Wild countryside gave way to sprawling farms and ranches as the trio made their semi-somber journey toward the city. Great fields of cultivated wheat, grains, corn, and potatoes replaced rolling hills of wild grasses and trees, and the boys did their best to stymie Lisa's growing feelings. There would be time to grieve later, for one could not simply stop on the road to give up and cry.
They filled the time asking her questions about where they were going, and about the history of the place; what they could expect and what not to do or who to do it to. She always answered politely and with a smile, she was well versed in what she would call "gentile mercantilism" and what the boys would call "customer service". That smile was a mask however, and with every encroaching step toward their destination it grew more and more cracks, and occasionally the pain in her voice would slip through one of those cracks and find the air between them.
Occasionally she would have questions for them; ever curious of whom she considered her saviors, though she was well out of danger by the time they arrived.
"What is it like where you are from, dear sirs?" She turned her head from side to side to look at the both of them, flanking her.
"Uhh.." Robert began and shot a look at Jack. How were they to answer? They very well couldn't tell her they were from some other world, or some other timeline or universe. They weren't sure how it would be taken. Would it be met with mockery and ostracization? Would they be condemned as heretics and blasphemers of some religion they weren't even aware of? More than that, they weren't even sure of the truth yet.
"It's boring where we're from. Boring and…very far away. We don't know much about this land at all, so we're lucky we found you, to be honest." Jack offered her a pleasant smile with his explanation.
"I am the lucky one si- uhm, Jack." She reminded herself of their previous conversation amidst the campfire. So ingrained was the idea of a dashing and rescuing knight from over the hilltop, that when it seemingly happened to her she had to fight the urge to be more casual with them.
"Anyone would have helped you in your situation, we just happened to get there first. Keep telling you that." Robert offered.
"How I wish that were true. I am sure there are many brave men and women who would, but I hesitate to say all knights and adventurers I've met are as virtuous as the stories say." She cast her gaze to her feet, and to change the topic from such dire thoughts, she perked up and asked: "What about where you're from? Tell me about some of the heroes in your land. Who is the hero of this…what did you call it? Amrika?"
With a chuckle Jack clarified. "America." He scratched at his chin while he thought and walked. "Let's see, an American hero?" His eyes drifted to Robert. Certainly he was an American hero, or at least to him, he was. Robert shook his head and mouthed the word: 'don't.'
"Well, I suppose the most decorated hero is probably Audie Murphy." Jack started up again and had captured the young woman's attention entirely. She always did like such stories, and was equally enraptured when hearing them from travelers while helping her father with running the business.
"He was a soldier in World…in a big war where we're from." Some of these details would need to be omitted, he discovered in the telling. "At one point in the war, the men he was fighting with were killed or injured, and they were surrounded by the enemy, hundreds of them. Alone, and against a huge force, he lept atop a burning…uhh..catapult, and fought off so many of the bad guys that they ended up retreating." It sounded much less impressive to Jack telling it this way, and Robert suppressed a little chuckle at his friend's storytelling conundrum.
"Light above." She pressed the flat of her hand to her chest. "He fought off hundreds of them by himself? Was he some kind of mighty sorcerer, or some sort of sword-saint?"
"Something like that, yeah. It was a long time ago, and I wasn't there obviously, but uhm, yeah he was a great warrior. They gave him lots of medals and awards. They even made some…" Well we can't call them movies can we? "Some theater shows and books about him. He played himself in one of them!"
"I have always wondered what drives people to act so heroically in such dire situations. Why did he do it, do they know?"
"Oh yeah, he has a famous quote about it…." Jack started and Robert finished his thought for him. There was some shared truth in the way he said it; some learned experience.
"I was tired of seeing my friends die." This drew the attention of the other two, and Robert continued. "It's a fake quote, made for the…stage play. Though in the play he does play himself, so it must be how he felt at least."
There was a long moment of silence between the three of them, and it was broken by Lisa's forced smile. "Still, I am sure you two have all the same wonderful qualities of that man. He was a man, yes? Human?"
"We only have humans where we're from. Well, other than the animals. That sounds bad. Only humans are walking around and talking, there's no elves or dragons or dwarves or anything." Robert clarified and then considered the implications of the question. "What do you have here?"
"Well I can't speak for the other nations but Corin is mostly a human kingdom. That being said, we have no problem with the civilized races of the world. It's not terribly rare to see an elf or a dwarf plying their trade or selling their expertise to make a living in the bigger cities. Some of the beast races are being more and more tolerated every year; I've heard there is a minotaur working as a caravan guard captain recently." She scrunched up her face to try and remember his name. "Mahor…Mayhora? I'm not sure, but my point is that as time has gone on, we've come to understand each other more and settle our differences and live peacefully with one another."
"What about the kobolds?" Jack asked.
"Oh dreadful little cretins, never!" Lisa crossed her arms and lifted her chin in indignation, tossing her golden locks about her shoulders in the process.
The boys share a hearty chuckle at such a quick turnaround on morals and ethics. They couldn't blame her though, if their experience with the tiny lizard men was anything close to average it was no wonder they weren't welcome in polite society.
Half a day is spent chatting and walking, slowly coming into contact with more and more people on the road. True to her word, the trio did occasionally cross paths with the more fantastical of races: tall elves, standing easily a head higher and with solid colored eyes and long pointed ears, stout dwarves with beards down to their knees; intricately braided and then wrapped around themselves like peacocked scarves. They even passed one or two true beastfolk; akin to the gnolls but less brutish and more refined, a muscular sellsword with a great dane's head and a lithe cat-girl dressed in very fine gold and silks.
They stopped for a while and ate their last meal in the countryside just off the road. It had been several days without other friendly faces for the boys, lost in this new place. They wondered as they ate if it was some miracle they found anyone else at all, or if they were guided by some unseen thread of fate. How easily they could have picked a different direction to wander and found no one at all. They would get their answer in time, but not for some years.
Carefully Jack broached the subject that had lingered there just beyond his reach for so long. He finished the bite of food he had and washed it down, looking at Lisa. "Do you have other family, in the city?"
Her gaze had met his and halfway through his question had left him again. She looked down and silently shook her head. Subconsciously she started to fuss with the ends of her hair, and Jack took an audible sympathetic breath.
"Well, look, uh." He debated just stopping, shutting his mouth for once and not talking. But old habits die hard, and old insecurities never really go away. "I mean, we don't really have anyone either. So, worse comes to worse, you'll have us. I don't know what we'll do, but we can at least try and look out for each other. The three of us, I mean." He nodded, and Lisa nodded but didn't lift her eyes from the dirt. Robert was casting daggers at his friend however.
If looks could kill. Jack told himself. He had seen that look from Robert before. It was the same look he gave him anytime it meant he was being dragged into something against his will. But surely this time was different; he wasn't asking him to chat up the ugly friend at last call or help him move a couch in the middle of the night, someone was really in need here!
Eventually Robert's expression softened and with a huff he returned to his meal.
Do as you please.
When Lisa finally gathered the courage to speak her voice was very small, and all her words pierced the both of them like swords through the heart. "I don't want to be a burden, so you don't have to try to help me if you don't really want to. I'm not naive, nor am I blind to the looks you give each other. I appreciate you going through the motions, and trying to do the right thing, but if I am an inconvenience then we could depart when we reach the city gates."
The trio sat very quietly, very awkwardly for a long few minutes. What there was to say Jack was not brave enough to do so, and Robert had never been a very empathetic sort to begin with. But Robert did speak up, after a time.
"It's not like that. We're just…new to this. This place, and this thing we're doing, this adventure we've been set on, is all foreign to us. My worried looks with him are not out of some hate, but concern. I would not want to get anyone else inconvenienced or hurt on our behalf."
How very eloquent. Jack admitted to himself, brows raised in surprise.
Robert shifted to sit a little closer to Lisa and leaned slightly down to talk at her level. "I fought a war in a desert, very far away from here. In that war it was explained to me that we were there to help the native people overthrow a very tyrannical government. I was very good at fighting, and so when given the chance to help the civilians of that place that I would meet, I would. We would give them food, and speak with them at great length about their homeland, and their culture, and their religion. Sometimes though the other people in that place, the enemy soldiers, would kill their own countrymen who we had helped. They thought those people had given us information, or sold out their brothers in arms, or any other number of things. I don't want something like that happening again."
Lisa had looked up at him when he began his story and had grown a full on frown. "That's terrible."
"Yes. Yes it is."
Jack kept quiet while they continued to talk, and with each little story Robert began to open up, and Lisa started to understand. He realized something though as he watched them. Despite Robert's new appearance some things still stayed the same. He had new eyes, but that well of pain behind them remind, latched on to the spirit of the man and not the flesh. He had new muscles, but the way he sat and carried his shoulder did not shift; some impossible burden placed upon them still.
Jack didn't mention these things to his friend, but he wondered if this new place might change the nature of them, or if they might be set to walk the same paths they had before. Such introspection never suited him though; and to fight whatever impending migraine such deep thoughts carried with them he shook them from his mind.
With their morale restored our trio continue their short trip to the city of Moonveil; Lisa now wrapping her arm around Jack's as they walk. It wasn't much farther past farms and fields until they reached the town itself. Agriculture gave way to commerce and converging side roads all heading into the same direction, and as they crested a small hill it came fully into view.
A high curtain wall of stone and a great portcullis stood out to them immediately, wrapping around the sizable city to ward off whatever threats might come its way. Over the walls peaked a myriad of roofs and high towers; thatch tops and square blocky outpourings of political power both. The city was large enough to easily hold several thousand people, with plenty of room to grow still.
They passed through the gates undisturbed and unprompted for a toll or papers of any kind, and in truth had to stand nearly shoulder to shoulder for a moment with the tide of those people coming and going about their midday business.
The main street, which they now found themselves on, was a veritable festival of market stalls selling local food and tiny treats, window shops advertising the latest in potions and adventuring gear. Further down there was the hammering steel and the billowing smoke of blacksmiths, artisans, sword makers and farriers. A man they passed was demonstrating a set of enchanted arrows he was trying to tell, drawing and loosing a bow into a straw dummy twenty feet from him which promptly caught flame a solid second after impact. So many vibrant colors, and sights and sounds assaulted them all at once that it put their previously gray and brown suburban lives to shame.
"Holy moley." Jack said out of reflex. "This place is incredible!"
Lisa detached herself from her golden haired companion and took a few steps in front of them, turned to face them and held out her hands like a jester beckoning you to the carnival. "Welcome to Moonveil, the best city around!" She let out a small, but genuine, chuckle at their astonishment. "Now, gentlemen, if you will excuse me for a while. I need to go home and get…what's left I suppose, and report about my father."
"Are you sure? You don't have to go alone, you know. Besides, how are we going to find you again?" Jack took a tentative step toward her but she waved him off with wiggling fingers.
"I'll be ok, I promise. Explore the city, have a good time, see the sights. There's an adventuring guild nea-OH!" She taps the top of her head lightly. "I forgot to tell you both about the guilds! Well it's fine, and too late now regardless. There's an adventuring guild, very friendly to new faces, called the 'Gift of Fortune'. We'll meet there at the end of the day, ok?" She smiled a sickly sweet smile, turned on her heels and didn't wait for another word of protest; lost in the crowd almost instantly.
Jack and Robert share a smile and start to meander down the streets, stopping occasionally to look at the rare oddities or talk briefly with the locals. With no real money of their own however, they barter away a few of their small treasures they acquired on their trip to the city and sample small bits of fried sugary dough, and a local fruit glazed in honey. Most people were terribly polite, or even downright friendly, happily giving suggestions on things to see and directions to and fro.
"Thif plaf ith gret." Jack said, stuffing another piece of delicious food into his face.
"Chew your food dork. But yeah, even I have to admit this is pretty crazy." Replied the brunette, eyes drawn briefly to a mountain of a man on a street corner wielding a halberd and dressed all in black, advertising his services as a mercenary.
"Where should we go next?" Jack asked.
"Well, we don't have any money, or anywhere to sleep. So it's probably best we head to that guild she was talking about. If we get there early maybe we can get a feel for how it all works. Maybe start putting out feelers for a job or something, security work seems to be popular here."
"Yeah, maybe we can get a cool quest and become heroes. Slay a dragon or rescue a princess or something." Jack said only half-jokingly.
Robert stopped in his tracks then and turned toward his friend, the throng of people just off the main street pooling around them like water around a stone in the river. "Heroes?" His expression had grown especially dour.
Blinking, Jack nodded and reaffirmed his statement. "Yeah man, heroes. That's what we are now, or at least what we're gonna try to be."
"What makes you think that's how this is going to turn out?"
"What do you mean? That's how these things always turn out. Dude, look around, we're in a fucking storybook, why would we try and be anything other than big goddamn heroes?"
Robert shook his head and continued down the street, the golden haired 'hero' catching up with him after a beat. "You're too optimistic."
"You're a stick in the mud." Jack retorted.
Eventually they did find the 'Gift of Fortune', a large converted meadhall with huge double doors and the murmuring of many dozens of people inside. Through the windows they could make out the shapes of large burly men wielding huge weapons, slender figures with staves and tomes, and dexterous fellows sporting ranged accoutrement of all varieties, and many flowing glasses of frothy drinks between them all.
Inside was a path toward a different destiny; another flip of the coin at a more eventful life. Danger lied ahead certainly, but so too could great heroism and with it fame and fortune of many kinds.
They stood there on the precipice of fate for a long moment, fear and wonderment, and anxiety grasping them. Finally they pushed their way inside; to reshape themselves how they saw fit, to finally grasp at something truly and shape it with their own hands.
If they had known how it would end up then, they would never have gone grasping beyond their reach.