After the encounter with the royal guard, they encountered no more trouble on the road. The deeper they went into Solus, the more settlements could be found, and surprisingly, Grizz knew precisely where to go and where to restock. Orou quickly found out that while there weren’t a whole lot of things to hunt, there would always be some sort of food in towns they visited. Orou got to taste a variety of meats, and he even started trying out the vegetables and fruits the other beastmen were eating. Of course, none of the fruits he tasted could compare to raw meat, but he found out he had a particular taste for sweet things.
Another thing Orou noticed was that Grizz was well-known in these towns, he always had someone who could offer his lodgings for the night and children would run up to Grizz, asking him for exciting new stories, to which he would always oblige. One night, when Grizz pulled out a dim blood-crystal to pay for their meals, Orou realised that he had a newfound dislike for the crystal in Grizz’s hands. It was as if someone had defiled something sacred and the crystal Grizz was holding was an abomination. Orou rationalized that these feelings most likely came from the crystal inside his core, though he was wondering why that would be the case.
The nights went by and on the 5th day, after some delays and numerous curses from Grizz, they arrived at Onilia. Just like Lium, it had no walls to speak of, instead, beastmen which bore a sigil of a lion emblazoned on their metal armor patrolled the surroundings, making sure that no one entered or passed without being searched. Calming himself down, Grizz looked at the beastmen patrolling the city and a moment later, he started walking towards one of the guards in particular.
As Grizz approached the guard closer, he lifted his visor and a face similar to Grizz’s greeted them. Both Grizz and the guard resembled apes, though the guard’s fur was much darker than Grizz’s. The guard was the first to speak of the two, asking Grizz: “You’re back from your adventures so soon? Usually, it takes you several months, but it’s only been a month or so.”
“This has been one of my shortest and also one of the most interesting ones so far, I’m sure you’ll get to know all about it some days later, but do tell, why are the so many royal guards around here.” Grizz smiled and gestured over to Orou before looking around the area, taking note of how many guards there were around here in total.
“It’s the imperial order, apparently there’s something else stirring in the kingdom, enough for the king himself to get involved. We’re to search through every single beastman’s belongings for anything suspicious, though who knows what that might be. It’s very hard to do so especially considering what type of city this is. It’s been turning away traffic in and out of the city, which I’m sure is a pain for both your father and the governor, they must be bleeding money at this point.” Grizz listened to this with rapt interest, his expression slightly dropping when the guard mentioned his father.
“Right, right, as much as I would like to keep talking with you, I’ve got urgent business in the city. One last thing, do you know where brother Kris is?” Grizz’s smile turned into a frown as he looked around.
“Captain’s in the barracks, he’s signing all the paperwork in order to take a temporary leave, it’s a chore to even get a holiday around this time. If I remember correctly, he was also looking for you, something about why you would take off so abruptly,” the two of them shook hands and Grizz started heading into the city, some of the guards blatantly staring at Grizz as he passed by.
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What greeted Orou was the most packed city he had ever seen. It was currently midday but beastmen were merrily going from place to place, minding their own business. It was hard to see ahead of him because of the traffic, but there was one thing that immediately caught Orou’s attention. A massive building that stood in the middle of the city, a place that was illuminated with neon lights even during the day. Grizz pointed to it and said with pride: “Moonhall Casino, the property of our family, as well as over half of the entertainment buildings here.”
Various beastmen with all kinds of instruments were performing on the street, making sure that not a single spot of the city was covered in silence. Grizz introduced various buildings on the side of the street, pleasure houses, gambling houses, inns and pubs, bathhouses and casinos, all types of entertainment could be found here and all of them were owned by Grizz’s family. People made way for Grizz and gave Orou curious looks, whispering something or other to each other.
They made their way to the Moonhall Casino and turned to the left, heading towards the barracks, but as they did, Orou saw Grizz stop and simply look at the casino, a longing look on his face. Not mentioning anything to Orou, he simply continued to walk forwards. Orou paid him no mind as these days, Grizz had quite a few mood swings and who even knew what he was thinking about. All that Orou could think of was entering the various buildings and seeing what’s inside them, he was quite interested in seeing the card games and dice games that Grizz described to him.
Orou would have expected for beastmen to quiet down near the barracks, but this place of the city was just as bustling as the others. Orou saw people exchanging goods in alleyways and even the occasional shout of “thief”, but the few guards that he did see were busy with other problems. Compared to the brightness of the city around them, the barracks were dark and gloomy, clearly, an older building compared to the rest. The insides of the barracks were even gloomier, lacking any sort of decor or bright colors to attract one’s attention.
Making their way through the barracks, Grizz opened a stone door and revealed a beastman very closely resembling Grizz filling out paperwork, a stack of it already having been filled out and loads more to go. Kris confusedly lifted his head to look at who was intruding before Grizz barreled into the room and hugged Kris. Still slightly confused by what was going on, weakly patted Grizz’s back and said: “What’s the matter with you, I have a wife you know.”
Grizz excitedly laughed before answering: “How can your wife be more important than your own brother. I haven’t seen you in months and even when I came back, I was chased out of the city soon after.”
Kriss’ confusion grew as he puzzlingly stared at Grizz. “What do you mean that you were chased out? Father told me that you briefly visited him before you left, saying that you had something important to do.”
“That is true, I came back from the kingdom of Zerus and I did visit father, but before I knew it, I was being escorted by his personal guards, claiming that I am feral and that I need to be contained for my own good. He was trying to get rid of me Kris, for good this time. Most likely he would’ve blamed it on some accident and silenced all witnesses,” Grizz explained with a frown on his face.
Kris put down his quill and heavily sighed. A minute of silence passed as Kris considered what to do before he spoke: “If what you’re saying is true then that doesn’t bode well for either of us. I can get you a place for you to hide, though the news of you coming back must have likely spread. You can lay low for a while and I can find Izz, where ever he is, and we can discuss it together.”
“I knew I could rely on you, Kris. I have a plan in mind, but it will involve all three of us and this big guy,” Grizz motioned over to Orou before continuing: “It won’t be quick and it won’t be painless, but I promise, we will get father out of his seat of power and prosecuted.”