Chapter 6: The Village

Noble:

The soft rays of dawn woke me. As quietly as I could I walked around and stretched, the others were still sound asleep swaddled in their fur lined sleeping bags.

In the uneven dawn light to see by and a brisk breeze to keep me awake I jog a few laps around the clearing and did my routine exercise by the time I was finished my body was covered in a sheen of sweat the sun was out in full force it’s heat even this early in the morning beat down upon me and that the others were starting to wake up.

Looking down at myself and my garb I had to admit I looked worse even then I’d previously thought crude kilt, boots, Sleeved shirt and hooded poncho cloak thing. The furs where dappled in browns greys blacks and whites lending it an almost camouflage like property ruined by the dark red-brown blood stains covering almost every inch of it whether from when I slew the wolves themselves or the small game I’ve hunted in the close vicinity… plus the lack of any water so far I had resorted to drinking the blood of my kills lending a red tint to my lower face. Looking at my refection in a mirror Holly Had lent me along with a magically sharpening and sterilising razor lent by Allan. I stripped down to my waist and for the first time in the last few days since I had gotten myself wearable clothes I was once again exposed to the elements.

In the small mirrors reflection a saw the others see me strip business as usual before as one a few seconds later they took a second look and stopped trying to start a fire and came over to me. They stared without a hint of guile at the continuation of the burn wound on my head. It covered much of the left side of my back and stopped just short of my waist ‘whatever magical enchant was on the shell that hit me it really did a number on me. It’s healing yes; but much too slow compared to my usual rate.’

Their eyes stared entrapped by the constant swirling of the scar tissue. The area growing ever smaller and closer in appearance to my natural skin colour every moment. “duuuude” Holly exclaimed,” I’m a half decent bio-mancer and I’ve never seen anything like that!” ‘Ha wait until you see this’. Putting down the hand mirror with half my face clean shaven the over covered in a white foam. I turned towards them and as one their eyes were immediately drawn to my right arm or lack thereof.

Where my right arm used to reside a limb no human was born with extended from my torso to my fingertips. My original arm was long lost to time and curiously never to heal had been replaced by what at the peak of the Golden Age had been and ancient but tried and true cybernetic arm. It had traded all attempts to be fancy or have cool features like concealing a gun or shooting lightning for absolute rugged reliability and multiple redundant systems. Honestly the only feature it had was returning some crude semblance of sensory information via touch.

The arm itself had over the millennia been completely stripped of paint the different metals, alloys, ceramics and other materials. The original colours showing.

The top cover assembly was a deep scratched burgundy while the under assembly was silvery steel with brass fittings the servos and moving parts under a hardened armoured shell gleamed the colour deeply blued gunmetal. The few examples of piping or tubing in the arm was made of a black ballistic material.

This arm had been my constant companion for a long while and it’s human like silhouette made concealing it relatively simple. But here on this new ‘old’ world I guessed concealing it would be of paramount importance.

A after a minute I turned back around and continued shaving they circled around so that they could continue to stare at my arm” honestly guys what is so special about mine? I know with magic you can regenerate whole limbs within a couple of months or get a living element prosthesis than will act exactly like the original all the way down to as good if not better sensory faculties?” Holly looked up from my arm, her icy blue eyes met after a short pause “Magically yes there are all manners of getting your lost limb back but technology that can match up even somewhat comparatively are unheard of” She retorted.

They tried to ask how I did get injured and why the evident healing factor I possessed hadn’t healed the arm I dodged the question because even after all this time I have no idea who or what could have reaped permanent damage to me I just woke up in a crater minus an arm…

Sometime later after the novelty of my arm started to wear off we all sat around the fire as Allen struggled to get the fire going “Need a hand boss?” Gellar mocked, Allen’s dark features creased into a scowl as he continued. After another moment Holly got sick of waiting for breakfast with a snap from her fingers the tepee of sticks erupted in to flames.

It felt great to eat something else than wolf jerky. The bacon, toast and hot tea and coffee had me salivating as soon as I heard and smelt it cooking. Over breakfast the part just shot the shit until it was time to figure out what to do.

“Okay guys!” started Allen catching a short glare from Holly, “and gals, I say we should head back to the village where we picked up our contract for the wolves…” he stopped for a moment before turning his attention to me “ actually what the hell do we call you?” the others promptly chimed in wanting to know.

Sighing ‘well that didn’t last long’ after a moments consideration I once again held my hand out to Allen and said “ thought you’d never ask Roland Noble at your service but everyone just calls me Noble” deciding to stick with the Noble surname just felt right for some reason.

“Well Roland Noble it’s a pleasure to finally know what to call you” Gellar butted in before being told to shut up by Allen.

“As I was saying before I was interrupted” He shot a scowl at his demon companion,” Noble here has enough pelts for proof of completion and we’ll have to get him registered with the Adventures Guild to officially become part of our party”. Everyone chorused their agreement and within half an hour we were trekking through the forest following Gellar.

The demons experience as a ranger really shone through as we hiked along what couldn’t even be called game trails. He had memorised every step of the way to and from the Wood Elf village they have been operating out of. The terrain acted borderline hostile. Every step almost tripped us up and the path behind showed no sign of our passing. It was almost as if the forest itself was alive and erasing all evidence of our existence.

As the sun passed it peak several hour after we set out we came to the village so suddenly it took me a moment to catch on. There had been no indication we were about to enter a fully functioning village in it bustling with activity.

‘How the hell did we not hear them?’ the village was large enough for three maybe four- five hundred to live comfortably. The houses looked as if they were carved out of the trees themselves but closer inspection showed no signs being touched by tools “magic” I muttered u der my breath. They looked completely foreign.

Towering trees larger than anything on Terra stood like planted spears their canopies casting the village into soft shadow. Spiralling staircases wrapped around the monstrous trees and every several meters there was a branch growing out with cosy looking houses growing out of them I stared up in awe.

This sight alone made coming to the world worth it. I followed the party through the village until we reached the centre where one building stood out the log building had two stories and a sign which read ‘Adventures guild, tavern and inn’. Guess we’ve come to our destination.