Chapter 38: What are these things?

The room fell silent once again after the initial bang, and Kalon felt many eyes watching him as he stood looking down at the floor. The cold chill he felt at the base of his spine now began to climb to his shoulders and then descend again with each breath he took.

"Eight loaves of bread and eighteen potatoes, please," Roah said while still holding Kalon's hand to comfort him. She knew how he would feel in a situation like that.

Roah looked around the room seeing the faces that she knew all too well. She felt disgusted as she saw the pale white and flakey skin on each of the people in the room. Upon one of the tables, there was a pile of meat that was uncooked and had a party of people standing around with their hands on the still bloody meat.

"You two are a long way from home, aren't ya?" The sound of an old rustic voice called out as Kalon still kept his eyes to the ground. He didn't dare to look up out of fear of what he might see. So instead, he kept looking at the wooden floorboards beneath him.

"Watch your mouth, old man. I'm not in the mood to play games. You know what I am, and I know what you are, so just get me the things that I asked for, and we will go on our way." Roah looked up at the old man with long grey hair and pale white skin that looked like it would fall off at any moment.

"Now, that's not a nice way to talk. I see you brought a young one with you. I bet he would taste just exquisite. How much?" The old man glared at Kalon with a grin when suddenly a flash of blue light emerged from Roah's hand, and her sword found its way to his neck.

"I won't warn you again. Hurry up and get what I asked for." Roah demanded. The atmosphere in the room shifted from one with murderous intent to one of fear as everyone recoiled into the farthest corners of the room.

"You're a-" The old man was about to say, but before he could finish, Roah interrupted him with an enraged look on her face.

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"Now!" She ordered while twisting the blade, so the cutting edge faced the man's throat and slightly grazed the skin. He stopped in his tracks before taking a slow step back from the counter and then running through a doorway behind him.

Roah looked down at Kalon to see if he was looking up or not, but luckily enough, his gaze was still on the floor.

"It's okay. Just don't look up, okay?" Roah sighed and put her hand on the top of his head as she waited for the old man to come back. She took another look around the room to make sure that nothing else would be a cause for alarm but luckily, no one had decided to move from their positions, and they were still in the corners of the room in fear of the red blade she was holding.

"Can you tell me what's going on when we get back to the carriage?" Kalon asked. He trusted Roah despite not knowing her for long, but the curiosity was killing him. He was tempted to take a peek and look around the room, but just as quickly as the temptation hit him, it faded, knowing that there were people in the room who could cause him to feel like prey.

He had learnt many times before that it's better to keep your head down and not draw attention to yourself when you are weak, so that's what he planned to do. There was nothing that he could do but keep quiet and not look around.

"Of course I will. But it's probably for the best if you don't talk too." Roah said, but as soon as she did, the old man came back holding two bags in his hands.

"I got them. Now have you got the money to pay for them?" The old man said with a laugh before placing both of the bags down upon the counter.

"Of course I do. Here catch." Roah said before pulling out a golden coin and flipping it up into the air. The old man's hand suddenly shot forward at a mind-boggling speed to grab the coin from the air and then held it up to his eye.

"Royal gold? It's a pleasure doing business with you, miss. But I think it's time for you to leave before anyone decides they feel a little bit peckish after this whole ordeal. I'm just a barkeeper, after all. I can't control what my customers are feeling." The old man said with a sly grin as hissing sounds came from all around and footsteps hammered against the floor as what seemed like a dozen people gathered around both Roah and Haru.

"Well, it Looks like they were hungry after all. Maybe it was the boy that did it for them." The old man began to laugh as the footsteps started to come even closer. Roah had yet to turn her head to look at the situation, but she knew that Kalon wouldn't be able to hold his curiosity in anymore.

"Miss Roah, what's going on. I sense that people are looking at me with hostility. Am I able to look now?" Kalon asked while squeezing her hand a little tighter than he did before.

"No, don't you dare look up," Roah said before a blast of hot air made its way into the room, which was followed by the sounds of many heavy things crashing against the wooden floor.

"I'm not in the mood to deal with this. That is your only warning. If you stand back up, I will kill you all." Roah shouted as she began to pull at Kalon's hand. Kalon heard the creaky old door open up once again before stepping out into the cold air. He took that as his signal to look up again, but as he did, he was taken aback as he saw many people with pale white skin and wearing no clothes at all surrounding both him and Roah.

"Roah, what are these things?" Kalon whispered in fear as they gave him a feeling of dread, unlike anything he had felt before.