The three of us gradually descended further into the run-down part of the city, with obscene graffiti and other means of vandalism becoming more frequent as time went on. As this was occurring, I started to feel another wave of nervousness, hoping that the teachers would find me soon or at least make the effort to do so. Thinking back, I remembered that Slith only performed a roll call about five times during the entirety of the tour. I guessed that he would catch on quickly.
Ittisk finally stopped mumbling about his personal life, describing with surprising intricacy the things that he did every day. I hadn't paid attention to it much, but this included his routine of waking up and going to work, his occupation being a "medium". "We're here," he announced, piercing his usual monotone droning. "The store."
I looked around and laid my eyes upon my supposed workplace. This "store" seemed like it would collapse violently any day, with a door that somehow had shards of glass still attached to it. Blinking, Ittisk pulled open the door, which resulted in a bloodcurdling screech. I took this into account formulating the plan that I would execute later.
What was inside of the door was nothing short of disgusting. Both the wooden desk and chair were already starting to rot. The floor was made of shattered tile, which was also taken by the forces of nature. As we stepped inside and onto the slick what used to be squares of glossy substance, I noticed that there were also several rows of bottles and other wares that were all labelled. Because of my involuntarily donated translation device, I was able to make out that the items were all in numerical order.
Ittisk waved to the desk and Thrack shut the door. "Alright, kid. You're going to man this station. And you're lucky, all of the things people will buy are in numerical order. We know what we want, so you just need to look up the prices of everything in this book." He pulled open the desk's only surviving cabinet, revealing a grimy and torn handwritten notebook. He flipped through the contents, most of the pages sticking to each other.
A few seconds later, Ittisk threw the book back into the desk and stared into my eyes. "Remember, you're only starting to work tomorrow. That means we can... Thrack, what day is it?"
The silent alien at the back of the store sprung to life. He stared off into space for a moment. "It is... Exercise day, I believe."
"Exercise day," Ittisk repeated. "Oh well." He sighed, beginning to form words. "We will run from here to the mines and back. I can't guarantee how you hold up, but we've been doing this for a very long time."
Before I could absorb my surroundings any more, Thrack quickly signalled for me to get out of the shop. Ittisk followed, nodding towards his partner. They looked towards me, retreated, and began to talk in private. I assumed that they were most likely debating how they would handle me and my lack of physical training.
"Are you ready?" The two began to make their way back. "We'll go easy on you since it's only your first day." Thrack took his position behind me, ensuring that I don't run off once more. "Ready..."
I took my position, suddenly readying myself to run. As the session started and I followed Ittisk, we began to weave through the many streets that were in the city. As we went on, I realized just how integrated the layout of the city was to the two aliens.
The houses became more sparse as we began to jog on bare stone. Looking up, the crystals were now shining partly unobstructed by the lack of artificial lights. Simultaneously I began to make out the end of the large, gaping cave. I saw several more rows of what looked like oil lamps that marked points of civilization upon various ledges.
What felt like one hour later, we finally managed to climb into the mouth of one of these points. It was here that we began to take another rest. I desperately caught my breath once again while Ittisk and Track simply leaned against the rock face, waiting for me to recover.
"So... I've been waiting to ask you this," Ittisk began. "Where are you from, Acabio?"
My head took a second to rise, remembering my false identity. "Oh..." I immediately was sent into a fearful state once more, attempting to generate a backstory for myself. I also knew that I would have to steer away from the various opportunities for potential contradictions. "Well, my master and I went on an excursion together. I decided to take a walk around the city to clear my mind, but, well, I got lost."
"So you were with someone else?" Ittisk pushed off the rock and stretched. "I suppose you were. You would've easily resisted if you had the power to come here in the first place."
A wave of realization hit me; up until now, I had only been thinking about ways I could escape using physical strength alone. I suddenly began to remember the various spells that I had learned to cast numerous days before, punishing myself for not going down that avenue sooner. Yes, with my abilities I would have easily resisted being taken by Thrack.
"Are you listening to me?"
"Yes... Yes," I quickly replied. "I just thought of somewhere he might be. It's a stretch, though..."
Ittisk stared at me, completely voided of his carefree and positive attitude. "And where might that be?"
I gulped silently, deciding to stare at the ground. Now that I was thinking about it, there were countless different dialogues that I could have chosen that would successfully spin the conversation in a positive direction. "A bar... He likes to drink, you see... Maybe a little too much."
Even though I could have told the truth, Ittisk didn't seem to buy my story. "So he's a drinker, then? You want to show us where this bar is, then?"
"I-It's the one at that one fancy hotel," I swiftly answered. I began to mentally ready a fireball if I needed to use it. "We booked a room there."
"The hotel..." Ittisk slowly came to a restful state and nodded over to Thrack. "Come on. We've rested for long enough."
My heart nearly pounding out of my chest, we descended the slope. Out of that extensive break, I managed to recover nothing through it. Still, though, I remembered that I needed to keep my story solid up until my escape. I knew that if it were to lead to a false piece of information or a small mistake, my trustworthiness would plummet.