>>===== Through the eyes of the father =====

The bed wasn’t that bad. We’ll if I compared it to sleeping on the forest floor being eaten by bugs then this was heaven.

It was stuffed with straw, so it would definitely be a struggle for someone who came from an age with incomparable technology. But my body was too worn out to care.

As I stood up and stretched I could see the morning sunrise through the wooden window. It wasn’t made out of glass, it simply had holes with a wooden latch that was opened.

I looked back to see the young girl. Her faded red dress made her look like a potato as she was curled up hugging a straw-filled pillow. Her face was tear-stained from all the crying she did last night.

My arm smelled like her slobber, so I decided I’ll take a morning bath later in the morning.

For the moment I went over all the equipment that I had helped Mauldred bring to this room. It was mostly tools, leather, money, and materials I didn’t know how to use. Their main items must still be with their corpses out in the forest.

I counted all my money and found out I still had enough to eat over twenty meals. I even had a few silver coins. I remembered Mauldred calling them Mints.

Using the weight standard, a shilling was between 8 to 15 pence. The mint was between 9 to 13 shillings. People would only base transactions on weight if the quantity of the coins was in hundreds.

Laborers made around 2 shillings a day, while skilled laborers made up to 6. Artisans and craftsmen varied in skill, but they could see transactions based on mints.

Yesterday's meal was a half pence for each juice and 2 pence for the soup. The bath was 6 pence for me and a full shilling for the girl.

I was lucky to have the nice bag of coins, and the only guilt I had for it was Mauldred’s death. I didn’t know any of his mercenary friends, so I didn’t think much about using their stuff.

It may be petty of me to use items of dead people, but my morals were quickly becoming dull. And thinking about dull morals, it was time for me to ditch the girl.

According to Mauldred, the west side of the country has Anglaise speaking citizens. I could set myself up there or continue west past the border into the Anglo Isles. Whichever, I at least had a direction, and taking this girl with me would be a burden. She also probably had an uncle or some relative still in town.

Since she was still asleep, I decided to let her rest and go to the pub on the first floor to get myself some breakfast. I was really craving milk as a morning treat. Some bread would be a nice addition.

As I approached the counter, I had no way to communicate so I looked around for something to reference with gestures.

I was struggling for a bit until I decided to give up and simply pointed at the soup one of the other patrons was eating.

“Hey, you’re Mauldred’s subordinate right?” The chief had walked in and tried to get my attention.

“Ah, Sir, I was planning to visit you later today,” I responded in kind.

He had a soft smile under his white mustache. “What a coincidence, I came here hoping to bump into you or Mauldred. I didn’t hear back yesterday so I was a bit worried.”

The Chief noticed my darkened expression and realized what happened. “Oh, I see. You don’t have to… Why don’t we sit and I’ll treat you to some breakfast?”

He opened his palm to an open table and I nodded.

“What would you like? Mauldred told me you struggle in Ebrero so I’ll order for the both of us.”

The word Ebrero was familiar. So familiar, it actually made sense. Hebrew. The language of this land was Hebrew. I snapped out of my train of thought as I noticed I was making the Chief wait on me.

“Um, I was hoping for some milk and bread?” I asked in a humble tone.

“Oh, I... “ The Chief was choked up as he explained. “The town is no longer allowed to have grain since an incident with the grain farmer’s daughter a few years back. We don’t sell bread here since the lord uses all-grain food products as supplies for the wars.

And the farms ‘round doesn’t keep livestock since it attracts monsters like the moot.”

“I see, then the vegetable soup is fine.” I was a little disappointed, but it made sense.

“Cabbage soup?” The Chief asked for confirmation.

“Please. With some pear juice.”

“Don’t want beer instead, it’s my treat?”

“It’s alright.” I was never fond of alcohol so I insisted on the juice. As he went to order our food my mind raised. ‘... incident with the grain farmer’s daughter…’ My brain caught those words. I immediately connected the dots and hypothesized why the little girl was hated so much by the town.

But I needed confirmation. When the Chief returned I took my chance to pry about it.

“About the Moot… I wanted to apologize since we lost their whereabouts yesterday, so the town may be in danger.”

“Ah don’t worry, I wanted to find you guys since I was worried. Since the farm incident, the Moot haven’t dared get close to the town so it may be safe until the gladiators arrive tomorrow.” The Chief nodded his head.

“I see… then what if I came upon an orphaned child on my way back?” I decided to ease in on what I wanted to know.

“Then the child will be welcomed at the church, we don’t have an orphanage, but our pastor takes good care of the parentless children. You met them yesterday when you visited the church.” The barmaid brought us our drinks and the Chief began sipping on his beer.

“What if the child is the daughter of the grain farmer?” I decided to be direct.

“Considering that there is only a single grain farm, and said farmer only has two daughters. If the child you found is the youngest then I am afraid she has no place here. And for concern of your wellbeing, this child is a heathen who brings disaster. I suggest you forget about her.” The Chief was serious, and his veins were bulging.

He had a deep-rooted hatred for this child, a small child who was younger than 10. How can there be so much abhorred emotion directed to such a fragile little girl? I was beginning to infuriate, but I quickly slowed my mental fire.

There was a lot of bigotry in historical settings and if I got mad over everything these ignorant people did I would be swallowed by my hate.

I decided to take her with me. If they didn’t want her, then I would rather take her myself.

Since the mood became dark, and I had no personal quarrel with this man nor the people here I drank my juice and took a deep breath.

I decided to make casual conversation that would help me instead…

“What is the best way to travel west from here? My destination is my family on the west border of Gregoria?” I decided to lie based on the things Mauldred told me.

“Your best bet would be to take an Uber to Al-Kareem, it should be a bit over a day’s ride, but at the city, you could hitch a caravan that heads to the war front.” The Chief was happy with this change of conversation, but wait…

Uber? My brain wouldn’t think past that word.

“Uber?” I just had to ask!

“Right, the Uber Wagon Cart leaves and cycles between this town and Al-Kareem every few days. Miora should still be by the main road. She’ll leave around noon.” The town head continued with information about this taxi-like service, but it wasn’t answering the main question floating in my head.

“She charges a full shilling per person, but it’s the safest travel…” I cut the Chief in mid-sentence to ask, “but why is it called Uber?”

The Chief looked at me awkwardly and stroked his mustache before answering. “I’m not sure, the Uber Company is a system of wagons, ships, and various caravans that expand all over the main continent. It’s said that the company is older than most kingdoms.”

This was the information I wanted. This told me more than enough. Enough to form a hypothesis about this world I was in, but I needed more information to further develop the idea in my head.

“I saw the steam engine that powered the well. It was fueled by coal right?” I shifted the conversation again.

“Yeah, our town’s charcoal burners are camped by the riverside, they work with the woodsmen to turn trees into usable fuel for this busy town. Fun stuff.” The Chief finished his beer and ordered another from the barmaid.

“Wouldn’t it be more efficient to use other fuels, like petroleum, gasoline, or the electricity in the signs outside?” I threw random words out to see which the Chief would catch.

“Hmm, I’ve never heard of the first two before, but electricity is that lighting magic stuff, right? Well, there are steam engines that use the akolite stones like those signs you’re talking about, but we can’t keep those in public machines ‘cause they’ll be stolen.

Families keep akolite engines in shops and homes, but those are fueled by the person’s mana, and while it certainly would be cheaper if everyone used their mana to pump water instead of charcoal… It won't last long before it’s stolen.”

This was a dead end. The chief continued talking about mana and magic similar to Mauldred and again I brushed it off as ignorance to substitute their lack of scientific understanding. The barmaid brought us our food and we talked as we ate.

Regardless I stopped believing this was a medieval world and decided it was simply more underdeveloped. So I asked a price question that would help me.

“What about Earth?” I didn’t know how to ask it, but I didn’t want to break the flow of the conversation and ended up with the first thing that came to mind.

“What about it?” The Chief was unfazed and just sipped on his beer.”

I played off with my origin story of being from the countryside to feign ignorance. “I heard people talking about it, but I don’t know what it is?”

“Earth as in Heaven Earth? We’ll you’re the first person I met that doesn’t know about it. The priest will definitely be able to tell you all about it, but basically, it’s where we all go after we die.

You see at the beginning of time, our forefathers descended from the heavens, the garden of Earth. They came to this planet to be guided by our God Saturnus and it’s many sons in the sky.”

As I listened diligently I filtered through the religious mumbo-jumbo and understood a very basic theory about this planet.

I was on Titan, one of Saturn's moons that was colonized by the inhabitants of Earth. I was happy. Not only did that tell me that the colonization mission to Mars was probably successful, but that we went above and beyond to colonize other worlds. These people must be the future generations of those that came to colonize.

But… how the fuck did I end up here?

The Chief had pulled out a mechanical pocket watch from his clean white shirt.

"Oh, I need to get going, if you're heading out best do it soon as she'll leave in two hours. Else, after the gladiators come we could help you recuperate the bodies of your comrades and all their stuff, but you'll have to wait about a week before the Uber comes around."

"Thank you, sir, for everything."

"Take care... And... I wouldn't mind if you took that curse with you, but I like you and wouldn't want you to suffer. No one would blame you if you threw it away." The man walked away and left.

I had already made up my mind. If this town didn't want the girl, I was not going to abandon her. I could at least take her to Al-Kazeem and see if anyone without hatred would take her off my hands.

I saw a patron order seeds from the counter, so I bought some as well and filled my water container with juice. I went upstairs and set the food next to the bed.

The girl was still asleep. It brought back a sense of nostalgia from the time I spent with my own sister.

I poked her freckled cheek with my finger and waited for her to wake up.

She sat up and looked at me awkwardly. I pointed to the food and insisted for her to eat it, which she did without much fuzz.

I grabbed some waterskins from the equipment of Mauldrerd’s comrade and went downstairs with the hope to fill them up with water for the journey. I also purchased more seeds and dried fruits.

I went to the bathhouse once more before returning to the little girl.

She was silently sitting on the bed and I felt bad for her. She had a wide smile when she looked up and saw me. She ran to hug me and I simply caressed her hair. I packed everything I could in two bags and threw one to the girl.

Between the axe and falchion sword, I kept the axe holstered and handed the sword to the girl. The sword was significantly lighter and smaller so if anything at least she could just swing it around and hit something with a little luck.

Or at most deter potential danger.

The sword looked funny as it was half her size. It was tied above her stomach instead of her waist so it can be holstered by the side. She was able to keep it from bouncing by holding it with the grip with her right hand.

I left the room with the little girl following behind. I gave the key back to the owner of the inn on the first floor and strolled through the town.

People’s gazes were still harsh, but at least they were bearable knowing we were leaving.

Passing the town we arrived by wagons that were parked inside a fence. I saw them before but paid them little attention at that time. Now I could see that the horses were actually six-legged creatures like the one back at the farm.

They had horse manes and an array of neutral colors, but what distinguished them from horses other than the extra pair of legs was the horns on their forehead. Some had a single one and others had two horns.

“.............?” A quirky redhead in her twenties walked around from behind one of the wagons, but I couldn’t understand her.

“Anglaise?” I asked.

“You looking for a ride, stranger?” The redhead smirked as she was chewing on something.

She was wearing black cotton shorts held up by a leather belt that had pouches latch on. She had a grey duster coat and ‘pinch-front’ cowboy hat that matched. Underneath there was a single white wrapping that barely covered her breasts.

“That’ll be 3 shillings for both of you.” The woman stretched out her toned hand awaiting the money. Her body was athletic and healthy. A few scars emphasized that her body was crafted through struggle.

But her beautiful body didn’t numb my brain. “3? I was sure the Chief told me a shilling per person.”

Her face became flustered and she gave a fake cough. “Ah, I never seen you before, but if the Chief said then you must be locals. So… I’ll give you the local discount.”

She obviously lied, but I gave her the coins.

“I’m Miora. We’re leaving soon so get in the wagon, it’s the black one with the company logo. 3 others should already be waiting.” The redhead walked us around to a black wagon with a golden crest on the side.

The crest was of a “U” on a shield. It had a sword and rifle on each side. After looking at the musket painted on the black wood I looked at the thing Miora had on her left hand.

It was a gun. A wooden muzzle-loaded long neck flintlock. She had a glove on her right hand that was attached to a metal arm guard similar to what a knight would wear. This metal plate wrapped around over the coat sleeve and had little pockets with little metal spheres that could be seen. They were the bullets of her gun.

She caught me staring. “I know the distrust on guns, but I assure you we don’t need no escort. My old man taught me a mana trick to put a spin on the bullet as it fires. Makes it plenty accurate. I could shoot the beak of a bird no problem.”

Miora waved the gun around with pride, the crystal on the side of the gun gleamed blue as she pointed the rifle.

“Well hop on, it's a little high so you may need to help the little one. I’ll be back soon and we’ll be on our way!”

She had a bubbly attitude as she walked away.

The little girl had a smile this entire time and began trying to climb into the wagon when I pointed into it.

In the end, I had to lift her up myself.

There were two men and a woman already in the wagon. They kept to themselves so I didn’t bother conversing.

Before I jumped into the wagon I noticed metal coils on a piston connected to the axles of the wooden wheels.

As I got in and waited I my mind circled around the suspension system and made me question the technological novelty in this world.

“Y’all in for the smoothest ride in Gregoria. I, Miora, will promise your safety and well being on our way to Al-Kazeem. So, I hope you consider to always ride with me the next time you need a wagon.” She talked again in Ebrero so I assume she just repeated what she said. After a wink, the redhead jumped on the six-legged horse-like creature with two horns that was pulling the wagon.

She had pointy boots with spurs that dug into the creature making it move forward. The horse neighed and pulled the cart with ease.

I put my head back and saw the little girl staring at me with neutral emotion.

I handed her one of the extra water skins and some dried fruits for her to keep. After taking a deep breath I let my head hit the back of the wagon and allowed myself to doze off.

There was a bit of conversation here and there, but I couldn’t understand any of it. The entire raid went uneventful. We crossed open fields, hills, and forest areas wasting the day away.

“We’ll be making camp soon. I hope you brought food because it ain’t complimentary.”

Miora seems to have repeated what she said in Ebrero to the others.

We came to a stop and everyone pulled out luggage from the wagon. The males sent a tent for themselves and the girl had her own blanket she laid by a tree.

Miora simply sat by a tree chewing on something while staring up in the sky.

I was a little chili and since I didn’t have shelter or blankets I built a fire.

I still had the battery lighter, it was easier for me this time around.

“Nice fire magic? Kinda rare to see non-militaries since it’s so dangerous you know...” Miora was watching me the entire time, but I simply nodded in response.

I was more concentrated on keeping the little girl warm who seemed to be amazed by the way I lit the fire.

As the night came the little girl was fast asleep. Miora was cleaning her weapon so I decided to converse.

“What made you think it was magic?” I still didn’t believe magic, but I went with the flow of the mentality of the people of this world.

“Well, normally one would strike flint with a knife to get a spark right?” Miora replied.

“That’s fair…” After a pause, I continued, “What about you, what was that mana trick for your gun you mentioned earlier?” I wanted to see what nonsense she would come up with.

“Oh, my pah learned a bit of wind magic to help when traveling by sea. Not too hard to learn that even a poor sailor like my pah was able to do it. You just use your mana to will the air forward easy peasy.”

She had such a positive personality that it was easy to get her to start talking.

‘When my pah got his first rifle he was disappointed at how inaccurate they were. Despite all the hype you know. So he got this idea based on baseball. You know how the ball travels farther if you spin it. Well, he decided that if he pushed air in the barrel in a spin. Bam! The bullet will be more accurate. After a while, he came up with this trick and taught it to a lot of people, but no one will believe it was him that came up with it you know. Cause he’s just some poor sailor from nowhere.”

I diligently paid attention to her story. I learned more about her dead father. The fact that she never knew her mother and I questioned her a lot about the sport of baseball. It was roughly still the same, minus a lot of weird magical based rules that didn’t make sense to me. Football and rugby were a thing as well. But I couldn’t get information on basketball nor American football.

We conversed about idle subjects until I fell asleep on my own.

When morning came, it seemed as if she stayed as a look-out the entire time.

When I asked if she was okay, she responded that she was used to it and would get a day's worth of sleep when we arrived.

We simply packed up and got ready to move. The little girl was still asleep so I carried her in my arms and lifted her gently into the wagon. One of the other men helped me with her and we placed her on my lap so she could continue sleeping.

Only the extra woman seemed to be from the town as she continued to give dirty looks to the girl every once in a while, but nothing threatening.

Over time as the men talked with the woman, Miora stopped the creature and turned her head around and reached toward the wagon.

I couldn’t understand what she asked, but the men and women were happy to take what she offered.

She turned to me and offered the white powder. I first thought it was some drug so I was going to decline but.

“I found some moon cactus last night and ground up the seeds. Want some, you just gotta rub it in your teeth and it’ll make the ride smoother.

A drug that went into your teeth? At the moment I could only think of tobacco, but I was curious so I decided to try it.

She said something to the little girl that made her pout, she probably denied her the powder.

I didn’t think much of it as the wagon advanced over the dirt road. But the Wooden wheels had a nice beat to the bounce.

‘Ta’ Ta’ Ta’

I began tapping my foot to the nice beat.

The beat was so familiar. I felt like nature was blending with my senses. I began snapping my fingers to it.

‘Snap’ Snap’ Snap’

The others looked at me with a weird sluggish chuckle.

They were bobbing their head to my rhythm.

I emptied a water skin in my hands. Wetting my fingers made my finger snaps many times louder.

“SNAP’ SNAP’ SNAP’

The little girl was trying to copy me, but I felt the rhythm at its fullest.

Ts” Ts” T-Ts” I made the noise clapping my hands. I then grabbed the little girls and made her follow the rhythm.

“Yeahhhhh I’m gonna take my horse to the old town roadddddddd…”

“Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiideeeee till I can’t no more!!!”

It was a popular song from Earth. It fit so perfectly with the environment and everyone was taking it well. We wrapped our arms around each other as we got into the song.

“Can't nobody tell me nothin'.” I was shouting at the top my long and the others sang along with horrible accents.

“You can't tell me nothin’.” I dug my finger into the man next to me as I shouted this in his face.” He laughed and continued the rhythm with his mouth.

I climbed to the front of the wagon to see Miora who was singing along with a voice that was many times better than the wails I was letting on.

“I gotta say dude I don’t half the words you’re talking about, but this song is tighter than barbed rope!” Miora laughed with a large smile that touched my heart.

My heart was racing faster than an athlete who ran a triathlon. My face felt itchy and all the wonderful colors began to blend together.

I was hanging halfway out of the front of the cart where the reins connected to the creature. I was mesmerized by the sky.

‘Tf’ Tf’ Tf’, The sound of a rotor occupied my hearing. A large metal boat flew over. It had two rotors that looked like they belonged on a farm's windmill. Past its cloth sails, it left behind a trail of white smoke.

My only conclusion was that I was higher than whatever was in the sky at that moment.

Whatever Miora gave me was the strongest thing I had ever taken in my life.

And before I knew it I was tied to a wooden chair with a table in front of me. My own vomit kept flowing from my mouth.

‘Cough’ “Fuckging hewurpp.” More vomit flew out involuntarily. I barely had proper food so it was mostly bile and a painful liquid.

I felt sooo cold. A fucking cactus plant? White powder… that bitch drugged me on Mescaline.

I was furious. But it was my fault, I could have turned it down. AHHHH! I had screamed inside my mind from the frustration.

“Where the hell am I?” I just realized that I am in a room.

“Oh... the drug was finally forced out?”

A dark shadow walked into the room as he spoke.

----------

---

>>===== Through the eyes of the daughter =====---

----------

It felt so nice to sleep in a bed. I felt like a princess in luxury.

It couldn't be compared to the hardwood floor back home.

The best part was that the guy I was with let me sleep deep into the morning. Just like my sister, he woke me up with breakfast in bed.

It was some seeds and that delicious pear juice.

I was a bit groggy from sleeping so hard that I took the food with pleasure. As I ate the man was digging through a lot of stuff. After grabbing some water skins he left without a word.

I got up and stretched. I was still feeling down from the loss of my sister. I did decide to leave my family, but not like this.

I felt the tears creep up but quickly slapped my cheeks. I needed to be strong now that I was alone.

No, I wasn’t alone now. I was with this nice person. Maybe he’ll take me with him and he’ll let me work with him as my original plan.

I looked out the window and decided to daydream. I wondered where we would go next. Maybe it would be that city dad would always go to, to deliver the harvest.

I sighed as I watched the birds fly. As time went by I became anxious. Maybe he didn’t want me and decided to leave me here.

If he was going to do stuff, there’d be no reason to take me with him. Maybe he thought I was a burden. As all these negative thoughts flew through my mind I began to freak out. It wasn’t until I heard footsteps walking up the stairs outside the door that I calmed down.

When the door opened my heart was beating unnecessarily fast. It was him.

I ran to hug him. I didn’t want to lose him, I wanted to repay him. I almost cried, but his hand began petting my head. His warmth helped me feel a bit better.

He began packing two bags so I was excited because I knew that meant he’d take me. I gladly took the bag he prepared for me. That meant it was going to be my stuff. I looked through it and couldn’t believe my eyes, he had a flier of the upcoming week of Gladius.

Before I could begin looking at it he gave me the sword he used.

He strapped on his father Mauldred’s axe and gestured that I do the same with the sword. It was a bit clunky and almost half my size, but I felt so cool with it on.

It seems we were in a hurry so I quietly followed him along. As we walked through the town I was glad to be rid of these people. They didn’t like me and I didn’t like them.

I know it was my fault all those people died, but it was the monster's fault too.

My hero took us to the wagon station where he began talking to this pretty red-headed lady. “Are you two looking for a ride?” She asked.

But, my hero doesn’t understand our language so he said his language name in the form of a question, “Anglaise?” The lady understood him and they began talking in his language.

I looked at the black wagon.

It was an Uber Company wagon and they were expensive to ride. The Equestrian that pulled the wagon was even a Bi-Corn. Our family took the grain from a Unicorn that was gifted to us by the town Chief’s father many years ago.

But a two-horned equestrian is of a heavy breed that wasn’t scared of anything.

The redheaded lady even looked like a top tier warrior. She was even carrying one of those guns of legend. It was my first time seeing someone with it.

It seems my hero was flirting with her because her face turned red. He gave her two shillings so I guessed we really were going to leave. I can’t believe he had so much money to spend on me.

The lady was happily talking with him and she even started showing off the gun. Its crystal began to glow so maybe it even had magical attacks?

I was so excited about going on an adventure I hurriedly tried to get on the wagon when my hero gestured to me to do so. It was too tall for me so, in the end, he had to help me up.

There were two men I’ve never seen before and the lady that sold blankets at the town center. I was a bit uncomfortable sitting next to her, but she ignored me so it was fine.

My hero looked at me with tender eyes, I wondered if he saw me as a sister or daughter or if I reminded him of someone. He then offered me food and water and I had no reason to say no.

He then closed his eyes so I decided to look out the back of the wagon to see the sights.

“Y’all in for the smoothest ride in Gregoria. I, Miora, will promise your safety and well being on our way to Al-Kazeem. So, I hope you consider to always ride with me the next time you need a wagon.” The red-headed lady said something in Anglaise before telling us this. The lady then jumped on her horse and the wagon started moving.

This was the first time I left the town and I was trembling in optimistic emotions.

Along the way, I saw many new types of cool places. I didn’t even know how far the mountains could stretch. There were so many types of trees and giant open areas with all kinds of different tall grasses.

There were animals of all types including cute fluffy birds that followed the cart for a while. I saw kids I never met before following the cart. One of the boys who looked older than my older sister blew magical bubbles into the cart with nothing but his fingers and mouth. It was fun trying to pop them in the cart.

Everything was so amazing it made it easier to forget the pain in my heart. Before I knew it the sun began setting.

The red-headed lady whose name I learned to be Miora along the way told us we would be making camp soon.

When Miora stopped off the road, everyone got off the wagon and began picking their spot. Miora sat by a tree and my hero began building a fire next to her.

The way he made a fire was so cool. He put two very thin metal things together and flames just popped from them. I was mesmerized by the magic he used. Maybe he was a famous mage of some sort, or a top tier magician despite how skinny he looked.

As I sat next to him he let me lay my head on him. My eyes got so heavy that I couldn’t pay much attention to the conversation he and Miora were having. Not that I could understand it anyways.

I woke up inside the cart. My head was still resting on my hero’s lap. I was happy that he really was taking care of me as I was his own family member.

I snuggled where I was and just rested as the wagon continued. I could see through the open part of the back of the wagon so I was able to enjoy some scenery for a while.

Suddenly the cart stopped and Miora asked the adults if they wanted Moondust. I heard before it from my older sister that it was some sort of drug the farmhands took a lot. I asked if I could try some, but Miora said it wasn’t for little kids.

Even my hero had some but I didn’t mind. I had sat up and gone back to my spot so I could see what happened to them.

It actually didn’t take long before my hero started acting weird. He was tapping his foot in rhythm. He then started snapping his song acting as if he was at some festival or party like back at the town.

The other adults enjoyed it and even made noises following along. He got obnoxiously louder and louder, but it actually sounded like a song so I wanted to try it too.

‘Clap’ Clap’ Clap’

I tried copying by clapping, but he stopped me with a huge weird smile and forced my hands into the proper rhythm. This was the first time he was very rough with me, but it wasn’t with malice.

Ts’ Ts’ T-Ts’

I began to participate and before I knew it he was howling in his own language a super fun song. It was unlike what I heard before.

Even Miora began singing along, but unlike my hero's, her voice was actually beautiful.

My hero was so excited singing this song over and over he climbed to the front of the cart to get closer to Miora and sing with her.

‘Tf’ Tf’ Tf’

That was a familiar sound. Many airships would travel to the town often. When I looked out from the back of the wagon I saw the official airship of Al-Kazeem. The gladiators were on their way to the town.

All the adults cheered when they saw the ships as well.

It wasn’t long before we reached the city and the adults were nice the entire way there. Slowly more buildings began showing up until a giant stone wall stretched tall and mighty from both sides. The wall had beautiful multicolored lights shining from within. Smoke of many colors came out from behind the large walls.

Airships of all kinds and sizes traveled to and from the city decorating the sky with many colored lights and smoke clouds.

It was amazing, my little eyes almost popped out of my head from how intensely I enjoyed the surrounding sights. A little farmer’s girl like me was finally given the opportunity to visit a great city like Al-Kazeem.

There were so many people lined up by one of the entrances. Vendors of all types with cool magical toys and food approached all the carts and riders lined up to enter the city.

There were so many kinds of people, some wore funny hats other looked scarier than monsters in stories my sister told me. There were knights and warriors with many colored armors and clothing riding various types of vehicles and monsters.

Although there was so much noise when we got close to the gate the adults in our group were loud and obnoxious.

Some guards carrying long pole weapons wearing blue and yellow rusty armor approached our wagon.

“Could you guys please keep it down and mind those around you.” One of the guards had a tired voice.

“Shhhhh.” Miora turned around to quite the adults, but my hero shushed her back.

He said some things in his language but even I could tell that they were mostly mumbling. He tried to get out of the cart but fell face-first into the ground.

It gave me a shock causing me to cover my mouth, but the other three adults just laughed. Even Miora giggled, but the guards were serious.

“Sir, please get back in the vehicle until it’s your turn to pass through the gate.”

My hero stood up despite the guards warning.

He pulled down his pants and released a yellow liquid unto the guard.

He yelled in a loud voice causing the adults in the wagon to laugh and scream as well. Miora was the only one that was shocked. She jumped off the Bi-Corn and went up to the hero, but it was too late.

The other Guard pointed the tip of his pole-arm to keep her back. The guard that got peed on began to grab onto the hero.

The hero punched the guard in the neck causing him to collapse.

Before the other guard realized the hero grabbed unto him while his pants were still down.

I was going to get off and help my hero, but one of the men held me from jumping off the wagon. “Let me go, he’s going to get arrested let me go!” I was yelling and frustratedly trying to reach for my benefactor who was now being tackled and held down by other guards.

Miora just watched in awe as she said to herself. “Fuck!”