<~> Chapter 98We were running a bit te whewo of us rejoined our party, leading us to rush through our final preparations before we got ba the road. I was holy rather gd that we didn't o worry about food at all orip. Getting nice freshly prepared sads each m was a good way to get started. Since our run in with the stream stalker we had some... iio go with. Unfortuhe only way to get some of it would be to send the twins to get our food for us sihe people serving the food didn't even ask me if I wanted meat. Uandable sidering I looked like an herbivorous beast folk. I don't like sending the twins on 'chores' even if they didn't mind, so I just accepted the vegetarian sad.

  Nikka nuzzled my hand when I got close to her the st few days. I arently quickly growing on her and some of the other riders were even plimenting me on how well I was handling her. I found out that assignio the same uuna regurly was iional, uunas preferred to be familiar with the people riding them. Even though they tended not to pin if they got a new rider, they would get ky if you switched their riders out too frequently apparently.

  I held out a bowl of stream stalker meat to the uuna who really gobbled it up after a few sniffs. From what I've been told it's important to feed the uunas some of the spoils from a fight otherwise they refuse dires ter oe their feline looking heads they are paimals and start to get rebellious if they think their pack leaders aren't sharing the spoils of their fights with them. It's not unon to hear about a greedy mert who was too stingy with the spoils, only to have their goods left behind when the mounts decided they would rather run from a fight instead of listen to ands. Uunas are powerful and intelligent mounts that cooperate really well with humanoid riders when handled properly but o be handled differently than animals like horses, they be a little too smart for their own good.

  The day went by pretty ufully, dragging on like many of the others. The terrain had been mostly the same the entire way, just rge open green pins with basically nothing in them. It seemed that farm nd was not likely to be in short supply in this kingdom based on how much open farmable nd seemed to be around. It wasn't until te afternoon, maybe an hour before the sun started to set that the sights started to ge. Rather thay fields with nothing in them we started to see farmnd and small vilges of people along the roads, the first hints of civilization.

  While the farmers were a bit more iing to look at none of them made a point to talk to any of us and notably stayed away from our passing group. The only exception were handfuls of kids who waved or were too ied in pying that they didn't even stop to watch us pass. The sight actually reminded me of how odd the town I had been staying in was, a town with almost no children and basically no farms. Certainly retive to the stretches of farm nd we passed on the road.

  For the first time since we started our journey we stopped in a town with tall stone walls and their own town guards rather than take up one of the empty forts along the way. It was quite a bit smaller than Traehall but the towns in this world were still much rger than what I would sider a town in the world I came from. This town had been here lohan those magically built forts and it showed. I wouldn't say the town was any more affluent looking than Traehall though. The walls were rougher, more of the buildings were built with wood and everything looked much less utilitarian than Traehall did. It was subtle, I probably wouldn't have noticed any of the differences if I hadn't been so fasated with the way Traehall had looked pared to the cities that vaguely existed in my memories.

  A thought suddenly struck me that expined a lot of my i in these buildings. I didn't reize the architectural style. Like a fsh I could run down more than a dozen different styles I suddenly remembered and not a one looked all that simir from the buildings I was looking at. Sure they had simir elements here and there but none of the buildings looked like any one identifiable style. It struck me as odd that I seemed to know so much about architecture, I had thought I was some kind of artist but perhaps I had actually been an architect?

  "Yaping like a bumpkin. I am not sure why, this town is even smaller than Traehall is." Without me notig Tarklin had pulled up o me on his own uuna.

  "I was looking at the architecture."

  He squi me fused, like he didn't know what I was talking about.

  I poi one of the houses we passed as we got closer to the gates. "The style the buildings are built in. It's a personal i."

  "Well alright... architecture huh?"

  That's... odd. Did architecture not have any equivalent in the nguage I eaking? It seemed like an odd blind spot to have.

  "Anyway, we're ing up oe. Make sure to pull yuild card out. Once we get into town yoing to have to follow me to the stables. Since we're staying in a town this time we 't just tie them up wherever we want."

  I scratched my horn. "What about Silva? I have no idea if she has any kind of identification."

  He nodded. "I already talked to Fae about it, leave it to me. Do your irls have identification?"

  I felt a little unfortable by how he phrased it but I just let it go, "Yeah. All of them are registered with the adventurer's guild, I've seen their cards."

  "Good, that means you focus oing Nikka here checked in alright. You seem to be able to ride well enough but I tell you're rusty on a lot of the procedure stuff. Since we're ba an actual town we 't risk you doing something that will get us in trouble." He pointed one of the other riders ahead of me. "Just follow Cecilia there, she'll know where to go. If they ask you anything just say you're new and to ask Cecilia instead. Got it?"

  "Sure. Saves me the trouble."

  "You would be better off learning how the procedure works here in Torlimal now, rather than ter. I've already told Cecilia to help you out."

  "Is that the name of this town?"

  Tarklin ughed. "Don't jest, I don't mind but if you pared this little town to the whole kingdom they would be livid. Fae even may be livid in faot sure how patriotic she is after everything that's happehough."

  Fuck, that's right. This is the Kingdom of Torlimal, I just pared the whole kingdom to this pit stop.

  He tinued, "Anyway, this town is named Norta. It's much older than Traehall is but it's mostly just a small farming town. Where were you from again?"

  "Ara," I answered. It's been a while but Bel drilled into me the name of the queendom I supposedly came from.

  "Ah, that makes sense. Came to Traehall through Port Kornd then?"

  I smiled wryly. "Would you believe me if I told you I already fot the name?"

  He ughed. "Names are important, don't fet that. Anyway, I o che a few things before we reach the gate. Like I said, give the gate guards your ID and follow Cecilia to the stable."

  "Sure, got it," I said.

  ***

  Perhaps it's my history with things like the DMV but that whole che process wasn't nearly as bad as I had been warned about. It might have been that [Sightspeak] bined with [World Traveler] made it easy for me to read everything without any problems but it was just fill out a form, show ID, and wait in li even took less than half a bell.

  "Careful newbie, you get too good at that and you'll turn into Silvergrove's personal scribe," Cecilia said with a ugh. She retty cool person. A human with dark hair and eyes, tough like any female adventurer would have to be. She carried a rge axe in a leather sheath that made the guards quite wary of her.

  I walked bay group that was waiting for me by one of the carriages. Silva was shifting around a bit looking unfortable.

  "Is everything okay?" I asked quietly.

  Silva gnced around again. "I saw one of those guys in the bck brigandine from the ht while you were in there. The guys who were looking for the dy are here."

  I nodded. "Don't look around too much, you're ag suspicious."

  Torien came up o me. "What should we do now Lilith?" she asked quietly.

  "Does Tarklin know?"

  She nodded. "Silva told him right away. He said not to worry about it... but I have a bad feeling."

  "Do you know where she is now?" I asked.

  "They slipped into the back of one of the inns roup is staying at. There are enough of us that we couldn't all fit into one pce."

  I gnced up and dowreet. "Do you know if there's a on shop in this town?"

  Torien shook her head. "Mori and I checked, they don't have anything like that. They only have a regur bcksmith. Horseshoes, nails, and things like that."

  I suddenly got an itchy feeling and looked up to see a pale looking man walk by with a trail of miasma ging to him. A demon summoner. I looked bad could tell I wasn't the only one who saw it, everyone in my group save Silva noticed the pale man walk by.

  I took a breath. "This town is dangerous. I don't think it's safe to stay here."

  Torien shook her head. "No, as worrisome as this pce is, trying to push through the night would be even worse. It's too te anyway, now that all the mounts are checked in we're stuck here for the night."

  "We should find Tarklin."

  "No." Silva shook her head.

  The twins both looked shocked she talked bae.

  "Why not?" I asked simply.

  "At this point we would just draw attention to them. The guys in bck brigandine are looking for me too. We could lead them right to her." The rabbitkin shifted her weight again.

  "Lets get off the street at least then. There's a tavern nearby."

  Without further argument the five of us slipped into the busy tavern. Luckily we were able to swoop in on a table that had just emptied. Bel sat o me, she looked perfectly calm and rexed oside but I could feel her tension through our link. It was quite surprising to see how little of it showed in her body nguage.

  "Are you okay Bel?"

  She tapped oable a few times before answering. "Just a little anxious. I've never been in a situation like this."

  Silva sighed. "I need a drink."

  Man squinted her eyes at her. "Do you really think now's the time for that?"

  "I said I need a drink, not that I was going to drink one. Besides, how is a sve supposed to order one for herself anyway? And with what money? I probably shouldn't eveting at the table like a person" Silva seemed the most te of all of us, she was wound up like a spring.

  "Stop squabbling, we o pay attention," Torien barely finished wheavern suddenly got a lot quieter.

  The tavern had two entrances and standing at each of them were three people in bck brigandine for a total of six armed people. Four of them were holding uhed longswords and the other two were wielding spears. They were a mix of beastfolk and demi-beastfolk with one human among them. All six were looking at our table.

  Saine

  Hello! Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger but ime is gonna be fun! I had to post a bit early today because I have things to do and I don't feel like trying to mess with scheduling again. Not much else to say see ya ime!

  Here's a link to the unity Discord: https://disc/XsNwYuZp6s

  If you would like to support my writing on Patreon, you read up to 10 chapters ahead there!

  Please leave a favorite so I get my story in front of more eyeballs! I would greatly appreciate it!