fascinating in a way, he wasn’t really expecting so many people to be here. While he was inside the abby he’d seen maybe two dozen people, and pretty much all of them were human or something quite like it, like an elf. Walking into the town he was very much not prepared, there were dozens of people, crowds, walking around. They were interacting, and his soft and long ears could hear that all of them were talking to each other.
This was ridiculous. Seriously, Coney could hardly believe that he was seeing such variety. He’d almost begun to believe that he’d taken on a race that was entirely unrepresented among NPCs, except for those few laborers he’d met working in the field, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. Sure, a part of him always made him happy for picking something unique, but it was weird as the lore painted a not so pretty picture, intentional or not.
No, the town was filled with all sorts of people. WIth just a glance he could see plenty of humans and elves, but he could also see bunches of beast folk like himself. There were a small minority of people wearing collars around their neck, metal bands that enclosed their throats, and the bunny wasn’t sure why. As he walked in, he saw that there were a disproportionately large number of them who were beast kin.
In any case, walking through the town was fairly easy, all he had to do was to slip through the crowd. Sure, it was densely packed, but it was nothing when compared to New York streets. He was plenty used to pushing, slipping, and bullying his way through crowds to get to where he needed to do. For once his small form was an advantage, as it allowed him to slip through the crowd with effective ease, even though everyone was packed like sardines.
Looking around the town Coney didn’t really know what he was looking for. He kept one of his ears up, panning around to focus in and hear what people were saying. He hoped to get an understanding of how much one of the coins was really worth. In his mind he wasn’t sure what he could do with the few silver he had. In some worlds silver was treated as high currency, with only the wealthy having gold. In others, anything below gold was practically worthless.
“The dagger is worth a silver, I don’t know what to tell you.” Someone said, coming from one of the stands. It was set slightly apart from the food stalls and other things, which meant he had a fairly easy way to listen into the conversation.
“You can tell me what’s so special about this blade yer selling it for a whole ass silver. I mean come on, is it magic? Forged by dwarves? What’s so special that you aren't’ willing to part with it for twenty copper.” The voice was exasperated. “I mean you gotta be shitting me, I can pay for an inn day for ten, and that’s not even at one of the shitty inns. It’s so simple that it's really driving me crazy.”
“It’s good steel sir.” The man sounded relatively calm. “I don’t know about you, but steel isn’t exactly the most common material around here. Anything this fine can only be created from high grade steel, which means imported. I really can’t go any lower than ninety copper. Take it or leave it.”
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“I’ll leave it. But if that thing’s down far enough I’ll come back. Talk to you later, and don’t be surprised that this whole public gaming thing is just making everything far too difficult.” The man stormed off.
“Oh, he was another player, I really wasn’t expecting that.” With his ears up in the air Coney began to walk again. He was sure going after the other player was a risk, but fortune favors the bold, not the timid bunnies that stayed home. He needed people to chat with, and if he couldn’t find his friends quickly he’d need to delve into dungeons alone. That would be agonizing, the one thing he’d hated the most was that he’d tried to make it all seem good on camera, but for him alone was always too much.
Walking towards the other player he lost sight of them after bumping into someone. The person had chainmale and he simply couldn’t be expected to focus when his nose was bonked so quickly that he was seeing stars. Still, he had to keep onward.
When he got past the big guy he realized he had really lost his target. STil;l, he kept walking forward, hoping that something interesting would be able to be found over there. He was about thirty feet down the road when it was something interesting that found him instead.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Coney heard a voice ask from over his shoulder, right before both of his ears were grabbed. His ears were soft, but also incredibly sensitive, so being dragged to the side of the road by his ears. “Sneak thief.” The voice said, a big deep one.
“Uh, I was just following…” The bunny said, then sighed. “Well, I had been following someone, but they lost me. Not only that, but I’m completely lost in this town.”
“Well, empty your pockets, just to be sure.” The person behind Coney said, before letting go of his ears. Turning around as he turned out his pockets he found himself face to face with a larger man, more than twice as tall as he was. With a sense of trepidation he held his paws out to the man.
“This is all I have sir.” He said. In his paws were that gold coin and a carrot he’d pulled nearly a week ago. He’d forgotten that it was there. The guard took both and began to examine them. It was definitely a guard, the man’s armor was thick and he had several plates that were worn over top of each other. He had a tabard, which had a simple insignia on it, an apple tree with no leaves, just several golden apples.
“Hmm, the carrot’s nothing. But where did you get a ring this fancy? I’d even say it was gold if it wasn’t so light and tough.” He bit it to demonstrate, not even leaving a mark.
“I got it as a part of some work for the church.” Coney said with confidence.
“So you really are a pastor?” The guard asked, raising his eyebrow.
“No, I’m still a student. I’m out doing some of the things I need to do for advancement. One of those is going out.
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Not unless you can point to where the best inn for visitors like myself to go to. I don’t want to infringe on any of the plans my compatriots might have. I just want to have a little fun.”
“I’ll do you one better. I’ll guide you there. Then maybe we can talk about how to get you to not need a cop everytime you walk out the door. Safety is key afterall.”
“Okay, thank you.” Coney said, keeping in the larger man’s shadow, especially as he was able to cut a much quicker path through the swath of humanity.