The next day passed by without issue. I mean, I guess I shouldn't have expected every day to be action-packed and interesting... but I mean, c'mon.

Felandria slept all day in the carriage, and that night, as soon as everyone else went to sleep, she snuck out of the carriage towards us. We were prepared for a surprise attack, so we had torches lit already, deterring any surprise attack she could've plotted.

One time I walked in on her eating a bug. It was kinda gross, but I guess actual bats eat bugs too, so I suppose it's fine.

The night passed, oddly quiet. I had Agnes rest for the first shift, making sure she got sleep. I asked Felandria to try and let her sleep while she was there, and she agreed to try and reign... whatever it was she was doing in there down a bit. I don't want to know.

Surprisingly enough, the rest of the journey went swimmingly. I suppose getting nearer to the capital meant more people were out hunting monsters, so there were far less this close. Just an assumption, but it seemed pretty likely.

We arrived at the capital early the next morning. Felandria was hidden in one of the carriages again... shit, we're gonna have to sneak her out...

How on earth would we do that...?

The caravan once again stopped outside the gates to the capital, and the caravan head paid us a hefty sum of 300 gold pieces.

My eyes widened at the large sack in front of me, and Agnes muttered a short prayer under her breath.

We're rich!

After bidding the caravan head farewell, I snuck over to the back carriage and peered in. Felandria was awake, but she yawned and rubbed her eyes, looking up me, tired.

I grabbed a cloth from one of the crates and draped her in it, covering her wings and ears.

"What're you -yawn- doing?" Felandria looked up at me.

"We're at the capital. If they see you're a monster, they'll kill you on the spot."

"Mm... but it's so nice in here..." she pressed herself up against me, "stay a-yawn-awhile..."

Her head fell against my side, and I soon heard the sound of her gently snoring, her claws now hooking onto my shirt.

I fastened the makeshift cloak around her. Hopefully this will be enough to disguise her until we find an inn or something...

I discovered she was actually stuck to me a few seconds later. Her claws had dug in so deep I'd have to physically pull her off of me in order for her to fall.

I snuck her out of the carriages, and Agnes and I entered the capital.

The walls were massive, even taller than Kesi, and I could see a large palace near the back of the town, looking like it came straight out of Aladdin. Woah.

It was even more impressive once we were inside the walls.

Beautiful, shining golden domes sat atop of white marble walls. The castle itself seemed to shine, and Felandria covered her face in her cloak.

"It's so bright out here..." she mumbled.

Agnes and I didn't respond, too awestruck by everything around us.

The city was bustling, the smell of food and perfume permeating through the air. Merchants sat at massive stalls, yelling at anyone who passed by to check out their wares.

First thing I needed to do was get this chain shirt repaired. This is tedious, honestly, having to repair my armor over and over again. This'll just drain my funds.

Finding a smith isn't too difficult. You really just gotta follow the sounds of banging metal.

The repairs in total cost me around 15 gold pieces, which was great, because I didn't feel like spending much at all.

Felandria was practically fused to my side. I kept turning to make sure her hood was up, and she gave me a nervous smile. She was really cute in this light...

No.

I shook the thought from my head, and the three of us went exploring while my armor was repaired.

Agnes was browsing some perfume when I noticed a strange store in an alleyway, labeled "Magical Oddities."

Now that piqued my interest.

I grabbed Agnes's arm, and she looked over at it.

"Looks a little sketchy..." she said, "but if you want to stop there, I'll go with you."

We went in. The door was open, and the room was dark. Faint light was produced by these orange-red stones that glowed faintly, but there was no bright light present.

"Hehe..." I heard giggling in my ear as I felt a strange wet sensation run up my cheek, "you're all mine..."

Agnes snapped her fingers, and a bright light appeared above us.

Felandra let out a little yelp and cowered behind me, in my shadow. "I'm sorry..." she murmured, quivering a bit behind me.

Agnes gave her a death stare, but we were quickly distracted by a figure emerging from behind a counter.

"Ah! Welcome, welcome!" We turned to see a beautiful woman dressed in blue robes with a pointed blue hat. Necklaces made of various gemstones hung from her neck, and she held a large staff made of some pale grayish wood in her hand, "how can I help you?"

"Um... hi. We're just browsing right now..." I said, turning a bit red. Agnes narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, well feel free to have a look around! It's not often that I get customers." She walked towards us and began pulling things off of shelves. "We have spell books, scrolls, any wondrous item you can think of, whatever you need." She leaned in and began to whisper, "not to brag or anything, but we do pride ourselves on our service. The Sultan himself bought something from us just a few weeks ago, so we're kind of a big deal."

I seriously doubted that.

I noticed a large hat, similar to the kind Synx was wearing before. I picked it up and looked at it. "What is this?"

"Oh. That's a Hat of Disguise! It creates an illusory appearance for an individual that wears it. Although it is just an illusion, so if you use it to create say... a heavy coat, when someone touches it, it will pass through the coat.

"Hm." This could help Felandria disguise herself... "how much for this one?"

"Mmm... I'd say around 60 gold pieces for it..." she tilted her head.

"We'll take it."

"Excellent! Is there anything else I can get for you? "

I looked around, and found a beautiful looking ring with a eye-like gemstone on it.

"Ah, the X-ray ring! Wearing that will allow you to see through anything you wish?"

Oh the shenanigans...

Unfortunately, I decided to look for something different.

I picked up a figurine of a small wooden bipedal dog creature.

"This is kinda cute. What is it?"

"A figurine of wondrous power." I jumped as the woman appeared right behind me. Felandria let out a yelp of surprise and pressed her body harder against mine, "if you speak its command word, it will transform into a creature."

"Huh. Do I control it?"

"It usually depends on the creature. The wooden one is our cheapest option, but we have several others, if you're interested..."

The woman held out one of her hands. On each of them were four other figurines. One of them seemed to be a large misshapen blob made of a strange purple gemstone, another was a large squid-like figure made of aquamarine colored glass, another was a massive spherical creature with a large central eye and ten eyestalks made of black obsidian, and the final one was a white marble horse with two wings emerging from its back.

"I've been collecting these for quite some time. They're quite rare, it's hard to contain creatures within these figurines, an ancient art I don't think anyones used in centuries... the dog will go for about 150 gold pieces."

"How much for the rest?"

"Our most expensive one is around 2,500 gold pieces."

My jaw dropped.

"We'd make it higher, but the sealed creature doesn't always HAVE to obey their owner's commands, so they aren't quite as valuable as some would say."

Felandria at this point poked her head out from behind me and looked them over.

"Anon..." she whispered softly, but her voice trailed off as she noticed the shopkeeper staring at him.

Agnes stepped forward and picked up one of the figurines. The black one with the eyes.

"Don't touch that!" The shopkeeper took it from her, "be careful, this one contains the most dangerous out of all these creatures contained here..."

"As long as I don't know the command word, it should be fine, right?" Agnes asked.

"But you could accidentally say it." The woman set the figurines up on the shelf.

"I also have several potions available." She opened up a case full of flasks of different colored liquids. "Our healing potions are the cheapest in this side of the desert! Only 50 gold pieces."

She held up a bottle of familiar looking red liquid, and I examined it a bit.

She continued to show us her inventory of magical items, most of them way over our pay grade.

Agnes and I picked out two items. Agnes was drawn to a silver ring with a crimson heart on it, and I picked up the wooden figure. I mean, what harm could it do?

I already could guess.

We paid for most of it, but with some haggling, we managed to lower the price down to 320 gold pieces. Using some money we had left over, we paid for it easily.

"So, what's the command word?" I asked the woman.

She leaned forward, so the figure wouldn't hear, I guess, and whispered. "Good doggy."

"That's it?"

She nodded.

Knowing how things work, I would probably have said "great, just don't say "good doggy" unless I want to activate it" of something. Thankfully, I'm not that stupid.

However, we were now 320 gold less, and the sun was beginning to set.

Agnes noticed my concerned look as we left the building. "You know, we could visit the Adventurer's Guild branch here. They probably have a job for us."

I nodded, "yeah, probably. Let's go see."

As we began searching for the guild, I didn't realize then, but our first big quest was only just beginning...