Sorry this took so long. I went back to school and with homework and other stuff, haven't been able to write a lot. Anyway, in this episode Kevin sells the crystals he got last chapter. By the way, we didn't get to see what he looks like last chapter because the water where he bathed was the only reflective surface, and he got it dirty.
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"Kevin. Kevin? KEVIN!"
I jolted awake, expecting to be in some kind of danger after that last shout. Instead, I awoke to the entire household looking at me. "You know, your kind of hard to wake up." Samantha said.
That was how I woke up this morning. After waking me up, everyone went to breakfast. After I got dressed I joined them. We had porridge, which actually tasted really good.
After breakfast, we went outside to see that a long caravan was waiting for us. I was kind of surprised, since after Oran had told me about this place I had expected that he wouldn't be very respected. Now there is an entire caravan here to cart off his monsters.
"Hey, Oran. How come there is an entire caravan here? I thought you said Trainers got kicked out of cities." I asked.
"The Ihrit is actually pretty desperate right now. They caught whiff of the fact that their closest neighbor is preparing an attack. So they ordered a large batch of monsters. They provide the caravan for us, I bring the monsters." Oran explained.
"Oh." was my response.
I helped with the loading. What I did was drag the crates, which were on sleds, to the caravan. When everyone first saw that, they were pretty amazed that I could do it alone.
Once everything was ready, we all climbed into one of the wagons in the middle. When I asked why we were in the middle, Oran told me.
"We need to be able to get to any of the monsters as fast as we can. Plus, bandits always go for the front."
I thought that was reasonable. I spent the rest of the ride listening to the conversations around me.
It took about two hours to get to Ihrit, since we had to stop once because the monsters got antsy. When we did, I saw just how big the city was.
It was still in the forest, but it looked like the city had made a clearing about a mile from their walls. I even say some other wagons coming in with wood and stone.
The city itself had a fifty foot wall surrounding it. The walkway was still wood, which told me that this city either was relatively new, or had just suffered an attack.
I couldn't see much of the inside, except for a couple of towers.
The gate was iron, and when we got close I could see some murder holes. There were a couple of guards by the gate, and I could feel something coming from them. It felt like power, yet at the same time felt weak. I could also tell their emotions. They were bored stiff.
I laughed at that, and Samantha looked at me. When I explained, Samantha looked startled. "What is it?" I asked.
"Only psionics and magi can read emotions. You must have the potential for one of them. We have to get you tested." Samantha told me.
I wasn't sure I wanted to be tested since I knew next to nothing about this place.
The guards barely glanced at us before waving us on. Inside the city there was a lot of movement. People crowded around us, going from place to place. There was a lot of noise.
We headed slightly to the right of the biggest tower in the place. I guessed it was the palace, but I wasn't sure. We stopped about a hundred yards into the city, right next to a three story building. The sign of the building said The Dragons Inn. Right under it was a picture of a medieval style dragon.
What the! How did I recognize something as a medieval style when I had no memories? This was getting really confusing.
"We're here." shouted a driver.
"What does he mean by 'we're here'? I thought we were selling monsters." I asked Oran.
"We are," Oran replied. "But it's going to take all day. We have to book rooms for the night."
And we did. It wasn't very expensive, despite how obviously wealthy it was. Then again, the person at the front desk took one look at Oran and blanched. Then, for some reason, looked at me and blanched even more. I thought about that, and realized people had been avoiding me all day. It was kind of weird.
After we had the keys for our rooms, we went back outside. Oran turned to me and asked "Can you take Neville with you to the market? He wanted to see it and Samantha wanted to go see friends."
I said sure, but turned him down when he offered to give me money for lunch. I showed him the bag of crystals I had, and his eyes widened.
"Those are Havahacks! You could get a bag that size of gold for that many of them. Why don't you take those and sell them. That should give you enough money to live for a year."
"Thanks. I will." was my reply to that.
Neville was pretty excited in the city. He was running around like a kid with Metabolic Boost. I was able to keep up with him, but it was a while before he actually stopped. He was in front of a window with his nose pressed against the glass. Inside was a miniature robot, with a presence similar to the one surrounding the guards, only, it felt like it didn't create the feeling, but fed from it.
"... Please?!" Neville was saying.
I came back into my own head, and only then realized I hadn't even been in my body. "What?" I asked Neville, since I had missed his question.
"Can we please get it." Neville repeated.
"Maybe later. I don't have any money. I have to go sell these Havahacks." I told him.
"Ok." He sounded a bit disappointed.
Now I had to find someone who was willing to buy these crystals.
We moved along, letting other kids see what was in the display. Neville didn't seem to want to run around as much, which let me look for a jewelry store. There wasn't one anywhere near where we were though.
About a block down from the store with the robot, we found a place to sell my Havahacks. A man came up to us and started to talk really fast. All I could understand was "Best … store … low prices … crystals … lady."
I thought this guy must work at a jewelry place, so I asked "I'm looking to sell some Havahacks. Do you know where I can go?"
The guy nodded and said "Follow … way … best."
I took that as an invitation. I started to think that maybe I could be set in this world after all. I checked to make sure Neville was following, which he was, and followed the man.
As we progressed, the buildings began to get taller and clearly had rich occupants. I began to feel out of place, considering that I only had brown leathers on. I once even saw a lady scoop up her child and run inside when she saw me.
The man, who had never stopped talking, led us into an alley that was smaller than the road behind us, but big enough for one of the wagons from our caravan. The alley was a dead end, with a kind of counter sitting in the open.
The guy stepped up to the counter and pulled a string. Almost immediately, and with an aura coming from him, a man clad in steel armor arrived. "What do you want Flad."
The guy we had been following started talking, again really fast. "...sell...cheap...later." was all I heard.
The Psionic, for that was obviously what he was, seeing as he had an aura too, somehow understood him. "Ok. Well, let's see those Havahacks of yours."
I stepped forward, but Neville cowered behind me. He seemed really afraid of these two. I reached towards my belt and brought out my bag. The Psionic reached out and asked "May I?"
I nodded, and he grabbed the bag. He opened it up, reached inside, and pulled out one of the golds. His face momentarily went surprised, but then it quickly turned board. He felt the weight of the bag, and made his offer.
"Twenty golds for the bag."
I was stunned. I didn't know much about this world, but I was sure that golds were smaller than that. Twenty golds would not fill a bag.
"I think that was a little undershot. How about two hundred golds." I said, making my counter offer.
"Look, no one is going to pay two golds for a crystal like this. Let's say 50 golds."
"Fat chance. 170."
"55."
And so it went, until I wheedled him up to 125 golds. That filled a bag half as big as the one promised me by Oran, but I thought I probably wouldn't get a better offer. So I took the bag of gold, he took the bag of Havahacks, and I left the alley.
I felt great, seeing as I had basically just made myself rich. I had just set myself on a path so I could survive on this world. I thought that maybe I wasn't in a bad place, even if I didn't know who I was.
That was when I realized Neville wasn't with me.
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What do you guys think of my cliffhanger? Like I said before, sorry it took so long to get up. At some point I developed writer's block and got stuck. Eventually, since this chapter started to get really long, I decided to make it two instead, just to get something up faster.
Oh, and if you are wondering when the Zerg come into this, it should be sometime in the next 3 chapters or so. Also, those monsters Kevin saw are the descendants of mutated Zerg. More into this later.
See you next chapter.
