All I can smell is smoke and blood.

—{}{}{}{}{}—

The cart bumps, my head smashing into the wood, well good morning to you too fucker. According to Oliver the trip to the nearest town only takes one day if we don’t stop moving that whole time. Normally this would be impossible but both men are eager to point out that very few villages have ‘horses’ like ours does, most have to use cows or a certain breed of lizard that’s just big enough for a harness.

I’d gladly take the lizards, what they keep calling horses, are not in fact earth horses. Red scaly skin with small spikes everywhere, a long sharp prehensile tail, a single horn from their mouth to the neck, and razor-sharp teeth. How they came to be called horses makes me wonder if it was done solely to mock me for thinking this was Earth at one point. They eat meat too, they’re opportunistic omnivores, it’s common practice to let them roam the woods if you can’t afford to feed them, they hunt on their own.

I managed to sleep earlier but that was more out of boredom than anything we still have close to eighteen hours if neither one of the drivers is fucking with me. Oliver’s at the reins meaning I won’t get another chance to talk to Arvi if I don’t act fast, the old man refuses to talk and drive.

“So Arvi, tell me about the city we’re headed to.”

He sighs in annoyance but I know he’s just as bored as I am.

“Falden is the furthest east of any city in Falluge, the close proximity to the Scar and the kingdom's general reluctance to interact with the poisoned land means it is both the safest and most dangerous city in the kingdom.

With the Scar comes the Blue Shields and therefore an economy focused on the individual seller rather than major trading companies like in other cities. Though we still get stores from all the major players most are smaller and less stocked than their inner continent counterparts.

The heavy Shields presence also means less normal guard, so less crime happens during the day, at night though it can get pretty rough.”

“Don’t forget about the nobles.”

Oliver ads

“Thought you didn’t speak when driving?

Anyway, nobles, avoid them like the plague.”

“Why?”

The two men share a nervous look before Arvi continues.

“On a good day, a few people will walk into the local doctor, pay for some bruises, maybe a broken bone or two, and not say a word.

On a bad day, you find a naked kid dead in the gutter.”

I’m seconds from shouting a string of obscenities but Arvi stops me with the wave of his hand.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Xavier you listen to me and you listen better than you ever have in your life, never speak wrong of a noble, especially not in a city. In the village behind closed doors, fine, but they don’t take insults lightly and more than a few of them have ears just about everywhere.

If you say the wrong thing and someone hears, a bad day will get worse. So much worse.”

It takes a while before I’m calm enough to ask about the city again, I almost don’t want to but if I’m not cautious I could end up doing something I won’t live to regret.

“Any other rules I should know?

Anything else that’ll get me gutted in an alley?”

“Don't pick up any square coins you find lying on the ground.

Never let a woman go out at night, that one doesn’t apply to us right now but you never know.

If you hear crying, leave the area.

Oh! And if you see anyone with a Black Shield symbol try not to draw their attention too much. With the way you don’t give off mana, they’ll be on edge the second they notice you so avoid acting hostile.”

“That last one makes it sound like I shouldn’t leave your side while I’m here.”

“That’s for the best, yeah.”

Thunder cracks and a drizzle has me retreating into the depths of our covered wagon. Without anything better to do besides sleeping I move towards the dozen or so crates we have stacked in the back. My target is one of the open-topped boxes holding an assortment of weapons. A single iron nail pokes out from where the crate was sealed in the past, I pull it out of the wood with some effort.

Since my arrival here I’ve had a thousand questions running through my mind and the one that bugged me for the longest had to be how I survived in the desert. I had internal bleeding, a broken leg, deep cuts over my body, and was dehydrated and starving. Now I’ve heard some amazing survival stories before but in almost every case they have some connection to the environment and their accidents are just them being overconfident and making a mistake.

I went from Pittsburgh to a desert with the literal force of a moving truck. Something, some force is keeping me alive and stronger than I should be. The nail rolls in my hand as I contemplate how little I know about what brought me here, it could’ve been fucking aliens for all I know.

With two fingers I bend the nail as if it were a limp french fry and for a few seconds I just stare at it. I'm stronger, a lot stronger than I have any right to be. Some kind of equalizing force to make me on par with the average person in this world? I'm sure Arvi could bend a steel rod with no issues. About time I get some compensation for all the unfair advantages these people have.

—{}{}{}{}{}—

Unknown.

Shit. Shit. Shit!

If that thing makes it to town it’ll be that much harder to keep track of, already I’m straining my senses to the limit just to keep regular tabs on it. I don't need the added difficulty of picking it out of a crowd. Luckily the cart is only moving at the speed of the horses which means I have time to think while I follow.

From the conversation they should reach the city in less than a day, Victoria wanted me to warn her if it moved at all but if it goes on a rampage before the message reaches her. I’ll have to stop at the headquarters ahead of them and hope they don’t change direction at some point. While I’m there I can see about warning the others not to mess with it, no telling what abilities the thing has, hells forbid it out-matches a Prealus.

Moving at a more reasonable pace I find myself at the town's walls in less than an hour, I check in with the guard assigned to the Shields and he waved me off. Always professional even when I appear beside him atop the walls, not so much as a yelp anymore.

Shit.

A crier is outside the Shields headquarters, it’s Nomads.