Tiltain nearly smashes the front door off as he enters with Roxie, then gently drops her in front of the fireplace, now with a raging fire within and a pool of pillows around it, before laying himself around Roxie. Roxie tries to get up but is pinned by his tail and dragged back down, until Meladon walks over and sandwiches Roxie between them.
There she sits, her dad behind her wrapping himself around them, and her mom on her lap pinning her down. Roxie eventually gives and settles in with a sigh into sleep, a sleep that's ended by her mom getting up and leaving the house at the call of Maggie outside.
Roxie yawns and stretches out then slips away from her dad to her room to change and grab a book before she slips out the house.
“I'm proud of you” her dad calls out before she makes it to the door.
“Thanks, love you” Roxie smiles back and gives him a kiss on the forehead.
“I... did you know that Ox was asking if anyone wanted to join the adventurers?” Tiltain looks up to Roxie with a smile.
Roxie hides her knowing smile and twists it into curiosity “Oh. Really? When was this?”
Tiltain scratches behind an ear in thought “It was the day you changed. At the end of the meeting, I just got told when I came back but”
Roxie sits back down with Tiltain “Yeah?”
He curls around Roxie again and rests his head on her lap “We were thinking that it would be a good opportunity for you. See the realms, meet new people”
“Fight dangerous creatures, get into life threatening events, meet people who want to kill me” Roxie leans over and hugs Tiltain’s neck as he freezes.
He pleads “Umm, maybe not”
Roxie grins wide and squeezes “Tooooo late. Already guilted Ox into getting me in”
“G-great. Be careful” Tiltain barely chokes this out.
“I’m not going yet— “Roxie giggles and gives him a kiss on the cheek “See you later” she jumps up and skip out the front door, leaving Tiltain a little confused.
She takes a single step out of the house before leaping to the roof and settling in for meditation, splitting her chi into smaller chunks, before reading her book. The next day is the same, meditation and reading on random roof tops with occasional visits to the shrine and hospital to mix it up, until the adventurers arrive.
They filter in from the southern gate, carrying most of their belonging on them in large backpacks; most wear odd pieces of armour to cover their vitals and hands and have weapons on their backs or chests in custom sheaths or slings. The only common theme amongst them is that they all carry bows or crossbows with them with various trophies placed wherever they fit, that and their constant scanning of their surroundings; they are guided through the town to the newly made lodging for them as the few carts they came with are guided through the town to the warehouses.
“Roxie!” Ox’s voice calls out from nearby.
Roxie tip toes across the roof and leans over the edge to come face to face with Ox “Hey!”
Ox jumps a little “Gods! Roxie” he takes a deep breath and steadies himself “I plan to leave tomorrow morning; I assume you are joining me?”
Roxie grins wide enough to show all of her pointed teeth “Of course. My stuff is already packed, just need another sword and to say bye”
“Good. I’ll grab you a weapon from the carts” Ox nods then starts to jog to the warehouse.
Roxie watches him leave before standing up and leaping across the roofs to start saying goodbye’s, making visits to all corners of the village.
The leave is a sad affair. Many of the people expressing their wishes for her to stay, but good luck for her future at the same time, some give what gifts they can too; a light blue sash with Nezrilias symbol on it and bag of cookie to name a few.
Roxie saves the final goodbye for her parents who instead of handling her leaving well, sob and hold her, too tired and sad to say anything, but expresses everything. She eventually twists to hug them both and kiss them goodbye herself, holding back tears and smiling wide. She breaks away and climbs up into the cart with the help of Tiltain and Meladon.
Roxie gives the waving Ox a quick glance before turning around and waving herself to crowd whilst the cart creaks forwards and out of the gates. As she continues waving and smiling, she notices two human women, both wearing light blue clothing and sharing a resemblance to Ox but pays them little mind before returning to the crowd.
They wave to the shrinking village as they leave, watching as people one by one return to their duties, watching as the gates are closed on her parents whose sobs can still be heard.
As Roxie lowers her hand, Tiltain and Meladon climb onto the ramparts to shout “Roxie! We love you! Be happy and always walk the watched fates!”
Roxie stands and waves with both her hands whilst spreading out her wings as far as they can go “I will! And I Love you too!”
They continue to wave and shout their love and care as they shrink and fade from the distance, leaving them with no other choice but to run to each other or to go back. as hard as the choice is, they all go back, Meladon and Tiltain disappearing behind the villages palisade, and Roxie sitting down to finally tear herself away from the village.
She stares at the floor of the cart as her breathing becomes steadier, but her smile widens.
“You will see them again” Ox sits next to Roxie and puts a hand on her shoulder.
Roxie takes a staggered breath and wipes away a tear “I know. just don’t know when”
Ox pats her shoulder and sits back on the other side of the cart with a smile. He then leans besides himself and pulls out an axe and sword which are handed to her.
Roxie looks the two over; the axe is a standard hand axe with a hand sized blade and no beard whilst behind it is a short spike; the sword is a short, straight, double sided heavy blade with a small point at the end and a spike for a pommel. Roxie flips the both over a couple times as she examines them, then finally looks at Ox with a quirked eyebrow.
“The cleaving sword is for monsters; the weight means it can be used as a club in a pinch. And the axe. The axe is for people. If you ever need it” Ox looks straight at Roxie with a flash of determination before looking to the way they are heading.
Roxie re-sheaths them both before settling herself with a sigh and leaning back in the cart, occasionally looking behind them before she settles on the steadily brightening sky and the massive branch piercing into the earth beyond that is the realm bridge to Yggdrasil.
It takes most of three standard days to reach the bridge, only stopping to rest and eat. the bridge itself has dug deep into the earth and displaced a massive amount of earth to make an unnatural ramp up to it which has been further refined to allow carts climb up to it with a set of stairs next to it. The cart is driven up the ramp, with the gravity of the world giving way to that of the realm bridge, eventually resulting in the trio traveling vertically upwards, far above the trees.
They travel so far up that the village is visible, even if it is nothing more than a blotch in the distance. Atop the branch is an opening to the realm of Yggdrasil that reveals no more than blackness and the branch beyond.
They stop before the portal and the driver unhitches the horses to walk them through one by one before he stands behind the cart and braces behind it “Would one of y’ be so kind as to pull off the brake” Ox does as asked and reaches for the driver’s seat to pull an iron bar, as he does so the drivers body lights with arcs of blue whilst he pushes the cart himself past the threshold.
Roxie shivers as she loses feeling in the parts of her that cross into the other realm, then as the feeling passes to her other side when her head crosses over until she fully enters the bridge realm. She takes a deep breath of warm air as she scans across the starless black until she gazes across Yggdrasil itself; the world tree is larger than any single world could ever be, and bears portals to thousands of other realms as its leaves, each one illuminating the light bark in millions of hues from the light of massive oceans, heated deserts to windswept tundra’s that all surround an imposing inferno within.
Roxie dares and looks over the edge of the branch to the earth that skirts the trunk of the world tree; a massive icy wasteland that still bears the chasms and craters, that look closer to the marks of animals that anything natural, of a long-gone war. And a massive middle finger flipping fist that is pointed straight at the inferno above.
As Roxie curiously examines the massive declaration of ‘Up yours’, her sash emanates a comforting cold and a faint mist from the symbol on it.
Whilst it does that, a symbol in the shape of a dragon presenting a written scroll hanging from Ox’s neck also glows and burns with a gentle flair.
The two looks to the other’s symbols, then the other, then their symbols and finally their symbols before they both calm and stop glowing. Before they could ask questions, the driver starts the cart rolling again down the long branch into the canopy of Yggdrasil.
The cart is eventually stopped again halfway to the tree at a massive golden obelisk, at which the driver produces a thick handbook and then proceeds to press symbols on its surface, causing a wide rainbow coloured bridge to form and travel halfway around the tree, then without a word he drives the cart onto and down the bridge.
At first Roxie doesn’t notice it, but after a few minutes of travel she can see that they have travelled halfway across the bridge to their destination already, skipping what should be days of travel to the tree’s trunk. As they enter the canopy, Roxie can see hundreds of other bridges, all blinking in and out of life as they pass, most carrying small groups of people on foot or single carts like theirs, but there is a presence of caravans also moving across the bridges and each one ranges from a dozen carts to near a hundred.
Roxie eventually spots their destination, a massive main branch with a layer of thick grass growing on it that has several clear paths carved along it on all sides even underneath, all of which are currently hosting carts and travellers going to and from the collection of portals along the branches length. They eventually reach the other obelisk which marks the end of the bridge to then pull onto the branch itself before driving around to the underside. After an hour of travel, they reach another portal, stop to walk the horses and push the cart, then travel down it for a bit to reach a band of platforms.
They stop on a platform with a pair of other carts before the guard manning a plinth on the outer corner presses something on it. The platform descends the branch and for the start the platform is alighted with it, but as the effects the realms own gravity takes hold they start turning to align with the ground.
In Roxies rapid scanning of her surrounding she finds that the bridge is encased in a massive marble tower with several stained-glass windows depicting scenes such as an elf leading people across a tree's branch, a dragon and a spider clashing with a massive worm and a city in ruins. The other carts are first to drive away as the platform sinks into the ground below and the front fencing is lowered.
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The cart eventually rolls forwards for a bit before they stop and are approached by a pair of guards and a small person between them. The small man’s face scrunched up more as he looks over the three, giving Roxie enough time to identify him as a gnome.
The well dress gnome steps forwards “Hello there Sir Ox —” he then turns to the driver and nods “Bruce”
Bruce nods back.
“Declare y' purpose and passes” as he asks, Bruce passes a pair of metal plates and a letter. The man’s face scrunches up more as he scrutinises the plates, then the letter.
He eventually signals to the two guards who do a hap hazard inspection of what's in and under the cart, passing a handheld wooden square with several small gemstone symbols on it over the boxes and bags as they do. Roxie watches curiously as one of them examines her bag when a symbol flashes.
“Miss, could you remove any food items from the bag” the guard then pockets the square and pulls out a book to then flip to a page with more symbols.
“Ok?” Roxie removes the bag of cookies from her bag.
He then points a prominent gemstone set in the books spine over the bag and reads the symbols “Thank you. Sorry for the inconvenience, it's made from foreign plants so had to check. Mind if I ask what's actually in there?”
Roxie presents one of the cookies.
“Oh. Hope you enjoy them” he then nods to the others before walking away.
Roxie sighs in relief then nibbles on the cookie as Bruce finishes talking to the gnome who signals for them to move out through one of the many doorways into a large open dirt yard between the tower and a massive inwards facing wall. Atop the walls are several large, fixed crossbows that stay raised but their operators can be clearly seen tracking people throughout the area, other than them are several guards idly standing at their posts, with most standing near the doors out of the tower and the tunnels through the wall.
On the other side is a collection of shops and houses that provide service to the guards, spreading out no more than four roads worth of houses down the cliff.
When they rumble out and down the road, the city itself becomes clear in the large open plain below; leading from the tower to the table top mountain that lifts the cities government is a massive road, large enough to allow the several lanes of traffic in and out of the realm and through the city, which is shaded by a lose canopy of coloured ribbons that becomes denser the further into the city they are.
Surrounding the mountain is a solid ring of buildings reaching half the mountains height covered in glass windows and balcony’s with various sized sections bearing flags and designs, marking each section uniquely. To the left of the massive road is the ocean holding back an organised spill of commerce and docks which at several points has built piers far out from the coast to hold up warehouses and markets which all stretch to the base of the cliff. To the right of the road, and first from the mountain, is a large patch of mansions and estates which gives way to the residential area that, even from the cliff, can be seen to be merging with nature which shifts into a patch of large simple buildings that have wide areas of bare dirt around them, and capping the right side off are various small compounds with massive open yards where crowds of people are gathered.
They join into the traffic leading in and out of the city and follow the road for nearly half an hour before they reach the cities edge and make way inside, there they travel under the shade of the banners and wide roofs, as Roxie looks around. she spots that all the banners have names on them with symbols, ranging from three to a dozen on a single banner “Hey Ox, what's the banners for?”
Ox snaps out of his happy stupor and looks up “They show the names and crests of all the people dedicated to protecting the Maria empire” as they continue on, the banners start becoming larger and more elaborate whilst they eventually start having additions like metal threads and borders “Here we have the names of generals, major politicians and the A rankers that live within the empire”
Roxie quickly glances down the road to find they have made very little headway into the city truly “That’s a lot. How many are A rank?”
Ox thinks on it for a bit “Most of them. About seventy percent at least”
Roxies eyes go wide in surprise before the thought sinks in “How many S ranks?”
“You'll see them closer to the ‘Grey'—” he points down the road—"But about a dozen or so. And, before you ask, our king and the head of magic research are our only double S rankers”
Roxie slowly nods before she resumes reading the banners, paying much more attention to the names and crests as she does so.
After another half hour they reach the end of the road to an open square with a large statue of an elven woman in its centre where Roxie and Ox disembark and watch the cart drive away before walking into the square, Roxie does pay mind to the faded and torn remnants of a green banner above them that marks the end of the ribbons.
The statues base has several brass plaques in it, but instead of telling the names of people they have law, Education, Agriculture, Trade, Medicine, Transportation, Military, Care and Diplomacy stamped into them. Ox stops and produces a gold coin which is then dropped into a slot above the plaque labelled ‘Education' before leading Roxie past and up to the ring of glass buildings.
They pass to the right of the first section, that is marked with red banners showing a dragon presenting two scrolls, to the one marked with black banners that show a sword piercing a raven, bull then wolf skull.
Instead of going in through the front door, they walk through an archway under the building to a fenced off bare dirt area behind it then turn around and enter a door at the back to the second floor; the floor covers most of the guild’s section of the ring and is populated by a eating and meeting area on one side, several counters manned by staff answering questions and handling admin at the other, and between the two areas are various stationary boards that have dozens of contracts pinned to them all organized by type.
Ox leads Roxie from the boards to one of the administrators that sits at attention as they arrive “Welcome to ‘Free-Works’ how may I help you”
Ox hands over a letter “I’m here for her investment money”
The woman nods “Wait here” before standing and disappearing amongst the various filing cabinets and bookshelves behind her.
“Investment?” Roxie questions Ox with her arms folded.
Ox turns to face her “Yes. To get you proper equipment as well as a place to stay until you are on your feet”
Roxie shrugs satisfied with his answer as the woman returns and hands Ox a paper packet “Vouchers are inside” Ox turns to leave before the woman gets his attention again “Oh, we just had an official recruitment event recently and are sending them to some labour jobs—” she turns to speak to Roxie “If you’re interested in meeting with other adventurers and form a team I’d recommend taking part” she then presents a contract with a couple tabs left on the bottom.
Ox speaks up “How do you feel about starting with something easy. Just for your first mission”
Roxie’s frown shows her opinion.
“Not that I doubt your ability, but you still need time to develop your chi and this will give you a perfect environment to safely practice and get some potential contacts” Ox points to the contract with a smile.
Roxie sighs but looks over the contract which details that it needs labour to aid in a research centres construction. She looks over the examples of the labour, such as logging, digging and hunting, then considers the payment of two thousand pails for a months’ worth of work and that accommodation and food is included. Roxie pulls off one of the remaining tabs from the bottom of the contract, signs it and hands it to the woman, then after verifying her details she’s enrolled in the job and told to meet in front of the statue of Maria tomorrow morning.
“In the meantime, lets order you some proper gear?” he shakes the packet and heads out.
Roxie follows closely behind as they travel from the grey and directly into the upper residential district. The houses more and more resembling mansions, the further in they go. He eventually leads her to one mansion adorned in iron decorations, from sculptures to symbols and patterns, a myriad of projects have been bolted to the outside, all framing a massive sign that reads ‘Glass-nail’s forge’ with name ‘Hendrik Wirenail!’ bolted under it. From where they are, a think plume of smoke can be seen leaving from behind the mansion, separate from its own chimney.
Ox strides in without worry that he’s passing through a gate and enters the home, as a bell announces their entry, Roxie beholds the inside which has been turned from a ground floor into a display area, leading on into a massive workshop where one of the sources of metal working silences, followed by the arrival of a bulky dwarf.
“Well, hello there M’am? Ox. having an affair?” he nonchalantly asks without a smile.
Ox frowns and spins on the spot, leaving the way they came.
“He, hey, hey, I’m jesting, I’m jesting!” the dwarf breaks the act and starts laughing, chasing after Ox.
He stops and shakes his head before turning around and addressing him “It’s not funny Hendrik”
It’s Hendriks turn to shake his head as he walks up to Roxie “It is to me you sour git! Now, how may I help this lass? What do Ya’ need?”
“Uhh?” Roxie starts looking around the displays, noticing the large line up of armours “I need armour mainly, I’ve got weapons”
“Sure, what kind are you looking for? What energies do you use?” he asks as he starts leading her through.
“Light armour, something I can move around a lot in. I also use chi but I plan to move into mana” she lists off her responses as they pass the massive suits of metal, down to more reasonable chain and plate ones, to displays of leather and gambeson.
He pats in front of the leather armour, which consists of leather sheets that are moulded to be similar to plate armour but with more room for them to overlap “This here is the best you can get really, without getting into adamantine and rare creature hides that is. It’s standard cow leather, triple layered and hardened, we then take two sheets of that, smoosh them together with a wire mesh between and form them to shape. Here” he hands over a display piece of a helmet where a section has been peeled off to show the layers and the tight wire mesh underneath “Admittedly, it’s the heaviest of the ‘light’ armours, but a big strong lass like yer’self shouldn’t notice too much. Its flexible, but that means you will feel most blows unless you have some gambeson underneath to take it, but that can get quite hot”
Roxie takes a moment to consider, putting a hand to her chin as she thinks “I should be fine. But, can I ask for the buckles to be made of bronze? For good luck”
He shrugs “Sure, why not” then holds out a hand for a shake.
She takes it and they firmly shake, after which the voucher is handed over. They leave to walk for half an hour to the docks where they enter the BnB named ‘the Salted nest’; The inside is sparsely dotted with organised tables that create a clear path to the bar at the back which is flanked by a door into its kitchen and a set of stairs to the landing and rooms above.
The most stand out thing about the inn is that, despite the few patrons who are clearly talking amongst themselves, it is nearly silent save for the well dressed, aged human man behind the bar cleaning glasses.
Ox guides Roxie from the door to the bar and fishes out a voucher which is handed to the barman.
He looks the voucher over before pocketing it and plucking a key from the box on the wall “Here, one with a seaside view” he hands it to Roxie.
“Thanks” Roxie looks the key over in her hand.
“I will pick up your equipment for you whilst you’re on the job” he then leans to the barman “She only needs the room for one day so treat her please”
He puts down the large mug and pushes a menu forwards “You have the all-expenses paid service so order all you want”
Roxie orders an omelette before excusing herself to her room. She unlocks the door and closes it behind her as she walks in before dropping her bag on the bed in the corner and sitting down. She closes her eyes and starts taking deep breaths whilst gently rubbing an ear with her forefinger and thumb until a knocking causes her to jump.
She opens it to a teenage human who jumps at her sudden exit “Ahh. Your food is ready, table five”
Roxie waits for him to move out of the doorway.
“Ummm” he stops staring at Roxie to look around, growing more worried as Roxie frowns more.
Roxie grabs him shoulder and moves him to the side to walk past “Move, you’re in the way”
The teenager stumbles and turns around to say “Uh. Sorry. Sorry”
As Roxie passes the bar, the barman laughs at the teenager who’s scurries into the kitchen “Don’t pay the lad any mind. He always gets doughy when a lass comes in” he says good naturedly with a smile.
Roxie pauses and sighs, giving a week smile in return “I’ll try” then quickly finds her table and sits.
She devours the omelette in little to no time, surprising herself with her hunger. She takes a moment to sit back and settle before bringing the plate to barman who tells her to leave it on the table.
“Hey lass, you alright?” the barman calls to Roxie as she passes back.
Roxie rubs her eyes “Yeah, I’m good”
He shakes his head and jerks his head for her to come closer “Come, sit. I don’t mind listening if you need to talk”
Roxie scrutinizes his warm smile only to relent and sit on a stool in front of the bar. She adjusts herself and her tail for a moment then finishes by leaning on the bar.
Roxie shrugs “Not much to talk about, just not feeling that.... Up”
“Well, let’s start with a drink. What's your poison? We got ale, beer—” he turns around and starts scanning across the various bottles—“Rum, gin, Vodka, bourbon, whiskey—” then reluctantly includes “, wine. Sure, the lad would juice something for ya', even got some of that Dwarven soda in”
She shrugs.
The man thinks for a second before producing a glass and pouring a dribble of whisky for her that she slowly drinks “More”
He obliges by filling the glass and setting the bottle to the side “Now, I tell you what always cheers me up”
Roxie asks “What?” as she takes another drink.
The barkeep chuckles “Remembering the stupid shit I used to do”
She frowns “Sounds more embarrassing than uplifting”
“Exactly, you'd be too embarrassed to be sad” he leans forwards “Now, this is back when I was a cobbler. It was my last day as an apprentice and I decided I wanted to leave a bit of trouble for the old coot I called my teacher” he chuckles ruefully “We had some pink leather left from the craft festival, and an order from a particularly crotchety bastard, so I made his boots bright fucking pink”
Roxie chuckles girlishly as she listens “No”
“Oh yeah” he stands back up straight and holds his chin “Now you see that wouldn’t cause enough trouble for my tastes, I had to get that bastard wearing them” he refills Roxie's cup as he talks “So I got this wax we use and smothered the boots until they were brown but it was so obvious that I don’t know how I didn’t got caught. Anyways, next day and that guy's walking out the shop with the boots on, cue two days later I’m getting chased out of town by this guy running at me in bright pink fucking boots” he finishes with a chuckle that Roxie mirrors.
“Well, crap. I don’t have any stories like that” Roxie puts her cup back down.
“You'll get them in time but don’t worry about it” he shakes his head and smiles.
“No, no, it's fine” she adjusts herself and takes another sip "When I was a cub and teething, I was really bad, like, I chew on rocks, bad”
The barkeep starts laughing and leans forwards “What?”
“Not kidding, problem was that bit everyone who picked me up, but they had to get the rocks out my mouth” Roxie smiles contently as she remembers the few details she can.
He smiles and waits for her.
“Gave everyone scars, everyone” Roxie finishes with a point and another sip of her drink.
The barkeep shrugs “Well everyone was weird when they were a kid” He nods “Feeling better?”
“Yeah, thanks” Roxie smiles as he starts to carry back on with his work as she finishes her drink.