Zosk woke up late that morning. He was on vacation after all. The sunlight filtering into his room was harassing him into waking, edging slowly towards his face. Groaning, he turned away from the impending sunlight.

A knock could be heard on the door, followed by a voice.

“Zosk? Wake up, Lunch is ready.” It was his mothers voice, a nice voice, in his opinion.

Slowly he sat up, stretched a bit before standing. He didn’t need to fix his hair or anything like that, he was a Reptilian after all. His eyes were yellow and his skin dark green. But it was scaled, and thick, resilient. He, like all reptilians had a strong tail, and he stretched it, getting the last grogginess out of him.

He walked downstairs and was met by the usual, his mother placing delicious smelling food on the table and his father helping her out. Someone was missing though.

“Where is Zak?” he asked as his mother set the final dish on the table.

“Your brother is working today. What about you? When are you going to get back to work?” She teased him. He groaned and started serving himself copious amounts of food.

“I was thinking of studying a while before I get back to adventuring. You know us mages have to study hard.” He said. Not missing a beat his mother responded.

“Study? I’m not sure you know what that means, because I’ve only ever seen you drink and laze around every day.”

Their usual bickering continued, until finally he finished eating and fled back to his room. He loved his mother but damn could she be pushy. Zosk picked up a book and started reading, but after a short bit, he closed it. Uhg. He missed combat, the adrenaline, the adventure. But he had no team ! If only he could get his brother to join him.

Zosk looked out his window and decided to check in on his brother, it was worth a shot. Another shot. He walked out of the house, and looked around. The town was fairly small, not a village, but not a city either. The houses and architecture were rustic, stone and wood mostly, with a stone wall surrounding the settlement.

He took some stairs that went up the wall and looked around for his brother, if he was on duty he would probably be here somewhere. One of the guards recognized him and told him where his brother was posted.

Soon he was on the eastern wall, where his brother was.

“Hey Zak, how’s it going?” He asked, a smirk on his face. Guard duty was boring, especially in this backwater town.

“Finally awake Zosk?” His brother shot back, smiling at him. They clasped arms in greeting.

“You know how it is, nothing much is happening.” His brother continued.

“As expected, why are you a guard again? You know we could be out there adventuring together.” They’d had this discussion before.

“With that ridiculous name you came up with? The Z brothers? No thanks, plus, someone has to have a stable income for our parents. You are home now, but that’s not going to last. Have you decided what you are going to do?” Zak was still looking outwards even when they talked, he was serious like that.

“Well, I need to find a new team, but that won’t be happening here, unless you join?”

His brother didn’t respond, so Zosk continued.

“I had enough money to take some time off. Visit the family, study magic, you know?”

“I know, and it is good to have you here.”

They stood in silence for a while, looking out. The town was on the edge of a forest, with hills on the other side. They had a decent view ahead. Zosk was about to say something when his brother called out in a loud voice.

“I see something!” Zosk looked around, trying to spot what his brother had seen. Where? There ! What was it?

“Human!” Someone shouted and all the guards could be seen running to their posts.

“Someone go get to the captain!” Someone else shouted.

A human? Here in Larnwick?

“It’s only one human, why is everyone so panicked?” He asked towards where his brother had been. Zak had moved but responded as he took position with a bow on the wall.

“Humans are never alone Zosk, not out here. If there is one they might have a raiding party or something far worse, an invading force nearby.” Zak spoke on a level and controlled tone. He was focused, his eyes scanning the edge of the forest for more.

The human walked towards the wall, paused, then after a while continued forward. Every eye was on him. And as he came closer, the more questions Zosk started having. But everyone was focused, and he knew he shouldn’t disturb the guards now.

But the human looked weird. He had seen his fair share of adventurers, even some humans before, but this one didn’t look the same. His cloth was of some weird material, unlike anything he had ever seen. It looked like some sort of metal, but it was formfitting, flexible. He didn’t even look armed. A mage? But he sensed no magic from him.

As he came closer still, something else struck Zosk. He was beautiful, so much so that it looked wrong. No one was that flawless. He’d seen lords, from afar really but still.

The human stopped in front of the gate, and a guard shouted at him.

“State your business human!” The human looked up, and responded.

“_ ____ _________ ____?” The language was foreign to Zosk. He looked around to see if anyone else understood, but they all did the same as him.

“Don’t you know how to speak common, human?” The guard shouted back, it was a universal language, only elves still spoke anything else. Or maybe dragons, but they were a myth.

“__ _____, _ ____ __________ ____.” He responded. Some guards were getting nervous. Zosk looked around and saw one of them with hatred in his eyes. He wasn’t the only one with an arrow nocked and ready, but he was definitely the closest one to lose his cool.

Just as the guard shouting was about to answer something, an arrow flew. And like a trigger, dozens of arrow flew straight at the human. he quickly guarded himself with his arm over his head before any of the arrows touched him, but what happened next shocked everyone.

The flexible metal lit up where it was hit, the arrows clattering uselessly to the ground. Not one arrow even penetrated the armor. There wasn’t even a dent ! Zosk heard someone shouting [Piercing arrow] and the arrow lit up under the magic of the skill. It was the same one that had shot the first arrow.

The arrow accelerated unnaturally fast, its tip shining with magic as it pierced the very air. Everyone was frozen. Looking at the arrow flying towards the lonely human. The human had somehow put on a helmet after the last volley, from where he produced it Zosk didn’t know, he had missed it. This time, the human didn’t move, maybe the arrow was too fast for him.

The arrow hit him straight in the chest, and his armor lit up before perfectly repelling the arrow. Zosk stared, looked to his left and saw the familiar guard had his mouth open, and realized his jaw was down too. He looked back at the human. That armor was enchanted, and it was powerful. But he didn’t sense any magic from the man, or his armor.

How was that possible? Another enchantment? Reduced presence? Zosk scanned his memories for any tidbit of info he could have heard while out adventuring that could explain this.

He had never heard of such a thing.

The human wasn’t doing anything. He was trying to talk still, but no one made a move, unsure of how to proceed. He wasn’t technically hostile, but still, a human. You heard stories. The captain of the guard was here now, but after hearing what happened, he too was unsure of what to do. They had shot at him, even though he hadn’t done anything. But no one wanted to welcome a human, even a peaceful one.

The captain took up the shouting, trying to make the human leave. Obviously the meaning of the words were lost on the human, but the hand gestures seemed easier to understand. The human paused, and seemed to consider what to do.

It felt like the whole town was waiting for what he would do. If he was alone, and had that kind of armor, one could only wonder what level he was. He seemed powerful. Zosk was lost in his thoughts for a moment, but movement snapped him back to the situation at hand. A low humming noise could be heard, and he saw something on the back of the humans back, glowing blue. Wasn’t that a weird backpack? Was it another magical item?

Suddenly the human was flying over the gate, and landed in the middle of the street behind. All the guards and Zosk all scrambled down to surround him. What the hell was going on.

A ring soon formed around him, spears pointed inwards. Knowing how strong his armor was, it probably wasn’t much use, but it still instilled some confidence in the guards that they had things under control. The human held his hands up, showing he was unarmed. But he still spoke gibberish.

The reptile guards stood still, until finally the captain walked forwards with handcuffs. He showed them to the human and mimed getting them on himself, then pointed at the human. Understanding flashed across the humans face. He seemed to be considering it. Everyone was nervous, for he seemed at ease in this circle of steel.

Finally he decided and put his wrists together and walked towards the captain. The captain put them on him and turned to address the guards.

“You lot, with me, the rest, back to your posts!” He bellowed while pointing to a group of guards. Most were still unsure and didn’t really start walking away.

“Now!” The captain yelled, getting them all to get moving.

Zosk trailed behind them, he was an adventurer after all, silver rank, so not a bad one either. But mostly he was curious. Nothing really happened around here, and he had nothing better to do. They walked through the town in silence. Lots of people had heard the commotion and were looking out through their windows, following the procession through town.

They walked for a few minutes before arriving in front of the barracks housing the guards. It was a sturdy building made out of stone. It was 2 stories high, but had clearly seen better days. They walked inside, Zosk still trailing them.

He tried to go inside too but got stopped by a guard.

“I’m sorry, guards only.” He said. Zosk took out his silver plate, proof of his rank as an adventurer.

“I might be able to help, I’ve been around humans before.” He said to the guard, hoping to be let in. The guard pondered for a moment. Finally, he asked another guard to stop people from coming in and went in to get the captain.

While he waited, Zosk couldn’t help but try chatting with the other guard.

“Crazy day huh?” He tried. The guard simply looked at him, then away, ignoring him.

Huh, the silent type, boring. He had hoped to glean some information out of him. A human, here, and alone. It would be the talk of the town for weeks. More likely years.

Finally the other guard came back with the captain, who looked him up and down.

“Zosk was it? If memory serves you are a mage, correct?” The captain asked him.

“Yes sir, I was hoping to see if I could figure out what language the human is speaking.” He answered.

“Might as well give it a shot. We need to know what he wants. Honestly I was tempted to throw him out, but seeing as he can fly, that might not work well.” The captain answered back with a grimace.

“Thank you.” Zosk said, before being led inside. The barracks were, well, barracks, with bunk beds lining the far wall, weapon and armor racks in another part of the room. They led him to the back where there were stairs going down.

Zosk had never been here, and for good reason, it rarely saw use, most criminals were either fined, exiled or killed.

There were only 3 holding cells down there, and no enchantments on any of them. The human sat in the one the furthest in. He just sat there waiting. His gaze seemed unfocused. Like he was daydreaming? Weird.

Two guards were guarding the stairs up, looking at their captive with a wary look in their eyes. Zosk strode down with the captain and told him this would probably take a while. The captain just nodded and told him to find him once he knew more. And to make it as quick as possible, so they could get rid of him. He clearly wanted nothing to do with this weird human.

Zosk walked towards the captive, he tried to walk confidently. But in truth, he was nervous, he had no idea what the human was capable of. He had no presence, no aura. It was eerie.

He sat in front of the cell. How did he even start? He wasn’t sure how to go about this at all. Lost in thought for a moment, he saw that the human was wholly focused on him now.

In the end, the human started this unorthodox conversation.

“Kepler.” he said, while pointing at himself, then he pointed at Zosk and left the answer hanging. Zosk quickly caught on.

“Zosk” He said while pointing at himself. The human then proceeded to point to various objects and Zosk said the name of the things. It continued for a while until there wasn’t much more to ask.

Feeling bold, Zosk tried something else.

“You.” he said, pointing at him.

“Him.” He said, pointing at a guard, then at the other guard while repeating himself.

“Me.” he then added pointing to himself.

The human was confused, before pointing to himself.

“Me.” he said, unsure. Zosk confirmed it by nodding.

“You.” He said, pointing at Zosk, who nodded. It was going better than he expected in all honesty. He caught on quickly. It went on like this for an hour. Zosk was teaching him basic sentences by now, but it seemed it was harder for the human to grasp. The order of his words tended to be backwards. A difference in grammar maybe?

Interesting. From what he knew, all languages used the same structure, even elvish. The human never asked anything, he was simply absorbing the language, and he did it fast. Zosk never had to repeat himself, all the words he had explained, the human knew.

Where had he come from? Who was he? Why didn’t he even try to fight? It felt like he could have fled easily, or maybe even put up a good fight. It scared him to think he might be able to wipe the town, he probably couldn’t. Right?

He had so many questions, he felt frustrated to not be able to communicate properly. Just who was this man?