20 Chapter 20 (1/2)
Three slipped back into his now clean clothing, he ran his hand through his hair, reminiscing about earlier events. He sighed, first he had to head back to the house, sunrise was coming and he did enjoy the food Emmi's mother made for him.
Making his way through the village, the few early risers gave him a wave or a nod. He responded as politely as he was wont to do. His mind, unlike what he wished focused, on the woman in the bath, he realized he never asked for her name. She had a farm? She didn't look like any of the farm hands or owners he had seen before, she was skinny, her hands were soft. He shook his head trying to rid himself of such thoughts.
He was looking forward to hunting with Crimson tonight, he bet the two of them together could get a lot done together. Maybe he should take Crimson to take a look at that farm, lost in his own thoughts , with little control as to where they slipped off to, he reached home. The others were slowly waking up and Selicia, Emmi's mother, was already up and about making breakfast.
She smiled as he walked in, then she eyed his clothes with a critical glare. ”Drop the clothes on the desk in the tailory I'll get them fixed, There is a spare set in the wardrobe in your room. Wake up Sumi while you're at it would you dear?”
Three nodded, ”Yes Ma'am”
He walked into the room, woke up the sleepy Sumi, her hair a mess and her eyes dreary and sunken as they were every morning. They headed to breakfast, people having small discussions about what they would do that day. Three wanted to tell them about his nightly escapade but decided to wait, he would go check on the woman's farm then hunt for a night with Crimson before he introduced him to the rest.
He wanted to ask Emmi about the events in the bath-house and what they meant but for some mysterious reason he could not bring himself to ask, he felt slightly jittery, he had spent all day rolling questions in his head. Before he knew it night was falling and the rest had already headed to bed, he could sparsely remember the day, everything a blur.
He looked at the clothes he was wearing and decided to leave the shirt, wearing only the pants. The shirt served no real purpose, the cold never bothered him anyway. He kept the pants on only because of Emmi's continued insistence that he wear pants at all times. He made his way back to the north gate after he told the others he was stepping out. He walked up to Lem.
”I was told to visit a farm on the northern outskirts, a woman asked me to visit.” Three told him.
Lem grinned this weird grin like he knew some secret. ”A nightly visit eh?Just head straight from here, then you'll see a hill over yonder on the eastern side, that should be the farm ye be lookin for.”
”Thank you.” Three bowed politely as he exited the gate.
”You have fun now!” Lem shouted after him.
Three nodded, he did enjoy hunting. First, however, he needed to find Crimson. It turned out he didn't have to look hard, he could feel the presence of the Jurgor nearby, waiting just beyond the treeline. He could feel that it had waited for night to fall, for him to exit the city.
”Before we go hunting,” He told the approaching Jurgor, ”I have someone I need to visit.”
For some strange reason he felt like the Jurgor understood the intent behind his words.
The two of them headed towards the farm, after a few minutes of walking he saw the hill Lem had mentioned and made his way towards it. The closer he got to the 'farm' the wider his eyes got, the so called farm had tall stone walls surrounding it, at least ten feet tall each and by the looks of it a few feet thick.
He walked around the wall tracing his fingers over the thick stone, it was harder than he had expected, he rolled his shoulder and threw a proper punch at it. His fist smashed into the wall, to his surprise it had little to no effect on the wall, he even felt a dull ache in his fist. Crimson was testing the wall with its own claws, scratching at it with no results.
He walked further along the wall until he came to a gate, not knowing what else to do he knocked. He heard a familiar voice from beyond the wall. ”I will be there in a minute!”
Three stood there waiting, almost an exact minute after she had called out the gates opened. In the entrance stood the woman he had come to see, she was wearing a beautiful tight fitting dress, its deep black accentuated by silver-white embroidery. He felt his gaze gravitating towards certain curvaceous areas but quickly pulled himself together looking her in the eye. His eyes flickered to her ears, only now noticing they were slightly pointed. He wondered how he had missed that before.
”So you came to visit.” She said a small smile on her lips.
”I did.”
Her eyes floated over his companion. ”And you brought such a beautiful creature with you.”
Crimson slightly bowed her head towards the woman. Much to the surprise of Three, he glanced from Crimson to the woman and back.
”A Crimson Jurgor, quite a rare species. The Jurgor's themselves are rare, they only live in this local area, but a Crimson Jurgor is a variant. It is special from birth, they are stronger than the average Jurgor. Their evolution potential and pathways are unknown. Truly an interesting specimen.”
She mumbled eyeing the creature with obvious interest. She started when she realised she lost herself in study of the Jurgor. A slight blush spread over her cheeks.
”I realize I am being rude to my guest. I am Vyria, Monsterbreeder and evolutionary scientist. I moved to this area only recently so I could experiment in relative peace.”
Three bowed slightly, ”I am Three.”
”Simply Three? You were named after a number?”
Three scratched his neck. ”I have no memories prior to a few years ago, I do not recall my own name or my past. Those I feel privileged to call family have given me my name and so I wear it proudly.” He stated, straightening.
She smiled reassuringly. ”A name given by those who care about you should indeed be treasured, please enter, let me show you around.”
With a wave of her hand, she assured him inside, leading him into a place he would be spending more time than he would ever have thought.
He followed Vyria into her home, Crimson following close on his heels.
”If you don't mind me asking, when did you and the Jurgor bond?” A gentle smile appearing on her face.
”Yesterday.”
She blinked at the answer, ”Did you save it from predators? Or approach it by slowly feeding it untill you could get close?”
Three looked at her, an eyebrow raised. ”Nothing like that.”
She frowned, ”Then how did you get a proud Jurgor to bind with you?”
”We fought, I won.” Thee shrugged.
She stared at him incredulously, ”You fought? A Jurgor would never acknowledge an adventurers party as an alpha, it is unheard of.”
”I wasn't with my party, it was just me.”
Her jaw started dropping before she caught herself, ”You fought a Crimson Jurgor alone and won? It still should not acknowledge you as an alpha for something similar as that, humans have the advantage of equipment, magic, potions etc. It is odd that a Jurgor would submit, I have tried delving into the monstrous mind before and I suspect they have some inborn loathing against potions, equipment or any magical means. It is impressive none the less but I wonder why it decided to bond with you.”
”I wasn't using any equipment. I wore the same outfit as I am wearing now, except...” He scratched his head, suddenly extremely aware of his lack of shirt, ”I did have a shirt, not that it survived the encounter intact.”
”You fought a Jurgor barehanded?!” She stopped in her tracks and was truly staring at him now.
Three shrugged, ”I'm hard to injure and even harder to kill. My skills make me tough.”
She gazed at him, curious. ”May I ask what skills those are?”
”Here, i'll just show you.” He handed her his status plate.
Name : Three
Age : ???
Lvl : 11
Occupation: N/a
Class : N/a