Lennint was nice enough to give both of us a map to find the house again, gods knew we needed it. I am not really religious like the zealots, but gosh I needed a miracle if I wanted to find the house again without a map.
He showed us the way to the market, an area not too far from where the ship let us off, all the while muttering how he hoped enough time passed since the explosion so that no one was looking for him again. Apparently this is a regular occasion whenever he tries using his powers for anything other than healing.
Once we made it to the market we each went our own separate ways. Lennint went to find materials we could use, Soi went to see what the supply for arrows was like, and I was left on my lonesome to find a weapon smith.
I took a look around to see the sea of stalls. Tents, booths, rundown shacks galore. Each had a person in the front yelling their wares to the bustling sea of people walking around.
Even though it was nearing the afternoon at this point, the heat still blazed down from the sun. The market had very little shade unless I go into one of the stalls, but I didn't want to go into one until I was actually going to buy something. For now I can only just roam the aisles until I find something.
There is a stall for everything. The first shop I looked into was being run by a Locustin. The wares seemed to consist of plants from around the continent. Figuring it was a type of medicine hut, I moved on.
The next stall was one of those shacks I saw. The clerk was a Moostifit, the intelligent species version of the animals like the cattle my family raised. It's my first time seeing on in the flesh, and judging by the glare she's giving me, I don't think she likes that Dragonborn raise cattle… I should move on.
I continued to walk through the different stands, not once seeing a shop with weapons. I thought they would be more popular, but I guess the work it takes to craft weapons worth selling is just too much of a price. After almost an hour of walking around windowless shopping, I reached the other end of the market. One row done, another dozen to go.
'And I thought Lennint was huge' I thought, but before I started walking down the second row I noticed a bunch of people sitting against the walls of some of the buildings on the outskirts of the market. Their clothes are in tatters and none looked around, all had their heads down. I thought it was weird, but this is the big city, I had no idea what went on around here.
I turned around to travel down the next row. And did it again. And again. And again. And several times more again after that. I spent no less than four hours going down the rows and could not find a single weapon smith. They can't be that uncommon.
While I was walking, I saw Lennint at the medicine shop I saw earlier. It was quite humorous seeing him try to fit his massive frame into the small stall. And then later I saw Soi at a clothes area. She didn't see me, but I could see that the clothes she was buying were way too small for her. They looked like they wouldn't even fit someone of my height. I decided to leave her alone to let her deal with her clothes issue. Besides, I'm a guy, I don't have any input on clothes anyway, at least that's what my mother would always say when we went clothes shopping.
When I finally got to the end of the last row I was looking at for today I saw that the raggedy people were still there. What was different was that they started looking around like they were searching for someone. They were also sitting differently, instead of being spread out they were sitting near an entrance to a dark alley.
I stood and watched them for a second, and I saw that they occasionally turned their heads to the alley. I got curious and started walking towards them. However, once I did all of their heads swiveled to stare at me. It was really unnerving to see them all do it at once.
"Uh.. hey guys, I uh was just seeing what was happening over here," I called out to them. Their eyes squinted at me before they started whispering to each other. I was too far away to hear what they were saying so I kept moving forward.
At this point their whisperings stopped and they continued staring. Finally, one of them spoke up, though I couldn't tell you which one it was as none of their mouths moved.
"Four winged one, you can see us?" The voice was eerie, hollow, empty. It was an unnerving feeling like static through the wind, unnatural.
"Of course I can see you, you all are just sitting here in the open." Why would they think no one could see them?
"Interesting," came the voice, but this time from a different direction. My head hurts, because while I know they came from different directions, they seem to be coming from everywhere at once. "It's rare to find someone as strongly connected as you. Hear our plea, Four Wings, find our host and help them. Or at least make things interesting, more so than they have been. They are living a dull life, please change that." Their careless whispers encircled my mind, it felt like I was being pressed from all sides, and all the while their mouths have yet to move. But they grew silent after one more line.
"She's in there."
Slowly, they are backed away and made a path for me that leads to the alley way. Apparently whoever this host is, I'll find them down there.
'Well, what do I have to lose.'
I started my walking again, and as I grew closer, the raggedy people closed in behind me. My path out was completely blocked so I had no choice but to keep moving forward. The light from the now setting sun started to fade faster as I strolled into the shaded alley. As the market faded from my view, I could hear the whisperings resume behind me. This time I could make out their words.
"This should be interesting. He will make things interesting for our host."
I walked for a few minutes down the path before I found a stall just like one I'd find in the market. Unlike the market, however, this one had a sword symbol outside of it.
A weapon smith! It was hidden off to the side this whole time! Weird that they only advertise to those in this alley. But the relief I felt from finally finishing my search overcame any doubt I had about the situation. The stall seemed to be in good condition, walls that didn't look like they will fall at the wrong touch, and the green paint wasn't peeling off by the buckets. It even has a working door!
So as I walked in, without a single creak from the door, I saw that the shop inside was way bigger than it looked like from the outside. When the door closed behind me I could hear a little bell that jingled to signal my arrival. From a back room I could hear a thump and a cry.
"Ah, a customer! I'll be right up there valued customer, just give me one second!" The voice rang out. The voice was definitely feminine, but at the same time wasn't. It's hard to explain, especially since I only heard it once. Higher pitched is all I can really say about it for now.
While I was waiting for that one second to pass, I took a look around. It was like I was walking in a jewelry shop, glass cabinets lined the room with different weapons being shown off. The glimmer of them were brilliant like a diamond, each looking precious but deadly.
One side had a variety of swords. Different lengths, grips, and materials. Some were more decorative than practical, while others seemed to be able to cut the air around them. The other side displayed maces with just as much variety. It really is astonishing to see all of these finely crafted weapons in an out of the way shop.
Then I noticed the lever besides the case. I was just about to pull it out of curiosity when the door to the back room opened. I turned to see the shop keep, but what I saw come stepping into the light was a small figure wearing a cloak that cover all of their skin that glowed with a green hue, and to top it off was a white mask to hide their face.
I didn't hesitate, "You're one of the cult members!" I yelled. The figure jumped at the sound of my voice, but I slowly walked to them, cautious in case they tried attacking.
"You're going to tell me where she was taken!" I yelled once again. They looked around the room before looking back at me. Then they charged forward.
I braced for the impact, but it didn't come, instead the cloak jumped onto the glass container next to me and used it to launch themselves into the air over me. They even had the audacity to use my head as a vault! They put their hands on the back of my head before pushing them down to keep up their momentum. However, I wasn't going to let them have the last laugh with that stunt. I used all four of my wings to flap myself backwards. The speed it gave me allowed me to easily block the exit before they could reach it.
The figure landed deftly in front of me, but paused upon seeing their escape gone. They slowly backed up, but I followed just as carefully. They weren't getting away from me that easily. But just as I was about to lunge forward to grab them, they made another dash at me. They were bracing to jump, so I extended myself up and blocked the route. I was outsmarted though, because they jumped forward into a roll instead of up. They ended up going beneath my legs.
But like I said, they weren't getting away from me that easily. I whipped my leg around to catch them as they came up from a roll.
'Man, I never knew I had this type of agility.'
My leg caught them across the chest and flung them backwards across the room. They landed in a crash against the back wall and collapsed. I moved to them to try and stop them from escaping anymore as I could see them getting back up. But before I reached them, I heard the voice from before.
"Ah! Where's my mask? Where'd it go!" I couldn't tell where it came from, like those people from outside it seemed to surround me, but it had no pressure behind it. The cloaked figure raised its head and it started whipping around looking this way and that. They completely ignored me as I approached.
"There it is!" I assumed the voice came from the cloak, as it tried dashing to the corner of the room, but I grabbed the back of their cloak. That didn't stop their momentum, however, and their head revealed itself from underneath the shadow of the hood that I held back. I could see the moment they realized what happened as their eyes went wide at the sudden light in their eyes.
What I saw was weird. I'm not sure I understand it. The first thing I saw was their jaw, or the pieces of it. The side of the jaw I saw was segmented into three parts, separated by stitches, and each part was different. The chin had tan skin, the next part had dark skin, and the third part hadpale skin. And that idea of different pieces carried through the rest of her head, well most of it. At least now I could tell she was female, her hair was long and dark. It cascaded down into the cloak and disappeared. But what really caught my attention was the center of her face, it was a skeleton. Or at least it looked like it. I could see that there was skin, but only barely enough to cover the bone, not enough to hide the definition it had plus the fact that it was all entirely pale skin. And the ends of her mouth had stitches coming up the cheek. It made no worldly sense on how she could look like this.
She quickly brought her hands up to cover her face and spoke in a freaked out manner, "Please valued customer, can you grab my mask for me? I need it." I could feel her trembling through the part of the cloak I was wearing, I could feel her terror.
I put her down and walked to the corner she was trying to go to. There was her mask laying on the ground. I picked it up and brought it to her.
"Here," I said while reaching it out to her. Her arms came down to grab the mask and that's when I saw the right side of her face. Much of it was like the mismatch from the other side with more stitches, but what stood out wasn't the fact that this side of her hair was in a more pixie-bob cut. It was her eyes. The left one was a crystal blue that I could gaze into, but her right side had a black mist that housed a purple orb that gazed into me.
"Welcome to Frantantein's Monstrous Weapons, valued customer," she spoke as she put her mask back on, blocking the stitches, and concealing that purple eye. "I'm Frantantein, how can I help you today?"
End of Chapter 9
—————————————————————