For all of Aodhán's life, there was always a point where everything went awry.
When he was young, still in elementary school, all the other kids in his class started bringing these odd little stuffed rectangles filled with sand or small beads. They were like hacky sacks but you'd bounce and catch them over your knuckles.
Each hand hacky sack's design and material differed, and most kids had their parents buy the official ones online. Some of the class even had multiple in their collection. Soon after the craze started, special or limited edition hand sacks became highly valued and coveted.
But Aodhán's parents never got him one.
"Ya need tah earn it, and you haven't done nuthin' to earn anythin'!" Is what his father would tell him before barreling into a long winded rant about the value of money and how Aodhán didn't appreciate everything his parents did for him and all the things they would be doing if they didn't have to afford him.
His mother would guilt him saying, "You need to learn the value of such things! No dinner for two nights, that's how much less food we'd have to buy to be able to get that for you. Can you eat those stupid little things? No? Didn't think so!" And true to her word, he'd go for two nights without dinner.
Aodhán supposed they were right. His family didn't have much money, and he hadn't done anything to earn one.
He'd been left out whenever all the other kids were practicing a new trick or negotiating trades with each other. Noticing his desire to be part of the fun, some of his friendlier classmates lent him the ones they didn't care about whenever they were all practicing together, but eventually their goodwill stopped.
It was after one of the last times someone lent him one that he'd had a great idea. He could save money and earn his very own one-of-a-kind hand sack by making it himself.
His mother had taught him how to stitch clothes with needle and thread so he could fix and adjust his own clothes as he got older, so sewing a couple of fabric squares together and filling them with little beads would be easy.
He already had the thread and sewing supplies, so he only needed the fabric and the filler, but those cost money, and recycling fabric from clothes or other things in the house was sure to get him in hot water.
He remembered that on some days of the week people would put their old furniture on the side of the street where it would sit for up to weeks at a time. The trash people usually ended up hauling them off at some point.
Aodhán figured that if those weren't wanted, then no one would mind if he cut the fabric out of the upholstery. So, he went around his neighborhood and collected as many fabrics as he could. For the filler, he used dried corn kernels that the neighbor's chickens missed or decided to skip out on.
The pattern he created was made from several pieces of fabric stitched together in angled strips of increasing widths. The largest was a creamy white hemp, followed by a soft yellow velvet, a red faux leather covered in tiny cracks, and a deep blue cotton at the opposite end.
When he brought it with him to school the next day, he was the center of attention. Well, the attention centered around the hand sack, but all the kids asked him how and where he got it and if they could get one, too.
Of course, any kid with an inflated ego and something everyone else wants usually does the same thing. They lie about it to make it sound even better.
"It's specially made, my dad knows the guy who makes the official ones. He gave me this one." He told them.
Naturally, that only made them covet it even more, and all his new friends were begging him to get them a special one, too.
The intoxication of being recognized like that was too much for Aodhán, and he quickly caved.
Soon, he was sewing and filling up new hand sacks with all sorts of crazy designs. He even started to sell them to the other kids for a premium.
It all came crashing down the day he was pulled into the principle's office.
Somehow, almost every family who had a kid in his class was suffering from an infestation of bed bugs. As it turned out, using fabric from random furniture on the street carried a high risk of bringing unwanted guests into the home.
The parents of those families did a good deal of sleuthing, and eventually, the trail of clues led to his one-man operation. None of the other kids seemed to like him much after that and his parents forced him to burn every single one of the hand sacks he still had and pay back every dollar he'd made selling them.
So it wasn't surprising to Aodhán as he got closer to the little city on the hill carrying a strangely oversized dog that things started to go poorly.
Walking up the road to a closed gate, movement on top of the wall caught his eye. A man with very dark skin and dressed in an odd red and orange uniform noticed him and called out, though he couldn't make out what the man was trying to say.
They called out a second time and held up a hand. Aodhán, with his hands full, stopped and realized that maybe he was just a bit odd looking himself.
"Hello!" he shouted "Um, I'm lost and hurt. Can you help me?" He paused for a beat, then added "Oh, and this dog is hurt too, can you help her?"
A few more dark skinned men appeared on the wall in the same uniform. They looked at him and appeared to confer with each other.
He stood there awkwardly for a few minutes as this went on, not sure if he should be doing anything or if doing nothing was exactly what he was supposed to be doing.
Eventually, one of the uniformed men leaned over the edge of the wall and yelled down to him in a heavy accent that sounded simultaneously french and russian. "H-…Hello! Are you foreigner? Go to gate! We talk there."
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He blinked and wondered how many more times this whole encounter was going to take a more bizarre direction. He wouldn't have to wait long to find out.
As he waddled the rest of the way to the gate, he watched as the gate men moved about and shouted a few orders in another language. Just how far from home was he?
The gate swung open and four men stepped out, two on either side of the gate's opening. They wore red sleevless tabbards hemmed with an orange smoke-like pattern. It had a deep v-neck cut and several thin leather straps that looped over the shoulders. Small metal plates were fitted and strapped to their elbows, shoulders, and wrists. Aodhán could just make out some more armor beneath the tabbard as well.
They wore sandals and their calves were wrapped tightly in leather and metal armor. The pant leg over the thigh tucked into the top of the calf armor and was loose and poofy. It sort of looked like a torso on top of two mushrooms.
Over their head and faces was fine chainlink mail, an additional cloth covered the mail like a hood with a pattern matching their uniforms and an opaque veil covered all but their eyes.
Aodhán had to stifle a laugh, not because of the look but because the absurdity of the situation had finally crescendo'd for him. Had he found himself in one of those medieval costume events or something?
His mirth evaporated instantly when he saw them pull maces from the thick belts at their waists. They took a combat stance with their left arm held out in front of them, the metal plates angled to be a shield and the maces held over their heads.
Two more people stepped out of the gate blocking the way in. Two women, to be precise, and they were very, very tall. They stood a whole foot taller then the men around them.
Both were dressed in similar colors to the men, but they had round shields and long, sturdy spears. The heads of the spears shimmered in rainbow hues slightly in the light masking their general shape. Their attire had full sleeves and was more heavily armored and they had sturdy boots instead of sandals.
Their head coverings, which were more like headdresses fused with a helmet, were adorned with colorful decorations both natural and crafted; feathers, charms, even a small toy was an adornment for one of them.
Aodhán's attention was focused as he tried to figure out what he had walked into.
Looking at these people more closely revealed that their skin was not just dark, it was nearly pitch black and had a deep navy hue. It was so different from what he'd expected that it registered as some kind of body paint, except it looked too natural.
His approach slowed. He wanted to say that he was just here for help and that he wasn't looking for trouble, but the words stuck in his throat. Thankfully, they decided to speak first.
"Stop!" one of the women shouted, holding her spear-hand up. "What business does a foreigner have in Triel?"
Her grammar was much better than the gate man who spoke to him earlier, but the french-russian accent was still pretty thick.
He gave his best placating smile before answering. "Ah, the city's name is Triel? That's a very good name!" He waited for them to accept the compliment. They made no response.
"W-well, I saw your city from the edge of the forest over there." He stammered, motioning with his hand as best he could in the direction he had come from. "I guess I got lost, but I ran into this dog here and she guided me out, I think." He lifted the dog up and out a little bit to show them and she woofed in their direction.
Then he remembered his wounds and added, "Oh, and we were attacked by this gross looking wolf thing with green eyes and greasy fur and got pretty hurt. I was hoping you might be able to help us."
Every single gate 'guard', he'd decided to call them, looked at him incredulously. The spear woman spoke up after a not so short silence. "You were in the forest? Alone?"
The spear women exchanged glances before the one who had been talking continued.
"What is your Class and Rank? From where do you come?" Both of the women's spears lowered and pointed toward him as they took up a readied stance. The rest of the guards formed up on their sides, maces still raised and ready.
Aodhán wasn't sure how to respond at all. Class? Rank? Did they have some sort of caste system? He quickly considered lying and trying to come up with some excuse, but after some consideration he decided that the truth, or most of the truth, would be best.
"I'm not sure! I don't know what a Class or Rank is, maybe people where I am from know it as something else?" He shrugged and shook his head. "I'm happy to answer your questions, but first let me explain my situation."
She only paused for a moment. "Be quick, then. I've never met nor heard of anyone who does not know their own Class and Rank. I'm intrigued, but my curiousity ends the moment I think you are lying."
He nodded. "I've gotten lost. Very seriously lost, from what I'm gathering. I was caught up in some kind of…" he tried to think back to the alleyway in his home town, where the dancing performer produced fog and drew ritualistic diagrams before he passed out and awoke in this strange place. "It must have been some sort of ritual or drug that made me forget. All I know is that one moment I was home and the next I woke up somewhere in that forest."
Slowly, his mind retraced his steps over the past twenty-four hours. He came to, met the dog, went to sleep, got attacked, passed out, came to again, then managed to walk all the way here. All that and he couldn't even tell if he had a signal because his phone-
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Then it struck him; He didn't have his phone. He had this weird metal-stone phone thing that had a note signed by Rungu, some mysterious person who had swapped it out at some point saying having a smartphone would be problematic.
The other details of the metal-stone phone came back to him in a blur. It had a map app that only showed the map where you had been, a music player, a health app, and yes, an app that had information about Class, Rank, and some other details.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. His sudden shout must have caught his interrogators off guard because they jumped and looked like they were about to start charging him. He had a quick vision of meat being tenderized by maces then skewered onto spears like a kebab and nearly dropped the dog.
"Hold on! I just remembered something I woke up with when I got here." he gently laid the dog on the ground next to him, who stretched out but stayed in place watching him while occasionally glancing at the guards.
Slowly, intentionally letting them see what he was doing, he reached down and pulled the phone from his pocket and held it up for them to see.
"This," he said, "was in my pocket when I woke up. It shows information when you use it." He could have said 'screen', but he was beginning to catch on to the fact that whatever he considered common knowledge probably didn't apply here. "It showed details about me, stuff like health and I remember there being something about Class and Rank. I'm going to check it real quick."
"Enough!" shouted the tall woman. "This is clearly a trick. What need does someone have for a Curio to check their Class and Rank? You must take me for a fool if you think I'll let you activate that."
Aodhán blinked. "Uh, Curio?" He hit the lock button on the 'Curio' then pointed the screen at her. She braced, but when nothing happened after several moments, she shifted awkwardly.
Oddly, he was reminded of kindergarten and early grade school show and tell as he presented the device and slowly tapped onto the app that had all the details about Class and such. He was having a lot of nostalgia and throwback vibes today.
"You use it by tapping on and swiping over the information that shows up on it." The page opened and he was about to explain how it didn't list a Class or anything else when something new on the screen caught his eye.
He did have a class, and a little subscript that read 'Rank 1' next to it. "The Indomitable…" He said it out loud, not really intending to but it was loud enough for the guards to hear.
"The Indomitable? Is that some sort of Unique Class? If you were captured, lost, attacked, and injured as you say then you don't seem very 'indomitable' to me."
The other spear woman let out a snort and stifled a chuckle. Aodhán blushed in embarrassment. He knew he shouldn't be embarrased, but something about this whole mess, all the unknowns, and now a joke at his expense made him feel inadequate, stupid, and weak and all the emotions he'd been ignoring until now come pouring out.
The chuckling spear woman turned to the one who had been questioning him, losing the stance and relaxing. "Mumiora, he claims he was saved by a dog, uses a strange Curio to show us his Class, and claims to not even know what one is in the first place! If he is lying to us, he is either the best or worst lier I have ever met!" Her chuckling grew into uncontrolled laughter as she spoke, nearly doubling over and clutching her stomach with her shield hand.
The first spear woman, Mumiora, looked to the other spear women then back at him before finally relaxing, standing the spear on its end and leaning on it. "Yes, I suppose he would be, but I'm finding it rather entertaining and want to see how far he'll go with it."
Aodhán lowered the phone and his gaze dropped to the ground. He felt the heat radiating from his cheeks and the sudden whiplash of emotions had him bordering on tears. He managed to choke them down. He wanted to ask them for help, figure out what the hell was going on, and go home. That was all. Instead, he was frozen in place unsure of what to do.
Mumiora must have noticed he had frozen up and continued her questioning. "What is your name?"
He raised his head just enough so that he could see her, but didn't meet her gaze and couldn't manage an answer.
She stood there waiting. She turned and hushed the other woman, then asked again. "What is your name? And what Rank is your 'Indomitable" class?"
He felt his choked up throat resist him, but he managed an audible response. "Aodhán. My name is Aodhán. It, this device, says I'm Rank 1." The laughing spear woman nearly doubled over a second time, but a quick glance from Mumiora and the oncoming laughter disappeared.
"Well", Mumiora said, "You don't have any weapons, equipment, or supplies, you are only Rank 1 in a Class I know nothing about, and you are clearly injured and carrying an injured dog in tow." She made a motion with her free hand and the guards immediately backed down and casually retreated through the gate. "You may be a fool, a liar, or maybe you really don't know much at all. Whatever the case, it is obvious you are no threat and are in need of aid." She turned and motioned through the gate. "Come. I will take you to a healer and we will sort all of this out."
Shocked and still brimming with embarrasment but relieved, Aodhán scooped the dog up and shuffled through the gate. A sound that was part chortle and part sob slipped out of him as he thought that, despite how terribly that went, at least he hadn't started another bed-bug infestation.
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Triel was a city unlike any of the ones Aodhán imagined it could be. He'd given up on the idea of any kind of modern infrastructure or familiar architecture after accepting the fact that he was definitely not in the same world he came from.
The deathblow to hope that he'd get to back to his house or to finding a much needed job came from what he saw as he followed the two spear women through the city's streets.
He'd confirmed that the people here did indeed have navy colored skin, though it ranged from the near pitch black shade up to a dark denim jean color. He also realized that some of the people walking the streets were not human. Rather, they were not humanoid. He wasn't sure if the term human even applied to this world.
The first not-human person he'd met had looked human, like him. Their skin was a warm brown color and their hair a very light brown and gray. They were turned away from him and seemed to be talking to someone else. He nearly stopped and called out to them when they turned and he saw their face.
It was pink. Not the kind of pink you see when someone is flushed or has lighter, sensitive skin, but a bright and vibrant pink you might see in some toy aisles at the store.
He'd hoped it was facepaint or a mask, but as he watched them talk and move their face muscles he realized that the skin on their face was actually hundreds of small flower petals. Around their face were plant-like features that were less fleshy before fading into skin. The rest of their body seemed human enough, but they definitely were not the same species.
There were more of them as he followed Mumiora and her colleague, some navy blue, some green, some even multi-colored. Then he noticed the non-humanoid ones. The faces were the same, which is how he figured out they were all the same species, but their bodies were of all different types. Some stood on four legs like a wolf, or a deer, others were shaped like birds, and a few even had forms he couldn't even begin to describe.
Mumiora had picked up on the fact that he had no idea what the heck he was looking at and explained that the plant-like people were called Kiher. Apparently, their real bodies were the flowering plant faces and everything else could be grown over time however they wanted. They could even separate from or lose those parts and regrow them if needed.
He had to twist and maneuver with the dog in his arms as some of them passed because the canine seemed to smell something tasty and kept trying to nip at them.
Baffled, awed, and a little frightened by the idea of living plants, Aodhán turned his attention to the architecture. The streets were narrow, at least compared to streets back home, and could only fit five or six people across. The buildings were close together and rose up anywhere between two and four floors high. The first floor of nearly every building opened to the street without any kind of door and was either a store, a workshop, or a social gathering spot that served food and drink.
The floors above ground level seemed to be residential with windows and balconies from end to end. Clothes lines, plants, and decorations crossed every which way overhead.
One might expect such a cramped design to be dirty and suffocating, but it was suprisingly clean and the layout of the ground floors in each building kept most people out of the street. There were even the occasional square or small park every few intersections that served as markets or places to sit and relax in the sun.
After several minutes turning down different streets and open areas they stepped into a courtyard larger than the small parks and spaces up until now. This one was rougly the size of a football field, thought just a bit wider. In the center a sturdy wall with an equally sturdy looking set of double doors wrapped around a squat two story building covered in tall windows that were barely a few inches wide. On top, a tower stretched higher than any of the surrounding buildings by a few stories at least with what looked like a massive crow's nest at the highest level.
Two guards stood by the door and opened it for them as they approached. Both gave a sharp salute across their chest as Mumiora and her partner passed then gave Aodhán a curious look.
Inside was a front counter that reminded him of a bank. Along the walls were benches and a few scattered groups sitting on them looking bored, annoyed, or both. A younger man sat behind the counter scribbling on some paper and paid them barely more than a glance. He took a longer double take when he noticed Aodhán and the canine in his arms.
Instead of approaching the counter, the two guardswomen turned upbruptly towards a door in the corner of the room. Mumiora rolled her knuckles on the heavy, metal reinforced door four times.
She turned back to him and nodded reassuringly. He hoped this was where they were stopping, because he was finally getting tired of holding his fuzzy yellow companion.
A few moments later a viewport on the door slid open revealing a pair of eyes then immediately shut. He heard a series of clacks and jingles before the door swung inward.
A room of loud chatter and riff-raff dropped in volume considerably as everyone looked up. It almost started to pick back up again but many of the eyes had found Aodhán and lingered on him and the dog.
All of the people in the room were clothed in the same attire as the other guards and Aodhán finally realized where he had been brought.
"Uhm, I'm not under arrest, am I?" He whispered to Mumiora as he felt his anxiety spike for the third time that day.
A few of the guards shouted at the three of them in that same language he couldn't recognize. She spoke something back at them which sent the room into a raucous laughter. The guards in question looked shocked, but soon started laughing with everyone else.
They continued walking as the room returned to it's previous laid-back state. He was led through another door at the far end of the room which Mumiora's partner shut behind them.
This room definitely seemed like an infirmary, and Aodhán's fears that he might have just waltzed into his first ever arrest dissipated.
"Take a seat," Mumiora said, waving him to one of the many cots in the room, "And set your beast there onto one of the other beds." Aodhán did so, and the dog got comfortable and laid on its side.
Someone popped out from behind a drape in the back and quickly shuffled over to them. They were a Kiher, but were mostly plant like despite having a humanoid body. They didn't seem very feminine, or very masculine, had no hair, and instead of a face they just had petals unlike the other Kiher he had seen.
"Hello," it said in a very breathy, low tone, again neither feminine nor masculine. Before he or anyone else had a chance to speak, it continued. "Mmmmmmm, yes, yes I can smell the injury on you. Quite painful, I imagine, though not too bad. Oh, and the scent of a Thylric-hound, must have been quite scary. Though, you should count yourself lucky you didn't bump into anything on the nastier side."
It turned to Mumiora and asked, "I take it you wish me to regenerate them?" It peered up at the tall woman and leaned forward expectantly.
Aodhán caught her eyebrows raise slightly before addressing him. "This is Jidsin. They are one of the best healer's in the city." She turned back to the Kiher and answered her question. "Yes, fix him up as well as the beast." She paused before adding "And please, no enhancements."
This time Aodhán's eyebrows raised. "E-Enhancements? What do you mean enhancements?" He began to worry and imagined this Jidsin person experimenting on him in horrific ways. His emotions were all over the place, and no amount of adrenaline was helping him detach from them.
"Seeeee?" It said excitedly, "This one seems interested, and I can try one or two of my more benign ideas." It stepped closer to him and grabbed his hand. The texture of it felt like a garden plant, except warm with a strong pulse.
He snatched his hand away and shuddered. "No, thank you! I'd like it if you didn't perform science experiments on me."
It's featureless face did the closest thing to staring at him as it could manage then tilted it's head. "…Science?"
Mumiora's partner, who had been standing back by the door, spoke up. "Yeah, let our little flower put a few exciting additions on the kid, it'll be funny!" She laughed, but Mumiora glared back at her.
"Wylaini, enough!" she snapped. The laughing guard snapped to attention, then gingerly looked away.
"Sorry boss, just having a little fun." Wylaena scratched the back of her neck. Then she met Aodhán's gaze. She must have seen how unnerved he was feeling, or how white his face had become, though that was more likely from the bloodloss at this point, and bowed her head slightly. "Sorry, kid. Not tryna spook you or nothin'."
Jidsin, who had seemed to linger on Aodhán, spoke up in a defensive tone, though it nearly lacked any emotion at all. "You make it sound like my enhancements are some terrible UnLand-ian curse. You should know, I spend a lot of time ensuring that they are safe and beneficial to those who receive them. Even you have one or two, Wylaena. The Spears of Triel would not be what they are without them."
"Even if they are helpful", Aodhán interjected, "I don't really understand what that involves, so I'd rather not." Jidsin didn't have a facial expression, but he did notice the petals on its face wilt ever so slightly. "B-but, you can tell me about them while you patch me up!"
Mumiora had become visibily annoyed, yet amazingly didn't lose any of the decorum and professionalism she had shown up to this point. She spoke with just the slightest bite, "It is not for you to decide if you want them or not. Jidsin is the healer for The Spears of Triel and those enhancements are only meant for us. I would not need to clarify that point with them, but they are currently on shift for us and I did not want them giving you any enhancements by mistake." She gave Jidsin a look that said don't even try before taking a breath. "Once you and your beast are healed, we will take you to the interogation room. You are not under arrest, but none of us are familiar with what species you are and visitors are rare here."
Aodhán though that this was a lot of hassle for one guy and his dog. He might not be under arrest, but he definitely knew he wasn't just free to go. "So you want to detain me until you can figure out what to do?" He spoke what she had left unsaid.
A nod from her confirmed it for him. He looked at her, then back to Wylaena, at Jidsin and around the room, before his eyes settled on the dog. He thought for a long moment and wondered if doing what they wanted was worth it or if it would just be trouble for him. They seemed like decent people and were even offering to treat him, so far free of charge. At the same time not working with them would probably result in him actually being thrown in prison or worse.
"Ok, that seems like common sense to me." He shrugged. "Just, one thing before we get into all of that-" He pointed to the dog, whose ears perked up. "I'd appreciate you not calling my friend 'beast' anymore, but she doesn't have a name." He looked at all three of them. "Any of you have good suggestions?"
End of Chapter 2