small window with a single ‘yes’ floated before him. Swiping away the popup with a bit more satisfaction, he asked his last question. How do I lose blessings? The next popup seemed to take a while to come up, a sense of ‘lag’ seemed to swish though his mind like a pool of water sloshing back and forth. It was one of the strangest sensations Joe had ever felt, but the pop up came up and this time was significantly more useful. Finally!

Irritate, fail, or attack the power that gave you the blessing.

Seek out a priest to remove the blessing.

Huh… so I received this from a major natural power. So then does this mean… natural as in it is normal, not manufactured? Or does it mean natural as in nature? A tree or a river… … aren’t those nymph spirits or maybe dryads? Hmm… If it’s nature, will I get in trouble if I kill some animals or burn a tree? What… Joe considered his options then tried to figure out who the power was. The first several times were frustrating, but after asking a few dozen times in as many ways as possible, the only response he was able to get was that it would be impossible to know unless that power told him. Despite his frustration over not knowing who the power was, Joe was still happy over at least having it. Whatever ‘it’ is…