A crisp spring breeze blows by the exit of the spawning pool. Sadly, both Gus and I still are completely naked, so rather than enjoying the breeze, it rapidly sends chills throughout our bodies. Somehow it was warmer inside the cave than outside, and come to think of it the muck we were wading through in there wasn’t cold, if anything it was room temperature. Compared to out here, where birds can be heard chirping, trees and greenery cover the mountainous landscape, and the sounds of gusts blowing by, add an additional level of depth that dreary cave could never hope to achieve.
Anyways, after sitting for a few minutes getting our bearings, Gus figured out what our next plans of action were to be. Firstly, we need to find the local spawn trader. We will be able to get clothes, basic equipment, and enough food to get to the first town from said trader. According to him, the closest city to this spawning pool is New Dale, which is around a three days walk east of where we’re at. Once we get there, he said he would be able to explain in better detail what is going on, and how things are here in the tree. Another chilly breeze gusts by robbing both of us of our remaining heat. “Okay, let’s get going. We have roughly one hour before nightfall, and I would prefer to have clothes, food, and a warm fire going before then”, he declares, rubbing his running nose.
Gus takes the lead as we start venturing outside of the cave entrance. Luckily, there is a path at the mouth of the cave that looks rather safe to travel on. Aside from the path, this mountain looks rather treacherous. One misstep or foot slip and you could go tumbling down for quite a while. The only thing to stop your fall would be you splatting right into a tree. If someone were to clear out parts of this forest and clean up the terrain a bit, it would be a ton of fun to go snow sledding down during the winter months. I wonder if the seasons change in the tree, does it mimic the seasons outside of the tree, does time even move at the same rate here as it does outside? If the seasons are the same inside and outside of the tree then how long have I been in the tree? I was sacrificed a little past the winter solstice, and it is clearly not winter anymore. I would say there is roughly a three month difference in time since I was sacrificed to now, if their times are aligned, but I could only have been conscious for a day or two at most. Hopefully I will be able to find an answer to at least some questions I have when we get to New Dale.
After a few minutes of walking along the trail, the mountain starts to level out, revealing a small log cabin. The sunset is nearly over, and temperatures are starting to rapidly drop. “There it is, the trader’s hut”, Gus announces, picking up his speed. As we get closer, the hut gets less and less obscured by the surrounding forest. The hut looks small on the inside, but with a relatively large porch. A comfortable rocking chair sits on the left side of the porch, while a wreath covered in bells hangs from the center of the porch roof. Gus walks up the porch and grabs the wreath and swings it back and forth jingling the bells that are attached, while still carrying the leech head in his other hand. “The trader should be here soon. I’m going to get a fire going right now, so feel free to make yourself at home.”, he said, opening the door to the cabin. The interior of the cabin was only a single room that contained everything inside. To the left there was a single bed that was fully furnished with comfortable looking blankets and covers. In the center of the room was a table with two wooden chairs placed at opposite ends of the table. On top of the table, a wooden crate with rags inside it laid open. Lastly, to the right there was a brick fireplace that doesn’t look used in months with a stack of wood next to it that could last multiple nights. This wood was probably left behind from the winter.
Gus places the leech head he was carrying in the box laying on the table as he heads over to the fireplace. I do the same and place the leech head I was carrying and place it into the box. As I place it I make the mistake of further inspecting the leech head. It was pure black with smooth slimy skin, teeth covering the inside of its circular mouth, and strangely enough multiple very small eyes covered the top. My stomach churns as I regret looking at the giant parasite. Shadows of the room start moving about as Gus gets the fire going. The heat definitely helps. Gus grabs one of the chairs and pulls it close to the fire. “Here, pull up the other chair. Come get warm.”, he says, signaling me to pull up a chair to the left of him. I pull up a chair next to him, and he starts again, “how’s the fire feeling?”. “It’s nice and warm”, I reply and pause. “By the way, when’s the trader gonna get here?”, I continued. Gus turns to me and looks me straight in the eyes with a serious expression on his face, “listen here, the trader will be here soon, but you need to just sit here and I’ll handle the trader. If he tries to talk with you, keep it short. If he tries to see your gem then-”. He is cut off by a sudden jingle of bells outside accompanied by a loud whoosh sound.
The door opens bringing in a familiar cold breeze. “Close the door, it’s freezing.” Gus demands to the man at the door. While still enjoying the fire, I turn to see who this man was. The man was bundled up in multiple layers, wearing large worn boots, and carrying a gigantic backpack. This bag looked in good condition and packed to the brim. It even had parchment poking out of some of the compartments and multiple canteens attached to the outside of the bag swinging about. “There’s two of you…”, he exasperatedly murmured. With a loud whoosh the man and everything accompanying him disappeared. In the same instance, another whoosh sounded off right by the box. The trader was standing there peering down into the box where the leech heads reside, “at least both of you have payment”, he said still dismayed.
“So who are both of you?”
“I’m Gustavo and he is Kite. I assume that you have all the starter supplies in that bag, right?”
“Yes, but I assume you’re gonna want a second one right…”
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“Good, you understand the situation, so two leech heads for two starter packs.”
“Yeah, that’s fine, but I will need to go back to grab another pack”
The trader takes off the backpack and tosses it over to Gus.
“Confirm that everything is in there, while I go get your other supplies”, he said, picking up the box with the heads inside.
“THWAAAAM”, a dark blue energy axe slams down on the box covering the top and pressing it back down into the table. The trader jumped back slightly and immediately broke out in a cold sweat. There was a sense of fear and apprehension surrounding him. It seemed as if he had never been in a fight before, but with people supposedly being immortal here I would assume one would get over such issues.
“You get one head now, and the other with the second bag.”, Gus said, standing up and pressing his palm down in the air. Walking over, Gus raises his energy axe slightly off the crate to grab one of the heads, and then lowers it back down to keep the box shut. “Why, of course. I would never try to skimp on a customer.” he said, still sweating bullets, but trying his hardest to put on a smile. Gus scoffs, as he throws the leech head towards the door. The man dives in the air and with a whoosh, he disappears. Instantly, he reappears by the door, catching the head, and then slamming his body into the door. Gus grinning like a sly fox, he says, “Then we got ourselves a deal then”. This side of Gus is a little scary. If I were to try and hide something from him I’m sure he would notice immediately. So note to self: Do not try to sneak something by this man, he will notice.
Scrambling onto his feet the trader opens the door and in a hurry leaves the door open bringing the nighttime air with it. Hastily he grabs the wreathe with the bells attached. With a quick jangle back and forth of the wreathe he vanished, leaving with another loud whoosh behind him. As soon as he leaves, Gus frantically turns to the huge bag and starts grabbing stuff out of it. Clothes, a sword, a few smaller tools, some coins, multiple packaged rations, and various flasks pour out of the bag and onto the floor. Quickly, he hands me the clothes and he orders, “Get dressed now. You need to get out of here before he gets back.”
“Why?” I question back.
“Because, If he sees that you have a second gem in your arm he will smell money, and both of us will be hunted down for sure. I don’t know about you, but personally I don’t want to be hunted down like a dog on the run”. While I’m putting on all the clothes Gus had handed me, he starts packing up everything he dumped out, back into the pack.
“Listen here, when you leave I’ll be a few minutes behind you. Just keep walking down the path, and don’t yell or raise your voice. If you do that, it will activate your left gem, and attract any and probably all nearby monsters to you, and you don’t want that…, do you?”
“Gotcha! What about yourself, will you be alright?”
“I’ll be fine. I know how to deal with slimeballs like him, matter of fact, I used to be the slimiest of them all”, he said, puffing his chest out in a goofy and boastful fashion.
I don’t know how to feel about Gus sometimes. He goes from maintaining a very serious tone where he is able to stress the dangers of any situation to immediately undermining it, ruining all the tension and urgency he created. It just confuses me. I wonder if this is how he deals with stress. It kind of makes me want to slap him and tell him to pay attention to the atmosphere of the situation.
While putting on the last pieces of clothing, Gus finishes packing the bag and handing it over to me. This thing has to weigh at least half of me. Thank god this body was made strong because before coming into the tree this bag would have crushed me. Hell it probably weighed more than the me back then. The clothing I’m wearing as well would have been way too big for the previous me, but it fits well. These clothes are extremely light, but still feel extremely warm. The pants and jacket feel pretty padded as well, I would even bet that they could take a pretty strong hit and have some defensive applications. The nicest part about these clothes though is the fact that it conceals both of my arms keeping my gems hidden. As I’m about to start walking out, Gus starts up, “I don’t think he saw that you had two gems, and he shouldn’t be able to see them now. He should be back here any minute now, so just go on ahead, and I’ll be a bit behind you.” Gus said, returning to his serious self.
I start to take my leave through the door carrying this tank of a bag. As soon as I take the first step out of the door, the wreathe hanging from the center of the porch jangles and swings back and forth. FWOOSH. The air around the center of the porch expands outward, sneaking down the back of my shirt, chilling me down to my spine. Straight ahead of me is the trader. My eyes accidentally drift upwards and meet his. This was really the first time I really looked directly at him, and he definitely had the face of a swindler. The gaunt features, apparent lack of self-care, and undeserved confidence gave this feeling of an overworked, but driven, merchant. He stares back at me and then cracks a devious smile. Has he found out? How could he? I need to go! I continue to walk, and start to pass by him, but just as I am about to pass him he turns his eyes to look straight at me without moving his head or his body., “What was your name again…?”, he starts up maintaining this air of confidence about himself. I turn my eyes to look at him without moving my neck or body as well. All that it revealed was that devious smile was even worse when seen from the side profile. His gaunt features and intense glare just amplified the creepiness factor about this guy. I take another step just trying to get out of here. “Ah, yes. It was Kite…, wasn't it?”, he says, maintaining the intensity. My body freezes, and doesn’t want to move. Holy fuck, get me out of here! I manage to start my body back up again, and take another step forward. “Enjoy your stay at New Dale, feel free to visit the merchant’s guild there. We are always looking for individuals with… unique… talents, such as yourself.”, he says, starting to walk inside with another huge backpack.