Chapter 4

Walking the town Naro didn’t have much luck finding any other work. He was a wandering vagrant with nothing to his name, and no skills he could offer to the few people who hired him. He couldn’t cast magic, didn’t know how to fight and he wasn’t exactly a talented person in his own world, the few things he could offer was something no one needed.

The sun was close to falling behind the distant dunes and he felt that he had walked the entirety of the bazaar with no luck.

While considering where he was going to sleep that night his eyes caught a strange sight.

He noticed a young boy, that came up to his waist at best walking through the Bazaar, it wasn’t uncommon to see children, but this kid has a pair of ears on top of his head with orange fur, with a matching fuzzy tail. A human was walking through the town with animal appendages, it resembled a coyote from his world, he found himself staring as the boy walked towards a stand.

He noticed his hair and eyes were also orange, and his nails were long resembling claws slightly.

“Wow…so there are animal people?”

The boy was dressed in a brown tunic and short trousers, there was patches in his clothes along with traces of dirt here and there. Just as Naro wondered if the boy was also a vagrant, the child snatched one of the fruits off one of the stands before running away.

“Hey! You little thief!” The stand owner, a somewhat portly man yelled towards the fleeing criminal.

His eyes met Naro’s causing him to jump.

“What’re you standing around for, catch him and I’ll repay you!”

Naro’s eyes moved to the man’s stand and his stomach growled in response, nodding towards the man he turned and chased after the boy.

The bazaar wasn’t as busy as before but there were still a fair amount of people causing him to have to weave through the crowd. The boy looked back at him and bared his fangs at him, Naro knew he wasn’t going to catch up to the boy especially in his current state, but that didn’t matter.

The boy was caught by the back of his shirt and hoisted off the ground. Naro slid to a stop stopping a few feet away from Beso who snatched the fruit from the child, narrowing his gaze at him.

“A filthy Beastkin…I doubt you paid for this.”

“Let me go!”

The boy screamed at Beso struggling in his grip as his lackely laughed at the caught thief.

Beso eyes moved over to Naro causing him to flinch slightly, the man mouth curved to the side slightly.

“Were you two fighting over food or something?”

Naro stayed silent looking away from the man, he wasn’t good dealing with people like him. He knew people who smirked like that and nothing good came of dealing with them.

The Beastkin seeing Beso’s attention drawn away raised his hand, and raked his nails across his face. Beso stumbled backwards dropping him as the boy ran off, groans and expletives escaping from him as he yelled for a potion.

The lankey man handed him a bottle with a green liquid that he splashed over his face, the three claw marks dissipating in white smoke until they were fully gone.

“Beso!”

A voice called out from behind the gathered group as the stand owner caught up, he leaned forward resting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath.

“You got my product back.”

Beso looked at the fruit in his hands and with a grin tossed it in his hand.

“Well yeah, someone’s gotta keep this place in order.”

Beso handed the fruit back to the owner, Naro watching the whole exchange trying to find the words to explain what happened. Beso only caught him because he led the thief to him, he wanted to say that but he wasn’t sure they’d even believe him.

“I appreciate it. You’re better than some people around here.”

The stand owner eyed Naro before waving to Beso and walking away, Naro turned towards the man but stopped as a firm hand rested on his shoulder.

“You’re from the guild right? I don’t recognize you.”

Naro glanced over his shoulder to see Beso staring at him, he really wanted to walk away but the look and grip on his shoulder kept him from moving.

“Yes…I’m new here,” he said turning towards him.

“Probably a refugee from that business in the East,” the lanky man commented.

“Ah yeah that incident, well newcomer let me be the first to say…”

Beso gave Naro a firm pat on the shoulder, offered him a smile before raising his fist and slamming it into the man’s stomach. Naro felt every bit of breath in him leave his body as he crumbled onto the ground, his legs giving out as he gasped for air and clutched his empty stomach.

“Welcome to Uliaz.”

Beso’s group laughter echoed as he walked away from the still squirming Naro. With some effort he raised his head to look at nearby guard. The two’s eyes met and the guard looked away from him, clenching his teeth Naro placed his hand down and with great effort managed to climb to his feet. He slowly went in the opposite direction of the group clutching his stomach.

He stumbled into an alley before falling face first into the sand, he let out a few gasps unable to put for the energy to go any further. The sun had set and he could hear the shuffling of footsteps as people turned to their homes for the night.

Lying in pain between two buildings, hungry and on the verge of crying all Naro could do was close his eyes, sleep and hope this was all a nightmare. That’d he wake up in his dorm room tomorrow, go to class as usual and eat a warm meal.

He swore to never complain about the cafeteria food again as sleep slowly took him.