Wooden houses could be seen as far as the eye could see, and between them streets of different sizes and connecting them were town-squares packed with living beings, most likely used for trading of goods. There were also small alleyways connecting the bigger streets, which kind of reminded me of the infrastructure of most modern cities from earth. Life seemed to be sparkling everywhere, I was to far away to see their faces but their forms were all different, races from all over the world had gathered in the wide and tight streets of Nikt. If not for the size of the wooden houses, this might have been mistaken for an actual human city. The 5 meter high houses conveyed the impression of an oversized rural village more then a big metropolis. Nikt did not consist of any walls, which made it seem welcoming to some degree. The architectural style was close in resemblance to ancient China or Japan.

Even if most houses was constructed in this architectural way there were some oddities among them, tents and other kind of simpler housing were spread out at random among the more beautiful constructed wooden houses. Even if all the above mentioned facts were astonishing, the most remarkable fact was clearly the pure size of the city. The mass of houses didn't seem to have an end as far as my sight could grasp, even if I was very confident in my eye sight during my previous life, no human could possibly see the end of this village. Among the beautiful crafted houses were some which in compression were at least three to four times as large, they were both higher and wider, more decorative and more eye catching, they all conveyed a feeling of power, so in summary small palaces overlooking the affairs of the commoners.

As soon as I saw them I forgot all about the mere size of the village and was consumed in the quest of finding the answers to their existence,

“Hey Marius!, what are those big buildings which are settled around the village?”

Marius who just a moment ago had explained that this city obliged under a caste system looked over at me still as concerned as before,

“Those are the homes of people who process great power and influence in the city, most of them are Counts or High Templar’s.”

Muto's face suddenly did a complete turn around from a grim expression to a big smile,

“HIGH TEMPLAR! That's one cool title, with my strength, Muto will surely become one”

Marius mouth turned into a small giggle, which now seemed to be his normal response to Muto's  rambling. My mind wandered of to the meaning of these titles and the power bestowed with them but before I came around to state a question Marius opened his mouth,

“Well Fey, Muto, Let's ascend this hill, I need to make my report to city officials before the sun sets”

As soon as he was done talking he leapt downhill in his ever amazing speed, and before we knew it he stood before one of the houses leading into the village. Me and Muto just continued to stare at the village, the site was clearly breath taking, it seemed like this was not something usually seen even in Irue, and now was our time to clearly take in the view.  

After about a minute, Muto slowly started ascending the hill, silently singing two words,

“High templar, High templar”

This was clearly a sign of obsession, who would have thought that he didn't even consider the powers that came with the title and just obsessed over the name of it. The intelligence of the people of Irue was a mystery to me...

Before we knew it both of stood before the same house Marius was at and already there we could both witness the amount of different races present. Only in the proximity of my own eye sight were at least 5 different races everything from living horses to more hound like creatures, there were also 2 races that clearly resembled Humans except from a couple of abnormalities such as different ears, bigger legs, smaller torsos and larger heads. Marius which also clearly resembled a Human being brought up the question,

“Marius, why does almost everyone I have met resemble my race so much?”  

“Hmm, this form seems be God's ideal form or at least the state that evolution has brought most races”

Muto seemed annoyed and spoke up,

“My race is definitely the superior appearance”

“That can be argued, Muto”

“Fey, you should see the women of my race they are indeed stunning”

“I can only imagine, my dear bull, Muto”  

I could hear Marius giggling in the background. When I turned around and faced the village again Marius had already entered between two wooden houses trough a small alley, as me and Muto followed trough we came to a big street about 10 meters wide with people wandering across and along its path.  Conversations of different content could be heard everywhere, the mere tightness of the street made it hard to breath. I was used to wandering around cities but the personal space one held in this street was clearly bellow what I was used to. I had to narrow my eyes to the fullest to be able to locate Marius in the masses, and following him and the street was even harder, because every now and then you would come across creatures almost 3 meters in size and bumping into them could clearly be fatal. I always thought that my size was abnormal in this world but it seems like it was rather normal around here. Most of the people were my size and even smaller, there were ton of dwarf races walking around about half my height. The norm of appearance definitely was around the human look but with small alteration in different areas of the body, everything from pure height to the size of their feet.

The people of Nikt was clearly well imbedded into the society and were comfortable to follow it's norms. The feeling of different races transporting to another world and not fitting into the new world was not conveyed in the masses of the street, even if most people seem to hang around there own race there were still different races chatting and interacting. The more larger citizens of Nikt did seem to have some kind of an assumption that we should carve a path for them because as soon as I had walked about 100 meters along the street I bumped into one,

“Hey!, watch were you're going you tiny insect”

Pure red anger could be seen in the giant snake looking gentlemans eyes and confrentation was not ideal in this situation,

“I am very sorry, please forgive me”

Even if I did apologize he picked me up by the neck of my shirt and threw me 3 meters to the side of the street, I have never been airborne to this degree before, which made it satisfying to some degree. As soon as I landed on the ground I thought people would react and look at me but for some reason no one even noticed. The use of violence, could it be normal in this type of society? As soon as I looked up I saw Muto, the look in his face, furious,

“Hey Fey, Who threw you?, I will personally make this person pay!!”

“Let it go Muto, I was not injured.”

“That doesn’t matter I will eat him, where is he?”

“Please Muto, Let it go”

It wasn’t that I was not angry, I just didn't think it was worth the time of finding this individual and punishing him because every second we lingered Marius disappeared farther into the masses of people, as in assassination, one must always focus on the target at hand, distractions can be fatal.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

“Muto, we can't lose track of Marius, Do you still see him?”

“Tss, well yes about 30 meters that way”

“Okay good, lead the way, without him I think we will probably get lost here”

Muto strolled towards Marius presumed position and I close behind.  Both me and Muto knew that if we really did lose track of Marius finding him in this mass of people would be almost impossible so we both almost ran up to him until we both were about 1 meter behind him.

“Good that you are catching up heh, getting lost here is not recommended”

“Definitely the amount of people here is just, amazing.”

“Haha, well to an outsider this is probably very shocking, you should see the market squares the amount of people there is well above this.”  

“I can only imagine”

We walked tightly close to Marius for another 100 meters before we took a sharp turn into a slightly smaller street, were the amount of people was tremendously smaller. We could for the first time see the edges of the street, there were tons of stores selling everything from strange looking food, mostly fish looking creatures and rice, but also furniture and other necessaries. As I turned my head the other way around I came upon something that was a bit shocking to me, something that I have clearly seen tons of times in my own world but was confused to see here as well.  5 people of the same dwarf like race was kicking and punching on a even smaller  child looking creature, the blood were gashing out from her nose and arms, one of the dwarf was clearly cutting her with a knife. I looked for another second and then continued walking on, Muto didn't seem to stomach it the same, he stopped in his tracks and went over to the dwarfs staring them down intensely,

“Hey, leave that kid alone, or else I Muto will kill you were you stand!”

One of the dwarf stepped forward and spoke up,

“Hpmh, this girl violated the rules of the caste system and it is therefore in our power to punish thy”

“I don't give a crap about that, move or die”

The dwarf suddenly started laughing,

“hahahaha, I can see that you don't have the citizen tag on you, which means you are an outsider?”

“Yes so what?”

“Then by the authority of the crown, we have the right to kill you, but if you injure us in anyway you will be hunted down and captured.”

Both me and Muto were clearly confused, they have the right to kill us? Muto spoke up out of instinct,

“I don't give a shit about you laws, Muto is the law, and you will perish”

Muto stepped closer and was ready to punish the dwarfs in the name of justice but as soon as he walked a step, Marius ran right before him,

“This man is under my protection”

The dwarfs continued to laugh in unison,

“I am Marius, and have been given the title of noble therefore I have the right to execute you here”

Marius took out what seemed like a metal seal showing the dwarfs at the same time that he spoke up, the dwarfs saw the seal and were all in shock,

“I am sorry, Lord Marius, we will take our leave, deepest apology to you Muto”

As soon as they were done they took up there backpack on the floor and continued to run down the alleyway. Muto put on a big smile and just laughed,

“How pathetic that they are afraid of a little man such as yourself Marius, haha”

Marius started giggling as always and turned around and faced us,

“They are not afraid of me, they are afraid of the citizenship seal, bestowing me the power to punishing everyone under my current title, pretty good thing to have”

As soon as Marius was done, Muto took care of the girl, picking her off and taking her to a nearby store to buy the healing herb that I had myself made just a couple of days before, when she had drank it she could, after 10 minutes, stand up again, she thanked Muto and Marius(But not me for some reason) and took her leave, Muto who felt responsible for her well being started following here but both me and Marius pulled him away, claiming that she would be okay and what not.

Before we knew it we had left the slightly smaller street and entered yet another larger street and the amount of people was by no means smaller this time around, as we pushed our self through the masses to arrive at about the center of the street Marius turned left and continued walking. Walking among this street reminded me of the feeling of walking around at a carnival, the personal space violated and the constant pushing, and your attempts to dodge people to easier follow the path.

As I was pushed between a very large pig like person and a slightly attractive human looking girl with a larger then normal mouth, sound suddenly started emerging not to far away, these were drums as loud as a big marching band, strolling down a street. As soon as the drums sound was heard people started panicking, everyone rushing from place to place, and me who did not have clue what was happening was pushed around like a football at a soccer match. It was without doubt full chaos as everyone was running around, almost like they were trying to find their place in an orchestrated flash mob. Before I knew it most of the people were now packed to the side of the street only me, Muto and about 10 other people were stuck somewhere in the middle, it was almost as they have left a human path for the ones coming with the drums farther down the street.

Both me and Muto looked at each other and then decided to follow the lead of the people, as soon as we were at the side of street like the rest of the masses, everyone started getting down on their knees. I had no idea what this was about but I had no choice but to do the same or get crushed by the people doing so.  As soon as everyone around me was down in a pray or beg like position, the sound of the drums came closer. This spectacle was clearly even more amazing then a person seeing people praying at Mecka in the islamic religion. The pure amount of people praying and leaving a small path in the middle of the street was truly an amazing sight. For some odd reason the air pressure was getting stronger and stronger as the drums approached, the drums were at least 100 meters away but it was already hard to breath. The drums came closer and closer and the air was becoming even heavier at an increasing rate.

I could finally grasp my eyes on the sight that had haunted my breathing ability for the last minute, and it was by all means hauntingly beautiful. In the middle of the road two, four meter tall giants walked smashing down on a huge pair of drums, and just before them, the most beautiful women I had ever witnessed strolled, her red eyes, so mysterious and hauntingly beautiful it would clearly pierce any man, starred into the horizon. She clearly resembled a human except for those, eyes. It didn't seem like her beauty was only apparent to me, people from everywhere gazed at her. As she had walked away I turned over to the small elf looking man beside me,

“Who was that?”

“Arael, the royal princess”