Chapter 8: A City

  “It always amazes me when I see this shit.” The scar-faced new ‘boss’ of the caravan was holding a coffee mug and sipping some pin water occasionally. He looked up past the huge line of carriages, wagons and gathered masses. There was a huge wall, at least a hundred meters high and stretching as far as I could see to the north and south. The wall was made of stone, with some huge guard towers that reached up even higher than the wall itself. It looked really old and weathered though. There were lots of pces that were covered with green vines, moss, et cetera. A few areas had actually colpsed partially, though it was rare. Most of the ancient wall was still intact.

  “Why would they build something like this?” Tamarah asked, “Wouldn’t it have been easier to build the wall between the mountains to keep the savages out?”

  “They didn’t build the wall to stop the savages, Tammy.” The man smiled wryly and rubbed his scarred cheek with his left hand, “Legends say that thousands of years ago, these mountains were filled with monsters.”

  “Is there another wall on the other side?” The little girl pointed at the mostly gray and green wall.

  “Of course not.” The dude, whose name is Tommy by the way, scoffed at the idea: “Those savages would never have been as powerful as our ancestors. Besides, the oceans back then were filled with sea monsters and Devils. They didn’t have the Holy Mother’s protection, so their civilization was completely destroyed. It was pretty bad on the East Coast too, but we survived. We kept the purity of our race and our families intact, while they were ravaged and defiled over and over again.”

  “Wow, it’s amazing they even exist anymore.” Tammy giggled, “I feel bad for the stupid savages.”

  “Don’t feel bad.” Tommy sneered, “They deserve far worse. Trust me on that.”

  I looked at the group of people gathered in front of ‘our’ wagon and noticed that they were mostly Caucasian. Blondes, gingers, but also brown hair and dark eyes. There were also a few Asians here and there, but it is true that they seemed… Well, they congregated together based on physical appearance a lot. Not a particurly strange situation, I mean, humans are always like that.

  There were a few groups of dark and light skinned humans together though. If it was based on one of my stories, then it wouldn’t be surprising if the ‘other races’ were literally like Orcs, Elves or Furries. Maybe I’m on the wrong side of the Wall?

  “Are there still monsters in the mountains?” The little girl asked what I wanted to know.

  “Only some wild animals. People are always ciming to see Bigfoot or Gremlins and Goblins, but aside from normal beasts… Humans are always going to be the most dangerous monsters you encounter in this world.” Tommy took another sip of water and expined, “Don’t get me wrong. If you come across a bear or a mountain lion alone in the woods, you’ll wish you met a Bigfoot instead. And if you meet Mountain Men… Well, just hope you’re never that unlucky.”

  “What about dragons?” The moment she said that, I felt my butthole clench and a shiver down my spine again! But ultimately, they didn’t look back at me and the past few days they definitely didn’t see me. I’m pretty damn stealthy, okay?

  We are illusive.

  “Dragons?” He took another sip of water and looked up at the sky where there were some small bird-like shadows off in the distance. He chuckled and shook his head, “Wild Dragons are extinct. Or at least that’s the official story.”

  “So Wild Dragons really exist? Papa always said that he saw a wild dragon in the mountains when he was a boy.” Tamarah teared up when she mentioned her father and hugged her big brother’s muscur right arm, wiping her eyes on his shoulder. The dude was wearing a red and white fnnel shirt. I’m honestly totally confused about the time period or technological level of this world.

  “The world is so big and the Empire can’t really hunt down every single Wild Dragon everywhere. That’d be ridiculous.” Tommy sneered and looked over at the noisy people up ahead of their caravan, “Just be careful not to spread this ‘disinformation’, Sis. Officially there aren’t any Wild Dragons. Only the Royals have Dragons now.”

  “Mnnhmmn…” She nodded against his shoulder and sniffled, “I know. I’ll be careful. I’m not a kid anymore.”

  “You’ll always be a kid to me. Just like your sister.” He sighed dramatically and drank the rest of his water, “Anyway, now I gotta piss. Tell Ali to get her ass up here and take over.”

  “I can do it!” The little girl retorted.

  “And if somebody suddenly comes over to do an inspection, can you handle that?” He rolled his blue eyes and patted the little girl on her head, “Don’t worry. I know you’re a ‘grown up’ now. But people still respect age. Until you’re at least 18, nobody is going to treat you as anything aside from a child. And if they do treat you like a real adult, then you need to be even more cautious around them… Because those are the ones that will hurt you the most.”

  “I’m not stupid.” She stuck out her tongue and giggled, pushing her brother away so he could go find a bush nearby to piss behind. We weren’t on a paved road, but it was a dirt road at least. I could see paved roads up ahead though.

  We were basically in the suburbs now. There were small houses here and there in the distance, some farmnd, plenty of trees… I wanted to get a better view, so I fpped my wings and soared up into the air. Not too worried about drawing any attention. There were crows and ravens around, along with other dark-feathered birds. No dragons or flying lizards, but nobody was really looking for them either. They were apparently ‘extinct’ outside of domesticated pets or war beasts, not sure yet. Didn’t overhear much talk of dragons yet. But they do exist.

  I’m not the only Dragon in this world. Thank God. I didn’t wanna be the only Dragon. Even if it would be cool, it would also be kinda lonely. Okay, maybe I just really wanna fuck a dragon? Who wouldn’t wanna fuck a dragon? It’s not even weird anymore, okay?

  “It’s kinda cold up here.” I could stand the cold, but it didn’t mean it was comfortable. This is basically just on the outskirts of the mountain range too. When we got further inside, it’d be even colder. Assuming we were headed deep inside… Which we weren’t.

  We don’t need to keep following those humans.

  “I know that.” I know it, but I feel slightly attached to them now. They’re named characters now for fuck’s sake. Tammy, Tommy and Ali. Three siblings, just like me and my brothers, except that I only saw my older brother a handful of times in my st life and my younger brother moved away and I barely saw him after we were adults…

  “It looks like…” I raised an eyebrow as I saw behind that huge wall. There were smaller, newer castles, keeps, whatever you wanna call them. Surrounded by vilges and towns. The higher I went, the smaller everything seemed. But that wall stretched on for as far as I could see. So did the mountains. I soared between the valleys and didn’t notice any dimensional shifts or anti-air missiles. There were a lot of really fucking huge birds though. Like so big that I wouldn’t be surprised if they preyed on humans. But they still just looked like normal hawks and eagles, nothing too crazy. They didn’t bother me either. At least not yet.

  Keep going?

  “I mean…” I looked back towards the wall. Specifically where I left Tommy’s caravan. Nobody actually manned the wall itself, but the ‘small’ walls of the castle were manned, there were also siege weapons set up like trebuchets and ballistas on the towers. They were prepared for war, which was interesting.

  I wanted to see more. To explore and investigate. Following around some random merchants wasn’t going to accomplish much. Also, it’s not like I was their friend. I didn’t talk to them, they didn’t know I existed. So why do I care about them at all?

  “I get attached to people way too easily.” But I can also cut them off just as easily.

  There was nothing to cut off. They didn’t even know we existed.

  “Anyway, let’s see…” I flew down above the city and got a closer view. There was a big open space in front of the giant keep. A bunch of people had market stalls set up around that area. A massive white cathedral was over on the northwestern corner of town. There was also an open space around that area. With some pretty gardens, but also some graveyards and mausoleums, along with other, smaller churches and temples. The biggest one was actually pretty simple looking. It was one of the smaller ones that had the naked, crucified octopus-headed woman on top.

  If this ‘Empire’ is a multi-religion country, then that’s kinda interesting. Also scary. Because it means that there are multiple Deities backing a single Empire… Then again, if they’re anything like the ones I wrote about in my stories, then I doubt it really matters. Those fuckers will destroy and/or create Empires on a whim. Wars are just fun little games for them.

  “The good news is that if there’s more than one God, then it won’t be as easy for them to fuck with me.” At least that’s how it worked in my stories. Because the various Gods would be stuck fucking around with each other than focus on one person or thing. They might have dozens or hundreds of Avatars, spread across various worlds. Even if they focus on one world at a time, it’s still not their main focus. They also usually avoid blowing up pnets and crazy shit like that.

  “Maybe I should be more concerned about the fact that they ‘hunted’ all the Wild Dragons to extinction?” I was effectively a ‘Wild Dragon’ after all…

  I swooped down and nded on the roof of a super tall stone building. Down below was that central square. Not really a square though, more like an octagon. But it was a wide open area where people were milling about. Thousands of them, some were pying music and dancing. Maybe some kinda festival? I saw some people dressed up in colorful outfits with snake masks on their heads. In the center of the square was a massive statue of a wyvern. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that ridiculously rge. Maybe two storeys high.

  I say Wyvern instead of Dragon, because it had two big feathered wings like a bird. The body was lizard-like to a certain extent, with a long, serpentine neck. The head had a lot of jagged and scary horns, the back had spines sticking out, while the tail was also long and snake-like. A typical Wyvern, aside from the feathers on the wings. It wasn’t particurly strange either. Feathers make it much easier to fly in general. I’d definitely like some fuckin feathers if I had a choice, because I’m afraid I might not even be able to fly once my body reaches a certain size.

  Then again, it would be weird if any living creature the size of a house could fly by fpping some big-ass wings. At most, they could probably glide down from mountains or something. Which is fine too, I can live with only being able to glide in the future. At least it’s better than being a boring human again.

  Besides, as long as I can survive long enough and technology reaches a certain point, it’ll be kinda irrelevant whether I can fly or not. Not like I’ll be able to compete with ballistic missiles and fighter jets anyway.

  “Seems peaceful enough.” I noticed that the city felt surprisingly normal. Not too depressing or chaotic. Just kinda neutral. With a big festival happening, it wasn’t exactly quiet or serene, but I didn’t notice anything too fucked up happening on the surface. Then again, I was up on a tall building and looking down at them like they were ants. Not the gigantic people who were many times rger than my own tiny body. Maybe right after this group dance session, they’ll sacrifice their first born kids to some evil gods?

  Unlikely.

  “Yeah. Probably not.” I snickered and shook my head. I still didn’t even know what this ‘Empire’ was actually called yet. I didn’t know a lot of things. I don’t even know whether this is an alternate Earth or some other entirely different pnet. I have no idea what the continent I’m on looks like yet.

  “I wonder if there’s a library around here somewhere?” I hopped off the edge of the ft roof and glided over the pza, fpping my wings a few times to gain some altitude. I scanned the area for a few minutes before heading off to different parts of the castle-city. There was a big-ass wall on the eastern side, so it was probably pretty dark during the mornings, however it was midday, so that wasn’t a problem I needed to worry about.

  “Is that a hospital?” I couldn’t tell if it was another cathedral, a school, a hospital, or some governmental building. Maybe even the library I was looking for… It reminded me of home to be honest. All these brick townhouses everywhere, huge stone churches on every other block, or things that used to be schools and churches but were repurposed ter.

  In the end, just like back in my old life… I didn’t actually go inside of any of them. I lived near a massive library and walked past there every other day. Never went inside. Lived near countless churches, not that I was religious, but I still could’ve checked them out. I was even invited to some churches before by women… Never went.

  I kinda regret it, but things are a little bit different now.

  “They might not notice me out here, but I don’t feel like getting a bounty pced on my ass this early in my second life.” I mean, it wasn’t really that big of a deal. I’ll figure it out sooner or ter. For now, I’m just gonna… Get away from all these damn people. Before someone sees me and makes a big deal out of it.

  Dragons are apparently real and very important in this world. At the very least, there’s probably a monetary incentive for people to report my existence. Even if Tommy said that they were censoring the news that ‘Wild Dragons’ exist.