Kia and his group had travelled for days through dense forest and vast plains. They only stopped to set up for camp or to help a villager or two. After these tiring days traveling, they approached massive walls made or fine chiselled stone surrounded by plains. The path they were on lead to a massive wooden drawbridge that acted as a bridge over a deep trench the troops dug to slow down invaders. As they got on the bridge, they noticed guards stationed all throughout the tunnel that lead through the wall into the capital. Once they made it to the end of the tunnel the light revealed a huge city will streets full of vendors and citizens and in the middle of all these buildings and citizens stood a massive castle with four towers around it while being surrounded with a secondary wall. The castle stood tall and represented great power with its polished stone structure and green roofs it towered over the city giving its citizens comfort and strength through anything they face.
"So, what is the call Kia?" Valerie said looking at him from the back of the wagon and up from the book she had in hand.
Kia looked to her and then back to the city and with a smile said "First we will find somewhere to stay then we will go meet the king." Kia then moved the wagon to a near by hotel that he was told to go to by Mr. Knightly before they had left. When they approached it they saw a young lady with long brown hair sitting outside playing with some children. "Hello do you work here?" Kia asked.
The lady looked to him and the others and gave off a smile and said "Yes I do I am the owner's daughter. The owner is right inside if you want to pull your wagon around back there is a small barn, I will get your horses some food and water."
Kia looked to her and returned a pleasing smile and then took his wagon around back where the lady said to put the wagon. "She seemed way to kind and assumed we were going to be staying here pretty quick" Lea said to Kia as he jumped down.
"It is probably because Mr. Knightly informed them we are coming." Kia said helping Lea down and heading around the building to go inside the hotel.
When they walked in, they saw a room with a lot of small tables spread out the place, with stairs on the side and a bar where some people were sitting and a woman was pouring drinks. Kia and the group walked to the woman pouring the dinks "Hello are you the owner?" Lea said cheerfully.
The woman looked at Lea and with a smile she said "Why yes I am my name is Margrett." The woman was tall with brown hair and was wearing a slim uniform. "I am taking a guess you are the ones sent from Mr. Knightly."
"Yeah we are. If I may ask how much will it be to stay for a few nights?" Kia said
"Well it will be 12 silver for three nights." Margrett said with a smile as she started cleaning one of the drinking cups.
"Okay I will pay for about three rooms for all of us. you guys can go grab the stuff." Kia said, looking at everyone. As they left through the doors Kia reached to grab his bag with the money and just remembered he gave his money to the citizens. "I forgot I gave my money away let me quickly go grab one of my friends."
As Kia began to leave a man with black hair and blue eyes walked in front of him and told him "don't worry friend I got you." He then put the money down for Margrett as she handed Kia the key.
"Thanks, but I don't even know who you are." Kia said curiously looking at the man.
The man gave off a chuckle and said "My apologies where are my manners my name is Leon." The man had pointy ears showing that he was elvish and was wearing white clothes with grey trimmings around it and had a very strange looking sword at his waist. The sword had seemed very light with a bend that started part way down the blade.
Kia looked back to the man "Thank you very much. My name is Kia. How can I repay you?"
The man gave Kia a smile and said "How about just having a friendly chat?" and with that Kia and the man walked off to a table in the corner. "So, what brings you here to the capital Kia?" Leon asked as he started drinking.
"Me and my friends are here for some work we shouldn't be to long just doing something really quick then will be on the road again." Kia said relaxing back in his chair. "What are you here for Leon?"
Leon gave a smile and replied with "Me and my party are here for some small jobs that we have been doing. My hopes however are to go home soon."
Kia looked at him and asked "Do you mean the elven capital?"
Leon looked to Kia and put down his drink "Yes I am from the elven capital. Now answer one of my questions: what are you doing with that elf with the green hair?"
"She hired me for a job that I am hoping to finish up soon." Kia responded
Leon leaned back and smiled "That's good I was just curious." He took one last sip of his drink and then stood up. "It seems I must go I need to find my friends and try to go get some jobs. I hope your visit to the capital goes well with Kia." Leon put the money for the drink on the table and left the hotel.
"He is an oddball." Kia said as he wondered if Leon is a trustworthy individual or not.
"Master there you are." Tatsuta said as she ran to Kia grabbing his arm. "Everyone is settled in their rooms but we have a problem."
Kia looked to Tatsuta in concern "What is wrong Tatsuta?"
"Lea and Maria won't let me stay in the same room with you." Tatsuta said as if it was a dire decision.
Kia gave off a chuckle and put his hand on top of Tatsuta's head "You are such a joker." Kia then walked to the stairs to meet up with the others and make plans on when they will be meeting with the king.
"Where have you been Kia?" Lea said as she left her room door. "We were looking for you but you were nowhere to be seen good thing the lady at the bar had spare keys for us to get in the rooms."
Kia smiled "Yeah, I was talking to an elvish man about somethings but that isn't very important right now. Where is Cecaco?"
As Kia asked Cecaco came walking out of the same door Lea walked out of "I am right here master how can I help you?"
Kia looked to Cecaco "You and Tatsuta will be going to the castle to inform the royal family where we are staying and that we will meet them tomorrow. It is getting late and we should get some rest. We did a lot of traveling to get here after all."
With that said Cecaco and Tatsuta walked down the stairs together leaving the hotel. "Okay now let's get to bed we got a busy day tomorrow." Kia said walking to his room.
At that moment he was stopped by Dante Who was standing in the doorway that led to both Dante and Kia's room. "Hey Kia can we talk?" Dante said to Kia as he walked past him on the stairs.
"Sure Dante." Kia ran to Dante's side and began to follow him outside where they walked down the road in the middle of town. "So, what do you need to do all good?" Kia asked curious to why he wasn't lying in bed sleeping.
"What are your thoughts on Valerie?" Dante said as he stopped and looked at Kia.
"What do you do? Wait don't tell me. You like her, don't you? You dog." Kia said acting shocked.
Dante looked to Kia with a serious face and with no emotion said "No jackass I mean do you trust her? I don't know why but I think she has some other motives. We don't know much about her and vampires are considered to be a master race for one of them to be a slave. I strongly doubt that."
Kia gave off a chuckle and looked to Dante "Dante let me inform you. I understand why you may be worried, but just know that no matter where someone stands or what they have done there will always be two paths they could take whether good or bad we won't know till they choose. Let's head back to the tavern and if you worry that much then watch her." Kia looked to Dante with a grin and said, "Lets be honest though you probably will be watching her anyways."
Dante flared up and turned to Kia yelling, "I DON'T LIKE HER THAT WAY!". He does make a point though all we can do is watch jumping on a random whim may be to risky. Besides I am more curious about you Kia and who you are. Dante thought to himself looking at Kia saying "Okay I will stay back for now, but know this that I won't drop my guard."
Kia gave Dante a smile and said "That is good to know now lets head back to the tavern please I didn't get much rest in the past few days ever since the encounter I had in Tarken."
"You mean with the battle against Elex?" Dante said looking confused.
"You could say something like that" Kia said picturing the situation he was put in last night sleeping in Tarken with the girls giving him death glares after the Cecaco and Tasuta incident. "Anyways lets head back and go to bed we have locks on the doors this time." Kia said with a smile of joy on his face.