"Jarasevo Time's Square," the young human read aloud from the weathered metal plaque fastened on the wide stone pillar amid the busy murmur around her. The large clock reaching above her provided some much-needed shadow for her as she sat down on her luggage to breathe out. The back of her head touched the cool metal of an identical plaque that she just read from but lower down to accommodate the curiosity of smaller monsters and humans. There were at least five more plaques apart from the two, above where Cter had first read. Probably more but she didn't really want to worsen the pain in her neck even more.

She had been looking up for the entire day, and her neck sizzled against the cool metal she leaned against. Looking up at the houses and building casting longer shadow than Cter had never seen buildings cast! Not even the assertion of the presence that the main building at Soul's School did upon the otherwise-calm landscape, in which it stood like a human with its shoulders permanently rolled back, its chest puffed out, and head slightly slightly up and gazing heroically into the middle distance.

Well, the first time Cter saw it she imagined it that way. When rainy days, boring lectures, and tough exams came about it was more like a fat blob she was reluctant to get close to.

Still, the shadows around her as she walked through the narrow streets of cobblestone of the Monster Capital were just as imposing, but more in a way that bent her internalized logic in how structures could be. She had seen tall buildings before, but they had been human. It had been easy enough for her to see through them and draw in the air where the supportive beams were. With the buildings in Jarasevo though she had no idea where the supportive beams would be! She had heard of magically supported human construction, but for them to reach so many stories up was just…

Neck-bending.

She massaged hers in an attempt to get some circulation going that wasn't busy also trying to cope with the pain in her legs and feet. They were on the verge of detaching and marching off in protest, and a part of her did wish that they'd do so to spare her from the pain they kept reminding her off. Screaming into her ears from inside as she felt her heartbeat thud against her skull with each step she took. It had reached the point where she'd take as long a stride as she could so that she could fool herself into believing she had less distance to cover.

Because she didn't have to take as many steps it meant it was closer, wasn't it? That's how things worked, right?

Right?

Please?

Pretty please?

But alas, it wasn't.

To Cter's enormous dismay.

To walk and lug while weaving through streets for an entire day after spending more than a month, close to two, mostly sitting still inside a carriage was a bad idea. It shouldn't really had surprised Cter, but there she sat. There she sat exhausted in the middle of the Monster Capital with less than a clue about where she was or where she was going. That way? Maybe? This way? Maybe too? Back where she had just been? Maybe as well?

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

So many times it rattled inside her head that the word began sounding weird to her.

Couldn't even use Romrom's magic to summon up some healing magic to alleviate the pain as that would've filled her mind with how Romrom remembered Jarasevo.

Remembered it as it was before human magic was discovered and before the buildings could grow taller.

Jarasevo Time's Square, with its large, monster-built clock and human-made inner workings was the only thing that still was the same from Romrom's memories, and that Cter only found as it clanged to let the population know that it was one in the afternoon. Late lunch.

Something Cter hadn't had yet. The hunger in her stomach didn't overrule the pain in her legs and neck though, and she felt that she was borderline starving. She put her sleeve to her chest to just hopefully feel a bit of cold from her starter-memory without prompting another wave of wrong directions from its gently glowing inscriptions.

Eyes of a variety of both numbers and shapes she felt glancing at her from the passers by. All monsters, and no human. While she didn't feel unease at the notion there was a niggling thought trying to surface at the back of her head. Her mind was too busy trying to both think of where she could possibly be and coping with her aching joints at the same time that the niggle would've had a better chance trying to chew through stone.

Jarasevo City Route number ten is where she was heading.

No, wait, that was Romrom's memory again…

The brief sense of chill disconnected from Cter as she let her left arm fall down onto her sweaty lap. The magic didn't cool her enough to be worth another wave of confusion. There wasn't even a street named 'Jarasevo City Route'! There was 'Jarasevo City Street' and 'Jarasevo Trade Route' but not 'Jarasevo City Route'!

And all of the aforementioned street names began at number fifteen!

The back of Cter's head bumped into the colorful stone of the large clock's body as she slid down and off it among her deep sigh. "Ow," she stated. She didn't have enough energy to properly react to it, nor any to sit up straight. The glances from the monsters became more inquisitive, most likely because it looked like Cter had collapsed. They weren't wrong about that, in a way.

Cter didn't have the spring in her back and step that she had earlier today when she awoke from the sound below her carriage changing from the rustle of gravel to the percussion of cobble. The wonder in her eyes had been drowned and burnt away by the salty drops of sweat rolling down her forehead like the rivers snaking their way among the landscape of Monster Country.

Probably was cold water as well inside those streams.

Noooo…

Why did Cter think that! Dammit! Her slick skin and cooking inner organs screamed collectively at the imagined cold that could sooth. It was over there though! Not here! Not around her! Only this damn heat! And these damn aches! Her feet were about to burst out of her shoes they were so swelled!

"These humans make such strange noises."

Had Cter been able to spare any energy she would have lifted a rebutting finger against that passing comment, even if it was very much truth. The monster might've stopped and come closer and decided to help her though.

Then it struck her.

Why didn't she just ask any of the monsters for help?

A few drops of sweat launched off her forehead as she sat up straight with the small rush of realization from that thought, scaring a nearby Snowdrake who scurried off towards its mother. Cter reached out for it to apologize, but she lost it within the varying forms of both steps and flapping in the monster sea sloshing in front of her. She returned her right arm back to wipe her brow again. Whether it actually did remove anything or just replaced forehead sweat with back-of-hand sweat Cter couldn't tell.

"Excuse me?" she asked into the sea like a small pebble tossed into rapid water. When that didn't work she swallowed to try and wet her throat for a second attempt. "Excuse me?!" she repeated louder.

Like a large boulder tossed into the river it stopped. Fur, scales, tentacles, feathers, flames, bones, tails, cloaks, ears, and one metal-tube-looking thing with stiff wings, came to a halt before her with a deafening stop of sounds. The many colorful and differently shaped eyes turned towards her, and she flinched under the weight of them all. Her luggage slipped under her from her startled jump, and Cter fell with all of her limbs flailing in a state of panic that her seat was giving way in the worst possible moment.

Her tired reflexes were not refined enough to keep her from making a complete jest out of herself again, this time more than the pair of jester watching perplexed with their cross-stitched eyes. One had a green cloak with the other a more subdued blue. "What's the time?" flubbed out of her mouth and tongue after an embarrassed chuckle that was supposed to be disarming but went on for a second or two too long.

More necks rose up than when Professor Leraull slammed his thick lizard tail into the blackboard at the end to wake everyone up during the late hour of the third consecutive lesson on human-magic litigation proposed in accordance and usage of seasonal crop growing and…

And Cter couldn't even think back to it without dozing off.

She shook her head as quickly and pretend-aware that she did back then during the most boring class she ever took and followed the many necks up towards the face of the clock which body she was clumsily leaning on with her own. "T-Thanks," she said with a nod that was stiffer than her neck. "Now I...know?"

Maybe if she steps out of the protective shadow she will melt into nothing but a sweaty puddle. Anything to get away from the horrible embarrassment she had put herself into clumsily.

"You're a human, right?" came from somewhere inside the crowd.

Cter nodded again, almost as if compelled to. Although, what really else could she do for that question? Say no to it? That'd be even stranger!

"Good for you."

The amount of genuine sincerity behind those words stunned Cter to the point where she almost took pride in the surprise that yes, yes she was a human! She was indeed a human! The silence that followed and the couple of agreeing nods strewn about the surface of the frozen sea of monsters did remind her of her solitude position of being a human.

"T-Thanks?"

With all of her knowledge of how to conceal her aura she forced her own so deep inside her that she would be forced to use spelunking equipment to dig it out again the next time she wanted to make magic. However, if her confusion and almost sarcastic overtone slipped out from her for the crowd to pick up she'd probably be in trouble.

Humans are more powerful than monster, yes, but it wouldn't really do her any good in her mage career with more dust on her hands and clothes than flour on a baker after a long day. The aura around her wasn't threatening though, mostly curious.

"You know magic?" asked the same voice from seemingly somewhere else inside the crowd, prompting a collective gasp that almost sucked the sweat right off Cter's skin. Like a wave rippling out from the voice, whispers began surfacing as eagerly bouncing heads of all sizes glanced and averted towards and away from Cter, not necessarily in the same order.

"Human magic?"

"So it's a human mage?"

"I've never seen one in the dust."

"Don't you mean in the flesh?"

"Yes, yes, flesh."

"Aren't you seeing a Monster Mage, Fouyt?"

"No I met a monster maid, Ylli. At Krygino's tavern."

"...Why is the monster part specifically defined?"

"Because we're moving to Xoff."

"You are?"

"Yes."

"I wasn't talking to you, stranger."

"Sorry."

"Sorry? I was talking to you, Fouyt."

"Me?"

"No, not you! You're on the other side! Why would I be talking to you?"

"Why not? We could be friends!"

"Sure!"

"I wasn't talking to you!"

"Where's the human?"

Around a couple of houses heading anywhere except back to Time's Square with a sudden rush of energy that her body granted her to get away from the strange situation.

Was that how monsters acted normally when not in an academic setting? Or in a tavern setting? It took like ten seconds before it just devolved into tens of separate conversations all about not Cter! Not that she was against the monsters going back to their own business since it was obviously a mistake for Cter to have opened her mouth.

At least it got her up on her feet?

Yes, but again she was now wandering aimlessly around the narrow streets turning wider to then turn narrow again with the surrounding buildings narrowing and widening almost in the same rhythm, but not always in the same phase. The heights as well changed on their own exotic whims. Up and down, casting shadows up to Cter's knees and over her face. Round, sharp, square, circle, white, black, wooden, stone. Strangely enough she could almost place what type of monster from the crowd would live in any of the houses. Monster housing was, just like their everything, an expression of their emotion and personality. Had Cter wandered for enough time she'd probably find the one Romrom lived in way back if it still stood.

Thing is though that the human lost within the city of monsters was that she really, really felt that she'd wandered for enough time already! That she actually wanted to return into that carriage that had been her moving prison for days upon days upon days. Uncountable out of reluctance to know the exact number. It was getting to her dry throat, her stinging eyes, her burning legs, and her aching feet. Not to mention her growling stomach which mentioned enough for itself without any further attention to it. Cter's back was soon to add to that pain as well as she folded herself over to try and squish her stomach smaller so that it wouldn't feel so hungry.

"Yeah it's just around a couple of corners."

Cter stopped and turned her head over to the green and yellow monsters making their way across the street in front of her. One spoke in one of the myriad of voices she heard from the crowd.

"Do they still serve Seven Sowls there?" asked the green one with a shrug of its one shoulder. "I heard that was some good eatin'."

Eating…

"Yup."

Eating. Yup.

"Will your monster maid be there?"

Eating. Yup. Monster.

"No."

Eating. No. Monster. Yup.

Cter shook her head with her palm pressed hard against her temple.

Through the haze of her busy head one thing was clear though, and that was that she had to follow those monsters to whatever tavern they were going to otherwise she would collapse. Her mind was spinning at that point, and she needed a couple of tries before she could grip her luggage properly.

After a while she came to realize that a couple in Hjearta parlance meant fewer than a couple in Monster Country parlance. Cter came to realize it after ten turns around varied corners, but eventually she managed to spot a hanging sign waving invitingly for her to come closer. It stirred something in her arm. A familiarity of sorts, but not familial. As if finding an old brooch that one had thought lost. Cter glanced down at her sleeve's shine, and it urged her ever so gently to enter the establishment. An extension flapped underneath the sign which she ducked under before opening the tavern door by putting her shoulder onto it and letting her weight push it open.

"Greetings!" said a long-eared monster from behind the bar counter where a variety of monster backs were on display in various states of hunched, eating their meals. "Oh! A human as well. Welcome to Jarasevo, human. Have you been here before?"

Cter's sleeve urged her to say yes, but "No" was said before the memory could reach up to her mouth from her left arm. The monster jumped down from a chair it was apparently standing on, and Cter followed mesmerized the tops of the two ears bobbing until the rest of them rounded the bar counter along with the rest of the monster motioning up the flight of stairs in the middle of the tavern.

"I think we have the view available for you then, yes?" the monster invited up the stairs with a wide smile. "We don't get a lot of humans this deep into the city. You're just traveling through or looking to stay?"

Stairs…

Oh no…

Cter stood at the bottom of the flight which she felt she needed actual flight to be able to ascend. Her hand gripped the railing hard, but the weight of her legs were too much for her. She could smell food from upstairs, she could smell food from downstairs through the opened hatch behind the bar, but she couldn't move.

She was so close, but no more. She couldn't even sit down on the steps to recuperate due to her locked knees. This was it…

Her journey had ended! Woe was her! She had traveled into another country. Into another world different from her own. Years spent learning magic did nothing for her as she stood upon legs of cracking stone with the world darkening before her. The rolling landscape passing her by as she spent those days inside the carriage now where still and frozen in the warm sun outside the windows.

Now it was her time to pass.

Pass away from this plane of existence as she couldn't ascend to the one above her, both physically and spiritually.

"Did you see that there human in Time's Square? Boy howdy if I'd been in that one's socks I'd skipped town without as much as a tip of my skinny nose. I don't know if humans actually tip their noses when they bid farewell, but it's what I've been told. Either way I'd never forget that face and how darn weird it smiled. What do you say, trembling human at the bottom of the stairs? Would you perchance know about that strange human at Time's Square?"

Cter learned a lot about her body that day.

That she couldn't really go out on day-long walks after sitting down for over a month straight. That apparently she smiled weird when she was embarrassed, at least according to monsters.

And that even after going out on a day-long walk after having sit down for over a month straight she still had energy left to lift up her heavy luggage in her arms and fly up a flight of stairs while taking three steps at a time if she was about to face the reality that she smiled weird when she was embarrassed according to monsters.

She also learned that her second wind was more a brief gust rather than an actual wind. As she reached the upper floor with her breathing deeper than a blacksmith's bellow she began stumbling as the burst of energy from her flight instinct up the flight washed away from her like water thrown on a goose monster already prepared with a towel.

Luckily her ungraceful stumbling landed her in a chair close to where the monster bartender was pointing towards. His hand closed slowly from the open palm he had patiently held gestured over to the best empty seat available next to the large window showing the same hills and rivers that Cter had passed by days and weeks before. Instead though, in a confusing defiance against the bartender monster's invitation, the panting human chose to sit down at a table where the neighboring house was blocking a sizable part of the view?

The monster shrugged while bouncing his eyebrows in conjunction with a confused sigh and grabbed the quill and notebook from his apron's pockets. "Then I welcome you to my tavern now that you've found a seat, human." With a lick that coated the tip of the quill with viscous saliva he was ready to take the human's order. "So what would it be?" he gently pried after snapping his fingers and igniting the candle in the middle of the table. "We do have some servings of Seven Sowls left should you want? It is a very popular dish these types of days."

Cter nodded. She couldn't do much else besides let her neck fall during a strained exhale that turned her half-slouched sit into a three-quarters-slouch. It didn't seem to faze the small monster though, who merely cocked his long rabbit-like ears up as he pocketed his purple notebook.

"...Wa...ter..."

"You can see the lakes from the other table, human," the bartender informed over his shoulder. "I'll be with you in a couple of short minutes."

Cter sure hoped she could catch her breath by then. Where she had seated herself was much closer to the stairs than the window seat, so that was why she took it. She let her eyes gently steer her head to see who else were on the upper floor of the tavern. Fewer monsters than downstairs. Only a handful enjoying a late lunch. None seemed to have noticed Cter though to more an extent than just looking over and confirming to another that it indeed was a human. None that stood up to walk over and talk to her.

Good…

What would they have thought if they'd approach a human and all it did was blurt out in-between sharp coughs? Even worse than what that monster downstairs with the funny accent thought?

This wasn't the impression Cter had planned to inflict. The complete opposite of what Romrom's promise was. At least now Cter could search Romrom's memories for this location too and try again at building a mental map of sorts. Two locations should be good enough, right?

Cter just needed to get something in her stomach that wasn't itself imploding and she'd be good.

She would be...

No, wait...what did the monster say? Couple of short minutes?

Couple…

Monster couple of short minutes.

Oh no.