And with a flash 2 adults, 10 kids entered Royal Road for the first time. Eyes wide as they took in the splendor that is Aidern Kingdom, but as their eyes settled on Fort Odin in the distance and loud scream drew the attention of everyone around.

“Monsters!!!!!”

The newcomers looked around in shock and fear at the suddenness of the cry and began to frantically search for rampaging monsters. Their attention was quickly drawn however to firm thuds and metal clanking as 2 squads of the city's guardsmen surrounded them, then aimed their halberds pointed at them menacingly

One of the men stepped forward, “You,” he said simply pointing to what looked to be the oldest person in the group. “Why are you here? And why did you bring these monsters into our city? Leave this city at once and take them with you or we will be forced to kill you all!”

“There will be no need for that sergeant,” a firm voice called out. “These not be monsters, these be freemen if I ever seen one.” At this a dwarf stepped amongst the group stopping before the creature that most likely caused the scream. “By Thor's hammer! What da hell ye be?” The dwarf asked straining its neck looking almost directly up at the strange creature before it.

It lowered its body in a squat showing unusual flexibility as it came eye to eye with the dwarf slowly so as not to frighten anyone. “Well madam, I'm a Were-cat.”

The female dwarf stroke her chin as she considered this information eyeing him sideways. “If ye be one of the were-folk, why do ye look like that?” She finished while waving at his overall look. “Ye be a strange looking creature!”

“From where I'm standing, could that not be said about you?”

This reply caused a shocked look to reach the female dwarfs face. It lasted but a moment before she started bellowing out a laugh that could never be called feminine, “HA! HA! HAH! True lad! So very true. But if you be a were-cat, what then, is she?” she asked now pointing at a petite female who was staring wide eyed at the dwarf that was now pointing at her.

“What are you pointing at me for?” the young girl practically screamed in reply before flinching at the sharp points now directed at her.

“Lass, I'll have no back talk from the likes of you! Now speak on what ye be or the watch'll have ye!” The dwarfs tone had taken on a steely edge to it that no one wanted directed at themselves.

“Kaylie! Your eyes! Their red!” another member of the group called out identifying the person who had the female dwarfs entire attention.

“What? Wait! What are you talking about?” The girl asked in confusion as a young human male stepped forward putting his hand on her shoulder.

“Kaylie, I need you to calm down before these people decide to kill us and lock us out on our first day here. Let me see your status window, repeat after me,” he said before giving her the voice command she needed to follow.

“Sh...show status window to Casden.”

(if there was a chart, it'd be here, Hehehe!)

“Well, it says you're a vampire. But, how could you not know that?” Casden asked truly shocked.

“But...but...I don't want to be a vampire!” she screamed out falling to her knees with tear pours out of her eyes.

“If you didn't want to be a vampire why did you pick it?”

“I didn't pick it!

“Kaylie, before you were able to log in someone should have asked you what you wanted your race to be and if you wanted to change your appearance. Didn't that happen?”

“Well....” she paused thinking back. “I think she might have, but I was running late...”

“And...”

“We...when started talking, I said I didn't care so I could catch up with you guys,” this last spoken with a guttural cry accompanied by even more tears.

This last bit of information caused many palms of nearby freemen to slam painfully into their own faces.

The group was surprised again by the bellowing laugh of the female dwarf drawing everyone's attention back to her. “Sergeant, I think this is just a group of newly arrived freemen. How about I show them around and they can help me with my orders? I believe Lady Laenaya has some spare rooms to offer these...people. Why not check up on them there later?” said the dwarf turning now to face the watch sergeant. The entire groups head jerked back at the pop-up message they all received.

(Ding jerks! If I was doing those chart things you find the information here! Lol!)

Removing his hand from the sword at his side he motioned for his men to raise their arms. “Who is the leader of this group?”

Two men stepped forward glancing at each other coming to an unspoken agreement. “Good sir,” the shorter of the two spoke. “It's true that we are new here but we mean the people of this city and land no harm. My name is Chen and this is,”

“Nick,” the man with short cropped hair filled in at his companion's questioning glance.

“Yes, we are here to help watch over our young charges. We would accept the ladies offer for guidance and lodging and offer our full cooperation in anything we can help you with.” turning to the others in their party he asked, “do you lads agree?”

“We accept!” was coursed from the rest of the group.

(Ding!Ding! Ding! They done accepted!)

The surrounding crowd chose that moment to disperse once everyone realized that nothing more was going to happen. “Gather round, gather round! I won't bite. My name is Thrala of the Stonevein clan and if ye did'na know, ye be in Aidern Kingdom. Since you're new ye only have bread and a canteen on ye. Why don't you take a moment to get a drink from the fountain behind ye and go ahead and fill'em up.” She waited while the party did so and once everyone was ready she started out with a cheery, “This way!”

First she led them to a map of the city and the surrounding areas. Then she took them to the market. Throughout the day she pointed. Sometimes to things she was buying, others to important buildings and areas of the town. When she saw people she knew personally or through rumor they were pointed out also with warnings on those they needed to avoid.

Finally they arrived at a building that took up an entire city block. Made entirely of Stone with massive wood beams, the structure stood three stories tall. The group entered through what they found out was the back door that lead into a large kitchen. “Just sit those bags there dearies,” she said pointing to a wall off to the side. 13 large bags were set down. Each member of the group having carried one of the large bags on their back while the tall were-cat carried one on each shoulder, taking advantage of his greater strength. “If ye to dense to notice this is the kitchen well, ye might not like it here.”

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Everyone smiled now quite used to her straight forward attitude. She then led the group through a tour of the massive building that simply blew their minds and finally ending it at a pair of highly polished wooden doors. “Wait here,” the dwarf said and with a soft knock she opened one the the doors slightly and entered alone. The closing door indicated that the group should wait gave them the first chance to talk alone among themselves.

“Wow, that was tiring,” Kaylie said dropping down onto a nearby seats taking in what was obviously a receiving room for someone important. “I've never worked that hard in my life!”

“Kids,” Nick mumbled under his breath while shaking his head. He'd already taken in his surroundings and was already positioned to keep all entryways insight.

“So what do you guys think?” The tall were-cat asked gesturing to the others.

“This whole thing is amazing!”

“I never thought anything like this could happen!”

“That dwarf was awesome!”

“Did you see that HUGE KNIGHT in the red armor! I wanna be a knight!”

Many more comments like these were expressed before one of them stepped forward and in a slightly louder voice stated, “We've hit the jackpot!”

This brought all noise to a halt and all eyes focused on him with questioning faces.

“Look at where we are,” he started talking low in case anyone was listening at doors. The others drew close as he continued. “Just look at this place. It's beyond believable. They make and sell their own goods out of here. I don't know about you guys, but on the tour, I got a new Art stat. And it's been going up as I looked at every painting, vase and sculpture here. She purposely took us into rooms you wouldn't normally show to strangers you just met. Plus the new stats and increases in points I've gotten since we started following her,” he paused collecting his thoughts before continuing.

“She told that watchman that he could find us here. We can't leave the city for 4 weeks in-game time. That means they have room for us to stay. All they'll want us to do is work for them. They get cheap labor while we get skills, money, looking at that kitchen food isn't going to be a problem and the most important thing is that we have a safe place to stay. We can be robbed by thieves so we will have a safe place to store our extra money and valuables so that if anything happens to us we don't loose anything we really want.”

The others nodded when the man named Nick asked, “how do you know so much?”

Not taking any offense to the honest question Casden replied, “I'm into anime and manga,” at their blank looks he sighed and explained simply. “For now, consider it the Superbowl of cartoons and comics,” understanding nods greeted his eyes so he continued. “If we play our cards right this can be our base of operations for as long as we can make it last. We can learn some skills that we're gonna need when we leave here and most importantly we can either earn money for our gear or learn how to make our own gear. We all saw what they had here, consider what you saw that you might want to do or might be useful and don't forget to add the things we saw on our tour of the city.” Before he could go on the door that Thrala entered opened to reveal her as she waved them inside. They entered the large office taking in the expensive sturdy but elaborate furniture and expensive looking decor This was a working persons office. Giving off an air of wealthy tenacity

The lady behind the large desk wore a simple silk dress. She wore no rings on her fingers nor bracelets on her wrists. Just a simple gold necklace and golden studs in her ears. She removed her wire rimmed reading glasses as she took in the mixed group of people before her. She was a mature woman late 30's with smile lines just forming at her eyes and lips that became more pronounced as she graced them with a welcoming smile. “Welcome to Stones Throw! My name is Lady Laenaya, and I am the owner. Thrala has told me what happened at the square and I wish to apologize to the young lady freeman. Not all of us are closed minded to the other races of the world. But some may have been fighting for to long and memories are long. Do you accept my apology on behalf of the people of this world?” Lady Laenaya asked after having risen from her desk, coming around to stand before Kaylie.

“Yes, yes I do!”

(Dude! I said DING! Something about following Thrala home)

Everyone in the party tried not to let the surprise pop-up cause them to flinch as it had the fist couple of times it happened. Kenshi had even walked into a light post because several pop-ups came up and he was to embarrassed to ask how to get rid of them. Casden explained the importance of reading each post as they will have important information that they'd HAVE to know. Why else would the game make a point of showing it to you. They agreed to his logic and just minimized them to the bottom of their view. They stacked with a number indicating how many unread posts they had so it didn't cause hardships then they continued on.

“Thank you deary, thank you. Since you do have such a diverse group I'd also like to offer you lodging here. It may be difficult with some of your members and it would ease my conscious if I knew you were at least safe at night.”

“Lady Laenaya, we are very grateful for you hospitality but we could never take advantage of someone as caring as you. Maybe we could work out an arrangement were we can work around here and actually earn our own way. That way all of our minds can be at ease.”

“My what a charming young man,” Lady Laenaya said her cheeks reddening in a blush. Tyden the were-cat had stepped forward and taken the ladies hand gently in his own covering it with his other hand/paw. “Will you stay and work for me? You'll earn an honest pay for any work you do?”

“We accept!”