Chapter 4 : Arrival

“Hey, look!” Vance pushed through the final layer of brush in the forest. Entering into a clearing where their destination could finally be seen. “We made it and it's still morning! Looks like that chick underestimated us, I haven't even broken a sweat.”

“Y-yeaAahh.” I wheezed. Resting against a tree for support. “Piece, huughh, piece of cake.”

“Are you sure you're okay honey? I- I can carry you if we're going too fast!” Hailey asked me.

“No it's, haahh, haahh, I'm good to keep going!” Even with this fit new body, I was struggling to keep up. It seemed like they could easily stride through the forest, while I had to struggle over branches, bushes and run to keep up with their walking pace.

If we were in combat, I'd be twice as fast and hardy, but as was I was no stronger than an average guy. Their bodies seemed to have limitless energy, but over time, as the Hero, I would surely surpass them? It couldn't get any worse than my ‘Goblin enthusiast’ skill…

“Okay… but if you need to rest- or get thirsty! Or change your mind! Just let me know and I'll help out!”

Hailey was in a strange mood today. She'd been offering help all morning, even for the most basic things. She was normally only like this when she felt guilty, but what did she have to feel guilty about? Not being able to heal me? Or help with the Goblin? Hmmm, if that were the case, I should probably reassure her there's nothing she could do when we get a moment together.

Hailey had a lot of strengths, but when she felt guilty about something it could really eat away at her. It was better to comfort her now, rather than waiting. Even if I wasn't a hundred percent sure what she was guilty about. That was a lesson I learned the hard way.

But I didn't get the chance to pull her aside for a talk. She had already gone ahead, walking besides Vance as we approached closer to the town. By the time I had managed to catch up, we were already there. Standing in front of the impressive town [gate.

It was hard to judge how big this place was without getting higher up, but there were maybe a couple hundred buildings inside. Farmland and more houses covered the area outside the walls, especially along the river, which ran through the town.

The walls weren't made of stone like I would have expected, but were made of wood. A row of thick logs with pointy edges on top, bound together by horizontal planks. There were a few guard towers around the perimeter, but they seemed mostly for observing and watching the area, rather than for offense.

That gate though, that was a sight. Ornate Iron bars that gleamed in the light. Shimmering with beautiful colours that made the whole thing look magical. It might actually be magical, thinking about it. It seemed odd to have such a sturdy looking gate when the walls were comparatively flimsy, but maybe it was just for show?

People of all types came and went from the town, mostly humans but the closer you looked the more oddities you found. Beyond just a few human looking people with the odd animal feature were real, actual beastmen.

Minotaur men, nine, maybe ten feet tall, carrying bundles of tree logs into town. Their hooved feet leaving footsteps in the dirt road like it was snow. They noticed us walking by and all of them eyed up Hailey. Big black eyes staring right at her, their bull heads grinning wide, snorting and huffing with enough **** to jingle the nose piercings they all had.

A Lameia woman rode by on a cart. Coiled around the human driver, who seemed quite pleased with his situation. Despite having scales and being reptilian, her body looked smooth and she had a very noticeable pair of breasts that she squeezed against the man. I tried not to think too hard about why a snake woman would need boobs.

And atop the gate tower was a man with the head of an eagle, a rough leather helmet strapped to it and a crossbow in hands. I couldn't see well, but it looked like his whole body was mostly covered in feathers. Did he have wings as well? Or did the humanoid shape make flight impossible?

“Wow…” Hailey held my hand as she took the scene in. “Even in this body… I wasn't feeling it until now… but we really are in another world.”

“Pfftt, Antler girl didn't give that away? Or are you only getting it now ‘cause those Minotaur dudes caught your eye? Thinking about what they might be packing are you??”

“Quit being an ass Vance.” I told him. He'd been pissy all morning, but that was nothing new.

People passed us by as we walked along the road. Smiling or giving a wave. A few of the more thuggish looking guys wolf whistled at Hailey, but other than that everyone seemed rather pleasant.

“It's so…. Peaceful?”

“You think?” Hailey said.

“Just look at the entrance. People are coming and going, but the guards aren't stopping anyone or asking any questions. And everybody just seems so calm and relaxed.”

“You make it sound like that's a bad thing.”

“It's not! But I just wasn't expecting it. I figured… you know. The way these things go, there's normally some world ending threat that we would need to stop. A devil lord or demon king?”

“I'm not risking my life to save some random fantasy world.” Vance said. “Maybe if there's some hot demon princess I can fuck afterwards.”

“Would it be so bad if there wasn't a big bad for us to fight?” Hailey said. Ignoring Vance’s comment.

“I just thought, since I'm a Hero…” I stopped myself from saying anymore. It was a stupid thought to have. Who in their right mind would want the world to be in danger?

“Let's just get something to eat. I'm starving.” Vance walked off into the town and Hailey pulled me along.

The three of us walking under the gate and into our first town in this world. A bright and colourful sign welcoming all travelers inside. It was written in a script I had never seen before, and yet perfectly understood, stating plainly.

“Welcome to Star-Tinged Town!”

☆☆☆

Finding the Tavern was surprisingly easy. The guards were helpful in pointing us the right way, and it wasn't very far from the front gate. People stared and whispered to each other as we passed by, but otherwise everybody seemed quite friendly. I wasn't sure if the staring was because we were new, because two of us were Elves, or because of the way Hailey was dressed…

Judging by the way most men blushed when they saw her, I was guessing it was the latter. I mentally put finding Hailey new clothes near the top of our to do list. Nobody seemed too shocked about her appearance, but it was clearly drawing attention.

“Y'all made it!” The cheerful voice overlapped with the scraping of a chair on the floor, as Myla bounced over to us. She was dressed casually now, dark plain trousers with a tight green crop top that left nothing to the imagination. I tried my best not to stare, Hailey was already not feeling her best. I didn't want to make it worse.

The tavern was quite large, one of the largest buildings in town it seemed. Doubling as a general community center, as well as a place that served food and drinks. There was a stage to one side, for music I assumed though nothing was playing right now, a bar and kitchen on the other and dozens of wooden tables to sit down at. There were few windows, but the lighting was cosy and welcoming, with candles giving off far more light than they should have. The room lively with people eating, drinking and talking, even at this hour. As far as a fantasy inn went, this place exceeded all my expectations.

“Come on! Come sit down! Let me buy you that drink, and you can start telling me ‘bout where y'all come from! I'll give you the rundown ‘bout this town ‘course. Anything you want to know!”

Myla dragged us to her table and ordered some kind of drink for us. Despite seeming excited to learn about us and our homeland, she immediately started telling us the history of this town and its people. Going on about some ancient wars, migration of races and more things I didn't have the context to [understand.

By the time our drinks arrived, she had finished with her history lesson and finally asked about us. Vance and Hailey started telling her vague truth's of our world, enough to satisfy her but not enough to let on how truly lost we were.

Instead of joining in, my thoughts were on what she had told us. No mention of any big war currently happening, or refugees fleeing some crisis. It seemed there was currently an era of peace in this world…

But then why? Why were we here? It seemed obvious now that Tim knew something was going to happen. Some dark power or evil God must have contacted or controlled him? But why? Why was any of this happening?

“Myla.” I said. Interrupting the conversation. “Is there any… demon king, or ancient evil in this world?”

“Well… no. No I don't believe so. Nothin’ like that sept in old storybooks.”

“Are these books fiction? Or did they really happen?”

“I'm not really sure, sorry hun. I only know the history of our little town here. Don't know much about ancient evils or big scary monsters.”

“But somebody else might?”

“Well sure. Some of those old wizard types would for sure! Angar has a tower not too far from town. He's expensive to see, but that man knows everything!”

“How expensive?” Vance asked. Staring at me.

“Couple hundred gold maybe? He's not exactly consistent with his prices…” Myla must have seen concern flash over my face, because she immediately started talking again. “I can lend you some change! If you don't quite have all the funds that is…”

“We umm… we don't have any money, ahh, gold, right now.” Hailey admitted.

“Or weapons, food, armour… Hell, I don't even have a shirt!” Vance added on.

“You've got nothing?” Myla seemed speechless for the first time.

“It's a long, personal, story.” I told her. “But everything you see on us is all we have in the world.” Saying it out loud made me realise just how dire our situation really was. Talking to that wizard could wait until we were settled into this world. “There doesn't happen to be some ‘Adventures guild’ we could join to make money, is there?”

“You're lookin’ for a guild hall? Well you've found it! Our town ain't big enough for a dedicated building, but the barkeep is authorised to hand out quests and rewards!”

“Really? That's great!”

“Yeah, wonderful.” Vance droned. “We can go punch some monsters to ****. That worked so well against that one single Goblin.”

“We don't have to bring that up…”

“Not every quest is about killing some monster.” Myla explained. “Most are about helping around town, or going out and foraging like I was yesterday! But if you're in need of gold… culling monsters would pay out the best.”

“So it's work some menial tasks, or get ourselves killed.” Vance sighed. “Some adventure…”

“I don't normally do this, but I'm liking y'alls company! I wouldn't mind helping out and buying you some starter gear. Then we can go take on some big quest together!”

“You'd do that? For free?” Vance asked her.

“Well…. I think we can work something out…” Myla narrowed her eyes while staring at him. She was pressing her shoulders together, squeezing her boobs and making her cleavage pop.

“We can pay you back when we get the reward.” Hailey gripped her mug so tight I thought it might shatter. And it was made of wood. She really didn't seem to like Myla, even though she was only flirting with Vance.

“We'll figure it out… But we'll need a fifth party member. I'm sure y'all can hold your own in a fight, but we need a solid fighter or tank to round us out.”

A part of me wanted to protest, another party member meant less rewards for us. But seeing as this was our first real battle, having more help was probably for the best.

“Do you know anybody?” I asked.

“I know everybody!” Myla laughed. “But I'll let you pick somebody out. You know your dynamic and who'd fit with it better than little old me!”

“Yeah…. That makes sense. But where-”

“Just look for somebody sitting around here like they've got nothing to do. If a pretty girl like her does the talking, there's no way they'd say no!” Myla stood up and walked over to Vance. Putting her arms on his shoulder. “Me and shirtless can go buy your equipment.”

“How about we just find somebody and all go together?” Hailey smiled. The kind of smile that made you think somebody was about to get stabbed.

“No time if we want to get this done today!” Vance shot out of his chair, winking at us. Racing out the door with Myla while Hailey watched on. Unflinching from her stone cold smile.

“Not a fan of her?” I asked after a moment of awkward silence.

“Hmm? What do you mean?” Hailey snapped back to normal, like she wasn't just giving off a **** glare.

“Nevermind.” I took a sip of my drink. It was more like a thick soup than a refreshing beverage. An odd experience, but honestly just what I needed. “Let's pick somebody out.”

I looked around the room while finishing off my drink, and sure enough there were a few tough looking adventures hanging [around.

In a back corner on his own was another Minotaur man like we'd seen outside. Only this one looked bigger, stronger, and had a body covered in scars. He leaned back in his chair against the wall, a large executioner's type axe resting beside him.

On the other side of the room was a red skinned woman with golden eyes and goat-like horns. She wasn't a beefcake, but she was clearly well toned and muscled. She sat with her arms around two other girls who clearly weren't the adventuring type. They seemed to fawn over her, and laugh at everything she said. Adoring fans maybe? That was a good sign that she was a skilled fighter.

Lastly there was a roguish type running some sort of gambling game with dice. I couldn't get a good look at him past his dark leather armour and thick hood, but he seemed pale skinned with silver hair. Not exactly a tough fighter, but he was the only other person here who was armed, and looked fast and agile. The daggers on his belt had the same shimmering glint to them that the front gate did, which made me think they must be magical.

Any of them would be a good pick, especially if Hailey could figure out how to use her buffing magic. I thought about flipping a coin or something, but Hailey had a look in her eyes that told me she had a clear favourite.

“So.” I finished off my drink. Standing up and offering my hand to her. “Who do you want joining us?