Chapter 4: First Contact

Joe opens his eyes to see a grey haired man with mutton chops in a long coat suit. In the man's hand is a cane that is being repeatedly jabbed into Joe’s side. Joe starts to say something when a haughty femanine voice says “Charles, you should be careful with that one, his status eludes even my abilities.” At which hearing this the man jumps back nimbly. The voice also brings Joe’s attention to carriage in front of him.

In front of Joe is a decorative carriage with intricate carvings trimmed with gold. The carriage is led by two large brown horse-like creatures with blue designs in its fur, swirling in areas that emphasize its massive muscles. It’s head was where the most differences from what he knew to be a horse were. Two bone horns protruded from the top of its head, pointing towards it’s hind and slightly upward. Then, four short bone horns lined each side of it’s maw of sharp teeth. Joe quickly took this in as he scanned the scene, his eyes finally lingering on the person that had just spoken. Stepping from the carriage is a gorgeous lady decked in ornate clothes with long brown hair cascading down her curves. The clothes are reinforced in vital locations using intricate designs and decoration to hide armored plates. The armor completely slips by Joe, as he is distracted by other things the outfit accentuates.

Joe shakes himself from his reverie and clears his throat. “Not the nicest wake up call I have ever gotten, but not the worst either.” Joe says remembering the time one of his nephews came to wake him by performing an elbow drop to his crotch. Shaking off that nightmare, a thought comes to him and he starts to ask, “Wait, you speak English?”. He trails off in his question, mumbling the last word as he caught himself saying what he thought would be a mistake. He was not sure if his circumstance is unique or common place, and does not want to cause trouble with the first people he has met here.

“Speak what boy?” Charles starts to ask but is cut off as the lady from the carriage lifts her hand in a motion to stop him while putting on a stern face.

“Charles, this man, I will speak with him.” says the porcelain skinned lady staring at Joe with her green eyes. She makes eye contact with Joe and says, “Boy, how do you avoid my judgement?” The tone she gave was not one of curiosity, but a demand to answer her.

Seeing the wealth, the two’s posture, and hearing their haughty way of speaking, Joe tries to play it carefully here. Not to mention the stare the lady is giving him almost made him fall to his knees to beg for his life. He had thought of several ways to approach this situation when he met people, but he almost screwed it up with the first thing he said. Speaking carefully Joe replies “Excuse me dear lady, but I have been wandering for some time now after losing my memories of this world. So I have troubles answering your questions. If you could point me in the direction of a city or town it would be much appreciated.” Joe smiles, proud of his deliverance of the phrase he had been practicing in his head for the past couple of days.

A purple glow fades from the lady’s eyes and she begins, “Hmm… Wandering, memory loss, boring but it seems to be true. But none of that explains your lack of a status when I probe. Do you possess some sort of unique skill, or have some form of artifact tucked in those rags, boy.” She continues to inquire, the irritation apparent in her voice.

Lowering his head Joe replies “Sorry, ma’am.” Joe slips a bit as he noticed he really didn’t know how to address her. He was also shaking. He thought it uncanny he had not already broken completely down from the hell in which he started here. And now this woman has got him shaking and scared more than the sight of the burnt remains. Trying to pull himself together he continues. “Um, I really do not know. I have yet to see my own status and remember too little. I believe if I do see it, it will be the status of Joe. May I ask to whom I am speaking?”

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At the question, Charles raises his cane and through gritted teeth says “Insolent fool!” Joe raises his arms in defense but no strike came as the lady rose her palm toward Charles once again and he immediately backed down, only grumbling.

The lady chuckles for a moment after and then looks into Joe’s eyes once again. “Oh, Joe, you are an interesting one. If you are as you appear I would guess you are cursed.” Her eyes begin to glow again. “I am not much for guessing, but it is the only thing that can prevent a person from viewing their own status. Well, at least from the things that walk Tor. I should be able to, at the least, detect a curse though and I do not see one on you. So either you are lying and I can not tell, meaning I have met some unknown high entity, or you managed to find a curse that can elude my detection, meaning you must have pissed off some high entity.”

The moment, the lady, locked eyes with Joe it was as if he was petrified. Her words entered his ears clearer than any spoken words before. He felt a tingling sensation slowly move throughout his body as if some force was taking a ride through his veins. Staring back into her eyes they seemed like an expansive galaxy and just as beautiful with shades of purple and blue blinking in and out.

“However you have found your predicament, you may address me as Lady Gale.” She says as she begins to extend her hand palm down, but then breaking eye contact and retrieving her hand. “It should be safe to clean yourself in this stream. If you keep walking, you will most likely die before making it to the nearest town.” Turning to Charles she says, “Prepare him some clothes after cleaning up, he can come with us.”

Charles bows and says “Yes m’lady”, but not without making momentary eye contact with Joe and sneering. Joe was uncertain what he did to get on the bad side of this butler-like character, but he could tell that the man did not like him.

Joe walks down to the stream to bathe as he had planned to do previously. Getting to a spot where the bridge’s height blocks him from view of the carriage, he strips and begins to wash off. As he pulls his head up, after washing his face, a chill runs down his back and he jumps suddenly. He starts scanning for his clothes and dagger, but calms, a little, when he notices it was just Charles standing by the edge of the stream with a set of clothes. “Crap! Don’t sneak up on a man when he is bathing.” Joe says, his heart racing.

“I have not seen a ‘man’ yet and I was not sneaking you just suck at your awareness.” Charles says in his most pompous manner. “You can have these, I do not wish for their return.” he tosses the clothes onto a dry rock near the edge of the stream and sets a pair of sandals on top of them. He starts to turn and leave, but then turns back to face Joe. “The Lady finds your situation unique. Don’t take this as kindness or care, but as a payment for providing something that interests the madam.” With those final words he turns and walks back up to the bridge.

Joe keeps his mouth shut and just watches as Charles walks away. Only after the older man was out of sight does Joe flip him off and mumbles “Plenty man here damn it.” Then, thinking, he quickly looks down near his waist, nods and says “Yeah, not bad at all. Good job World.”

Joes examines the clothes to see they were all uncommon in rarity and of fine quality. The sandals were common and good, respectively. He no longer needed the rope belt as the clothes came with their own cinch. He gets dressed, tucks the dagger at his waist along with his rope and water skin. He tries to examine himself in the stream, but does not get much of a reflection out of it. With a sigh, he begins to head back up to the bridge. Then, a new notification appears in his vision.

[Ascension Status Successfully Calculated]

“Oh crap.”