5 Filling in the Blanks

"Uh, it's um... its synthetic, I guess," he stammered. "Why do y-" he trailed off as the elf interrupted him.

"Synthetic? Like a mix of materials?" She asked.

"Yeah, s-something like that..." He said meekly. He decided to allow her to control the conversation.

She brought her hand to her chin and furrowed her brow as she examined the windbreaker. She leaned in for a better look. She looked more. And some more. Ken started to get impatient. "Can I go now?" He asked.

"No, I'm not done." She said. She moved her eyes away from the jacket and examined Ken's face. After a few seconds, she suddenly stopped examining, stepped back and leaned against the side of her stall. "What's with you, huh? You seem confused."

"Are you-" he started.

"Not by me, you seemed confused before I called you over," she said smugly, acting as if she was some great detective.

Ken thought about what to say. "There's no way I can tell the truth," he thought. He decided to come up with the next best thing and told her he had amnesia. He was unsure if she even knew of the condition.

"Amnesia huh?" She clicked her tongue.

"Yeah, so um... where am I?" He asked, with flawless innocence.

The elf rang out in laughter. Ken had never heard anything like it in his life. An image of silver bells ran through his mind. He imagined all elves laughed like that, and the thought caused him to smile. As her laugh died down, she told Ken the name of the street they were on.

"N-no, I mean this city... Or maybe the country, I guess."

The elf's eyes widened. She couldn't bring herself to even chuckle at his complete lack of information. She realized the situation the boy was in and decided to invite him behind her counter. For the next ten minutes she filled him in on Clarenburgh, the affairs of the surrounding countries, current news, and even trade. After that, Ken asked her questions to fill in the blanks that he still had on this world. She talked while doing her job, of course, and was taken aback that he didn't know anything about the intelligent races besides humans. He also was clueless regarding the Adventurer's Guild, the existence of monsters, and even magic. After the blanks had been filled, thirty minutes had passed since she had first called him over.

After Ken felt like he could gather the rest of this world's common sense on his own, he stood up and made to leave.

"Before you go, what are you called?" She asked bluntly.

"I'm Ken!" He said as he walked off.

"I'm Sylna. Come back next time you need clothes! Good luck with your amnesia!" she shouted as he blended into the crowd. She felt warm inside, relishing in the fact that she had helped someone out immensely, and done her good deed for the day.

Ken decided to go to the Adventurer's Guild. He had gathered from Sylna's explanation that it was a sort of paid membership club where mercenaries were alerted of monster bounties and open jobs in the immediate area. Of course, he had no experience fighting monsters or even holding weapons, but he figured that it was the easiest way for someone unskilled like him to make money, even just as a meat shield. According to Sylna, Clarenburgh was the Guild's capital, and even the Guild's headquarters were in the burg. He didn't walk in the direction of the headquarters though, which were in the exact center of the town, but instead walked to the district headquarters, which was near the eastern gate. With every step he became closer to the eastern continent, and therefore, his destiny.