The town was a decent sized port with a stone wall surrounding it, cutting off entry from the outside besides from boats and a singular main gate in front of the town connecting it to the two main roads that split off from the town. One road lead into the forest, most likely leading to Eldaha, and the other followed the coast eastward.

From Mia’s position, having sneaked up closer to the gate she could see multiple different lines of people queuing up to enter the city, one line was just for people and stretched almost all the way to the main road, the other was for carriages that stretched into the main road, and the third that was much shorter than the other two was a mix.

“Hmn…” Looking at the people in line themselves, she saw something that confused her.

Multiple different races appeared to be lined up, beastman, human, beastkin, and others she could not recognize. What was really confusing were the familiar white robes among them going up and down the lines.

“Slaves…” She’d have to find another way in. not wanting to cause a scene at the gate, she figured if she did that she’d have a harder time getting to Lexon, unless she wanted to swim, which…she couldn’t swim so that was out.

She did her best, in broad daylight, to sneak up to the wall away from the main gate, managing to reach it.

Yup, it was a stone wall. A solid, stone wall.

Now the question was what to do next… ‘going through it…’ would make too much noise, even at night. ‘under…’ she kicked the base of it, kicking up dirt with her shoes just enough to see that the stone extended into the ground. Swimming around the wall near the beach was also out of the question for obvious reasons.

Which left, ‘climbing…’ she looked up to see if it was even feasible, she could make footholds with ice so maybe “uh…” she looked up towards the top, meeting the gaze of a guard in a shiny suit of armor.

“Yo~” The guard waved “You can’t cut the line, I know it’s boring but you have to wait like everyone else.”

The man’s voice rung clear in Mia’s ear despite the great distance “Eh?”

“The line?” the guard pointed towards the gate “That line, over there. Civilian on the right if you don’t mind.”

Mia glanced over to the line, tugging the top of her hood she wondered if it was even possible to get in that way… she’d have to load and try again…

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

She looked back up at him, seeing him lean over the edge of the wall.

“Look I know it sucks bu- oh wait, shit, hey what race are you?” The man asked.

She jolted, stepping back a few steps ‘Yeah, time to load’ but before she had the chance to load she heard the man’s voice one more time.

“Wait wait wait! Don’t run, look!” the man waved frantically, removing his helmet, revealing the man to have long, webbed ears and blue scales running along the bottom of his chin and down his neck “See? Not human, your turn.” He spread his arms out, attempting to look innocent.

“…ok” Mia glanced towards the line one more time, staring at the faint church members before deciding to remove her hood.

“See? Wasn’t so hard!” the man laughed “Shit… thought she was a beastkin…” he whispered under his breath, the voice still managing to reach Mia “how old are you kid?”

“Eight.” Mia answered, wondering how he managed to guess tha- ‘oh right, tail’

The man slapped his palm on his forehead “You gotta be- where are your parents!?” the man then left the edge, paced a bit before gripping his hair and pulling “Aaaagh, screw it.”

Mia then watched, wide eyed, as the man in a full suit of metal armor leaped off the 50 meter tall wall and come crashing down next to her, she jumped away, but mid jump was blown further away as a strong gust of wind erupted from the man, slowing his decent. Mia landed a bit away, stunned.

“Ok kid, kid? Oh!” the man rushed over to her, putting his helmet back on “Alright kid, names Sewell, yours?”

‘Did he not notice he blew me away…’ she stared at him in stark disbelief, but went slack, giving up “Mia.”

“And your parents?”

“Unknown.” She answered, she didn’t even know if her mother was alive for sure in this timeline. A thought she really didn’t want to think about especially after a few days ago.

“Thought so.” Sewell looked towards the gate, then to her, then back to the gate, bouncing in place nervously “shit shit shit…” he whispered, his gaze noticeably lingering at Mia’s bare neck when ever he looked at her.

An act that caused Mia to shrink back.

“Ah no, wait, were you? Fuck.” He swung around to face the wall “Forget it! Already this far.” He then spun around and knelt down to be eye level with Mia “Ok kid listen, do you have any money? Gold? Silver? Bronze?”

Mia shook her head at each of them, she had almost forgotten money was even a thing.

“Course not.” The man reached into a pouch attached to his belt, pulling out something and presenting it to Mia “Here, take these and present them at the gate.”

She took them, inspecting the three silver coins she had just been given, she looked back up at him “Church?”

The man flinched “No, just, lay low. Don’t go with them if they pull you, make noise, yell, scream. We don’t belong to their nation, officially. “he clicked his tongue “they are getting cocky for some reason, they have no real authority but…” he stood up, back peddling towards the stone wall “I’ll try and go ahead and pull some strings, just lay low Mia, don’t be afraid. Stay in line and be a good girl, alright?”

Mia then watched as gust of wind lift him up to the top of the wall, where he then ran off towards the gate. She looked down at the coins in her hand “Hmn…guess this is the only way…” she pulled her hood down and headed over to the gate.