Chapter 5

Day One, Part 1

After entering the inn, the Mutopians spent the better part of the rest of the day cleaning it, moving furniture aside and setting up a sort of base camp in the main hall, and while it had several rooms both on the ground floor and the second floor, it was decided that they would all stay in the hall during the nights, so that they could all keep an eye on each other, at least until they had secured other accommodations.

Louie the Cockroach was the first to enter the large kitchen in the back, and nearly had a heart attack at the sight of all the dust and traces of vermin. It would take him a long time to get it clean enough to even consider cooking in it, but he was determined to do just that.

Luckily, the larder that was the cellar of the inn seemed to have survived better than the kitchen, and there were about half a dozen large wooden barrels down there, but what they contained, if anything at all, was something they had to investigate later.

For the time, they would have to be happy with having roof over their heads for the night, even if it was quite crowded in the inn. The real work would start the next day.

"Man, this night reminded me of when my High School class were on a study trip and we had to sleep in the dining hall of the hotel because they had double booked us." Tania the Panda said as she and the others exited the inn, stretching her aching body. "Didn't sleep very well that time either."

"Depending on how much work we got ahead of us, you'll probably sleep like a log the coming nights." said Leona. "So how about we get started already?"

"I agree, the sooner we start, the sooner we can turn this place into a proper home." said Tyroth before addressing everyone. "Okay, listen up! Before we start, let's all be clear on a few things. First, no one goes anywhere alone. The place may be abandoned, but there could still be dangers, so form groups and stay together as you explore, and also make sure that at least one of the group is someone that can fight, be it a Knight or a Ninja. Second, we meet back here again by high noon. Third, if you find something that seems magical, don't mess around with it.

And lastly, be careful, no matter how things look."

The assembled people all agreed to these terms, they were simple and understandable enough, and then split up in a few groups that spread out to explore the village, though some remained by the inn, namely Tyroth, Freya, Leonardo, Splinter, George and Devina.

"You two stay here and take it easy." Tyroth said to the two elder mutants, Splinter and George. "Let us younger ones do the heavy work here."

"Are you certain, Tyroth?" Splinter asked with a raised eyebrow. "I can't speak for George, but I still have some strength left in this old body."

"I don't doubt that for a second, master Splinter. But both of you have already done so much for all of us, so now it's our turn to to do something for you, and build us our new home. We have to look after our leaders after all. And I wouldn't mind if you could keep an eye on Louie while you're here."

The dragon gestured towards the back of the inn, from where they could already hear the cockroach cursing at all the filth.

"And you don't have to do all by yourselves, I'll stay here and keep you company." said Devina. "I don't do too well in the sun anyway, so I'd rather be here and keep watch. Need to protect our base and all."

"We appreciate the thought, miss Devina." said George with a smile.

"Oh, please, George, no need for the 'miss', just Devina is fine." the hybrid said with the faintest of blushes on her pale skin. "After all, I am more than twice your age."

"Something that I keep forgetting, unlike my manners."

"I think you'll all have a calm morning then." said Tyroth. "But the rest of us still have work to do, so we'd better be off."

"Hey, dad, can I go with you?" Freya asked, to which the Dragon smiled.

"Of course you can, my little Valkyrie."

"Yes!" Freya cheered, punching her fist into the air. "Let's go! I want to find hidden treasures!"

"I'm sure we'll find something that we can call a treasure." the dragon chuckled, then he turned to Leonardo. "You coming, Leo?"

"Actually, I think I'll stay here. I have a few things I'd like to talk with master Splinter about, and it wouldn't be fair to Devina to let her guard them all by herself."

"Always the gentleman." Devina said, causing Leonardo to blush just a little.

"If that's what you want to do, then go ahead." Tyroth said. "Though to be honest, I would have thought that you'd want to follow Kemeko's group."

"I won't deny that I want to keep an eye on her, but she's old enough not to require me watching her like a hawk, besides, we've trained her well and she's not alone, so I'm confident that she'll be safe."

"Then we'll see you all for lunch." Tyroth said, and he and Freya took to the sky with their strong wings.

Once the two reached a good height, they looked down at the village below them and the lands around it. With all the fields and farmlands surrounding it, the area of the village was easily four or five times the size of Central Park, some six or seven square miles, though the actual settlement only covered a small part of that.

From the forests in the Northwest, there ran a river that snaked its way through the village, originating from a large lake past the forest and providing the village with freshwater before ending in the large body of water that the village bordered to in the east. That water reached as far as they could see in most of the eastern direction, with what seemed like a few islands on the horizon.

Looking back at the village, they saw the inn by the village plaza, a large round area covered with the same paving stones as the roads, and in the centre grew a large spruce tree. Five stone bridges allowed one to cross the river in different areas of the village.

Taking a closer look at the various buildings, and some time to count, one saw that there were nearly a hundred wooden buildings with stone foundations. The vast majority of these were smaller single and two-story houses, the outermost also having what seemed like barns or stables, with a handful of larger two-story among them as well, and finally there were several far larger buildings scattered among them, such as the inn and two other around the plaza, though the inn still dwarfed them.

Another building, almost the same size as the inn was built on a small hilltop, and looked almost like a small mansion. There were also a few larger buildings closer to the coast, including one right next to the dock and one on the dock itself, most likely a boathouse or fishery.

"So many houses, even though Chicago was huge, this place feels really big to." Freya said, her gaze moving from one building to the next.

"I know what you mean. Back in Chicago, everything sort of blended together, but here… it's so very different." Tyroth said. "So where do you want to go first?"

Freya held her chin as she thought, looking at all the groups that were spreading out throughout the village, before her eyes stopped on one particular building.

"That one, dad!" she exclaimed, pointing at the building on the small hill. "There's treasure there! I can feel it in my gut."

"Then let's go, kid."

Opening the doors, the father and daughter walked inside the building, finding themselves in a big hall with two doors on their left and one on their right, as well as set of stairs in the far back, but otherwise the room was empty.

"This was a whole lot of nothing. I was sure there would be something here." Freya said.

"It's just the first room, Freya, we may still have some luck with the others."

Checking the room on the right, they found what looked like a meeting room, complete with a large table and chairs, but little else.

Going over to the left side, the first room turned out to be a small library, the walls being covered in bookshelves, though they were next to empty, with only about a dozen books remaining. Taking one of the books from the shelves, Tyroth began flipping through the pages.

"We're in luck, the written language is English in this world too, so it should be the spoken one too." he said.

"Isn't that strange, dad? I mean, it's like it's a cartoon, a comic or a game, where almost everyone speaks English, no matter who or what."

"Trust me, I find it hard to believe too, but the same happened when your mother, Mona, the turtles and I were sent to Skyrim. They spoke English there too, though the dragons, and a few undead, spoke the same tongue as our dragons used to. And remember the stories the turtles told us, about how they were sent through space, and every alien there spoke English too?"

"I do, yeah, and Uncle Donnie thought that they got some kind of, what did he call it… a universal translation effect, during the teleportation, which allowed them to understand the aliens, or most of them at least. Or the aliens had translators, one or the other."

"And I would almost bet that the talisman did something similar, but not necessarily for all languages, in this case probably only the one called Common in DnD, but that remains to see."

"Still don't understand how it works. If I write something in English to me, something I know how it looks and feels when I write it, someone here shouldn't be able to read it just because we have some magical effect that allow us to hear and read their language, right?"

"I honestly don't know, pumpkin. I'm not sure we understand enough to even ask the right questions about this, but if we can properly commune with people here, then I'll be satisfied with that."

"I suppose you're right, dad, like you always are."

"Not always, Freya. Everyone makes mistake, even I." Tyroth said, putting back the book. "Come on, there are still more rooms to check."

The second room on the left, the one furthest in, had a couple of wooden cabinets against the walls and a large desk with a chair in the middle, facing the door. Some parchments, quills and ink pots lay on the desk told of the room's purpose as either an office or a study.

Inside the cabinets were some basic supplies for the room, including a pair of blank books, but as with the rest of what they had seen so far, there seemed to be a lot missing, either taken when the former inhabitants left or stolen some time after that.

With the bottom floor checked, the father and daughter walked up the stairs to the next floor, and found a hallway ending in a combined living room/kitchen, where the fireplace severed as a cooking station as well, it had a large table with chairs, as well as a couch and a few side tables.

To the side were three doors, and each of the two closest to the stairs led to a small room with a bed, a chest of drawers, a chair and a small table, while the door farthest away lead to a far larger room, which held a large queen size bed, cabinets, tables, chairs and chests.

With how simple the small rooms, especially compared to the larger room, it seemed like they were meant for servants, while the large one belonged to the former master of the house. This were further implied by the few remaining clothes in the rooms, with the ones in the small rooms looking more simple and bland compared to the ones from the larger room, which did have more details and colour, fitting of someone of higher standing.

"Seems like it's almost high noon now." Tyroth said, looking at the height of the sun as he and Freya exited the house. "Hopefully, Louie will have some lunch ready soon. I should probably give him a hand if there is still some to do."

"I guess..." Freya sighed.

"What's the matter, sweetheart? Disappointed that we didn't find any treasures?"

"Yeah… I was hoping for something to bring back and show Mom, to give to her. A necklace, a bracelet, even a coin would have done, but we didn't find anything like that, even though we looked so thoroughly."

"If I were to guess, I'd say that the people that lived here took all their valuables with them when they left. But there are still plenty of houses left to check, we may still find something that they forgot."

"I hope so, Dad. I really want to find something for Mom. But what should we do with this house? It's like a mansion, a small mansion."

"I don't know. I think it might have been the village hall, so maybe we can use it for that as well. We'll bring it up with the others later, so let's head back for now, then we can keep looking."

"Okay!"

This seems like a good place to stop, since this is starting to get a bit long, but that's what you get with all this world building, even if it was just for a single village, and we're not even done yet. Next time, and possibly the time after that, we'll see what the rest of the Mutopians have done during the time Tyroth and Freya turned the mansion upside down.

See you all then. :)