Chapter 57: The Marble City

We went under the shining arch that led to the city of Falador. The guards surveyed us cheerfully. I was blinded for a second as I stared around me. Everything in this city was as white as snow, from the floor, to the walls, to even the roofs. Most of it was constructed from the finest marble. It glinted in the glorious sunlight. This city was even more majestic then Varrock.

Right in front of us, was a town square, constructed purely from, you guessed it, marble. The statue in the middle, of a large bearded man in robes, was made from stone. There were four paths coming from this square-it seemed like every single town square I'd seen so far had four paths leading from them.

The first one was the one we'd come from. The second one was right in front of us. It led over a crystal-clear stream, and into somewhere blocked off by more towering marble walls. Two towering burnished stone statues of knights stood at the other end of this bridge.

A guard walked up to us, smiling cheerfully.

"Hello!" he boomed merrily, his resplendent armour glinting in the bright sunlight. "Happy thanksgiving!" I gave him a confused look.

"Excuse me?" I asked incredulously. He laughed.

"Today is thanksgiving," he explained. "Thanksgiving is an annual event, where the people of RuneScape all thank Saradomin for everything. Turkeys appear on this day, and are killed for delicious meat." I remembered with a jolt. I missed last year's Thanksgiving-I wasn't prepared to do that this year.

"Is there an event this year?" I asked. He shook his head, still smiling.

"Not really," he said. "Turkeys have appeared, and there will be a great feast tonight to celebrate in the party room. The celebrations will continue for a few days, before the turkeys disappear. I heard Sir Amik Varze is giving out Cornucopias to people who complete a little chore for him."

"Who is he? Where is he?" I asked, confused. The guard chuckled, bent over with mirth.

"I'd go in there and ask around," he said, pointing towards the building opposite the bridge. I nodded, thanked him, and ran to the path on my right, planning to go inside the building later on.

I found myself surrounded by shops. There was a hairdresser for haircuts nearby, with the red and white sign twirling outside. Opposite it was a jewellery shop. Slinky waved at us, and told us she was going to look inside, and that she'd meet up with us later in town square.

I looked around, interested, at the large array of shops made from shiny marble. It was packed- people surrounded us, doing every day business. I passed large marble fountains spurting crystal-clear water, and dozens of marble benches. Marble was a very big merit in Falador; that much was obvious.

I noticed that on almost every shop window, a poster was pasted on the window. I looked closer at a poster. It was large, and was bordered with red and gold ink. Inside, it read:

WANTED: GYPSY ARIS

FOR TREASON

REWARD: 10 MILLION GOLD PIECES

I stared, flabbergasted at the poster. Under the large, bold writing, there was a blurry picture of Gypsy Aris, made from special dyes. Why was Gypsy Aris wanted? She hadn't done anything. I remembered, in one of my curious dreams, that somebody mentioned needing Gypsy Aris, because she had a glass orb that had mist of the future. Curious….I vowed to protect her, even is she had committed treason.

As we continued, Capablanca split up with us at a sword shop, Osrie1 stepped inside a bakery, and Mark went inside a general store for a browse.

The final shop at the end of the packed street was a rather small marble shop. The sign hanging above the door read 'Steel Supplies'. I opened the door, and peeped inside.

It was full to the brim with steel. Steel armour, steel weapons, steel bars, even steel ornaments cluttered glass cases and shelves. A man came from behind a door at hearing the shop bell tinkle. He grinned widely at us.

He was wearing full steel himself, minus a helmet. A large steel belt held several steel weapons. Even his eyes were cold and steely.

"Hello," he greeted us. "Welcome to my shop. You can call me Irish. Can I help you?"

I examined my armour; steel plate legs, iron chain mail and bronze helmet. It wasn't good enough if I was going to fight against the likes of Master Samuel.

"Yes," I confirmed. "I'd like to buy a steel medium helmet and steel a steel plate body." The shop owner, Irish, nodded at my request, and opened up a glass cabinet. He pulled out a steel medium helmet, and a steel plate body. He handed the both of them to me. I pulled off my chain body and helmet, and put on the new ones. They felt cold, hard and new on my body. I threw the old stuff into my bag.

"That will be 700gp, please," Irish chirped. I pulled a handful of coins out of my bag, and counted out 700 coins. I handed them to him. He smiled.

"Thank you," he said, putting the money into a till.

Just as we were preparing to leave, the door was blasted off its hinges. In stomped a massive, muscled, bulky figure. I groaned as I recognised the person as Madrey1. He'd followed me all the way to Falador! I swore silently under my breath.

Madrey1 looked around, disgusted.

"You call this a shop?" he roared, shaking the glass cabinets. "It's full of noob junk!" he grabbed a cabinet, and threw it towards Irish. I gasped, and shuddered, expecting to hear the sound of smashing glass at any second. What happened next, I was NOT expecting.

Irish looked at the sleeve of his steel armour, and pulled back a rather small plate of steel. A hidden switch was revealed. He flicked the switch, and steel seemed to explode from him. His armour had expanded to triple the size! The glass cabinet was deflected, and Madrey1 grabbed it cleanly, and put it back down. Madrey1 ran towards Irish, and swung a punch towards him. The punch was deflected, and madrey1 was forced back a couple of feet. Snarling, madrey1 took out his sword, and swung it towards Irish's bulking armour. A small dent was made. Irish laughed, and elbowed madrey1. Madrey1 was sent crashing into a wall, leaving a human-shaped mark in it.

"You….you…..you…" Madrey1 gasped. "Fine, I'll leave this crummy old shop, but don't expect it to be the last of me!" At that, Madrey1 ran out the shop, yelling "Phantom! It happened again!"

"I collapsed, laughing, almost in tears at the image of Madrey1 clanking out the shop, huffing and puffing. After thanking Irish, we left the shop, and walked towards the square. There we met Osrie1, Mark and Slinky, and went towards the bridge, looking forward to seeing what was on the other side.