It is sunset and visibility is going down in the air, nevertheless the ground
The grass was actually really long, taller than me, which might not say much, but I couldn’t see much walking.
So I flew, at a decent height, not too high, which I learned isn’t really advisable.
The grass is the perfect place for small dragons, which wasn’t too bad, until the fifth one attacks you, sees you aren’t taking damage, then run away with no consequences.
I went higher up, so they couldn’t jump to get me, but It was kinda quiet, the forest was the perfect place for big dragons and behemoths, not really any good places for an ambush in the plains.
You see a big footprint every now and again, and signs of battle debris, but nothing really strong here.
The town came into view, and as every fantasy town has, it’s huge walls.
The things came up almost twice as large as the bus martial arts dragon, their even was a dragon on the side climbing up to scale it for me, a fireball that wasn’t from me shot it off.
These walls made of stone brick easily could take a blow from the martial arts dragon, and arguably the old ostrich.
They spread across the land for more than a mile and looked like it eventually curved to make a circle.
As I approached I noticed people were on the lookout, however, they hadn’t spotted me yet, I guess I camouflage, the red no, but it is dark, so my black feathers must be useful for something.
I go to the front gate, and then I’m surrounded.
“Did you really think you could walk in through the front door mons-, Aquen, what is this, why did you get everybody to fight this little guy.”
“I don’t know, I guess my senses are feeling weird, haha haaaa.”
“Okay then, take a break, okay little birdy, are you lost?”
A girl left and a man walked out of the shadows, who was short, really short, still taller than me, but short.
He was also wearing perfectly fitted armor and had a short spear on his back.
His face was smooth and in the shape of an egg?
I use analyze on him.
"Target- Human (Dwarf Tribe) LVL 37" "Titles- Kill stealer, Want to be Hero, Guard, Liquor Holder"
So he’s a human, but also a dwarf, or is it just regular dwarfism.
“What? Never seen a dwarf before, just put your head up and down for yes, left and right for no,” his finger making the motions.
He was right on the dot, must happen a lot, hey that rhymed.
I just use telepathy, simpler that way.
(“I’ll just talk to you this way, easier, I’m here because I was told to come here by a dragon, that’s it.”)
“What, it talks, Ilragorn, did you hear that (A guard nodded no) I must be going crazy.”
(“No I have the skill telepathy, they can’t hear me because I can only talk to one person at a time.”)
“Never in my life have I heard of a monster talking, except a demon, you aren’t a demon are ya?”
My race is war demon chocobo, but I’ll not mention that, (“Nope just a Chocobo variant, what is a demon anyway?”)
I’m just wanting to make sure our definitions match, because so far every animal has been a behemoth, and every lizard a dragon, this doesn’t bode well for demons.
“Demons are a race that can talk to monsters and humans, creepy if you ask me, of course, I’m talking to you so does that make me a demon.”
A guard muttered, “At drills you are.”
“New guard Yuren gets 40 pushups before practice starts, I expect him in the field half an hour early, if you don’t do well I’ll make you start over after you’ve already finished.”
“But-”
“Oh you think that’s too little, admirable, good to see someone working hard, 50 it is.”
He was quiet this time, though tears were in his eyes.
“Anyway Demons are just a race, though few, they can live as long as elves, still have the diversity of humans, and some look like beasts as well, but they are usually just treated as really strong behemoths who can go in the day time.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Well, isn’t the reason the human races can’t talk because they fought against the one true god, doesn’t that mean that the demons were just left out of the fight, so they can still speak to monsters?
Well, anyway, I might be a demon and just not know it because of my race, but I don’t feel any different, so I’ll just hide my status.
“Anyway, why did the dragon send you this way, any particular reason a dragon would send you our way.”
(“Not that I know of, I have nowhere to go, because of, well, reasons.”)
I must have made a face, because he visibly softened, “It’s okay kid, nobody can hurt you here, though I don’t know what you’ll do, I guess we could put you in a stable, though if you try to hurt any of the horses or chocobo’s and Ilragorn forbid any of the nobles filolials, we will have to kill you.”
I thought of the idea of sleeping in stables again, at the time it wasn’t so bad, but the human in me wants a bed, a pillow to rest my head on sounds nice.
(“I can start that way, but can I do something to get something more, homey, I don’t know, my body thinks a bed would be nice.”)
He thought about it, “I don’t know of any inns that take in monsters, but there are monster tamers every once in a while, has to be at least one, but I won’t pay for it.”
(“Anway for me to make money?”)
“Not really, never had a monster this civilized before, you’re not tripping any ill-intent sensors either, I guess an adventure guild will take in anybody.”
(“A guild? What is that.”)
Again, checking my facts.
“A guild is any four-person or more party who registers to separate from the main guild, the main guild registers peasants wish to be guards and border patrol, as well as people who can gather medicinal supplies from the northern forests and the plains around, which are both equally dangerous, as you can tell. An adventurers goal is to become trusted enough to become part of the cities guard, if you’re not needed in the city they’ll kick you out, that’s just how it is, and one more thing, once a guild party separates from the guild they still have to abide by the original guild rules, and they have to follow quest given to them by the guild, but they are treated as a separate business, meaning they don’t have guard duty like the rest of us, lazy bag of bones.”
That was a lot of information, which probably should have been made in a different order, what I got from it was, it’s a normal guild except for two things, it is the gateway for new guards to prove themselves, and parties can make their own guilds, anyway it sounds like a way to make money.
(“That sounds good, where do I sign up?”)
“Oh we’ll do that in the morning, you can sleep, for now, I’ll take you to the stables.”
He walked me up to the front gate, and slightly opened the door, I looked behind me, and the guards were gone, then I used heat vision to see if I could find them, they were there, on the ground a few feet back, they must be ninjas or something.
I walk through the front door and see another door to another wall, he opens the door, and thank Ilragorn (this worlds growing on me) it opens into a plaza.
I was expecting another door and wall, but it’s just two walls.
The plaza was large, and if you look farther down the street to the south you can see another, bigger plaza, filled with more people.
The people were diverse, to say the least, beastman were everywhere, which made me think it they were common, a couple of humans, and I saw one dwarf, which greeted the one guiding me with a wave.
He waved back, and then we went to the next street over, of course, I followed.
The stable is a building that looked like it was repurposed from something else, though I couldn’t tell what, and was filled with various mounts, one which literally had a firetail, was snoring flames, which is always a concern.
But otherwise, the place was quiet, a perfect place to sleep.
One thing was bugging me so I asked, (“What’s this town called?”)
“City, and Convictioni.”
(“Sounds kinda ominous, like it’s a fancy prison.”)
“What would signify a fancy prison, anyway it means togetherness because it’s a place that doesn’t discriminate, I’ll pick you up in the morning eventually, make friends, this cells yours.”
(“Well then goodnight.”)
“Goodnight little bird.”
----------------------------------------
Long-Legged Tribe
“I can’t believe you, leaving Kwehzalcoatl behind you saw him and didn’t go back to get him.”
“I couldn’t, the dragon was LVL 50, LVL 50 Ruekra, what was I supposed to do.”
“Run and get him obviously, that’s FlashFire’s Child, that’s ShadowStealers child.”
“Well, what are we going to do now, go look for him.”
“Yes, he’s shown he’s strong enough to beat king goblins by himself, he’ll definitely survive long enough for us to find him.”
5 mins later…
“Absolutely not, I forbid it, he would rather stay at that grave then follow us and run away, hmph slowpoke.”
“You do know he’s faster than all of us combined, right?”
“What? Did I hear something, did the short leg try to insult me, well it’s not my fault the baby didn’t run away, he could have followed us.”
“No, it isn’t your fault he stayed, it’s your fault for not convincing him to leave in the first place, what happened to no man left behind or whatever nonsense you learned from your memory keeper grandson.”
“Pretty words don’t work in the real world, and besides, he’s not a man is he.”
“Ughh I don’t believe you,” then she had a devilish thought, it spread throughout her entire face.
“What if I tell your wife what you said to those girls at the tavern a week ago?”
Visible fright was on his face, but it quickly disappeared.
“I’ll tell Incha how long you allowed those guys at the bar flirt with you for.”
Then she looked sad, “you know she’ll take that the wrong way.”
“Good you understand, now leave.”
We sat for a minute, but we got up and started walking out.
At the door, the Chief yelled, “Hey short legs, your birds got out again, last saw them running a couple of hours ago, probably have gotten a couple of miles away, don’t come back until you get them.”
We both looked back in shock, thinking, the old man actually let us do something, then we looked at each other then nodded, “We'll be back when we get all of them.”
Then we left.
The old chief sat in his chair, “Ilragorn, kids these days, give them an inch, they’ll run a mile.”