Guess who's getting a chapter a day earlier?! You guys! I probably won't have WIFI tomorrow, so I decided to give this to you early. I hope you like this one!
-owl
Rollan sat on a horse, at the end of a line consisting of —from front to back— Tarik, Meilin, Conor, Abeke, and Nicolai. They had been riding for nearly a week, after taking a boat to Amaya from Greenhaven. Rollan was thankful that he had become used to riding a horse, because otherwise this trip would have been even worse than it already was.
Not that anything bad had happened, for the most part, at least. There had been no problems getting to the port in Ekinox, nor in getting the six horses. The problem had come at the end of the second day of riding.
The group had begun to bed down for the night, and only Abeke was at the site. Everyone else was either gathering firewood, hunting, or otherwise needing privacy. What ended up happening was a group of teenagers from the closest town had stumbled upon the camp site and seen Abeke alone. They had gotten the bright idea to try to scare her.
That, unsurprisingly, had ended up bad for them. And, once Abeke had realized that they were not a threat, she and Uraza ran them out of the camp site. There must have been a sudden understanding between the pair, because when Rollan returned to the campsite, Uraza was no more than a mark below her elbow.
In any case, now they were crossing a fairly dull terrain. Other than a few rocky ridges and the scrubby bushes that sort of bordered the trail on which they were riding, there wasn't much to look at. Like most of the other journeys that Rollan had taken with the Greencloaks, Essix, for the most part, flew above the group, happy to be in the sky. Now, however, with a cry she swooped down and perched on Rollan's shoulder.
Jhi was on Meilin's hand, Uraza was running along at the horses' pace, side by side with Diata, while Briggan loped near Conor and Lumeo sat at the back of Tarik's saddle.
As they reached the top of a rise in the terrain, Rollan could see a small settlement. It was filled with dirt streets and adobe buildings that lacked the features and skill that Rollan was used to seeing in Concorba. People milled around, dogs and horses with carts with them. There was a low stone wall around the outside of it, looking quite shoddy and pathetic.
"Boulder City." Tarik stated, drawing the group to a halt.
Rollan had been trying to be better about his sarcasm, he really was. However, when an opportunity provided itself so beautifully... "'Pebble Village' would be more accurate."
Tarik turned to him slowly, an expression on his face like he was trying to convince himself against doing something. When he spoke, his voice was dry. "The natives call it Sanabajari. Most other people call it by the nickname. Most of the towns in the west of Amaya are small, as fewer people have settled in the wild, untamed land, far from the settled region in the east. Try to keep the mocking tone away, Rollan, these people will not take kindly to it."
Meilin then spoke up. "This makes calling Amaya the New Lands make sense. I've never seen anywhere in Zhong be this... uncivilized. "
Tarik made a so-so movement with his right hand. "Many know Zhong as the Walled Lands. However, there are places there that I have seen that would make Boulder City look like luxury."
"Is this where we will find the bear and raccoon from Conor's dream?" Abeke asked.
"Assuming Olvan and Lenori interpreted the dream correctly, yes," Tarik nodded. Barlow's companion is a bear, and Monte's is a raccoon. There's a chance they've come across Arax in their wanderings."
"Barlow and Monte were Greencloaks a long time ago," Nicolai put in, speaking for the first time in a while. "They left the order to become explorers. They've been out here for the last fifteen years, give or take. Almost no one has explored the continent as much as they have. I've never met Monte, but Barlow and I met a few years back."
"How do we know that they will be here?" Abeke asked, gesturing to the settlement.
"We don't," Tarik admitted. "The Greencloaks try our best to keep tabs on our own, and the last we heard, they opened a trading post here. And if they aren't here, we can pick up a trail."
"Hopefully," Nicolai muttered.
Tarik nodded. "Hopefully," he echoed.
Urging the horses forward, they rode down the slope and through the low stone wall into town. Rollan couldn't help but notice the cold stares and mistrustful looks the people were casting on the group, especially the ones in green cloaks. The other thing he noticed was that almost everyone in view were men, hardy-looking and weathered.
They stopped in front of the largest building in town, a slightly dingy two story structure with a boardwalk wrapping around it. A large sign proclaimed it as the trading post.
There was a flash of light and Lumeo became a mark on Tarik's arm, Diata returning to Nicolai's shoulder.
"Send Essix above," Tarik said. "Conor ,leave Briggan outside. Abeke, return Uraza to the passive state."
All three did as asked. Essix was gone before Tarik had even finished speaking, and once Abeke offered her arm to the leopard, Uraza was gone. Briggan padded over and sat by the horses.
"Do you think there will be trouble?" Rollan couldn't help but ask, reaching to his hip where the dagger supplied by the Greencloaks was kept. He also had a small blade in his boot. One could never be too careful.
Tarik shrugged. "Perhaps. Sometimes former Greencloaks hold grudges."
"Should we take them off?" Conor asked.
Nicolai shook his head. "Never out of shame or to win favor. We must stand behind who we are and what we represent."
"Everyone is staring," Meilin noted.
"Let's give them something to watch, then," Tarik said, leading the group into the trading post. The tall man had his sword on his back, while Nicolai had his on his hip. Meilin carried her quarterstaff and Abeke her bow, though Conor had left his ax with his saddle.
The trading post had two halves. On one side was a bar and the other a traditional trading post or general store. Rollan had to wonder if there was truly a difference between the two. The entire building stopped what they were doing, whether it was eating or looking over goods, to look at the newcomers.
Tarik again led the group, this time to the counter in the general stone. Behind the counter was a balding man with a mischievous face.
"Greencloaks?" he smirked. "Official business, or just passing through?"
Nicolai pushed in front of Tarik. "We're looking for Barlow and Monte."
The man behind the counter looked at each of them in turn before speaking. "I can't say I've seen either of them anytime recently."
"Do they still own this trading post?" Tarik asked.
The man nodded. "Sure do. Most successful emporium around here."
He was clearly going to continue speaking when there was a commotion behind them and Essix glided to Rollan's shoulder. He sighed. They all should have known better that Essix would go where she wanted, when she wanted. As everyone stared at him Rollan stroked Essix's back gently.
"Don't worry about us, go ahead."
"how long until they get back?" Tarik asked, turning back to the shopkeeper.
The man rolled his eyes. "Don't know. They don't share their schedule with me. Sometimes they're gone for months at a time."
"He's lying," Rollan said with certainty. It was so obvious. With Essix on his shoulder his perceptions were higher, and he could read all the tells that the shopkeeper was lying.
"I agree," Tarik said, calmly watching the man.
The room delved into chaos for a few minutes, a cacophony of sound surrounding them all, it ended when Nicolai backed away from the counter and spoke in a loud voice.
"We are here on orders from Greenhaven. We need to see Monte and Barlow."
The chaos ebbed, but there were still quite a few mutterings. The shopkeeper tried to make a break for it, but before Tarik or Nicolai could chase after him, some of the larger customers got in their way. Rollan and Conor raced to follow the shopkeeper. Eventually they cornered him against the back wall of the trading post.
"Fine!" the man said, out of breath. "Chase over, leave me be!"
"Why'd you run?" Rollan asked harshly.
"I don't want to deal with any more Greencloaks, I've had problems with too many in the past. Now, I have a thing with wolves. Particularly being eaten by them. Call him off."
They caught him behind the store, and Briggan cornered him against the
Conor was about to when Rollan held out an arm. "Wait. Who are you?"
The man sighed. "I suppose that I forgot to introduce myself. Name's Monte."