Ebonhearth city, the third largest city in the Glyphdor kingdom, held a population of more than seventy thousand. Surrounding the city was a stone brick wall, with a height of forty feet and a thickness of twenty feet. Towers were built every hundred meters into the wall, with soldiers posted at each one to keep an eye on the surroundings. The only way into the city was through one of the five gate, located at the south, west, north-west, north-north-east and south-east-east.

Since yesterday, the traffic at all five gates has increased until more than twenty wagon were waiting outside each gate. Each gate had two lines for carriages and wagons to enter the city and one entrance that only high-class carriages entered.

Darniss' group had finally reached the city in the morning. Having travelled for the full night with only five minute breaks and having to remain on high alert had tired the six adults and their ostricks and fironares. Finally having a chance to rest, the group stopped, out of the way of the traffic.

Thirty minutes after the adults had fallen asleep, three soldiers marched towards the group. Apart from Delia, Fred and a few other shy kids, the children waved, greeted and shouted to the three soldiers.

"May I speak to the person in charge," the soldier sternly said, a frown upon his face as he saw only children in the group.

The children told the soldiers that they were sleeping, though it was hard to understand with them all talking at once and saying slightly different things. With a bit of effort and a lot of patience, the soldiers finally managed to get the children to wake Darniss and the others.

"Good morning, sorry for stopping near the gates," Darniss yawned, walking towards the soldiers.

"An apology isn't enough. If you don't have a good enough reason, you will be fined." The soldier sternly said, "Now, for the report, I need you to tell me the reason your six wagons have stopped near the city wall."

Darniss then went on to explain the attack from twenty-five pagobsli, the aftermath and avoiding any more encounters throughout the night with no rest. He then pointed out the route and the area they fought the pagobsli on a map the soldier brought out.

"If that's everything, I will file a report and you should be fine. Please go to the public courts for the verdict tomorrow, here is a ticket for you to head there." The soldier said, writing down the details, handing each of the adults a ticket with a code on it that matched the code of the report. "Now, you will have to line up in front of the gate and head into the city. If you don't line up within the next fifteen minutes, I will have to file another report, one for which you will get a fine for with possible further penalties to be decided in the public courts. Good day."

With that, the three soldiers headed back to the gate. The group then headed towards the lines.

"I think we'll part ways here," Amelia said. "We each have our own responsibilities and staying in such a large group isn't feasible during our stay in the city."

"That's probably for the best. We'll have to meet tomorrow at the public office for that report though," Felix affirmed. "Oh yeah! Darniss, you should mention that you have three wagons from the same area, the clerks will try to accommodate for larger groups, though sometimes there aren't enough spaces available." He exclaimed, having remembered it suddenly.

"Thanks for the advice," Darniss said, then looked at the dozen wagons in each line. "Looks like we'll be waiting in line for over an hour to get through though."

With that, Amelia, Jack and Felix lined up in one line, while Darniss, Archie and Oliver lined up in the other. The children, being allowed out of the wagon while they waited, played around with the others. An hour and a half later, when it was time for Darniss and Amelia to go through the gate, the children had already said their farewells and gotten back on the wagons.

The gate they headed into had five sections, each wide enough for a large carriage to pass. While passing through the passage, there was a window into an office where several clerks were moving about. Three soldiers lined up at the other end of the passage, barring entry for any wagons until they were cleared for entry.

"Name, location, passengers," one of the clerks, a woman in her thirties sternly said.

"My name is Darniss, I have five children with me from several hamlets south-west of Engal town," Darniss said quickly, hoping to get through the gates the slightest bit sooner. "Also, the two wagons behind me are from the same area, each carrying six children."

"Thank you mister Darniss," the clerk said. They then looked through several documents, asked for the names of the five girls and had the soldiers check for anything unusual in the wagon and looking for anything not mentioned in Darniss' answer. "Here are the documents for your temporary residence in the city, you will be staying in house eight on Argal Street in the Greenbell district. You have been registered for tomorrow's ceremony between one and three at the Flamebirth church. Failure to attend the ceremony will result in a fine and possible imprisonment. Wandering the city without a relevant permit during the first two days of the ceremony, unless you are shopping alone for groceries or you are heading to the public office or courts, is prohibited. To obtain a permit, please go to the public office by the central plaza. If you are found to be without a valid permit while exploring the city, you will be incarcerated. A soldier will now guide you to the lodging you will stay in for your time in the city."

"Can you tell Archie and Oliver where we will be staying," Darniss asked as he received the documents.

"Provided you have given the correct information for the amount of children they have with them, they will be allocated to the same district as you," the clerk responded. "I will also inform them of your lodgings. Have a fortuitous blessing, children."

Having received the documents, Darniss, led by the soldier, headed into the city. Travelling along the main street, the girls marvelled at the bustling streets and the stalls filled with a multitude of items they had never seen before and all the different creatures people had formed pacts with. A short time later, they left the main street and reached the Greenbell district. The streets were much quieter than the main streets in the city. The streets were narrow, only wide enough for two small wagons to narrowly pass each other, something they experienced first-hand when they struggled to pass a wagon. Other than that, nothing eventful happened, even when they arrived at Argal Street. Having reached their destination, Darniss got off the wagon and knocked on the door.

"Coming!" A lively, slightly croaky voice called from the house. As the door opened an elderly woman stepped out, beaming brightly. "Hello, ah... you must be my guests this year, I wasn't expecting to have anyone until late this afternoon. You'll have to forgive me, I haven't prepared anything"

The woman that answered the door was in her late seventies. She had very short, grey, curly hair, her face had a few wrinkles and her brown eyes held the wisdom that came with age.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Don't worry about it, we are the ones intruding ma'am." Darniss said, waving his hand dismissively. "My name is Darniss, can I have your name?" Darniss eloquently said, handing over one of the documents he received.

"Well aren't you just the sweetest," the woman said, attempting to squeeze his cheeks. "I'm Dorothy, I think we'll get along splendidly." The woman said, as she waved off the soldier who was returning to his post after confirming Dorothy knew who her guests were. "Come on in then, I'll show the children to their room."

The house was small for a house in the city, but to the children it was significantly bigger than the three room, one floor houses they lived in. On the first floor, there were four rooms, a dining room, a kitchen, a lavatory and a room for Dorothy’s creatures to stay in. The second floor had three bedrooms. Only one of the bedrooms was available due to Dorothy already having a guest who had been renting one of the rooms for five months.

The girls got the free room, which had three bunk beds. Having received a tour of the house from Dorothy, Darniss unloaded all the goods from his wagon, apart from the pagobsli materials which he was going to sell later. The girls took the few clothes and items they had to their room. While, they were unpacking, Archie and Oliver greeted Darniss as they passed by on the way to their lodgings and informed them where they were staying, houses twelve and seventeen.

By the time everything had been unpacked, it was an hour before noon. Darniss then headed out with Oliver and Archie to get some permits for the children to explore after they attend the ceremony. With Darniss gone, Dorothy decided to introduce the creatures she had formed pacts with.

Dorothy had formed pacts with three different creatures: A bird, a tortoise and a slime. The bird was three meters tall red bird called a phonyx. It had beautiful wings that glowed like fire spanning five meters. Seeing him currently sleeping in a nest of feathers and twigs, Dorothy told them that it was best to leave the phonyx, which she had named Arsber, alone to rest.

The tortoise was much smaller, only being 25 centimetres high. It had a deep crimson shell with its skin having an orange hue. This tortoise was a rare variation of the dust tortoise, a blood dust tortoise. Dorothy mentioned that the little tortoise had been with her since she received her blessing. As Dorothy opened up her house to guests during the blessing ceremony over the years, the blood dust tortoise had gotten used to having children around, petting and invading her personal space. She had even started to protect the creatures the children had brought from Arsber’s temper, reminiscing about the day she met Dorothy, and how she gave her the wonderful name Shelly.

The slime, which hid from the children the moment they entered, was shaking as Dorothy picked them up. Dorothy told the children that this was a red gel, a slime that had a more solid, gelatinous body than the average slime. In order for the palm sized gel to calm down, Dorothy took them with her as she led the children and Shelly to the dining room. Sitting down at the table she allowed Gloop the gel to get used to the girls' presence, only allowing one of them to be near them at a time.

Having had their fun with Shelly, the children sat down to have a meal Dorothy had prepared when Gloop had calmed down.

"Do you have an affinity for creatures that are red?" Flora asked, after everyone had finished.

"Mm," Dorothy nodded. "If I had a gliff for every time I was asked that, I'd be quite a rich old woman," she chuckled. "I wonder, it's hard to say what my affinity is. Though such a common thing as red isn't that great."

"What do you meant?" Rein and Flora asked, as the other three's eyes looked at Dorothy in wonder.

"You girls," Dorothy said shaking her head. "I'll tell you this now since you, and probably your parents, haven't had much contact with guilds, churches or even soldiers." Dorothy said with a stern look on her face. "Most people tend to keep what they learn from the blessings and what their blessings are to themselves. There are two main reasons, first is to prevent people from knowing what you can do. The other, which I find preposterous, is so people can discover new ways for the blessing to be used."

Seeing the confusion on the children’s faces, Dorothy sighed. "For the first reason, there are people who would hunt other people. If they knew what the others specialties were, they could think of counters for their magic and creatures. About sixty years ago, it wasn't like that and you had to publish your general blessing information every year. It resulted in the death of hundreds of powerful tamers, even a noble and all of his employed guards were killed in one night by a group of three specially selected assassins, which countered them completely."

Seeing the five girls scared and shivering, Dorothy put on a gentle smile. "It's not like that now, though. The main problem back then was that there was no way of concealing any hidden talent or power, such as a spell that they rarely used. It was all information that was very easy to get a hold of"

"What about figuring out secrets for yourself?" Rein asked.

"That's...," Dorothy started, trying to figure out how to word it. "It's mainly the nobles and leaders of guild's that often say that the next generation shouldn't be given answers to the secrets of the blessing and let them figure out things for themselves as they might find something new. The first problem with that is that a lot of secrets have already been found, so you won't know if you've found something new as no one shares what they've found."

Seeing the girls nodding along, not quite understanding what she meant, Dorothy sighed. "When I was your age and got my blessing, things weren't so simple. For growing in strength fast, a lot of new tamers joined guilds. These guilds offered lots of benefits and rewards for successful tamers. Only, too many young tamers died quickly from negligence and naivety. The fortunate ended up with broken pacts, having to leave the guilds they joined and finding a place to work without an active or free pact."

A tear fell from Dorothy's eye as she remembered those times.

"I was one of the lucky few who made it, though the friends I had had... moved on." Taking a deep breath, Dorothy wiped the tears from her eyes as Shelly nuzzled itself against her leg. Picking Shelly up, Dorothy whispered, 'though I still have you,' rubbing its head as she smiled.

Having cheered up from Shelly's timely intervention, Dorothy continued. "At that time, I thought I'd start helping other young tamers survive by teaching them some of the things I'd learned." Dorothy's expression changed, becoming sour and filled with disgust. "I taught the new tamers a lot of helpful advice about surviving in the wild and it benefitted them a lot. Differentiating the different types of plants, how to track creatures and the marks of powerful creatures. But whenever I mentioned, tried to mention anything about the blessing, I couldn't. I found out the contract I signed prevented me from doing it, it has a binding power that I believe uses a secret of the blessing itself to prevent me from speaking of anything about the blessing."

"Eep!" Shelly grunted, gently biting Dorothy afterwards.

Dorothy, snapping out of her grim mood looked at Shelly apologetically. She then looked at the girls, seeing that they were frozen stiff, not daring to move from the glare filled with hatred and the venom filled voice that Dorothy was using just moments earlier.

"Sorry dearies," she said gently. "The contract is something that I've had to deal with for decades, and I'm still..." Dorothy paused, breathing heavily to calm down. "I'm still furious that I can't share anything. I believe the reason they restrict the secrets of the blessing so much is so that they can keep themselves in power." Dorothy sighed, once again, releasing all the tension she built up while speaking. "I've never tried to look into finding new secrets about the blessing since I retired. It's so I don't accidentally find that secret on contracts, if it exists at all."

"So you can't tell us anything?" Louise started.

"About the blessing?" Wendy added on.

"Sadly, no," Dorothy said. "I still have the written contract, see?"

Dorothy then pulled some documents out of thin air. The girls looked at Dorothy in shock, quickly becoming excited again.

"Is that magic?" Delia asked, looking at Dorothy with here eyes wide, eagerly waiting a response.

"So you can talk," Dorothy chuckled, causing Delia to look down in embarrassment. "And no, Dearie, I haven't used any magic." Seeing the disappointment in their eyes, Dorothy smiled, "I think you'll figure it out what I did yourselves soon enough. Now then, you all are probably bored from listening to this old me droning on. I shall be preparing supper soon, and I'm sure Mister Darniss will be back in an hour. You should have a look around, the house still has a lot of things for you to see," she added, gesturing towards the framed paintings on the walls. "I'm sure you'll be able to find something interesting that will help you in the future." She then left, calling Arsber as she went towards the kitchen.