8 Skalitz pt 2

I could never get used to waking up every day in the woods near Skalitz. The fire I built to keep me warm had died in the middle of the night and If I didn't have Aki's belly, I would've been a goner. I don't know what I would do without him, probably wouldn't have made it this far. The only downside to sleeping next to a juvenile wyvern is the vibrations I feel when he snores and the stench of his breath. I love the beast but his breath smells like rotting flesh and there was nothing I could do to change that. I just wished he didn't like to lick me so damn much.

Walking into town, I couldn't help but notice that other than the Skalitz stronghold on top of the hill at the far end of the town, the tavern -The Lady Luck- was the only distinguished building in the little mining town. The building served as both a tavern on the ground floor and an inn at the back and top floor. It was two stories tall and was built with darkened wood. There were no signs or displays to lure people in, the smell of alcohol and the sound of drunken miners did the job just fine.

By the time I got to the Lady, my body was tingling with anticipation. Fighting my own eagerness for warm food and human company, I sauntered inside. Greta was growing accustomed to my presence. She now only looked mildly irritated when I came in every day. In exchange for warm meals, I did chores around the inn and the tavern. I hunted for rabbits, moved barrels of smelly alcohol wherever Greta asked me too and sometimes cleaned the rooms. I sometimes felt like she derived twisted pleasure from bossing me around because she always insisted on being around to supervise my misery.

"You smell like wet dog, farmboy," She said while holding her nose. "What will you have?"

She looked a little bit prettier today. Her hair was washed and shiny and her gown had fewer stains on it. Maybe she was expecting important guests.

"Looking good Greta, what's the occasion?" I asked. Taking another look around the tavern there were three travellers; Two girls and a guy chatting excitedly but one of the girls with purple hair seemed like she enjoyed having that permanent scowl on her face. They were easy to spot with their outlandish attire that looked more like decorations than functional clothes.

"Sit down and shut up, farm boy. What'll you have today?" She repeated. There was almost no venom in her words and she asked me twice! Maybe I'm delusional or maybe we were fast becoming friends.

"I'll have a bowl of your best noodles and a glass of water, fair lady. If you serve it with your best smile, I'll leave a big tip," I said jokingly. My favourite thing to do these days was annoy her. There was no greater source of pleasure in all of Skalitz.

"How about I go easy on the spit in your food and if you call me a lady one more time, I'll take out your teeth and feed them to you," Greta said with almost a smile. It was almost a wonder of the world how she can make violent threats and maintain such a pleasant look on her face throughout.

"That sounds good," I said finally.

The travellers seemed out of place in the Lady Luck and maybe even in Skalitz but they seemed not to notice or they were very good at pretending not to notice.

Greta brought out a big steaming bowl with a frothy brown soup, egg slices, meat toppings and a ponzu like sauce poured over the noodles. For some reason, it evoked memories deep inside me that I couldn't quite grasp. Like a face, I'd seen a thousand times or a missing limb.

The noodles were the best thing she had made for me since we met. It looked like the kind of meal you'd make for a nobleman. The smell was heavenly and the taste was even better. I couldn't get it into my mouth any quicker.

For some reason, one of the travellers stopped what he was doing to cast his gaze at me. I tried to ignore him as I ate but his glance became an ice-cold stare. Soon Greta came back with a worried look.

"What are you doing?" she asked. The question puzzled me. Was I that ill-mannered?

"I'm sorry for my manners. I'm just very hungry," I said apologetically.

"It's not your manners, farm boy, it's that," she said pointing to my right hand. "What are those?"

I didn't realize it but I was eating the noodles with two sticks wedged between the fingers in my right hand and a spoon in my left. I had never eaten like this before and I didn't even realize that I was doing it. Where did the sticks come from? I finally understood why the traveller was curious. Speaking of the travellers, one of them came up to me; the bespectacled guy that had been staring at me from across the room.

"Hi, I'm Namey but my real name is Hiro," she said. "I'm from Hokkaido but I live in Tokyo. What's your name?"

Hiro.

Hokkaido.

Tokyo.

These words he said sounded familiar. I'd definitely heard them before but at this moment they held no meaning.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," I explained. "I'm Jon Winchester from Lindisfarne. I don't know where Tokyo is. Is it somewhere in Esos?"

"You're telling me that you're an NPC?!" He said excitedly.

"What's an NPC?" I replied.

He motioned for the other two travellers to come over and after a bit of hesitation from purple-hair, they did.

"Guys, this guy knows how to eat with chopsticks?" Namey said but his friends just looked confused.

"Big whoop, so what?" the purple-haired one said.

"There are no east Asian type cultures in Onderon," Namey explained. "He's here because someone placed him here."

"I'm sorry Namey," the dark-haired girl said. "We know you think there's an event here but this town doesn't look very important."

"Not an event, I know someone that works at Genesis studios," Namey explained. "On their internal message boards, there's been a lot of chatter about Skalitz."

"I can't believe we gave up dungeon exploring in Vorn just to come all the way here," pink hair said with irritation.

"Hello, don't mind my friends," the dark-haired woman said to me. "I'm Luxy and my friend here is Savage. I need to ask; if you're from Lindisfarne then why are you here?"

She had an earnest and kind but piercing gaze. It felt like she took me hostage for only a moment and for that moment it was illegal to lie to her.

"My dad is mining a dungeon here in Skalitz," I started to say. "I'm waiting for him to get back."

All three travellers turned to me with a serious expression and then turned back to each other.

"I haven't heard of a dungeon in Skalitz," Luxy said. "Maybe we should check it out."

"He should come with us," Namey said. "We can help him find his dad."

"That sounds like a waste of time," Savage said. "We're faster without him."

"I agree with Namey," Luxy said. "It feels like he's important somehow. Plus it wouldn't hurt to have a good NPC follow us around."

"No, he'll get in the way," Savage said.

"I won't, I promise," I asked.

"He just wants to see his dad," Luxy said sympathetically. "Let him come with us."

"We could use a marksman type player since we're short two people," Namey said. "Serenity only recruits people we can trust. Who's more trustworthy than an NPC?"

"My answer is still no," Savage said as she turned to leave the tavern.

"A proposal then," Namey said. "By this time tomorrow, I can- no, I will teach him how to break your Troll killing record."

"What record is that?" I asked nervously.

"You think you can teach him to take down a Troll in less than a minute?!" Savage said with more than a hint of surprise and derision.

"Not just that," Namey said. "I'll get it done by this time tomorrow."

"You're on."

***

"What the hell is the matter with you?!" I asked Namey angrily. The biggest thing I'd ever hunted was a deer and now a traveller wants me to kill a Troll and do it in less than a minute.

We met in the woods outside Skalitz after the other two -Luxy and Savage- left.

"Relax, you're going to do it with fifty seconds to spare," Namey said with confidence.

At this point, I wasn't upset anymore, I was curious.

"How?" I asked with a hint of eagerness.

"You don't remember me, do you?" He replied.

"Not really," I said confused.

"Don't worry, we have plenty of time to get reacquainted," Namey said. "For now, take this."

He handed me a golden bow with a woman's head carved into the centre of the frame and angel wings on either limb. The string was made out of blue glass but it still managed to stretch. The contours and etches on the outer edges of the bow were made in a design language that I had never seen before. This was the work of a true master with a keen eye for detail and perfection.

I stared in amazement at it for just a moment longer than was appropriate.

"I can't take this," I said nervously. "I'm not… good enough for it."

"You have an archery rating of a hundred and fifty on a scale of one hundred," Namey said. "You're the best archer in Age of Onderon."

"I never told you that I was an archer. How do you know all this?" I asked. "How do you know me?"

"When it's time, I'll tell you everything."

***

The next day, I went Troll hunting with the group. They seemed genuinely impressed by Aki and Yoshi's presence. Apparently, beast tamers were not easy to come by anywhere. Too bad he wasn't big enough for all four of us to ride…

Yet.

We had to go north on foot until the gently sloping hills of the midlands gave way to the snowy terrain of the Pale. We walked a few miles through the vast tundra until we reached a rocky hill with mammoth bones in front. Next to the bones was a crude looking encampment with an animal skin tent that used a mammoth tusk for rigid support and mammoth skin pouches with smelly fermenting cheese attracting flies.

Just beyond the camp was a large, tall, and upright furry animal holding a crude wooden club while he herded cows. Its only clothing was a skirt made of woven hay strands and animal bone -presumably, mammoth- worn around its beefy waist underneath a bulging gut. Its every breath caused misty clouds of frosty air around its mouth.

"Alright Jon, hit it whenever you're ready," Namey said.

"Shouldn't he go closer?" Luxy said with a concerned expression. "It's awfully far away."

"Not a problem," I said.

I took out my new golden bow and nooked an arrow that I'd been saving for special occasions; It had a light but sturdy ionite shaft, silver bands for balance and eagle feathers as stabiliser fins.

"What the frig is that?!" Savage protested. "That has to be cheating!"

"We never said that I couldn't give him a bow," Namey said with a smirk.

I blinked twice and then slowed my breathing and my heart rate. My focus narrowed until the only thing I could see or hear was the Troll underneath the tip of my arrow. Its every breathe got my full attention.

With an exhale, I relaxed the muscles in my right arm and let the arrow fly to its target. Upon impact, there was a small explosion of blinding brilliant light that reached high into the sky after which all that was left were several charred husks where the troll and cows had been standing. It took a moment for my eyes to refocus.

I felt slightly conflicted. I had never taken a life that wasn't absolutely necessary. This is the real reason I could never hunt like Hans with a dagger. If I had to look into the eyes of whatever animal I was hunting while I was hunting them, I might never be able to kill it.

"That's Ariel's bow," Luxy said. "It has the power of the sun in it."

"The bigger mystery is how an NPC is able to use a Legendary S-class weapon," Savage said. "Who the hell is this kid?"