As I am sitting in the chair I glance around and though this environment is too "clean" it was at least a nicer welcoming.
*4 minutes later*
I am playing with my dagger on my finger with my two fingers and I notice a figure walking up to me. The same elf man with two cups of something hot and easily recognizable. Coffee.
"Here's your coffee. I added maybe too many sugar cubes into it. Never asked you so I went with a safe option. Also here," he says giving me a pouch. I turn over the puck and see two necklaces fall out into my hand. How did he know? Oh, who am I kidding he likely just saw me.
"Oh...Thanks. How did you know I wanted these?"
"I was watching you for about maybe 10 or 15 minutes when you were walking around the Cohal Center. I wanted to see your behavior and observe from a distance. Your behavior was calm and more curious. I had some suspicion since your posture and physical appearance seemed less appealing to some. No offense." he says taking a tip
"None taken, people have made comments about my looks not matching how I act. Very unfortunate. But either way, thank you. I intend to give these to the people I know. I'm guessing because the situation at the vendor was getting a bit more 'heated' than you stepped into the situation."
"Yes, I had been watching and stepped in at that moment. Since I knew an uproar in this town would cause issues for everyone. Newspapers get published differently in each district by different companies. White District might say, 'Beastmen Becomes Aggressive Towards Elf Unarmed Vendor' or let us say the Iron District newspapers say, 'Beastmen Gets Publically Humiliated and Antagonized By Racist Elf Woman'. Goes one way or the other, and results in conflict, and right now conflict between districts are just not desirable. Especially if a war does break out. Seeing as you are an adventurer, I assume that if war did break out you would then by contract have to be drafted. Sorry about that." he states with sincerity at the end
"We will see. Since this is an investigation we might be able to find the truth of what happened. hopefully, we find out this was a raid by bandits or something." I say fiddling with my knife
"Indeed, I have hired various other people so far the Grey District was the last one. I got about 4 people already. I have also gotten permission from the Arcadian Garrison and Defence Ministry to go to the site of question. So congratulations, you're hired." he reaches his hands out which I am sketchy about for some reason.
I give my right hand over to him and we shake twice and let go.
"Now, I will be heading to a military convey that will be sent out there. So unless you are going to walk there I highly suggest you come with me and the other 3."
"Wait, three? I thought you said you had four?"
"You're the fourth one, also are you going to drink the coffee I paid for?"
I look at it and grab the whole thing with one hand and dump the whole thing into my mouth and swallow it. I put the cup back onto the table and immediately regret it...
"I'm good, lets go," I say quickly as I feel my insides burn and melt away from the inside
I quickly walk out of the cafe trying to stomach the hot coffee destroying my insides but holding strong.
The elf walks out of the cafe and gestures for me to follow.
*30 minutes later*
We have arrived a what seems to be a garrison that has walls 8 meters high, wooden doors, and White Flags. He walks up to one of the elven guards and gives a nod. The guard nods back and with his left-hand touches a white panel, which then glows almost a neon light.
The doors Jerk a bit and click. The door then begins to open up from the pushing outwards showing what seems to be a larger mix between elven and human soldiers in the fort.
They gesture for us to enter the fort which I in turn follow. The only issue is they halted me before I even got to step in.
"He with you sir?" the guard asks with his left hand raised
"Yes, do you think I would let someone follow right behind me at a fortification?"
"I suppose not." he turns his head back to me and lets me walk by him.
As we get deeper into the fort we walk to a covered stable with a carriage being prepared and stocked up. I see 2 orcs and 1 beastwoman. All of them are wearing different armor. So I can't pinpoint them being anything out of the ordinary of Guid members.
"Gentlemen, we have our last one," he says gesturing to me.
"What's up kid, looking a little short aren't ya?" An orc with darker green skin speaks.
I shrug my arms and ignore the comment. I have been called short before. I am not sure if my age is the normal height or not for a lizardman.
The Orc woman with much lighter green skin sitting in the carriage leans over and slaps the other orc behind the head.
"Bloody idiot. I gotta tell Mother that you insulted her height as well?" she speaks in a mocking tone.
*sigh* "No...Leave me alone," he says walking away.
"Sorry about my older brother. Always the type to antagonize everyone. Names Sheila and my brother's name is Urngar. Traditional Western Orc name. Annoying as hell. That's Ziva." she points to the feline woman sitting slouched on a chair next to the carriage. She only looks at me silently.
"She's...Silent to everyone. Betting she got some girl problems you know what I mean hehe" she says mischievously.
"Uhuh...Coda. A pleasure to meet you all." I say walking over to them to shake hands.
I turn to shake Ziva but she just ignores me and looks at her nails.
"I am sure Ziva and I will get along swimmingly," I say confidently
"Well, now that you've somewhat gotten equated, we will be heading out in about an hour. You all formally should know me as Alistair Gohan. I hired each of you as my personal escort to Davenville village in order to investigate. Prepare your gear, and any rations you specifically want, or send out a letter if so desired. I will be finishing off the paperwork."
He walks away leaving all three of us alone under the cover. I look at Sheila and she glances at me. Expecting me to say something.
"So...Wanna talk?" I ask climbing over the cart handles
"Mmmm, sure why not. My mother is an Orc woman from the West Orcidom. Or in most people's understanding, the Far East beyond the Great Mounts. But my father is a human male who worked as a sailor. They both adopted me and my sibling at some un-named orphanage, and the two decided to choose a name for the both of us. Father named me as a human name. At least I think it's a human one. My mother named my sibling. Both of us were trained by our parents. Blah blah blah, okay your turn." she finishes quickly now awaiting me to say my story.
"Uh...Let's see, I was found in a basket, found by an Elf woman, I was then 'un-officially adopted' by an Orc family, got my ass beat, grew up with them, got knocked out by stairs, woke up a while ago from a coma, became an adventurer, my close friend attempted to kill me, I am now here." I say catching my breath.
"Huh...Interesting...Never thought of an Orc adopting a lizardman. But then again you said "unofficially" so I guess that fixes some stuff."
"Now that you mention it, since you're from the Far East, do you know any customs that can explain why they couldn't openly adopt me? They said it was about status or something I think."
"Well, simply put yes. It is about status. So I am not part of the family in a direct sense. But I am never the less respectfully treated like one. As I also treat them respectfully."
"I see, I see...So...One of your close friends attempted to kill you?"
"Well, she almost did kill me. Might've been on the death's door roughly just about a week ago. Straight through the gut"
I say gesturing to my stomach region.
"Hmm," she says in a hushed manner. She begins to look at my face intently. I am guessing she is skeptical of me or is examining my face for some reason.
"I am going to go off on a bet and say I believe you on that. Your facial scars might not be overly damaging, but they are enough to make me think that you get into tricky situations. Which is odd. Most caimans heal their scars easily. I think the only way most caimans get scars is when the form of damage given is either an extremely toxic or corrosive manner, or cursed means that hinder healing. One of the two?"
"I am actually neither. I have a rare condition that makes my healing faster still, but the scales are not durable like most caiman scales. In fact, it is more similar to human skin. Want to feel it?" I ask giving my arm to her.
She takes her right hand and touches the surface.
"Wow, I never knew beastmen had birth defects"
Damn, never hit me hard saying I have a birth defect from a stranger. Meh.
"Yeah well, I can at least fight like a caiman normally can. Just means scarring is more likely from things. Also, you said 'cursed means'. What are those?"
"Well, that's a complex subject, never seen it in action or had one myself," she then leans in on my right side, "also because cursed items are extremely illegal in the main nations of the world," she then retreats back normally and continues.
"But they are essential items that have been hexed or cursed that are purposed to have very intentionally negative effects on people. Be that weapons that can cause eternal bleeding from a wound, or a goblet that causes any liquid poured in it to be poisonous. They always are unknown and uncontrollable. Often creates life-altering effects that will never be removed ever. OR even generational curses that doom a family to suffer always having a child die in horrible situations, or a disease that is always painful. Varies really. But the ones I am speaking of are the cursed blades the elves have used during wars against the beastmen."
"Oh? History lesson time. Give it to me"
"Uh, sure...Weirdo...Never seen a beastman want to learn about the history of elves. Except when they want to hear about how a legendary beastman warrior slays an elven prince. Plenty of those stories of a beastman killing a high-ranking elf. But besides that here it is. Back then at some point, the beastmen began gaining momentum and organized against the elves to the point they began making moves and were beating elven formations. Things became dire. So they 'supposedly' called upon demons to give them an edge. Blessing their weapons with curses to severely injure and cripple the beastmen clans and tribes each battle. Beastmen are known for taking a severe amount of damage. But often overwhelm most enemies. But the cursed weapons would essentially cripple them slowly after each battle. Soldiers were losing their strength, becoming blind, and forgetting names or even words at times. But they needed more. Eventually, these curses became more permanent and more damaging. Such as a single cut from an elven dagger can cause a beastmen to profusely bleed unless the wound is fully sealed up. Since beastmen can't use magic to heal wounds they would bleed until they died. OR other ones where people struck but a single cut would forever have their descendants have birth defects such as weaker immune systems, dying at birth more often, and dying at a specific age every time. It was becoming effective to stall the beastmen. However these methods of war became getting used more often, and in turn, the Justicar of the Sun began to take notice and find out about dealing with demons. They began a small civil war to stop these unholy dealings. Eventually, even the Inquisitorious of Rodin began to give some assistance in dealing with those who did deals with the demons. Who would've thought the Elven command would be against an effective method of combating the beastmen? Apparently, they were against dealing with demons since it violated the religious aspect of society. Believing it to be heresy even though it was used against Hestia's enemies.
Wow...The Hestians must really hate the beastmen a lot to resort to having dealings with demons. War makes the monster of everyone involved. America made the most powerful bomb in the world in the form of ending the war sooner. By dropping it in civilian industry plants without warning of evacuation or concern about the deaths that can follow up. I remember in my history class one of the debates was whether or not the use of a nuclear bomb is considered a war crime for indiscriminate deaths and casualties, as well as nuclear radiation sickness and birth defects afterwords. Chemical weapons might even be considered more humane in the fact it wasn't able to decimate a whole city within a few seconds. Demons...what horrors could demons do other than cursed weapons?
"But either way, Hestia and Rodin officially banned it formally and anyone suspected of demon dealings or holding a cursed weapon would be hunted down and dealt with 'swiftly'. Though Arcadia does not 'ban' cursed weapons, they very much ban demon dealings which are how cursed weapons are acquired." she finishes waving her hand in shoving the conversation away.
"I see...Man...So do you think my ancestors might've been cursed by a blade that hindered one's ability to heal scars?"
"Not sure, if it slowed your healing ability entirely then I can see that. But you said yourself that you heal from injuries fine, but scars are more likely to not fully heal. Seems odd. Plus in beastmen society, scars are something to be proud of. So you might be considered to be respected for the evidence of scars. I can say I am a bit jealous even."