17 City of Arcadia (1/2)

Gentle warm rays of afternoon sunlight fell through the canopy of trees as Elise and her party finally exited the forest after a couple hours of travel. There were a few monster attacks but nothing on the level of the viperion from before, it was almost as if a strange hand were guiding them unconsciously away from the nests of the more powerful beasts.

Elise was not a superstitious person but as the horses strolled out of the treeline, she closed her eyes and muttered a small pray of thanks. There was no proof that the hunter goddess was the one behind the strange feelings but the female voice in her head that lead her to Ashley formed small traces of doubt in her mind.

Were the old gods really gone from the continent? Elise was determined to do some research in the family archives once they arrived at the castle.

”Bye big sister goddess!”, Ashley beamed and cheerfully waved at the departing forest behind her.

There was a faint sound of the rustling of leaves that seemed to indicate a presence in the forest responding to her. Unknown to the mother and daughter pair a ghostly woman was watching them leave with warmth in her eyes.

Elise rubbed her daughter's head gently and asked, ”Do you want to come back and build another shrine to the huntress?”

Ashley was thrilled, ”Yeah! Big sister goddess is one of my favourite people!” she quickly exclaimed.

Elise was irritated by a small sense of jealousy and replied, ”Oh? And who is your favourite person then?”

Ashley looked up and saw her mom pouting unconsciously, she quickly said, ”My mommy is my favourite.”

Elise did not say a word, but the tips of her ears slowly turned red and she started to braid Ashley's hair in a good mood. The horses neighed loudly as the party approached the walls of Arcadia.

The city of Arcadia was unlike any other city in the continent, it was more akin to a fortress at war rather than the capitol city of a dukedom.

It was surrounded on all sides by massive grey walls over sixty feet in length with glowing earth runes embedded to improve the strength and stability. The area enclosed by the walls was enormous in size and the city only took up a fraction of the land inside.

A beautiful lake sat in the middle of Arcadia surrounded by lush forests with small animals and plants. There were two entrances to the city with one gate on the northern side which bordered the forgotten forest and another gate on the southern side leading to a small harbour built outside the city.

The harbour was a temporary one as it would constantly have to be rebuilt at the end of spring. During the more harsher months, the residents would move into the main city for protection.

Few travellers would arrive from the forest and most merchants would use the harbour which lead to the Caspian Sea to transport goods to and from Arcadia to the rest of the continent. Despite the dangerous travel, Arcadia was appealing to plenty merchant and financial groups as a steady supply of monster parts and magical cores could be bought from the city.

The party approached the gate, it was made of iron plated bars which clamped down menacingly to the outside. Despite this, the gate was small and was only the length of two carriages side by side, during the spring the gate would become a liability during the monster attacks, so it was purposely designed to be as small as possible.

”Halt! State your name and identification!” a tough looking guardsman yelled from the ramparts.

Elise cocked an eyebrow and simply pointed to the crest on the carriage behind her in a confident manner. The guardsman took one look and hurriedly began to raise the gates to let them in.

It was the duchess herself! Would he not be seeking death if he decided to stop and ask her for ID papers? The very thought frightened the man, so he quickly gestured for Elise and her party to venture inside.

Ashley was very curious about the dukedom as she rode through the gates with her mom, her old parents would rarely stay in their territory and spent most of their time in the capitol trying to amass political power from several noble factions of the court.