by A O Storm
Luke led them into a shop with a clear glass paned front window, showing herbs on display in small metal buckets. The shop interior was warm and dry, the air smelling savory, sweet and other aromas mingled together. Kano appreciated the scents and saw dried, as well as fresh, herbs available in rack upon rack. The owner, a portly man, stepped out from behind a counter and gave an introduction.
“Patrick,” he said, shaking Luke’s hand.
“Luke,” the thin man replied, nodding and then gesturing to Kano and Randy. Introductions finished, Luke asked where they might be able to share the herbs they brought from Three Rivers. Patrick smiled wider, thanking Luke for choosing his humble shop.
“The city has grown,” Patrick said, “With more people and more money flowing demand for those Three Rivers specials has never been higher.”
Fifteen minutes later, they left the shop, lighter on their feet, sold out completely. Kano glanced at the herbs again on the way out. He noticed a small green and yellow-leafed plant with small berries growing in a clay pot. The small plant seemed to glow for a moment and Kano suddenly knew the berries were used to treat venom poisoning from snakes and spiders.
Skill improved: Botany, +50 points
Afterwards, they wandered around the neighborhood. Kano could clearly tell this was the place where the expensive shops had hung a shingle. Back home, there were some malls that specialized in more expensive merchants and you could tell from the valet parking, the high end brands and the presence of an Apple store you were in a much more expensive spot. Architecture, in the real world and the game, was indicative of wealth. Kano was considering this when he reminded himself he needed to hire specialists to transform the White Rabbit into the first inn with real flushing toilets. Once I have the budget, he thought, not this trip, that’s for sure.
"This is a nice neighborhood," Kano said as they walked. "How do we know which shop we’re going to next?"
Randy chimed in, "There are only a few shops that specialize in magic related items," he said. "But of course, only the Mage Guild has produces pieces larger than a small trinket that could fit in your palm."
“Really, only the Mage Guild eh?” Kano briefly wondered if the reason only the Mage Guild produced the larger pieces was to control prices, but he kept those thoughts to himself.
"That's where we are going," Randy finished, smiling at Kano as they walked, following Luke's lead. The older man had become a bit of a grump after his kidnapping, seldom talking on their walk through the city.
There were signs above the buildings, Kano noticed, each with a specific combination of logo and icon. The icons seemed to represent the category of shop, where the logo represented the merchant brand name. They passed more than a few seamstresses, tailors and cobblers before they reached a section that held numerous smithies, carpenters and specialized crafts people. They continued on and Kano realized as they walked, the altitude in the city was even higher than the earlier neighborhoods, and the road a bit wider.
"It's good to be the king," Kano muttered to himself, following Luke and hitching his shoulder as the pack's weight had grown heavier over the long walk. He followed in silence for a minute then, curious, asked the obvious question. "Luke, how do you know what an enchanter or magician's symbol looks like?"
Randy guffawed and Luke's face turned red. He clearly did not want to talk about it, but, after a few moments of silence, Randy was happy to fill in the details.
"Well," he said, drawing out the word, "You know how the village has some items that help with, ah, hardness," he chuckled. Randy continued after he received a glare from Luke. "Well, there was a rumor in the city, you can get enchantments that would increase the size!"
He was laughing at this point and in the relatively empty street, his sound carried. Luke took the opportunity to lean back and stop walking then smacked his younger brother. "Focus," he said, not contradicting the veracity of the story but instead shifting his brother's attention to the mission at hand.
"We're almost there," Luke said, gesturing to the larger buildings around them. Kano had seen a few boutiques with clothing, expensive herbs and the freshest, most delicate cuts of meat. Still no magic, wizard or spell casting shop he could see. Kano had a brief, irrational hope Alex Verus's shop would appear out of thin air. True, it had been destroyed in the later books, but early on, you could get epic items from his humble store.
Kano stopped daydreaming and focused on the signs that they passed. Gone were the mercantile yet basic shops, and these held the kind of promise he'd dreamed of. One seemed to indicate potions, another, enchanting or imbuing magic into ordinary objects. A third had a sign indicating weapons and arms. He could not believe the possibilities on this street and was anxious to start trading. With the ore in their packs, they could bring the village of Three Rivers the kind of wealth the villagers had only dreamed about.
He let his imagination run wild as he followed Luke toward the largest building in the neighborhood, the home of the Mage Guild itself. Luke entered first, then Randy, and Kano was a few steps behind. After Randy disappeared into the building, a woman’s hand reached out and pushed on Kano’s chest, halting his momentum.
Turning his head to see who was bothering him, Kano found he was face to face with Abnoba, cloaked in an emerald robe, hood hiding her face from anyone standing more than a few feet away. “Kano. We need to talk.” Her voice was intense but her lips hadn’t moved.
“Goddess! Uh, I’m a little busy right now. Maybe we could meet-,” but his words were cut short as she raised a hand.
Everything stopped moving and gravity seemed frozen in place. Time stop spell? Kano wondered, but he also realized he had no control over his own body. Even his eyes wouldn't shift from their positions nor his eyelids blink.
“Something like that, yes.” Abnoba threw back her hood and paused to close her eyes, holding her hands palms up to the sunshine from above. “It is a beautiful day, yes?”
Yeah, sure. Can we get to the point here, I’m seriously freaking out I can’t blink.
She smiled wickedly at his discomfort. “You need to learn how to properly respect me, Kano. This is nothing. If I truly wanted, I could make you suffer for an eternity in this world.”
Got it. All hail the goddess? My goddess can beat up your goddess? You know I love you, Abnoba. You are the only deity I’ll ever hitch myself to.
Abnoba smiled broader, tilting her eyes to show her amusement, but then her devilish grin faded as she spoke. “You were a perfect choice for my druid in the Three Rivers region, but you cannot serve me there anymore.”
What? Did I do something wrong?
“No, Kano. You have a good heart and a desire to make the land better while restoring my glory to the region. However, those who came before will eventually come again, you must know that. They have already sent one ahead who will arrive in Three Rivers in the next day.”
Who? Those men who wanted my DNA? That’s why I wanted to start building defenses for the town; the firebreak was just a start toward something more. Let them come. I’ll dispatch them every time they make it within five hundred yards of the village.
“I know your plans, Kano. They will not work,” she looked compassionately into Kano’s eyes, her face hovering inches from him as she stepped closer. “You will bring death and ruin to Three Rivers because they will never stop, as long as you are there.”
Goddammit!! Sorry, if that was offensive… But, c’mon! I’m stuck here! My body is just a pile of ashes crammed into a plastic box somewhere now. I can make this work!
“No. No, you can’t Kano. You could try, but you would fail. However, I’m not here to destroy your dreams, Kano. I’m here to give you more hope than you’ve had since arriving here. And yes, the Gods have all seen you die nearly a thousand times so far. This time, though. This time is special.”
Abnoba held her hand over Kano’s chest and stared as if she could see straight through to his heart. “You have a good soul. You also final
ly passed a stage in this world, which makes you valuable to those who want to harvest your energy for their own needs. I can feel the same two men who attacked you before will come through the vortex. They will be hunting for you.” The goddess smiled but her eyes were worried. “They will be relentless, and if you stay in one place, they will keep coming until they have what they want. Your enemies are driven by a fear of what could happen to you here if you grow in power like you have in your world.”
Yeah, right up until they blew that up. I’m a powerful corpse now, remember?
“No, Kano. Your body is intact.” She stared directly into his eyes as she said it, and the emotions and questions that flooded Kano’s mind felt oddly flat without his heart speeding or his breath increasing in pace. However, the words rocked Kano’s world.
“After the explosion, your body repaired itself. However, their technology was incapable of getting the information they desired for how potent the healing was in your cells while attached to you. When they are removed from your body, they disintegrate. Your body was put through unimaginable nightmares for their desperation, and in the end, this world was the solution to their problem.” Abnoba pulled her hood over her head then stared up at the sun once again. “You aren’t stuck, Kano. You have a choice.”
Save Three Rivers, Kano. But do not stay there, unless you wish death itself to follow you home. Her voice whispered softly in his head as she walked away from him.
Kano watched as she made her way through the street still frozen in time. He saw the emerald green of her cloak disappear around a corner and a moment later time returned in an explosion of noise and movement around him. Kano breathed deeply and flexed his hands, touching his face, verifying his body was cooperating with as normal again. “So I’m not dead?” This is so confusing, he thought, puzzling over Abnoba’s words.
Twenty-Eight - One More for the Road
Kano took a few minutes to recover from Abnoba’s presence. He stumbled into the Mage Guild hall, Luke and Randy already haggling with an older man in flowing robes. They eventually struck a deal and unloaded the Mananite. Kano also parted with a chunk of his ore in exchange for a magic item the guild had left on a counter. The enchanted metal plate was designed for boats and while Kano had to part a third of his own ore to buy it, he was thrilled at purchasing a magic item. Once the inn takes off, I’ll have to make another trip and see if I can buy better weapons, or armor, Kano thought.
As Kano and his companions left the Mage guild, their packs were much lighter. His mind raced over whether he should push the group to leave now to try to prepare Three Rivers for whatever was coming there to find him. The trip by the Outlaw river should put us back in Three Rivers before the threat, even if the trip is a bit more dangerous on the way back, Luke and Randy assured me it would be fine.
The next stop they made was close by, as Kano insisted he spend the little money he had on cooking herbs, a jar of salt, dried meat and a half dozen water skins. I’ll never get dehydrated or fatigued Complications again, he smiled. He loaded the new items into the pack he carried, and then stuffed them into his magic sack where Luke and Randy could not see. Knowing how valuable the bag was, just in case the two men knew who else in Three Rivers used to have a bag like that, he did not show it off. When finished, Kano walked with the two men south, back towards the lower elevated portion of the city and the docks.
"What are those?" Kano asked, distracted as he saw something vaguely familiar at one of the shops on the edge of the plateau of the upper city.
"I'm not sure," Randy said, just a moment before his brother overrode him.
"Those are sandboards," Luke said, running a hand through his hair. "If we have time, I'd love to learn how to ride one of those." He paused and then turned to Kano. "Didn't you tell a story about using something like a sandboard before?"
Kano shrugged, not wanting to make a big deal out of it but curious enough to walk over to the shop all the same. He looked at the boards; so similar to the gear he was familiar with, and yet different all the same. No boots, and the bindings looked like small straps. Kano was not sure the boards would even stay attached to the rider. He saw beyond the shop, the city ended in a steep slope, only open area below.
Riding down the hill on a sandboard was a man, Kano's age, clad in shorts and a slim shirt, carving back and forth in the soft, clay dirt. The s-turns Kano observed were textbook and he paused, lost in the moment, watching the man ride. Kano forgot about Luke, Randy and the new threat to his life. In that moment, he breathed a deep sigh, vowing he’d go riding again, now that he knew it was possible here.
Luke observed the out of towner for a moment longer, then, could wait no more. "Can you not hear me, Kano," he snapped, irritated as the innkeeper just stood there staring at the sandboarder.
"Could you do it?" Kano asked, watching and never taking his eyes of the man who sailed effortlessly down the steep embankment. "I mean, I know I can do better," Kano grinned, "But, I wanted to know if you, Luke," he paused, then looked at the other man, "And you, Randy, could ride down that slope."
The younger man stepped up, puffing out his chest, "Sure I could, Kano, but it's dangerous and stupid," Randy said.
Kano turned and folded his arms across his chest. "You've tried this before, have you?" He asked, pausing and watching the rider halfway down the mountain, and then looking back at the men who were helping him take supplies back to the village.
Both men shook their heads negative and then Kano snorted, ignoring them and approaching the shop that was selling the sandboards. He spent a short time trying to barter the shopkeeper into rentals for the boards, but the other man wasn’t budging, offering sales only. The concept of renting likely wasn’t workable in a society that didn’t have record keeping like his world, not to mention insurance plans. He purchased three of them when the merchant, frustrated, said the only way Kano would get a lower price was if he wanted to buy three or more.
"Watch this," Kano said, once he'd strapped the sandboard to his boots, "You never know about skills like this, they could come in handy!" Kano, having strapped in his feet, jumped with the sandboard to start sliding down the mountain.
Luke slapped his brother's shoulder, gesticulating to their companion, gliding on the sand down the hill. "I can't believe it!"
Randy ignored his sibling and focused on Kano, who had started to change direction. The sight was surreal, as Randy had never imagined somebody gliding so easily across the sand, dirt or any surface. Still, seeing Kano not only glide with ease but seeing the man jump, catching air and landing made Randy think perhaps the sandboards weren’t so dangerous.
Luke caught his breath as Kano finished his spin, landing with bent knees, and continued down the mountain. "Wow," he said, slapping his brother’s shoulder again. Feeling extra thirsty, Luke pulled a waterskin from his belt and popped the stopper. Taking a drink, the thin man slaked his thirst and handed the skin to Randy as he stared, fixated, on Kano’s retreating form.
"Wow."
"Right," Randy agreed, taking the waterskin and drinking, “That was amazing.” They stood there, watching as down the hill Kano unwrapped the sandboard from his boots. The foreigner waved and smiled, causing Randy to wave back.
"Right," Luke coughed, waving to Kano as the other man climbed back up the hill faster than they expected. "That was a nice, ah, trip?" Luke had no idea what to call the experience Kano had with the sandboard down the city slope.
"It was," Kano replied, shaking loose dirt off of the board. "I hope you were both watching, because I got three of these boards!"
"Excuse me?" Randy asked, his face screwing up in distaste.
"We're going to practice as a group!" Kano paused and saw Randy looked ill. "I'll be there with you both, but, if we don't practice together, it’ll be much harder for you to learn." Kano paused, looking up at the sky. "We can spend an hour or two and see if you guys can get the hang of this."
"Huh?" Randy said, watching as Luke started
to pull the straps from his sandboard onto his boots. The younger man copied his brother, and soon the two of them were ready.
“How do we start?” Luke asked, as Kano stood in front of them, first in line to ride back down the hill.
“Bend your knees, back to the mountain, heel edge,” Kano said, giving quick demonstration. “Toe edge,” he said, demonstrating the opposite stance. “Your boards are setup with a downhill, regular stance, to make sure it’s easier for you to start turning.”
“Okay,” Luke said, copying the moves, Randy did the same. Kano started explaining more of how the standard snowboard setup worked, how turns worked and how it would be easiest for the two men to start.
“Watch me go one more time, and really pay attention,” Kano said, taking off downhill.
"What?" Luke and Randy shouted at the same time, watching the innkeeper sliding down the sandy, soft ground once more. This time, Kano did larger, bigger turns, to ensure the brothers could watch and get a better sense of how the movements worked.
“Ready to try it?” Kano asked, once back uphill after his ride. Luke looked eager, where Randy still looked a bit hesitant.
“Let’s go!” Kano said, hopping up and gliding down once more, picking up some speed. He did an abrupt turn, sliding and spinning to face uphill. The notification he got showing his increased snowboarding stats he dismissed, since he knew it was already his highest skill and the next rank was a big step up.
Kano looked uphill, nodded, and then pointed with an arm to a spot near him to stop. The two men barely managed to carve themselves into the area Kano pointed and Luke nearly kept going down the hill before he slipped onto his backside, slamming to a stop.
“You guys are naturals! Isn’t this awesome?” Kano was elated, and if it weren’t for pressing matters, he could seem himself spending all of his time on the sandboard. Despite Luke’s less elegant stop, he was still excited to continue learning. Randy, perhaps due to his better skill on the sandboard, was now eager to learn as well.