Aleera and I were at the town market when the bell suddenly rang. It took a second for us to understand what we were hearing. Although the plan for monster sightings had been posted in the market square, it had yet to happen. Then we needed to remember which bell was which, although I could quickly tell it was coming from the East.
“It’s the eastern gate,” I shouted to Aleera over the noise of the people hurriedly packing up and rushing home. We did the same, but once we had packed up, I was keen to see what the threat was rather than just dash on home. With flight, in theory, I should at least be safe enough to run away and knowing what the town was facing would be necessary for deciding how we would face it.
“Let’s go to grandpa’s,” Aleera shouted at me, confused as to why I was hesitating to follow her. She had already started to pull our cart towards his home. This habit of hers was frustrating for Lady Acacia, who, on the one hand, insisted it was unladylike for her to be doing such manual labour but, on the other hand, recognised the limited market that she could sell our goods to and the importance of continuing to level up her skills and metier. In the end, despite her criticism, she turned a blind eye to it, especially as Aleera was adamant she would not be paying someone to pull it for us when it would cut into our profits, at least not yet anyway.
“I just want to see what’s coming,” I shouted as I turned to race toward the church rather than toward my grandpa’s home.
“Stop being silly, Kai. You won’t be able to do anything.” She paused in her flight. But she didn’t have the spare hands between her destination and her goods to try manhandling me, especially since my growth spurt and the redistribution of my stats in the light of the Lodestar.
“I’m just going to glance; then I will join you.” I compromised. “Don’t you want to know what is coming rather than cowering in fear of the unknown?” I argued.
Gritting her teeth, she frowned, “Be safe.” Before continuing her flight to our grandpa’s house. I could hear her muttering to herself as she turned away from me. “They’re going to kill me if you are not.”
I rushed toward the church but did not attempt to enter it, afraid the Bishop would hold me up; I opted to scale the church tower. I needed enough height to fall a little before I could get my flight skill going. The last time we had broken into the church, I had been carried by Arawn, but that did not mean that I had not thought about it since. I was now tall enough at least to reach the joints between the stones that made up the tower. My endurance was enough to stop my fingers from bleeding as I started to climb the tower. My light body meant that my strength stat had little to pull up, while my dexterity meant I could do all this quickly. A little magic wind kept my body pushed upward and against the wall. With all of those advantages, it wasn’t too challenging to promptly scale the tower.
Once at the top, I looked to see if I could see any hordes rushing from the east, but I saw nothing. Intrigued and curious, I decided a short flight to the wall would be in order. Hopefully, curiosity wouldn’t kill this cat. Besides, if we needed to fly to our isle or race to it for reinforcements in the form of Arawn and Lady Acacia, the sooner I found out what was happening, the better.
Pulling on my mana, I called the wind and flooded my robe with mana before using the sill material manipulation to form the equivalent of a medieval flight suit. My Flight skill helped with my jump smoothing my take-off into a smooth glide before I began to soar. So much different from the freefall; I would need to create enough wind speed for the silk robe held in position by mana to function.
Rather than race to the eastern gate which would have had me skimming over the rooftops, I circled upward over the market square while continuing to look for whatever the guards on the east gate had seen. They were no longer ringing the bell but staring eastward, and I could see the reserve guards rushing to the three entrances, most of them making their way to the eastern wall. But I saw no sign of a horde from the depths or even a single monster.
Comfortably high in the sky, I widened my circle to travel the circumference of the town. My super senses meant that though smaller in size, I could still clearly see the arrival of my uncle and cousins at the eastern gate and the argument between the two guards and the reinforcements that joined them. I joined them in searching the countryside for whatever had scared them enough to close the gates and ring the bell.
With my higher elevation, I could see the figure arrive at the coppice and see for myself the reason behind the guards' actions. Whatever was approaching the town was doing so on all fours though he was now behind the thicket and, therefore, out of sight from the wall below me. I watched with interest as the creature transitioned from running on all fours to suddenly standing on two. I realised that his lumpy form was not the shape of his body but the addition of a pack back as I watched him readjust his travel bag and stride forward through the coppice along the path toward the town. Under the foliage cover, I could no longer see his progress, but it was not hard to guess his approximate location, and I was unsurprised by his exit from the tree line.
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Much unlike the town guard, who was startled by the sudden appearance of someone who now looked nearly completely human in his mannerisms as he strode toward the gate. Rising his hand in greeting and calling out to the guard, I saw him push back his hood, and the reason for his unusual running gait suddenly became clear. He was not human.
Not human, elf, giant, dwarf, or pixie; what I believed I was looking at was a beastkin. One that, judging by the tail saying behind him, was feline in nature. I had to have a closer look and started to descend. The distance in height, the speed of movement, and the rushing of the air past my ears made it nigh impossible to hear their conversation as it concluded below me, with them opening the gate to allow him entrance to our town.
With a grin, I lined up my descent, released my material manipulation and the wind to let my body drop straight down in front of them. I flared my mana once more and caught my fall with an upward gust of air, slowing my descent and allowing me to land smoothly in front of them. The guard's shocked faces were worth the expenditure of my mana.
The . . .
Ding!
Intimidation LV1
. . . just made my smile that much more prominent. I should do that more often. I thought the surprises had yet to finish. Then, with my arrival, the man or beastkin dropped to one knee and bowed his head over his arm resting on his knee.
“My lord,” the catkin started though merely a cat was not quite right with his ears more circular than pointed. The guards were doubly shocked and perhaps a little embarrassed that they had not greeted me similarly. The whole town was still getting used to the idea that they had a lord, let alone that he was a pint-sized one. The fact that I could do magic and fly had also yet to sink in, with those who had yet to see it still acting somewhat disbelieving about the whole idea. “I seek Lady Elan. Can you tell me where I might find her?” He addressed me over the adults that surrounded him. I noticed Uncle Aaron in the group and addressed him.
“I’m sure we could show you the way, Adal Silverkin.” I raised my arms like all children everywhere to be picked up. Sure, I could run alongside or in front of everyone, but I would have to run to keep up, which hardly fit with the image of the lord I was trying to portray. While my raised arms were not much better, that was a momentary lapse in impression, and once on my uncle's shoulders, I could look down on everyone as we walked to the town square before turning off toward my grandpa’s house. I did promise to let Aleera know what had happened after all.
While the guards left to open the gates and let people know it had been a false alarm, we made our way to our Grandpa’s house. “Just a short stop to pick up my sister before we go home and introduce you to Lady Elan, our tutor,” I explained our detour and delay.
“Not a monster, just a new arrival,” I shouted through the door after knocking as soon as I could hear my family approaching. They opened the door filled with questions that died in their throats as they looked at the silent beastkin accompanying us.
“He seeks Lady Elan. Ready to go home?” I asked Aleera with a grin at seeing her shock. Seneschal Smit and Adal Silverkin insisted on accompanying us as we made our way to the northern dock, where we had our boat moored. After completing my first impression, I maintained my image as an aloof lord. However, it had probably only been intimidating for the guards, not the guest we had accompanying us.
That did not deter my sister, who was interrogating him on everything from who he was to why, how and who he came here with and what they might have for sale.
“Who are you?”
“Namir.”
“Where are you from?
“The Southern Kingdom of Ostro.”
“Why did you come to Wester Ponente?"
“To see an old friend. And repay a favour."
“How did you get to our isle?”
“On the boat SeaInk. They are a trader out of Libeccio.”
“What are they selling?”
“The usual, gold, ivory, salt, spices, beads, ceramics. I do not know exactly what they have and hope to part with.”
Their conversation continued in a similar vein. He was happy to be drawn on his travels but was vague about his purpose in visiting Lady Acacia. We had arrived at our boat and were ready to set sail when we had our third surprise of the day.
On the lake, we could see Arawn sailing closer, probably coming to investigate the source of the bells tolling earlier and check up on Aleera and me. But when he saw who was accompanying us. Rather than wait for the boat to finish approaching the dock or even wait for us to sail out to him, he launched himself off his boat, having flashed from the helm to the prow. Then having launched himself off his craft, he somehow managed to skip off the surface of the water once, twice, thrice before landing in front of us and between us and the beastkin who had skipped back out of the boat and was now holding hidden daggers which had flashed into his hands at the sight of Arawn Silversword approaching and pulling his blades.