Chapter 15
New Adventure
The three made their way down the dirt road to the atlas gates. They went through a nearby gate, leading them closer to their destination. The group continued in silence. The air was thick with tension between the three. Finally, Jin broke the tension. “So how long till we get there?”
“We should arrive there by nightfall. It would have been sooner if you had been on time,” Saga answered, as he continued looking forward.
“So have either of you been to this place before? Why was it called Hamelin?” Jin asked.
“I have,” Liz responded.
“Care to tell us about it?” Jin asked.
“No,” she responded.
Ahh, what is with these people? Jin thought to himself. They spent the rest of the trip in silence. The sun had begun to set when they reached the town. It was a small village with a cluster of stone houses sitting on the edge of a large forest. There was smoke coming from the chimneys, and they could see lights in the windows.
The three walked into the town. “We’ll stay at the inn tonight and we can scout around tomorrow,” Saga instructed, as they made their way to the village inn.
They entered the inn. A large burley man greeted them. “Welcome travelers,” he said as the three walked up to the desk. “How can I help you?”
“We all need rooms,” Saga said.
“All right, you’re all in luck. We have three rooms available. It will be five silver a piece,” the inn keeper explained.
Saga and Liz reached into their pouches and pulled out the money. Jin just stood there. “I don’t have any money,” Jin said, embarrassed.
“Looks like you’re sleeping outside tonight,” Saga quickly replied.
Jin’s mouth dropped. “Seriously?” he said, looking to Saga.
“Well, I’m not paying for you,” Saga replied.
“Maybe you could help me out, Liz?” Jin asked hopefully.
“Umm . . . no,” Liz responded.
Jin was surprised, to say the least. He suddenly got a sinking feeling in his stomach as he awkwardly stood there. Well . . . err,” he thought. Jin then made his way out of the inn. The sun had gone down and there was a slight chill in the air. Jin began ranting and mumbling obscurities as he made his way to the side of the building and sat down against the wall.
How am I going to sleep like this? I can’t sleep outside. I never even camped out before . . . err, Jin thought, as he closed his eyes. As the wind began to pick up, Jin began to hear something strange. It sounded like music. It was faint, but he heard it. Jin stood and began trying to track the source of the noise. He walked out to the main street, following the sound. It seemed to be coming from the forest.
At that moment, he heard something else. It was a scurrying sound. He turned to see a large green rat moving toward him. It lunged up at him, showing its teeth. Jin reacted and smacked it down with his forearm. He turned to face it as it hissed loudly. Jin ran up and tried to kick it, but it dodged to the side.
The commotion had gotten the attention of the people in the inn. Saga and Liz ran out. The kami jumped up at Jin again. He moved forward to punch it down, but he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his back. The rat ran away to the forest as Jin turned to see Liz standing there with a whip or, what seemed to be a whip, with a surprised look on her face. Jin was clinched in pain. “Ahh . . .” he said.
Jin hobbled over, trying to reach the large wound on his back. “You!” he said, pointing at Liz. “You whipped me! Why did you whip me?” he asked, with a painful look on his face.
Liz began to giggle at how Jin was acting. “You shouldn’t get in the way,” she said just before she began to laugh. This also caused Saga to start laughing, but he was trying very hard to hide it.
“Stop laughing at me!” Jin said.
Liz bent down, grabbing her knees laughing. “Ahh, I can’t help it. You look like a monkey walking around like that,” she said as the whip went back into her core. Of course her comment sent Saga off, because he could no longer hide his laughter. Liz reached up, wiping away her newly forming tears, as she waved for Jin to come. “Okay, okay, I’ll get you a room, but you need to get that wound cleaned,” she said.
They made their way back into the inn. Liz paid for Jin’s room and she followed him in with some medical supplies. Jin walked over and sat on the side of the bed. He took his shirt off. Liz opened the kit and began rummaging through it. “So what was that weapon you had anyway?” Jin asked.
“It was a snake,” Liz answered as she began cleaning the wound.
“A snake? How does that work?” Jin asked, cringing in pain.
“It’s a special kind of snake. It has a long slender body that’s as tough as leather. It attaches to my core, allowing me to run my magick through it and use it like a whip,” Liz explained as she began to bandage the wound.
“Hmm . . . that’s pretty cool. I can’t do anything like that,” Jin began before jumping back a bit. “What’s that!?” he asked, surprised to see a small blue mouse scurry across the floor and into a hole in the wall.
“What?” Liz asked, as she finished applying the bandage.
Jin pointed to the hole in the wall. “There . . . it looked like a blue mouse or something? Was it a kami?” he asked as he stood, putting his shirt back on.
“Let’s find out,” Liz said, walking over to the hole at the base of the wall. She placed her hand on the floor as a snake crawled out and into the hole. There were a few thuds from inside the wall, followed by silence.
Saga came into the room when he heard the commotion. “What’s going on?” he asked. The tail of the snake then stuck out of the hole. Liz reached down and grabbed it. She pulled it out to reveal the snake holding the mouse by the neck.
Liz held them up showing Saga. “This,” she said.
“So is it a kami?” Jin asked.
“Yes,” Saga said, looking at it. “Kill it,” he commanded. Liz looked down at the snake as it clenched its jaw and killed the mouse, causing it to disappear. “Just as I thought,” Saga said.
“What? Why didn’t it turn to magick?” Jin asked
“I see, it was a scout,” Liz said. “A scout is a type of kami, but it isn’t like the normal ones. You see scouts are a kind of copy that is created by a main kami. The copies are visually linked to the main. They scout ahead and look for food or enemies. The scouts themselves are like limbs of the kami. They can be destroyed, but since they are not independent kami, they release no magick,” she explained.
“So what does this mean?” Jin asked.
“It means that whatever’s out there knows we’re here,” Saga said. “We better get some rest. We’re going hunting tomorrow,” he said as he left the room.
Liz made her way out as well. Jin called to her as she made her way to the door. “Hey, thanks for patching me up,” he said.
“Yeah, watch out next time,” Liz said as she made her way out. “And I’ll expect you to reimburse me when we get back,” she said, shutting the door and leaving the room. Jin laid down on the bed and drifted off to sleep.
ToC
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