Welcome to Cariam (II)

Soon after waking up I could feel a soft breeze upon my skin. The wind was blowing in our direction, and the humidity of the forest quickly enveloped our bodies.

It was a nice change especially if compared to the dry environment of the desert.

"Just give me a moment…"

My head was spinning like crazy, and even uttering those words made my throat throb in pain from the thirst.

Seeing that, Francis, took a bottle from my bag.

"It's empty, I wouldn't be in this state if-"

Ignoring my ranting He opened the bottle and as his hand moved on top of it, faint lights started gathering near his palm. Frowning as he concentrated, the lights started aggregating and taking form. Soon light was no more, and a small ball of water took its place as he cautiously moved it inside the bottle.

"Drink it, you will fell better."

As I drank, a faint look of envy appeared in my eyes as I looked at him.

Spirits, higher being who helped those they deemed worthy enough, and decided to dedicate their life to protection of nature. Thanks to them some people could manifest peculiar phenomenon such as this, and many more.

In this world strange things, gods, spirits, demons, magic and beings beyond our understanding were a common occurrence. And through study, devotion or sheer luck you could gain access to immense power. But for those who were neither blessed with good brain, fortune or had faith, only their body remained, and unfortunately I was one of them.

Well, I could always sell my soul to a demon to gain power. But I had too much respect and love for myself to do something as stupid as that. As it wasn't a simple transaction but a contract of subordination, one would basically become the slave of the fiend he contracted.

For me, no amount of power could make up for the loss of freedom.

After a couple of hours of walking we were almost at the end of the forest.

This last part of the travel was probably the easiest. Thanks to the spirit's help Francis could converse with the plant and ask for direction. The only problem left were the supply and the fact that most plant warned us to go back or look for another destination.

Unfortunately we had no choice but to go forward as the nearest village was a week away. We would die of starvation long before reaching another safe heaven, without taking into account that we had a mission to accomplish.

Nearing the edge of the forest we could finally see our goal right beyond the bushes.

Cariam. The largest city of the empire, bigger than the capital and almost as fortified as it. Its structures were made out of solid rocks and the whole city was carved out in the side of a mountain making it easy to defend during sieges, and thanks to its rare ores it quickly became a Mecca for blacksmith and traders since its creation. But for me it was just the source of all my trouble

….

Before me stood a grey coloured door with the "major sergeant" insigna on it.

As I turned the handle my heart was beating faster than ever and thousands of question and doubts crossed my mind.

"You took your sweet time, as always"

To my surprise, I knew this familiar phrase and that sarcastic tone all too well.

Stuffy air and smell of cigarette permeated the room while a green coloured fish wearing an informal purple tracksuit looked at me. Standing stiff on a dark red carpet, just fore to a mahogany desk stood my partner.

Francis was her too, his presence alone helped my heart calm down. If he was here nothing could go wrong, I truly felt that way, when battling in the frontlines nobody could stop us if we were together.

Shortly after we exchanged some small greeting, the door opened again. This time a small human like figure wearing a butler uniform appeared. He had long ears, Green messy hair and was tall no more than my knee.

After closing the door the gnome sat on the chair beyond the desk and opened his mouth.

"I go by the name of Glim. After careful consideration the council of elders decided to accept your volunteering for the mission. I'm here in their stead to give you all the necessary information."

As he continued speaking with a solemn and stuck up tone my mind started drifting away.

'The council of elders accepted our volunteering? What does that mean? I've never volunteered for anything and certainly not to the council. They're just a bounce of old geezer fossilised on their chair whose only thought revolves around how to take more money from the citizens now that the war ended. '

I had no intention of helping any of them and certainly not voluntarily.

As I was lost in thought my eyes ended up looking at Francis, more precisely his smirk.

Now it all made sense, this bastard is the one who volunteered for the both of us, and didn't even tell me about it.

"As I said, your mission is to infiltrate the city and report on the situation. I advise you to be especially careful as we lost contact with the previous squad and we don't know the reason."

With these last few word the gnome jumped down the chair and left.

"The council has high expectations of you."