"As I said, that fiend probably ran away, there's no use looking for him,"
"Alright, alright, it's no matter, we'll be leaving now, whether or not we bring him,"
The scout group was speaking with the town chief before leaving, they were in a rush, so they couldn't afford to look for Jeffrey if he had run off. As Karl went to mount his steed. He found that one of the horses already had a rider.
"Sacred stars mate, where were you?"
The rider turned his head over, however before he could respond, the town chief hurled a series of demands and accusations,
"You bastard! What were you doing last night? Were you stealing? You killed someone, didn't you? I know what you did!"
Against the one sided verbal assault, Jeffrey stared blankly, unaffected…
Though that was what it looked like to everyone else, however, Jeffrey was rather hurt by those words. He killed someone? Did he look like the kind of guy to do that on a whim?
Not to mention that if the chief knew what he was doing last night, then why did he suggest that Jeffrey had done such things? Jeffrey was debating the morality of society outside of his old village.
"Enough!" Scout leader Karl had enough of the town chief's horse shite.
"Buddy, what did you do last night?" He asked calmly.
"Sleep-,"
"That's a fat lie!" the chief interjected, "Where would he have slept? He definitely committed a crime last night."
"I didn't ask for your opinion, town chief," placing emphasis on his words, shutting the chief up, in fear of ruining relations with this scout leader.
"Continue," Karl urged.
"Slept beneath the stars."
Karl didn't truly believe that, but he also couldn't be asked to actually find the truth. Well, despite the look, Jeffrey seemed trustworthy enough not to commit a crime or at least not a felony… he hoped.
"Well, chief Mave, if you have nothing important to say, then we will be leaving," without giving the chief time to answer, Karl mounted his horse and started a slow trot without waiting for the other two who had yet to mount their horse. The herbal solution that had been applied to them managed to temporarily stave off their wounds. Though they would open up if they didn't rest for at least a month or two.
This town was called Gi and was at a relatively close distance to the Fort City Tanz. They would often trade with the Fort City and having relations with a prominent scout leader would be a boon for their small town. Especially out here in the frontier.
As he watched the horses gallop away, he felt his heart ache. Not only did he not manage to befriend the scout leader, he even left a bad impression. It was all that guy's fault! The chief started to push all his problems onto the fact that Jeffrey had shown up.
He would definitely teach him a lesson if he dared show up in his town again!
…
The sun was near the peak as its oppressive rays hit the high stone walls that came into sight.
This was quite the sight, Jeffrey had never seen stones piled so high, it made him wonder how long it took to build.
The journey was silent, with all the interruptions that happened throughout this trip, everyone just wanted to get back in those walls.
Soon the horses galloped to a small gate snuggled between the tall walls. Up close, it could be estimated the walls were around 40 feet tall. The portcullis barely reached a height of 15 feet. This was the main gate, however, it could be seen that due to lack of traffic, the gate itself was extremely small.
There were guards that stood around the gate as well as those upon the walls, observing the newcomers, the guards around were tense ever since news came of a potential dragon sighting. Otherwise, they wouldn't be taking their job so seriously right now.
Arriving at the gate, one of the six guards present greeted Karl.
"Karl, you don't look too good, did the dragon do that to ya?" he joked.
"Sigh, just let me rest, we got attacked by Barghests, alright?"
"Surely, you jest," however, looking at Karl's serious face, the guard could only swallow his next words.
"Aight, I'll get you in real quick, but first…" He looked over at one of the horse riders.
"Who, in the sea of stars is that?"
"It's just a farmer we picked up, he seems like he'll be a good addition to the guard teams so I brought him along,"
"Are you sure about that?" The guard seemed sceptical. Had Karl hit his head on the way here as well?
"Mhmm, Jeffrey here was part of the same village as me," Jim chirped in, vouching for Jeffrey's identity.
"If you say so," the guard was reluctant to believe Jim so easily.
"Anyways, the guard thing was a joke, right?"
"No, I'm very serious,"
"Wait, what?"