"Life is good." thought Alex to himself as he drove the horse cart into Lemara. "Actually good. They had a house to call home. They had kind people who were looking out for them. They had enough to eat, enough to drink. They still had reasons to laugh. Reasons to spend entire nights just talking away." He reflected on that deeply.
"We still have hope." he thought to himself. "And that's all thanks to the Feggs' kindness."
He paused for a second thinking about the couple. "I'll miss them when we leave..."
A little more than a month had gone by since Alex, Liana, Robin, Felicia, and Eve had been unceremoniously dumped in the hills of Decimandria. They still had no idea how or why they had been brought here. All they knew was there appeared to be only one way out. And until that came, they were stuck here.
The group had decided to stick with their plan of waiting for the town sorcerer to come back and have him send them back to Earth. However, he hadn't shown up yet. Although, Herm did assure them it wouldn't be long now before he did.
As for being stuck in a mythical alien land, the group had no choice but to try and adapt.
And they had. They had adjusted to their new life quite well and quite quickly which had shocked even themselves.
Robin and Alex had taken up full-time farming now and would spend most days working in the blacksmith's small field. When they weren't doing that, they would help Herm with forging weapons. The boys had perfected their smithing; forging swords no longer looked like an insurmountable challenge. Both had become proficient at the art.
And when they weren't doing either of those things, they would work on their swordsmanship. Herm, whose instinct as a Captain and instructor was kicking in, would put both of them through increasing grueling tasks. Alex had repeatedly told Robin about the importance of learning this. About how they had to be able to defend the girls if something were to ever occur in this strange and foreign land. So neither of them ever complained about it.
Alex had also taken up reading. He'd sit up late after dinner just reading whatever he could lay his hands on. There were a few other languages beside English in Decimandria, but the 'common tongue' as it was called, was English. Herm had a moderate collection of books and he gladly lended them to his apprentice.
Alex's main focus was to learn more about Decimandria. Once the shock of being stuck here had abated, he'd become curious about this land and the people that lived in it. Herm's collection mainly contained informative books from his career of serving as a Captain of the Royal Guard. These discussed history, politics, races, and some even explained the various beasts that lived here. This suited Alex immensely. He just wanted to know everything he could.
In history, he'd learned how, during Emperor Savleck Tezeroff's reign, the nobles of the Empire had gained a lot of power. They had started to gain leeway from the Empire. They'd even formed informal factions amongst themselves to consolidate the power. How Emperor Savleck's marriage into House Cerys, one of the most powerful Houses in Decimandria, had kept peace.
From politics he learned how Empress Adlea Cerys von Tezeroff, when she came to power, dismantled the factions and took away the unnatural power the Lords had gained. How she had appointed an elf as a Royal Mage. This had served as another sign of changed times. During her father's reign, mages were being hunted down and elves were treated as sub-humans...but now one was directly serving the Empress. There was mention of the Empress having a powerful benefactor but no specifics were given. Alex was starting to like the Empress the more he read about her.
He even found out about the currency system in Decimandria. It turned about to be very simple. It's made up of three coins: gold, silver, and bronze. The bronze are called bands, the silver are called maces, and the gold, crowns. Twelve bands make one mace and ten maces make one crown.
Alex loved to read about Decimandria. It was a treasure trove of new and fascinating things he'd never seen or heard about. His next focus, was on reading up on the different magical beasts that lived here.
Meanwhile, Liana, Eve, and Felicia had started a small bakery business. They'd spend hours baking their products and every three or so days the boys would take the girls to town to sell the confectioneries.
And it had blown up. Kids, and sometimes adults too, would wait for the bakery cart's arrival into town just to be the first ones to be served before the goods ran out...which happened pretty quickly. Deserts like these were very rare in a town as small as Lemara and the girls had taken the citizens by storm.
It had been so successful in fact, that the town baker had shown up one day, drunk and angry and brandishing a sword, and had threatened to burn their cart down if they didn't stop selling their goods. Seeing a deranged man threatening the girls had really triggered something in Alex, and he had swiftly and brutally taken the drunkard down making Alex's swords skills the talk of the town.
The baker had been pretty embarrassed and sorry about the incident later, and had profusely apologized to Herm and the girls. As he himself pointed out, he had no right to be angry, really. All he did was sell bread while the girls sold everything but. He had accepted he had been bitter about the girls' success. Him accepting that fact increased Alex's respect for him. Since then, the baker had become a cordial friend to the five in town.
For the Feggs', it was like they had gained six kids. They'd help around the house, they'd laugh and argue with each other. They'd fight sometimes. But none ever became a burden. The five had settled into their "normal" life here. They had a schedule now, they had friends...they had family. Life was happy for the group out of time and out of place in Decimandria.
Alex breathed in deep taking in the heavy air. No idea how many chances he'd get to do that before he was back home on Earth, he thought. Home? Well, for him, home was wherever Felicia was. Thinking so and grinning, he turned to look at her sitting beside him on the buckboard. He was surprised to see her mouth moving, and suddenly realized she had been talking to him before he had zoned out thinking about life.
Looking at his expression, Felicia narrowed her eyes. "So, what do you say?" she asked suddenly. Taken a bit aback but not new to these kinds of confrontational questions, Alex decided to take the safe noncommittal route. "Oh...er...maybe." Felicia narrowed her eyes further. "Maybe?" she repeated in a cold menacing tone. "Maybe?"
At this point, Alex knew he had messed up and there was no getting out of what was coming. But maybe...
"You're beautiful." he said. "Did I tell you that before? You look really, really beautiful today. You always do, but today, you just have me adoring over you more than usual."
"Humph!" said Felicia turning away. "Clearly, since you can't even pay attention to what I was saying."
"That's because you were looking so good, I couldn't focus on anything except how pretty you are." protested Alex.
Felicia turned back on him, her eyes narrow again. "Looking at me with the eyes on the back of your head? Or am I sitting on the hills somewhere."
"Oh, come on. I...er...I...had to turn away...or...or I would've just kissed you!"
Felicia's hard expression melted a little and she burst into a laugh. "You're such...such a shit liar...and a shit boyfriend. You don't even pay attention to me." she added shaking her head and pretending to pout slightly.
Alex gave her a lopsided grin. "Don't I?" he asked. She looked up to him, and in spite of herself, broke into a smile. "That smile and sweet words are all you have that keep you out of trouble." Her boyfriend grinned and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm sorry." he said. "I kinda...zoned out. It won't happen again."
"Yes, it will." said Felicia sighing. "But when it does, you're gonna have to be all sweet to me again." she added. Alex laughed out loud. "That I can promise." Felicia smiled cheekily in return. "Good." she said.
"What were you talking about anyway?"
"Not gonna tell you." Felicia replied.
"Oh come on!" protested Alex.
"Not a chance in hell."
"She was asking you which dress she looked better in. This one or the one she was wearing yesterday." came Robin's bored voice from the back of the cart. He had taken over one of the two benches in the cart, and was lying down on it, a straw hat over his face to block out the sun.
Liana and Eve glared at him from the opposite bench while Felicia turned around angrily. "Who asked you to open your mouth?"
"If it meant not hearing you two acting like children, then I don't need a say-so." said Robin. Plus, you were just gonna keep toying with Al and I ruined it. Deal with it."
"I'm gonna make you pay for that." threatened Felicia.
"Oooh, I'm so scared. I've got Al to keep you in check." said Robin without even making an effort to lift the straw hat from his face.
Alex suddenly burst out laughing. No matter where they were or what they were doing, in the end they were still the same group of people who had grown up together, weren't they?
* * *
Soon Lemara came into view and the five entered. As usual, chaos ensued when the 'bakery cart' came into town. Alex and Robin were used to this by now. Their main role was as bouncers anyway; just there to keep the peace. The girls, meanwhile, dealt with the selling.
Alex, leaning against a nearby tree, marveled at how well Liana was dealing with the crowd. She always masterfully took care of the crowd never once letting it go out of control. People shouted left and right for their orders, impatiently fidgeted about, or simply started shoving to get in front. But Liana, she always seemed to quell any sort of rash behavior very quickly and not by screaming or getting rude herself. Alex grinned; his sister never ceased to surprise him. He'd always thought she was a shy little thing. It took him to be stuck with her in a magical medieval land to find out she was anything but.
As the evening sun set, the last of the customers left and the entire cart stood there barren of any product. Yawning and stretching his hands, Robin jumped off the buckboard and walked over to the girls. They all gathered around the back of the cart to take stock.
"Nice profits?" asked Alex to Liana who was holding the coin purse. She grinned and slightly jiggled the purse; there was a satisfying tinkling of coins inside. "Very nice." she replied.
"Score!" said Robin suddenly, and dived into the cart for something. He got up triumphantly holding a shiny silver coin in his hands. "Looks like you dropped this."
"Hey!" exclaimed Liana. "Give it back!"
"Nope!" said Robin pocketing it.
As Liana was about to climb into the cart herself, Alex held up his hand. "Leave it." he said. "He deserves some payment after all."
All three girls rolled their eyes. Alex looked at them. "What?" he asked. "It was just a mace."
"Fine." said Liara, giving in. "Let's go."
The five of them climbed into the cart, with Alex, as usual, at the reins. "I love the currency system here." said Eve as she eyed the purse safely tucked in Alex's belt. "So simple." Felicia nodded her head. "Yep. Being woefully backward has its advantages."
As the five reached the outskirts of town, they noticed a commotion going on. A crowd had gathered around some kind of pen and people were screaming. "Oh, not this again." said Eve nervously. But this was different. The screams were joyous and gleeful. Some men were drinking. Some were handing fistfuls of coins to a man standing by the side and scribbling in a book.
Standing up inside the cart, Robin saw two men inside the round pen. Both of them were shirtless. Their hands were covered with some kind of white bandages or bands that came up to their elbows. They both looked well built and their faces were bruised and covered with blood. Each time one landed a blow on the other, one half of the crowd would scream in support while the other half jeered.
"Holy shit." said Alex. "They look like they're gonna kill each other." The crowd cried again as one man punched the other in the gut. The men were brutal. Their punches were raw, and even from this distance, it disturbed the girls looking at two men fighting so savagely.
"Why aren't the guards doing anything?" asked Liana, a little faintly. The guards appeared unfazed with what was going on. Indeed, some had even joined in on the betting. "It looks like an organized fight or something." said Alex wonderingly. "I'll ask Herm when we get back. Let's go."
"What?" asked Robin incredulously. "We're not gonna wait and see the end of this?"
"No." said Alex firmly, whipping the reins to get the horses moving as the crowd cried out again as one man knocked the other to the ground, sat on him, and then started proceeding to beat him while the other tried desperately to fight back. Robin disappointedly sat back down and the group heard the crowd cry out again. Alex wondered whether that meant the man had finished off the downed opponent or the opponent had punched back...
The group reached home, and after dinner, as Herm was sitting in his workshop cleaning some of his blacksmithing tools, Alex brought up the subject. "When we were in Lemara today, we saw this...fighting. It looked organized. Even had a bookie there. The guards didn't seem to give a shit either." Herm looked up. "Oh, that? It must've been a fighting bout then. I told you, remember, we have brawling here. No weapons, just fists. Winner gets the money and the fame."
"So what are the rules?" asked Robin, curiously.
"Knock out the other guy. If he can't get back up, you win."
"They looked like they were gonna do more than just knock each other out." said Alex.
"Well that's usually what happens. The other guy keeps getting back up, so the fight goes on for quite a while. Especially if two good fighters cross." said Herm, resuming his cleaning. "But the best fighter we have know is...I forgot his name, but I hear he is extremely good. He's World Champion right now. And if the rumors are to be believed, he was endorsed by Lord-"
"What're all three of you doing?" asked Lis suddenly, walking into the workshop. "I told you before, Herm, don't overwork the boys."
"Wha-?" began Herm in amazement. "They're not eve-"
"And you stop straining yourself too." continued Lis. "How many times have I told you, no working after dinner?"
"Listen, I'm not working. I'll be back just as soon as I finish cleaning these tools." said Herm. Lis gave him a stern look. The blacksmith faltered. "Ah, fine." he said. "Come on, boys, wouldn't wanna 'overwork' you."
Robin grinned as they walked out of the workshop and under his breath muttered to Alex: "The mighty Cap'n who'd make us spar till our bones crack can't stand up to a woman." Alex hid his grin.
"I heard that!" said Herm up ahead. "You're gonna lap the field thirty times tomorrow for that." Robin groaned and rushed to Lis to have her redact the punishment.