The melodic thrum of bells wound its way through street alleys as the cheer from the crowd came to a lull. The regal wave from a figure upon a high balcony was muted again by the roar of onlookers who rejoiced with enthusiasm that seemed boundless. A woman wept in short controlled sniffs close to the alleyway from where our onlooker hid himself. He squinted amid the shadows to deepen his perception of his surroundings. She wore an apron marked with patches of dried dough and flour, her hands trembled as she wiped away a tear with a beige handkerchief.

“Does this mean daddy is coming home?” whimpered a little girl clutched at the folds of her dress.

“Mhm,” she murmured between a snort, “Yes honey”

The onlooker’s eyes shifted away from the woman and peeked around the alley corner out into the vast sunlit plaza beyond. The crowd stretched like the sea as people gathered shoulder to shoulder and clambered to witness an event of significance to them as a people.

Where was he now?

And just what had happened here that moved this crowd to tears?

His eyes darted through the crowd until he found the balcony all their gazes were turned towards.

Who was waving? A monarch?

From the glittered shine and how it reflected the golden light of the sun the figure seemed to be a woman adorned in jewels. Her platinum blonde hair glowing with a halo of sunlight and beside her on each shoulder two men; one in the attire of a general with an enormous mane of hair, another with a crown and scepter.

“They say victory hinged on a single battle at the heart of the red mountain, a hero selflessly sacrificed himself to save the kingdoms from endless war”

Our onlooker narrowed his eyes.

Hero?

Hmph, people sure do like their stories.

His eyes trailed down from the balcony to an open space in the crowd at the center of the plaza. If he was to discover what was going on he would have to push his way closer.

Hmph, but I was just starting to like this alleyway. I mean it has such charming mounds of trash, and tipped over chamber pots. Gotta love medieval worlds…

Sigh.

Yush! I got this.

Shooting out from the alleyway he wound between the clumsy hoofed crowd.

THWOMP THUD THUD

The teary woman from the alley turned towards the alley in a startle. She squinted as a spark of light shone from the alleyway and as an ambient glow of magic dissipated.

THWOMP THWOMP THUD

Stomps and shuffles leapt out towards him as he zigged and zagged to the front of the crowd.

Hrmm, why is it covered in a canvas? Are they unveiling a statue?

“The war” a man said as he stepped forward, his crown glimmering in the light, “Is over!”.

The crowd lit like it was kindling to the fire of his words. Our unlooker tucked back his ears to block out at least a single voice from the ten thousand strong cheer.

Whoa, can these people chill out?

“Yet!” the platinum blonde in the jewelry said with a raised hand, “It was not without sacrifice that we are here today,” the dolled up lady continued, “Our longstanding tradition of peace was almost turned down a road from which it may never have returned due to the acts of my brother Rainal, his lust for power, his quest to make change at any cost, no matter if it damned the realm”

The man with the long mane of hair stepped forward and nodded down at soldiers under his command.

“Quickly the duke said to reveal it” a spindly armed soldier said with a bump of his arm to a rather bored looking and plump comrade, “Right!”.

The air whipped at our onlooker as the canvas piled up close by. The crowd collectively gasped as the stunning sculpture was kissed by the sunlight. The marble bent the light just at the surface, softening its appearance and giving it a sense of warmth and color.

One’s eyes were immediately drawn to the horns of an enormous demon looking down to crush the heroes below. Winding around in the background was a Dragon breathing fire down upon a city, and rising from the earth around the human figures was a many headed snake. Most of the human figures turned to fight the heads of the snake, another pointed at the dragon with his sword, but most captivating of them all was a young man clad in half destroyed dragonscale armor who gazed up at the horned demon with only one eye. The other eye presumably was damaged in the battle. His sword was made of a warm orange stone that was translucent in the sunlight, and it was pointed at the demon’s throat.

“Look, its the Paladin of the Vale!” a woman in the crowd whispered to her husband.

“The poor fella didn’t last long”

“Do you think it really happened the way it was told”

“No chance, it was probably the missing court mage”

“I heard about that as well”

The Queen’s eyes stopped on the woman in the crowd for a moment before suddenly shifting out into the masses. Our onlooker wasn’t quite sure of it, but it appeared the comment had caught her ire, even if only slightly. Why would she care so much about the reputation of the hero?

He listened closely as the king, queen, and duke all recounted stories of each hero, yet really he was just treading water as he waited for them to get to the fate of the mysterious paladin that stood at the center of it all.

“Everything hinged on our survival at the heart of the red mountain. The greatest of all Demons was summoned by the enemy to smite out all hope. Yet, as he bore down on us with all of his might a poor country boy from the vale stood in its way. Enlightened by Calypso he stood as a shield and sword of the realm. In his last moments he sacrificed himself to banish the great beast and send it back to where it came from!”

As the crowd roared, the queen’s eyes hung low, wearied by the memory, “A young man from the vale bravely stood against a demon’s fury. Imagine it for a moment would you. His defiant heart rallying against an unbeatable foe. And despite the odds, he overturned our fate”

A single beaded tear glistened in the sunlight as she forced a smile between swallows of grief.

The queen’s hand trembled as she balled it into a fist and turned to the man beside her to finish.

The onlooker’s eyes locked in on her as she fought to hold back heaving sobs. It was obvious to him that there was more to the story, yet the revelry of the crowd paid it no mind.

“What are you doing here little fella?” a man with a silver tooth said as grinning down at him.

The crowd jousted against one another as they looked down at the onlooker’s innocent little eyes.

“What’s a little puppy doing alone all the way up here? Is he yours?”

“No, must’ve gotten away from its master in the commotion?” a woman said as scurrying her way towards him and kneeling with her hands outstretched, “Come ere!”

PLOMP

The puppy squirmed and wriggled its way out of her grip and shot off into the crowd.

“Dang, it got away!”

“You spooked it!”

“Probably for the best, going back to its owner”

“Normally I’d think you wrong, and it would be trampled, but on a fine day like this, you could be right!”

Huffing and panting from the endless ocean of boots he had to zig zag his way through to find a quiet spot to rest our onlooker ducked into an alleyway.

“Phew,” he thought as he caught his breath, “Puppy form really takes it out of me”

He gazed to each end of the alleyway to check he was alone before shapeshifting into human form.

“Ahhh, that’s better, bigger lungs help a lot” he said in a teenage voice.

With a click of his fingers, magical clothes weaved around his body, and a retractable spear and shield of a wolf hung at his side.

“Seems this place is just recovering from a war, the first in over a thousand years. I wonder why I ended up here of all places” he said as he reached into a magical sack to pull out a small violet crystal tied at the end of a string. Making a hoop with his hands he slipped the necklace on, and stroked it as it hummed under his touch.

“Easy there, easy, I won’t forget why I’m here” he said before letting out a smile and flicking back a bluish grey lock of hair from his eyes.

“Just how many of these worlds are there to search anyway?”

…

The mountain winds punched at the canvas sides of the tent Rose had squeezed into with Mirio. Perhaps she ought to be excited by being so close to his muscled body, that being if she could forget the bloodied rags he wore, which of course she couldn’t. Yet for all hopes of romance, there was something off about Mirio. He disguised it well, but his face had worn a tear or two when she had not been looking upon their descent of the mountain. As large and capable as he was to her, inside he was more fragile than a halfling child, wounded perhaps by an enduring loneliness that had crept into his very being and wrapped itself into his soul like a weed among ancient stone.

She dared not fantasize that a warm touch could cool its bind. Though her breath couldn’t help but caress the contours of his muscled back. With a body as hardened as steel, the kind of lean muscle that was built to endure hardship, he probably didn’t even notice her there. In a way even the allure of his muscles, the tone along his back, were scars. Invisible to those who didn’t care to notice, but there to see for those who didn’t turn a blind eye.

She wondered how Mirio looked before he lost his eye, was he as handsome as she imagined, though it didn’t matter now.

“Are you okay back there?” Mirio purred.

“Uh, yes, I’m okay”

“Sorry for crowding your tent night after night, again, I’m grateful for your help”

“It’s fine really”

“You are a good person Rose”

“Mhm, I try to be”

…

The village of Tier was split into its two halves in the first decade after the cataclysm. The river was sculpted by dragonfire and over the millennia the once rough obsidian had smoothed over as the streams from all the northern ranges collected there.

“You’ll like Tier, its full of song, good stories, and well meaning people from all the northern kingdoms. Halflings like myself, beast folk, the Ilari - please don’t call them smoke skins in town - and even some humans like yourself”

“Come on, let it go, I told you I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m actually looking forward to meeting the Ilari and discovering more about their culture”

“Uhuh, sure you aren’t just saying that to make yourself seem like a man of the world? Less like a southerner”

“Hey, come on, tease me any harder and I’ll shatter into a thousand tiny pieces. Screw it, I’m pleading with you now, tell me about the food”

“Haha, alright alright, the food is amazing amazing. In the halfling corners we might not have all the spices and special ways of preparation the Ilari have but, every meal is made with heart”

“Not actual heart I hope”

“What!? Ah, no! Haha, you’ve been in the abyss too long!”

“True, monster heart tastes like if a flavorless lemon peel was doused in acid, just in case you were curious”

“I wasn’t! Yuck” she said with a scrunched up nose, “but don’t worry our food is gonna get you back on your feet in no time”

Mirio took a moment before rounding the last corner to let out a soft sigh.

“That’d be a dream”

He felt that he was prepared now to allow himself a moment of peace, and rounded the corner with an open mind, and willingness to accept a new path in his life as he journeyed forward.

As he rounded the edge of the pass he froze in place.

“You call this a village?” he clammered.

The black river stretched several hundred paces wide, and along each bank ran houses stretching further than he could see. Most of it was residential but there were also sprawling castle fortifications upon the top of a raised hill platform.

“Well, it used to be anyway, we kept the name by tradition”

“It’s huge!”

“It used to be the hub of civilization after the cataclysm. First the town needed room for dignitaries, then their retinue, then nobility, royalty and all matter of people who followed them”

“What the hell…”

After passing through the mountain gateway the streets were wide and sparsely populated. It didn’t feel like a city within the walls, but rather a sprawling residential area. As the northern winds blew behind him from the mountain tops, fruit trees rustled in circular parks nested between groups of houses. The shrieks and laughter of children held in the air as warming scents of well tended flowerbeds filled the air with a gorgeous aroma. It was a warm configuration; spacious, careful consideration taken to preserve grass areas, fruiting trees and wide streets for children to play in. Each alcove of houses circled their own parks, and residents sat upon their porches to watch their children play.

“I hear the south is all smashed together, but in the north we like to build with how we want to live kept in mind,” Rose said with pride.

After they had passed several dozen alcoves they arrived at an extended longhouse, large enough to enclose an entire alcove itself. Stepping inside he was greeted by the hustle and bustle of multicultural conversations, as beast folk laughed with human and halfling alike.

THUD

Skin as soft as silk pushed up against him like a ripe fruit. A woman’s ruby red eyes grasped onto Mirio’s own. Caught in her gaze his peripheral vision was left to put together the rest of her. Her purple skin was adorned with smokey stripes of darker pigment that felt warm to his touch.

“Sorry” she whispered with a soothing melody holding firm in her voice. Her hair pulled back in elaborate weaving braids and whirling into a braided spiral buns.

“It’s fine,” Mirio replied with a smile in his eye.

“Such an unfortunate scar for such a beautiful young man” the woman said as she caressed the back of her fingertips along his cheekbones, “and your accent isn’t of the north”.

“I uh, just arrived”

“Hrmm,” she murmured as weaving gently side to side to sense Mirio’s deeper motives, “Your muscles underneath these rags speak loudly of a story. A story of a strength in you, a depth of your soul”.

“Stop” Rose said as she tugged on his finger, “Don’t let the first ilari you see charm you, don’t be that guy”

“Uh” Mirio stammered.

“I’m sorry my good lady, may the day be with you” Rose said with a smile as winching tighter onto Mirio’s fingertip.

“Ouch!”

“Peace be with you” the beautiful ilari woman replied with a courteous wave of her hand.

Rose tugged Mirio behind her to the halfling corner, with a noticeable change in her pace, holding her tongue until they were seated at a quaint table made for all sizes.

Crossing her legs one way, then impatiently crossing them the other, it wasn’t too long before she turned away from Mirio and let out a sigh.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No… Just, nevermind, I’m used to it”

“Used to what?”

“Ever since I was little, I used to think that one day, maybe I’d grow silken hair, and be as beautiful as the ilari, or the sorceress. Yet that isn’t the lot of us halfling folk. We are seen like children, ridiculed, told where we can’t go because we aren’t tall enough. I don’t mind it most of the time, but the ilari can just walk around, bump into a man and have him tongue tied. If I was twice as tall and had silken hair, guys would be all over me too you know!”

“Oh come on, are you jealous?”

“I’m not jealous!” she said in a huff, “It just not easy when you make it that obvious”

“Hey, don’t you think you are taking it a bit too far”

“Hrmm, maybe you are telling the truth, but what was that then?”

“Maybe you have a point actually, I was caught up in her charms, and I get how it could appear from your view, but you really shouldn’t make demands of people to react to things the way you wish them to it defeats the purpose of people choosing what they do when they do” Mirio replied.

“What do you mean?” she said with a scowl.

“Well, the prize of a person’s attention shouldn’t be something you feel is yours by right, but something you respect as an expression of their free will, a way they seek hope and light in the world, not something to condemn, or to ever crush because of your own doubt”

“Am I that obvious… I didn’t mean to push, just those ilari. They get everything they want”

Mirio nodded and then turned towards a halfling waitress searching for a table to serve and flicked two fingers in a salute.

“What can I get ya, you big lug, maybe I could get you a whole pot of potatoes and throw in the sack they came in to help you cover up?”

“If you could actually”

“I jest silly, we don’t have sacks that big. For you I recommend the special pot pie, it comes with a side of warming vegetable broth, great for an ailing soul”

Rose paused for a moment, “Hrmm, you know, I have grown used to you being shirtless but she brings up a good point, we need to get you clothes if only to protect my sanity from these ilari harlots pouncing upon you… Oh and two pot pies thanks!”

“Wait where are you going?” Mirio said as reaching out towards Rose as she hopped up and scurried her way through the crowd towards some of the market stalls.

“Uh, what she said then I guess” he said to the waitress.

“Right, I’ll get Bron to whip it right up for yuh, extra large serving for you I’m guessing?”

“You got it, and oh and do you have any jelly? For my companion”

“She has a sweet tooth does she?”

“Something like that” he replied with a beaming grin.

…

“Did you hear, apparently they quelled the uprising in the south?” a halfling with a puffy hat said to a broad shouldered camel-man.

“Word travels slow from the south, might be back at war by now” the camel grumbled.

“Do you think? We haven’t had a war in over a thousand years, surely it isn’t that ready to start up again”

“Do you really think there hasn’t been a war in all that time? It isn’t that there aren’t wars, its just that they have learned better how to hide them”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you think the kingdoms spend half their fortune on their court of spies and informants?”

“To keep the peace?”

“No, to battle for their ends to be served without risking being crushed by the mob”

Mirio’s ear turned toward the conversation.

So they had managed to stop the war? It was good to know he hadn’t been cast into oblivion for nothing, yet, the thought didn’t bring him all that much peace. People being used and disposed of for any purpose didn’t seem a polite thing to justify by tacking on the end “they did it for the rest of us”. What nonsense it was… He had only fought for what he fought for because it meant staying true to a man he could become. In a way it was selfish, a desire to just live as he wanted to rather than live as he ought to. Funny how these things twist and turn to serve narratives that make it appear like good acts only come from self sacrifice.

Rose thrust herself into view with a shining grin and thumped a heap of clothes as large as her onto the table, “There!”.

“Haha, thanks a bunch” he said as he whipped a shirt from the pile, wriggled out of his rags and slid into it. Rose gazed off to the side carefully scanning the ilari corner of the market for competition.

“Oh, I ordered you some dessert too, I hope you have a sweet tooth” he said as he did the last adjustments to the fit.

“Do I ever!”

Plonk PLONK Plink

As the plates slid onto the table one by one Rose’s cheeky smile dropped into a deathly gaze up at Mirio.

“Jelly huh? Why jelly… Oh so funny”

“Ooh its big, lemme take a bite” Mirio said as he picked up a spoon and grabbed a scoop,

“Ey! Nuh uh!” she said as she saber rattled with her own spoon to steal back the bite.

“Sorry” he garbled between chews after snatching the jelly from the mid air with his fingertips, “Someone had to poke holes in what you just said before”

“You were meant to say I’m beautiful, not offend me with sweets” she said as she stabbed her spoon into the desert and took a bite of her own.

“Well, at least you can take a joke better than that ilari girl right?”

“Hrmm” Rose replied as narrowing her eyes, “There is another side to you isn’t there, you act all mysterious, but really you are also a massive dope”

“Yup!” he chirped back with glee.

…

Ruby red eyes encircled Rose and Mirio as they clashed over their dinner fighting to steal bites of each other’s food. Behind a burgundy hood the ilari woman bit onto a strand of her silken hair and then let it slip down the edge of her lips.

“Time to start the show”

TAP TAP TAP

FWOCK

The crowd roared into a commotion as the woman shone in a display of colored light. The cloak fluttered down after it was whipped off the edge of the stage. High above them she towered like a force as the rapid beat of drums behind her amplified her gaze.

With a thrust of her chest the flickers of music strummed up by her magic filled the air of the gathering hall.