Unconquered Tower

FORTY-EIGHT

They stumbled upon the walls of the village from one moment to the next. They’d fallen into a comfortable silence after Roan had put Taoya’s manuals in his pack, promising he’d look at them later. It hadn’t taken more than fifteen minutes of walking after that until they’d found it.

Twelve foot tall gray stone walls with crenelations and armed guards patrolling them. Every tree in a hundred feet from the walls had been felled, the grass mowed nearly to the soil. There was no way to hide or walk toward the walls without being seen.

“Well, that’s interesting. Think it’s the saferoom?” Taoya asked as he leaned against a tree, ten feet away from the demarcation line. Roan shrugged and started circling the area without speaking, Taoya following him as they circled the tall walls.

“Those aren’t human guards,” Roan said, looking at the patrolling figures. They were humanoid, but something about them was off. It took a minute but he realized it was a perspective problem. These creatures were too short, their arms and heads too small for a human.

“Yeah. Another variety of mob?” Taoya asked as they reached the far side of the cleared area. Here was a pair of massive wooden gates that worked as the entrance of the area.

“They are,” a voice said from right behind them. Roan spun, instincts screaming at him as he attacked without hesitation. The massive warhammer whistled through the air toward where the voice had come from. Taoya cursed and jumped, leaping ten feet in a burst of light.

Roan’s arms jarred as the warhammer was stopped in its tracks. A furry hand held the trembling weapon without effort. Roan’s eyes were locked on the hand’s owner, a female rabbit-kin who looked decidedly more human than the one who’d welcomed him to the tower.

“That’s not polite,” she said. There was an accent to her voice, something East Coast, maybe Boston? Roan couldn’t decide as his mind ran through everything he knew as he remembered the old rabbit-kin’s words at the entrance of the tower.

“They are not restricted by the tower level. They just can’t stop a climber. But they can defend themselves.” Roan instantly stopped struggling with the hammer, releasing it as the smaller creature smiled widely at him.

“Smarter than most,” she said cheerfully as she dropped the heavy weapon and turned her warm amber eyes toward Taoya.

“That was an impressive leap. But don’t make me chase you. Come here.” She was polite but firm, waving a mostly human hand toward the big man. He walked instantly toward her, bowing at the waist as he got closer.

“Forgive me, you startled me!” Taoya said, not looking up from the ground. The rabbit-kin just laughed and waved her hand in a dismissive motion.

“Don’t worry about it. Now, you have found Village Three, congratulations! I am the Mayor, Sheriff, and all other important positions. This is your saferoom where you can access the market as well as buy services from the mobs. This is my Village and I make the rules. Do you understand?”

“Of course. Your word is law!” Taoya said, still not looking up from the ground.

“I know they’re subservient to the beast-kin as originators of their bloodlines, but this is a bit much.” Roan kept that opinion to himself as he looked over the beast-kin.

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She was tall, nearly his height, and her body was mostly human. Definitely less rabbit-esque than the one who had greeted him. She had a stubby nose that twitched this way and that and long furry ears that came out of her brown hair which looked more like a mane of fur. She wore an armless tunic that was belted around her waist by a thick black belt, showcasing her muscular arms that had a thin layer of fur across them. Human hands though, four fingers and a thumb.

Her lower body looked like it could work as a hydraulic press. She wore some type of clingy tights and Roan could see the bulging muscles through her thighs and calves along with her oversized feet.

“Eyes up here buddy. Grandpa would remove you from existence cell by cell,” she said as she shook her head turning to Taoya.

“I am Ved Buul-Hana. You can call me Mayor Hana. Now the rules. You will be polite, kind, and don’t hurt my mobs. I spent a lot of time programming them and don’t want to have to do that again for a decade or two. You will pay for everything, there will be no stealing in my village. Clear? As for the guards they’ll keep out the weak members of the horde. Anything stronger than that and you are on your own,” Hana said.

“So this isn’t a true saferoom? Things can get in and attack us?” Roan asked.

“They’re programmed to stay away from this area. But it’s not a hard rule. If someone poked out the level guardian’s eye and then started running around, they could lead it here,” Hana said, looking Roan dead in the eyes.

“Thank you for your guidance, Mayor Hana. We will bring our group here,” Taoya said, finally rising from his bow.

“Some of you are already here. I was just making sure that the dragon was rested,” Hana said. She then disappeared. From one blink of the eye to the next she was gone.

“What just happened?” Roan asked, bending down to pick up his hammer. He checked over it and didn’t see any signs of damage. She had managed to catch it like it was nothing. There was a lot of force behind that blow and it hadn’t even bothered the woman to catch it.

“You’re lucky to be alive. If these inhabitants are anything like other tower residents, we’d have to clear at least half a tower before we could compare to the weakest and youngest of them. They grow up and live inside of mana rich environments training constantly to serve the Tower Master.”

“Check the village or go get everyone else?” Roan asked. He didn’t want to think about something that powerful simply walking around without a care in the world.

“Wait a minute, did she say dragon?” Roan finally realized her words.

“It’s definitely some type of dragon. Or modeled after them. From what we’ve discovered, dragons are quite amorous and breed with anything they can. Whatever that thing is, it’s obviously been plenty of generations from the prime draconic material,” Taoya said. He didn’t seem to be disturbed about a dragon being the level guardian.

“And I say we go in and see who else is here and what the village has to offer. Darren is going to want to find the other villages and establish contact with them and I would like a drink and meal before that,” Taoya said with a groan as he rolled his head side to side.

Roan nodded as he was of the same mind. He wanted a hot meal and a shower along with fresh clothes and to go through what the market had to offer for armor. There was also the issue of the multiple manuals he had to go through now and try to start earning the skills.

They walked to the front gates and they opened as the mobs looked over the edge at them. Closer to them he saw there was a delicateness to them that contradicted their armor and spears. Their black eyes lacked any sort of intelligence as they went back to their patrol routes as Roan and Taoya walked into a bustling village built on cobblestone roads.

It looked like someone had pulled a pamphlet of an idyllic village. Each building was made of some sort of plaster with bright red shingles, open windows where smells of baking bread wafted out of. There were flower beds everywhere with every color Roan knew represented. Mobs walked about in stereotypical medieval garb, wearing smocks and tunics with breeches under them. All of them walked with brisk efficiency as they moved from one area to the next without speaking.

“It’s weird, but you get used to it!” Moira said, standing not five feet away from them with a wide smile on her clean face.

“Oh, please tell me there’s a shower,” Taoya said and Moira laughed and nodded as the gates closed behind them.