Aside from his dream on that first night, the rest of Lefty's journey to The Capital would prove rather uneventful. The pace was leisurely, the weather was pleasant, and the roads were safe; just as they had been ever since the reign of Scaevolus. Don't get me wrong, there’s always some thievery afoot, no matter how peaceful the kingdom is, but it was small scale stuff. An individual riding alone might occasionally be robbed by a pair of ruffians, but.organized banditry hadn't existed in Att for a long time, rendering large caravans practically untouchable As such, the trip was quite comfortable. The camelian merchants traveled at a gentle pace, never pushing their squirrels too hard.
Lefty spent much of this time in solitude, sitting on the back of a wagon with his legs dangling over the edge, rocking back and forth with the steady rhythm of the large beasts hauling him. It was there that he attempted, with minimal results, to read the books that Shelia had gifted him back in Opprobrium. It wasn't an easy task. Not only were most of the words unfamiliar to Lefty, but the creaking of the wagon wheels and the incessant chirping of nearby birds were quite distracting. Oftentimes he’d only go a few moments before sighing and setting the book down, his eyes drifting to the paved road that slowly slid by underneath his feet. Still, he never gave up. Inevitably he’d grab one of the books and try again, sometimes spending hours with his nose buried in the thick tomes.
When he wasn't busy attempting to gain literacy, Lefty walked alongside the caravan, occasionally making small talk with the merchants who hosted him, but mostly just marveling at the forest to either side of the road. The wide variety of plant and animal life that occupied it were still relatively new to the desert dweller. Sometimes he'd just stare in quiet awe at his surroundings, watching as the thick wilderness slowly passed him by.
As one day turned into another, the woods to either side of him slowly transformed. Flat ground began to surge into hills and valleys. Tall wild grass began to overtake the seemingly endless trees, which grew smaller and shorter until they disappeared entirely. Eventually the alien looking forest was replaced by equally alien plains, which seemed just as endless as the landscape that preceded it. To Lefty it was a desert of green, a living version of his homeland, except with rolling hills much larger than any dune he had ever seen.
On the sixth day of their journey, after spending that morning attempting to read, Lefty emerged from the back of a wagon and made his way towards the head of the caravan. They were cresting a particularly large ridge, and he was eager to glimpse the vista from its peak. He was expecting more hills, perhaps one of those snowy places he had heard about. He was not prepared to see The Capital looming in the distance. Looking up he glimpsed the city in all its glory, and the sight was almost enough to make him drop his books.
The Food Tabernacle had been an impressive feat of engineering to behold, especially for someone as naive as Lefty, but it had been built into a mountain, allowing nature to take at least some of the credit for its majesty. Nature could make no such claims on The Capital.
A thick wall of pale stone jutted starkly from the ground, rising more than a hundred hands into the air and encircling the entire city. It was unlike any wall Lefty had seen before, or any he would see again. Its surface was clear and smooth, as if the entire thing had all been carved from a single massive rock, and its curved shape was somehow organic and artificial at the same time. It was as if someone had constructed a stone dome over the city, and then sliced off the top half at a slight angle, leaving no straight lines on the entire structure. The wall seemed as if it must have been carved from a mountain, except that couldn't be the case because it was situated in the middle of a wide open plain, with nary a rock or quarry in sight.
From his distant spot on the hill, Lefty could just barely see over the edge of the wall and into the forest of rooftops it enclosed. There were thousands of them, more buildings than he thought existed, and they came in every shape and size imaginable.
Outside the city, plots of farmland stretched for miles in every direction, circling the wall in a series of concentric rings Around the inner rim, thousands of tiny buildings crowded together in little rows. From a distance the individual plots were nearly indistinguishable, each one being little more than a shack sitting on a tiny yard Farther away from the wall were more traditional farms; big houses overlooking large fields of crops or fenced in grassland that fed grazing hamsters. The farms and their houses grew as they retreated from the city, with the furthest plots containing the plantations. Despite being the largest ring there were only a couple dozen of them. Each one controlled more land than the entire inner circle combined, and each plantation was home to a network of buildings and roads that would have resembled a small town, if not for the ornate multi-story mansions at the center of them.
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As the caravan headed down the hill and towards the city, the road widened, and the grassy plains quickly turned into farmland with expansive fields of golden brown wheat and barley to either side. It was there, walking along the wide road between two plantations, that Lefty saw a thulhan for the first time. Its dark green hairless skin was shining with perspiration as it sat atop a high, tower-like chair, watching over a field in which several dozen humans were toiling in the midday sun. It turned to look down at the caravan as it passed by, and for a brief moment, it locked eyes with Lefty. Its expression was unreadable to the young man. Smiles and frowns he understood, but facial tentacles were a mystery.
For a second there was fear, as some primitive part of Lefty’s brain recoiled from the inhuman face staring back at him… but after another second it passed.
As ignorant and isolated as Lefty was, even he had heard of thulhans before. They were everywhere, and nothing to be afraid of. Despite his gut reaction he knew that thulhans were people, no different from Ol Blu or the countless Cameliens he had encountered; and important people at that!
Humans and deepuns may have surpassed them in number, but in terms of wealth and influence they were probably the most powerful race in the whole kingdom… especially back then. To be honest the sight was so mundane, and the reaction so unimportant, that it’s barely worth mentioning. I’m only bringing it up now to establish the thullhan presence in the city, because, in many ways… The Capital belonged to them.
Well, I mean, not technically. In the eyes of the law everyone was on equal footing regardless of race. But The Capital was largely a city of commerce, and when it comes to economic matters, thulhans dominated. Nearly all the plantations surrounding The Capital, as well as many of the powerful businesses within it, were solely in thulhan hands. Their influence was so strong that, despite being a minority of the population, most structures were built to their rather large proportions. Doorways and ceilings loomed over the smaller races, making The Capital feel even more grand to a human like Lefty.
The Capital did have a proper name by the way... in fact it had MANY proper names. Perfectum, New Perfectum, New R'lyeh, Scavol City, Julia, and Unitopia; all of which were either offensive, inappropriate, or just plain stupid depending on who you asked. And considering the massive population in the city, there were a lot of people to ask. It was the most populous place in Att; a vast and sprawling metropolis, where thulhans, humans, deepuns, camelians, and even pentoids all lived and worked together. Given its diversity, it was best practice to simply refer to the capital as “The Capital”, since everyone would know what you meant and it was guaranteed not to offend anyone.
Ol Blu explained all this to Lefty as they approached the city's massive walls. The wise kicken wanted to ensure that his companion understood the importance of names… but the young man was barely listening. The sights and sounds of the city were overwhelming to his rural sensibilities. The road they were on, despite being wide enough for two wagons to easily ride side-by-side, quickly became cramped with hundreds of people. Some were entering the city like them, others were on their way out, but most were simply crossing to one of the many smaller roads that split off from the main. As they neared the gate, each one of these side roads held rows of houses that stretched for as far as the eye could see. Lefty knew from his distant view that these roads curved around The Capital's circular wall, but from up close they looked straight. Such was the size of the city. They hadn't even entered through the gates yet, and already Lefty had seen more people and buildings than he had in the rest of his life put together. And if that weren't enough, there was the wall itself, looming ever higher the closer they got. Lefty walked through its massive gates staring straight up in wonder, craning his neck so far back that he practically fell over backwards.
“How did anyone make something so big?” He wondered out loud as they headed towards the market district. At the time, Ol Blu didn’t know. The kicken simply remained silent and let the awe sink in. Eventually, he and Lefty would find out who built the wall and how they did it. The knowledge would almost drive Lefty to kill a man. But we’ll get to that when we get to it. For the time being there would be no attempted murders. Lefty and Blu were too busy for that. They had just two weeks to find a Patron. And though it wouldn’t be excitingly violent or solve an ancient mystery, it had to be done.