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[center][b]The World Was Destroyed, and I had to Fight for the Right to NOT be the Main Character[/b] Chapter 08 A bit of Backstory and Exploration.[/center] Makbarim sits along the Tharwal, which is the river cutting through the desert. That explains all the sand. and roughy halfway between Shamse Azima, the seat of the kingdom and the Dumuahalumi, the lake where the Tharwal originates, and whose name means the Tears of the Mother. Lyan, my Lyvelin female counterpart, tried to get them to talk about who the Mother was, but as soon as Yamiltary started speaking about the Makers and their mother, Tamika complained about how this wasn’t about spreading propaganda. And this was about educating us about the city. Runihua, the Lyvelin knight, ground her teeth and continued over their argument. Makbarim was founded nearly five hundred years ago, as part of the third Great Expansion. It would become the fifth city away from the Seat, although there are small settlements all along the Tharawat. The city was settled because this is the only connection between the Tharawat and the Tawila Fortress and the mines it controlled. The only trail there that remains traversable through the desert in spite of the Tempest ends here. What the Tempest is? That’s on those interested in traveling there to learn about. Because of the influx of ores, Makbarim did a lot of processing of it into ingots before those were sent along the Tharwal. It made the city nearly as wealthy as Shamse Azima, Yamiltary added, breaking from the argument. And added that the Merchant’s guild was the power here. Which had Tamika snorting and Runihua glaring. Lots of egos between those three. If it represents their guilds, that must make this place the kind of interesting novels are built on, and that I want nothing to do with. The city was ransacked three times because of its wealth. The last time was seventy some years ago being brought to an end by the arrival of the Knights’ guild. Why they came depends on if you believe Yamiltary or Runihua. The merchant claims her guild called them in, while the knight says the Seat—the title for their ruler—sent them. Again, egos. There has been no attack on the city since then. Tamika mentioned his guild arrived a few years after the knights because they’d gotten word of how boring of place the city was and immediately set to constructing the arena on arriving. * * * * * The land doesn’t get green, the way I’m used to, as we walk away from the building toward the water, but it does get greener. “The other side’s more populated,” Tamika explains, while the other two walk as if we aren’t there. “We chose here for the ritual because we didn’t want to overwhelm you. This is nicely out of the way.” “How much of this was built using magic?” Analie asked. She’s Capine and from Terranova. “None,” he answers. “Not sure what your world used to be like, but ours is built almost entirely through the labor of those who live here.” “Almost? Joanne asks. She’s the Female Queck. From Earth. “Well, over the last…. Runihua, how long have the dungeons been around?” “A century,” the knight replied. “Basically, since then, some items have made it out with those exploring them that have gotten sorcerers to do impressive things. There was that one…thirty years or so ago who made a flying contraption, and for a few years she was a thorn in the merchants’ side because she could take merchandise from Shamse Azima to Wandar in under five days. It’s the next city after Makbarim, up the Tharawat. It can take weeks for the merchants to get their stuff there. They tried to prevent people from doing business with her, but expediency will make people sidestep the rule makers.” “What happened to her?” George asks, while I contemplate if I can use that strategy by raising the Jeep’s speed. “No one knows. She simply never arrived at Wandar one time.” “Her magic failed her,” Yamiltary says from the front. “As it always will.” “It’s possible,” Tamika says. “Even now, most of the magics that come out of the dungeons are put to use before scholars can get their hands on them to study.” “That will change,” Runihua says from the front. “That’s for those more into magic than me,” Tamika says. “This side of the Tharawat is mostly houses. The docks are on the other side. Ordinary folks live this far from it. The wealthier ones live closer. The guilds and most of the markets are on the other side. It’s older. Has more of a history.” He keeps talking while I look around. I’m not usually one for the scenery. My usual mode is to be focused on my destination. Eyes forward, mind thinking about a thousand different things. I’ll have music playing too, as a distraction. But here, I don’t have a destination; I’m just following the group. And there is so much to look at. While buildings look to be made of packed clay, I see enough place where it pealed off to reveal bricks that it’s been applied on top. Most are just the ground floor. Very square. There’s a parapet on the roofs and, on many of them, people are moving about. Door are…nothing more than openings. Maybe some have a curtain inside; the light isn’t angled so I can see in. With the warmth and no air conditioning, I guess that makes sense. There’s smoke coming up either from some roofs or from behind the house. I catch the smell of food, and my stomach rumbles protests against me starving. It’ll survive. Something darts between two buildings, and I head in that direction. “The group’s over there,” Lao Hu points out. A glance and I see them in the large road. “I’ll catch up to them. I want to see that was.” The space is narrow. What I think of when I imagine alleys in my stories. The thing that caught my attention is clawing at an old crate. “Well, hello there,” I say, approaching the cat. For as much as I like cats of all kinds, I’m not much when it comes to recognizing breeds of small cats, but even then, I’m pretty sure this is a mixed breed. I don’t even know if—wait. This isn’t Earth. That is clearly a cat, but I have no way to know if breed even applies. Its short fur is cream colored with darker splotches. It hisses at me, arching its back, and I stop. “I don’t think it wants you here, bub.” “It’s just scared.” I crouch. “Probably hungry too.” I extend my hand, keeping it low to the ground. “Hello there. You can sniff me, I’m totally harmless.” Back remaining arched, it approaches, and I barely move my hand in time when it swats at my fingers claws out. “Told you,” Lao Hu says. “Okay. That’s on me. I guess you don’t like intruders. Now I wish I’d brought some extra food. You look hungry.” Like my stomach would have let me not eat it. I reach for the crate, and the cat darts away. While I look for something to keep it pried up, and realized how stupid that idea is, it watches me from around the corner. I tip the crate on its side and expose a bunch of insects scrambling for darkness. Looks disgusting to me, but I’m not a cat. Well, I am, but also not. I step back to the mouth of the alley. How do they differentiate between them and their four-legged counterparts? Or is it that there are no direct counterparts? Runihua didn’t seem to know what a lynx is. The cat watches me for a second or two, then moves along the wall, eyes on me for a few steps. Probably confirming this isn’t a trap. Then it dart at the pile of insects and I leave it to eat alone. I don’t need to see that. I turn to the road and…don’t see the group. Okay. Not a problem. They were going in that direction, which heads toward the water. So all I have to do is the same and I’ll catch up to them, eventually. The first large intersection puts that in doubt. Breathe, I remind myself. Just breathe. There is no reason to panic. We know they’re going to the river. We keep going there, and we will rejoin them. And it isn’t like I need to rush. I can visit this city at my own speed. Having decided that, I continue toward the river, while looking around. At a corner, someone is cooking meat on sticks and handing them to passersby for one of the small iron coins. My stomach protests loudly when I walk away. No money, I remind it. No way to make it until I work out how to offer my services. A bark catches my attention. “You know, if you keep detouring like this, you aren’t going to catch up to them,” Lao Hu says. “It’s not like I need them.” The dog is surprisingly lean, sitting by a doorway, and in that one, I see the curtain inside. Although it looks thick enough to be a carpet. It has golden fur, long erect ears and a thin tail that’s wagging as I approach. That’s certainly a better sign. “And are you going to be nicer to the stranger?” I ask it, crouching and again offering my hand, low to the ground. I’m more of a cat person than a dog one, but I like all animals. My dad was a big time dog guy. Had them from as far as I can remember. Even had a deal once he retired to take in pure breed dogs from official breeders instead of…whatever they’d do with dogs too old for their reason to exist. It sniffs my hand, then licks it. “I thought you’d be nice.” I scritch the side of its head. The fur is so short that when I go against it, it could be sandpaper. It nuzzles my arm, then licks it and moves forward. “Better be careful,” an older woman says, stepping out. “He slobbers.” I divert him before he reaches my face. “Thank you for the warning.” “What does that mean? Thank you?” I stare at the Urden then try to figure out what it means, in this context. Thank you was so ubiquitous on Earth I never thought about its meaning. “In this context, I guess it means that I appreciate the warning.” “Is it something the young ones say now instead of using the proper words? Always changing things them. Never happy with the way things are.” I chuckle. Some things remain true no matter what planet you’re on, I guess. “What’s his name?” “Ubiron.” “Who’s a good boy?” I ask the dog in an almost childish voice. “Who’s a good boy?” Yes, I do feel silly. No. I don’t care. It’s for a dog. “You’re a good boy, Ubiron, yes, you are.” The Urden laughs. And Ubiron proves me wrong by slobbering all over my face. Lao Hu climbs to the back to avoid getting caught in it. “That’s a menace,” he says. She startles and makes a gesture, then Lao Hu is on the ground. “Why did you do that for?” I ask, pushing Ubiron at her and picking him up. “You okay?” He shakes himself. “My stitchings seems intact, but that wasn’t pleasant.” He looks around me. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do that again, Ma’am.” “What is that?” she asks. Keeping my distance, I present him to her. “This is Lao Hu. He’s…my friend.” He waved at her. “What did you do?” I ask. “Just a Go Away spell,” she says, looking unsure. “I’m sorry, it…startled me. I’ve never….” “It’s okay, Ma’am,” Lao Hu says. “I get I’m not like anything here. Just don’t do it again.” He considers something. “Please.” She nods, and I figure now’s as good a time to move on as any. “Thank you for letting me pet Ubiron.” I walk off, placing Lao Hu back on my shoulder. “Do you know anything about magic here?” I ask him. “Nope. If it isn’t about the Jeep. I’m more in the dark about this place than you are.” I nod. There’s a magic user and healer’s guild, so yeah, magic is a thing. I kind of remember her saying something about it, but not the details. I probably should have asked for details before accepting to be sent to this world. I told you I’d forgotten something important. There isn’t much I can do about it, so I pay attention to my surroundings. Magic might be a thing, but it’s not so prevalent I see anyone using it. The buildings grow further apart as I get closer to the river, taller too, although they all have the same blocky shapes. The stairs are on the outside, going up to the second and third floor when they have them. There are no fences, so I see the yards, which are mostly gardens. One has a pond, another also, but with a fountain. No idea how they get the water to flow out of the urn like that. Maybe magic. Then I see the river and I’m impressed by how wide it is, and momentarily concerned as to how I’m supposed to cross it. There are no visible bridges. I have vague memories of standing on the shore of the St-Laurence, back when I lived at my parent’s place. We weren’t that far from it, but there were building and a main road between them and it, so most of the time, its existence didn’t register. I must still have gone to it, to have memories. The how the crossing happens is shown by the barges people get on, and the one already in the process of being pushed to the other side. Two massive Capine are using long poles to move it. Which means the river is no deeper than those poles. Which is still deep. I watch for a while. I watch to see how people are paying, and if there’s anything I’ll be able to do as an alternative. Some are swimming across, but I’ve never been that much of a swimmer. I’ll admit I’m sufficiently surprised that no one’s paying I’m sure I missed something. Maybe there’s someone taking the money earlier, but there isn’t. People just walk to the shore where one of the ore person controls how many board. I join the mass, and people quickly step away from me. They look at me with a mix of quizzicalness and worry. A few in outright fear. “I think you should send me away,” Lao Hu says. “What? No, I’m not sending you away just because they….” A few of the expression turn aggressive. Fine. I sent Lao Hu away. Not that he weighs all that much, but I’m immediately aware of the missing weight on my shoulder. It’s too late for me to claim to not have known he was there, but that doesn’t mean I can’t act like it. I straighten and return a quizzical look to those looking at me. That’s it. I dare you to do something. Oh, I am shaking inside. If they turn into a mob, I am done for. But, one by one, they lose interest. I won’t claim they question if they actually saw what they did, but they ignore me afterward. Some of them pretty damn hard, actually. The sun’s high by the time I’m let onto the barge and it’s extremely hot out here. There are seats, but I stand by the railing, watching the boats and getting more of the warm breeze. I know nothing about boats. I don’t think I ever even wrote about a character taking a boat. So I can only guess about what it means for these to be wide, based on what I remember of my high school physics class that touched on buoyancy. I figure they can carry a lot of cargo before sinking enough they’ll scrape the bottom. No idea if the number of masts has an effect on their speed, but I doubt I’ll be able to compete with those. But they aren’t the only way cargo is moved. Our barge has to wait for another one to pass, this one loaded with packages and pulled by a team of horses on the shore. The lone ore woman using her pole to keep the barge from getting close to it. That I can compete with. Even at fifty kilometers per hour, I have to be faster, and unlike the sail boats, horses also have to rest. So all I have to do is promise faster deliveries. As soon as I step off the barge, I find out Tamika wasn’t joking when he said this side is busier. The road is crowded. The buildings are closer together. And the place kind of stinks. I stick to the shade both for protection against the heat and because it’s not quite as crowded. I guess they’re all used to these temperatures. I keep moving. There’s no way I can find the group now, but I figure Tamika will take them to the arena, and that’s got to be something easy to find. Or at least easier than one of the guilds. I’m not saying it’s a good plan, just that it’s a plan. I do better when I have plans, which I know contradicts me being a discovery everything. Until you also remember how I said my life would have been easier if I’d known what I wanted out of it at any point. Plans are difficult to make when you don’t know what you’re going for. It doesn’t take long for the crowd to crowd me even where I’m walking, so to escape them I turn into the next alley. I’ll probably get lost in there, but it’s not going to change much in my current situation. That is, until I make a turn and see a group further in. I take in the injured man, the other beating him, those cheering all this on, and I turn around and walk away, hoping really hard they didn’t notice me. Then I walk faster. When I reach a crowd, I lose myself in it. Look. I’m not a bad guy. If I thought I could do anything for that man, I’d have done it. If I knew what the police looked like here, I’d tell them so they can deal with it. Although at this point, I probably can’t find the alley anymore. So the point’s moot. Yes, I know. Thou protest too much. Here’s the bottom line. I’m not brave. You could say I’m something of a coward. I have a very strong conflict avoidance system. I keep saying it. I am not main character material. What? You thought I was saying it for nothing? No. That is me being realistic. I look up and think especially hard. Do you hear me? Whatever you have planned for me, it’s going to fail! Go pick someone else to be your hero.