It had been about fifteen minutes since aster had left the boys, He wandered aimlessly all the while checking behind him to see if he was being followed, but he neither saw nor felt no one behind him, He stopped taking in his surroundings, The buildings were tall made of a dull white stone and wood,
'I wonder if they have any good Dwarven Gem shops around here', Aster thought to himself, he continued to walk, turning the corner, what stood before him was a rather wide long set of stone steps, on each side were buildings, and running in between the buildings and over the stone steps was a white stoned bridge, soon a strange figure came running down he stone steps, Aster waved his hand to flag down the person in hopes of asking for directions,
"hey by chance do you know where the dwarven gem shops are around here", Aster asked,
But the person didn't stop, instead they grabbed his hand, and began to pull him along to a side alley,
"shhh, don't draw any attention to us", the stranger said, in a hushed voice,
"what are you talking about", aster asked whispering, the stranger pointed back to where they came from, aster poked his head out and about four guards came running down the stone steps,
"why are they chasing you", aster asked,
"Hey you…You over there have you seen a girl come this way?" a guard asked as he made his way towards aster,
"kiss me", the stranger said,
"what ?", Aster asked,
"ah fuck it", the stranger said, pulling aster's head to theirs, as their lips locked together,
as the guard drew closer he stopped, "my bad, you clearly are too busy to see anything, the inns and brothels are just up the road, I suggest you make your way there", The guard said, pulling his helmet down and walking away,
Her lips felt soft and warm, her arms gently hugged themselves around asters broad shoulders, as she slowly pulled away, aster finally got a good look at the stranger, as her hood fell off, her hair was a reddish pink, her eyes the same color, but they were soft and captivating, she held eye contact with aster longer than he expected causing him to hold his breath, her skin was a light brown, that paired well with the golden necklace that hung around her neck, with a pendent resting on her chest, it was a d with a dragons tail on the bottom of it,
'I've seen that sigil', aster thought to himself,
'it was on the flag, and guards were chasing after her, and she was also wearing a hood to conceal her identity, she must be someone important, royalty maybe', aster's mind was racing,
"you're not a bad kisser", she said, pulling away from aster,
"you're not so bad yourself, princess?", aster said unsure,
"how did you know", she said her eyes widened, with aster's words,
"I took a guess after seeing that pendent, it the same sigil as the flag", Aster said,
"a good kisser and you're smart, do you try to impress every random girl who kisses you", she said, slipping past Aster,
"sorry to disappoint you, but you're the only random girl I've met today", Aster replied,
"it's Hallie by the way, I hate when people call me princess, the dwarven gem shop is back on the main street of the WhiteWest Townsquare ", Hallie said running back up the stone stairs,
Aster made his way back to the main street, back to the meeting point, there he found the other three boys sitting on a bench in what appeared to be the city plaza, the edges were lined with many shops, from, snack stores, to cafe's, to restaurants, to weapons stores and other miscellaneous stalls, and all of them were busy and teeming with vibrancy and life, Aster made his way over to them,
"its hard to believe that this is a kingdom that is currently running rampant and actively at war", Levant stated as he sat on the edge of the bench observing a couple that were at a cafe sitting down fawning over each other,
"that's because officially they aren't at war, to them its the guild that's causing all of this trouble", barak chimed in from the opposite end of the bench,
"how do you know that", levant asked,
"I just listened to the conversations as I walked through the city, I picked up on bits and pieces, and just pieced it together", Barak said,
Polaris was sitting down staring up at the sky lost somewhere in his mind, and Aster was just watching and observing how the people of the Dracht empire were interacting with each other,
Polaris lowered his head from looking into the sky, and as he looked forward his eyes landed on a familiar person standing outside the weapons store,
"Guys, guys, Aluric is here", Polaris said, his voice sounding monotonous,
"Obviously he's here pol, his guild is in the city and this is his hometown", Barak said,
"no I mean he's here, as in I'm looking right at him", Polaris continued,
All three of the boys dropped their head, whipping their gazes off to where Polaris was looking, there stepping out of the store as the door swung shut behind him,
Aster's gaze went up to the stores sign above him, the sign was wooden with a basic circular shield and a sword running diagonally across it carved out of the wood and highlighted in white,
"I'm betting that he is preparing for some kind of battle or fight", Aster said,
"well their kingdom is at war that wouldn't be weird if he was", Levant replied,
"no I mean a very close upcoming battle, he just walked out of what I'm assuming is a weapons store and he is wearing a bloodied coat, something is going to go down soon and he is preparing for it", Aster said,
Aluric's Pov
Aluric was about to leave the weapons smith store, but as he went to push the door he felt a massive wave of divine energy outside though it felt vaguely familiar to him, and before he opened the door he took a deep breath preparing for what was outside,
he stepped outside his eyes darting around frantically, quickly analyzing people as they passed by him for any potential enemies, moving his eyesight from people to the building tops, to the alleyways, when his eyes landed on four familiar people sitting on a bench on the opposite side of the Townsquare, he soon realized that they hadn't noticed yet, but it wouldn't stay that way for long, and if they were impulsive and itching for a fight, the fallout from the damage of a battle here in the city with this many people would leave his countrymen, the people he was suppose to protect, dead, Aluric, brought his mind back to the present, he unbuttoned the single button done on his coat and took a seat on the bench on the outside of the weapons smith shop,
he was thinking to himself as he sat down,
"why didn't they try to hide their presence by reducing their energy output, I'm sure that that would be one of the first things yumi taught them, unless they kept it that way in order to lure me out", he thought to himself as a tidal wave of thoughts sprang forth in his brain,
"anyways, I'm sure one of them also felt the massive amounts of energy they're outputting, so they will probably show up soon", he continued to think,
A sharp noise rang through the air, inside one of the street side Café's a small child stumbled over, she was small and frail looking, the shirt she wore had holes and was two sizes too big for her, a red bruise formed on her blue skinned cheek, the table next to her had food scattered all over the floor, the woman stood over the child, striking her again,
"Filth, it's bad enough that they let rats like you into the city, but you dare enter were I'm eating to beg for food, ", the woman said, kicking the child in her stomach, the child looked up at the woman her red pupils holding back the tears that wound up in her eyes, a crowd of citizens looked on at what was happening but no one intervened, the woman's hand rose again to strike the child once more, but was stopped,
"that's enough, she is a child", Aluric said, standing behind the woman,
"Guild master Aluric", many people whispered through the crowd, Aluric looked over the woman's should at the crying child, he spun the woman around to look at him, he noticed a golden pendant hanging from her necklace, a crescent moon on a circle,
"Astronim, it doesn't matter, if it is withi your religion to not talk to certain races, but she is a child, who is hungry", Aluric said, letting go of the woman,
Aluric knelt down to the child who was still fighting back tears, "I know a place where you can eat lots of food, do you want to come with me there", Aluric asked, the child slowly nodded her head, grabbing ahold of Aluric's hand,
back with the boys
"he knows that we are here", Polaris said, making eye contact with Aluric, Polaris' hand gripped onto the handle of his sword,
"Good, that was the point of leaving our divine energy unchecked", Barak said, getting up off of the bench,
"okay great, we drew him out, now what", Aster questioned, from his seat,
"now I find out how much stronger I am after all of that training", Barak said, he began to unsheathe his sword, with even the smallest peak of his blade the lightning ran off of it,
"hey cool it", Aster said,
" I am", Barak responded,
"I meant the both of you", Aster said, Levant was just as excited as Barak, the stone at the bottom of Levants feet had began to glow a cherry red, then a young child fell down, after a moment the woman from the couple that Levant was staring at got up and kicked the child, all while saying some nasty and hurtful things, Seeing that riled up the boys, especially Levant and Polaris, but before they could move Aster placed his hammer in front of the two of them and stopping them from moving by placing some earth around their feet,
"Aster what the fuck, why are you stopping us", Levant shouted,
"look", Aster said as he pointed to the scene, where Aluric now stood holding the little girl's hand,
"if we attack now, an unarmed citizen of this kingdom, inside their capital, I'm willing to bet that they would see that as an act of war, and attack our home as soon as they are done with attacking the other kingdoms, it would just be another excuse for them to conquer even more territory", Aster pointed out,
Aster was more or less correct, but the one oversight he missed was, Barak,
Barak let out a sigh," this is why I have to take in so many kids back home, Barak said, getting up from his seat, taking his hand from his mouth as he exhaled a gentle cloud of smoke,
And as if silence could cut the air, barak appeared behind the woman who had kicked the little girl, grabbing her by her hair and kicking the back of her knee making her kneel on the ground, he placed his sword by her neck, the lightning trickling off, running into her skin, leaving lightning shaped scorch marks, then he whispered into her ear,
"apologize and don't ever do that again in your life", barak whispered,
"I…I'm…..i'm sorry", the woman said, understanding the clear threat to her life, her voice cracked as tears welled up in her eyes, Barak looked down at her, his eyes filled with rage and disgust,
"you fanatics, it's bad enough that you discriminate against the other races but to go as far as harming a child, and not even being to stand in that conviction even when you're life is being threatened, it is disgusting to me", Barak said, letting go of the woman,
"from how she's dressed my guess is she's an orphan, so make sure she's taken care of, because when I see you again you won't be breathing for much longer", Barak threatened as he walked off,
"I guess no matter where you go in the world there are the same problems everywhere", he thought to himself,