Chapter 10 – What's Wrong With These Kids Today?

For a few days I stayed with Raflenor in his city, learning more about mining and smithing weapons and armor along with how to sew clothing from his sister who sold clothes at the castle. While staying there a foolish dwarf apparently knocked over a large statue of some Dwarven king so I helped the dwarves rebuild part of it by bringing them the supplies they needed. Then I grew tired of living underground and wanted to breath fresh air again. So I thanked Raflenor for his hospitality and bid him farewell before returning to the surface world. I had forgotten just how bright the sun was as I walked back out into the sunlight. I got directions from a rather helpful dwarf to Falador and after an hour of walking found myself at the city's gates.

"Boy does it feel go to be among my own people again." I said, watching all the people moving about the city.

I stopped at the General Store right inside the gates, bought about 20 more iron arrows and an iron dagger. After the incident with the king scorpion I knew that having a weapon in this world could mean life or death at any given moment. I then went to the bank and deposited the gems I had mined while in the Dwarven mines. This included 2 sapphires, a ruby, 2 emeralds, and one diamond. I thought about selling them but decided to save them for when I was in desperate need of money. As I was leaving the bank I caught my reflection in a window and decided I was due for a haircut. There was a barbershop across the street from the bank so I went in and got my hair cut to about shoulder length, making it easier for me to fight since I wouldn't have to deal with hair in my face. Having done that I found an inn and decided to stay there for a day or two and relax. Not far from the inn was a beautiful garden where I spent the rest of the day, learning a bit about gardening from the master gardener who lived there.

The next day I was going to the gardens again when I came across a girl with dark brown hair and wearing a red top and skirt. She also looked lost.

"Hello. Do you need help?" I asked.

She jumped and looked at me in surprise then with hope. "Oh yes I do! I'm very lost. I'm trying to find my way to Draynor Village. But I have no idea how to get there. Please can you show me the way to Draynor?" she asked.

"Why don't you just buy a map at the General Store?"

She looked at the ground sheepishly, "I…uh….I can't read a map."

I blinked, "Yea that's quite a problem. Well, I was just going to stay in the gardens today but I guess I could show you to Draynor Village."

The girl squealed and jumped up and down. "Oh thank you thank you thank you! No one else has been willing to help me! This is so great!"

I couldn't help but chuckle as she continued to jump up and down happily.

"It's no problem. My name's Minuial by the way." I said, introducing myself.

"Nice to meet you Minuial. I'm Susa." Susa said, stopping her jumping in order to shake my hand.

"Let me just go grab my stuff from the inn and we can be on our way." I said, turning around.

Susa followed me to the inn, talking the whole way about her journey to Falador. She had wanted to get away from her parents and establish her independence so she went to Tutorial Island, looking for adventure.

"How old are you?" I asked, curious.

"I'm 13 so I'm almost an adult. What about you?" Susa said proudly.

"I'm 17. Have you spoken with your parents since you left?" I asked her.

She shook her head, "Nah. They probably don't care anyway. All they ever did was yell at me and punish me. They don't care about me."

"I'm sure that's not true. What did they yell at you for?"

"For sneaking out with my boyfriend and friends." Susa said sheepishly.

I stopped walking and looked at her. "And you don't think this is a good reason to be punished?"

"Well, no….er yes. I guess. But if they had just let me hang out with them I wouldn't have had to sneak out!" Susa argued.

"Why didn't they let you hang out with your friends?"

"Cause my friends started doing this weird magic stuff and making strange brews and drinking them to honor some god or something like that." Susa said.

"Creepy. Was your boyfriend doing this too?"

Susa nodded, "Yea, that's how I met him. I was with my friends at one of their secret meetings. It was kinda cool though cause they summoned these evil looking zombies. Didn't work too well though cause the zombies always turned into dust after about a minute."

I shook my head in amazement. "I think I can see why your parents didn't like your friends. That's just too weird to be ignored. Especially with all the evil beings appearing all over the land these days. They cared about you and wanted to protect you."

Susa grumbled, "You sound just like my mother. That's what she's always saying."

I chuckled, mentally amazed myself at what I was saying. A year ago my parents didn't let me hang out with certain people cause they drank and did drugs. At the time I didn't like it, didn't think it was fair. Then the people got into trouble with the law or were killed in a car accident cause they were drunk. I couldn't stand the fact that my parents had been right then. Now looking back I made a mental note that whenever I returned home (if I ever returned home) I needed to thank my parents for putting up with me during that time.

"Ever thought that perhaps your mother was right?" I said, entering my room and grabbing my things.

Susa shrugged as she looked around.

"Parents just don't understand kids today."

I laughed as a song suddenly popped into my head called 'Kids'.

(Author's Note: If you've ever seen Bye Bye Birdie you know what song I'm talking about.)

"What's so funny?" Susa asked.

I shook my head. "Nothing. I've got everything so let's go."

I turned my key into the bartender then led the way out of the city, all the while humming the song.