Noticing the look of life return to the poor thing, Lucas decides to give a hand. "Your majesty; if this 'toy' is broken, may I take it off your hands?"
glancing at the little princess's slave, The King was delighted. "Of course, but you'll have to ask my dearest, Dilla." The ugly little princess just noticed the stranger and seeing how handsome he was. She had a tiny glint in her eyes. It also didn't manage to escape Lucas.
"Uncle, I can give you my toy. But you'll need to play with me instead!" With his right eye twitching, Lucas reluctantly agreed. "Sure, you're highness.. he. he.."
"Guard Captain, quickly collect my darlings toy and take our new friend to a good room" The King signaled to the Guard. "Yes, My King!" Briskly walking over to the little girl and yanking her up by the leg and quickly walks off to a side hall with Lucas in tow.
Arriving at his quarters, It was just a square room on an upper level in this crude castle, With a single window to overlook the town. Before leaving, the Guard Captain quickly tosses the girl to the floor and snorts before going back down the hall.
During the entire time, The little girl rarely took her eyes off Lucas in fear he might vanish before her eyes.
Still just staring at him, Too scared to initiate a conversation. Realizing her fear, Lucas slowly got on her level to look her in the eye. "Hello, Do you understand me?" The little girl nods slowly.
"That's good. Can you tell me about this place? Why are you chained up?" But all he could get was her tilting her head in puzzlement.
Lucas settled on Lightly, patting her head in hopes of alleviating her fears with a friendly first impression but still resulted in her closing her eyes in fear of being hit.
Taking her collar off wasn't hard, It was just two pieces of curved metal with a pin on one side and a hinge on the other with a chain attached. Lucas also chose to keep the chain as it could come in handy later.
Looking around the room once more, There was a mushroom growing in the corner the size of a bed and what was most likely to be used as one. Putting his hand on it, Lucas's hand sunk right into it, much like tofu. Growing out of the walls were a few small glowing mushrooms to provide light, Looking very much like a lingzhi mushroom.
Walking to the window and observe the town once more, The little market was bustling with weird objects for sale. It was hard to notice from below, but under the river, it was also scattered with more glowing stones, much like on the ceiling. It was making the river look like a beautiful river of stars. Another thing caught Lucas's attention. Off in the distance, near the edge of the cave, Lucas could barely make out more soldiers yelling at a few people.
Recalling the little girl's situation in the room, It must not be the only one. But why didn't they enslave him too? Although Lucas didn't know, it had a lot to do with his clothing and the way he handled himself.
His clothes may have been dirty, but they were something these people weren't capable of and also made of unknown materials. The King was smarter than he looks.
Returning his attention to the girl, She was in the corner of the room watching him intently. Lucas observed her well, Especially those scales. They were a little different from the ones on his arm in shape. She had waist long white hair with golden pupils. You could tell she was malnourished by how skinny she was. She also wore only a cloth made of some hemp bag of sorts, With plenty of holes all over it.
Lucas took a deep sigh. The world was unfair; even he and Ellie had a lot of misfortune growing up as well, So Lucas very much sympathized with the poor girl. Taking off his shirt and tossing it to the girl, she was startled and huddled up, covering her face.
"Although it's a bit.. or a lot dirty, It's much better than whatever you have on yourself, try it on. I'll look the other way" Lucas tried to present his most gentle smile.
Facing the wall, Lucas could hear a slight shuffle. She must have understood him.
Unloading all his possessions on a stone block in the corner, Probably meant to be a table... or chair. Lucas inspected everything he had so far. A piece of carapace from a spider's abdomen, Some leftover spider legs he was saving on eating a couple of fangs, a leather belt he was still wearing, a leather pouch filled with some silver, a white ring and a black sword.
Lucas needed to reorganize his things, or he might lose space to carry it all. Turning to look at the girl. "Hey girl, Do you have a name? I'm going to see if they have any craftsmen in this place. Would you like to stay here or come with me?"
".. S...Silvia," She replied with a shy voice while looking at the floor.
"Well, Sylvia, would you like to come with this big brother?" Radiating a mesmerizing smile, she was caught off guard and blushed with a nod.
Gathering his things and making his way out of the castle. It wasn't too hard to find the blacksmith as it was the only one in the town. Not many people cooked their food here, And with glowing mushrooms, they never needed fire to cook, So the big cloud of smoke coming from a single building made it pretty obvious.
On his way, Lucas had plenty of odd stares and chattering gossip from the crowd. Gossip never bothered Lucas. Behind Lucas, a little girl with long white hair followed while holding onto his belt with three fingers to not get lost.
Opening the door of the blacksmith, dirty was his first impression. Coughing sounds could be heard from within.
Upon entering, the first thing to catch Lucas's eye was that they didn't burn anything but had direct access to a small exposed vein of lava that released little bubbles as it boiled.
A burly man came out of a dark corner where Lucas could see a pile of plants piled up into a bed.
"I ain't seen a creature like you before. I'm Ert, and I'm the weaponsmith in town." Eyeing Lucas up and down and then noticed the little figure hidden behind him.
Lucas also took his time to inspect this older man, Big with lots of muscles and white hair from old age. Webbed fingers like a fishes fin. It was also hard to tell because of the lack of light in the room. But his skin seemed an odd grey with lots of cracks in it.
"Hello Sir, I'd like to see if you could make a sheath for this sword."
Pulling out his sword for the older man to inspect. "I can make it, leave that chain and stalker carapace behind... Your belt too. That'll cost you two gold Kraks, though."
"Hmm, I don't have that much. Take a look here." Lucas handed his pouch over for the old man to look at, The few silver coins were quickly exposed. "Not nearly enough, What else you got?"
As Lucas was pondering, he also noticed a much thicker collar around the older man's neck and a chain attached to the wall. Lucas points at the older man's neck. "What if I help you get rid of that?.."
"That's fair, But can you do it?" The older man gives Lucas a skeptical glance.
"I'm sure I can do it... I'd also like to ask, Do you know a way... to the surface?!?" The old man takes in a deep breath."
"There is a way, At the top of the Valder pillar. It's said there's a way to the surface, but whether it's true or not isn't for me to say... But you'd best be careful; It's heavily guarded!"
A delighted smile showed on Lucas's face, thinking about reuniting with Ellie. "Thank you; I'll do all I can to free you."
"Boy, if.. and I'm only saying if you're able too. Try helping the slaves on the north side of the tunnel too. They're forced to dig new tunnels every day and worry about food and stalker attacks. This old man's problems are hardly comparable.."
"I'll try."
Exiting the Smithy, Lucas made his way towards the northern part of the cave to take a look.