Frostbitten Wayfarer

Zoe left Joe’s inn and walked down the street. She wanted to go spend some time at the massive tree house library that she was told about while she was still able to be inside. It was rather late in the evening, but she hoped that the library would be open overnight as well.

When she got to Kaira park, she chose one of the massive trees that surrounded it at random and walked up to the front. There was a massive wooden staircase that looked like it was carved straight out of a single piece of wood that led up to wide open wooden doors at the top.

Zoe walked up the steps to the door and looked inside. The first thing she noticed was the smell. There was a somewhat sweet smell with a hint of what seemed like vanilla that hit her senses at first. Afterwards came the smell of what looked like millions of books.

The entire tree was hollowed out and stretched almost a hundred feet down into the ground and into its vast network of roots. Towering circular bookshelves stretched the entire length of the tree, with hundreds of platforms floating throughout them. The platforms cut through the bookshelves, crossing over each other and making what looked to Zoe like an impossible maze.

To Zoe’s right was a reception desk with a few employees sat behind it. Zoe walked up to them.

“Hello, um, how do I use this library?” She asked the man behind the counter.

“You’re welcome to browse for as long as you like but if you want to take any books from the library you’ll need to bring them here and check them out first.” The man smiled at her.

“Okay, but how do I get to the books? I’m happy to read here but I don’t even know how to get up there.” Zoe pointed up at the bookshelves.

“I see. Give me a moment then, I’ll show you.” The man stood up and walked around the counter. “Follow me.” He gestured forwards.

“The walkways and bookshelves are all enchanted.” He walked on to one of the floating platforms and gestured for her to join him. “What are you looking for?"

“I’m not really sure. Easy to get skills, I guess?” Zoe asked.

“Good. Now keep that in mind, and walk down this platform,” He pointed forwards.

Zoe walked forward, thinking about finding books about easier skills. The platform shifted under her feet and tilted downwards a little to the right. It split off from the part the man was still standing on and Zoe stopped for a moment.

“How long is the library open?” She called to him from her floating platform.

“We’re always open. Knowledge never sleeps.” He smiled.

“Okay, thanks then!” She called out again.

“No problem. Just imagine walking back here when you’re done.” The man said and turned back towards the counter.

Zoe kept walking and the platform seemed to be leading her straight to one of the bookshelves. What a coincidence, she thought, that the books she wanted would be so close to the entrance anyway.

But as she approached it, the bookshelf warped and twisted. The books were pushed aside and the wood opened up just large enough for her to continue walking through it. The bookshelf closed behind her, and she kept walking along the seemingly endless platform.

A few more bookshelves later and the platform stopped. It merged into one of the bookshelves, forming a tall railing on the edge, and a sturdy wooden ladder on wheels that rolled around on the limited platform.

Zoe spent some time browsing through the books the platform had took her to. None of the books were just a compendium of easy to acquire skills, rather the section of bookshelf that she got dropped off at seemed to be about classes that would merge certain skills into them, similar to the Gatherer class and Gathering skill.

From what Zoe gathered, it seemed that most things that she could expect a class for had matching skills that anybody could get. The miner class require the mining skill, the archer class required the archery skill, and so on. She suspected there would be skills for almost any task she could actively learn and improve at.

The next week before summer started, Zoe spent most of her time in the library browsing through the books offered, looking for anything that might help her. When she first learned that these massive trees were libraries, she thought that they would be split up into different genres.

A tree for the alchemical research, a tree for sci-fi fiction, and so on. But while it did seem like there was some degree of organization to where books went, Zoe wasn’t able to figure out exactly what it was. Every time she wanted to find certain books on topics she always ended up at a bookshelf that had hundreds of relevant books. But if she wanted something just a little different, it was a coin flip whether it was on a nearby bookshelf or in a completely different tree.

And for that matter, Zoe wasn’t sure that they were different trees. They all shared the same root system, the platforms sometimes taking her through them to another tree. Rather than being multiple trees, Zoe guessed they would be genetic clones of each other, like massive quaking aspens.

This world’s Pando, she thought.

Most of her time was spent reading books on classes and skills that she might want to unlock. Nothing was quite as in depth as the book she got from John, but they helped her shape her understanding of the world. The rest of the books that she found were on the local political landscape.

With the summer celebration around the corner and the apparent baron of the town preparing to say a few words, Zoe realized she had done herself a disservice not better understanding where she was. A big thing that caused her a twinge of regret was a book on local laws that she found.

For the most part, she didn’t think that she was doing anything wrong. She was keeping her income under the threshold for paying taxes, and knew that she would need to if she ever did make over that amount. She wasn’t stealing or homeless — something defined as sleeping in public places, thankfully.

The only problem was her charm skill which had a very hefty penalty if she was found using it as liberally as she was. But on the other hand, as a low level, Zoe had many protections that kept her safe from retaliation as well. She assumed that it was because people who were level eight or under were always children here, but there was a lot of leniency given to people at her level for accidental skill usage.

On the last night before the big celebration — Barlahai according to one of the books that she read, Zoe made her way down to Joe’s tavern for her last comfortable night of rest. Joe was in the kitchen preparing food — unusual for how late it was.

“Hey Joe,” Zoe said.

“Oh hey Zoe, you ready for tomorrow?” He asked.

“I think so. Do I need anything?” Zoe asked.

“No, no. I’ll be bringing some food to promote the inn but you can just come along and celebrate.” He said.

“Alright. You still got a room for me tonight?” Zoe asked.

“Yup!” He summoned and tossed a room key to her.

“G’night Joe, good luck with the cooking!” Zoe called out and ran up to her bed.

“G’night Zoe!” Zoe heard Joe say as she was rushing up the stairs.

The bed was just as comfortable as she remembered, and she fell asleep within minutes. She was woken up early in the morning to some loud, raucous laughter coming from the inn’s dining area.

Zoe dressed herself for the big day, wearing her nice blue dress. She debated on whether she should bring her bow and knife, but decided it was better to be safe than sorry. There probably wouldn’t be any problems but if there were, leaving her weapons at home seemed like a bad way to go out.

Then she made her way down the stairs to see what was going on and found the dining room was a mess. Food was strewn about on the floor and tables, drinks spilled and colourful paper ribbons covered every table. Dozens of people were dancing about, laughing and drinking their mugs of ale. Joe was behind the bar, smiling at the scene.

“Is this normal?” Zoe asked as she approached Joe at the bar.

“Yeah, it’s Barlahai. Time to celebrate.” He said.

“And celebrating is… getting extremely drunk and partying?” She asked.

“Well, they’re being a little rowdy. The real celebration is a little more civilized, but people get excited for it.” Joe explained.

“Alright, so when do we leave then?” Zoe asked.

“I was just waiting on you, we’re good to go whenever now.” Joe looked at Zoe.

Zoe nodded her head, “Yea I’m good to go I guess.”

Joe slammed his hand on the counter, the noise echoing through the inn. “Alright you shits, inn’s closing for the day. Go party somewhere else.”

The group cheered and ran out the front door, joining the stream of people wandering down the street that Zoe could see through the windows.

Joe nodded to Zoe, “Give me a moment to get this place cleaned up and then we’ll head out too.”

He walked around the dining area, casting his cleaning spell. The blue light washed out over everything, destroying the food and drinks that had been left on the floor and tables. But it didn’t touch any of the ribbons or plates, which Joe had to pick up manually. Zoe joined him and they were done getting everything cleaned and tidied in just under ten minutes.

When they finished, Joe led Zoe outside and locked the inn’s door and then started walking down the road in the same direction as dozens of other people all along the road. It was by far the busiest she had ever seen the roads, an unending stream of people walking down towards wherever it was they were going.

It was about an hour walk before they arrived at the festival, and Joe chatted with some of the people they were walking along with about the celebration and what they were bringing. Most people seemed to be bringing along something to advertise their shops. Furniture stores, clothing stores, restaurants and taverns. Everybody was coming along, excited for the festivities and ready to share their creations at a moment’s notice.

The actual festival took place in one of the large parks Zoe had seen in her time wandering around. Almost as big as Kaira park, but it was just a large flat grass area instead of being a small forest. The benches that Zoe had seen littered throughout the park had been removed to make space for all of the platforms and pop up shops that now covered the park.

More people came in and set up their little shops — tables filled with goods, tents propped up to keep the sun off of larger furniture items. Joe led Zoe off to a side of the park and summoned a few tables to set up himself. On each, he placed orange plates that radiated magic, each one filled with familiar looking food that he served at the tavern.

“Not for you,” He said to her as he was setting it up. “This is advertising, you can go find somebody else’s and take their food if you’re hungry.”

“Do we have to pay?” Zoe asked.

“No, everything here is free. Don’t get too greedy though, people look down on that.” Joe explained.

Zoe nodded and left him to his section while she wandered around the festival. It was still early in the morning, the sun low in the eastern sky. Many of the activities were still being set up, but she found two restaurants advertising their food that she decided to try out.

One was a bakery that made some kind of cheesy ryz egg sandwich, run by a nice older lady who kept trying to offer her another sandwich. And the other had a plethora of colourful drinks set up. She grabbed a blue one that looked like some blue raspberry lemonade but tasted nothing like it.

Rather than being sweet and tart, it was intensely savoury. Like a neon blue bone broth that was luke warm. It was tasty, but a little off-putting when she expected a sweet treat.

To the centre of the park was what looked like the main attraction. A large raised stage made out of some kind of white stone. It looked like marble but somehow more regal, with a presence that screamed ‘I am important’ to her.

Surrounding the stage were hundreds if not thousands of chairs. Various groups were setting them up, each group with their own design of chair. She supposed even the chairs were a group effort that doubled as advertising.

There were some interactive stalls set up throughout the festival as well, all the classic fairground games she could think of and some magical additions as well. Her favourite one that she found was basically a stacker game where bars would slide back and forth across the screen and she had to drop them at the right point so they’d pile up as high as she could get.

Except instead of being on a screen, the mage running the event had conjured up massive ice bricks that would float through the air. Zoe was given a crystal and when she pulsed mana through it, the brick would drop. Whatever didn’t have solid ground or a full brick below it would shatter and send splinters of ice all around her.

As the sun reached its apex, a gong resounded through the festival grounds. And another one every minute after. Most of the people around her finished up what they were doing and started making their way to the centre of the festival grounds. Zoe followed them, interested in what was happening.

A large drum was set up on one side of the stone platform, a big burly woman smashing a wooden mallet into it every minute. In the centre of the platform was a short man who showed up as green level forty-two. Flanking the man were two dark blue marked warriors, and a light red mage stood a few steps behind him.

“Hello, Flester. As you may know, I am Rolf Sprecher, lord of this humble town. I would like to share with you all a few words before we formally begin the festivities.” The man spoke and his voice cut through all of the noise of the festival, audible as clear as if he were the only one speaking.

The mage behind him jolted upright and rushed to whisper something to Rolf before vanishing. Rolf’s eyes widened and he looked out over the mass of people that surrounded him.

Rolf bowed to the crowd, “There is currently an unidentified creature approaching rapidly from the north east. It appears to be a maelstrom of ice, and we expect it to reach Flester within ten minutes. Please return to your homes and remain inside until further notice.”

The crowd jumped into action as people rushed to find their loved ones or flee the park. Some stayed behind to shout questions at Rolf who tried to answer people’s questions but didn’t seem to have any more information than he already shared.

Zoe noticed the temperature begin to plummet, and shivered.