Finding Crystal was a lot more time consuming and difficult than I’d first imagined it to be. She had no magical essence for me to track like Dino did, and I had no clue where she’d gotten a room at, I basically was at a loss as to how to find her. Wandering the town didn’t help any, as the chances of us bumping into each other in such a crowded area was quite low since I didn’t even know which set of streets she might be on, and luck wasn’t with me for the hour I spent wandering and looking for her.

Going back to the school and wandering around, I didn’t luck into seeing her wandering around anywhere either. Sighing with disappointment, I finally worked my way to the North Gate to look for Dino. School was going to start in a few days, and I’d promised Crystal that I would see her there, but it seems now I wouldn’t be able to for a while. I didn’t have a clue where she was, or even how to get in contact with her. All I could do is hope that she stayed put and didn’t assume I’d packed up and ran from her or something.

When I finally got to the north gate, Dino was already there and waiting for me. Dressed in his normal set of robes, he was chatting amiably with Jess who was wearing an old set of leathers which seemed to have had better days. “Hey Michael,” Dino waved as he saw me approaching. “Where’s that girl you were talking about? Couldn’t talk her into joining us?”

“I couldn’t find her,” I told him honestly. “She just arrived here in town a few days ago, and I don’t know where she’s settled and staying at currently. She should be in the school, and I was going to meet her there in a few days, but I don’t know where to find her now.”

“Did you check the school records office?” Jess asked innocently. “If she’s a student, they’ll know where she’s staying there.”

“Umm…” Blushing, I didn’t want to admit that I hadn’t thought of doing something so simple. Thinking about it, it’s probably how Crystal found me in the first place. I’ve gotten spoiled with relying on my magic too much, it seems. “I didn’t,” I finally admitted.

“Me and Mageflame could run back and check for you,” Jess volunteered.

“Would the two of you do that?” I asked her. “And, if you can find where she’s at, go see if she’d join us. Tell her that Michael is going and would appreciate her company. She’s a decent warrior from what I understand, and we could probably use the help of someone like her if there is any trouble out there.”

“Hey!” Dino complained, “Why us? What are you going to be doing while we go hunt this girl down we don’t even know?”

“I’m going to do some last minute packing, since it doesn’t seem like either of you bothered to pack a tent or anything.” I told him, frankly. “The lady’s name is Crystal Lavaliere, and I don’t think there’ll be any issues with getting her to join us. Just let her know that I’m going and want her to join us if she can. That should be good enough to get her to come along, and I’ll go grab us a tent and some basic supplies like pots and pans and all, since neither of you brought anything like that, and then I’ll meet you back here as soon as possible.”

“Fine.” Dino snorted. “But if she says no, I’m not going to spend time trying to beg and plead for her to come along. I don’t even know who this girl is, so don’t expect me to try and persuade her into joining us. If she turns us down, you’ll have to go ask her yourself, or else we can just go without her.”

“Sounds fair,” I agreed. “I’ll see the two of you in a little bit. I don’t think you’ll have any problems with her, but if you do, I’ll straighten it all out once we all get back together.”

“Okies!” Jess bounced slightly and then grabbed Dino’s hand and started to drag him down the street. “Since that’s all settled, we’ll go meet her. It’ll be nice to meet a warrior woman! If she doesn’t have a healer yet, maybe she’ll let me be hers. Let’s go, Magey!”

Magey? I couldn’t help but smirk to myself as she dragged Dino behind her and around the corner. I’ll have to remember that nickname and be certain to rub it in sometime. It’s almost as suitable for him as Dino is. Laughing lightly to myself, I turned and walked on into the town.

First stop was the local moneychangers since I’d given all my loose change to Crystal earlier. Showing the woman behind the counter my card, I withdrew a thousand gold from my account and received a handful of coins to put in my pouch – one King’s jeweled crown, four Queen’s crowns, a King’s crown, and five platinum coins. The King’s crown was an Andorian coin with an image of the king engraved upon it, and was worth fifty gold. The Queen’s crown was Andorian, and since it’s a Matriarchal Kingdom, it was worth a hundred gold. The jeweled crown was very similar to the normal crown, except it had a small gemstone embedded into the center of it; it was worth five hundred gold. And, of course, a platinum coin is worth ten gold coins.

Since the lady behind the counter didn’t comment any on our transaction; she was completely businesslike and indifferent to me; I left the moneychangers and went immediately to the first general store I could find. Garthe’s General Shoppe was the name of the place which I’d found, and the shopkeeper was an old white haired gentleman with a beard which fell almost all the way to his knees. He was sitting in an old wicker rocker, rocking back and forth and smoking a pipe as I browsed up and down the aisles and laid a large selection of things at his counter.

“Camping?” He asked, but didn’t seem to care if I answered or not as he was more preoccupied with chewing on his beard between puffs of the corncob pipe in his old, gnarled hands.

“Yeah,” I told him with a shrug. “Me and a few friends are. Anything you’d suggest for us to take? I’m in charge of gathering the travel supplies, and I’m new at this type of thing.”

“How many?” He asked.

“How many, what?” I really wasn’t certain what he was wanting to know.

“How many peoples ya gots?” He clarified.

“There should be four of us. Two guys and two girls,” I told him simply.

“Then yer gonna want two pup tents fer sleeping in, at least.” He told me. “But if’n ya got some coin to spare, I think you’d at least want to get one of the square tents instead. It’s large enough fer four people to lie in, but it’s also tall enough to stand up in. Them girls will probably appreciate the chance to change clothes in it.”

“Well that makes sense,” I agreed. “Where would I find those at?”

“Over yonder in the far corner.” He waved his pipe vaguely and I wandered off to search where he was gesturing. “These?” I asked, holding up a rather large bundle.

“Nah!” The old man cackled and coughed. “Them are more what those merchants use. That’s a pavilion tent, boy! You could put it up and then put a table and chairs in it and do business out of the wind and rain. I doubt you’d want to carry something that size with ya. Look on to the right of it. Them smaller bundles is whatcha want.”

Sitting down the bundle, I grabbed up two of the smaller packs and dragged them over to the counter. “Anything else, it looks like I might be missing?” I asked the old man.

“Let’s see whatcha got here, boy.” The old man took a few moments to look over the other supplies I’d gathered and listed them all out one by one. “Cook stuff, blankets, lantern and oil, rope, different food things.” Finally, he shrugged. “Looks good ta me, but I’m not the one who’s going out and camping. If you going to be roughing it, it’ll do, I ‘spose.”

“So how much for it all, pops?”

“Them tents is the most ‘pensive thing ya got. They’re about fifteen gold each, so whatcha say to forty gold fer it all?”

Digging in my coin pouch, I pulled out the King’s crown and flipped it to him. “I’ll grab me a couple of those backpacks to toss a lot of the food and all in, and we’ll call it good. Deal?”

“Deal.” The old man held out his hand, spit on it, and then held it out for me to shake. Trying not to wrinkle my nose, I repeated his actions, and then wiped my hands on my pant’s leg. The old man simply grinned as if he found my distaste amusing, and went back to chewing on his beard and smoking his pipe.

Spending just a few minutes to pack up the food and supplies into the different backpacks, I then struggled to try and toss two packs across each shoulder and tug one of the tent bundles uncomfortably under each arm. The old man simply sat, rocked, and laughed merrily as I fumbled and stumbled my way towards the door. Old coot didn’t even get up to open the door for me, which made me drop everything in a disastrous crash as I tried to juggled things around.

By the time I’d gotten the door open, held with my foot, the bundles back in my arms, and FINALLY outside, I was soaked in sweat. The old man’s merry laughter burned in my ears, and in a moment of petty spike, I gathered a small smidge of earth magic and shaped the cobblestone at the entrance to raise it up and around the bottom of the door. If he’s going to treat his customers with such disrespect, he can just do without any!

Glancing up and down the street, I whistled towards some of the young ragged looking children loafing at the entrance of a nearby alley. “Hey fellow! One of you want to help me with these packs? I’ll donate something for your time.”

“Piss off!” One of the oldest of the boys spat in my direction. “We don’t want nuttin to do with asses like youse. Can’t ya see we’re busy?”

Busy my ass! All they’re doing is standing there and twiddling their thumbs! I was becoming convinced more and more every day, that everyone in the city was either hateful, lazy, or just a complete pain in the ass. If good useful people lived in the towns, they were probably in the minority!

Snorting, I struggled to drag and carry everything back to the north gate. By the time I arrived, I was soaked in sweat, out of breath, and exhausted! Dino, Jess, and Crystal were all standing off to the side chatting along together like old time friends, and none of them noticed my labored approach – or at least none of them reacted to my labored approach. From where Dino was standing, he should’ve been able to seen me, but he made no offer to come and help me with my burden until I was completely upon the group.

“Oh! Michael!” He jumped and acted as if he noticed me for the first time when I was less than a dozen feet from where everyone was gathered. “Do you need me to help you with that?” He asked, magnanimously.

“Just fuck off,” I told him, out of breath. “I made it this far. It’s here now.” Exhausted and disgusted, I tossed down the two bundles which held the supplies for the tents and then let the packs slide off my shoulders and drop off the ends of my arms. Plopping down beside them, I had a sinking feeling about how things were going to work on this hunt for us. We were all gathered up now, and we had supplies for traveling, and I was already exhausted.

Honestly, I was dreading whatever might come next.