After an hour passed, the wagons finally trundled onto a more open road located outside the city wall. There were buildings here and there, but what really got everyone excited was the large pits in the ground. Out of the five deep pits dug into the earth, two of them were being occupied by large metallic ships that looked like large ocean cruise liners from Earth.
Hunter looked at the other three with shock. "You see it too, right?"
All they could do was nod as they looked at the cruise liners. The other children were too much in awe seeing their first airships, not noticing the emotions that were flickering on the four brothers' faces. Linrun, having seen the airships multiple times after they were built, was watching the crowd and noticed the brothers' complex reactions. [Why are they getting so emotional? Ya it's cool seeing the world's first airships, but it shouldn't be that drastic.]
Not being able to hold back her curiosity this time, Linrun walked up to the brothers and quipped softly, "What's got you boys all riled up?"
The brothers looked at each other, not wanting to explain to her. Spartacus tried diverting the question by asking one of his own. "Do you know who came up with the design for the airships?"
Noticing that none of them were going to respond to her question, Linrun's curiosity got even stronger causing her to want to dig into these younger children's past to find out what secrets they may be hiding. However, she reeled her desire in and responded merrily to them. "It was said that the design was drawn up by the crown prince who is only six years old. It's been said that the King and Queen have been bragging about how much of a genius he is ever since he was three. It's also been rumored that he was the one who set up the wall, rallied the gargoyle clans to live here, and has made the economy so prosperous that even the poorest man no longer uses copper as money."
Orion glanced at the other three as he smirked. "Sounds like an entrepreneur."
Ian chuckled dryly as he looked back at the airships before shaking his head and going back to the wagon. When Ian shook his head, Hunter was able to distinguish a scent of disgust and fear come from him. [Wonder what happened with him on a cruise ship.]
After Ian left, the other three brothers looked at the airships one more time before they too turned and returned to the wagons. Seeing the brothers leave, the other children began filing back to the wagons. Finally the girls noticed the slightly different emotions flitting between the brothers. Linrun joined them back on the wagon, and she noticed Sylvia and Quixi were trying to comfort Ian and Orion by cuddling with them. When she turned her sight back to the front wagon, she found Stephanie gently squeezing Hunter's hand reassuredly while the elf sisters were both comforting Spartacus, one of them gently massaging his shoulders while the other pulled his head to the side to lean it against the large but firm and squishy chest.
[Jeez, what is up with these kids??! They seem to act far older than what they should be, and I can't believe those two elf teens are actually comforting an eight year old like that!] Linrun sat down in the wagon awkwardly as she watched these odd couples. Hunter could smell her awkwardness, causing him to chuckle as he glanced at her before letting go of Stephanie's hand and taking over driving the wagon. In response, Stephanie tapped into her ring and pulled out one of her master's books about literature, and she began studying it so she could continue improving her writing skills.
"How far is it to Snakecliff Village?" Hunter looked at the setting sun before turning his sight back towards Linrun.
Linrun was shocked out of her daze as she glanced at Hunter, feeling slightly uneasy as he looked at her with his eyes covered. After taking a quick breath to calm her nerves, Linrun responded. "It's about two hours by wagon and the sun will have set by then so it would be best to stay in the city. Plus you all must've already paid for rooms at a tavern, so it would be a waste to not use the money spent."
Hunter nodded as he smirked slightly, then a frown crossed his face like a shadow before he refocused on Linrun again. "Do you have a place to stay?"
Hearing Hunter ask this, Stephanie looked up from the book she was reading and looked at Linrun. Linrun slightly blushed upon hearing Hunter ask her where she was staying, causing her to freeze up and slightly shake her head no. Seeing that Stephanie quickly smiled as she closed her book and leaned over to grab Linrun's hands. "Would you like to share a room with my friends and I tonight? Don't worry, I promise no nasty boys will come and bother us."
After saying this, she turned her head and stuck out her tongue towards Hunter. He in turn responded back by putting his fingers in his mouth and pulling his cheeks wide as he too stuck out his tongue. Linrun, Stephanie, and a couple of the younger children laughed upon seeing Hunter's face before Linrun looked at Stephanie and nodded her head.
Arriving back at the tavern after an hour had passed, the party went and found a couple tables and began ordering food from the barmaids as they spent the time bonding and screwing around. The brothers, and their ladies all sat at a single table so they could enjoy the time together and also learn more about Siol from Linrun.
Watching the intimacy between all of these people, Linrun glanced towards Hunter and Stephanie and blushed when she thought back to her awkwardness back at the airships. [These people seem to really be in love with each other. I wish I had someone to be able to trust so much like that. Pity that all the good boys always seem to be taken. Oh well, for grandmother's sake, I'll have to go through with that disgusting event so there isn't any point in hoping for love.] She shook her head to clear her dejected thoughts from her mind.
Hunter's heightened senses alerted him to Linrun's mood, and he turned his head to look at her, causing Stephanie to look at her with worry as well. Upon realizing that her actions had been noticed, Linrun froze as a blush splashed across her face, and her tail flicked outwardly as she began to feel awkward. Then Stephanie smiled at her and forced Hunter to pull Linrun into them.
"Aiii!" She shrieked in embarrassment as she struggled to get out of Hunter's grasp, finding that he was far stronger than what he looked.
Leaning in to her ear, Hunter gently squeezed her shoulder as he whispered. "It's okay, relax. I promise I won't eat you up if you're that worried."
Linrun's eyes became wide with shock, and when she looked up she found that Hunter was teasingly smirking at her while Stephanie was showing a very sweet smile towards her. Linrun blushed even more before she realized that she should be angry right now, and so she attempted to scowl and growl at Hunter. This in turn caused him to laugh as his cheeks reddened, he couldn't stop looking at her adorable angry face.
Realizing that she wasn't getting the right reaction, Linrun then began to pout as she glared at Hunter, and then the others as they too began laughing and enjoying the show.
"You're all jerks." She angrily whispered as her ears twitched constantly in agitation. Hunter smiled and lifted his hand off her shoulder as he began patting the top of her head. Instantly her ears lowered, her tail froze, and she turned even redder as she grabbed her face out of the increasing embarrassment.
Watching the interaction between the two, Stephanie began to blush as well as she realized that she was teased in a similar fashion. A slight frown appeared on her face, but as soon as her emotions began to change, she felt Hunter taking his arm that was wrapped around her shoulders and placing it on her thigh before he began gently caressing her leg.
Stephanie blushed so fast that everyone else froze as they realized Hunter was teasing both girls openly in public. Orion quickly covered Quixi's eyes as she tried to watch the show, innocently not comprehending what was happening. The other three girls began to slightly blush as well as they looked at Ian and Spartacus respectively.
For Ian it wasn't so bad, but since Spartacus had Asani and Tarenia, who were both fifteen, he felt unsafe as he looked into their eyes. [Dear god, are they thinking about devouring me?!] Hunter finally stopped his teasing as he looked towards the door of the tavern. As everyone else followed his "gaze", they saw the captain of the guards they had met earlier in the day watching them with a knowing smile on his face.
"I can come back if this isn't a good time." He winked as he went to turn around and go out the door.
"It's all good. If I continue, I might end up breaking my preciouses." Hunter slyly said as he squeezed both Stephanie's and Linrun's legs, causing the blush that had faded to reappear instantly. For Linrun, it was even darker than before as she looked at Hunter in shock, and because she had let out a shrill squeak, drawing everyone's attention. Stephanie smiled before she winked at Hunter and then got up, grabbing Linrun as the two headed for the stairs leading to the rooms. "We'll leave you boys to your business. It's time we have a nice girl to girl chat."
Sylvia smiled as she grabbed her sister Quixi and ran up the stairs after Stephanie and Linrun. Tarenia began to follow them as well, however as Asani left, she stopped, turned around, and licked her lips seductively as she stared at Spartacus dead in the eye. Spartacus blushed as he slid backwards into his seat. "Uh, I don't think it's safe for me to be alone in the foreseeable future. I think those two are really planning on becoming carnivorous."
The captain laughed as he sat down at the table with the brothers. Ever since the party had returned to the tavern, Ian had stowed his sentinel armor, allowing the captain to be able to see his appearance. The captain glanced at Hunter, thinking to himself on why this boy was the only one truly hiding his appearance, but not willing to ask since these kids seemed so friendly. The smartest thing a guy could do was get on the good side of powerful people, especially the children since they had a bright future; having kind and truly good conscience was nothing more than a true benefit and it would be best to not wrong these kinds of people as they were more likely to forgive but not repair connections.
"So how'd you boys like your first day in Ironchill?" The captain grabbed a large mug of ale as a barmaid passed by, swinging it around as he began to heavily drink.
Spartacus glanced around as they watched the captain chug the ale, finishing the large mug like it was nothing. "We found that it was quite a nice experience, especially compared to Adenville as that's really the only city we've been in so far."
The captain stopped as his eyebrows quirked. "If you kids were village kids I wouldn't be surprised that you hadn't been anywhere other than Adenville; but you kids seem really educated, plus you all seem like adventurers so how is it that you haven't been to any other cities other than Adenville?"
Spartacus froze as he realized how perceptive this guard captain was. As he tried to think of a reason to answer his question, Hunter began to slightly chuckle off to the side. "You know, we have been to large cities, but they aren't the type of cities you're thinking of. Let's just say the cities we've been too are unique, and far larger than ones you have here."
The captain looked at the sly smile on the little boy in black, feeling as if he was nothing more than a toy to this child. He shivered subconsciously before turning his attention back to Spartacus. "Very well, we all have our secrets so if you boys don't want to tell then I won't go and pry, aye lad?"
Spartacus dryly smiled as he nodded towards the captain. "By the way, we saw the airships earlier today. I must say, they are quite unique. Do you know why they were built as such?"
The captain eyed Spartacus up as his brain began trying to see if there was a connection between these boys and the airships. While he was thinking, Hunter rapped the table and spoke in a language that the captain couldn't understand.
"This guy is really too suspicious and observant. Look at him, he's already trying to find out why we are so interested in the design of the airships, and where we come from. At this rate, if we aren't careful, we're going to be having a lot of problems pop up." Hunter spoke softly in English as he looked at the other three, each of them nodding as they glanced towards the guard captain who had stopped his thought process and was watching the four of them.
"What language is that?" The captain looked at the four brothers, a frown appearing on his face as he wondered what the boy in black had said, causing all of them to tense up and become alert towards him.
The brothers looked at each other before Orion stated. "It's called English."