Miko:

It was another four to five hours in the cart before we reached Quavoris, but the time flew by as I overindulged myself in the books I brought. I’ll run out of new reading material at this rate. When we get into the city, I should find more books or expedition journals for future reading. I had read a lot, but only a lot of just a few areas. There was surely more to the world than heat, hammers, metal, new animal discoveries, and species census’. Grandma and Grandpa were always very careful about what I was allowed to read. Still, even the books Grandpa didn’t outright display, the ones hidden in his study, that is, did not strike me as adult or mysterious. The stories sometimes had words blotted out or pages ripped out. It never struck me as nefarious, though; the spines of the books were always well used, often held together by the pages’ will to keep being read.

Maleki and I didn’t have a plan once we got inside the city. Our only thought was to wander around until something became familiar. Since we were participating in a hidden journey of sorts, we figured even knowledge of the city itself wouldn’t inherently give us a clue as to where to start. This path would have to be hidden in plain sight so even the city’s people couldn’t discover it.

It seems that our driver, Kallen, will be giving us a more enhanced tour, thanks to my brother’s new ability to make friends. I certainly don’t expect a tour from anyone that will speed up our journey, but I can’t see the harm in being shown around a place we’ve never been to, even if they’re annoying.

“What’s Quavoris like? I’ve heard from Miko what the books say, but what does it actually feel like? What are the people like?” Maleki said aloud.

The driver shifted his weight around and then popped his head to the side to catch us in his peripheral vision but kept his eyes on the road. “Normal, for the most part. They have stayed neutral due to their terrain. Thick forests and mountains on the south side tend to isolate folk in that way. Most people come here to arrange trade routes and establish connections with local shops and inns. The shops need the basic goods from the other Kingdoms, and the tradesmen want to buy exotic materials from their forests.”

I jumped into the conversation out of curiosity. “Isn’t the weather supposed to be harsh here? I was under the impression this was a coastal kingdom.”

He responded quickly. “Well, you can see the coast from the city, but its high elevation keeps it decently safe from harsh weather. It’s in a sweet spot of not being too high to deal with the mountains but just high enough to avoid a lot of the flooding. Storms are all the same, though. At least we’ll be high enough to avoid the waterspouts….”

“Water Spouts? What kind of beast is that?” Maleki questioned.

“Hah, no beast. A water devil maybe….”

He didn’t intend to answer the question, so I added in. “It’s like a tornado but with water. Apparently, they happen closer to large bodies of water, and the high speeds can be dangerous.”

“Be thankful you’ve never seen one in person.” Kallen prodded.

“…and you have?” Maleki asked.

“From a distance. Let us hope it remains that way.” I could see a smirk form on a small part of his face. “I’ve had too many close calls with tornadoes to be swallowed up by the sea.”

We arrived at the edge of the city with the sun above us. The city’s walls looked old, built with sandy limestone, but faded from the sun’s damaging rays. An enormous mountain lay to the south of the town, offering a natural form of defense from the winds and opposing forces. Even if I turned my head one hundred and eighty degrees, the mountain’s hills and crests were still visible.

As we neared the entrance to the Kingdom, the trees had become less dense and the road more structured. This made the cart less shaky and allowed me to look around better without wanting to puke. We had passed one carriage on the way in, but it seemed like the city only had one internal opening that dispersed into three external routes that each led to another kingdom, which meant they had to maintain more roads but could isolate traffic and prevent blockades. From the maps I have seen, there is the route for the kingdom we are from, which lies in the center. Another route leads to the kingdom below ours. The last route goes down the mountain, closer to the coast, and leads to the kingdom in the northeast.

“How many of the kingdoms have you been to?” I asked the driver.

He was intently looking at the road so he could steer the horses properly, as we were now seeing more people outside the city gates. “I’ve been to six of the seven.”

“Seven?” I asked.

“Indeed,” He answered quickly. “Most books are too old to cover it, and the seventh kingdom is fairly quiet about its affairs. From what I’ve heard, their imports are almost nonexistent and are pretty independent since they’re just a big island in the northeast.”

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I had thought coastal life was impossible due to the intense weather. “How do you get there? Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Sure, everywhere is dangerous, though.” He responded.

I lost my curious smile. “You know what I meant.”

He laughed and then continued on. ”My father drove some bureaucrat once that said the place is only safely accessible for a short time every year, but I’m not sure if that’s true.”

A guard shouted from the right as we cleared a smaller preliminary gate, “All travelers proceed to the main gate for entry.”

Kallen swiveled his head around before communicating the plan to us. “I’m gonna find a spot for the carriage and a tie down for the horses, so grab your packs and wait for me before the entrance to the gate.”

We did as he asked and pulled our packs behind us. Maleki got out first and opened the back to pull out the cart as I slowly pulled myself down the steps to the last available one. I then grabbed the edges of the cart and lifted myself over with my hands, and then Maleki moved my bag where it fits better against my back so that I could sit more upright. I was at the back of the cart, so I could see Maleki as he pulled the cart to the gate. Once we were situated, Kallen yanked the ropes on the horses and went off to find a spot, and we were left in the middle of a circular opening plated in an off-white limestone. Both sides of the walls next to the city’s gates had places to store horses, as well as a guard’s barracks and a few carriages set up to give rides to the other kingdoms.

The city’s gate was a large portcullis that was pulled up, with six guards doing preliminary checks. There were two lines, one for carts and carriages for imports and one for travelers just entering the city. A stone wall separated people who were exiting and entering the city.

“Maleki, this place is massive! The wall alone is five times the size of our house! And that gate is almost twenty people wide.”

“How many people do you think it took to build this? How many years? It took Grandfather and me a couple of months just to make that new fence for the livestock, but this wall looks like it wraps all around the city!” Maleki’s face was full of awe and excitement like my own.

“I figured the big kingdoms would be incredible, but I didn’t expect one of the smallest ones to be this large.”

“I always thought Father was lying, and they were made to be more grand for his stories.”

After waiting a few minutes and marveling at the architecture, Kallen arrived with a light pack slung across one of his shoulders and signaled us to follow behind him. “If you’re this amazed by a minor kingdom, you should see Korvast next. It’s three times as wide and three times as tall.”

He guided us to the front gate, and we entered a line of fifteen to twenty people. When we reached the front of the line, our driver turned guide, stepped forward, and the guards did a visual check. A guard on the left wielding a short sword and a bright orange uniform spoke loudly, “Family Name. Occupation. Purpose.”

Kallen responded quickly and with little emotion as if this was usual for him. “Kallen de Phortix, carriage driver on visitation.” They waved him through after the opposing guard wrote some short form details on a parchment.

Maleki spun the cart around and pulled the handle and its length closer to the ground so that he could push the cart up to them, keeping the single file line intact.

“Family Name. Occupation. Purpose.” The guard stated clearly again.

“Miko Mortica. Child? Visitation.” I answered promptly.

The guard lowered his head, addressing me with his eyes for the first time, almost as if he had just realized I was bound to this little cart. “Next,” he announced to Maleki.

My brother looked at me with an eyebrow raised, speaking through his teeth. “Your occupation is ‘child’?”

I squinted my eyes a little, “…yes?….”

Maleki looked to the guard and stated the requested information. “Maleki Mortica. Traveler on visitation.”

They waved us both through, and Maleki pushed the cart forward, swung it back around into a pulling formation, and dragged us over to where Kallen was standing.

I muffled under my breath with my arms crossed, “Traveler isn’t much better.”

Kallen must have been within earshot because he and Maleki both looked at me with concern.

Our self-appointed guide looked over me to my brother and laughed in a low-pitched, mimicked voice, “Occupation.”

Maleki responded with a higher pitch and tone, “Child,” and they both laughed while I crossed my arms tighter in disapproval.

Kallen guided us further into the town and suggested finding an inn for the night so we could get an early start in the morning before the city livened up with the night folk. We took his advice and found an inn closer to the city’s center that would allow us to be closer to everything in general.

The tavern was lit with soft lantern light but otherwise empty except for a few patrons keeping to themselves. Surprisingly, no one turned around to investigate the child dragging another child in a wooden cart inside the tavern. We gave Kallen the necessary coin, and he paid for the room.

Other than some random yells from people walking the streets, the tavern was reasonably quiet. The muffled conversations through the door weren’t too distracting, but the light was too low from the lanterns in the room to try and read from any of my books. I crawled to my bed, feeling in awe of how far we had traveled and ready for a normal night of sleep, whether it be in a bed of my own or not.

Kallen and Maleki found their spots and situated their bags. I fell asleep as they talked to each other from their beds, with their arms crossed behind their head, serving as a form of pillow.a