Duties And What's Important

Heron had been in Jarenkul for almost three months and they had still made no progress in figuring out this magic. Heron had even gotten tired of studying and found himself getting Elswyth to help him work on his physical strength more, almost every other day. It was probably good for him. Kur of course was still very much studying, but they had run out of materials at this point.

It was discouraging to say the least.

But today Heron decided not to dwell on it and to explore Crull more thoroughly. So, he and Elswyth went out into the streets of the city, this time entirely ignoring the gardens. He wanted to see the rest of the city, since he already had a decent feel of the beautiful gardens.

It was early morning when they set out, and the streets were already bustling. Elswyth told him to stay close, which he did his best to do.

Heron felt rather excited to finally be exploring the streets. Crull was definitely a rather mixed city, and it was obvious within a few minutes. There were nobles, as one would expect in a capital city, but there was also plenty of poorer folk – even near the center of the city.

There would be beautiful buildings and then right next to them a building that looked more like a lean to. Crull also had places though that were obviously one or the other, whole streets, but never more than a small area.

It was a testament to how the city had grown. To just how old it was. For these tiny sections would have been added bit by bit to the place. Also to the uncaring that the people had to making sure to segmentize.

Heron actually liked it. It made it easy to see what problems might be faced by the common people. Something that he was sure his own family sometimes ignored – even though that was not a good thing.

Though…he was not sure the rulers of Jarenkul had taken the opportunity to really correct the issues either.

Now this had got him thinking of whether or not he could someday be a good king for the common people of his country. He hoped so, though it was a daunting task. And all he really wanted was to make sure his sister was happy. Of course, he wanted his people to be happy as well, but as a brother his sister was more important.

Hazel was his priority. If he had to he would give up the entire kingdom for her sake – though he did hope it never came to that. He did feel he had a duty to the people of Amriel as their crown prince as well.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts and just enjoyed the walk on the crowded streets. Elswyth at some point when he was thinking had grabbed his hand, probably to pull him away from something. That he hadn't even noticed at the time…he must have been more deeply thinking than he had thought.

He didn't pull away. He just followed behind his ranger friend as she walked briskly with him in tow.

They meandered around town, just looking at the people for several hours until noon came and then she told him to wait as she went to go buy food. He wanted to go with her but she had quickly disappeared into the crowd before he could even open his mouth.

Heron frowned. Sometimes Elswyth really did not give a person a chance to speak their mind. He backed up and leaned against the wall of a building as he waited. He waited patiently for several minutes.

Until a small building caught his eye. It was a bit rundown and looked old. An old creaky sign hang from it and it had a fairly low presence but something about it drew his attention. The sign was so old it could no longer be read, but there was still the barest hint of its picture…some kind of tubular object?

For a moment he hesitated but Elswyth would probably be gone for a while. What was the harm in checking it out?

So he entered the dimly lit shack of a store.