They waited until morning, at Taiga’s suggestion, to visit the marketplace. The cool breeze made Taiga wear his cape and draw his sleeves down from their normal resting place at his elbows. Mouse didn’t need to take such precautions since he always ran hot, and galloped ahead a few paces.
A few people mingled about, looking over some goods brought in by localized farmers. Nearby, a shop opened their storefront for business, but they sold books, which was of no interest to Mouse. Nearby, the warm smell of something baking drew him to a stall, steam billowing from it. On the counter, a woman placed several purple lumps into a basket, their innards cut open to reveal an orange mush.
“Sweet potatoes. You want one?” Taiga pulled up beside him, already opening their money pouch.
“Are they… sweet?” They may have been called sweet, but he came to realize not all ‘sweet’ things were, in fact, sweet.
This was absolute lunacy in his opinion, and very human-like. Misleading people with things like ‘sweet basil’ or ‘sweet pepper’, neither of which held a drop of sweetness.
“We’ll take two,” Taiga nodded to the woman behind the counter, who’d eyed them from her roasting coals. He took a couple silver colored coins out, putting them on the counter. In return, she handed them two sweet potatoes and a few copper coins.
Taiga wrapped each potato loosely in cloth, and handed one to Mouse, “give it a try. They’re hot.”
Then, he stepped to the side of the counter, scooping sesame seeds into the opened potato. Mouse decided to do the same, dumping an uneven amount unfortunately down the center of it. He watched Taiga take a bite, and followed suit, immediately tasting the gentle yet savory sweetness that warmed his mouth.
Grinning, he took another bite. Taiga watched him, chuckling, “like it?”
“Yeah.”
A couple of children ran behind him, making him turn and watching them run with bags of newspapers. They called out the price, and that it was the last day to buy it before a new paper released.
Taiga paid for a paper, folding it into his bag without glancing at it. Mouse munched on his potato, wandering past a few more stalls. He was glad Taiga recommended the morning, when fewer people were out and about.
His eyes wandered to the lights above their heads. “Hey Taiga, can we buy one of those?”
“You want… a string of charged silver? Why?” Taiga followed his line of sight, raising an eyebrow.
“No, just one rock. We could put it in a necklace for Sweet Bun.”
“I don’t think she’d appreciate our generosity in the way you imagine.” Taiga scratched his head, his eyes turning back to the vendor stalls.
“Yeah? But if she glows, we’ll always be able to find her. And she’d look so pretty.”
“When have we not been able to find her? Besides, we’ll just need to follow the trail of ravaged food if anything happens.”
Mouse said nothing, shrugging off Taiga and watching the lights twinkle as he passed beneath them. He took another bite, near choking from the amount of sesame seeds he inhaled. He enjoyed their crunch, but they were not worth choking on. If he got a sweet potato in the future, he’d leave it plain.
To the right of him, Taiga made an exchange, and Mouse trotted over to get a better look. He held a clasp with five chains dangling from it, with a latch at the bottom of each.
Taiga glanced at him as he approached, “an actual wallet, now that we’ve got more than two types of coins.” He slid the thing into his money pouch, “I’ll organize it back in our room.”
“How about a hat?” Mouse asked, his eyes drawn to a stall a ways down.
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“For yourself?” Taiga followed his line of sight.
“For Sweet Bun.”
Taiga let out a laugh, “you want to try wrangling a hat onto her? Sure.”
He handed Mouse a few coins, who took it and ran ahead, swerving around a kid selling papers and an older woman making her way across the plaza as it opened up. He slowed to the hat stall, looking around for anything Sweet Bun would look good in.
Mouse’s eyes landed on a pink sun hat with a ring of fabric flowers lining the brim. Just in case something better might change his mind, he grazed over the other hats. But no, the pink sun hat would fit Sweet Bun beautifully.
“Something catch your eye, sir?” A stubby man asked, stepping away from another stall selling hair ribbons.
“This one.” Mouse pointed at the pink sun hat.
“Oh my, for a lovely girl, perhaps?”
Any joy in Mouse’s mood drained away. “You annoy me.”
The stubby man recoiled, “eh, sir?”
“Why does it matter to you what I want it for?” Mouse snapped, checking the tag for it, and counting the coins. While the stubby man fiddled with his words, Mouse gave him enough coins for the hat, took it, and walked away. He should have stolen it.
Taiga stood a short distance away, talking with someone Mouse didn’t recognize. He waited at a safe distance, rolling a few copper coins in his hand. When the man walked away, Taiga waved him over.
“You bought this for Sweet Bun?”
“It suits her well, right?” He unfolded the brim and touched the flowers. “Can you make a strap on this for her?”
Taiga nodded, touching the fabric gingerly. “We’ll need to cut our trip short. The northern side of the wall is having some issues. They’ve asked for help from all available mercenaries.”
“Demons?” Mouse asked, turning back towards the guildhall.
Taiga shook his head, “not sure, just that there’s a disturbance.”
After dropping the hat off, and joining a few other mercenaries heading that way, Mouse stuck close to Taiga. They hadn’t wandered to the northern part of town yet, and he used the time to attach his sword belt to his waist while still keeping up.
Black smoke billowed overhead, streaming from beyond the wall. Taiga slowed his pace as they approached and the stench of burning flesh waffed from the open gate.
“This isn’t a disturbance or ‘some issues’.” Taiga murmured to him as they drew back from the other mercenaries. “What’s going on?” He called out to a man dressed in a guard’s uniform, soot covering half his tunic.
“It’s demons. I don’t know, I was up there,” the man pointed to the top of the wall, where a few people shouted, running back and forth. “I didn’t see it start, but suddenly there were flames, and people screaming. The people at the checkpoint scattered and—”
“There’s a checkpoint here?” Taiga snapped, “where are the civilians?”
The man just shook his head, and Taiga cursed, pushing past him and heading towards the gate. Beyond them, people ran back and forth, the mercenaries they arrived with all rushing out the front.
“Taiga, wait!” Mouse grabbed his arm. “We don’t know what’s happening yet! What if it’s another—”
From outside the gate, a boom shook the ground, and yells erupted. Red and orange fire plumed across the road beyond. Taiga yelled something to him, but another boom sent them crumbling to the ground.
Mouse reached for him, keeping his balance better than Taiga could. He let the earth rattle beneath him, filtering out the screams and yells of people. No stomps, no unison, no Guardian.
“It’s not a Guardian attack.” Mouse pulled Taiga beside him.
“We’ve got to get the people to safety.” Taiga’s head swiveled around them at every scream, shout, or holler.
People ran around them, women clutched their babes, fathers carried children to safety. Goats ran amok, their ropes unbound from their shepherd. Taiga ripped from his grasp, directing people towards the inner part of the city.
“Taiga, I’m going to find out what’s going on.” Mouse waited for Taiga to look his way and nod before darting forward into the chaos.
Another boom, shouts and screams, and a body flung down a meter from him. Mouse ran to her, uniformed as a guard, but her eyes too lifeless for help. He followed where she came from, running up the stairs and to the battlements.
The wall itself took decent damage. Likely made for weak defense, chunks of stone crumbled while others blasted apart during the explosion. He jumped around it, peering over the side of the battlement.
Dark shadows scattered amongst the fleeing people and defensive mercenaries. Demons attacked anyone in their path, dragging them within their group to devour. A few mercenaries lunged at a demon as it got hold of a man, fending the demon off until the man scrambled away.
Another boom to the right sent everyone to their knees. Mouse ran across the top of the gate, straining to see through the cloud of dust and smoke as three demons sat upon a wagon of fireworks.
“They got a hold of explosives?” Mouse breathed. Explosives, groups of more than a dozen demons, attacking a city in broad daylight… no matter if there was a rip to the Beyond here or not, this was far too advanced, far too quickly.