Frostbitten Wayfarer

The following days passed as Zoe fell into a comfortable routine. Waking up in the morning, helping the patrons get their drinks and clean up any messes they happened to make. Rizick would occasionally pop out with Isla for most of the day, and Joe never seemed to mind.

Zoe supposed they weren’t really needed, anyway. Joe got by fine without them, they were probably more of a drain than anything.

It was around midday when Zoe saw a familiar trio walk in to the tavern and wave to her.

“’Ello, boss ‘round ‘ere?” The woman asked Zoe.

“Oh, yeah I’ll go grab him for you just hold on.” Zoe responded, ducking into the kitchen to call for Joe.

He came out a moment later, and the woman stuck out her hand as Joe took it and they shook.

“A pleasure,” the woman said before she walked out.

Zoe watched in confusion, “What was that?” She asked.

“Ah, they were just giving me the first load for the job. Took a bit longer than I thought but decent price so I can’t be mad.” Joe said.

“But you just shook hands?”

“Yup, transferred from their storage to mine.” Joe nodded.

“You can do that? I really need to get me one.” Zoe said.

Joe laughed, “Best of luck with that, maybe some of those odd jobs you find will pay well.”

“Hopefully! On that note, do you mind if I actually go maybe check some of them out today?" Zoe asked.

“Look Zoe, at some point I think you’ve got it stuck in your head that you’re helping me out by being here. And don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what you do, but look at the situation objectively for a moment. People barely talk to you and there’s a bell out there they could ring if they need something anyway.

“Not to mention that I’m feeding and sheltering you here too, which is all costing me money for what is effectively pointless labour. I don’t want you to feel bad about that, I like you, and I’m happy to help you get back on your feet. But don’t forget that I’m helping you, and take advantage of that. Go get a job, check out a library, find something to do with yourself here.” Joe said.

“Oh.. I’m sorry.” Zoe said, shrinking into herself.

“Get up, get out there and find something that makes you happy. If working here is what you want maybe we can figure something out long-term but I don’t think it is or you would’ve already taken a class for it that you doubtlessly have.”

“Right. Thanks Joe, I think I’ll go wander around today then.” Zoe said, looking towards the front door.

“Have a nice day then, best of luck to you.” Joe turned back to the kitchen.

Definitely just a drain then, Zoe felt a bit disappointed. She wanted to pay him back somehow.

Zoe left the tavern and took a deep breath, the smells of the town smashing into her vampyric smell. Horse droppings that never truly get cleaned up off the road mixing in with the pleasant smells coming from a florist a short walk away.

Super senses were fun, but they really made her appreciate modern cleanliness. Or maybe it was much the same but she just didn’t have super senses back then.

She walked, wandering back towards what she thought would be closer to the center of town. Near the large tree houses she sat near not long ago.

The town fascinated her every time she walked through it. There was a definite wealth gap, some buildings looking much fancier, or rather fancy at all amongst the plain stone buildings that covered the land. But the people looked happy, nobody was homeless from what she could see.

Though, she wondered if that was just because of nice people like Joe taking in her and Rizick, since technically they were homeless.

As she walked, the buildings became more and more detailed, with bits of crystal and wood beginning to creep into the designs. The plain stone construction pushed aside for vibrant, lively buildings with character.

The people travelling down the road looked wealthier, with occasional guards flanking as their horse’s hooves clopped along. She kept wandering around, taking in the sights until she found something that looked like a tavern.

There was a hologram, or maybe illusory magic of a large tankard floating outside the front door, with windows all along the front showing the packed inside. Somebody was playing music, a jaunty tune played on some kind of flute looking instrument, and the drums provided by the patrons stomping their feet.

Zoe entered the building, her smell overwhelmed at the same moment with booze, roasting meats and what smelled like somebody having an awful time in the bathroom. She stepped back outside and the smell was cut off, leaving her with the regular horse droppings and sweat from the people on the road.

“Huh,” Zoe said in a hushed voice, wondering how that worked. She walked back inside, the smell blasting her nose once more.

Towards the back of the building was a long bar stretching almost the whole length of the tavern. Behind it were two people, a tall blonde woman and a shorter man with a purple mohawk. They were both chatting with different people sitting on stools at the bar.

Throughout the room were small round tables, with chairs surrounding most of them. Though it looked like many of the chairs were moved around to fit more people at some of the tables, since several of the tables only had one or two chairs at them and others had many more.

On the wall to the right was a large board with papers posted up on it. Zoe walked up to it, thinking it was probably the job board.

She looked through the papers, most of them were requests for mundane help. Somebody was planning a concert and wanted help with catering, moving some heavy decorations around, and security. Somebody else was having a big birthday bash and also wanted help with catering and moving some decorations around. There was a handful of jobs posted for restaurants and taverns that wanted help with processing meats and some prep work for the next few weeks.

Zoe kept looking through the jobs, most of them being much of the same. Somebody had an event planned and wanted security, catering or muscle. Or somebody wanted help prepping a bunch of stuff they could store in their storage item for a while.

She expected more of the go find a rare magical herb or take care of this big rhino that’s harassing my farm. Not just a plea for somebody to open a catering business. Were there really no catering businesses in town?

Finally, one stood out to Zoe. A local alchemist by the name of Liz wanted klir. A note provided Liz’ address if anybody needed help identifying the herb.

That was more like what she wanted, a classic adventure. She was going to grab the paper off the board before she paused.

Zoe looked around for a moment, before she walked up to the bar. “Excuse me,” she said to the blonde woman behind the bar.

“Hmm? Yes?” The woman said.

“I saw a job on the board I was interested in, but am I supposed to take the paper with me or leave it?” Zoe asked.

“Ahhh. Blue you take, red you leave.” She responded.

“I’m sorry, what?” Zoe shook her head

“The pins? Blue pin you take, red pin you leave.” The woman pointed at the board.

“Ohhhhh, I didn’t even notice that. Thanks!” Zoe said, turning back to the job board.

She looked at it again and sure enough, some of the jobs were pinned up with red pins and others with blue. Liz’s klir job had a red pin, so Zoe left it behind and went back out onto the street.

The job was for one Liz at Festering Feelings at Mystic Lane, which was good to know. But she didn’t know where that was.

Zoe looked around for a street sign but saw nothing, she racked her memory for every time she walked down the streets, trying to remember if she ever saw one but nothing popped out to her.

“Excuse me,” Zoe asked the closest person she saw. A darker skinned man with short gelled back hair wearing a green suit. “Do you happen to know what street we’re on?”

The man looked at her, his eyes wandering above her head for a moment with a look of mild surprise. “Do you not have Identify?” He asked.

“I do, but why?” Zoe said, remembering to identify the man.

[Worker - ??]

“Identify the road then.” He said, shaking his head and carrying on down the street.

The road was a ‘mana structure’? She found that surprising, but focused on the road with her identify skill anyway.

[Norlon Road]

So she was on Norlon, which was where she was. And was of course exactly as far from Mystic Lane as it was from Mystic lane, which was somewhere. She realized knowing the street names didn’t really help if she didn’t have a map anyway.

Or she could wander around to one of the more magical districts she knew of and hope for the best.

And so Zoe continued on towards where she saw the most magical of buildings on her last adventure through town. It took a while as she meandered around, trying to find anything she might recognize to get her bearings, but she managed to identify many of the roads and build a rudimentary map in her head.

She thought for a bit about whether she should get a notebook and wander around someday. Or maybe city hall would have them? Not that she knew where city hall would be in the first place, though.;

Finally she found herself in the same area of floating crystal buildings and wondrous magics. She identified the road.

[Magic Avenue]

Zoe gave up and decided to just ask somebody for help.

She walked into the nearest building, a floating wooden log cabin made of what looked like normal logs that were transmuted to solid gold.

The inside was just as gaudy, shelves of solid gold showing off their wares, most of which was also trinkets of gold. There was a person standing behind a counter, dressed in a gold suit that barely moved as they walked around.

“Hello, do you know where Mystic Lane is by any chance?" She asked the person.

They looked at her and scoffed. “Mystic lane? What do you need from those people? Whatever they can do we can do better. Take a look around, it’s all worth its weight in gold!”

“Uhuh, well I’ve got to talk to somebody about an odd job they posted, and I’m just not sure where Mystic Lane is. Your shop does look very lovely though!” She said.

They scoffed again, “Of course they’d need menial labour from odd jobbers, pathetic sort. Well if you must help them make ends meet you can find them a few streets away,” they pointed to the back of their store, “but remember to come back and spend their wealth on our auspicious trinkets!”

“Definitely, thanks for the help,” Zoe said, backing away from the counter to leave.

“Anytime lady, just keep us in mind next time you need any knick knacks! Everything’s worth its weight in gold!”

Zoe turned and left, walking down the floating gold steps to the street again. She went down an alley beside and slightly under the gold building towards another road, and continued her way through until she arrived at Mystic Lane.

It was just as magical as Magic Avenue was, massive crystal buildings, magics wisping around and buildings floating in the air.

She wandered down the street, looking for names of buildings for a few minutes before she realized her mistake and started identifying the buildings.

Festering Feelings was a small crystal building resting on the ground, large enough for a counter and a handful of shelves, Zoe thought. Entering the building, she found she was right.

A man sat behind the counter. Short, with messy, curled hair. Bits of ash and what looked like rust covering his head. He was hunched over some papers, writing with a red feather. He looked up when Zoe entered, “Whatcha need?"

“I saw you needed Klir?” Zoe asked.

“Sure do, plenty of it. How much you got?” He pointed the feather at her.

“Oh I don’t have any now, I just need to know how to identify it properly?”

“Right right, well it’s a mana herb, you’ve got Identify right?” He asked, looking back down at his papers.

“Yes.” Zoe responded.

“Good. It grows around trees to the north of town, and looks like,” the man trailed off, rummaging through some drawers under the counter.

“Ah yes here we go, this is Klir.” He held up a green leaf with a tinge of blue running through the center of it.

Zoe identified it.

[Klir]

“Okay, so north of town, rummage around trees for blueish leaves called Klir. Sounds easy enough.”

“Yup. Anything else you need?” He asked.

“Nope, that’s all thanks!”

“Yup, I’ll take at most twelve bags for now.”

“Okay! Thanks a bunch, see you soon then.” Zoe said and stepped out of the shop.

She wasn’t sure what a bag was. As big as a grocery bag? Luggage? Even bigger, maybe?

Zoe looked to the sky, evening beginning to set as the shadows dragged on.

There were still a few hours of sunlight left, and she didn’t really need to sleep in the first place. So she decided to head to the north and at least find a bit of it. She could ask Joe for some help with storage the next day.