Wolf's Tail: A LEO Journey

Chapter.5-Somalspire

 I have been wandering around the forest for a good chunk of time now. I think it has been a few days, but I haven't really been paying attention. I have instead been focusing on hunting more deer down. Sometime during my third hunt for deer, my sneak skill leveled up. So now it is level 3.

Also, I finally used my gambler ability and got a completely useless item. I got a light switch. The kind you would find in a house on the wall. Just the switch. There is no wire, no electricity, and no light bulb connected to it!

As I am walking through the forest, a few realizations come to me. One, all the trees look the same after spending some time here. Two, I am completely lost. Three, I should find a city and see if I can find another player and what planet I am on. From the elf village I saw earlier, it looks like this planet might be a low tech, high magic type. Of the beginning planets, Somalspire is the only one like this I can think of. Four, I need to find a pool of water or a mirror so that I can see what I look like. Five, I should change forms so that I can get into a city. As a wolf, I would most likely get attacked on sight.

Of those few realizations, I can only do something about one of them. The others will be able to be solved once I get into a city. I can hear the clopping of horse hoofs somewhere in front of me, so this is a perfect time to go into civilization.

I activate my racial ability, [Shift]. Once again I am wracked with pain as my bones shatter, my fur gets shoved out of my body, and my nerves and muscles get split. The pain is more bearable this time since I know it will be over soon.

Thinking about it, there is no way my pain sensitivity is set to 30% or 50%. It has to be set to 100%. There is no other explanation on why it hurts so much.

The shift ends and I once again find myself naked in the forest. This time, I am not in the middle of a pack of wolves. I open up my inventory and see that my clothes are stored there. I let out a sigh of relief. It would have sucked to not have any clothes when trying to get into a city. People would have thought I was a pervert or something like that.

I put on the cloak, the simple pants, and the shirt before walking around the forest more. I had heard the clopping of horse hoofs somewhere in front of me. From the sound of the hoofs, I'm guessing that there is a road somewhere over there. And where there are roads, there is civilization.

I start to walk towards where I think the road is, slowly making my way through the forest. The sounds of cracking twigs and crunching leaves drives off most of the prey around me as I walk towards the road.

I walked until a large patch of trees that had been cut down came into my view. I adjust my cloak to cover my ears and push my tail up so it looks like I have a droopy backpack on before I walk out into the clearing.

What I thought was a clearing is actually the road cutting its way through the forest to reach the destination. The road is made out of a dark gray gravel and looks well kept, like they redo it every year well kept.

There is no one on the road aside from me. I'm the only traveler around. Glancing up at the sun, I can tell that the road runs north to south. Making up my mind, I quickly start to walk north along the road.

It is about an hour later before anything major happens. The forest had been thinning out as I was walking north, and now I finally see why. Directly in front of me is a massive city. The stone walls rise high enough to be able to keep giants out and look sturdy enough to block a few blows from a chimera. From where I am, just barely out of the forest, I can see a large number of guards walking the ramparts of the city wall. The road leads to a large gate with at least a dozen guards walking around the perimeter. A few citizens are in a line with various carts and animals. Only a few are by themselves like me. Almost all the people here are humans. There are a few elves and humans with collars around their necks following behind one man on a cart. Over the top of the walls, I can just barely see the tops of houses and a massive black castle.

I walk along the road towards the gate with a slight bit of nervousness. Some cities charge fees to enter into while others let you in for free but charge you a great sum to get out of. I should be fine to get into the city if it is the later kind, but if this city was the first, I would be out of luck.

For a second I worry about appearance as I am walking up to the gate of the city. Will they stop me? Will they realize I'm not human and shackle me up like those elves?

I calm myself quickly. I have my ears and tail covered, and aside from those two body parts, I look exactly like a human, I think. I have never actually seen my face after all, so I have no idea if I have some sort of wolfish facial feature too.

The line to get into the city passes quickly before I'm up to the chopping block. Walking up to the guard, I finally realize how short I am. Compared to the guard, I only go up a little past his belly button. This guard like the rest of the guards are wearing a combination of leather and metal armor. They have metal covering the important parts like the face, groin, arms, legs, and their chest. Their faces are all covered up with a thin metal slate with 5 holes in it. 3 around the mouth and two eye holes.

"Little girl, where are your parents? It's not safe to enter a city by yourself." The guard asks as he looks around.

Thinking quickly, I pull on my years of acting in front of NPCs to the front of my mind. I start to let out tears and start crying. With a waver in my speech I start to talk around my 'sobs', "My parents are d-d-dead. I-I-I don't know where else to go. My brothers and s-s-sister s-s-sacrificed themselves so that I could g-get away." I duck my head and keep up the act.

The guard rests his hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. "What attacked your family? I need to know in case an invasion force is one their way. Serias must not fall! If you can tell me, I will let you into the city."

Serias! That is the capital city of the Roshan Empire on planet Somalspire. I know where I am!

Somalspire was the first beginner planet I started on. I know nearly everything about this place. The important NPCs, blackmail, quest givers, safe houses, ways to make money, where to find monsters, and most importantly where to find good loot! This is also the first planet I played on.

The Roshan Empire should be permanent enemies with the Eratros Confederacy. They are born enemies.

Still keeping up the act, I start to describe the basic Eratros troops, "They were wearing some type of l-leather armor. T-t-there was one m-man that had on m-m-metal armor. H-h-h-he killed my mother. She's dead!" I start to 'cry' harder than I had before.

The man looks around at the other guards uncomfortably. "Did the man in metal armor have anything that could Identify him?"

I nod my head while still 'sobbing', "H-h-he had on a crest on the l-left side of his b-breastplate. It l-looked like a dragon twirling around a sword." I decided to tell him what it looked like instead of whose it was. It would be suspicious if a little girl knew crests.

The guard takes his hand off my shoulder. "Those Eratros bastards! To go against a peace treaty like this, they must be seeking death."

The guard opens the gate to let me in. He then stops me as I try to walk into the city by putting his hand on my shoulder. Thinking I'm about to be busted, I turn around to face him. Of course I keep the waterworks going the entire time. "Little girl, do you have a place to stay?"

I nod my head still trying to keep up the act, "My a-a-aunt and u-uncle live here on the west side of the city." I keep the look of relief that I wasn't caught off my face. The creatures here are so well created that they can react to even the slightest of things like tears or winks.

The guard moves his arm and motions me into the city. "If your aunt and uncle have moved or you can not find them, head to the guard house in the city and ask for Daere. She specializes with taking care of children."

I nod my head to the guard, still letting out sobs and tears as I start to walk through the gate. I look back for a second to make sure that was all before heading inside of the city.