As Sarah reached the corner of the large building next to her little cottage, she saw two men stood outside the entrance. The light she had seen were from torches that lit the doorway behind them, letting everyone know that the building was still open for business. Even without their armor, Sarah would have been able to tell the two men were employed as guards. Standing watch, in case of any potential threats, the life of a sentry is slow and monotonous.

'Poor bastards. Should I talk to them? I do need information. I don't think they'll actually talk to me since they're on duty, but we'll see.'

Just as Sarah decided to try her luck with the guards, a heavy hand landed on her shoulder, causing her to jump. "Oh! You scary bastard! Didn't anyone ever teach... you not... to..." Sarah didn't manage to finish her sentence as she literally found herself staring into the jaws of death. The lion in front of her looked like a body builder in cos play and with a stare that can paralyse most creatures, Sarah was unable to move a muscle.

'Shit! It can definitely see me now. What do I do? I'm not out running a fucking lion. Especially not one that looks like Schwarzenegger.'

Sarah didn't realise it, but she was playing dead, only doing so while stood up.

"Mam!" Meaty breath and a loud roar snapped Sarah out of her terrified state. At the same time she also recieved a little more help from the universe.

[Fear resistance has reached Level 4]

"Mam. This is your last chance. If you don't answer me you're going be spending the night in a cell." The last word was enough to erase her remaining fear and even enough to make her become defensive. "What? What for?" She almost demanded, almost forgetting that the guard giving her a hard time was in fact a lion.

"Potentially plotting a crime. Why were you staring suspiciously at the Guild Bank and from such a dark corner no less? Were you perhaps planning to steal something of value from inside?

"Eh? No. No! That's not what this is. I was just... wondering if I would be able to get some... information from them. I didn't even know that building was a bank." Sarah realised how her behaviour could be considered suspicious, especially when the building turned out to be one worth guarding. She should have known. Stuttering her way through a response didn't manage to help her case either.

"What type of information?" Reluctant to tell the overbearing, armor-wearing lion that she's actually from another world and has only been here for the last two days, Sarah struggled to come up with a plausible answer.

'What do I say?'

Eventually her time ran out as the guard had lost his patience, putting an end to their staring contest. His eyes reflected reflected the moon, before they focused back on Sarah. "Unwilling to answer, eh? Well, maybe you'll be more cooperative in the morning."

"Wait. Am I really being arrested for just looking at that building?" She asked, as she was spun around by the lion's superior strength and frog marched down the street.

'Oh shit! I can't even resist him. This armoured animal is way stronger than I am! I thought my stats were good? Then again, he is a lion. He was probably born stronger than I was. Plus, there's the fact that he's lived with this game-like system his entire life. Leveling up and... Shit! That probably means I'm not as strong as I thought I was. Everybody that lives here has probably had access to the system their entire lives, which means my rank on the power scale just nose-dived. How am I going to convince these power-houses to take my weak-ass challenges?

"Where are you from?" The lion guard asked as they headed in the opposite direction of the building designated as the bank.

'Earth. It's a place where cats like you don't walk around on two feet, or accost young women who are only looking for information.'

With no idea what to say, Sarah stayed quiet and tried to memorise the route she was being led on. "Still no answer? Fine. Better than the bullshit most people try and throw my way."

Less-than five silent minutes later, they arrived at the guard house. The building appeared to be quite similar to the one that Sarah had been just arrested for looking at.

'There isn't much originality in this place, is there?'

She knew that they had traveled to a different building, but it looked identical to the bank in every aspect. The building had two guards posted out front and magic crystals that illuminated the entrance. The guard house only has one feature that differentiated it from the rest of the buildings on relatively similar street. A large sign had been hung above the door and across it the words 'Guard House 3' were clearly readable.

Her escort had led them pretty much in a straight line through the uniformed city. She wouldn't need much luck to remember the way back to her tower either. Sarah knew that it was nineteen streets awayas she been counting them as she passed. Even knowing that, she was still slightly worried that she wouldn't be able to find the tower again and Sarah hoped her lost connection would start up once she got close enough to it. "Anything to say yet, miss?"

"I'm... sorry?" Offering her brightest smile, Sarah was forcefully pushed inside.

'Guess not.'

Inside the building, the smell of sweat hung heavy in air, among others that Sarah was trying her best to ignore.

'It smells worse than the PT room in here. Is there no such thing as magical air fresheners?'

The reception area was fairly basic. Sarah smiled inwardly as the one in her tower was much nicer compared to the guard's. To her left was the seating area, quite a few had been damaged and some were missing completely leaving only an empty frame. On her right, the wall ran all the way to the where the guard on duty was housed. A single door, Sarah assumed it leads to the detention area, was the only feature on the otherwise-featureless wall.

'Not even a poster?'

Sitting at the desk facing the main door, was a young man with bright-orange hair. He had more freckles than a single person would want to count in one sitting and his green eyes resembled Sarah's own. He blushed when they locked eyes and quickly averts his gaze.

'This guy has got to be a new recruit. You can't be acting like that towards a detainee. Even Ariel would wipe the floor with this rookie.'

"What at you gawping at, Sanders? Open the door." His name wasn't lost on Sarah and, as they watched the rookie fumble with a cube-like object much to the lion's growing frustration, she couldn't help but spot slight similarities between this world's Sander's and her own. He eventually succeeded and managed to activate the strange cube. At the same time, runes appeared on the door to Sarah's right.

'They have them too.'

Sarah was much more interested in learning about runes now that she knew other people used them. "Hey, what did that say?" She asked the white-furred lion after the door had closed behind them. His face and hands were the only exposed areas of his body, but Sarah was sure the rest of his fur would be the same colour. The only notable features he had, other than his piercingly-golden eyes, were three dark stripes that ran vertically on his forehead. It gave off the impression that he was constantly frowning.

"Now you want to talk, huh?" Knowing full-well that she hadn't made the best starting impression, Sarah was still struggling to find the words that could help her avoid a sleepover at guard house number 3. Four cages, one in each corner and obviously used as holding cells, were the only objects in the second room other than the mana crystal hanging from the ceiling. the room is empty.

'You could fit four elephants inside there.' Sarah imagined the sight before she was pushed forward down the makeshift corridor towards an empty cell. The bars on each cell stretched to the roof and due to their placment, left adequate room for guards and other prisoners to make their way unaccosted. If only verbally. Only two of the four were currently occupied and housed a single prisoner each.

"I'll tell you what," the lion guard began, fumbling through a comically packed hoop of keys. "If you answer five of my questions, I'll let you walk out of here, right now. What do you say?"

Trying her best not to get hopes up, Sarah nodded as she was forcefully placed inside the cell. "OK. Yeah. I'll, er... do my best." Her jailer laughed at her response, but didn't look happy. Sarah knew that the questions were likely going to be hard or damn-right impossible to answer, but she had to try.

"Name?" Her heart jumped in joy at the easy first question that she didn't need to doctor.

"Sarah Kemp." He took out a pad and pencil and began scribbling away.

'One down, four to go. That wasn't too bad'

"Where are you from, Sarah Kemp?" She panicked trying to think of a plausible location, maybe one she'd heard, but tried her best to keep her emotions in check.

"Riverstone... Well, not Riverstone exactly, but I lived close to it. My parents own a farm." The lion looked at her curiously. "I didn't think anyone was still down there. Not after what happened."

'After what happened? Shit. I don't know what happened. What do I say to that? Is he testing me?' Being as speculative as possible, Sarah continued to build on her story. "There are quite a few of us actually. Mainly small farmsteads, but everyone pitches in and helps each other out so we manage. I just... needed a change. Farming is not the life for me and I really was just going to ask for information earlier. I didn't even know that place a bank. Honestly, I had literally just decided when your hand came clamping down." Sarah laid the foundation for what could only describe as a sketchy-at-best cover story.

"They are not employed by, or affiliated with the guard in any way," he grunted. Apparently, the lion was not fond of the other guards. "Those people are employed by the bank. Capable individuals who are paid a lot of money to protect the money of richer individuals. Do you understand why I thought you were acting suspicious now?"

"I do and I'm sorry. I thought that place was a guard house or something like that." Sarah finally washed up, the conversation was going better than she had hoped and her worries slowly alleviated themselves due to the friendly tone the conversation has taken.

"OK. I'm happy with your response and you even answered the next two questions. I know it looks like we have a lot of space in here, but we don't. Last question and then we'll get you out of here before some of the usual rabble turn up. Doubt you want to be in here with a drunken, seven-foot tall lava man. Am I right? He'll either come on to you or throw up on you and let's be honest, you wouldn't want either." He laughed at his own joke and Sarah forced a smile as she tried her best not to think lava vomit.

'This lion's not too bad. Once you get used his fangs and the I'll-rip-your-face-off smile he wears. We could even be friends... I think. I'd definitely love to stroke his fur.'

"Anyway, as long as you're not a thief, assassin, or some type of dark mage, we should be good to go. So, what's your class?" His words made Sarah's world spin and her face began twitching involuntarily.

'I can't tell him my class. I might as well start wearing the fucking robe if I do. He might have been suspicious of me watching the bank, fair enough, but how's he going to act when he finds out that I can raise the dead and have other death-related shit going on?' Sarah sighed.

'What if I just come clean. It's not my fault that I ended up with the Necromancer class. But how would I explain that without telling him I died a bunch of times? Stupid fucking last question deal or no deal bullshit!'

"Im not an assassin or a thief and this is just ridiculous, you know!? What you said before about me looking at the building is speculation at best and hardly fair to me at all. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Sarah tried to move the conversation away from classes.

"Wrong place, wrong time? There's a time involved? Is the bank going to robbed?" Completely misunderstanding her phrasing, the lion firmly grabbed hold of Sarah's shoulder and moved in closer.

"No, you stupid... over-sized feline. That's not what I meant." The grip on her shoulders tightened as he moved even closer until they were face to face.

"You smell like death, Sarah Kemp. Not another's, but your own. Which I find oddly strange seeing as though you look as healthy as any other human would. Why is that? Are you perhaps... dying?" The sudden shift in conversation brought jubilation to Sarah's fraught mind.

"Yes!" She almost shouted. "Ahem. I mean, yes. I am. Its called the... flumetoyou virus. It's become common in the countryside. I told you. Farming wasn't for me. Plus I wanted to see a proper city before I kick the bucket. Although, it's not like I make a habit of telling people that information. I don't need, or want, your sympathy. Thank you, Mr. Lion."

"A lot of people would take what you said then very offensively. I'm going to let it go because of your... circumstances. My name is Leo Ironheart. Captain of the city guard. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss Kemp." Releasing his grip on her shoulder, Leo stepped out of the cell and prompted Sarah to do the same.

'A lion named Leo? His parents weren't very original, were they? And what did they feed him to make him so buff, pure muscle?'

"Sorry, and the pleasure is all mine." Sarah apologised again. She was more than aware of her runaway mouth. Her superiors used to say that it was likely to get her into some serious trouble one day. Now more than ever it would appear.l they were correct.

"It's fine. I'm called much worse on the streets anyhow. Are there not many beastfolk where you're from?" Leo was still trying to pick faults in her story, or so Sarah believed. That's what a good interrogator would do. She wasn't out of the woods yet so she had to keep up the charade. Letting her guard down now just wouldn't do.

"No. They're all people like me. I mean, humans, sorry. Not that I'm prejudiced, or discriminating against you or anything like that. I wouldn't." She began waving her hands in fluster. "Your very... very... I mean, I really didn't mean to offend you. My mouth just takes over some times and it says the most stupid shit before my brain can even stop it."

"I had a friend like that. Many Moons ago. His mouth got us in to trouble wherever we went. I still think about him from time to time." Leo cast a heavy frown as he looked down, clearly remembering some dark part of his past.

"Any way, what did you want to see in this cesspool of a town we call home. Old Leo is here is off-duty now and doesn't quite know how to relax after work. Or so I'm told. I can show you around if you like?" Almost as though he has been placed under mind control, Leo's attitude toward Sarah changed completely as he brought up the subject of exiting the guard house.

'Where did that come from? I won't say no to getting out of here or to a tour of the city for that matter. I'll have to make sure we finish back here though. Just so I know I'll be able to find the tower afterwards.'

"I like the sound of that. Is this just because I'm dying though? If it is, I don't need your sympathy. I told you." Keeping up the act, Sarah darted past the guard and turned on her heels giving Leo the most disbelieving look she could.

"It is not. I find you quite... alluring." A shock jolted through Sarah's body and the hairs on her arms stood on end.

'He better not be thinking about what I think he's thinking about. That isn't going to happen!'

"Keep your armour on pal. I'll take that tour, but that's it. I love visiting new places, but that's all this is." Sarah smiled as Leo led her back out the way they came, much to the confusion of Sander's. After all, prisoners don't usually leave right after arriving.