Ilsa [1]

Walking through Tallmire, Noah pondered over the events of the day. 'I was rash,' he sighed glancing to his side where Meira was sulking. She'd tried to put some bids in for that striped sheepgirl but it had ultimately proven futile as the rest of the auction goers had had enough with her hogging the monsters and just started tossing out bids the moment her mouth even opened an inch.

He shook his head and looked to Liora, she had been in a daze since they went and handed in the tokens showing their won lots and went to pick them up—alongside several of Meira's underlings who brought with themselves carriages filled with plush hay bedding and one cage with a chain that was hooked to his harpies neck, just in case her wings suddenly started working and she was able to escape the cage.

Reality was quickly coming in on Liora. She hadn't expected for everything to get this far. They had actually bought monsters and those monsters were on their way back to Alder.

"There will be another auction in the morning," Meira broke the ice and said, "just simple livestock. Bulls, sheep, simple things. I plan on heading there early and putting in some early bids for a bull or two. Nothing much considering what you are…" she shifted her eyes onto Noah and smirked, "You'll be plenty good for feeding those girls but having a male will help lighten the load."

Noah's palor dropped. He couldn't imagine that he'd bought what amounted to his own personal sex pets. It was ridiculous to his earthly notions. "Need me to come with?" he questioned.

"No, but I would like to take you somewhere after."

"And where's that?" Liora spoke for him, her tone while amiable belied a concerned shade of jealous nervousness.

"A brothel where I will utterly ruin Noah's hips," Noah recoiled while Meira fell into laughter at Liora gaping and scarlet expression. "No, no, there's a store by the walls that caters to ranchers and farmers. Thought it would be an idea to get Noah acquainted with the tools he'll be making use of from now on."

Liora looked to Noah, her gaze hesitant to even harbour the notion, "I'll be-"

"No need. It's not a large store and it is one of the more bustling ones on the edge. Better just I and Noah go there."

"But-"

"We shouldn't be very long."

"That's still-"

"What do you say Noah? Shall I pick you up around a bells after noon? Should be back around dinner."

Noah's jaw fell open as he felt like he was trapped between two nodes of metal that were just waiting to pump with electricity and bridge them together with him being fried in the middle. 'Damned if I do, damned if I don't?'

"Haa…" he turned to Liora, "it's not like we're going to be back her for a while and I could honestly do with figuring out this whole ranching thing before we get back to the ranch."

Liora mulled, her lips sealing tight looking mighty displeased with his willingness. She glanced over his shoulder to Meira, to her full and young breasts, her wide hips and her exotic chocolate skin. It was like every bit of this woman was designed with the intention of making her feel old, "can you trust her?" she whispered not so low enough to stop Meira from hearing.

"No." He instantly replied. "I met her yesterday. For all I know she's going to pull me into an alley way and harvest my liver." He glanced over his shoulder to Meira. He doubted she'd do that, so far she seemed pretty legitimate but just as well, he knew that merchants could have less than reputable sources. He knew far too little about her to be certain about anything.

"Why would I want your liver? I'm not in to human flesh." She puffed and they kept walking, passing by alleyways and twisting around bends before finally arriving at the tavern they'd settled in at.

"Well," Meira spoke up turning the two back towards herself, "I must be getting back. I have some other things to attend to before the morning. Noah, I should be here around a bells after noon. Liora, its been a pleasure. Till the morning." With a quick and subtle curtsy, Meira was already backing away, leaving Liora and Noah to themselves within the thinly bustling tavern.

They glanced to each other and as if fate had come about, their stomachs rumbled in tandem and laughed weakly at the noises.

***

Settled in their room, Noah glanced over his shoulder and towards the doorway of the building. Liora was just passed there and past another doorway likely to be already sleeping soundly and contently with her stomach filled with meat and hearty stew. She alongside Caina had gotten a twins room. It was large than a single room like Noah had gotten but not quite as large as a couples room. Jusging by the names he guessed it had to do mostly with the beds. Singles got one, like he'd discovered, while twins got two beds seperated by a bit of space and couples got a single large bed for some fine nighttime rumbles.

Something Noah had to actively block out from hearing even now. He just so happened to have gotten the misfortune of being settled below the room of an adventuring team. A man and a woman he'd see these passing days in the tavern. They were practically connected at the hip in the day and literally at night.

How the Tavern keep just allowed this raucous, Noah wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Digging from his bedside—a very small nightstand—the only copy of his Almanacs that he brought with, he began to scour it. Scanning through page after page all whilst having that harpy girl he'd bought in his mind. More specifically, the red rings lining her pupils.

He would pause at any mention of wings then sigh annoyedly whenever it mention bat wings or scaled wings and moved to the next page. The flipping noises of pages turning filled the room alongside the low rumble of him mouthing out words in rapid succession, his finger trailing beneath each line of text giving him a place to focus on and speed up his scanning.

Ultimately, he couldn't find it. None of these monsters had red eyes, at least, none of the harpy species mentioned had them. There were dragons and alraunes that did even a few exotic species like an ignis and an ifrit though the latter had more golden eyes than red ones and lacked the definition of pupils and irises.

Shutting the book, Noah groaned that he'd have to wait until they got back to the ranch to truly figure out whether his notion about the harpy was right or not. That she was more than just a simple common brown. He knew he'd read something about red eyed harpies, knew it for sure.

Setting the book to the side he leaned over and blew dead the candle flicker that was giving him the pathetically low light he needed to even strain his eyes to see through and read.

***

Come the next morning, Meira had promptly arrived at the tavern. Coming just perfectly at a bells after noon. Noah had cast his low 'later' to Liora before filtering through the doorway and down the street, latched to Meira's side as she once again hooked her arms through his and pulled him ominously close to her chest.

The city was surprisingly silent around the walls. There were less people bustling about, less carriages and Noah would even argue it was cleaner than the main centre. The people of this area clearly showed more care to their surroundings as since passing by half a dozen bakeries and small tailors shops he'd seen twice as many women out and about sweeping up dirt and the odd leaf blown in from over the wall or that had fallen from one of the scant few tree's that added colour to the tightly knit community.

The further they went though, things quietened down even more and they turned down a ways and into a strange alley-like road. It wasn't small, not in the slightest, he'd argue t was half as large as the main roadway leading to the docks. At least fifty meters across and the buildings, they were all lined with empty glass displays.

As they passed by one of the building Noah was able to glance inside and saw a sight he'd been less than expecting. A woman laid atop a table, her tunic pulled down revealing her breasts while her legs hooked around a mans waist as he rhytmically thrusted into her. Noah gaped and was drawn to another bit of movement in his peripheral vision. This time a woman was knelt before a man whose hands clasped over the back of her head, his hips thrusting harshly into her throat.

He turned away and looked into another building only to see a woman yawning to herself as she patted white gunk from her nethers and belly.

"Is this a redlight district?" his voice cracked nervously looking up to Meira.

"Is that what you otherworlders call the whores highway?" she muttered, "isn't any red light around here though." She responded continuing to tug Noah through the streets, neatly ignoring the cries of woman and grunts of men doing their dirty.

"Why did you bring me here?" he tensed out.

"As I said. To ride you till your hips give out." Meira laughed heartily as Noah paled some more. "In all reality the store I spoke about is down here. Moonlights as a whorehouse at night, but mornings and evenings its a tool store for you ranchers and farmers."

"Isn't this a terrible place for a store like that?"

"Oh, absolutely. But the land around here is cheap and the sex is a decent way to get a bit more in the pocket. That and the owner is a nymphomaniac… Right, I should mention. Do not let her be ontop. I may have been joking when I said I'd ride you till your hips broke, but she truly will. So just don't give her the chance." For just a second there, Noah could sense true concern not hindered by humour in her voice.

"Aren't there other places we could go?" Noah murmured nervously, his gaze drawn to one of the brothel doors opening letting a boy much too young to be legal in his past world, out with his cheeks scarlet and a girl in an age much similar to the boys follow behind, casting him a coy wink and a blown kiss. Seemingly noticing Noah's gaping stare she looked up grinned and blew him his own kiss before turning and sauntering back into the bowels of the building.

A sick churning rose in Noah's stomach. "Medieval times, it's medieval times, just don't think about it. Just forget about what you saw." He chanted in a feeble attempt to quell that disgust growing in the depths of his belly.

He knew that the medieval times were less than known for their age's of consent but still, he was grateful to his modern norms for once in this world.

"Do… uh, 'children' often work these brothels?"

"They're far from children. Most of them become women in this linie of work." Meira responded in turn sounding just as disgusted by the notion. "But yes, quite sad and disgusting but there is little to be done for the daughters of harlots. I try not to think of it. Believe that only other's of the same aging pay their services." Even if they both knew it wasn't only people of the same age range.

No matter where one went, there was bound to be sick people. The only thing that changed being the laws that governed them…

"Isn't there anything stopping them? Laws? Rules?"

Meira bobbed her head noncommittally, "there are but who would stop them? If the guards were to raid every whore house that skirted the laws they'd only draw the ire of the people and lose a manner of relieving their own stress. At most they will come to remove some drunkard or a man high off control. Keep the whores happy, keep the city happy. That's the only law in these streets."

Noah bit his lips, nothing was ever just, he knew as much. Justice… it was a hollow word. An empty framework that guided a line but never kept to it, always branching off to skip around a new connection point that indicated a law. Those were the unspoken rules, the small things that were acceptable at large and otherwise illegal but allowed because acting on them was more detrimental than not.

As they trailed deeper down the whores highway, Noah steeled himself against those noises and kept his gaze straight. Doing his utmost not to glance to every opened door or follow any dulcet cry of a woman. That was until Meira brought him to a stop before one of the buildings. He looked up and saw a hanging sign emblazoned with a seed bag overlapped with a hoe on one side and and naked man and woman bumping the nasties in a manner he could swear he'd seen in a past perusing of the kama sutra.

A deep and womanly cry of ecstasy echoed from within causing Noah to jump in surprise and lower his gaze to the glass window peering inside. Only this time, it was two women, one crouched on the floor while the other rested against an ominously plush counter with her legs spread allowing the woman access to her lowers.

"I would say we should give her a minute to finish up." Meira murmured staring intently at the slap and tickle going on within.

"Yeah, let's do that…"

***

***

It has returned.