15 The City of Den (1/2)
After arriving in Sweetgrass, and briefly torturing the gatekeep, Kalin and Liliana headed straight to Mei's house. As a small frontier town, almost all residents knew Kalin by this point. As the smallest and cutest waitress in town, his joyful demeaner, contagious laugh, and corked smile, he had become very popular with the residents of the town. Beside the occasional street vendor or failed scamming artist, most people in town treated him as their own child or grandchild. On their way, many people waved to and greeted Kalin. They too were met with a large toothy grin and a wave that brought smiles to their faces.
After arriving, they saw Mei and her father standing in front of their home. As members of the barbarian race, the two were much larger than most people, but by no means fat. Her father was wearing regular peasant clothing, but Mei wasn't wearing her regular waitress outfit. Standing at a height taller than the average man, Mei had her long, wavy, light brown hair flowed down her back and black paint covered her eyes. As a top, she wore what looked like a leather bikini that looked like it acted more to support her posture than protect anything. Her bottom looked like a leather bikini bottom, with a short, fur loincloth loosely covering both the front and back of it. Her outfit was completed with a pair of gladiator sandals that went almost to her knees, leaving little to the imagination.
Beside her outfit, she had a waist bag sitting on her butt, a pair of swords on either side of her hips, and a large two-handed sword strapped to her back. Both swords on her waist were one-handed swords that had a somewhat simple design. Though they looked to be of high quality they didn't have any notable features except for the strange reddish tint of the metal. The weapon that really stood out was the sword on her back, which looked like a giant khopesh. The axe-like sword had the height of a full-grown woman and had a had a somewhat sinister appearance that screamed the word 'heavy'.
Seeing the approaching figures, Mei ran over and yelled, ”Kal! Lili!” before lifting the siblings by their heads, squeezing them into her large breasts.
Lili escaped her grasp before mumbling something about big boobs, while Kalin hugged her back, as his face became positioned in the crevasse of her chest. As two people that loved hugging, having grown closer throughout the past several years, and both not needing much personal space, they became very close with each other. They both also had physical qualities the other appreciated but didn't have. Kalin was enamored by her soft but ridged muscles, while Mei was envious of his cute and feminine features.
Lili just sighed at the two most important people in her life before smiling to herself. Though it looked cute to outsiders, to any that knew het, it was a face that represented her scheming nature. After the two eventually separated, they gave their farewells to Mei's father, then the three of them proceeded to eat lunch before once again starting their journey.
After leaving town, they headed north toward the destination of this journey, the city of Den. Due to the enormity of the city, if one was at a high enough elevation, it could be easily seen from Sweetgrass. Though merchants or farmers would likely stop halfway, trained people such as Mei, Lili, and Kal could easily make it before nightfall. It didn't take long for Kalin to lay his eyes on the great walls of Den for the first time.
The main walls of Den were over 30 meters high and were several meters thick. Unlike the small wooden gate of Sweetgrass, Den had several layers of thick metal gates, preventing any outside threats from easily entering the city. The sky around it was surrounded by an enormous magical barrier, preventing anything from exiting or entering the city by air. Everything about it was imposing, as the walls seemed to go on forever in each direction. Unlike the unmatching but inviting guards of town, the gates were protected by fully-armored guards, as watches patrolled the walls. A long line of people, mounts, and carts lined in front of the gate, as the guards inspected each person entering the gate.
Usually adventurers would be able to bypass the line, but as Kalin was yet registered, the three of them had to wait for more than an hour before reaching the front of the line. After the two girls showed their adventurer plates, and payed for Kalin's entrance fee, Kalin was able to set foot into the City of Adventure for the first time.
It was like nothing Kalin had ever seen before. The streets were several times wider than the town Kal was familiar with, and carts, and people as far as the eye could see. The buildings varied in look and shape, several of which towered over others. Some were gaudy, and others were beautiful, and others still were rundown or worn. There were so many different smells and sights to take in that Kalin felt like he had visited a different world. The thing that might have been the most interesting, however, were the people that filled the streets.
As this was near the gate, the majority of people in the vicinity were either adventurers, mercenaries, or merchants. Den was much more diverse than Sweetgrass which was well over 90% human. Many different members of the races and even demons could be found walking the streets here. Kalin saw elves, dwarves, humans, cat people, lizardmen, angels, fairies, a centaur, some fauns, sheep people, and many races he had never heard of before. One of the most interesting creatures he saw looked like a Kangaroo with the head of a frog.
Releasing Kalin from his shock, Lili lead Kalin through the crowd, deeper into the city. Observing the surroundings, the people wore so many different kinds of clothes. A person in the alley had every inch of their body covered with heavy robes, a group of street performers wore clothing made completely of gold chains, a large muscular draconian wore only a single pair of loose purple pants. Many people carried weapons and had a plethora of ornaments and jewelry covering their bodies.
The stalls in the street were filled with so many different smells that Kalin had never smelled before, and foods he'd never seen.
After walking for about a half an hour, they finally reached a more residential region of the city. Various inns and pubs lined the street as laughter echoed through the alleys.