Chapter 2: The City
As the caravan neared the city, all the passengers became anxious. Despite the fact that it has huge fortress walls all around it, you could easily see the looming castle. Damon was the largest cities for miles, and was the center of this kingdom.
The castle was placed directly in the center of the city, which was divided up into four equal sized sections by the walls that extended from the castle. These walls were designed so that the rest of the city could be sealed off if there was an attack. Along the castle in each section was another area of different uses, one was a coliseum of sorts, one was a bestiary, one was the personal grounds for royalty, and the last was the city's guild and defense building.
Because the city had no front gate, the caravan had to take the only true entrance (other than the many escape routes for the royalty); which was to go along the back side of the city, and down along the cliff that the city was situated up against, and have the carts brought up on a pulley elevator. This was no easy task of course, each Aptonoth had to be brought up by itself, and then each wagon, so it took some time.
Turel stepped up out of the wagon and into a section of the city's marketplace. He glanced at the city map to get his bearings on where to go; he thought, "Okay, I'm here, and the Inn is there, so I should go...this way."
He took off south, the Inn was in the upper-class section, right up against the wall that lead to the Bestiary, all he had to do was follow the main road and...
His train of though was interrupted by a violent push from behind, almost knocking him over. He whipped around to see who had the audacity to push him.
"Stay outta my way if you don't wanna be hurt fool." said a gruff voiced, large man clad in Hi-Metal armor, bearing a Graviton Hammer.
"And why is that? Afraid that you would be overshadowed?" Turel stated with a smirk..
"Heh, nope; it's just that I wouldn't have to kill you, nothing is gonna stop me from being a high ranked hunter in this city, not even some 'prodigy' hunter that knows how to stare down a Rath!" he began to walk off, but turned back to say, "Oh! And by the way, the name's Roth, remember it!"
After some trekking, he made it to the street the Inn was on, most of the streets in the city were like this one, three to four story buildings with roofs that jutted out quite a distance, only allowing a line of sunlight in. Despite this all the roads were quite wide. All of this was designed to lower damage and casualties in case of wyvern attacks; it barely proved to be needed, but it was better to be safe.
He began to walk towards the Inn when he heard another voice behind him, "Wait! Young man!" He turned to see Cyrus running up to him, out of breath, "I..almost...lost you...back there."
Cyrus was a pretty tall character, somewhere around six feet, and quite thin. His skin was pale from being indoors all the time, that along with his neatly cut light brown hair and spectacles definitely made him look scientific.
"Out of breathe huh? You're out of shape, need to get out of your lab more often"
Cyrus caught his breath and they continued on," That's just why I want to talk to you!" said Cyrus, "I'm the chief wildlife researcher for this city, but we have a problem."
"Which is...?"
"We can't do anymore research on the monsters in the city's Bestiary, there is only so much you can learn about a monster that's been raised in captivity, and you can forget about studying a living wyvern for more than a couple days."
"So? Go out in the wild and watch them."
"That's where you come in, we don't have the tracking expertise to watch them for long periods of time, but someone like you, who understand not only Hunting, but the nature of Wyverns in the wild could be a great deal of help to us."
They reached the steps of the 'Sign of the Dragon' Inn, where Turel paused to think it over.
"Sorry, I would like to help, but I have my own agenda in this city, and it's a bit more important to me."
"Well whatever it is, I can help you. If it has something to do with this city, I can guarantee that I know what it is and where it is."
Turel paused again before speaking, "I'm looking for someone."
Cyrus responded, "Oh that's all? I know just about everyone here some way So what do you say? You help our research effort, and I help you find this person."
"Alright then, you got yourself a deal!"
"Wonderful! Glad to hear it! How about I meet you here tomorrow, around noon perhaps?"
"Yeah, that's fine, but if you don't mind, I'm tired, so I'm heading up to my room, and I'm gonna gets a good night's sleep."
"But you slept the whole way here..." but Cyrus was cut off by the closing of the Inn's door behind Turel, "interesting character, that boy."