The city of Hariot

We continue our travels, thankfully without meeting anymore slumberwalkers on the way.

The mood is tense after that fight. We spend the rest of the day trip in silence, Juni and Lafanda don’t even open their mouths to complain about being bored.

We make a stop at a mesa town to camp out the night stopping at the guild base near the entrance. We head up and eat dinner in silence and before we head to our rooms I stop them.

(This is the least I must do.)

“Lafanda, Mimi, Juni. I’m so sorry for acting that wait after fighting the slumber walkers. Even if I get excited by using blessings and protections, there is no excuse for the way I reacted after the fight.”

(I’ve apologized like this before. But doing it to friends is so much harder. I can feel a knot on my throat.)

“It’s okay Aki. I won’t lie, it did feel good to see all our training paid off. Its just… Seeing you react like that… Even more than when we were practicing was a little grim.” Juni says.

“Yeah, we just didn’t expect that you would act like that when the real thing happened.” Lafanda says.

“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to use this as an excuse but is just that it went differently from last time so I guess I also got happy that I had the courage to face them this time.”

“Like last time?” Lafanda asks “Do you mean when you were attacked?”

“You were really vague when we talked about your reasons to join the guild.” Juni says

“I guess I was. I…” I carefully think about I’m about to say before I continue to speak. I will tell them the whole truth eventually. Giving them a bit more information shouldn’t be so bad. “I don’t really remember what I was doing, but I was inside a cave out of a mesa when a dire wolf slumberwalker attacked me. And the fear I felt, the hopelessness, the pain, it was just unbearable. When I didn’t felt all those bad feelings fighting next to you three, it just felt… well, amazing.”

They look at each other.

“We understand Aki, I was also afraid but seeing all of you with us did ease the worries too. We aren’t perfect, so as friends let’s cover for each other weak points. Just like in training.” Lafanda says holding my shoulder.

“We should still celebrate our achievements, but in the right time and place. Our work is only done after the prayer.” Juni says.

“Yeah, sorry again.”

We continue our trip for the next day and have to camp out one more time, but the mood began to improve again.

The games kept us entertained until we started to get close to Hariot. The terrain begins to change, just like the reports from the information hall said.

The vast and green grasslands start to become a grey, rocky terrain and the carriage even begins to shake with the uneven road.

The sky is cloudy, and we look at what seems like towers of smoke rising in the distance.

However, as we approach, we can see it more clearly. It’s steam. And under the towers of steam, we can see multiple thermal pools.

Finally, we can see within reach the dark grey mesa that is Hariot. We go up on the road and reach the city.

All of the towns we passed by were made of mainly wood, but this one was made almost entirely on stones bricks and metal.

The reports were accurate after all.

Hariot, a city located near a few volcanoes, and due to that it is extremely rich in ores. The mining operations and thermal waters are what make it famous to the rest of the continent. Unfortunately, is also fairly dangerous due to the terrain and the mines providing lots of dark spots for slumber walkers. So it isn’t really a place with a lot of tourists.

We head straight to the guard tower watcher and see one of the guards stopping what he was doing and coming over to greet us.

He has a light white armor that reflets a bit the sunlight shining down through the clouds. He has grey skin and pointy ears and a buzz cut.

“So, you all must be the guild members, the name is Bardon of Troll Kin! Nice to meet all of you.” Bardon greets each of us with a handshake. “You have no idea how glad we are that you all have finally arrived. The amount of towns folk who has been leaving the city in fear of the growing slumberwalkers. Was getting really concerning.”

“Have too many of them left?” I ask.

“A good number, they are so afraid they wouldn’t even tell us where they were going. They would just up and leave.”

(Weird. Even if there’s danger around the mesa, wouldn’t keep their ground and fortifying their defenses a better strategy them trying to leave?)

“Well now that we are here you can make sure to tell everyone that everything is going to be okay!” Lafanda says.

“So, what’s the situation now? Was there any form of attack by the slumberwalkers?” Juni asks.

“Right now, no. Thankfully they have been very few attacks these past few months. Only the lonesome straggler from the group. But thank the goddess there has been no raids on the city.” Bardon points to a telescope and lots of paper. “But we still keep recording potential sightings and this one in particular caught the eye of Mr. Tom.” Bardon makes a gesture for us to follow him we make our way up the guarding tower. “So here is what you all should be needing to know. The slimes have been appearing near the west side of the mesas towards the thermal pools.”

He uses the telescope and point us to the direction we are supposed to look. He hands it over to Juni who gives a good scan around.

“Got it. I see the possible places where they can come up from.” Juni hands back the telescope.

“The chimeras have been attacking the slimes and have been getting closer and closer to the Mesa entrance. With each passing day they seem to be getting more and more under Umbravar influence.”

Lafanda takes the telescope and takes a look at the surroundings of the thermal pools. Mimi flicks her tongue and Lafanda puts the telescope on her eyes. After a bit of back and forth between the two, they say.

”Alright, we see where they could be hiding, tonight they will be having better dreams.” And she returns the telescope again.

“And finally, the human. We know how dangerous they could be, but to be honest none of us has had any visual confirmation on it yet. The marks it has left behind point to it being a human, and more than that, the fact we have no visual of it might just confirm it even more.”

(He’s right. According to past reports, humans actually have some intelligence, even as slumberwalkers. They are terrifying hunters as they tend to stay close to the other slumberwalkers, but they never actually attack. Instead, they wait for guild member or guards to make contact so they can make ambushes.)

I take the telescope and start scouting the area. I can see the thermal pools where the slimes are said to show up. In the middle of the pools I can what seems to be trenches that lead into large caves, the Chimeras are most certainly hiding in those. And finally, outside of the pools I can see big stone formations that look like columns, outside of the main stage where all the action is happening. The human must be skulking around there when the other monsters show up.

“Yes, I can see it. I can see where we need to go.” I give the telescope back. “All right team lets go get things ready.”

“Perfect, I knew I could count on all of you to deal with this. There is plenty of time until nightfall, please treat yourselves to some good food and a nice bath.” Baron offers.

“We most certainly will take you on that.” Lafanda says with Mimi nodding in agreement.

“Of course. Someone will lead the way right now.”

A soldier lead us into an open bath and we manage to let the worries of the extended trip melt in the waters. After that we head off into the guild base and are served lots of delicious food. Mostly is root vegetables that grow in these rocky terrain and meats from mountain animals.

After the nice meal we head to our room and prepare ourselves. I change back into my guild attire and hold on to the amulet that Olivia gave to all of us. I turned it into a necklace while we were traveling and tuck it into my shirt to keep safe.

As we reach the road that heads down into the mesa the four of us look at one another and with a nod we descend back into the ground on foot.