Adrest didn't hear her response, so much as felt. A palm smacked him straight on the back of his head. Thankfully Alissa hadn’t put real strength behind it, but it still stung.
“Don’t you know anything! Don’t ask a beautiful young woman her age! And I’ll have you know I’m only 26 this year.”
Shocked, Adrest blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“So old?” As soon as the words came out Adrest felt a palm hit his head again, this time harder than the last. He clutched the back of his head, and looked up to see Alissa half glaring at him with an icy cold smile.
“You idiot! Dragons live for well over a thousand years with extremely powerful bodies, we mature slower than the other races! I’m still really young for a dragon!”
Understanding dawned on Adrest, and he hastily apologized and promised to play games as long as she wanted tonight, anything to get that scary not-smile off her face.
Small interactions like these marked the passage of days for the odd pair, happy to live completely isolated from the rest of the world. Adrest was happy to learn as much as he could from Alissa, and she was happy to teach someone for the first time. Not to mention the comforts and games that Adrest had were unique in this empty forest.
Adrest noticed that it was getting warmer day by day. After asking Alissa, he learned that they were reaching the peak of summer, it was apparently similar to his previous world in that there were twelve months in a year, but each had 30 days. We were currently in the seventh month of the year, but Alissa did not know the exact day.
Worried about the coming months, Adrest also asked how cold it would get here, and was relieved to hear that they were towards the southern side of the continent, and it didn’t get cold enough to affect a dragon and demon who had naturally tough bodies.
It was also around that time that Adrest sighed yet again over the lack of entertainment and luxuries available in the lodestone. It seemed most items were the essentials for survival, fighting, shelter, and not much else.
Adrest was lost in his thoughts wishing he could get spices or more interesting ingredients to change up their meals more. He was also growing a little curious about what the people of this world were like. While Alissa had repeated what she’d been taught about the different races in general, she also admitted she didn’t really get to meet many others growing up.
After Adrest explained his current thoughts to her, Alissa nodded in understanding
“I’m also curious now. I wonder what kind of games we could find in a town?”
Perking up she nearly yelled, “I remember! I saw it on a map before I left, there’s a small outpost town belonging to Radagon near the base of the mountains a little over a thousand miles away. I think.”
“You think?”
“I was a long time ago, and I know it’s near the mountain, I just can’t remember exactly where, I’ll find it in no time!” Alissa jumped to her feet in defense and sprouted her gem-like wings, seemingly intent on leaving that instant.
“Hold on! it’ll be dark in a few hours, if you really want to go, we can tomorrow, okay?”
Alissa’s wings drooped, then disappeared as she nodded. Adrest packed the two of them simple rucksacks he had found in the Lodestone, they contained some Bloodberries, a sac of water, and some dried meat he had finally figured out how to prepare without burning over the fire.
The two woke early the next day, which was rare for Alissa who always slept in as late as possible. They made sure both the fires were completely smothered, the cabin securely shut, and were soon flying through the sky towards imposing mountains that were barely visible in the distance.
The two flew for hours and hours, watching the mountains slowly become bigger on the horizon, until eventually the pair came to about a hundred miles away from the mountain’s base.
Alissa came to a sudden stop, with Adrest flying more than a hundred feet ahead before quickly doing the same and going back to the focused girl floating in the sky.
Alissa looked from left to right, inspecting the range of forest ahead of the odd pair, before focusing in on a direction to the right of them beyond what Adrest could see.
“It’s there!”
The dragon darted off without the slightest care for the demon she was supposed to be guiding, making Adrest rush off at top speed to keep her in sight.
The chase only lasted another half hour or so before she abruptly stopped and waited for Adrest to catch up.
As he approached, Alissa pointed off into the distance, following that direction Adrest could see a town in the far distance, it didn’t seem large by any means, but there was a fair area of forest cleared out, with many wooden buildings filling the space. As Adrest looked further, he also saw a large street in the center with brightly colored vendor carts lining the sides, though as small as ants in the distance, Adrest could also see many people wandering about, running from place to place. In Adrest’s opinion, it looked like a stereotypical fantasy town, and he felt his blood pumping in excitement.
Stolen story; please report.
Looking back to his guide, Adrest saw the Alissa had a wide grin and flushed cheeks while inspecting the town. Thinking back to what she said about not meeting many people growing up Adrest asked, “Is this your first time visiting a town too?”
“Mhh-hmm! In the first place, dragons are very independent so it’s rare for very many to be in the same place, and father never let me leave the country be myself, so I’ve only seen some cities and town in passing while traveling with him.”
Feeling sorry for the sheltered girl, who seemed more excited than Adrest, he smiled, “Then let’s have fun!”
They dropped to the ground below and made their way to the village on foot, deciding on it beforehand to avoid scaring the townspeople and alerting the guards.
He heard an excited “Yep!” and wind rushing behind him as he made his way to the nearby town, only needing to walk for an hour or so before seeing a gate with a guard on lookout above, scanning the surroundings and quickly seeing the odd-looking pair of horned youths walking out of the trees.
“You two there! I don’t remember your faces before. Why are you entering from that direction?” The man in armor atop the gate yelled, making the pair pause for a moment to look at each other with the girl shrugging and the boy sighing.
The pair walked closer with the boy yelling, “We crossed the mountains to look for rare herbs and ingredients, but we got a little lost and just found our way out haha…”
Knowing that a village at the border of a country attracted a lot of strange groups, the guards didn’t think too much about it and replied when they got close to the closed gate.
“Right, well as long as you have the money for a temporary ID you can enter with no problem.”
The boy pulled out a leather bag full of Trevil, “No problem there.”
With that, the gate opened and they were asked some basic questions by a government employee in a booth on the other side. Questions such as name, age, and identifying features before getting a small card with a copy of that information.
Alissa was walking along Adrest with a happy smile while looking at her ID. She also took time to take in her surroundings after entering the town proper. All around them were stone and wood buildings on either side, with cobbled streets connecting them. There were signs for all the different establishments hanging off buildings. From bars and inns to restaurants and clothing stores. The two took their time taking in all the new sights and sounds.
They found an inn for the night called the Home and Hearth. It was in the middle of town and had large doors sitting wide open letting them see the inside. There were large kegs stacked behind the bar, where a pretty redheaded girl was tending to the patrons sitting sporadically through the room.
Adrest and Alissa approached the bar and got the attention of the girl. As they talked, they learned the bartender’s name was Rose. She was a nice girl who was taking over the business for her mother now that she was seventeen. She had pale skin and a few freckles on her nose. Her eyes were a deep emerald green. Rose was wearing a bright smile as she chatted with Adrest and Alissa, who were eating lunch after they dropped off their things in their room upstairs.
Adrest had wanted to get two rooms, but Alissa cut in and asked for a single room with two beds. Rose smiled at the pair who she now assumed were dating and spent most of her time with them.
As the pair returned to their seats, Rose paid special attention to them as she hadn’t seen many other races before and was very curious.The assumed couple in turn asked questions about where they should visit and what they should do while visiting. Armed with their new information, Adrest and Alissa left the Inn for the day and decided to explore the market square first.
Wandering the long rows of vendors, Adrest bought a variety of spices and cooking equipment that he saw, while Alissa grabbed any interesting trinket, puzzle, or game she could find, she was still buzzing with happiness about her haul.
“Hey, hey Adrest promise me you’ll teach me to play with these cards tonight okay! And you have to show me this dice game too, alright?”
Alissa began pestering him as soon she had new games in a leather backpack Adrest had bought for each of them. They were taking a break from shopping and eating dinner at an outdoor table near some food vendors enjoying the city dyed in sunset rays.
Adrest was eating a meat skewer with a type of chicken, covered in a sweet tangy sauce while slowly taking in his surroundings with his enhanced eyesight, his attention was grabbed by a commotion in the distance. A young man, maybe twenty years of age was shouting at a rabbit eared girl in her early teenage years who was crying on the ground. The boy seemed to be influential in some way judging by the quality of his clothes, and Adrest had a good grasp of the situation as he saw a metal collar around the poor girl’s neck.
He took in the situation and felt his heartbeat quicken in anger. His mana stirred in response to the rising emotions. Alissa, sitting next to him noticed his flux in emotion and looked at the direction his eyes were pointing at before letting out a sad sigh.
“That poor girl. I’ve heard slaves aren’t uncommon in most places, whether they’re sold to pay off debts or criminals serving their sentence. Though some countries and cities are better than others at ensuring a certain degree of slave’s rights, they almost never have an easy life.”
Alissa continued,
“I can't imagine what that child's had to endure to end up a slave so young. And she’s from the Spirit Rabbit race, they’re supposed to be quite lucky so that makes it even more strange.”
Adrest pulled his gaze off the girl and wealthy man, looking at Alissa with curiosity.
Alissa turned away from the scene as well explaining, “Remember when I said that Gods give gifts to their followers? Well, the Spirit Rabbits are favored by the Goddess of life, Nina. All living things will have positive feelings towards them, and they're usually blessed with quiet lives.”
Understanding, Adrest nodded and looked back at the pair who were now hidden behind a carriage with a crest on the side. It was a shield with what looked like a bear in the center.
Adrest made sure to remember the insignia to ask about it later, and tried to distract himself with the food in front of him and switched the topic. He asked Alissa who was back to eating her last skewer.
“What do you think of your first real town so far?”
“It’s very loud, but also a lot of fun!” Alissa answered excitedly, with her lustrous hair bouncing as she spoke.
“Haha, I can’t really argue with that. I guess I got used to the peace and quiet too. But this will be a lot of fun every now and then.” As he replied Alissa nodded agreeing that the forest really was the best.