Chapter 4: Morningstar

Within a few seconds she was gone, he felt good, like he had done something good, the feeling was unexplainable. He took out a folded paper and unfolded it, it was a map, he looked at the top of the map, in aesthetic letters was written Morningstar. It was a map of the lands he roamed, it had gotten its name from a weak second sun that could only clearly been seen in the morning, the morning star. It was a large island, with a forest in the middle resembling the claw of a crab; it was the blue forest where he currently was. In the bottom right corner of the island was a large mountain range, it was where most of the dwarves lived alongside the avian, and just a bit over that was the edge of another, much larger forest, it was often called the great forest. It was divided into several small parts, the largest being where the feline Beasts lived alongside the Elves.

The beasts are an anthromorphic type of race, animals with the qualities of a human, walking straight on the back paws; they talk and are generally the biggest race of Morningstar. There are a lot of different types of Beasts, feline, canid, reptilian and lots of other types. The elves were a fair people, just in their ways, fair in their laws, and peace loving. The Dwarves were a long lived people making their living by selling the ores they mine in their great mines. And the humans live in settlements, towns and villages around Morningstar, however overseas to the north there is a huge city, built with the help of dwarves and humans, it was called Witch Wall and it's a home to many; Beasts, Elves, dwarves, dragons, humans, and all live there in peace. There were more settlements allover Morningstar, he had seen it all.

He folded the map and put it back in his pocket; he turned south-west, towards Aberdale and started walking. After an hour of walking in the forest he could finally start to see the flat grassland that was Aberdale, in the distant he could see the town, and far to the east laid dark wood, where a lot of monsters gathered. He was relatively safe if he stuck of the roads where the bandits roamed. The landscape was scarcely dotted with trees, other than that, it was nearly entirely flat. He continued his journey towards Aberdale; he would be there by the evening.

As the sun had just entered twilight he arrived at Aberdale, to the east was a small mountain, and just north of it, the blue forest, where he met Na T'hel, to the west he could see Dark Wood, it started somewhere north, and ended in the south, the second largest part of the great forest. It is there monsters gathered for unknown reasons, just beyond it was the home of the Elves and the feline Beasts, which will be his next goal, but first he would stay in town and gather supplies and do some small jobs to get more gold.

The walls surrounding Aberdale were tall and made out of wood, they didn't need anything stronger, any attacker could be seen from miles away, and the archers of Aberdale are a force to be reckoned with, they mostly consisted of Dragoons too, which could be an inconvenience to him.

The gates were open, they only closed at night or if something that was perceived as a threat approached. The gate itself was a large wooden door with the mark of the Dragoons, the mark consists of a dragon skull with a sword behind that, with a shield as the background. The gate was framed with iron just for show, by the left side of the gate stood two men, clad in shiny steel armor, and talked, one of them had a great sword on his back, engraved on it was "chief of guard".

The guard pointed at Ramirez, and nodded towards the chief of guard, who then turned around towards Ramirez, he signaled Ramirez to come closer. The chief of guard had a bronze like hair color, and his eyes were blue-grey in color. "Hail, traveler."

Ramirez walked towards the chief of guard who covered his eyes from the shine of the sun.

"What is it?"

The chief of guard lowered his hand, he looked suspiciously at Ramirez.

"The names James..."

"James?"

James, the same name as his childhood friend from Crimson vale, James, the friend he had lost so many years ago. But this man was not him; the James he knew had brown eyes, and dark brown hair.

"Yes, is something wrong?"

He looked confused.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I had a friend with the same name many years ago, what did you want, James?"

Ramirez flushed his thoughts; he would not think of the past, it slowed him down.

"I see, I wanted to ask if you've seen anyone suspicious in the vicinity, he is a minor criminal, have you seen anything?"

Ramirez thought back, he doesn't recall seeing anyone along the way.

"I haven't seen anything or anyone since I left the Blue Forest, sorry."

James sighed of boredom, he can't have much to do during the days, and Aberdale is a peaceful town, not many crimes have been officially reported here.

"Rough day?"

James let up a bit on his posture, he seemed tired of the days were nothing happens.

"Not really, having guard duty in a town like this is no fun, there is little to no crime so days get a bit repetitive and dull after a while, but as chief of guard I have to do my duty. We haven't seen any kind of action in a month now, minus some minor thief's and aggressive drunks."

This town was a quaint little town, not much happened here and most stuck to themselves, and it's quite odd for a town of this size to be so calm, the kind of town where someone could lay low for a while. But there is a reason there is so little crime here, the chief of guard was a revered warrior and former traveler, bards could sing quite a few songs about this man, and Ramirez had heard most of them in his travels.

"James, can I find a cheap inn in this town, and maybe some kind of minor job?"

James looked relieved, just standing around all day, he couldn't take it.

"Well I could show you the way to a nice little inn, it's in the older part of town, not too far."

They walked along the roads of Aberdale, the houses were built using modern methods, such as basic magic and contraptions, todays building methods were outstanding, he couldn't imagine how a world without magic would look like, an interesting thought, but at the same time a bit scary. Some of the houses had two floors, some even three, but the city of Witch Wall apparently had houses with up to five floors, the tallest being six, it was supposed to be quite a sight.

They walked for a short while, talking about the town, of how the building got stopped because of a bandit siege, and how James got the position he have now.

"As you know, I used to be a traveler, a sword for hire, if one can put it such. I traveled the entire Morningstar; I have seen the home of the Elves and Beast, and the great halls of the Dwarves. The only place I haven't seen is the place Dragons reside; I imagine it's quite magnificent."

They talked a bit longer, and the two story houses became fewer and fewer, and the houses started looking older and older, and he saw the familiar sign of an inn.

"Here we are, it's not the cheapest, but it has good quality for low price, the cheaper inns are not worth mentioning."

The inn was the only tall building in the vicinity; it smelled nice, at least.

"Thanks James."

Ramirez stretched his hand towards James to shake his hand, James responded with a firm handshake. As Ramirez turned his back to James, he asked a question.

"I never got your name traveler."

Ramirez turned his head towards James.

"Ramirez, the names Ramirez."

~End of Chapter~