Dra’em: A city that was a bit farther than Rew, where the innkeeper went, but I thought it had a better chance of me running into a creature that knew what humans were.
“Fuck. Me.”
The girls looked at me as we stood outside the city walls. Massive walls that were as tall as Canterlot castle, lengths deep, and made from solid stone. No mortar, not individual bricks. Magic fused stone. The city was the size of the whole of Canterlot mountain, build around a mountain and spiraling up as high as I could see.
And the best part, minotaurs. This was a minotaur city. Every other one of those creatures had a blade on their hips and boots made from heavy hide. Heavier than pony or any four legged creature I knew of. The city stank of testosterone and sweat. I actually felt okay in that respect, like a good day at the gym. I was terrified and put my right hand against my sidearm while I looked around.
We stood outside the gates for maybe fifteen minutes with me just staring at the creatures moving about their daily lives, waiting to attack me at the slightest cultural faux pas. I steeled myself and I looked to the girls. Heart on Lom’s back, a pony riding a horse. I’d have to be careful, they aren’t smart enough to survive without me here.
I turned and hugged Heart, then Lom. Side by side we entered the city and I felt like we were easy targets for every type of scum possible, so I made sure to keep my sidearm ready and loaded with stun rounds, as well as two extra clips with real rounds. If I needed to fight for my life or my girls; I wasn’t going down easy.
The first thing I did was have the girls go onto the wagon and lay down. The mules were as safe as any creature. They were mules, common and worthless across most of that continent. Did you know that Equ… No, nevermind, we’ll come to that near the middle of my story.
I also made sure to slip on my unitard. Remember, that solid black thing I wore in my armor? Well, I put my full soldier uniform over it and was ready to take a stabbing, since it was tough enough to resist a large caliber round I think, or thought, a knife would be child’s play. Hint, it’s not the same, knives are worse than a bullet sometimes.
So, I get the pang of hunger as I smell roasted meat and I grab a gem from my pocket. I turn quickly to the smell and find a stand in one of many marketplaces and look at the meat turning over in the fire. Having left my girls in the cart that was by at an intersection nearby, I traded my gem for a huge sandwich of meat and vegetables.
I actually got change back in the form of small coins. Green copper with a black mark in the center. That was the palladium, encased in obsidian. Their currency. I asked how much it was worth and I was told it was enough to sleep a night and for another sandwich in the morning.
With a grin I took my coinage and returned to my cart and took a big bite. It was delicious. Amazingly seasoned, slightly pink still, and a smokey flavor that just sang in my palate. It wasn’t pony. It was cow-beef, flank steak to be exact. Still a favorite of mine when I go to their lands. But, let’s get off that topic, you’re looking a little more green. It’s good on you.
My next goal was to find some type of hub of knowledge. A library or something. Surprisingly, many of the minotaurs of old were actually very educated. They were still short tempered, but smart, literate, tactful, and cunning in groups. Outside their walls they had farmlands the size of Equestrian cities dedicated to produce and others dedicated to meat production.
It was industrial too. The city carried a dark cloud over it that cast it in almost constant shadow, but that was an amazing thing. Smoke from furnaces that were smelting metals and creating small part that were used to make large complex machinery.
While we were asking for a place to ask questions, redundant, I know, I saw my first pegasi. A blue pony with a white tail wearing nearly full body armor with grey wing blades that almost cut me looking at them they were so sharp. Not to mention the half dozen knives that were within mouth reach. It had a steely look to it and hovered in the air above street level scanning for something. It formed a cloud and sat on it, which was amazing to me, having never seen it before.
Then it saw me. I saw it’s body tense through the armor, just how it stopped suddenly. Then it took to the air, leaving the small cloud in its place as the pegasus flew up at blinding speed out of my view and toward the city built around the mountain proper.
“Maybe that’s a good thing?” I asked myself.
My girls were under the tarp in the cart and I was munching on my meat sandwich. Okay, I’ll stop saying meat. I was eating my food and turned at a stall to grab three plates of vegetables for my girls and the mules to eat while we took a break.
The girls ate quietly while I found a nice spot to let the mules eat. It was a couple blocks from the library, I found out. A sign that had a pile of books was what I was looking for and I saw it from that far. Destiny.
I thought about leaving the cart and letting them eat while I went ahead for half a second before I thought of everything being stolen and sold, never to see anything again. “Yeah, not gonna happen.”
“Mocha, what do mean you?”
“Lom,” I sighed. She was trying at least, “I’m not leaving you alone in this city without a guard or two. Since I have the means maybe I can rent one for the day. Mules, let me know when you’re done.”
“We’re done.”
“Wow that was fast. Did you even taste it?” I asked walking around the cart and collecting the plate. It was an interesting dining system. Eat in the market with a plate and leave the plate by a garbage bin. They were collected later. Take a plate and get caught, pay a fee of two coins. Two coins. That was enough to buy a plate of vegetables or a sandwich with a drink.