After he and Mouse flashed their licenses to another uniform closer to the gate, they were let in with ease. Taiga didn’t recognize the uniform, but from their behavior and duties, he assumed they were city guards. Maybe they’d been hired directly by the city instead of outsourced from Pall; he wasn’t sure.
Either way, they led them through the wide gate, past people stopped and speaking with another guard. A few eyes met his, all probably wondering why they were let through, while they stood half a day hoping for admittance.
If Mouse noticed, he didn’t care. Instead, he focused ahead. He pointed to something beyond Taiga’s vision. He stepped forward to get a better view.
“Look at all the lights!” He laughed while pointing, and Taiga followed his gaze beyond the wall.
Hanging across the sky, dancing from the inner side of the wall to the buildings across the open marketplace, to the buildings ahead and back, were lines of little magical lights. By the gentle teal haze they gave off, the lights were likely charged stones shining across a rope. But together with dozens of lines, they appeared almost as stars despite the daylight.
“They’re beautiful.” He nodded while Mouse gazed at them.
The guard turned from them, heading back towards the gate. Taiga called out to him, catching his attention before it refocused elsewhere. “Where’s the mercenary hall?”
“Follow straight down the market, you’ll see some signs when you reach the library. Winolin is built in a grid, so it should be easy to find.”
“Hey, Pall doesn’t have anything like those,” Mouse interrupted, pulling on Taiga’s tunic.
Taiga thanked the guard and turned to his friend. “I heard the mountains have a couple silver mines. This is probably how Winolin displayed their wealth in trade and industry.”
Winolin, afterall, became successful as a mining town originally. The lush land and plentiful rivers only helped it grow. Though Mouse cared little for logistical talk, so Taiga kept it to himself.
“Fruit!” Mouse ran ahead, dodging a dog and their owner with a swift whirl, and hopping to a halt at a peddler stand. “Taiga, can we buy some?”
“Didn’t the merchants give you a few peaches?”
“I ate them a while ago.”
This insinuated Mouse didn’t steal any from them. And while Taiga should have been proud, part of him wished he had, since they, in fact, could not afford to buy any.
“You don’t have any… stashed away for safe keeping?” He asked after catching up, lowering his voice so the vendor didn’t overhear.
“You said we had to be good to them.”
Taiga barely recalled saying something of the sort. He rubbed his brow, peeking at the stand. “How much are the apples?”
Mouse shrugged, and the old woman gazing at them from above her book looked them up and down. Autumn must’ve set in late this year, since the stand had a bushel of early harvested golden apples. “Six per. Or ten for two.”
Ten daud. The apple harvest only just began, and Mouse looked forward to them all year. And it was his favorite snack. He rubbed his brow again, ignoring Mouse’s pleading eyes or the woman’s judging ones.
“Pick two.” Taiga caved, reaching into his bag for his wallet. He paid the lady in ten copper colored coins. He bowed his thanks, though she seemed too preoccupied sniffing the coins to return it.
“Why can’t you like biscuits more than apples?” Taiga sighed, stashing the wallet before Mouse found something else to spend money on. He shrugged.
“They’re boring. And four for the price of two is great, right?” Mouse grinned, letting Taiga peek into his own pack, revealing four golden orbs rolling between his blanket and head scarf.
Taiga considered saying something, but the woman’s snooty attitude led him to care less than usual. He opted to ignore the theft and looked ahead. Vendors lined the streets, though they were broken into groups to give space for storefronts and roads.
They walked casually, and Taiga occasionally glanced at the stalls, catching a wide variety of goods for sale. Some things, like the wooden toys and leatherbound jewelry, he’d seen commonly sold in Pall.
Unique items, such as the charged silver or hair decorations were new. A few women passed them wearing intricate little shiny things in their hair, and he noted the popularity here. He’d seen such fashions in Pall years prior, though it revolved mostly in the courts.
Grilled meats coated in sugared spices coaxed him to spend more money, and Taiga refrained, keeping his eyes ahead with the hopes the guild hall would have something to suffice instead. If not, after the next job, he’d come and get a stick of it.
At the library, a grand building hard to miss with its sweeping colored canopies and dyed cloths moving with the breeze over open-aired windows and entrances, he checked for signs for the mercenary hall. To the left, and they wandered down another few rows of shops, enticing smells, and occasionally loud crowds of people going about the day-to-days. Mouse stuck close to him, grabbing his tunic whenever someone came close to bumping him.
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Sweet Bun drew a few eyes. Most people saw linlao around, even if it wasn’t frequent. Nonetheless, they were rare enough to draw some attention. Taiga considered their theft at the auction, and just hoped no one would recognize her until they received registration papers for her. She took onlooking attention with ease, sticking to Taiga’s side and carefully putting her feet between bustling people. Her thick tail stayed near her legs, to keep from knocking anything over.
Vibrantly dyed cloths flowed above them in near unison, occasionally shading the roads and them as Taiga, Mouse, and Sweet Bun navigated the roads. The boisterous laughter pouring from nearby inns and taverns led them closer, and followed the sign for the guild stable. They dropped Sweet Bun off with an uneasy looking stablehand. On the other side of the stable, towered the guildhall.
“Woah,” was all Mouse said as they stared out at the multi-floored building, each floor sinking into the next with spacious patios and balconies. Large arches with large linen tarps invited them in. High-ceilings allowed views to the upper floors where a few people lounged in chairs around the railing. Wooden pillars decorated in wolf carvings, the symbol of the mercenary guild, supported the building, carrying the weight over at least a hundred years and thousands of passing tenants.
“Ya’ll need somethin’?” A man sitting at a table asked. His companions laughed behind him, though Taiga was unsure why.
Mouse wrinkled his nose at him and turned away. Taiga watched Mouse walk away, before forcing a smile and turning back to the man. “We just got into town. Where do we check in?”
“Oooooh, fresh mercs!” A woman from across the man’s table gasped at them, standing and leaning over the table towards them. “Over there,” she pointed down a wide corridor, never breaking eye contact with him, “when ya finish, come sit with us!”
He smiled wider, “thanks so much.”
Mouse followed behind him until they were in the quieter hallway, where he stepped beside him. “I hate them.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want to sit with them.”
“We won’t.” Once assured, Mouse nodded and bounced a step ahead.
At an opening to a large room, Taiga made his way to a table labeled check in while pulling out their documents again. An older man stood from his chair as they approached, holding out his hand which Taiga placed the licenses into.
“We’re checking—”
“Uh huh.” The old man sat back in his chair, adjusted his glasses, and cut Taiga off.
Taiga smiled again, smacking Mouse gently as he heated up and opened his mouth to say something likely to get them kicked out.
“Do you two need a room?” He scribbled their names into a large, worn logbook.
“Yeah, we will.”
“Of course you do,” the old man sighed with more than a hint of annoyance in his tone. Mouse trembled beside him, and when Taiga glanced over, saw his eyes wide and face cocked upward, looking down at the old man much like how he looked at ants after being bitten.
“Don’t,” Taiga shot at him in hushed voices.
“But he’s rude!” Mouse attempted a quiet tone, but failed. The old man, however, didn’t seem to notice.
“Okay, but is what you want to say going to help us at all?”
“I wasn’t going to say anything.”
So Mouse planned on hitting him. Taiga breathed, pressing his palm to Mouse’s chest. “Calm down. It’s not worth it.”
“It is to me.” Mouse huffed, lowering his shoulders and relaxing despite his words.
“But not to us, ri—”
“I have you checked into the guild hall,” The old man cut in, and slid a key across the table, “room 308. When you check out of the guildhall, just return the key.”
Mouse breathed in, his chest swelling. Taiga grabbed the key, thanked the man, and pulled Mouse’s arm out of the room and back down the hall. Mouse, to his credit, let himself be pulled along, and Taiga felt his arm relaxing in his fingers with every step they took.
“We’ll drop off our bags, then grab food.” Taiga hoped the extra few minutes would cool off any remaining frustration in Mouse, as well as give his back a break.
Back in the main hall, they headed up the wooden staircase, which broke into an around-the-hall balcony with plenty of seating, both at tables and floor rugs and pillows. A few were occupied, though the closest ones weren’t.
Once on their floor, Mouse followed slowly, gazing over the railing and watching the people below. There were fewer spaces occupied, mostly on the far side of the floor. At their door, Taiga unlocked it, and Mouse burst through, always first to inspect new lodgings.
“Two beds?” Mouse whipped around to Taiga.
“He didn’t ask.”
He stared at the bed a moment, shrugged, and tossed his pack onto the left most one. Taiga dropped his at the foot of the bed after fishing their wallet out, and followed Mouse back out of the room.
Down the stairs, Taiga ordered himself a stick of grilled rabbit with a bowl of rice, since he could order that free once a day while at the hall, according to the sign. Mouse drew back at the strong ginger smell, and the cook laughed, telling him to wait while he cooked up an unglazed stick.
Taiga walked out onto the spacious patio, finding a rug and a few pillows underneath a tree. He sat, enjoying the song of a Tree Sparrow sitting on the eve of the archway into the great hall. A cloth overhang rumbled in the hard breeze, before settling.
“Look, he even gave me a piece of this weird fruit.” Mouse plopped down beside him, ripping a chunk of the meat off the stick with a hard yank. He raised up his bowl, a handful of red, soft berries rolling over the mound of rice.
“Some sort of… Actually looks like a raspberry.” Taiga leaned over, picking one up and turning it in his hand. “Haven’t seen these in years.”
Mouse shrugged, plopping one in his mouth. “They’re good! He said they grow at the foot of the mountains.”
Taiga nibbled on it, eating a piece of gingered rabbit at the same time to see what the combinations of flavors were like. The ginger overpowered, but the tartness from the berry added a little something. He popped the rest of the berry in his mouth with another bite of rabbit.
“I’m thinking,” Taiga swallowed, “we take a mission to check out this demon problem.”
Mouse scooped rice into his spoon, pausing before putting it in his mouth, “didn’t we see some on the way here?”
Taiga nodded, “but I want to see how much of a problem this is here. And gather more information from the mercs fighting them everyday.”
Mouse cocked his head to the side, chewing and thinking. Taiga continued, “there was no corruption out in those fields. Logic says there’s no way they should have been able to live out there. Those demons were weak, but a Howler? What was something like that doing out there?”
“So the reason for the imbalance might be around here? The one corrupting the Guardians.” Mouse nodded, putting his bowl and spoon down a moment, “Find the reason, save the Guardians?”
Taiga smiled, “Let’s hope so.”