Heart of Dorkness

Scourge Thirty-Three - Occurrences

After a good night’s rest and after an afternoon spent laughing and chatting and being a bit silly, I wake up to find that I’m that last one out of bed for once. My friends are in the little lounge area, sipping at morning tea and working hard to keep Felix away from all of the biscuits.

“Hey,” I say before sitting across from them on the last free seat. I stifle a yawn, blink a few times, then grab at the kettle that’s still steaming lightly. “So, what’re we going to get up to today?”

“Something more productive than yesterday?” Esme asks.

“Yesterday was plenty productive,” I say “I got new clothes, Bianca has new boots, and Felix has her spear-thing.”

Felix nods and grabs the plate of biscuits while Esme’s distracted. She grins down at her bounty, then glances my way. She very carefully takes a biscuit and puts it next to my mug of tea, slowly, as if she’s a little hesitant about it.

I smile as I take the offering and dip it in my tea.

“I suppose,” Esme says. “But we can’t just sit on our laurels and go around and shop all day.”

“What about sitting in this nice warm inn and reading all day?” I ask.

Esme’s face twists this way and that as she wrestles with temptation. “N-no! We can’t do that either. We’re here for work, and Semper would be disappointed in me if I failed to accomplish my goals.”

I shrug. “Alright. I don’t mind heading out either. We might want to go out on foot though, at least for a little bit. Then we can travel by monster-back. Convoys and carts were fun for a bit, but I think I’ll take the risk of getting lost if it means not having to deal with people for a while.”

“We’re not people?” Felix asks.

“That’s not what I meant,” I say. “I’m just saying, dealing with strangers can be tiring, and Esme is right--”

“As usual,” Esme quips, interrupting me for a moment.

“And Esme’s a little bit right,” I continue. “We are on something of a mission, for mom and Semper. We should get to it. We’ll have time for more relaxing and fun later. Besides, I bet the shopping in the capital is even better, right Bianca?”

“Certainly,” she says. “A lot of the wealthiest families in the Republic live in or around the capital. It makes sense to imagine that the city will try to cater to them, and that means a high-class of shop. As for relaxation, my family does have an estate in the capital. It should be fully staffed. My father stays there at times, when he needs to exert some pressure on other families, or when he wants to keep a hand on the nation’s pulse.”

I grin. “Perfect! In a few days we’ll be relaxing in the lap of luxury.”

“A few days?” Bianca asks. “The capital is further from here than we are from Vizeda.”

“I’ve got a map,” Esme says. She bends down to the side and fiddles through her satchel until she picks out a scroll. Felix moves things aside on the table so that she has room to set it down.

“The usual path,” Bianca says, “follows this road towards the east, then north.”

I nod. “What if we just cut across here?” I point to more or less where we are, then make a straight line to the lakes that Esme mentioned Semper’s vault is next to.

“There’s, ah, a mountain there,” Bianca says carefully.

I laugh. “Yeah, I noticed. I meant that we can fly all the way over.”

“You’re not going to call Livonas all the way here, are ya?” Felix asks.

Bianca perks up at that. “Livonas? The dragon?”

“She’s nice,” I say.

“She roosted in the south of the Abyssi Mountains for decades,” Bianca says. “She frequently raided cattle and burned down a few villages. Her name is a bad omen in the southern parts of the Republic.”

I scratch at my chin. “Mostly nice. She can get a bit moody. I was thinking more something like a flight of wyverns? Or maybe some eagles? I can’t see why we can’t just ride to our objective on the backs of a few of those.”

“I’ve never considered flying before,” Bianca says.

I wave the worry off. “Don’t be afraid, it’s actually kind of fun. Though maybe we should find some goggles.” at her confused look, I explain. “The wind. It’s hard to see when it’s hitting you in the face hard enough.”

“We need to gather some supplies,” Esme says. “We can’t just head out on a two day trip without anything to eat. Felix is going to steal all of our snacks within the first hour, then we’ll all starve.”

“Some monsters could hunt for us,” I say.

“Do you know how to prepare a carcass?” Esme asks. “For that matter, do you know how to cook at all? Bianca can probably start a fire, at least.”

I cross my arms and refuse to meet her gaze. “I wasn’t disagreeing that we need supplies,” I say. “We can ask the inn if they’ll prepare something for us. And we can buy some rations too. Maybe there are places where you can buy tents and stuff like that too. Someone needs to sell that kind of equipment around here, right?”

“There’s gotta be,” Felix says. She bounces up to her feet, swishes the crumbs off of her shirt, then stretches her back. “So, should we head out in teams? One group can get the food, the other the equipment we need?”

“That makes sense,” Esme says. “If we want to head out before, say, noon, then we’ll want to gather everything we want sooner than later. Valeria and I can find food and such. Felix, you can go with Bianca and look for the rest of the gear.”

Felix blinks. “Wait, why do you get to go with Valeria? How about you and Bianca go get the gear?”

Esme huffs. “Because if you get the food, you’ll make a mess of it.”

“Hey! I’m more than just some stereotype. I can be serious about things. You know that I wouldn’t get food that isn’t good for travelling or anything”

“Fine then. You can take Bianca and go looking for food and supplies while Valeria and I look into getting tents and outdoor equipment.”

“But I want to go with Valeria,” Felix says.

“Well so do I,” Esme says.

I look away so that no one can see my face reddening. Bianca, of course, notices right away. “Maybe we can all just head out together,” I say, putting an end to the argument. “It’ll be more fun that way anyway.”

“Fine,” Felix says. “So are you going to get ready, or are you heading out in a night shift?”

We all get up and--after polishing off our tea and the last of the biscuits--head back to our rooms. It takes a bit, but soon enough all four of us are ready to head out again.

“I asked the innkeeper to prepare a lunch basket for us,” Esme says. “We can have a picnic outside of the city while you gather the monsters you need.”

“Great idea!” I say. “Uh, where do we go first?”

“There are some shops closer to the walls that supply the caravans heading in and out of town,” Bianca says. “I think that might be a good first stop? They’ll have equipment for all the mercenaries escorting caravans around the area.”

“That makes perfect sense,” I say. “Lead the way?”

Bianca nods and does just that.

The part of the city we head to isn’t as luxurious and nice as the area around our inn. The shops and houses are a bit simpler, but they’re no less clean and well-maintained. The entire city feels new, and there’s a sort of buzzing energy to it that makes it easy to move about and imagine things growing and expanding.

It’s an interesting contrast to Vizeda, which felt a lot more... stifled and tight.

It takes a bit of wandering around, but we do end up finding a shop that sells what we need, and then we run into an old friend. “Teo?”

“Girls,” Teo says. He’s got a heavy pack on his back, clearly loaded with all sorts of stuff. “Didn't think I’d be running into you four again.”

“Yeah, we’re just looking for some gear,” I say. “What about you?”

“Likewise,” he says. Then he glances around the street before coming closer. “You four don’t intend to leave the city, do you?”

“We do,” I say.

He nods. “Might be best if you didn’t. That ambush we ran into? It wasn’t the only one. People are seeing undead all over the place. The guard is keeping it quiet, but there’s something big going on. An entire group of Templars is gathering to the south to take care of things, but I can’t imagine it won’t be a mess.”

I thank him for the information, but we’re not heading southward at all.

As we talk a bit more though, I can’t help but worry just a little bit.

Something really strange is going on in the Republic, and I really hope it’s not going to cause us any trouble.

***