It took less than an hour before Danny and I were out of the forest, apparently called Snowatch Forest by the locals, and into a vast vibrantly green series of plains and hills with a few trees here or there. I had also learned that these plains were called the Evergreen Plains due to the fact that it was able to grow healthy plants even in the coldest of times. I somewhat question how that worked since it was decently cold and according to Danny was going to get even colder in the coming days.
It would take about a two-hour walk before we ended up at Danny’s home which was a farm on the outskirts of a Town called Vanners. From the sound of it, Vanners was a decently large town with a little over a thousand people and dozens of outlying farms that produced a lot of the food for not just the town but for the surrounding settlements as well. The Wizard Farmer seemed to have a lot of pride in his home.
The slow but nice pace we walked allowed for plenty of sightings of the near-endless plains. It had a rather simplistic beauty for it. There was a little wildlife here or there like a small herd of four-legged furry beasts that were a bit smaller than cows but rather bulky and had a long tail with some large bone boulder at the end that made it look like it would hurt a lot if they took a swing at me with it. According to Danny, they were very passive beasts as long as you left them alone, and they were called Bashers. Quite an accurate name if you asked me.
“So where are ya from?” Danny asked suddenly as we paused to watch two larger Bashers fight each other over something. I blinked in surprise at his question, having expected he would try to lead up to it rather than ask it outright.
Danny noticed my expression and spoke once more with a bit of an apology in his voice. “I don’t mean to pry but you're clearly ain’t from here. Maybe I can help ya find out how to get home from here!”
I gave the tanned man a smile at the sentiment. I was pretty sure that getting home was something that some simple directions couldn't help with. But I was thankful for his offer of help either way. Reminded me of the simple but kind people that I had grown up with in the old country town I had spent most of my life in.
“Well, I'm afraid that I’m from a rather isolated part of the world. We don’t really interact with the rest of the world and tend to keep to ourselves.” As I spoke I felt a bit bad about lying but I felt that the knowledge that I was from another world should be kept close to the chest. Better safe than sorry.
Danny gave a hmm at my words as he looked up for a moment in thought. A few seconds later he snapped his fingers before smiling at me. “Wait, you're from the Ashen Isles aren't ya?”
I made a show of pausing and milling over what he said in my head. After about five seconds I spoke once more, “Could you describe what the Ashen Isles look like? It sounds familiar but the name isn’t what my people use.”
“Oh ah,” Danny started as he once more looked up in thought before speaking again. “It's a bunch of islands in the south. There is a mountain or two that spits out ash and it’s all over the place. I’ve heard that there's a few isolated communities there so I thought that it might be it.”
I once more made a show, this time opening my mouth in understanding before nodding my head and speaking “Yes that does sound right. We call it the Cinder Islands though. Also, the mountain you are speaking about is called a volcano I believe.”
As I spoke there was a sparkle in Danny’s eyes as he pulled out a leather book from his bag along with what looked like a stick of charcoal that had a pointed end. He quickly started writing something down as he spoke with excitement in his voice, “Really! I didn’t know about any of that! There's so much out there to learn about. So much forgotten history to dig up and magic to learn. I can’t wait to join the Guild as an Adventurer!”
I gave the man an amused look as he spoke, smothering the bit of shame at giving him false info. At least I had a solid excuse to use for why I didn’t know stuff about the world. Speaking of not knowing, something that Danny said piqued my interest. “What is this Guild you mentioned? I’m afraid I've never heard of that from my home.”
Danny paused in with visible shock in his eyes at my words. Confusion followed shortly after and I got a bit concerned as he put back his book and turned to speak to me. “The Guild isn’t at ya Isles? I thought they were all over Septima.”
I smother a bit of my panic before speaking with a practiced casualness in my voice. “I’m afraid that my little village has never heard of them. We didn’t like outsiders a lot. Always thought it was short-sighted to chase off any unknown people.”
A look of understanding dawned on Danny's face as his smile returned and he nodded his head to me before speaking. “Dang, your home really sounds lonely. Well, the Guild is just what we call The Guild of Classes. It’s this big group that’s older than most of the Kingdoms of Man or even the other countries of Septima.”
I nodded my head while noting that Septima seemed to be either what the continent was called or perhaps the world itself. The Guild sounded like a very important organization that I should get to know more about. Being older than most of the nations around here was probably an impressive feat. I made a motion for Danny to continue and he seemed to be more than willing to show off what he knew.
“The Guild got formed sometime at the end of the First Age, I think that it becoming a thing is what made it end actually. Anyway, its founder Umlore, the All-Knowing, got every single one of the eight Class Gems from all over Septima. Something about controlling the chaos or something that they made. But now on top of being the ones you go to to get a class, they also have smaller groups in them that they help support. There’s a bunch I can’t remember but the two big ones, the mages group and the adventurers group.”
I processed his words while nodding my head to show that I was listening. It sounded like this Guild of Classes was one big continent-spanning guild that had a bunch of smaller guilds in it. Or maybe factions was the more appropriate term. It was rather hard to understand Danny at times with his accent and usage of words.
Either way, it sounded like if I wanted to get a Class I would need to get my hands on one of these Class Gems. And in order to get my hands on a Class Gem I would have to go through the Guild to do so. Some of the other stuff like the First Age that Danny had mentioned also sounded interesting but I was never too big on history, mainly the different philosophies and social ideas that different nations of earth had produced over the centuries were what I found fascinating.
“How does one go about getting a Class from this Guild?” As I spoke I tried to not show too much interest in the idea, didn’t want to show the cards I was keeping close to my chest.
Danny raised an eyebrow at me at what I had said. There was a curiosity in his voice as he spoke next, “Well usually any person can get their first Class for free when they have their Coming of Age. It’s different for other races but for good old humans it's thirteen years spent alive. You just show up at a Guild building in a city and if ya of age and don’t have a Class they'll let you pick one. It’s really expensive to do it again though. Ma and Pa only have their Primary Class and our farm makes a good chunk of coin too.”
“Oh,” I started with a smile as we started walking once more, “Then I should be able to get a class when I find this Guild building then. Good to know.”
Danny turned towards me with wide eyes at my statement. “You don’t have a Class!? None at all? Wow, if you don’t mind me asking how old are you sir? Is it different on the Ashen Isle?”
I looked to the side for a moment as I once more mentally reprimanded myself for giving out too much info. I was rather lucky that Danny was a trusting person. “Usually we are not allowed to have a Class until we’ve earned it. If you had earned it or not wasn't really defined. It seems that the town council just seems to allow people they like to get Classes. Sadly they never had any love for me so despite being twenty-one years old I still have no Class.”
A look of sympathy passed over Danny's face as he got a bit closer to me and patted me on the back. “Don’t worry about it Alexander! Ya did great with them Winter Wolves, my Adventurers book says that it’s better to be skilled than to have Skills. I know that some of the noble folk wait a bit till they get that sword swinging down before taking the Warrior Class. I might have gotten the Mage Class about five years ago but I didn’t know anything about magic. Took me forever to start leveling the class.”
I nodded my head as I listened to Danny speak while observing the vibrant green plains and hills that we were slowly making our way through. I noted that the sun was well on its way down to the horizon and was wondering if we would be arriving at my companion's home before nightfall. The mage didn’t seem to be in any hurry so I chose not to put much thought into it as I thought over his words some more.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“I appreciate the words of encouragement Danny, I truly do. Maybe I can finally get a Class while I’m away from my home. Where is the closest Guild building from Vanners?” As I spoke the words Danny paused and once more sparkles entered his eyes as he turned to me with a wide smile.
“The closest place to find the Guild is the city of Dreshabor. It’s about a twenty-day trip from Vanners, or it is on foot at least. It’s this big port city! I nearly got lost when I visited it five years ago. But don’t worry about that, I can take ya there!” Danny’s words were filled with even more excitement than I had ever seen from him.
“Take me there? Do your parents not need you on their farm Danny? I would hate to put them in an unfortunate situation just to help me out.” I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to travel around with Danny. He seemed to be quite a nice person but if I stayed around him too much he would probably start to pick up on some of my dishonesty with him.
Before I could continue though Danny was already waving his right hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it Alex. I was already planning to leave at the end of the year, during the Time of Darkness. This is the perfect excuse to do that! We can both head out to the Guild, you can get a Class, and I can join up and become a full-time Adventurer! I was hoping to get another Mage Lv before I left but it ain’t going to kill me to leave a little early.”
I let out a sigh at Danny’s words. He seemed completely sure about this course of action and I doubted that I could change his mind right now. Or at least without raising too much suspicion on myself by trying. My best bet would be to subtly convince the mage farmer’s parents that I would be fine so I could head off on my own. Spare Danny from getting caught up in whatever I end up running into while trying to get a Class.
We ended up walking in moderate silence for a few dozen minutes, occasionally making short conversations about various topics like what Danny’s parent’s farm grew or about the different creatures that could be found in the Snowatch Forest. Apparently, the Rainbow bird that I had seen was called a Lovebird.
Soon after another little bit of silence between the conversation, we walked over a hill and I saw the silhouette of buildings in the distance, all of them were surrounding a rather large hill that was made up of two mounds. One of these mounds was about halfway up the taller of the mounds and on top of the tallest I saw some large wooden walls covering a building of some kind that I couldn’t see. There were dozens of buildings all on the outskirts of the hill that were scattered out and looked like they had tilled fields surrounding them.
Before I could speak Danny grabbed my hand and started to speed up while somewhat dragging me along. “There it is! Good old Vanners! Let's hurry before it gets too dark. Don’t want Ma to smack me with the broom for being out late again. We can get ya something to eat too, your stomach has been growling louder than a Basher banging its tail during mating season.”
With a sigh I allowed Danny to take me along. I’d be a liar if I didn’t say that some food sounded great right now.
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The closer we got to the town the more numerous the fields of crops became. It reminded me a lot of the countryside I had grown up in where you would see random fields of wheat or corn along with barns and fenced-off areas containing dozens of cows or some other animal. The later I didn’t really see much and upon asking about it Danny was more than happy to reply.
“Oh, that's more common in the northwestern part of the Kingdom. Don’t know why but there's a bit of a friendly fight between that part and the southeast part about what's better. Growing crops or raising some Furnest or Owlinks.” I nodded at Danny’s words and found myself resisting the question of what a Furnest or Owlinks was. Now that I think of it, the plants I was seeing in the fields also looked different from what I was used to seeing back home.
Did this world have completely different animals? I know for a fact that I saw some normal rabbits back at the Snowatch Forest and from what I could tell normal wolves also existed as well. Some movement off to the side caught my attention and upon looking over I saw an older farmer using some kind of animal to plow the field. For a moment I wondered why the farmer was plowing so late into the season before remembering that plants apparently grew all the time in the Evergreen Plains so maybe while other farms would stop for this world’s version of winter which Danny called the Time of Darkness those in the Plains didn’t.
Then my attention was solely on the animal the old farmer was using, my previous thoughts forgotten as I observed the beast. It was about the same size as a cow but was narrower than said animal. It was also very furry, being covered in blondish hair that was a good couple of inches in length with most of it being matted together. It also had eight legs that arched outwards kind of like a spider but without the extra joints. Its neck was nonexistent and it had a short snout that reminded me of a pug. All in all, it was a very weird creature by my standards and I found myself stopping to look at it until I heard Danny speaking once more.
“You good there Alex? Y'all are looking at that Furnest like it’s got a second head of something.” At Danny's words, I snapped out of my stare before turning to the farmer wizard with an apologetic smile.
“I’m quite fine Danny. We Don’t have a lot of Furnest from where I’m so this is the first time I can get a good look at one.” As I spoke Danny's eyes widened a little before quickly pulling out his little journal and charcoal stick before writing down what I had just told him.
It seemed like every time I said something about my life or home he would instantly write it down. Danny claimed that it was for research since not a lot was known about the Ashen Isles and the fact that I was pretty much telling him made-up stuff about them was not making me feel the best. But it wasn’t like I would be with Danny for much longer, once we got to his home his parents would probably forbid him from leaving to help out a stranger from an even stranger land.
We had gotten closer to the town itself which as I had noted before was built around and on a large hill with two mounds. There was a part of the town that seemed to lay at the southeastern base of the hill which made up about two-thirds of the town with the rest lying about halfway up the hill on the first mound. At the very top was some wooden wall surrounding what looked like a mix of a manor and castle which I guessed the lord of the town stayed in. It seemed like Danny was truthful about Vanners being a very large town which seemed like it would transition into a small city in a few decades if they played their cards right.
Eventually, Danny went off a small road that split from the main road which, after a minute or two of walking, led to a decently large wooden house near an old barn surrounded by fields of what looked like corn. The house looked like it had been around for quite some time but well maintained despite some wear and tear here or there. The barn looked like a big gust of wind would tear it down though. It had a rather homely feel to it all
In a smaller garden near the front of the house, I saw what looked like a teenage girl in similar overalls to Danny and a light green shirt working. Her light brown hair was done up in pigtails and even from a good distance away, I could see her skin had a similar tan to it like Danny’s. She seemed to be humming some song as we got closer and Danny called out to her, “Hey Anna, I'm home! Tell Ma I got a guest!”
The girl, whose name was apparently Anna, jumped a bit at Danny’s shout. She then quickly turned around with an annoyed look on her face as she shouted something back, “Danny! Ma’s been worried sick! Y'all were out there longer than she said you could be out there. And Pa…oh! Whose this you brought?”
As Anna was shouting she walked closer to the two of us. But as she noticed me she turned and started to get a good look at me. I found myself very uneasy at the pleased look on her face as her eyes roamed all over my person. I was pretty sure this girl was a teenager and I did not like the almost hungry look that was appearing on her face. From what Danny said it seemed like thirteen was the age where kids become adults here but that wasn’t going to change my standards.
“Anna! You're making the man uncomfortable! Now go back to finishing up the gardening while I talk to Danny and his new friend.” A different voice came from the house and upon turning to look I saw an older woman with light brown hair done up in a ponytail. She wore a brown country-style dress, one that looked nice but was made of tougher material for hard work. She had a very motherly aura about her but at the same time also gave off a feeling of not tolerating any tomfoolery from others.
Anna gave a disappointed look before giving one more glance and then walked off back to the little garden. Then the woman beckoned Danny and I forward with a lazy wave of her hand but the annoyed look she was throwing at Danny told me that my smaller companion was in some trouble. As we got closer to her I noticed that one of her eyes appeared to be made out of stone and she also had a small scar that ran vertically along the same eye as well.
She started to eye me critically as I stood before her. Despite the fact I was taller than her the way she held herself made me feel smaller. My own mother had never felt like this to me even back when I was smaller. She took a few more seconds to eye me before speaking, “Right. I assume Danny brought ya for a reason stranger. Out with it, I still got to get the table set for dinner.”
I gave the mature woman the most charming smile I could before giving her a bow. “Of course madam. I’m afraid that due to rather unfortunate circumstances, I was stranded in the Snowatch Forest. I happen upon your quite capable son who came along to help me.”
I went on to explain some further details like the Ashen Isles falsehood and a few other things. I also kept out the Winter Wolves fight, at least I did before ‘accidentally’ mentioning it to her which earned Danny a look. I felt bad for throwing the Mage under the bus but I hoped that the fight would activate a protective instinct in the woman which would encourage her to prevent Danny from coming with me to the city.
After I finished my explanation we stood in silence for a few seconds as the mother seemed to consider my words before a sympathetic look grew over her face. “Sorry to hear that boy. I’m glad that Danny could help ya out though. He’s a good if a bit naive child. We can offer ya a place to stay and some food but you're going to work while you're here. Ya good with that?”
I smiled and gave her a nod as I spoke, “Of course madame. I expected to help out a little if I would be staying. Works similar to my own home so I am perfectly fine with the arrangements. Now I don’t mean to rush things here but I haven’t eaten in a day and a half and the food I smell is quite literally making my knees weak right now.”
She gave me a motherly smile before turning to the side to let me and Danny into the house. I would be a liar if I didn't say that I was more than willing to accept.
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(POV-Jeaneta Wheatmen)
I found myself smiling proudly as my family dug into the dinner I had spent hours preparing. The Furnest was tender after roasting for a few hours in the coal oven and the Klesh on the side was boiled to perfection. As a wife I took pride in many things and cooking a mouth-watering meal for my husband and little ones was one of them.
As everyone ate and spoke I found my eyes wandering to the Alex fellow that Danny had brought with him. At that moment the young man was talking to Kalin, my husband and my oldest son Jackal. At first, the two of them were weary of the new person, especially with Anna almost never taking her eyes off the poor man. But it seemed like with a few charming words the two were slowly relaxing and chatting with the pale man.
He certainly had a way with words that one. He seemed to know just the right things to say to get someone to lower their guard. Had a real natural charisma about him. If I didn’t know better I would have said he had a Speaker Class. But being the daughter of a traveling merchant who was a Speaker I knew when a High Charisma stat was affecting me. What Alex had was either natural skill or just experience.
He was also a liar.
Danny or even the rest of my little family didn’t have much experience with the world outside of the Kingdom of Valnus or even really Vanners itself. But Pa had taken me all over the north of the continent, seeing almost every Kingdom of Man old and new besides one or two. They didn’t understand just how much influence or power the Guild had. The thought that some isolated towns on some ash-covered islands were able to keep some Class Gems to themselves was laughable. The Guild would have destroyed any place that refused to give up any Class Gem.
There were a few other holes in Alexander’s story as well. Like how there were very few humans in the Ashen Isles, nowhere near enough for an entire town or even village as the man claimed. I had been ready to kick him out near the beginning of his little story but as he was talking I got a bit of feeling from the lad.
I got the feeling that despite lying there wasn’t any ill intent in his words. There was a…kindness that felt odd to me. Something in my gut told me that he was not in such a good condition as he showed himself to be. The mother in me felt a need to bring him in and help him and in the end, I decided that helping the poor man wasn’t going to kill me.
The way he tried not to shovel my food in his face and was failing helped me feel my decision was a good one.