Gar was bored as he leaned against his spear. Some days he wondered if he had made the right choice from being a mercenary to a city guard. He was a 7 foot tall beast-kin with rippling muscles, but he was getting long in the tooth which slowed his reflexes. His old war wounds ached from time to time, especially toward the end of his shift. His fellow gate guard Orex seemed to be in a better mood as he was humming tunelessly. He had to look up at the 8 foot tall demon-kin brute who was beckoning the next wagon forward. Orex’s lips curved up in a smile around his upturned tusks “Keep it moving and have your entrance fee ready.” He bellowed.
Gar noticed a hooded figure walking beside the wagon and gestured to Orex, who raised an eyebrow and asked the driver if they were together. The avian-kin merchant shook his head in a negative and Gar stepped in front of the figure and said “Halt.” putting his hand up. The figure was short and Gar’s curiosity was piqued when he couldn’t place the scent of the hooded figure. “Entrance to Axtol will be two Tals.” Gar said holding up two fingers. The figure stayed silent so Gar held his hand out palm up and gestured for the fee. “Hurry up, we don’t have all day. If you don’t have the coin then go back the way you came.” Gar growled getting impatient.
The mysterious figure seemed to finally understand and dug around in his pockets, placing some strange coins into his hand. Gar wrinkled his brow and studied the foreign currency which seemed to be a few different denominations going by the sizes. He sniffed them but they didn’t smell like any precious metals he had ever run across. “What is this? We don’t accept foreign garbage.” Gar growled, dropping the coins at the strangers feet. Before he could say anything else, the stranger handed him a bag made of some strange material, ignoring the dropped coins. Gar wrinkled his brow again, whatever was in the bag had been dead for a couple days.
He pulled a dead bird with weird plumage out of the bag. “What do you expect me to do with this? Are you trying to bribe me with rancid food?” Gar exclaimed indignantly. The avian merchant had been looking on with a bored expression but suddenly perked up when he saw the bird. “Pardon me, I’ll pay that fellows entrance fee if you give me that bird.” He said excitedly in a sing song voice typical of avian-kin. Gar looked over at Orex who shrugged his broad shoulders. “Fine, but first let’s get a good look at your face. You are being a little too suspicious for my liking.” he said as he quickly reached over and pulled off the hood.
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Gar took a step back in surprise, taking in the peculiar face. “What are you?”. he exclaimed. Orex and the avian seemed surprised as well and had looks of shock on their faces. “Is he a demon-kin?” he asked Orex, not taking his eyes off the stranger. The stranger for his part was holding his hands out non-threateningly and speaking in some unintelligible language. “He doesn’t look like any demon-kin I’ve ever seen and I don’t know what language he’s speaking.” replied Orex, scratching his head. “Well he isn’t a beast-kin I can tell you that much. Look how pale he is and I’ve never smelled anything like him.” Gar said still keeping an eye on the odd individual. “It doesn’t look like he has any feathers and he certainly isn’t a sea-kin or lizard-kin. Maybe he’s some kind of albino mutant? What should we do?” Orex replied frowning.
In the end they decided to take the stranger to the head of the guard and let him deal with it. Gar relieved the stranger of his gear and ushered him to the guard compound which was a group of brick buildings and open training yards. Guard Captain Nass stared down his long reptilian snout at the trouble that had landed in his lap. The diminutive stranger was sitting before him, squirming beneath his glare. He turned to Gar who was standing off to the side at parade rest. “So you say you found him at the South Gate and these are his only belongings?” he hissed while gesturing to the pile of items on his desk. “That is correct sir.” Gar replied glancing at the items. Nass picked up a knife from the pile and was surprised at the superb craftsmanship. Next he grabbed a transparent container that seemed to hold water. He squeezed it experimentally in his clawed hand but couldn’t for the life of him tell what it was made of.
The stranger said something and reached out his hand. Nass eyed him and reluctantly handed him the container. The stranger deftly unscrewed a cap from the top of the container, took a short swig, replaced the cap, and handed it back. Nass carefully copied the stranger and poured some of the liquid on his palm and tested it with his snake like tongue. It was indeed water but surprisingly pure and the container was amazing also. The main problem was the language barrier as neither party understood the other. “Gar, go requisition a translation artifact from the alchemy guild and tell them they may want to send someone to look at the items. Hopefully then we can get to the bottom of this.”