Buttercup and our makeshift carriage arrived precisely an hour and a half before sunset, and Border Town was beyond anything I had imagined.
...To be honest, I wasn't even certain what i imagined.
It remained, however, I was pleasantly overwhelmed with excitement as we stood in line for identity clearance at the main gate. I found my self restlessly jerking my head from side to side, my eyes threatening to devour all of the sights like a gluttonous black hole.
Ignoring the wary and uncomfortable gazes that came my way, our carriage soon made it to the top of the line. And as the first second I arrived, I couldn't help but look around and marvel, trying to peek my gaze pass the guards and over to the other side of the gate.
"Ah, Cliff! It's you! Been a while since I last saw you around here." From the two armed guards stationed before the gate, one of them exclaimed at first sight of Cliff.
"Haha! Justin, look at you! How have you been?" Cliff cheerily approached the man and locked hands with him in a firm brotherly greeting. The two men grinning pleasantly from ear to ear at each other.
Not trying to hide his excitement at the unexpected run-in, the guard shrugged and said, maintaining his grin:
"You know how it is, Cliff. But all's well that's good, I have nothing to complain about. But what about you, I see you've come with company this time, for a change." The amiable guard sent a warm glance at me.
Cliff's grin inched wider as he snorted proudly.
"This, Justin, is my son, Reo. Quite a looker, isn't he? I bet he can give your little girl a run for her money, eh?" Cliff disclosed, dancing his brows.
The surprise flashed obviously on Justin's face at the disclosure, batting his eye lids he shifted his gaze between Cliff and I.
"Holy- Cliff! I didn't know you had a kid, when did that happen?!" He exclaimed, pleasantly surprised. And Cliff basking in his friends reaction crossed his hands and huffed twice. Trying to feign dismissive casualness, he added:
"Oh, you know. Almost six years."
At the reply, Justin could only sigh and shake his head.
"Dammit, Cliff, you really should come around once in a while to tell me about these kind of stuff."
Cliff laughed then scratched his head apologetically.
"You're right, I'll try to come around as often as I can." Justin could only display a smile at that before moving on.
But first, he spared a smile at me and said amicably,
"Hey, Reo, I'm Justin, a friend of your dad here. You can call me Uncle...or just Justin, whatever fits you better," he chuckled awkwardly, then gave a side glance to Cliff, "now, i know you're father here can be...well...your father, but promise me you'll take good care of him for me, will ya?" Ignoring the retorting comment Cliff made in-between, I displayed a polite smile and lowered my head smoothly.
"I assure my father Is in good hands," i paused, raised my head slightly and inched wider my smile, "Uncle."
Justin beamed slightly and nodded approvingly. He straightened up, sent a wry smile at the grumbling others waiting for their turn at the back of the line and turned to Cliff.
"I'm guessing you're here for the usual, then?" Pulling out two small rectangular wooden chip with a few characters written on it, Justin asked with a smile.
I received one of the chips and proceeded to intently observe it. So far, it seemed like a regular piece of carved wood to me. I wasn't exactly even sure what the written characters meant either.
Noticing the evident confusion in my expression, Justin took it up on himself to explain.
"As long as you have this chip, you can get access to the basic necessities and rights of a local of the town. Show this chip to any inn and you can rent out a room. Basically, it grants you temporary citizenship and limited rights while you're in town. Just remember to return it when you leave."
I nodded at the explanation, implying my understanding of the system. Then I gazed back at the wooden chip in my hand and let my thoughts wander a little.
'He also didn't mention there's probably some kind of surveillance feature integrated into this chips. There's no way they're going to let some strangers, outsiders walk around their town unsupervised. There's probably also a tracking chip or some sort as well.' but of course I had no exact way of confirming this from simply studying the chip. It was all mere reasonable speculation ony part.
After a few more formalities, we were finally cleared for entry.
"When will you be off your shift, we really need to catch up over some ale." Cliff turned around and said with an evident smile at Justin who returned with equal enthusiasm.
"Mine ends in a few hours. I wouldn't mind catching up as long as you'd be the one paying for the drinks." He flashed a small sly smile and Cliff sneered at the man.
"Fine, I'll treat you this once. Just one jug, and that's all."
"Tsk. Cheapskate." Justin retorted
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
The next moment they both burst into laughter and Cliff turned around to leave.
"You know where to find me, Justin." Cliff waved without turning back.
"Yeah, the usual joint. Oh and Reo, I hope you have a nice experience in our little humble town." The amiable guard displayed a warm smile.
Limiting myself to an equal smile and a nod, our little group ventured into town.
.
.
.
.
'The outside world! It's the outside world! Ooh, what's that?!' it would be a complete understatement to say...I was totally on cloud nine
'Whatever that means.'
Border Town was even more than I imagined on the inside.
...even though I still had no standards.
Getting through the security check and receiving our chips as passes, our little makeshift carriage rode through the busy and bustling streets of the electric town, with Buttercup in the lead.
The atmosphere was entirely different from what I had grown to experience at the village! There were people! Lots of people flooding the streets, stalls and shops lining to the sides with sales men and women, screaming out to passerbys for a customer.
For a short moment, I found myself comparing the town to some of the busiest cities and towns back in earth from the amount of people that were flooding my view. But that was where the comparison ended.
The structures and buildings that made up the city were made from similar primeval materials similar to that of the village, only bigger, sturdier, and better. The buildings were more furnished than the structures of the village. Most were even taller, but limited by only a story or two.
From the excess amount of activity and number of people from all over, I quickly deducted this was perhaps the commercial region of the town. It would make sense since it was so close by to the main gate where guests, visitors and outsiders had to get through, after getting clearance, to get to the center and geary of the town. It was a strategic point to get in a few new customers.
There was a single path, a partially crowded road which cut across the district and led further into the heart of the town. And along the outside edges of the commercial district we're a chain of inns and pubs strategically placed between the commercial district and residential district, or heart of the town.
Lodging Buttercup in a stable nearby, the same evening, we got an inn for the night in Town.