Brikard was a city I had spent many months with during an adventure before my imprisonment. The cold majesty of the dragon gates served as a heart-warming reminder of good times as I surveyed the city from atop my hill.

Silently, I smiled at my pitiful semantics. How unnatural of me to be so sentimental. Slowly, I turned back to the picnic blanket.

The little chest of treasures left behind by Alice had been untouched, so I decided to quickly take inventory of my items.

2 light leather vests. Very tough stuff it seemed, most likely enhanced by some hidden sigils.

A pair of Titanate Leggings. Unexpectedly comfortable, very good.

A little cap of some sort. Very endearing. I’m sure it’ll get me all the ladies.

A pistol. Because apparently these deadly little devices had become commonplace in the past ten years. When I had first entered Zexar, the only country with ‘pistolas’ was Lasgard and to be honest, they were rather crude. Slow to fire, heavy, clunky and overall extremely unrefined. Guess I should’ve expected Lasgard to progress this quickly.

Sixteen Bullets. Well…

An elegantly engraved black steel Dagger. Now this I liked. But once again…Why the spider design?

A fake neutral region passport. Very well made. In fact I pretty much can’t tell the difference between this and my original… Maybe…

Finally, a nice heavy coat to cover it all up. Maroon huh? Not my favourite colour, but definitely better than white.

Inventory taken, I tried putting on as much gear on as I could. The remaining leather vest I folded carefully and placed into a makeshift swag I had crafted with the blanket. Lastly, the pistol and bullets…

Conflicted, I sighed at the weapon and stroked it like an inattentive cat.

To be honest, I haven’t had the best of times with these devices. They’re too ruthless, cold-blooded. There’s no mercy in those metallic shells, only gunpowder and lead. It made me sick to see warriors die so undignified on the battlefield, like an animal slaughtered for meat. Where does the thrill of battle go in such a fight? The god of war must be crying at this little piece of invention. But it’s wrong to discriminate, so reluctantly I picked up the gun, popped the first bullet from the chamber and flipped on the safety. After satisfying myself that it had been made safe, I placed it into the swag along with the vest and closed the bag.

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“Line up properly people!” shouted a guard standing at the gate.

The line of merchants and adventurers looking to enter Brikard was ridiculous. Literally thousands of people stood excitedly, chirping away at their friends and partners, overwhelmed by sight of the grand spectacle that was Brikard’s Dragon Gates.

I don’t blame them. My initial reaction was pretty much the same. Once a person realises such grandiose things exists, they come to appreciate how small their existence is in this universe. And surprisingly, the feeling is not as negative as it connotes. Humans are submissive creatures by nature. Subject to envy, greed and lust, they may seem to be rather forward and unabashed in their method. But when faced with a greater power, something they cannot fathom, their true nature reveals itself. That’s why religion exists, why dictatorship is allowed to continue. Because truthfully, humans love to have something in which they can rely on, and more importantly, lay blame on. Of course, just seeing the Brikardian Gates did not allow me to come to this epiphany. That’s thanks to some rather extraordinary experiences that had happened along the way.

Ordinary people aside, the merchants were taking full advantage of the bottleneck in the system, and set up exotic stalls along each sides of the queue. They worked efficiently in correspondence with the guards, so there were no complaints on the city’s end, and they also brought an aesthetic to Brikard which you could see nowhere else on the continent. If I remember correctly, then this unique phenomenon was named by a distant noble, quite appropriately, as the “Dragon’s Tail”.

At day, the “Dragon’s Tail” is a bustling market, filled with the liveliness of adventurers and mercenaries from around the world. A commendable sight by all means, but not very memorable. But real tourists and adventurers don’t come for the day time, but rather the night.

At the setting of the sun, nasty, poisonous insects tend to reign supreme on grass fields like the one on which I stood. But the merchants of Brikard are all more than ready for the onslaught. At the sound of the 8th hour bell, Merchants drop their curtains as one, with each stall having a unique colour to signify their products. And thus the night show begins.

With all but their shopfront covered, the store owners quickly take out their secret weapons against the insect onslaught. Pristanite insect lamps.

Insect lamps are created in multitudes of countries and their colours vary mysteriously from nation to nation, perhaps due to the difference in the chemical make-up of the Pristanite or perhaps the colours represented the nation of their origin. Either way, the array of coloured lights, scattering across the floor of the grass plains paints the image of an oasis within the wilderness, all the while protecting both the stalls and their customers from spiders and mosquitoes alike.

The ground of the “Tail” is further decorated when smaller shop owners form alliances and lay out rare and colourful carpets to protect their territory, while the bigger, more successful stalls naturally attract customers with their twinkling jewels and top-notch armoury. The whole show is then finished when at midnight, the insect lights are joined by the mellow shine of glow flies which luckily are not discouraged, but are rather attracted by the alluring shades of Pristanite.

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For now, I stood within the day time line, overwhelmed by the mass of human bodies which I had forgotten with my time in prison. Vastly different from the dreamy picture I had just painted in my mind, the heat of human bodies and the mixed scents of sweat and perfume concocted a sickening brew which I was forced to taste with every breath. Thankfully, it gave me much incentive on progressing forward, preventing me from being attracted to every stall in the territory. Thus without exception, I took every opportunity to slip by distracted customers and tired adventurers. Until many, many steps later I finally found myself only a few metres from the Brikardian checkpoint.

Here, the crowd here had thinned. But the amount of people was still rather impressive. However, it was enough so that I had become capable of taking a full drawn breath without retching.

Congratulating myself a little, I took time to inspect the intricate stalls that I had so far ignored. It was after all, a life time goal of many to experience the “Dragons Tail”.

“Hey you there! You look like you’d love some swords on that well-toned back of yours young man!” shouted a merchant behind me.

Curious at what the man had to offer, I turned around and looked for the source of the noise. What I found was a young boy jumping and waving spastically in my direction, desperate to capture my attention. Realising I had finally noticed him, he immediately stopped his mad flailing, creating an almost comical transformation effect. Intrigued by his abnormal behaviour, I walked forward and inspected the goods.

“What’s your main branch kiddo?” I asked as I placed my swag on the table.

I had once been a popular patron in Brikard with saved credit in almost every known store in the town. Even in some of the more risqué additions. But that was ten years ago, so even customer loyalty could fail to bridge this gap.

“Main branch’s Black Kitt’s Brotha!” He flashed a toothy grin, “The best gear shop in alla Brikard I’ll tell ya ser!”

“Oh really?” I laughed.

Black Kitties… Perhaps people really do get sentimental after prison, but ever since coming to the city, everything sounds like a fond memory to these ears of mine. I had a good friend at kitties; perhaps he’d kept some credit in my memory. But really, to call his overpriced shop the best gear shop in Brikard…What a joker.

“Say kid, do you have a list of patrons?” I asked, leaning close to the table as I inspected the goods.

“Yessar!” The boy saluted and pointed to a memory stone, “Bobby’s got all the names in the world in this lil’ rock o’ mine!”

“Could you search for Mr. Rachez for me?”

“Sure thing ser!”

I held my breath as I waited for a result, looking on expectantly at ‘Bobby’ as his fingers worked their magic on the magical pebble. Suddenly, his fingers stopped and he looked at me strangely. I knew then that my name had been long erased.

“Ser. I’m sorry but, howdya spell ya name again?” The kid laughed in embarrassment and scratched his head as he bowed an apology.

I quickly waved my hand and lifted his head up. There was no need to apologise. If anything his mistake had given me a new wave of hope.

“Rachez.” I said, “That’s R-A-C-H-E-Z.”

“R-A-C-H-E-Z ser?” The boy reconfirmed.

“Yes, that’s it.”

“Alrightya ser, one patron coming right up!”

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Bobby stood silently with his mouth agape as he read the numbers, leaving me to stand awkwardly in front of the store.

“Anything the matter Bob?” I asked, “Did my name appear?”

At the sound of my voice the kid snapped out of his delusions and came rushing to pander me in customer service.

“Here ser! Some drink to soothe ya throat, you’ve talked too much to meself!” He said as he rushed around grabbing a stool and some Crassberry juice. “A Cremonium Patron such as yerself mustn’t by the mistakes of a plebeian like lil’ Bobby!”

I sat down on the offered chair, confused as to his sudden shift in attitude.

“Cremonium? What’re you talking about?” I asked, sipping at the blood red juice before me.

“Ser! Ya are Mr. Kastri Rachez right?” He jumped excitedly.

I nodded and flipped out my fake passport as proof. The boy took it eagerly.

After staring intently at my identification Bobby returned the document and swung excitedly from side to side.

“Ya’re our biggest customer Mr. Rachez! Over ten thousand in credit at Black Kitt’s! It’s a crazy amount ser!” He giggled, “Are ya perhaps a noble ser?”

His quick assumption had me laughing my heart out, but not without choking on a glass of juice first. Coughing and spitting, I leaned over and supported myself by my knees as I laughed, cried and suffocated at the same time. Bobby saw my predicament and quickly came over with water to drink and a tissue to wipe my face.

When I finally came down minutes later, the crowd had formed a half-circle around Bobby’s stall, curious to see what had happened to me.

“There’s nothing to see here ya peeps!” Bobby shouted at the flood of investigative faces, “Our customer just sucked some juice down the wrong pipe, thatall! Begone peeps!”

At his instigation, the they slowly lost interest and returned to their rampant consumerism.

Turning back to the stall, Bobby tentatively touched my shoulder.

“Ser? Are ya alright?” He asked quietly, kneeling before me to see my face.

“Yeah, I’m fine kid.” I chuckled, my face still red from embarrassment.

“So ser’s not a noble I’m guessing?” Bobby smiled sweetly.

I nodded and pat his head. “No, Ser is not a noble.”

As the boy skipped happily around the stall and returned to his side of the shop, I took a final glance over his products then walked away with a goal in mind. When Bobby finally popped his head above the store counter and spotted me walking towards the entrance of Brikard, he shouted a lively goodbye.

I looked back onto the hyper active kid and couldn’t hold in a chuckle as I shouted back.

“I’ll see you in Brikard!”

“Yes Ser!!”

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Heyo Beeps/Aspiringnewbie here! Umm... If you're wondering about the duel well... I'm just confused as you are. J0nn0 lives in sexy California, I live in the savage Australia. Our times are not matching to say the least. Um... I guess for now I'll just put J0nn0's noodle knight here? -> http://royalroadl.com/fiction/5052 https://aspiringnewbie.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading I guess?

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OH WAIT WAIT! Today is j0nn0's birthday! So when you go over to his novel, leave a nice happy birthday. I'm sure he'll appreciate it immensely. Just don't leave me because his content is better okay? :C

Bye!

If you're confused about the duel, it's all explained here.