Journey West 02: Sae-Rin

   The west coast of the Archae Sea, a fairly large fishing village by the name of Sae-Rin, here they are to meet Hollia’s uncle, the man known as Gold Wolf a man Hollia has never actually met before. Prior to coming here, by a wide margin of time given their stay at Hyatha-Aria’s home to train, Hollia had received a message from her mother telling her what he looks like and which inn he would be staying at. Everything so far is lining up as planned, with one slight oversight.

    “What exactly do we do with the boat?” asks Cata gesturing to the now un-manned vessel.

    The others look at each other; this isn’t something they had thought about. Prior to their rapid departure from Osopika there was a captain for the boat; they just left him behind.

    “Allow me,” says Rhulan with a smile as she walks over to the dock captain and discusses something with him.

    “Its no problem,” she says.

    “He agreed to hold it here till my brother sends messengers to come get it?” asks Hollia.

    “Nope,” says Rhulan

   *ka-boom*

    With a gesture she blasts the vessel to the bottom of the sea with a mystic beam.

    Hollia’s jaw is hanging open.

    “You know you could catch flies like that.” says Rhulan, “The dock captain refused to hold it longer than a day for any reason and then he threatened to sell it so I blasted it to splinters instead.”

    “Oh.” says Hollia

   Betty and Cata just shrug their shoulders as they head into town leaving behind a dock captain scratching his head mumbling, “Crazy broads.”

   Away from shore the town has a calm feel to it aside from the sounds of sea gulls. None of the hustle and bustle of cities like Osopika or Delca and yet none of the walled in always on guard for monsters and everything centered around adventurers feel of the small towns back east. The roads are wide dirt roads; the houses off the main streets don’t seem to be too many above a single story in height.

    “This is it.” says Hollia gesturing to an inn named [The Sea-Gull’s last Stop].

    The inside has an odd feel to it, the doors on the outside were normal, but just inside is a small room with stairs to the left labeled [Inn] and doors to the right labeled [Brothel]. Before them is a set of double swinging doors, a small pair of doors only at mid-height; something unheard of back east.

    Betty looks at the door on the right with a raised eyebrow and shakes her head thinking, “Sheesh, pretty open about that around here I guess.”

   Inside the bar across at a few tables they see a man fitting the description Hollia was given, they had intended to ask the bartender or inn-keeper depending on how things work here about him but it looks like they needn’t bother. A man of about Rhulan’s height with pointy ears and spiky canary yellow hair with red tips; his cloths may not stand out much amongst the other bar patrons

   As they walk in the bartender turns to them, “sorry ladies no un-licensed whores allowed in the bar.”

    “Excuse me.” says Rhulan with a tone that could freeze water.

    “If you want work you’ll, eeegh!”

    In the blink of an eye Rhulan has pulled him over the bar by his throat and is dangling him in the air. Several patrons rise and pull their guns.

    “You’re going to want to let Hothar down lady.” says one particularly scruffy man with a six chambered revolver.

    Betty says, “I don’t think so,” he turns to see her red gun turned on him and her blue gun turned on his friend, “Your bartender just insulted us, now where I come from he’d have been dragged away and put in chains already for accusing nice girls like us of being prostitutes.”

    Cata walks up to the dangling bartender.

    *rrrrr*

    “Do I look like a hooker to you human?” she growls

   He shakes his head.

   Rhulan drops him with an *oomph*

   “we have business to discuss with one of your patrons, this trouble is your own doing fool, anyone who could mistake a pair of sorceresses, a gun fighter and a swords-woman for whores is truly a fool deserving no better treatment than a snarling beast.”

    Hollia has in the commotion walked over to Gold Wolf who has been ignoring the commotion.

    “Hold up!” yells the man with the gun, “It aint over, this crazy bitch has a toy pointed at my head if you think..”

   *slam, crash!*

   In the blink of an eye Rhulan has picked him up and tossed him into the mirror behind the bar like a rag doll.

   “Enough!” she says, “Any longer in this testosterone infested nest of apes and I might hurt someone. Gold Wolf!”

     Even before she said his name the man known as Gold Wolf had raised his eyes to check out the commotion, terms like “toy gun” and the sound of a man being thrown into glass can grab the attention of anyone. Bars like this have fights every other night or so, and sometimes women wander in get insulted and leave, or sometimes are genuine prostitutes who were looking for drunken Johns. It happens around here. But this wasn’t normal.

    He looks up and the first thing he sees is Hollia, he had seen images of her before sent to him by his sister Jasma, and was told about her dragon like familiar now sitting on her shoulders. He looks past her and sees the other man backing down to his seat as Betty puts her guns away.

    He stands and freezes as he sees Rhulan.

    “What the hell?” he thinks, “is that?”

   He shakes his head, “Look twice dummy,” he thinks to himself, “that’s not her. This lady’s taller than you are, plus look at that hair and…”

    Rhulan stands before him with her arms crossed, “So you’re Hollia’s uncle,” she says, “Fine then, please lead us to your room before I’m forced to burn this ridiculous inn to the ground.”

    “Please excuse Miss Rhulan uncle,” says Hollia bowing to Gold Wolf, “We have never gone anywhere where the people were so…rude…before.”

    “Now see here!” yells the bartender who shuts up and ducks behind the bar as Rhulan turns her head to him.

    As they leave, Rhulan in the rear with Gold Wolf leading them to his room Rhulan passes her palm with violet wisps flowing from it over the table. After they have left and he has picked the shaken man from the floor she tossed back there the bartender sees a raised message from the wood of the bar.

    [If you speak to us again before we leave I will come back in the night and crush your head in my hand.]

    A man in a head and body concealing cloak who had been sitting in the back of the bar looking to any casual observer like part of the drapes of the dark dingy place gets up and walks up to them.

   “You would do well to heed that warning,” says the man in a deep grinding mechanical voice, “those people had some very strange energy signatures, any one of them could level this place and not even be phased by it.”

    He leaves the bar.

    “Now hold on!” yells the friend of the man who was thrown, rushing out the bar.

    Outside no one is to be seen, the stranger has just vanished.

    “I don’t care,” says the man pulling out his gun.

   “Put it away,” says Hothar, “Damn it Higgs, I don’t need some crazy sorceress sending some golem or what ever after me. My brother keeps telling me to just put a sign up saying no women allowed in the bar area. Figured scaring them off worked better, they tell a few friends and those friends tell a few and bam no more.”

    He gestures at the broken glass and the shaken man, “Damn sign would have cost me a hell of a lot less than fixing this mirror Higgs. And look what she did to the bar. I’m going to have to get the top replaced, crazy broad did that with her hand in a second, imagine if she had done that when holding onto Garfield here, she’d have turned his ribs into a sign post. No you two better forget about her, besides sounds like they’re just passing through, and if they take that Gold Wolf guy with them then all the better.”

    Higgs and Garfield exchange looks, they hadn’t even realized Gold Wolf had left with them, they remember the day the man first came to town, he had tossed them both around like rag dolls and even caught their bullets in mid-air when they mistook him for a bounty. They just meant to wound him, but he caught the bullets and threw them back fast enough to wing them; and then throw them both through a window. A rather tense night for them seeing him at the bar that night, but he just ignored them.

    *pop*

    Garfield pops his neck, “Got a point there Hothar ole pal, Higgs, remember if there’s no money in it, don’t bother.”

    Higgs grumbles and sits back down.

   “Not so fast,” says Hothar, “you two helped make the mess you’re going to help clean
it up.”

   As they get up Higgs whispers to Garfield, “but he’s the one who called them whores we were just…”

    Garfield shushes him and shakes his head, “Just do it or he might call us on our tabs.”

    ******

    “Okay,” says Gold Wolf picking up a single small pack in the otherwise untouched room, “That whole episode aside down stairs leaving this town should be nice and simple. I secured us some cyber-horses; the stable is just up the street from here.”

    He turns to Rhulan, “Now, Rhulan was it? I understand you carry around a pocket dimension or something in your cape where you keep the travel supplies?”

    “Yes,” says Rhulan reaching into the darkness of her cape and pulling out a spoon, which she promptly puts back.

    Gold Wolf raises an eyebrow, “Okay, my sis sent me a letter about that so we at least got to save some money on a wagon. A group of travelers on horse back with out a wagon will look odd but at least it won’t attract too many bandits. Okay let’s go.”

    They are already out the door. The group in the bar tries not to look as they leave.

     “Hothar,” whispers Higgs to Garfield, “should have known better, look at them broads, one of ‘ems a cat for the goddess’s sake.”

    ******

    The smell of horses and hay, at least that’s what most of them were expecting. Stratalia has horse stables, both for traveling merchants who brought their own horses along, and for training adventurers and sorcerers and the like to ride as it’s a skill that will likely come up at some point. Cata and Betty too were expecting this smell, both familiar in their own circles with horses; in fact what is actually before them surprises even Rhulan.

    While yes there are stalls with horses in them, if they can even be called as such, these creatures appear to be horses with metal plates on their bodies, over the shoulders, flanks, several with what could have easily been mistaken for armor plates on the heads if not for the eyes giving away their mechanical nature. The mouths however appear organic, as does much of the body of these beasts. They have green cut grass in their troughs; however the atmosphere of this so called stable is more like a mechanic’s shop with grease pits and parts of what could be horse engines and cybernetic parts hanging from the ceiling and on the walls.

    A greasy old man smiles, “Well Gold-Wolf, come to pay for another week’s stay, you know these beauts are yours you know, you could take them anytime.”

    He looks out the corner of his eye in a half smile, “I could also really use the space for assembling a few more.”

    “Don’t worry Shamus,” says Gold-Wolf, “As you can see I have them with me now,” he points behind him at the girls, “so we’ll be taking them now.”

    The old man chuckles, “Good, well they’re all fed, so ladies.” He looks around Gold Wolf, “I followed the man’s instructions to the letter.”

    He lets out a white cyber-horse with silver armor plates.

    Gold Wolf says, “The White one for Hollia, the yellow one for myself, two typical brown ones for Cata and Betty, and…”

    He nods at Shamus who has a wide smile on his face saying, “Ladies, I took great pleasure in building this beauty, heavily armored, heavy resistance to just about anything, and tough as nails.”

   He looks at Rhulan, “I take it this one must be yours then.”

   He pulls back a curtain and a cyber-horse that could have walked out of hell emerges, skin as black as pitch, armor as black as shadow, a head sporting two curved goat like horns, and eyes glowing red.”

    Rhulan walks right up to it and hops on its back, “well,” she says, “are we going or are we going to pause for dramatic effect?”

   Hollia is unsure of the strange beast/contraption; Lin Lin recoils at the white cyber-horse’s snorting.

   “They’re just like horses,” says Gold Wolf, “Only safer, able to walk longer distances and not so prone to being killed by the Aramaki weasels that hide out in the fields around here.”

    Hollia had heard the stories of the animal in her texts back home, a small rodent resembling a fur covered shaggy snake with the head of a weasel rumored to crawl up the noses of horses and eat their brains.

    *Neigh!*

    Everyone looks as Rhulan has her horse on its back legs, its front hooves crashing to the ground in full force shaking the building.

    Rhulan smiles, “well, this certainly makes me look more like an evil sorceress doesn’t it? Hollia hurry up I want to see the contrast between our two rides.”

    Hollia no longer hesitates and leaps onto the back of her horse and rides over next to Rhulan.

    Shamus whistles, “Well, well, well, night and day.”

   He looks at Gold Wolf, “Very artistic wouldn’t you say, you said a dark sorceress and a light one, but didn’t think their outfits would match and contrast so perfectly…not to mention blend with these cyber-horses.”

   He actually claps his hands as Rhulan and Hollia ride out, their capes blanketing the backs of their horses, from the back making them look like a pair of elegant centaurs. Gold wolf, Cata, and Betty follow behind.

    Cata whispers to Betty at the back of the pack, “Well he certainly went all out for those two didn’t he?”

    Betty nods and smiles, “Yeah, I absolutely love these little touches.”

   She puts her finger to her lip, “But….why do we need fake horses again?”

   Hollia speaks up, “Yes, uncle, I must concur, as much as I too am loving your sense of style it does seem a bit over the top doesn’t it?”

    Gold Wolf shrugs, “I already said these are better and they won’t be killed by Aramaki weasels.”

    “Yes I understand uncle,” she says, “I don’t mean to offend you or anything, I am just curious about these horses is all.”

    Rhulan places her blue glowing hand over her mounts head and says, “I sense a mixture of biomancy, golem tech, and…hmmm, Kuhrai technology. Best I can tell from that stall back there, these creatures are common place; it’s probably unlikely your uncle could have found regular horses had he tried, and I agree these likely are better.”

   Rhulan smiles, “Cata, tell us do these things give off a horse scent?”

   Cata sniffs, “No, they don’t have any kind of animal scent really.”

   “Well then,” says Rhulan, “All the better, along the path we need to travel are numerous large predators, some of which such as the Ravashira lion and the Ravashira tiger were known in my day to be vicious horse hunters ignoring men on foot for their horses.”

   She looks at Gold Wolf, “Am I right,”

   He shrugs, “Yeah, sure, they’re just better, and that’s all I need to know. I like my horses not dieing thanks to some weasel.”

   Hollia raises an eyebrow figuring this must have happened to him, and decides it better not to pursue it any further.

    Gold wolf sees the look on Hollia’s face and shakes his head thinking, “Damn it man, like you need to be seen as the quite bad-ass on this team too?”

   He looks up at the sky and realizes they are also going towards the western exit for the town. With a quick snap of his reigns his catches up with Hollia and Rhulan, “Hold on a second.” He says.

    The groups stops, “Okay,” he continues and looks at Hollia saying, “sorry kiddo,” before turning back to everyone else, “I’d rather not get off on the wrong foot here but between paying for that room at the inn, buying these horses, and the cost of keeping them at the stalls I am real close to running out of the local currency. So yeah, I do have a bit of an attitude, my sister tried to explain that long delay you all took, and even sent me some more money, which means I owe her once I can get back to my banks in Diego. So yeah, before we can go west we’re first going to have to go north to Sae-Crita to exchange what money you have for the local currency.”

   He takes out a map showing the Sae kingdom, which surprises Hollia, she had thought it some massive country stretching safely to the Calif Kingdom from which Gold Wolf came; instead it’s very small, made up of only six cities, the capital just a little ways north along the coast line.

    “Yeah,” says Gold wolf, “the only place we can exchange money is at the capital. Luckily these cities all have a mutual protection pact and obey a central government, hence why they’re called a single kingdom. But if we want to make it west we’re going to need more money. I hope there are no problems with that.”

   Rhulan shrugs, “you’re the guide, we’re following you around remember.”

   Hollia looks at Rhulan and back at her uncle with a quizzical look and then at Lin Lin who only cocks her head confused as well.

   Cata eyes the map thinking, “All the towns are fairly close to the shore except for two cities on the edge of the desert.”

   She looks up as Gold Wolf rides ahead of Hollia and Rhulan and smiles as she sees Rhulan eyeing him suspiciously when she doesn’t think anyone is looking. She knows exactly what Rhulan is thinking, “how the hell could this guy be running out of money this badly just as we arrive? This is too convenient. What’s his angle?”

   Or at least that’s what Cata’s experience with pirates has taught her to think, she imagines Betty must be thinking the same thing; then again looking at Betty she appears to be humming some tune to herself.