The Next Day
After getting Sakura bandaged up, we had ended up in an inn of sorts where Dancer paid for a room for us all to stay in for a spell. We each had a separate room to sleep in with me being near the entrance with Sakura and Dancer's rooms on either side of my own. After getting our rooms, I had put my weapons away save for my knife before joining my two new companions for some dinner at the inn, which consisted of some familiar fruits and some meat which I was all too happy to shove down my gullet to quench the burning hunger deep within the raging fiery pit of hell that was my stomach.
Filling up my gut with warm food and drink and taking a long nap in a soft bed was something I appreciated. Even though it's only been two, maybe three days now, I was happy as fuck I got to sleep in an actual bed. I got a decent night's sleep, a dreamless night as always. I rarely had dreams, and the ones I did have tended to be really short and sweet. I eventually woke up to the sounds of Snowdrop cooing nearby and found she had somehow made it into my room despite having my window closed up tightly and locked of all things.
I keep forgetting she's here with me for some reason.
Regardless, I let her nap on my bed for a bit as I left to get breakfast with my two companions. Breakfast, again, consisted of some fruits and tasty meats, along with some berries I happily munched down on like sweet candies. The fruits were mainly apples, very sweet apples that were cut into slices which I happily inhaled. The berries were cherries I think if the taste was anything to go by. The meat was chicken, which was damn good. As I ate, I couldn't help but find it funny that the one who prepared the chicken for me was a gryphon... I was basically eating his cousin in front of him and he was happy when I told him it was, and I quote, fugging delicious.
After the delicious breakfast, I was wandering through town looking around. Dancer was with Sakura as I decided to take a look around town before we moved on to the next one. I didn't exactly have a plan for moving on down the road or where to go, so I just left Dancer and Sakura to do their own thing while I looked around the town for anything that might catch my interest. I saw plenty of shops around the area I was in selling a vast assortment of goods. From little trinkets like necklaces and glowy stuff, traditional clothing like robes and kimonos, hats, and cloaks. They even had a few weapons here and there, none that interested me, however. They had some pretty cool looking stuff for sell. And I was hopeful I'd find something interesting enough to buy.
I perused a few shops in a search for items, clothes, weapons, anything that I could find that might help me out on this little adventure throughout... uh... whatever this world was called. Equus? I don't know. Anyway, the traders thankfully spoke my language and tried to sell me a few items, some that I learned were of great importance or incredibly magical. I even had one trader, some funky smelling stallion, try to sell me a bottle of goopy white liquid that he said would increase my virility... needless to say I had flashbacks to an old game I played online before leaving the shop awkwardly.
As fun as it would be to be more virile, I'm fine with my dick and balls the way they are, kkthxbai.
As I searched around town, I was quickly drawn to another shop nearby, one that had a dragon sign over the entrance and was selling dragon related merchandise. I found my interest piqued slightly as my fingers found themselves wrapped around that dragon ring I had gotten from the old guy. Maybe the shopkeeper could tell me something about it? If we're going by Skyrim logic here of course.
I smiled before heading over to it and opening the door.
It wasn't long before I was greeted with some exotic smells coming from incense burning near the counter, filling the shop with an airy smoke that you could see through but still notice was there. It smelled faintly of cinnamon and something else I couldn't quite put my finger on. The shop had a few shelves and wooden barrels sitting around, filled with items ranging from shirts, pants, and robes. Staffs, swords, shields, and helmets and even the odd suit of armor. It was definitely varied in its wares that was for sure, and if I had the money I would totally buy a lot of this stuff, alas, I don't have much on me. I have the amount Daring gave me which was close to fifty gold pieces, and then the gold I lifted off of the caribou and the pony that died in the explosion on the train bringing it up to... almost two hundred if I mathed correctly.
Near the counter, I spotted a dragon, a female one with how sleek her muzzle was and the eyelashes... as well as the pronounced hips showing through her outfit... that or it was a dude, hard to tell actually. She wore some form of leather armor over her robes, and smoked from a long pipe before her piercing red eyes found my own.
"Ahh, a fleshling... how interesting. I do not speak your kind creature, so you may as well leave." She told me, once more making me wonder if the majority of humans if not all of them in this world spoke in a different language.
"I uh... speak your language, ma'am," I told her as I walked over much to her surprise as she rose an eye ridge towards me.
"You speak Equish...? Interesting." She puffed out some smoke into a ring. "I have seen very few of your kind fleshling, and not one of them spoke Equish as fluently as you do." She put her pipe down, eyeing me up like I was some morsel for her to munch on at some point... hell, I probably was.
I started having Reign of Fire flashbacks... Damn good game. I thought. The movie wasn't bad either but... I liked the game more so.
A snort from the dragoness before she leaned down on the counter. "Pray tell... what brings one of your kind to my shop? Come looking for something to collect? Or perhaps... sell?" She asked me as I looked around her wares for anything of use. And then I spotted a small stand with several rings on it, some that looked like the one I had in my pocket! Score!
I eyed the ring for a bit longer before asking, "Yeah, just wondering... those rings." I gestured to the dragon rings set up in three small rows, each of them a different color and had different gems inset in the eyes and mouth. "Those anything special?" They resembled the ring I had quite a bit, but there were some differences. Different colored scales, gems that didn't have that shine that my ring had, and they were crafted a bit differently with a material that didn't look like the same material as the one in my pocket. Where the metal was smooth and shiny, the metal on these rings appeared to be more... dull.
She looked at the rings and plucked one from its stand before holding it up to the light and making the gems glint. The light made the ruby red gem in this particular ring shine a tiny bit... but nowhere near the likes of the one in my pocket. "Aye, these... are special in a way." She began cryptically, making me raise an eyebrow. "Legend has it there were priests in the days of old, eons before your ancestors first walked the fertile earth of Equus who coveted and worshiped the dragon race."
Reminds me of the priests from Skyrim. I nodded along to let her know I was listening. Also, Equus is the name?
Well, now I know.
"Having so many of these devoted priests flock to them, worshiping the very ground they tread upon and the skies they roamed. They loved the attention, being treated as if they were gods among the weaker races." She continued, slipping the ring onto her finger. "It is said the first dragon lords forged rings for the most worthy and devoted of their priests, these granted them untold power to rule over their subjects across the land. A dragon's immortality, for example." She picked up another ring, showing it to me. It was silver, with a fierce looking dragon on it and sapphire gems inset into the eyes and jaw. "Of course, every ring is different in its own special way, each one grants its wearer a different and incredible power. Some say there were dozens of these priests, all of them immortal and powerful enough to rule entire nations as they did eons ago." The dragonness grinned at my expression, which was somewhere along the lines of really now? She continued on. "Long before Equestria and the three tribes, long before ponies were nothing more than tribal villages roaming the lands. There were vast dragon nations, lands ruled by the Dragon Priests gathering countless riches for the dragon's hordes. Their cities were something of legend, large cities made of gold and sivler that stood for centuries upon centuries, eduring all that was thrown at it."
I blinked, heart pumping in my chest as I looked at those rings. Damn... that was some hardcore shit. "And you just happen to be selling these?" I asked skeptically, looking at the rings more closely.
"No, these are but replicas of those rings." She told me, taking another one of the rings and crushing it in her hand. Looking at it, she let it drop onto the counter with a thunk. I saw it was little more then tin with some colored glass in it. "As I said, it is a legend... nothing more." She told me with a wistful sigh. "These Dragon Priests and their rings are all but lost to the elements, faded into myth and fairy tales. Some say they don't exist, but it makes for a nice story to sell the rings with... don't you agree?"
I continued to stare at the rings, That seems like a decent idea to me. I know I would love to buy one... if she hadn't told me they were fake, but still it makes for a nice trinket to take home. I hummed as I went over to them, picking up one that looked like the one I had in my pocket. "So these rings... they're lost to time?"
"Yes, every last one missing. The priests may still have them for all we know, only the oldest of dragons remember and even then they don't take kindly to talking about the subject matter since the wars before Equestria's founding." She said as she went down below her counter, rummaging around. "Of course its just a legend, finding any of those rings would be nearly impossible even if the legends proved to be true. Its just a story to tell the little ones."
It was a pretty good story. Legendary immortal dragon priests, living in vast cities made of gold with near infinite riches at their disposal? Sounds like the dragon priest thing from Skyrim, but modified a tiny bit. Shit, if I was a kid I'd be all over that, I still am even as an adult. And I had a ring, it was off that old dude... but was it one of those rings? I wonder... "Mind if I buy one of those?" I had to test out a theory.
She shrugged and I picked one out, the one I held in my hand before setting it down and deciding to look around for anything else worthwhile. I scoured the blades and axes, seeing a lot of them had a dragon motif to them alongside the clothes and shields. A lot of this stuff seemed old, older then one might think... making me wonder where she got all this stuff in the first place. She is a dragon, so maybe she collected it over the dozens of years she's been alive? I kept looking around at all of the weapons before my feet hit something, and looking down I saw a pair of weapons that had immediately piqued my interest.
Japanese Kama. A pair of black handled ones with a slightly curved blade on both handles, needless to say I called dibs. I picked them both up, both feeling quite nice in my hands as I gave both a tiny test swing and twirl before nodding. These'll do well in a pinch, I'd have to practice with them though... no big dealio. I gripped both and walked back to the shopkeeper and laid them on the counter next to the fake ring.
She looked at the Kama and the ring, then said, "50 Gold, no less." Easy price! I fished out the amount and placed it on the counter, and she pushed both of the items to me. As I picked up the Kama and tucked them into my pants handle first, I picked up the ring as she spoke to me again. "Listen... about the ring story..."
I turned back to her, my hand still gripping the false ring as I listened. "Yeah?"
"Myth or no myth... there are souls out there they have been searching for those rings relentlessly. There are more legends and stories about them then I can tell, some bring great power, others great destruction and some do nothing at all. But that doesn't stop the more fanatical explorers and hunters from searching for the rings, so I'd be wary about wearing that particular ring in public... they might just kill you for it." She warned me.
I looked down at the fake ring, then thought about the one in my pocket. Okay... these rings all have different powers laden within them, so... do those Caribou want the ring? Maybe that's why the ones on the train attacked that old guy. I nodded. "Noted, I got it mostly for a souvenir for my travels." I smiled as I pocketed the ring in a separate pocket and nodding to the mare. "I'll be sure to be careful, thanks for the stuff!" With that I turned an left, leaving behind a happy shopkeeper.
As I made my way outside I looked around and decided to go towards the waterfront nearby. As with some RPGs, no adventure is complete until you've looked out across the open water and thought deeply on your adventure so far and where to go next.
The waterfront was pretty big with wooden piers and huts and lots of ponies and gryphons moving about, hauling fish and other objects from boats onto the beach towards the buildings nearby or towards merchant stalls. I saw plenty of rowboats in the water alongside bigger boats, and in the distance I swore I saw a large cutter ship, but it could have just been my imagination. A couple of foals and gryphon chicks were playing in the sand nearby, building some odd looking castles and playing with little sticks shaped figures.
I couldn't help the smile that grew on my face. This town was pretty nice so far, with nice friendly people, decent weather, and a nice view of the ocean. I thought about my current situation a bit as I continued to walk. I had plenty of cash... but I wasn't making any unfortunately. I could if I wanted to, just go around doing odd jobs and what have ya, I'm sure there's someone around here willing to shell out some money if I offered to help. I had a few skills I'm sure they'd appreciate having around for a bit.
With a sigh, I made my way to a more secluded part of the area and sat down on the sand. I then reached into my pocket, pulling out the fake ring I bought and then the other one I had gotten from the stallion back in the desert. I held them both up and saw they looked essentially the same save for the tiny difference in materials used, they felt the same, and after a quick test with my tongue, tasted the same. Metal, gems and the dragon on it. Dragon Priest rings, said to have untold power in them. eh? I would have put it off as merely a legend, but after everything I've seen so far... perhaps there was some truth to those legends.
Or not... who knows.
Looking around and seeing no one nearby or even paying attention to me, I put the fake ring back into my pocket as I looked at the - potentially - real and powerful dragon priest ring. It didn't look anything special, it looked like something you'd probably find in one of those cool looking thrift shops around the US. It had a certain weight to it, telling me it wasn't made of any sort of normal metal used for rings. The material was smooth against my fingertips, and after a moment I tried to squeeze the ring to see if it would break... it held firm after a few seconds of squeezing it.
My heart started pumping a bit faster. I could feel myself growing anxious about this thing. This thing could get me killed because of whatever power might be within it, and they all had different powers to give to the wearer. This was supposedly a very powerful artifact... but was it really? Would it give me untold power? Or would it crap out on me?
I took a moment to look around again before hesitantly slipping it onto my index finger. Once it hit the base of my finger, I froze... I expected something to happen, maybe some surge of power considering I'm a new bearer of the ring, maybe I would experience some vision of great power or something like that. Or maybe feel something coursing through my body which was probably not gonna be used to some unknown force in it.
...
I felt nothing however.
There was nothing, I didn't feel any different, I didn't feel or sense anything coming from the ring...
I frowned before taking it off. I guess its a fake too? I sighed before putting it back into my pocket and looking out into the seas. I spotted that cutter again just sailing through the water, it looked like a very un-fuedal Japan era ship to this entire area. It looked more like something out of Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag, like the frigates if they were just a little bigger but not quite close to hitting Man'O'War size. It was a black coloration and flew a flag I couldn't quite make out. It continued sailing until it was out of sight, and I just grunted to myself before standing up. Enough fucking around... might as well meet back up with Dancer and Sakura.
Turning back towards the town, I headed back towards it with a tiny whine of disappointment.
Well... at least I got me two new weapons.
In Town
Moving back into town was a rather slow affraid for me. As I took my time walking instead of just rushing into it, that and I was tired as fuck. I ended up finding Sakura and Dancer at some stalls looking over some choice clothing,some nice looking kimonos, shirts and pants, and all that good shit. Dancer was watching as Sakura looked through all of the clothes with an amused grin on her features as I walked up, and announced my presence, "Sup guys."
Dancer turned to me, smile still on her face. And then she looked down at my pants. "New weapons?"
I nodded, pulling out one of the Kama and showing her. "Yep, spotted them in a shop and thought, why not? It'd help if I had some new weapons on hand, just in case." I winked, giving said weapon a slight twirl. It felt just right in my hand, and I've always had a thing for daggers, knives and smaller weapons like this. No hate for swords though, I plan on purchasing one of those next, not sure where though... maybe in another area? "There was a bunch of cool shit in there actually, maybe you should snag something." I offered, she seemed like the type to use a Katana or something. "Maybe a sword?"
However she shook her head, and said, "I don't need to buy any, cause I already have one." She told me, shrugging her shoulders and looking back towards Sakura.
I hummed and couldn't help but doubt it, considering she had little to nothing on her person except for whatever was in her kimono. It wasn't big enough to hide a a big sword or anything, maybe a knife? I just shrugged and hung out with them for a while, the three of us just looking through some of the stalls for any goodies that may have caught our eye. Most of what we found was pretty... eh, looking, at least to me anyway. I mean, sure it was exotic compared to what I was used to, but nothing really caught my fancy. There were clothes, necklaces, and other little trinkets sitting about, most of it looked kinda cheaply made.
Then again this was a tiny coastal town, so I wasn't surprised.
Poorest region after all.
"See anything you girls like?" I asked after a bit, watching as Sakura picked up one kimono and looked it over with a curious glance. I was glad she was able to walk finally, carrying her was a pain in my back... literally.
"No." Was Dancer's answer, in fact she didn't look all that interested in much of the stuff on sale, neither did I to be honest.
Sakura just kept wandering, jeez has this girl never been out in a market before?
A couple of hours passed as we looked through the market, with lots of varied murchandise, even a few dagger sellsponies were tempting me with fancy looking daggers and blades. I didn't buy any, while I had plenty of gold on my person, I was a greedy fuck and wanted to save up as much as I could for something super epic. Who knows when I might find something truly epic and awesome, and I'm in need of coin to purchase such an item to aid me on my journey.
As I ended up wandering away from the duo for a bit, I found myself looking over a few tables with an odd assortment of items on them. Some odd things like small metal balls, some bent metal and other objects that were covered in rust and dirt, some were wet! Some of it looked like it was just pulled out of the water or something. Was this all junk being sold? Despite most of it being junk, my eyes ended up coming across an item that looked... disturbingly familiar.
It was a round metal ball, colored black with intricate lines all throughout that were glowing a soft red coloration. Almost too faint to be seen by the naked eye. It was covered in a few wraps of seaweed and a lot of sand, but despite that it looked pristine and in good condition...
It was another one of those keys Daring had told me about that would unleash the super evil bad guy person.
That or a super identical paperweight.
Holy fuck... this guy has no idea. I thought to myself, Where did he even find that thing?! Slightly panicking on the inside, I asked. "So, selling anything good?" I started out to the gryphon selling said goods. I probably shouldn't be so eager to buy the orb, this isn't a world where things have set prices, there's bartering and I don't have a high skill in anything except sucking literal ass.
He looked down at his goods and shrugged. "Junk and more junk... you interested in any of this fleshling or not? If not, beat it." He told me, jerking a thumb to the side.
I frowned and pointed to the orb. "How much is that thing?" I asked the gryphon, well if he was gonna be a dick...
"That thing? Useless it is, you can have it for 10 gold." He told me, and I fished out the appropriate amount before handing it over. Then I grabbed said orb before tossing the seaweed off and throwing it into my backpack really quickly.
"Thanks a bunch." I nodded before turning and beginning to walk off.
I was stopped however."What use do you have for such a thing? It's just a ball, not even good for hatchlings to play with." The gryphon told me.
"Uhm..." I shrugged in reply, no need in letting him know what it was. If he did, he'd either charge me more or do something really stupid. "No reason really, it just caught my fancy." I lied, this thing only caught my eye because of what Daring told me, and this dude did not need to know what it was.
He'd milk me dry of all my money.
He gave me a suspicious look but said nothing as I drifted away into the crowd. Once I was far away enough I jogged further through the crowd, the heavy orb in my pack jostling around as I looked for Dancer and Sakura. The orb was here, and seeing how it was here... then that meant the Caribou might come looking here for it if they knew the locations of these damn things.
Fuck, where was Daring when I needed her.
I continued looking for my companions as I ended up taking a shortcut into an alleyway to the inn we were all staying at. And then I saw two figures in dark robes blocking my path, and I stopped, hand gripping my backpack's strap. "Fellas... mind if I pass through?" I asked, and all the tropes hit me at once.
They said nothing, and when I turned to head the other way I saw another pair of them.
Shit.
"Uhm." I started as they slowly closed in on me. I backed up before looking behind me to see the others doing the same. Shit shit shit. I quickly looked around for any way to escape, but, to my dismay, the walls were too steep to run up and the rooftops out of my reach, even if I got a running start to jump up the walls I wouldn't reach them! With a growl, I pulled out my Kama and held them in both hands. "I'm warning ya'll, I'm from the south so I know how to deal out some pain!" I threatened, growing up in the south has given me some... rather interesting situations with fights. Granted I tried not to fight, I wasn't afraid to.
The cloaked fools though seemed unphased by my threat.
I ran at the pair on my right, Kama held low to my sides as I darted at them. Once I was close I struck... or I would have, as soon as my Kama got near them one of them quickly pulled out a sword and smacked away my weapon, causing me to almost lose my grip on it. Ducking down, I charged at them hard for a tackle, only to get kicked away by a blur. "Whoah!" I yelped in surprise as I hit the ground. I was about to get up, but soon found four swords pressed into my chest, black swords with gem in the pommels. The hooded figures stared down at me. "Uhh... can we talk about this?"
That was the last thing I got to say before I was hit on the head with something.