Chapter 3: One Sad Meal

The sleep I got was absolutely awful. I tossed and turned most of the night, and was eaten alive by insects. I stood up and collected my things, and ate a small bit of bread, and drank the rest of my water. When I got up I could feel my back aching from a bad night's sleep. When I got to this new town I would be in need for some better food, and something to get the bugs off of me while I slept. I got my backpack on, and started on my way to the town which hopefully wasn't far from here. I stopped on the way a few times to go to the bathroom. Luckily nature had a lot of ways to help with these delicate moments. I had finally reached the town, and luckily it had a sign out front of town, but as luck would have it I could not read the sign at all. I had prepared for a long time for this long trip, but I reached my first hurdle. I had reached an unknown, unmarked town in which I had no way to communicate to the residents living here.

Instead of getting depressed I decided I should at least enter the town first maybe someone inside knew human dialect, and could help me find what I was looking for. My hopes were completely shattered when I entered the town, and what I found made me confused at first sight. The small town had about two dozen older homes scattered around at random, and the market right near the entrance of town was abandoned. I had expected bad treatment being that I was human, but this was crazy was everyone in town hiding from me? This angered me, but this anger quickly turned into fear when I realized my original assumption was wrong.

The people of this town had not been hiding from me, but rather where not even in the town in fact the entire town was a ghost town. This gave off an eerie vibe as I looked through houses there was nobody in any of them, and against my better judgement I decided I would look through a few. The first house I went in didn't smell dirty which was weird, and a lot of the food looked fresh still almost like these people hadn't been gone for more than a couple hours. I stepped out of this first house, and went into a few others the results were the same, and in a few there were furniture scattered around the dwellings almost like there had been some kind of struggle.

I returned to the market near the entrance, and debated on what I would do next. I had to keep moving North, but something didn't sit right about this place. I needed supplies badly if i was going to get to the Mountains in the north, but I didn't believe in taking something that didn't belong to me. I proceeded to the market I planned on using the money I had on hand, and just leaving it there hoping the people living here would come back. It was impossible to find out what these supplies would cost normally, but I did my best to give fair prices to the items that I needed. I bought more blankets for the underside of my body, I also bought bread that looked like it was still good, I bought lemon juice which I heard was good for the bugs, another bigger canteen, and a small sack to put some of these new goods which I would carry on my shoulder. I proceeded to fill up my two canteens from a nearby water well, and would pay for the water. I decided to take out a piece of paper and wrote thanks in as many languages as I could remember, and finally I walked towards the exit of town.

I proceeded to go back on the main dirt road that I would use to take me the rest of the way there, but I couldn't get the thoughts of the town out of my head as I walked. One hypothesis came to mind as to what happened in town, and it had to do with the origins of every race living in Heilged. Most of the races in Heliged were polytheistic, and they each worshipped many different gods depending on what they valued. The generally accepted belief is that each race was originally created in each of these gods images, this means that each race was created by a different god. Two kinds of races were discriminated against in Heliged because of this those that carried only human-like traits (dwarfs, humans etc), and those who did not carry any human-like traits (slimes, dragons etc). The reason for this was because the gods were believed to carry a mix of human-like and animal-like traits which meant the more "in between" you were the more socially acceptable you were. This means that harpies, nagas, and other in between races were considered the top of the social hierarchy.

I believe that those people in that town must have been full human-like people, or full animalistic creatures since they were often the target of slave trading. Not only that, but magic did exist in this world, but unfortunately both of these two types of races are unable to use any magic at all. Grandpa was trying to create equal conditions, and help these three races get along, but he died without ever realizing this dream. I clenched my fists; that was my second dream. I wanted to unite these three groups of races, or at least create better conditions for human/animal races. I put my all not into sword fighting, but communication, and I had confidence I could finally make a difference.

After walking another day down the dirt road, and taking some shortcuts along the way I had reached day 2 of my travels. The sun was going down, and I would need to set up camp soon before it got too dark and I was unable to see a proper location to set up. I was still hyper from earlier today, but I knew I needed to sleep because I would reach the Kandasian Mountains tomorrow. I put on my makeshift bug spray, laid down both blankets, and used my backpack as a pillow again which was uncomfortable. Despite the lack of comfort I felt myself slipping into a sleep, as I went unconscious again.

When I woke up I quickly put everything back in my backpack, and excitedly walked down the dirt road again. I only saw the odd carriage every now, and then the people inside never so much as glanced in my direction which I was used to given my race. I didn't pay it any mind as I got to my destination faster than I expected, I saw the tall mountains in the distance. I walked down the dirt road thanking my grandpa in my head for the pointer circled on the main entrance to the cave system. I drank some water from my canteen, and started heading over to the marked location that grandpa provided me. I had eaten breakfast that morning, so I also wasn't hungry. I helped myself to the somewhat morbid bread I got from the village. The day was taking a positive turn as I approached the entrance to the cave. I was ready to go explore the inside, and hopeful that I would find something to sell for the next country. Thankfully Swinhal's borders had almost non existent border security according to grandpa which helped keep my spirits going since it seemed it would be easy to sneak past the borders through this route. As I approached the entrance, and got a better look inside, my good mood was shattered in an instant, and I cursed at my bad luck.