Chapter 27: The City of Cuvin

A child was sitting on a rock in the middle of a mountain range. His eyes were closed as sweat poured down his face. There were bags under his eyes, but this did not hide the fact that he was a cute child. The child had white hair, pale white skin, and he was very tall. The child opened his eyes, revealing a pair of blue eyes, those eyes contained wisdom and understanding beyond its years. The child frowned initially, but smiled as another child approached. This child had brown hair and green eyes. This child was short and not very good looking, but there was his smile was as bright as the sun.

“So, where do we need to go?” The brown haired child said

“I don’t know the specifics.” The white haired child replied “I know the general direction, but my skill in light magic is not enough to pinpoint the exact location of him.”

The brown haired child frowned, but then his eyes flashed. He had an idea!

“You said before that we had to head further west, and it turns out that there is a city called Cuvin along the way. We haven’t gotten good food and clothes for months! We have to go there!” The brown haired child said

The white haired child laughed before saying “Fine then, I’ve been dragging you along the whole time, so I guess it is okay to stop for a while.”

These two children were of course Trip and Alex. They had left the valley two months ago, which meant that they were both ten years old. However the amount of things that they had experienced throughout this decade was more than many would have experienced at 20 years old.

Over the last two months the pair had been travelling in the direction of Trip’s uncle. However, this was more difficult than first anticipated. Trip did not know the exact location of his uncle; he only knew the general direction. This was because his prowess in light magic had not yet reached a level with which he could completely identify someone’s position. Because of this lack of information they had loosely been travelling west, following the mountain range which divided both West and East Hrior from Urvallay. It had been a frustration two months for the two of them. They had no idea whether they were close to Trip’s uncle or not. It was impossible to tell. Trip had not felt that the signal had gotten any stronger throughout the two months of heading west, so for all he knew his uncle might not even be on the continent at the moment.

Because of this they decided that they had both agreed to rest for a few days at the city of Cuvin. This city was in the north-middle of West Hrior. It was the only large city within the mountain range so it would probably be their only chance for a place to rest for months. At this point they were only a week of travelling away from the city.

Alex was really looking forward. It had been 5 months since they had last seen people, and it had been over a year since they had been in a city. The last comfortable bed they slept in that was not made out of leaves was 11 months ago. Alex had been raised as a rich child. The only way how he had been able to endure the last year had been because of his strong willpower, but now he was truly at his limit. He just wanted a couple of days without any back pains from sleeping on rocks. He only wanted a couple of days without seeing the same boring rocks.

Trip was also looking forward to seeing a city. He wasn’t very good in large groups of people, but he wasn’t so antisocial that he would enjoy a months without any contact other than Alex. But what excited him much more than anything was buying some books. He didn’t know how he would make the money, but he wanted to try and get some books on magic and even some books on warrior techniques. For some reason Trip was very interested in becoming a warrior. It was famously known that mages were stronger than warriors, and Trip was already a very powerful mage, but he wanted to see how you could use warrior techniques to complement magic techniques.

The only person that wasn’t looking forward to the trip to Cuvin was Grelin. Grelin was really focused on making sure that Trip and Alex became powerful, and this Trip to the city could distract them on this. The main concern that Grelin really had was that something bad might happen to Trip and Alex. They had been safe in the wild, because animals are stupid and easy to fight against, but it was clear that the moment they were faced with a powerful person they couldn’t properly handle it. This was why they almost died when facing Gassy Grandpa. While intermediate level mages weren’t common any decently large city would have at least a couple of them, and Grelin did not want Trip to have to use light magic to kill again.

Grelin knew that none of his words could deter the boys’ resolve to go to Cuvin so he refrained from saying anything other than telling them to be careful. Luckily they were intelligent enough not to start a fight with anyone.

A week later Trip and Alex were walking the same boring path in the mountains, before they saw a magnificent stone wall, encircling a massive area. Even though they were several kilometres away they could see that this city was Cuvin. Trip and Alex excitedly ran as quickly as they could towards the city. When they arrived they saw the unimaginably beauty of the walls. Alex remembered learning about Cuvin, and he remembered how his grandfather had described the walls.

‘The walls. They were so beautiful. It stood a strong 20 meters tall, but their size did not diminish any of their beauty. The front gate two monuments of the founders of the city. Their names of the founders of the city are unknown, but the monuments display an incomparably beautiful woman, nearly as beautiful as your grandmother, and a powerful looking man, he wields a massive hammer, just like your grandfather.’

Alex remembered how he would always fantasize about visiting the walls of Cuvin. Now that he saw them in front of his own eyes he had confirmed that their beauty was even more than he had thought. When he saw the monuments he felt sadness deep within his heart, it reminded him of his deceased grandfather.

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When Trip saw the wall his reaction wasn’t as strong as Alex’s. He had no knowledge of human handiwork so he only saw it as simple stone with several indentations here and there. It didn’t seem so special to him. Nothing compared to the beautiful colours of nature in his mind. Luckily for him he saw that close to the city was a small forest, this was where the city got its wood from. The trees were dark brown, and had a strong 10 meter tall stature. It was said that these trees were special, and much stronger than normal wood. The wood was known for being extremely difficult to chop down. They were called Spearwood Trees. This was because they were often used to make the shaft of the spear. The trees happened to have peculiar looking leaves, with their shape being similar to the stars in the night sky, and their colour being bright yellow. Nobody knew why the leaves were like this, but it was theorised that they actually had a strong medicinal use. The exact usage of the leaves was unfortunately lost in time.

After Trip had seen the beautiful trees and after Alex had finished admiring the walls it was time to enter the city. There was a large wooden gate, luckily it was open. There were many people walking in and out of the gate, this was a trading checkpoint for Urvallay and West Hrior so there was bound to be a bunch of merchants, which was also what made the city so rich. The moment they walked into the city they were greeted with a massive street filled with many horses and people. Being children they could barely see anything so they decided to get a vantage point to see things.

They climbed on top of a building. It was so busy that no one saw them do anything. From the top of the building they saw the city. It was massive. It was split into four sectors: Residential, industrial, commercial, and the central part of the city, which was where all the aristocrats lived. Trip and Alex saw a street which wasn’t incredibly busy so they decided to go there to see what the city had to offer. On the street they realised that it was only for rich people, which was why there were not many people there. They decided that they would think of what to do before they did anything else.

Trip and Alex had no money at the moment, so they had to earn some money before they could buy anything or even have a place to sleep the night. They didn’t know what to do until Alex came up with a plan. They would set up a small booth, and sell handmade crafts. With Trips power and control over water magic he could easily sculpt something out of stone. The found a couple rocks and Trip sculpted them into different types of animals and plants.

They managed to find a small open place in a busy plaza, where they started to sell the handmade sculptures. Many people seemed to like the sculptures and they were all sold out within an hour. When Trip and Alex counted their money they saw that they had gained nearly a thousand gold. This was not a small amount. Alex was even impressed by this amount. With this money they could easily afford a place to sleep for a week. Trip had a different reaction. He really liked all the gold coins that they had gained, so he kept sculpting for hours, and then he sold them for hours. He didn’t stop until Alex told him that he had done enough. This was the first time Alex was truly scared of Trip. Seeing how much Trip enjoyed money was something that he had anticipated.

After Trip’s little money-making spree it was already night time. They went to find an inn where they could stay. After an hour of searching they found themselves in a small building surrounded by 50 sweaty men standing in line. All of them were loud and there was always someone shouting at the receptionist. This was the type of atmosphere that Trip absolutely hated. He could not take waiting in the building any longer so he grabbed Alex and rushed out of there.

Breathing heavily Trip said “Finally.”

Alex angrily responded to Trip’s behaviour, saying “What the hell are you doing! We were about to get a room!”

Trip looked at Alex and merely shook his head.

Perplexed by this action Alex sighed before calmly asking “Where are we going to sleep tonight?”

Trip looked at Alex as if he was stupid. “We’ll just sleep on a bench or something.” He said

Alex’s eyes flashed with such anger that they would have petrified even kings. “I WILL SLEEP IN A COMFORTABLE BED TONIGHT!”

Alex’s words sent a shiver down Trip’s spine. He didn’t know what to do anymore. They had spent an hour searching for an inn and now they were back outside starting from nothing once again.

Trip could say nothing; luckily he was saved by the voice of a girl behind them.

“Hey! Do you not have a place to stay?” A girl said. She looked to be around 11 years old. She had ginger hair with cute little freckles on her face. She had large and intelligent brown eyes. The moment Trip and Alex saw her they were shocked. Not because she was so cute, but because her clothes were merely rags, this was very unfitting to her appearance.

Seeing that Alex and Trip didn’t reply the girl continued to speak “My name is Alesha. If you don’t have a place to stay I can help you.”

Alex and Trip looked at each other, and then Alex said “Hello. My name is Alex and this is Trip. We currently do not have a place to stay.”

The girl led them to an abandoned house in an abandoned street. There were 20 children all in rags sleeping on the floor. Alesha showed Alex and Trip two spots for them to sleep. Alex was not happy with such arrangements, but he was not so rude that he would reject someone’s hospitality.

And so ended their first day in the city of Cuvin.