Chapter 21. Ionian activities

Me and Zed started walking from the arena towards the entrance of the training grounds. While heading back I could see the sky had begun getting dark, there was the faint light of the sun on the clouds above. I imagine it must look nice but I payed little attention to it. "I don't have all I need ready for your training yet, so while I finish my preparation" He hands me a sack with coins "There are many enjoyable activities in Ionia, I'm sure your can entertain yourself while we finish preparing".

"When should I come back here then" I asked as I took the sack of gold.

"Come back in three days. Also if you get into any trouble simply show them the emblem on the bag, It should deal with... most problems" He said as we kept walking to the exit. I took the bag and strung it around my belt as we walked towards the gate. The gate slowly opened again with the sound of wood creaking. "I'd assume you can take care of yourself" Zed asked before I started walking away. "I should be fine, I might need to get my sword checked however" I said as I pulled it from it's sheath. The sword was chipping in multiple areas and the blade had a slight wobble when you swung it, It was starting to break. Zed was going to say something but I cut him off "Is there anything I should watch out for" I asked. Zed stood there for a moment thinking then faced me "There are still ninja of the Kinkou clan in Ionia, they may want to assassinate you to restore their 'balance'" he said. I nodded and began walking down the path that led to the clan grounds. It didn't take long for me to get to the town again. Their was people cleaning up after my fight still but they mostly seemed to be cleaning the blood off the stone. One of the cleaners saw me and gave a approving nod then returned to his work. I lightly sighed as I began to wonder the streets. I looked over the stall that were still open, most of them didn't carry swords and the ones that did didn't carry short swords. I gave up after most of the stall had closed and started looking for a place to stay for the night instead. While looking I came across a unusual sight. A large crowd of people were standing at the doors of a rather large tavern. I could hear the faint noise of music over the murmur of voices in the crowd and decided to take a look. I climbed up onto the building and snuck in from the third floor. I found myself a spot on one of the beams holding the roof up and looked down below me. The tavern was packed, people taking up any space that wasn't the stage, and on the stage was a woman. She had blue hair that moved as if gravity didn't effect it and a blue dress. She was plucking at three strings on the instrument. I wasn't very familiar with music but I did know the basics of it, but I couldn't tell what instrument she was using. It had put everyone else in the tavern in a trance however. I looked down to see people moving calmly some even swaying with the music. Most of the people looked like their mind wasn't even with their body. A thought crossed my mind that spiked my humour a little. I wondered how easy it would be to steal for all these people. I even looked to see if this was the plan of the musician however I didn't see anyone doing that type of deed. I chuckled a little and looked back to the musician only to see she was looking at me. It took me a moment to realized this and after I did I looked around to see if anyone else had seen me. Since I saw no one else had seen me I looked back at the woman. She was looking over my character. I could tell since she looked over everything, from my clothes to my facial expression. She also look a little confused as she did so. She changed the tone of her music to something that sounded a bit softer. The men that were doing activities were now locked on her and anyone who wasn't paying attention was now. I found it unusual as I saw these people. I think the most unusual thing out of all of the people was her reaction when I looked away. It was a little sudden but she kind of jumped backwards a little. I didn't understand why and after a little bit longer she changed the tone of the song yet again. While others started to sway with the music I just stared at her a little bit confused. In the end I found I wasn't enjoying the music anymore and left. The music sounded nice but I felt like I was out of place and since I didn't want to start making a scene I left.

I started looking for a place to stay yet again walking down streets. The night was coming, it wasn't dusk but the light from the sun was starting to weaken. I kept looking and found myself staring into the forest at the edge of a small field next to the town. I felt like I was being watched, most likely by wildlife. I wish it was just from the forest but as I began to walk again I could feel eyes on my back as well. Every time I twisted my head back to check all I could see was the shadow of the buildings behind me. I kept moving finding myself moving faster then my normal walk as I found a inn at the end of a path. It was a few seconds away from the rest of the town located inside the forest a little. You could still see it from the town but it was inside the forest unlike the rest of the town. I opened the door to the inn to see it empty. The floor was deserted from people. However not long after I opened the door a man walked in from behind the counter. "Ah hello, I'm sorry I didn't hear you enter" He said.

I walked up to the counter "I'm looking for a room to stay in for three days" I responded.

"Very well, are you two together?" the man asked. I was confused for a moment before I turned around to see to woman from the tavern with her instrument behind me. I was a little shocked but I would doubt she was following me since she had a slight look of shock as well. "No it's just me" I responded.

"Very well then it's 15 gold for three nights" he said. I opened the bad attacked to my belt and pulled 15 coins from the bag dropping them onto the counter. The man took the coins and handed my a key with the number 11 on it. "Enjoy your stay" he said as I began climbing the stairs to the rooms above. I ended up having a room on the third floor and opened it to find myself in a nice single room. It had a chest inside for my belongings as well as a closet and a bed. There was a table with two chairs as well. I took a moment to check to make sure nothing was wrong with the room and after deeming the room 'safe' I took of my coat and sheaths and laid on the bed. I opened my bad after a little bit to pull out some of the rations. They would start to go bad soon so I ate to my fill for today. I threw my bad onto the table and looked out into the rest of the forest from my window. I could hear the insects in the forest as well a movement from whatever animals roamed the forest and after a while felt the stare I did earlier again. I shook the feeling off and closed the window. After closing the window I took note of my wound on my shoulder from the soldier earlier. I didn't notice it prior because I didn't feel any pain from it but now it was just a large patch of dried blood on my shoulder. I took out one of my water skins a poured some water onto one of the bandages on my chest from my wound from Talon. I took the bandage off and began cleaning the dried blood from my clothes and shoulder. I started wrapping the bandage over my shoulder only to be interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on my door.

I got up after tying the bandage to my shoulder and slowly opened the door. At first I thought it would be the owner informing me of something but to my surprise it was the musication again. I was honestly starting to draw suspicions on her. She didn't say anything as I closed the door and threw my shirt back on. I opened the door again "What" I asked coldly. She didn't say anything in fact she pulled out a small pad of paper and began writing something on it. 'May I come in' It read as she held it up. I assumed she was mute and responded "Depends on your reason". Behind the door I was holding onto one of my throwing daggers ready to attack at any time however she looked away shyly for a strange reason. She began writing again and held the pad up on a new page 'I wanted to learn more about you, not a lot of people can ignore my music'. "Ignore your music? It's just music anyone could ignore sound, why does it matter" I asked. She shook he head and began to write again 'Not my music, people can't seem to resist listening to my music. So when you didn't react I got curious'. "So you followed me for such a trivial reason" I asked. I wasn't buying the story, however those men did act strangely. She shook her head again and began to write 'I was going to stay here anyway, I'm only doing this because it's convenient. I can leave if I'm a bother...'. I thought over it for a moment, I didn't have any reason to talk to her other then I didn't want to. I was also unsure if she was from the clan Zed was warning me about. "Your less of a bother it's more of I don't want to talk" I responded. Even if I didn't have much emotion lately I still had my shame and pride, I didn't want to make a girl feel unwanted. I sighed at that thought and looked up at her writing something 'You have a lot to hide don't you. It's fine if you do, I just want to study you a little'. "Study me?" I asked. She turned back to writing 'Yes, I want to know more about you. Like I said no one has ignored my music before. I want to see which song you will pay attention to'. I found the request odd, I suppose if I were to rate my personality to others mine would be a lot more... strange but she had no real reason to want to know about me. That being said I didn't have any real reason not to let her either and eventually I decided to let her. I pushed the door open and walked inside but some nagging feeling in my head started talking as soon as I pushed the door open. This might be a bad idea.

-Authors note-

Sorry about not uploading yesterday, I was tired from playing games all night and slept past my upload time. I might start taking breaks every few days as well. Sometimes I feel like I'm forcing myself to write these so I'm going to take tomorrow off as well... Thanks for understanding -Blade6309