Chapter 33 - A New Family

Flurisburg was a town in words and words only. In all reality, it might as well have been a kingdom of its own. Its outskirts were more rustic in style, with simple brick and wooden houses broken up by neat, cobblestone paths. As we got closer to the large castle-like structure, the buildings began to look newer, larger and more modern. Houses began to have triple stories and were made out of white clay instead of brick. All sorts of shops including bars, bartering stalls and fresh produce stores began to pop up, also increasing the number of people we saw.

Every time Red and I passed by a person, whether or not they were human, they would bow and respectfully greet him. I was slightly jealous. All that attention and all he did was smile back? He even had all the pretty ladies blushing. Honestly, I was better looking.

Oh, that’s right. Red had me change into my human form before leaving the cave. Apparently, a walking, talking potato would scare away the citizens. Scare my ass. A talking potato was nothing compared to a talking skeleton.

By the time we reached the centre of the town, the paths had changed to a paved white ceramic substance. We walked up a tall staircase that led to the front of the castle. Actually, I take that back. It was more of a mansion than a castle. It had luxurious glass windows which looked oddly futuristic and concrete pillars that stretched higher than should’ve been possible. It consisted of three towers, separated at the base but joined together as they reached the top.

A tall man strided out of the doors of the central tower. He wore a similar white outfit to Red, except the threads lining his clothes were blue, instead of gold. He looked to be wise, with a grey beard and a head full of white hair. The creases on his forehead and skin were clearly visible, but only added to his powerful look. Brilliant blue eyes met my gaze and a warm smile radiated from his face.

“You must be Winston. My name is Mowzero, and I am Flurisburg’s mayor.”

“You… know who I am?” I asked, ignoring the name. Something told me it was not the time to bring it up.

“Of course.” He said, gesturing to the dragon beside me. “Elder Corvus here has kindly made us all aware of your arrival.”

“Wait. Did you just say L’Der?”

Red placed a hand on my shoulder and whispered. “Not the kind that you know of.”

Mowzero ignored the comment, and his smile widened. “Here, let me get you what you came for.”

As he uttered an incantation under his breath, a grey ring seemingly appeared in the air. It was large enough for someone to fit their head through. His arm disappeared as it went through the ring. He groped around inside for a few seconds before drawing his arm back along with a large brown rucksack.

“That’s space magic.” Red whispered.

“Yeah, I can tell.” I shot back. Seriously, did he think I was stupid or something?

“Here are the items we’ve prepared for your stay.” Mowzero said, holding out the bag for me.

Hesitantly, I took it in my arms. Even with my superhuman strength, I could tell that it weighed a ton.

“Thanks?” I said, lifting the flap and taking a peek. I caught a glimpse of some clothing items… was that a pair of underpants?

Red placed a hand over mine before I could really start digging into it. “You can take your time to look through it later.”

Well that sounded like a warning. “Ah… right.” I said quickly and slipped the bag onto my back. The clothes I currently wore were one of Red’s spare outfits, who clearly did not have good taste. I was dressed in a blindingly white robe that felt more like a skirt. It was lucky the damn thing actually fit me, if not I might’ve opted to walk down the street naked.

“I wish you the best of luck during your time here.” Mowzero said politely. “I’m sorry I can’t guide you around town myself, but you have my guarantee that your homestay family are extremely kind.”

“Wait. Did you say homestay family?”

It turns out what he said was true. Apparently, I wasn’t to stay with the Great Beast, but with one of the citizens of Flurisburg.

After a ten minute walk- honestly, I didn’t see why Red couldn’t just teleport us around. Wasn’t space magic supposed to be able to do that? Anyways, after a ten minute walk, we were once again in the outskirts of the town. This time, however, we were on the opposite side, further away from the mountaintop where Red resided.

My homestay family was a family of four. Two middle aged parents, a teenage girl and a young boy, probably still in single digit years. They were, surprisingly, human. At least, that was what I thought. The parents were welcoming, immediately offering to take my bag for me. I declined. I didn’t want them to break their backs, after all.

The children, on the other hand, were a complete and utter mess. The daughter, named Cle’de, probably around seventeen years of age, took one look at me and stomped off, back into the house. I hadn’t even said a word. The boy, Kai’ra, still in single digit years, began clinging to my leg, giggling whenever I politely asked him to get the fuck off. It was already hard enough to walk with this damn robe.

Red left soon after that, telling me to ‘be nice’ and that he’d be back the next morning.

Now, I fidgeted awkwardly at the dining table in the Harding’s residence.

“So, tell us about yourself!” The mother asked encouragingly. Her name was Ma’ra.

“I… was a baron.” I said plainly.

Red had warned me not to expose my identity as a potato.

“A good one too… I think.”

“A baron? I’ve never met one before.” Ma’ra said, clearly trying to break the awkward tension between us.

I wanted to say something else, but drew a blank. My admiral deeds… I had no admiral deeds. If I listed off my achievements, it would’ve seemed like I was boasting.

Hang on. Since when did I ever care about trivial matters such as what people thought of me?

Before I could find an answer, Rya’de noticed my loss for words and stood in for me. “How old are you, June?”

Thankfully, this was an easy question to answer. “I’m thirty two. Turning thirty three this year.”

Both of their jaws dropped open.

“Thirty two?” Ma’ra exclaimed. “You don’t look a day over twenty five!”

I glanced back down at my baby-skinned hands. Technically, I was less than an hour old in this body. “Well… I have… smooth… skin?”

How the hell was I supposed to respond to that?

However, once again, they didn’t push it. Instead, they nodded at each other and looked back towards me. “Do you want to go see your room? Rya’de will take you there while I get dinner ready. Is there anything in particular that you’re allergic to?” Ma’ra asked kindly as she leant forward.

“Actually I don’t eat-” I said instinctively. I quickly corrected myself. “I mean, I’m not allergic to anything.”

When was the last time I’d eaten something? Before I’d been turned into a potato. Could this human body even digest food? Well, it looked like I was about to find out.

Rya’de stood up from his stool and gestured toward the dining room’s exit.

I was led down a small corridor which provided access to several rooms. As we passed each door, he would tell me what the room was.

“Laundry room, Kai’ra’s room, Cle’de’s room, and here. Your room!”

We stopped at the end of the corridor and opened a brown oak door.

As I stepped in the entrance, I was surprised to see a fairly standard bedroom. At least, standard for commoners. Which, I had to keep reminding myself time and time again, I was now one of.

The room had a small single bed, a desk and a clothes wardrobe. However, what stood out to me the most was a large bookshelf lining the entire side wall. It was packed to the brim with dusty, thick books with frayed leather bindings.

After thanking Rya’de for his hospitality, I closed the room door and thrusted my bag of whatever shit lay inside it onto my new bed. The covers smelt nice. Like flowers. A small window resided just above my bed, providing enough little natural light at this time of the day. Rolling up the sleeves of my robe, I jumped onto my bed and kneeled to get a good look of the sunset.

Rolling orange lights slowly sunk into the horizon, and musical caws sounded throughout the air. The birds were telling us all that the day was over.

So mixed up in all these new adventures, I had found no time to appreciate the beauty of nature. Back in Agridia, I had only watched the sun set when I was a child. When I had become Baron, I’d never even looked out the window.

It was moments like these that made me reconsider. Did I really want to reclaim my position as Baron? What was so good about that job anyways? All I had to do was deal with troublesome problems the townsfolk brought up.

Even more confused than before, I turned back to the backpack that made the bed creak in protest.

“Now, just what is in here?” I wondered out loud, lifting the leather flap.

I stuck my hand in and felt around. It was all clothes, clothes and even more…

Thok. Thok.

Huh.

My hand brushed against something hard in the middle. It was hollow and slightly warm from being snuggled in with all the clothes. With a grunt, I pulled out shirts, underwear, trousers, and socks and flung them onto the bed messily, not really paying attention to them. This thing had taken my interest.

After a few more seconds of throwing things around my room, I finally reached the source of the sound. It was a brandedless metal container about the size of a handkerchief. Slowly, I opened it up and peeked inside.

What lay inside was something like an accessory bundle; a fancy piece of fabric that cradled four items.

First, a thin, bronze, metal band that looked like it was meant to go on my wrist. Second, two beautifully decorated ornate knives. I would’ve called them daggers, but even with their sheath on, they barely stretched the length of my hand. Each one’s handle had carefully inscribed carvings, which were a ring of ten oddly shaped prints. The one closest to the blade, however, protruded out instead of in.

Frowning, I picked up the last item, completely wrapped in a red silk ribbon.

Only when I had completely unfurled the covering that I realised;

It was a badge.

Surrounding the exterior was the same ringed design that had been on the knives. The shape of the badge was a rectangle, with the bottom side curved into a semicircle.

Imprinted on the face of it was three initials and a few words.

T T R

School Of Anthropoids

Did I read that correctly?

School?

A sudden realisation came over me and I stood up in shock.

As I did, I surveyed the clothes which were scattered around my room.

There were blazers, ties, ironed white shirts and long black pants.

They were all part of a school uniform.

Well, shit.