“Split up?!” Nona exclaimed.
“Yeah, that sounds pretty stupid,” Reke agreed.
Condi merely chuckled at his companions’ objections. “Relax, friends. You may have to travel after Nightpass, but you’ll be close enough to the Imperial City to be protected by Elvish garrisons outside the City. And if that madman tries to chase you, I’ll be right here to intercept him,” he explained.
Nona frowned anyway. He knew they were close to the Imperial City, but anything could happen! There could be bandits or bad weather might slow them down (even though the skies were clear this morning) or Nighbeasts lurking about. If it came down to any sort of nastiness like last night, he did not fancy their chances. It was clear that they were unconvinced, so Condi unhooked a reed pipe from his back and offered it to the human: “If you ever get into trouble, call me with this,” he said.
To Nona’s eyes, it looked more like a log than a pipe, with the only similarities being that they were both long and thin. No matter how he held it, gnarled bark poked into his hands, and it took some consideration to determine which side the mouthpiece was on. He eyed Condi skeptically, but gave it an experimental blow, despite having no experience, or no memory of an experience, of ever blowing a pipe. Against all his expectations, the pipe let out a high-pitched, clear note across the plains. The human twisted around the new pipe in his hands, spotting a small engraving, which read: [i]Where the Slumbering Goddess rests, all shall hear the Call[/i]. He began to ask Condi about the strange riddle, but the bioshifter shooed them off, complaining about wasting daylight.
It was a tense journey. Nona kept his head on a swivel, looking back and forth across the plains, searching for any threat among the blank, empty fields. There was nothing there, but that didn’t stop him for being prepared for a danger he would have no way of countering, running, or hiding form. Reke loudly complained about Nona’s shoulder being far too tight for comfortable journey. He was grateful for the ride, but all this unnecessary stress was making for terrible service. And the lizlai had to get his snacks by himself! Next time he went on a rescue mission, Reke would be sure to travel with a higher quality steed. Soon enough, after they had taken their lunch, the vast plains gradually morphed into rolling hills, gentle lumps that the path wound around, and the hazy silhouette of the Imperial City in front of the mountainous backdrop came into view.
As they traveled further into the hills, the walls popped in and out a view, the bastion that kept enlarging with their progress. The path struggled to weave around the hills, which were becoming tighter, forcing Nona to climb in some sections. It wasn’t long before Nona started to realize the full extent of the city. It was massive. Standing atop a smaller hill, the immaculate white walls were behind each window of hillside and stretched as far as he could see. They even seemed to be getting bigger as he watched them. Soon, a slight tremor in the ground pulled Nona back to reality, and they set off once more.
The path was now set in between valleys of very steep hills, nearly unclimbable hills. Nona was often forced to his hands and knees to get up the path, although it’s very possible that they went offroad a few times. Nona’s absentmindedness earned a few of Reke’s criticisms, but they were easily countered by the fact that the lizlai was technically supposed to be his navigator. The City Walls kept them directed however, so the travelers wove their way between the grass hills, scrunched up against each other in rows, like giant’s egg carton. The tremors were getting worse too, and more frequent. Soon enough, the found themselves blocked by a near-wall of grass, and also in an argument on whether they had gone off the trail again. To resolve the issue, Nona resigned himself to climbing another one of these, much to the protest of his thighs.
When he made it to the top, they found themselves staring at the busiest market Reke had ever seen. He’d heard tales of how much stuff is shipped into the Imperial City but seeing the trading in action was something else entirely. A mix of hastily erected stands, tents, and shanty houses, with folks packed tightly together, the clamor of merchants hawking their wares and the clamor of haggling reaching their ears on the hill. Even the stench of human and animal filth, along with rot rose up to meet them, though it wasn’t as bad as Nona would have thought. The pristine white walls of the Imperial City towered over the Outskirts, its faceless face looming at the boisterous place, and a great cloud of dust hung over the ramshackle rooves of the Outskirts. They stood, gaping at the nearly endless city outside the City, until a particularly hefty ground tremor knocked Nona off the hill, and sent him tumbling down into the market.
He crashed through a tent and into a stand, sending bright green vegetable orbs spilling out into the road. The orcish owner began yelling at him, mourning the loss of perfectly “good” cabbages, so Nona hastily threw a few of them back into the stand and fled. Nobody seemed to pay any mind but jostled around each other to get wherever they were headed. The Outskirts were a mess, even from afar, that was apparent, but, once they were immersed in the chaos, it became clear that this place was completely disorganized. The road would end abruptly, with houses or inns built right in the path. Alleyways were chock full of vendors and shoppers or guarded fiercely by tough-looking thugs. To get around, people simply jumped fences, walked through backyards, or on top of rooves, as if private property was as much a road as anything else in the Outskirts. It was hard to breath, with the light cloud of dust hanging over the entire place. The noise of hundreds of meandering conversations surrounded them as the bewildered travelers tried to make their way to the Walls, dodging hooves and desperate beggars.
The Outskirts suddenly ended, as if somebody drew an invisible line where nobody was allowed to go, leaving a muddy, empty space in between the walls and the Outskirts. Even the clamor died down, and it smelled more of mud than filth in this empty section of the City. As Nona was gaping up at the massive, pristine face, the ground began to rumble. The walls shook, dug into the ground, churning up the dirt and sending a wave of dust in Nona’s face, and moved, expanding towards Nona. He stumbled back, struggling against the shaking earth, Reke holding on for dear life in his saddle, back towards the rickety fences of the Outskirts. As soon as it had begun, the walls halted, standing as still as if nothing had happened. Nona wiped the dust out of his face with a grimy sleeve while the snickers and jeers of reptilian locals followed him into the Outskirts.
They wandered around for a bit, looking for a place to stay, since it was soon coming to Nightfall. Reke insisted on getting inside the Imperial Walls for the night, where he thought it would be considerably safer and less unbearable, so they searched for some sort of gate where shipments must come through. After asking for directions multiple times, all of which were met with either incomprehensible slang, overcomplicated series of climbs and turns, or outright threats on their purse, they wound up in the “nicer” part of the Outskirts, if such a thing existed. Here, there was space in between structures; for once, the travelers could tell where one merchant’s goods ended and the next began. Instead of wooden or clay buildings, the residents here were smart enough to know that nothing lasts long in the Outskirts, so they set up tents instead, strategically placed in wide circles, so that many shoppers could pick through their wares.
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1 ReplyThis part was really weird, but in a good way. Many people would probably criticize this for seeming to be filler, but honestly, I think filler is a good thing as long as there's not too much of it. Phyllis and her assistant were delightfully goofy. They're the kind of side characters who appear only briefly, but would make you excited to see them again when rereading the story, I think. I also loved the description of the Outskirts, and how chaotic it was. It reminded me of No. 6, with a twist of Dragon Ball GT, and I loved both those shows. I particularly enjoyed how there was like this invisible wall that nobody wanted to pass, where the chaos suddenly gave way to an empty area just outside the actual walls. Super nifty! As for criticisms, I feel like the first tremor wasn't emphasized enough. They're obviously important, and the later ones had plenty of emphasis, but the first one just came in went in barely a sentence. I had to double back and make sure I read it correctly, because the idea of a tremor seemed really out of place until later, where you gave them more proper descriptions. There was also a line near the beginning, "something something faceless face, something something, out of place". Generally, I think it's good to avoid rhymes like that, though that might just be. Gets the reader i-blam!-, making them want to keep up that beat, but then they can't, because that beat doesn't actually exist. Finally, I feel like a line got lost between the end of the first post, and the beginning of the second. It didn't take long to piece it together (a voice was calling them), but I reread it a couple times, because I never actually saw a line saying a voice was calling them.