The most impressive part of Whitestone was the cathedral courtyard. To say it was white would be understating it. Needless to say the stone here was so white you could say it was scrubbed. The courtyard was huge from a birds eye view but seemed smaller when you stood inside of it. From the main entrance there was a wall that surrounded the courtyard and the cathedral . About twenty meters in front of the gate was a large square fountain. Jets of water spurted out once every few seconds followed by a continuous stream. Children in the courtyard were gathered looking as the water gushed out.
Behind the fountain was a giant statue and sight of it made John laugh. That's the old man, John thought and smiled secretively. He looked like he did in his dream. He was young and was holding a really long sword on his right hand and what seemed like a lightning bolt on his left hand. He couldn't help himself and walked up to someone who looked like a monk.
"Who is this statue of?" John asked and the monk looked at him before John realized they didn't speak English
"Are you new here?" the monk asked him to which John pointed at his ears and shook his head.
"He is not from around here," Minerva who understood Johns position asked in their language. " he's asking who this statue is of."
"This is a statue of the savior, the messenger of the gods. the embodiment of mythos. " he replied and she translated. John had made a point to learn the language but with all the training he hadn't gotten around to it.
"Really, what did he do?" John asked wondering how much they actually knew.
"No, one really knows, this statue had kind of always been there," the monk replied.
"So how do you know that he is all that?" John asked clearly noting that they knew nothing.
"Its all from the rumors they say that he wielded strange power, some say he was a giant others an elf, others a human but no one really knows, its the biggest mystery in Whitestone."
John thanked the monk and made to walk away when Minerva asked what that was about to which he told her to ask the old man since only he would give proper answers.
"You two seem to like keeping lots of secrets. Lets go," she was obviously infuriated as she stomped off. John truly felt that it wasn't his place to tell her since he had questions himself. Like exactly how old was that old man, he didn't look a day over seventy but since there was a stature of him that had always been there, was he older than the city? How old was the city? He made a note that he would have to have these answers. He thought the answers could be acceptable because of all the things he had seen thus far.
They arrived back at the inn, took their luggage loaded their horses and headed for the gates. Minerva had wanted to thank the guards but she saw that there were different from the ones from the day before. So she slightly bowed her head as they passed and set off in a mid-brisk pace. It had not rained the night before and there seemed to be no signs of rains later that day so they weren't in such a rush. John was using the chance to take in the surroundings and the spirit of the people which was something he never did.
There were all kinds of people going in and out of the city. There were knights in armor, wealthy looking horse drawn carriages as well as simple merchants with their open carts. Shepherds with their sheep and dogs.
"This is quite a lively town and every one seems too - nice," he said with a pause.
"Yeah," its the most peaceful city around, "you won't run into any trouble around here." she replied kicking her horse to move faster. Was she still angry from before?
"I thought we weren't in a hurry today?" he shouted kicking his horse as well.
"I won't hurt to arrive earlier." she replied as when John was finally beside her.
The roads branched several times as they got further away from the city and eventually it was just them on the road and they slowed down finally. The road they were using wouldn't lead them to the Castle Town but would take them over some hills and into the forest near home.
"There's something that has been on my mind since we left Castle Town," John said
"What?"
"Where can I get some cheese I want to make a meal called a pizza from my home," he replied, "I can guarantee its the best meal you've ever tasted." He said realizing that now his wounds were nearly healed he could no longer postpone going home. As he said this they were coming to the peak of the hill and there were two men who had their horses blocking road. Trouble? John thought. One was sitting on the side of the road holding a sheathed dagger while the other one was holding club with both hands over his shoulders.
Minerva brought her horse to a stop and glared at them. She recognized them from the inn the day before. No one made a move, no one spoke as they just stared at each other. They had no good intentions she had surmised that. The one with the dagger stood up and unsheathed his dagger and pointed it at John.
"Put down your swords and all your valuables and we'll let you pass." he said and the other guy smiled. Obviously John did not understand a word they say but the fact that he was brandishing his dagger at him was enough of a signal that they were being held up. He turned his head towards Minerva and shrugged. She told him that the wanted his swords and the goods on his horse. Everything they bought was loaded up into a single bag which was on his horse.
"These swords are not to be touched by the likes of you," John said.
"Do you wish to aggravate them? You are lucky they can't understand you, otherwise we would both be dead." She said to John who shrugged his shoulders as if to say he didn't care. This small exchange made the thug with the club angry and he brought out a spirit with the goal of intimidation. Elementalists? The spirit itself looked like a gorilla which shrouded the man like a layer of clothing. He did look intimidating.
Minerva did not want any trouble and indicated to John to hand over the goods. She told them that there was nothing valuable in the bag but alchemy equipment and ingredients but the man with the dagger wanted to verify it himself. Minerva tossed the bag to the ground near him and he opened it and poured the contents on the ground unimpressed that the girl was telling the truth. He felt cheated after following them for two days and even travelling this far out in the sticks. He held his dagger up and pointed it at John and indicated at his swords. John knew that there was no way he was going to give up the swords knowing full well what these swords would do in the wrong hands so he simply shook head.
The big guy approached towards his left. John was on high alert and took off his gloves. If things got bad he would at least do a release knock him back and make a run for it but before he had time to react he was grabbed and thrown of his horse into the ground. The big man walked over to where he fell held him up by the neck and removed his swords and tossed them behind him towards his partner. He was going to squeeze John's neck but thorned vines grew from the ground and were curving their way up his neck and left hand. This surprised him and he released John to remove the vines.
John fell down cursing and was about to pounce but his hand was grabbed by another vine and he looked over at Minerva who had jumped off her horse and was walking over towards him shaking his head. She was weary towards the shorter thug who was now running his hands along the engravings on the sheaths of Johns swords. His eyes held a look of fascination as he grabbed at the grip and tried to unsheathe the longer of the two swords. Nothing happened and he put more efforts into it but was still unable to do it. The bigger guy grabbed the short sword and tried the same confidently but the same thing happened.
He tried again and again but was met with a similar result. He looked around as if he was ashamed. His spirit was clearly meant for someone who wanted more strength. Muscle brains, John thought. As someone who knew the reason why this happened John found this display comical that he giggled and the bug guy looked at him and he was not pleased. John made to stand up. He was determined to get his swords back but he had no idea how to. He had no idea how to actually fight with magic. All the training he had was to increase his endurance and grow his magic pool but the only thing that may have worked was his release and was unsure how much that would do.
He had trained with the sword but his had been taken away,if he had them he could have used them though sheathed to knock these guys around but he was not too sure about that since he had practiced for a week. John sighed and stepped back, he tended to overthink and over-analyze in high pressure situations and had to remind himself to calm down. He had to focus on two things a goal and a single thought. His obvious goal was to get back his blades and get out of this situation and the thought that came to his mind was what the old man had said, magic is about creativity.
Creativity? he almost cussed out. How was that going to help him now. Minerva's wood spirits didn't cloak her like they did for the thug. John knew that that wasn't necessary since fireball hadn't cloaked her either though her hair(which had now turned back) had turned red which could be said to be cloaking. He thought as he realized he was over analyzing again.
"Fireball?" he said out loud when he realized that they could easily get out of the situation with it though he had to rely heavily on her. She shook her head vigorously which drew the attention of the shorter thug who tuned to face him. He pointed at John and asked him how to unsheathe the blades. Minerva shook her head and indicated that they didn't know as well.
"Are you trying to insult me? Who carries around swords they can't use, Galad make them talk."
The bigger guy made to grab towards John who was slowly moving towards Minerva. He was about to catch him but more vines erupted from the ground him holding his hands in place allowing John to move further away. Seeing this he put his hands out and his gorilla spirit mashed its fist on its chest making it enraged and snapped the vines. He then lunged again at John and was quite fast and would have caught him had be not fallen face first into the ground. He turned around and vines wrapped around his ankles.
Seeing this the shorter thug communed and summoned his spirit in a swift motion. He was clearly used to this type of scenario. Surprising for such a violent looking person his spirit was as gentle as an antelope. He almost jumped at Minerva but the big guy who was now on his feet help up his hand and glared at her. Minerva was quite at home in the forests surrounded by plants and trees. This was her domain but this seemed useless as the big guy jumped and held her neck and slammed her to the ground. Her vines dropped mid way as she winced in pain. She had never used her spirits to fight before and in front of an experienced opponent she was no match. John wanted to rush towards her but the shorter guy was even faster, jumping above him and kicked John from behind onto the ground.
Be creative, John thought as he hit the ground.