The jungle was thick with trees and vines growing on the ground and hanging from branches made riding difficult. Traveling on our magical steeds was faster than walking, but only just. However, the further south we traveled, the less dense the jungle became and the more light slipped through the tall trees.

Every now and then I looked over my shoulder, half-expecting to see a shaman’s gorilla charging at us, but every time, I was happy to be proved wrong. It looked like the only concern of the Jungle God’s priests was chasing us out of their city, not necessarily inflicting any harm on us. I wondered whether the last part would have been different if we had decided to stay.

After two hours heading south, we reached a clearing in the jungle and decided to take the opportunity to reorient ourselves. We took out the pirate map we had been using and tried to figure out our next steps while eating some fruit.

“It looks like we just have to continue south,” Kai said, “until we exit the jungle and meet this road.” He pointed to a line on the map.

“Let’s try to find a way from Fjalhun back to here,” I suggested, “and then we can decide the best route.”

“You’re right,” Kai replied and moved his finger to the bottom part of the map where Fjalhun was located. “It seems two different lines lead to Snjokomu, the capital. One of them is a road, and the second is this line of squares. What do you think it means?”

“I’m not sure,” I admitted, though I immediately had another idea. “So this road goes up here, along the borders with Fenira, crosses the country through Helian and continues north to reach this place.”

I pointed my finger at a drawing on the map which looked like an inn and was marked as unsafe. On this particular map, of course, this meant unsafe for pirates since this map was one of those we found in the pirate captain’s cabin before reaching Leka An. Being unsafe for pirates, I assumed, meant being safe for us thankfully.

“It looks like an inn and it’s only a few hours south of here,” Kai remarked. “It looks like it’s on a three-way crossroads. One road travels north toward our position, one goes west to Fenira as we saw, and the last continues east to the land of Guldan.”

“The road stops at this city. Ferrumheim.” I started to wonder. “After that, the road is replaced by this line of squares until Tankara, which is the capital of Guldan.”

“After Tankara the line of squares seems to be thicker,” Kai continued, not taking his finger off the map. “It leads down to Snjokomu.”

“It does look like it’s faster, Kai, but I’m not sure if we should go there without knowing what these lines mean.”

“Maybe there’s a river and boats take you there?” Kai asked, hopefully.

“I don’t think this can be a river,” I replied, pointing at the completely straight line of squares. “Rivers make turns. This doesn’t even bend a little.”

“What do you suggest then?” he asked.

“This place here,” I said, pointing at the inn on the crossroads, “looks like a good place to gather information.”

“Can I still be Magaer?” Kai asked with excitement.

“Of course you can!” I said with a smile, glad he was entertained by the story we’d adopted in order to travel without attracting too much unwanted attention. “We are going back home, to Snjokomu, though we haven’t been there for many years. This will be our story in case we need to answer any questions.”

“You mean we’re not going to ask people for information on how to reach the capital of Fjalhun?” he asked, with a puzzled expression on his face.

“I would rather not ask anyone openly,” I admitted. “But, I think that spending some time in whatever common rooms this place has will provide us with the necessary information. And, if it’s not enough, I guess we can ask for directions under the pretense of never having traveled south by ourselves.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kai responded, and followed my lead in standing up.

“It would be good if we could reach the inn before sunset,” I said. “That way, we can gather more information without raising any suspicions by not getting a room.”

“I don’t want to sleep in another room,” Kai exclaimed.

“Neither do I,” I said, and summoned my magical mare once more. “But that’s why people visit inns. So we need to get there early enough to hang around and gather the information we need without having to stay the night.”

“Then let’s get going,” he said, and summoned his own ride as well.

***

The road south was getting easier to navigate by the minute as the jungle began to thin out, but that didn’t mean we were taking it easy. We were both determined to reach the crossroads as soon as possible. This meant that whenever the road became easier to travel upon, we simply prompted our horses to gallop even faster.

Our lunch was very brief and eaten on the side of the road instead of finding somewhere to hide and climbing down into our chest. We tried to save as much time as possible.

Once we reached the main road south, we began encountering all sorts of people traveling east toward Zakara and southwest toward the three-point crossroads. Most of them looked like merchants, some of them with monkey companions. Regardless of their appearance, traveling on a path filled with merchants made me feel safer.

The last time we’d opted for a back road, we’d been kidnapped by the slavers. For that reason, even when we crossed paths with a Leka An patrol, I smiled at them, knowing they kept the pirates off this route.

It wasn’t until sometime in the afternoon that we reached the place marked on the crossroads of our map. It was indeed an inn, called The Rooster Thief. The building itself was wooden on the outside and looked quite large, definitely larger than any tavern I had seen in Nara or Yubna.

On the outskirts of the inn’s fenced perimeter was a small field with numerous vegetables at different stages of sprouting. There was also a smaller building, adjacent to the main one that looked like some kind of warehouse at first, until I heard horses neighing from within it. This had to be the stables in addition to a warehouse or something of the sort for storing food and drinks for the inn.

Once we came closer to the inn’s front, I noticed a gray metal statue next to the stairs leading up to the entrance. It depicted a man posed in a running position with a small sack in his hands. The sack was almost closed, however the head of a rooster could be seen peeking out.

“You kids like the statue, ya?” asked a burly man who was sitting on the porch of the inn.

Name : Jaha Hado

Race : Human

Class : Duelist

Level : 31

His neck was thick and his brown hair was cut much shorter than his long brown mustache and beard. He was wearing a greasy-looking black apron covering simple black pants and a white short-sleeved shirt. His fat fingers looked dirty, with some of the dirt sticking to the small smoking pipe he was holding.

Despite all of this, I took a careful look in his eyes and immediately recognized kindness in there. However, I would not let appearances fool me. Not again.

“It is interesting,” I replied, without leaving too much space for conversation.

“My brother-in-law told me I should have it made,” the man replied, after taking a good inhale of his pipe. “He said that since my inn’s named after the tale, I should have something for people to look at as well, ya?”

“Which tale is that?” Kai asked, before I had time to respond.

“You’ve never heard of the tale of the rooster thief?” the strong-looking man asked. “You must not be from around here, ya? What are you doing in these parts?”

“A tale for a tale?” I said to him with a smile, in an attempt to stall.