Two oxcarts carried the produce, four of us sat with each cart, one guiding the oxen who pulled the carts themselves. Aside me, all were dressed in leather armour, worn and patched to varying but similar degrees. It was dawn now, we’d started early, to arrive in the morning.

The man opposite me, Mill, was teaching me to play a tune on a leaf. “You’re terrible at this,” He remarked, laughing as the leaf I blew on created wet sounds almost reminiscent of a blown raspberry. I grimaced, drying the leaf and watching as he demonstrated yet again, the shrill sounds of the leaflute absorbed by the vegetation around us.

“Oi, keep it down, would ya?” The oxen guide for our trip, Caio asked. “Bad enough I have to steer this thing. Least you could do is let me go by a morning without that shrieking.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Mills replied, his hands held palm forward, even though Caio couldn’t see it. “But I haven’t had a reason to use this in ages. I was surprised when he asked.” He said, smiling.

“I think that’s enough as well, though I assume it’s an excellent deterrent for anything with ears.” A girl remarked, sitting across from me and Mills.

My armour had been modified, the colour changed to suit leather; the design itself deceptively similar, though it incorporated much of the articulation and protection of the original design. Hopefully it didn’t make me any more or less of a target.

I had ultimately chosen to use a sword, my armour the way it was, it made sense to capitalize on it with a melee weapon rather than a bow. They also didn’t have spare bows, in fact quite a few used slings. We wouldn’t be fighting on an open field, and the sling was easier to ready and fire. Without training though, it was exactly as hard, if not harder, to aim it compared to the bow itself.

We were about to enter a forest trail, usually the more dangerous section of the trip. I pulled a part of my armour, normally draped against my neck, upwards, veiling my face. I hardened the material, causing it to become more like a face plate than a veil. Mills put his helmet on fully, a hand on his spear.

The first we encountered was the ubiquitous slime, Mills, an uncanny expert in their anatomy, pierced its control centre with little trouble. He then lifted it by the spear onto the cart and removed several specific organs to stow away, flinging the remains back into the woods with a flick of the spear.

A few more slimes came our way, dispatched by Mills and Lanth, the man who found me, on the other cart before they reached it. More organs joined the sack, to be sold when we reached the capital. Their innards were a useful alchemical reagent, for glues and leatherworking among others.

Of course, alchemy was another word for chemistry, though some of the things that the group talks about… It’s hard to believe, perhaps there are other forces at work as well.

My sword is drawn, and lays across my lap, Sense only has a large enough radius to observe the cart, and the edges of the treeline. Despite this, it is enough, allowing me to tell the moment a slime enters range. The end of the forest looms, and I can feel everyone visibly relaxing, I grip the blade tighter, angling it slightly. This was in fact the most opportune time for an ambush.

I hated being right about things like this, all I could be glad about was that the first arrow had been poorly aimed, deflecting off me and embedding itself besides me. A few crucial seconds passed as I tracked the origin, pointing quickly as I vaulted down, my blade sweeping in an arc to deter the goblins that had attempted to rush the cart, cat-like eyes glowing in the dark. I flourished the sword once, thrusting it into one of the more dim-witted goblins, impaling it. I spun away, using the momentum to jerk the sword free.

During this time, two more arrows streaked across path, one digging itself into the girl’s left shoulder, and the other grazing her thigh, causing no damage. Fully alerted, she turned, and in a single motion sent a clay bullet in the direction I’d pointed at. A satisfying crunch followed, as a bow and a blurry shape fell from a branch.

Mills joined me quickly, though the goblins, who’d recovered from their initial surprise, dodged his thrusts. They scurried about, evaluating, occasionally hopping past the spear point before earning a quick cut from me.

Their morale wavered quickly, now without the element of surprise, one of them turned to run. A clay bullet struck it in the back, another crunch, and it fell to the ground. Still alive, though incapacitated, I ignored it. Another’s eyes shifted away from me, his feet planted as it deliberated over running. I lunged, wielding the blade in a hand and a half grip, I swung viciously, decapitating it.

The rest of the goblins scurried off, disappearing into the mist-like shadows. The girl sent a few more parting shots, before regrouping. I was unharmed, a few of the blades had sliced through the parts I had left soft for articulation, but that was easily fixed. I brushed my hand across it, realigning it as I reformed the bonds.

I turned to Mills, who had also evaluated his injuries, only a few small cuts on his arm, perhaps while I had been preoccupied. No other injuries were obvious, and so I turned to the most wounded of us three. The girl had plucked the arrow from her shoulder, it was fortunate that it had only penetrated part way, but I expect that it had struck bone to stop so soon.

Stepping over, I motioned for her to sit, and put pressure on the wound. Mills and I climbed onto the cart, and I spared a glance to the other. They’d fared little better, I would think that Lanth had been the one to detect the ambush first. He had a small gash on his forearm, and the other two had some arrows wounds.

Once everyone was aboard, Caio got the oxen moving again, stowing his sling away. It was impressive that he’d managed to use it, given that the oxen hadn’t become agitated at all. I tended to the girl’s wounds, careful not to perform any delicate actions as we moved along the dirt path.

Caio stopped the oxcart a while later, once we were far enough from the forest. I had her remove the lamellar rawhide, along with the segments of rawhide that protected her arms. The cloth padded armour also came off, to reveal a shallow wound. I gave it a small rinse with alcohol, one of the few constants in all these worlds. Stitching it shut was a simple matter. Though harder in the dim light, helped along by the medical supplies we carried as well.

I received a simple thank you from her. She was from one of the other farms, they’d referred her to us for some reason. I nodded, and helped tie segments back into proper position.

I sat back down, the small wounds on Mills didn’t need any real attention, small as they were, and her injury was, while troubling, not something I had the means to deal with. It was already disinfected, stitched, and the bone injury was slight, it would heal over time.

“Am I needed over there?” I asked, turning toward the other oxcart, they responded in the negative, their wounds almost finished with disinfection.

“We’d better report this to the garrison later, goblin nests can become a real nuisance for travellers, and even grow to be a dangerous threat.” Lanth noted. “They are like roaches, ever present and persistent.”

We resumed our journey with little fuss, the occasional dire wolf pack glancing once before turning away for meatier prey. Larger slimes inhabited the region, with thicker coats and a more manoeuvrable method of hunting.

The city was visible in the distance, its walls formed of stone and towering at great heights.

Approaching the gates was a curious experience. It was mainly of logs, shaped and sanded into cuboids and bound by metal. Something translucent coated it, visible in the light of dawn.

The gate guards looked over the oxcart, checking the contents and impressing upon us the importance of not causing trouble. Baer, the farmer’s eldest and the oxen driver for the other cart, took care of taxes owed and the paperwork.

We worked quickly once we got to the marketplace, setting up a stall and moving out all of the produce. I sighed, looking at some of the produce that had been shot by arrows, looks like we weren’t selling those.

I set them aside, and we quickly sorted out the produce and set up the price signs, many others did the same nearby, all with a different set of wares. One of the groups caught sight of Baer, and waved, a few breaking off from the group, their stall already erected.

“Baer, it’s been a while, how are you?” The man asked, “Your father finally letting you take the reins huh.” He rubbed at his chin, coated in a five o’clock shadow. His dull brown overalls were patchy, worn in parts.

“Hey, how was the trip?” Another asked, approaching Mills. Mills turned, smiling as he greeted them.

I stayed by the stall, leaning against a wall that stood behind it. Conversation sparked across the market as we waited for the day to begin. I shut my eyes, feeling the cold stone behind me.

“You two are new, right?” A voice came from the side, and a young girl walked into my Sense sphere. “Don’t be a stranger, where’re you from?”

I kept my eyes closed, with the helmet on it was unnoticeable, and I wanted to get some practice in. “I don’t think you’ll be familiar with where I’m from, suffice to say that it’s a long journey.”

She turned to the other girl, from my cart, who cocked her head. “I’m from this town, Hrothan. I used to live on the outer edges of town before I took on this job. In fact some of my family lives nearby.”

“Well I’m from Kikre, faaar off to the west, there’s beautiful flowers and a lot of herbs that grows close by. It’s a beautiful place with absolutely delicious food. My name’s Kayio, what’s yours?” The girl asked, bursting with energy.

“My name’s Yinea.” I raised an eyebrow. Huh, another? In a different world and language no less. “Nice to meet you Kayio.”

“You can call me Kael.” I said, the word was apocryphal, and meant dark. “Your name doesn’t happen to be spelled the same as that man there right?” I said, pointing towards Caio.

“Err, that’s Caio right? No, completely different.” She spelled it out to me. Approximating their phonetics is troublesome, but if I ever want anyone to understand what I’m recording…

[Or we could record using meaning] Suggested Page.

You remember when we discussed how differently brains can be wired correct? Page nodded mentally, though it still seemed to favour the idea.

“I’m with that group there.” Kayio said, pointing towards a group of what appeared to be alchemists, who smiled and waved to us. I reciprocated in kind. She continued, speaking at length of her hobbies, how interesting everything seemed. I commented whenever appropriate, Yinea warmed greatly to the girl, and the conversation quickly became one of theirs. Her family called soon after. “If you need medicines or anything come find us okay?” I nodded, as did Yinea, and she skipped off.

The market had begun to fill, morning arriving and waking the other residents as well. They began to filter in, and a low drone of conversation began to manifest. Caio, Baer and the others gathered, Mills stretching his arms. It would be a long afternoon.