Chapter 8 - The City of Fall’s End

The days after that were a lot less eventful.

They’d left Lacta in the morning, but not before Rize had bought proper clothes for the girl, who still wandered around in her furs, and actual clothes were something she came to appreciate very quickly.

They were simple, but the fact that they didn’t smell like a dead animal was already enough for her to be happy.

Seeing her mesmerized look, Lyn had also bought her a cheap sword, which she now wore proudly on her hip. It felt good to have her own weapon, even if she didn’t exactly need it to prevail over her enemies.  It was also immensely fun to swing it around in the evenings and familiarize herself to the feeling of a weapon in her hands.

During the rest of the journey, she hardly spoke to anyone besides Lyndon and Rize. Neiro stuck to Kassa, whose eyes were still fire pits when they fell on her, and Zenon did his very best to avoid her after their fight before.

She still hadn’t forgiven him for trying to harm her like that when she hadn’t done anything wrong, and he didn’t apologize again, so the tranquil companionship they’d had was now virtually nonexistent.

It didn’t faze her too much though.

Sure she knew he was deep down a nice fellow, but she hadn’t even known him long enough to consider him a friend and found it too bothersome to mend a relationship she didn’t destroy.

So instead, she took to talking to Rize and Lyn, who were both easy enough to be friends with.

Two weeks after they’d left the forest and all in all five weeks after she’d joined their group, they finally reached their destination.

It was safe to say, she wasn’t disappointed.

The City of Fall’s End was mesmerising.

It was large, far larger than she could ever imagine a city to be, especially since she was standing on a hill when she first saw it and was still unable to see from one end to another. It was built on a smaller mountain, the streets winding circularly around it until they converged on a huge building that was mainly built out of glass, gold and white stone so that it glittered once the sun fell on it.

It was safe to say, the girl was stunned.

The entire city was very green and pink, trees lining almost every street, growing between and on most of the houses. According to Rize, the city got its name from the fact that all of these trees turned into a stunning array of gold, red, yellow and orange at the end of fall, making the city more colourful than any other.

“I think I made the same expression when I first saw it,” Neiro said next to her, a faint smile on his lips. She grinned back and nodded.

“It’s so beautiful,” she said, feeling like she lacked words to describe her feelings.

Rize next to her also smiled and they let her savor the view for another while before she herself got to impatient and they walked the short way to the end of their journey.

They got through the city gates without a problem once the others showed the guards their identification as members of the Fenrir clan, which didn’t seem to be so special here.

She grinned, feeling both giddy and happy when the gates opened and she saw the streets.

They were lined with stalls with the most astonishing range of goods, from fruits she hadn’t even imagined to fine silks and second-rate pottery, there were swords and bows as well as dried and fried meat and all scents mixed into the lively feeling of a city.

“Better close your mouth or something’ll fly in,” Lyndon said and bumped into her but she only turned to him with glittering eyes.

“This is sooo amazing!” She yelled and couldn’t resist running ahead.

She jumped out of the way of carriages drawn by horses and other creatures and ran to the stalls, eyeing the merchandise one after another.

There were apples - those she knew, she’d gathered some for her companions before - but also cherries and pears and different nuts and colourful vegetables she had never seen before.

“What is that?” She asked and pointed at a rainbow-coloured, pear shaped fruit that smelled both gross and delicious at the same time.

The lady behind the stall, a middle-aged woman with huge and pointy ears and skin the colour of an olive looked at her and gave her a smile once she saw the giddy expression on her face.

“That’s an opha jelly, they grow further in the south of here. Some say it’s either the best or worst thing you’ll ever eat in your life,” the woman laughed and the girl stared the fruit down. She’d never eaten something before and it certainly wasn’t as if she was hungry, but for the first time in her life she actually wanted to taste something just for the sake of knowing what it would be like.

“You want to try some?” The woman asked after a while and the girl’s head whipped to her.

She nodded unconsciously at first but stopped and began to shake her head when she remembered she couldn’t.

“I don’t have any money,” she said dejectedly, her head hanging low.

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The woman looked right and left and then handed one of the fruits to her with a wink.

“I’ll take it as a favour,” she laughed, leaving the girl speechless, then grinning again.

“Thank you so much!” she went into hyperdrive again as she hugged the woman over the counter and then left with her new treasure.

“You’re welcome,” the woman giggled when she saw the young girl so happy with just a piece of fruit in her hands.

The girl deliberated a while and then took a huge bite out of the rainbow opha-jelly.

Taste exploded into her mouth, flooding and taking over and exploding on her tongue.

This is…

Her face slowly twisted.

...so gross.

Shaking her head, she spit out the piece she’d just bidden and proceeded to wipe her tongue with her fingers, trying to get the taste of her.

It seemed as if every flavour had been concentrated into that fruit, making it too bitter and too salty and too sweet at the same time.

She spat on the floor and then burned the rest of what she held in her hand without a second thought.

“Worst, definitely the worst!” She said to herself, feeling cheated, especially when Lyndon behind her broke into a hysterical laughter.  

“That is just how I reacted when I first tried one,” he breathed between laughs and even Rize couldn't hold in a giggle.

The girl found it kinda funny as well and ended up laughing just as loud as Lyn.

“Come on guys,” Neiro finally butted in, his face stiff, “Let’s get going to Redhall.”

With that, they went on and the girl restrained herself from running around and inspecting her surroundings in wonder yet again. Only once she and Lyn had calmed down did she notice that she didn’t have the faintest idea where they were going.

“So, what is this Redhall thing?” she asked Lyn, poking him in his side since he was still wearing a teasing smile.

“It’s a school of sorts,” he explained, “There’s one in every major city, the only institution that isn’t monitored by a Clan but directly by the High Gods, or so they say. No one has ever seen them before, though.”

“We all went there, before we joined a Clan, when we had no idea about this world. It takes every Newborn Immortal that wants to learn, so we think it’s the right place for you,” Rize said as they made their way through the streets, moving upwards to the higher areas of the city.

The girl nodded, her excitement only growing.

It’ll be nice to meet someone like me, she mused with a smile, someone without a clue about anything.

“Actually, Murron’s an instructor at Redhall. He helps us from the Fenrir Clan out for our missions from time to time, but he’s actually not a member. Come to think of it, where is he?” Rize looked around, but couldn’t find him.

The girl wasn’t very surprised, after all, he had done his best to avoid her until now and he would likely continue to do so.

As they walked upwards, the city gradually changed a little. The stalls to the sides of the street disappeared, as did the wooden and brick-coloured houses, instead, they were replaced by shiny white buildings. The street was also more even here and far more tidy, even if there were still a lot of leaves and petals from the trees fluttering through the air.

Redhall itself, though, was, despite its name, not red at all.

It wasn’t white either, but more of a dark brownish colour, that might’ve had a tinge of crimson, once, but not anymore. Nonetheless, it was quite impressive.

It came into view from a bit further, locked behind gates that seemed as old as the building itself and completely didn’t fit into the tidy and white surroundings. It was a large building with huge glass fronts that seemed to stretch up to five stories high and yet managed to seem quite comely and small. The foremost building seemed surprisingly small for an institution, but the spacious fence that encircled its property gave reason to suspect a larger area behind it.

The girl found, from its outside, she liked it more than she did the neatness around her, that, despite its prettiness and shine, made her feel out of place more than anything.

She only knew the woods, knew how to hunt and climb trees, so these people, who wore clothes not to keep warm but to look special, seemed mostly strange to her.

“Ah this is so nostalgic,” Lyn said as they neared the rusty gates, a warm and unfocused look in his eyes.

“Right, you went to school here, didn’t you?,” Rize said with a smile and then eyes the school in front of her as well, “I went in Inza, to Lakehall. Inza’s the next large city to the north,” she explained when the girl threw her a weird look again.

“Is it different from here?,” she asked curiously, now that she’d been overwhelmed by one city it was quite hard to imagine another.

“Yes and no,” Rize laughed but before she could elaborate, the gates in front of them swung open.

They stopped talking, a hushed silence descending over them by itself as they entered the path before them. There were trees all over, in green and pink, forming a pattern of light and shadow on the ground that could only be described as breathtaking.

The silence was natural, as if they were in a place where no sounds should be made and even their steps were muffled as they crossed and entered the school through wooden gates and only once they were inside could they breathe and walk normally again.

“Hi there!,” they were greeted by a middle aged man that passed them, “Hey, aren’t you those adventurers from Fenrir’s?” He stopped walking and eyed them over, his eyes lingering on her for a second longer.

“Yeah, that’s us,” Neiro said, shaking the man’s hand, something the girl found really weird, “We picked up a girl, a Newborn in the woods and figured we’d bring her here. She was a wilding for little over a year, I think.”

The man’s eyes grew wide at Neiro’s words and immediately landed on her again. His flame flickered with an excitement he seemed to have for many things and she could see curiosity, the desire to learn. She smiled at him, even if her eyebrow twitched at being looked at like a rare specimen.

“Wow, never heard of someone out there for so long. Glad to have you here then,” he smiled at her and she nodded in return, still a little irritated.

“Well, I guess it’s goodbye for us then,” Rize said and took ahold of her hands. The girl turned to her, frowning.

“Am I not going to be able to see you once I stay here?” she asked, her eyes darting between the man and the woman who had become her friend in the last weeks.

“Oh no, you can come to visit, sure, but I guess you’ll be busy and we’ll go on another mission, so it might be a while until we see each other again.”

The girl let out a relieved sigh.

“Then, that’s fine. We’ll definitely meet again!” She proclaimed to Lyn and Rize, those she had become the closest to, with a small grin to Neiro, who was standing a little off center with Kassa, who still hadn’t overcome her unreasoned resentment.

“Of course we will!” Lyn grinned and ruffled her hair, making her poke him in the sides again, grinning wildly as well.

“I’ll miss you guys.”

“We’ll miss you too, no-name.”

With that, Lyn gave her a light kiss on the forehead, Rize squeezed her hands and Neiro nodded and their group turned around and left through the door they’d come in a few minutes ago.

The girl stared after the only friends of her species she’d made for a while and then shook her head to disperse the sadness inside of her.

And then, she turned around to the waiting man, eyes narrowing in determination.

“Let’s get going, shall we?”