The City of Oroetia

The merchant caravan finally arrived at the City of Oroetia. With farmlands leading most of the way down. Samuel with his mouth falling agape as they were riding towards the city unlike anything he had ever seen before. Stone walls and towers surrounding the majority of the city. With plenty of residential areas inside and outside the walls. They were arriving from hill leading down which gave him plenty of view over the city.

The small port where several ships arrived and left... and then the large mass of water behind it, that Samuel realized was the ocean. He had never expected it to be so... grand and endless. There had to be thousands of people living in this city, it was busy at all times with people coming and going.

Several other caravans and merchants, hunters. People wearing guild crests that Samuel only recognized from studying books. Merchant guilds, adventuring guilds. Large bustling markets, the entire caravan went all the way to the center of the city. Stopping at a local building that had a generic merchant emblem.

"A tavern and warehouse for merchant caravans." Grenger said as he noticed Samuel's confused look at all the new things. Grenger couldn't help but grin remembering his first time seeing such a large city. "Plenty a people about! So watch out for thieves and thugs especially during the day!" Grenger quickly said. "Not during the night?" Samuel asked with his face being a big question mark.

"Amateurs during night sure... pros during the day." Grenger nodded at some regular looking people. It took Samuel a while to see they had hidden weapons. 'The most dangerous ones work during the day.' Sam repeated in his head. Almost making him more happy to explore at night.

But only almost.

Samuel certainly did not miss the details of Rejgarde (Local police militia) walking around either. Compared to the previous towns that might have had between 50-100 Rejgarde. 'This town must at least have several hundred.' Samuel shuddered wondering how anyone would want to even try being a criminal.

Alas Samuel was still pretty naive about the criminal underworld. He was too much of a country bumpkin, Grenger grinned at him since he was so obviously a country bumpkin in a big city. Looking at everything with big eyes, and the naivety combined almost became like an outsider aura. Making people purposefully steer cleer of him and snicker at him behind his back.

The same way many country folk were annoying the same could be said for many city folk. Thankfully Samuel did not seem to mind or perhaps he simply didn't care. But that attitude would get him in trouble one day but would make him safe most of the time.

Troublemakers looking to bully others simply because they wanted to. 'Oh well, one day he will learn. It aint up to me to teach him anything!' Grenger thought to himself as he continued with his duty as leader of the caravan guards.

Samuel had understood that the caravan would stay there for at least two days. To restock supplies and maybe sell or buy things. Nothing that bothered him, he was just a traveller instead, so he decided to go walking to go on a sightseeing trip around the city. The very first thing he did was make his way towards the docks. They had looked so small from far away but there was place for dozen upon dozen of ships.

He decided to walk a bit through the water closer to the shoreline, even tasting it... "oh shite!" he blurted out as he realized it really tasted a bit salty. He was so amazed by everything that he never noticed the dock workers looking weirdly at him. But they quickly went about their own business. 'Typical country folk.'

Samuel got some nice sights on the wooden ships he had never seen before. Some were large and majestic and others smaller. Samuel did not want to get his clothes any more wet so he decided to take his leave after butting his boots back on. At this time of the year the water had been cold but not unbearable. There were some workers that were swimming about and collecting minor things in the water.

Samuel then went to markets to see what kinds of things they were selling. There were plenty of this he had no idea what they were, but he was not afraid to ask to expand his knowledge. Most shop or market stand owners did not care, some items were exotic enough for not even commoners to know exactly what they were.

A port city certainly had access to other parts of the world. Samuel managed to buy a few cheap things like an extra set of clothes and a stitching set, threads and needles included. Realizing that sun had started setting and darkness was settling in he decided to head back to the tavern the caravan was staying at. Passing by an alley that would work as a shortcut he stupidly decided to pass through simply because there were a lot of people walking about.

After getting halfway through the alley and receiving a lot of compliments on his muscles and looks from women that barely had any clothing and other people walking around and groping eachother playfully he started regretting his decision and walked faster to get to the end of it. Hormones had started making the blood in his heads rise.

He sighed in relief after getting plenty of distance from that place and seeing the tavern. He spent his evening telling Grenger about his 'boring' adventures. But the last few parts of it made Grenger and several of the other guards laugh at his mis-fortune. Enjoying a nice meal and drink and a nice warm bed compared to normal made him fall asleep pretty quickly though.

The next day was spent pretty much the same for Samuel, he spent the day exploring like a sight seeing tourist. At the end of the day he had seen most of the city and realized it was not much of a tourist resort and more of a trade port meant simply for business. But he had learned plenty of new things. After walking around with more confidence he noticed people didnt bat him an eye anymore.

He did not understand the purpose of it but he decided to play along anyway. He did see a small alley he had avoided before. But it looked safe enough since it was pretty close to a guarded tower, where he saw that guards were looking in its direction sometimes.

So he decided to go explore it after a mother had come out of a building with a sign. Dragging a small boy with her as she seemed to be in a hurry. He read the sign outside the building which said. *Zor's Healing Ward*

Samuel expected a small wooden building like that of a village healer as he walked inside. But it was made out of pristine marble and clean floors and walls. A small doorbell announced his arrival and a woman quickly walked out of a side room. She was a small halfling woman making Samuel look down. He had seen halflings plenty of times in other villages and towns but he had never really interacted with them, so he just stood there dumbstruck for a while.

The halfling started tapping her foor. "Welcome to Zor's how can I help you?" She broke him out of his dumb staring with an annoyed voice. "Sorry!" Samuel apologized. "I was just interested in looking around and kind of just stumbled in here." He gave her a small bow.

"Well unless you got an ailment or appointment Im going to haveto ask you to leave." The halfling said as she raised her eyebrows in annoyance to this country bumpkin in front of her. "Now now dear Risti if we got nothing else there is no harm in entertaining an interested customer." Another female voice spoke from inside a room.

Before a devilkin suddenly peeked around the room opening. She had completely yellow skin and two large protruding horns making a U-shape along her head, her eyes were completely red with no visible pupils and lastly there was a 1-2 meter long tail extending from the end of her spine. "Hello! My name is Zor, welcome to my establishment!" She said with a dazzling smile.

Once again Samuel was dumbstruck, he had never seen devilkin before - he had only read about them so his first meeting was a bit nerve wrecking. "S-S-Sorry, never seen yellow before." He blurted out without thinking. The woman did not seem offended though and chuckled a bit.

"You're not from around here then I take it!" Zor smiled.

"Well there seems to be something clearly wrong with your tounge. Mind following me so I can check that you are healthy?" She said with another smile. Making her features very cute even to Samuel who had never met one of her kind before. So he just nodded and followed her into a side room. While the halfling just shook her head at the boys rudeness.

Samuel entered the room where there was a stretcher type bed. She patted the bed motioning him to sit on it. "So cute stuff, what can I help you with today?" Zor asked as she took out a paper and pen to write on a journal.

Samuel still confused at the situation now also noticed her very large features. Top and bottom heavy with a perfectly slender build all the right proportions. Samuel quickly cut off the train of thought beating his hormones into submission. Before finally coming up with a good question.

"Well I do actually have a scar that I want checked out!" He quickly said making Zor sigh a bit at her fun already being over. But when he started taking off his equipment and top clothes she couldnt help but bite down on her pencil a bit. He was certainly a good looker body wise. Although a bit plain.

She had intended to just play around a bit with the poor boy. To see how long it would take for him to walk out of there in shame. But then she looked at his top body and though that it was not half bad until her eyes laid on the are where his heart was supposed to be.

Whatever it was that had happened, had pierced all the way through. Leaving a large entrance scar on his front and an equally large one on his back. "Shit! What happened to you kid?" Zor said now with the worry of a healer while taking a few steps closer to look a the scars.

"I dont remember it all too well. My mind is still a mess about exactly what happened to me. But short story, sword through my heart and I felt like I died. But then I woke up and it was healed like this." He shrugged not really knowing what else to say. He couldn't speak about Alsian after all.

"Well young man." She called him man because no young kid would go through such a wound and still be a child. "Whatever healed you did not do it using any arts of healing that I am aware off!" Zor said while taking a closer look and touching the scar tissue.

"If I didn't know any better its almost like the damaged tissue rewinded by itself. Scars usualy take dozens of years to heal. But considering the size of this wound you have not had it for more than a year or two." She looked at Samuel who nodded to confirm it. "Its like time itself sped up to heal the injuries at an incredible speed... But the question is.." She trailed off deep in thought.

"Do I have your permission to use detecting spells on you?" Zor asked while looking him in the eyes. Samuel nodded again to give the clear. She quickly made some hand signs and a few magical circles appeared in the air around him. Before placing themselves on his body, they felt like small bundles of warmth. Samuel noticed that her yellow eyes became slightly white as well and she started walking around him before place a hand on his scar.

She quickly gasped and all the spells faded and she took a few steps back in shock. Making Samuel worried. "Is there something wrong with me?" He quickly asked in a scared voice. Zor quickly shook her head and waved her hand. "At the moment you are perfectly healthy... but its like whatever did this.." She waved at his scars. "Took several years of your life force from you to heal this injury." Zor finished. Making Samuel's stomach twist and churn a bit.

"How much?" He asked and Zor shook her head. "I cannot tell. Too hard to know exactly... 15, perhaps 20 years." She lowered her gaze. She had failed to calm her patient and had reacted with fear in front of the unknown. "Would you allow me to take some of your blood to study it? Perhaps I can craft a cure?" She quickly asked with confidence. Now intrigued by the unknown and wanting to cure it - If there was something to cure.

Samuel allowed her to take blood enough to store in 10 vials. "I was also wondering if you would allow me to become your personal healer?" She asked with another dazzling smile.

"I am sorry but I dont know what that means!" Samuel replied. Zor quickly fetched some papers after that.

"It means that if you ever become severely injured or anything I will be called upon and can also keep checking on your condition to see wether it improves or worsens. My clinic will stand for costs in your treatment." She smiled again. "I am making a special case for you because I am really intrigued by your condition and I would like to find a way to 'cure' it." She put some extra care on the word cure.

"I thought only really rich people had personal healers." Sam said with his eyebrows raised at her excitement. Making Zor think carefully about her next words but she went with honesty. "Yes most common people cant afford a personal healer. But as I said, I can learn a lot from the unknown as a healer which is why I am making an exception. I also asume you are heading toward one of the mage academies." The last part made him almost jump up ready for a fight.

"How did you know?" His voice demanded answers while she chuckled at him. "You are not the first young person your age to travel through heading for something. Most go to the academies only to realize they suck at magic or cant afford it. But there are a few like yourself that has the equipment and whose bodies are more attuned to the world magic!" Zor once again made her previous spells hover around the air.

"So thats how you know!" Samuel sighed. Glad that it was nothing else but also fascinated by the spell since it had told her so much about his body. "Having a personal healer makes your life at academies a lot easier by the way." Zor quickly added with a wink.

Samuel raised his hands in defeat. "Alright I accept! Just tell me what I need to know!" Samuel knew it was better with a confidential healer that was on his side than to be angry or annoyed. So after a few minutes of explaining and creating double copies of documents and planting a magic seal on them it was all done.

Samuel had gained a personal healer and the necessary address to write to her when he had settled in with an academy. He finally went back and enjoyed his last meal and sleep in a soft bed before the morning departure took them away from the city.