Chapter 4 part 3 a market and a red band

(This chapter is so long I'm not going to even bother with going through and spacing the talking, but anyway enjoy)

As I walk around the market I see and hear many things. But right now I see things like swords, shields, maces, bows, spears and axes. Some new and some old, some shiny and some rusty. I seem to have found my way into an arms dealers tent. Like I usually do I find myself looking into a glass case; seeing my reflection as well as my lucky necklace around my neck. As I look around I see that I'm the only one here apart from an employee, if you don't count the man behind the desk. "Hey, you lost or something friend?" said the man behind the desk. I replied with a simple "No I'm not". "So why are you here then?" He says with a very deep voice, "I'm guessing you're not here for a crossbow". "No no, I'm here to ask about an item". "Oh, if that's the case come over here and show it to me".

As I make my way over to the desk i notice that the man is actually not that tall and has a large beard that is almost half the size of him. "Not to be rude or anything but let me guess, you're a dwarf aren't you?" "What gave it away- the fact that you're standing on a box or something to be eye level with me?" I say with a sassy smile on my face.

"Ha ha ha oh i like you, you're a funny one". Names Mr. Vandaer at your service." He extends his right hand to shake myn, but instead of grabbing a hand I almost grabbed a knife attached to where his hands are supposed to be. "Wow, careful there you nearly cut me" I say. "Sorry about that, that always happens just give me a sec". As he says that he grabs a small handful and starts to rotate it and as he does so the knife goes out of view and it rotates through multiple things, a light, a welder, a gun which are extremely hard to get, and a bunch of other things until he finally reaches a hand that's made of metal. "Sorry about that um… What's your name sir?" "It's Rex"

"good to know now, what's the thing you want to show me?" "Oh ya here it is." I pull the small navy blue box out of my bag and put it on the table. Mr. Vandaer immediately picks it up and starts making a lot of sounds that shows he is studying it. "So what is it you what me to do with it?" That is a good question, I guess I can have him try to open it. "Do you think that you can open it?" "Ya, I think I can, but it'll cost ya a bit". "How much?" I say as quickly as possible as to not waste any time I have left. " I'd say about five cones give or take". "Ok here" I hand him five cones and feel a small pane in the part of my head that tells me to spend my money wisely " ok... Let's get started". As those words come out of his mouth, his arm starts to rotate and i feel like i should backup

Steve's point of view

Rex has left me with twenty cones and no freaking clue where I am at this market. He's probably at the weaponsmiths getting a new sword. As for me, I need a new bow. My last one broke because I shot 9 arrows at ones and broke the string, evin thowe it was impressive not many of them hit their targets. As I'm making my way through the market I notice that there are a lot of people wearing the same kind of outfit, light leather armor with some chainmail colored dark black, and they're all wearing some sort of red somewhere on their person, like an armband or something. Ya I get the leather armor because you can move easier in it, the faster you are the more attacks you can land and I think the dark color is for stealth reasons. but the red completely throws me off.

I'll just keep my eyes on them for now and try to avoid them if possible. I'm still walking through the markit when I see a bacary and I remember we're almost out of food. I'll go in and get some bread or something. As I start to cross the street a large cart pasis me and almost hits me. "That was close" I think to myself. As I enter the bacary and order some bread and two cinnamon buns the bell on the door rings to single a new customer. I look at a mirror over the counter which leads to the door. What do I see other than two more people with red armbands cating away, they stop to my left and order some food and continue to chat. I might as well listen to what they are saying.

"Boss is saying that if we don't hurry and get in that tomb he's going to send us to the dungeon" " ah don't worry so much rob, the adventures are going in to open the tombs today and some of us are going in with them to make sure that they don't figure out why there actually there and plus they think that there just there to "clear" the place of ghouls!!" "you sure that they think it's just ghouls?" "na there's probably some traps in there too, probably make the job of "cleanup" easier as well, less of them to deal with after…. Well you know what I mean" " ya I know ... kinda feel bad for the sukers you know they have no clue"

"Number 27 your order's ready!" Oh that's me, probably should get out of here before they notice me. "That's me" I say to the worker in front of me" here you go sir... have a "good" day sir" " you to miss" as i start to walk out of the store I hear a very aggressive vose from behind me. " Hey, I think that guy was listening to us…. Hey stop where you are sir!!!"

Shit

I didn't stop, I just ran out of the store and toward the bar for the meeting.

Rex's view

After about a minute of trying to get the ribbon untied Mr. Vandar just gave up and got sizers, but as he tried to cut the ribbon, the ribbon cut back with heat and cut the sizers in haff. It startled Vandar so terribly he fell to the floor and I swear his eyes were so wide you could fit an apple in them. "What the hell did you bring me boy!" he said with so much confusion and anger in his voice that it'd seem he'd bin at this for hours. My first thought is to take/ the box and get rid of it but I guess my curiosity got the better of me because the next thing I told him is that he can go home and do whatever he wants to get the blue box open. And to my surprise he doesn't kick me out, but instead a huge smile formed on his face and the next four words he said made me question his sanity. "Can I use fire?" and to my surprise the next thing I said kinda scared me. "How much are we talking about?". A smile formed and his hand switched to a torch and for the next four minutes I was in another room while Vandare went all pyromaniacs on my box.

After four minutes I got called into the backroom by Vandar with a bit of frustration in his voice. Well, I was looking at a unique long sword. The label below the sword read "The Bladesinger Longsword " and I liked the look of the sword and I was thinking of buying it... until I saw the price "1000 coines! Holy crap!" I was so surprised that I accidentally yelled so loud that vandars only employees looked over and gave me a what the hell kind of look. "Sorry" "don't worry you like the fifth person to do that this month" said the employee as he was shrugging it off. The employee is a thin man with a blacksmith's apron; he seems to be no less than 20. "You should probably go see what my boss wants before he blows a fuse". "Ya you're probably right". I looked at the beauty of a weapon one more time before I would go see what Vandar wanted. As I looked at the beauty again I came to the fact that I'd probably never own such an item, and whoever owned it in the future would probably just put the sword on their wall as a decoration. The idea of such a thing never seeing combat gave me a little pain in my gut.

When I finally went to the back room, what I found was just about what I suspected. A wall covered with burn marks, my box looking exactly the same as when i gave it to him and a blacksmith called vandar, covered with black dust from the flame thrower he used. " I don't get it! That usually works as my final attempt but nothing happened?! The boxe are not burnt or scraped or anything, it's as if the box can regen or something". "What are you talking about?" I said with confusion in my voice. How in the world could a box, A Box of all things, regenerate itself? "I don't get it, when i started to burn it it looked like it was working. The paint and the ribbon started to burn away, but when the ribbon finished incinerating it just grew back in a millisecond, I didn't get it!" While Vandar was going off on a rant, I went around him to confirm my suspicions. As I thought, the box didn't even have a scratch ( and the dark spot on the wall had a clean spot the shape of the box) but one thing did seem off, the bow was a different color. Under all the black dust there was a hint of silver with some writing on the bow under the dust. I pick up the little box, Vandar stops with his rant,and looks in my direction. " What are you doing boy?" "There's something writing on the bow." " What?" I look at the bow and it's like the letters keep moving and moving making no sense. For some reason I feel the urge to say a couple words I've never heard in the same sentence. The key of the one unseen. There's a sudden gust of wind that starts to spin around and around throwing paper, books and anything that's not bolted down starts to fall or fly around the room. Very slowly through all the wind and chaos, i kinda felt a small tug at the box and two seconds later a heat. A kind of worm that surges through your entire body, a kind of.... Kind feeling. But then suddenly…. Pain. a strong kind of pain around the neck and in my hand. than a snap. The wind was blowing so hard that i felt that i was going to get thrown out of the market maybe even the whole town. I could barely see what was going on, all I knew was my necklace and the box were not on me anymore. All i could see was the box, just floating there, changing, the colors were changing, that flame blade that came from the box before was not a blade anymore, more like a hand. The flame had my necklace and it was trying to put it in the key hole in the box. I can't let it just take my thing. With all the strength I can muster I push myself forwards, my clothes blowing in the wind like a flag does in a storm. I don't stop even as things in the room start to hit me. Swords, shields, bows, all sorts of things are flying around the room with a large nose. I feel a large pain in my gut. A shield had hit me and I was on the ground, in as much pain as i was in when i broke my arm three years ago. When the wind stopped I looked up to see the box had its key and all i could do was try to stand.

With the pain in my chest and a throbbing headache from the shield, I did all I could to get up on my feet. When i finally got up i could barely stay up. I felt like I was a baby that just learned to walk and could fall over any second. The pain in my chest made it so hard to stand, that it took me a moment to get my bearings. That's when i realized that i'm not in the same place that i was before, the area that i'm in now was pitch dark, the air feels damp and the sound of water dripping from above fills the area. It seems to be some kind of cave, it feels like a large one at that. With the little vision I have I make out the shape of the path and I start walking. While I walk down further into the cave multiple things are going through my head, Where am i, Why does it have to be so dark and the most important- How'd i get here? I turn a corner being careful not to fall over and kill myself, when a sudden flash of light comes from my left and right. Torches are lining the walls all the way to the end of the room. A narrow path of stone suspended by natural stone pillars leads to the end of the hall. Under the path is a fall that has to at least be a hundred feet deep give our take. I can't see the bottom. As I walk down the strange path the torches light up , it gives me an eerie feeling…. Like I'm being watched. As I walk the light revals markings in the walls, some I know from my adventures. Sometimes while exploring places like this you'll find markings left behind by past adventures like a sword mark left in the walls or a message like "dead end" carved into the wall and maybe you'll find things left behind. Our if you have bad luck like me you'll find monsters known as the falling. They're the past adventures that didn't get to go home. Their large, strong, easily spooked and most importantly stupid. When i was little i always heard of people going out hunting and not coming back, it would always lead to a search party going out to look for them. Someone in the town that I was living in had gone missing and I decided to help look for them. What I didn't expect was to be the only one to find them. I was walking through a forest when I found him, standing at least seven and a half feet tall, completely still, his skin had changed to a dark shade of black. Without a moment to react its head snapped in my drekthin yaling some kind of war cry. Then it kicked the tree it was standing next to over and it jumped to a large rock. It looked back at me for a sec then jumped away. As I walk I hope not to see one any time soon.