Kellansburg Shuffle

After a full day’s travel, they made it to a city near the sea in the easternmost village of Siladhi. A small fishing village named Kellansburg. The salty scent of the sea breeze tickled their noses as they arrived. The city’s entrance had a pair of guards blocking it. Both clad in leather armor and armed with swords, they had round shields hanging on their backs.

“Halt. Who are you?” One asks, placing a hand on his sword.

“I am Eric Dispo” He introduces. “I am the sole owner of E.D Enterprises.”

Leo struggles to contain his laughter. Arte slightly chuckles and coughs to cover it up.

“Ah, Mr. Dispo, it’s nice to see you in town again.” The other guard greeted.

“I currently have two passengers with me.” He explained.

“We’ll need to see some sort of identification from them.” The guard spoke.

Leo and Arte hop down from the booth, and Leo starts checking his pockets.

“Hm… I could’ve sworn it was in my wallet…” He mutters.

Arte taps him with her elbow.

“We don’t have ID in this world.” She says telepathically.

“Crap.” Leo replies.

Arte steps forward.

“We don’t have any identification, as we come from a rural village. Would it be possible to get one here?” She asks.

“It’s possible… But what village did you come from.” He asks.

“Treyenni village.” She spoke. “It was… recently destroyed in a monster attack, and some of us were scattered.”

She held her arm and looked away. Leo also turned around and walked off to the side a smidgen, not to continue the bit, but to contain his laughter at Arte’s acting.

“We’re sorry to hear that about your village. It must’ve been a long journey from the west side of Siladhi.” He spoke.

“Thank you, I’m just fortunate that we were able to escape with our lives.” She says.

“Once you get inside, there are three ways of obtaining an ID. The Merchant’s guild, or Brave Organization, is your best bet. The City Hall option is for people wishing to stay long-term.” He explained.

“Got it, thank you.” She says.

The guards allow them to pass into Kellansburg, a logging and fishing city where many of its residents were well-toned and muscular, including the women and elderly. Citizens greeted one another and engaged in various activities throughout the town. At the center of town, a variety of stalls were held selling multiple day-to-day necessities, knick-knacks, food, drink, and even other services. Leo and Arte set foot in the town with the coachman, who turned to them after entering town.

“I’m friends with Sky, and we do business all the time, so I’m going to be taking you the full length of the trip to Valmanhyn. Just let me know when you’re ready to leave, and we can continue the trip. Just make sure it’s earlier in the day, capiche? I’ve had idiots trying to ride in the dead of night, folks like that are just asking to be made a meal of, eh?” He questions.

“Got it. Then we’ll let you know when we’re ready to take off.” She crosses her arms and grins. “Of course, it’ll be early on.”

“Good.” He says.

The coachman heads off, takes his chalcedron to the nearest stable before diving into a nearby pub.

“Alright, looks like we made it to the first town.” Leo stretches. “I didn’t expect it to take all day, though.”

He looks over at the sun, already setting on the horizon.

“We spent so much time resting on the ride here, I don’t really feel tired yet.” She spoke.

“Might as well get our IDs first, then.” He suggested.

“Let’s head to the brave organization.” She walked ahead and looked back. “I can’t imagine either of us getting merchant IDs.”

“What are we gonna sell? Side quest hints and dungeon mechanics?” He rubs his chin. “Actually… That might sell well.”

“But we need those for ourselves, remember?” She tapped his chest with her fist.

“Ah, true.” He states. “So the Brave Organization it is.”

Within the center of town, a large it was on the west and east sides, allowing people to pass through the wide gap left by other buildings. Among the six buildings at the center of town, the Brave Organization was to the right of the town hall. As they passed through the center of town, they saw citizens gathered around.

“What's happening over here?” Leo asks.

Before Arte could get a word out, he looked at the nearby inn, saw a veranda on the second floor. He darted toward the wall, jumping toward it and throwing all his momentum at it, which allowed him to take two steps up the wall before jumping off, leaning back, so his head missed hitting the veranda and grabbed the edge of it, using the extra height while hanging to get a quick view of what was going on. He dropped down from the ledge, bending his knees at a 90-degree angle to fully absorb the shock of the landing.

“It’s an arm wrestling tournament,” Leo states.
“Could you not break out the parkour in town like that? Also, I’d have told you that if you waited like 5 seconds…” She groaned.

“Well, it was a long ride, I wanted to get a lil bit of exercise in.” He says.

“Either way, yeah, it's an arm wrestling tournament. But not just any arm wrestling tournament.” She says. “It’s a side quest. The reward is a traveler’s charm.”

“What?! Sign me up then!” He exclaims.

“Wait. You remember this place, don’t you?” She asks.

“Barely.” He says.

A grizzled man comes walking out of the Brave Organization from the wide double doors. Covered in various scars, he came down the stairs as the citizens clapped at his entrance. In the other corner, the crowd parted for a little blonde girl with pigtails in her hair. She looked to be no older than five or six. Leo saw her appearance, and his mouth hung open, and tears formed in his eyes.

“Oh my god… I get it now.” He states. “I remember!”

Arte placed a hand on his shoulder and rubbed his back.

“I drove it out of my mind. Forgot for all these years.” He says.

The girl skipped down the path up to a barrel at the center. She and the man eye one another before slamming their elbows on the barrel. The force alone produced a shockwave that caused a minor gust. They locked hands and tightly hung on.

“Three… Two… One… Go!” The Crowd cheered.

The man’s muscles tensed all at once as the force from his legs travelled up into his arm, as he hammered all his strength at once.

“I’ll be taking that champion spot, girlie!” He shouts.

With an impassioned war cry, He poured every ounce of his strength to defeat her, but her arm didn’t budge. Using his strength like this, and not even making the girl budge, dealt a tremendous blow to his pride. No matter how he tried to move her arm, it was like she was immovable.

“Is it my turn yet? Mommy says I need to be back by dinner.” She says.

A vein appeared in the man’s head, and he began pushing so hard his face was scrunched like a volcano about to explode. While breathing heavily to recover, she moved her arm just a bit, easily pushing him to the edge of the barrel. His exhaustion became surprise, as even snot dribbled out of his nose.

“Bye bye!” She waved.

In one swift motion, she slammed his arm down, causing a downburst and leaving his arm in tatters.

“I spent weeks trying to stack strength buffs and stat boosting items to turn the hero into a fist of the Southern Star character. All for it to be worthless. Multiple runs that amounted to nothing. All because of this little girl.” Leo drops to his knees. “The one boss I couldn’t beat, little Sarah.”

The girl runs off into the distance, leaving two devastated men in her wake. Known throughout the town as God’s Arm.