Chapter 72: Petrichor

FieryKathy

The cadence of the horse’s trot is very relaxing as I snuggle into the comforting arms of my girlfriend. The weather had taken a slight turn for the worse since it started drizzling about half an hour after our departure, though thanks to Sam I was nice and cozy anyway.

“I’m so jealous of Ami right now.” My sister complains. “Nikki, I want to share in your warmth too!”

“I can give you a little accompanying flame.” She winks and snaps her finger, making a little spark of fire float next to my sister, sizzling when the small raindrops hit it.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that!”

“I know but I don’t think the poor horsey could carry the both of us babe, especially not when you are wearing your armour.”

Élise sighs again. “Guess you’re right… still want to hug you though.”

“Awh, likewise.”

“Aren’t you feeling cold, Hilda?” I ask our fearless group leader who’s riding her horse up front.

“Not really.” She shrugs. “My jacket is pretty waterproof, and besides, I quite like the rain. Makes the forest smell amazing.”

I take in a big breath of forest air. It does smell really nice. Not that a dryer forest doesn’t smell nice, but it does make it feel more fresh and full of life.

“Isn’t there a word for that, I think I read that in an article once.” Sam gently makes the horse go a bit faster to catch up with Hilda’s.

“Hmmm, it’s called petrichor I think? I’m not one hundred percent sure though.”

“I think that’s it! It sounds familiar anyway.”

Hilda smiles and nods towards the bend in the road in front of us. “We should be pretty close to Honnes by the way. So we might see the city gates soon.”

Just as she says that and our party  moves around the corner, we see the city walls of Honnes in the distance.  Compared to the city walls of Ribaquen these walls were a lot less imposing but still quite imposing from the distance where we were at.

“Is Honnes a big town Hilda?” I ask while we slowly but surely approach the gates.

“Compared to Ribaquen, not at all. But, it is Reykland’s fourth biggest town, and the biggest inland city at that, since it connects a couple of major trading routes. Reykland is definitely more of a naval power than anything else.”

“I’m pretty sure the Vinavian Empire doesn’t even have a port town.” My sister comments.

“That’s right. Although it does have a coastline, for some reason people just don’t settle there.” Hilda nods.

“Hmm, I wonder why.”

“Maybe all Vinavians just hate water.” Élise shrugs.

“Hmm, maybe.” Hilda laughs. “But they do like to settle along rivers.”

“Well there goes that theory.”

When we arrive at the city gates one of the guards stops us and talks to Hilda. “State your business.”

“We are passing through to Skaok.”

The guards looks us over and then looks back to Hilda. “Alright then, there’s a toll of 1 gold piece to enter the city.”

“Is that so?” Hilda looks at the other guard, who saw that she was looking at him and immediately fixed his eyes to the front. “Last time I heard passage throughout Reykland was free to stimulate trade. What do you think, soldier?”

The soldier who had fixed his gaze forward now began sweating bullets. “Y-yes, well. N-no… Maybe...”

“Hey, you were talking to me, not to him!” The original guard aggressively moves towards Hilda and starts yelling at her.

“Oh? Talking, is that what you were doing? Sounds to me like you were just trying to rip off some adventurers who are not from around here.”

“Hilda, can’t we just give him the gold coin and be done with it?” My sister tries to end the argument.

“He will just pester the next adventurer that comes through, I don’t like corrupt arsehats like this just getting away with everything.”

“Excuse me?!” The guard pulls his sword but before he can do anything Hilda has already gotten off her horse and put a knife against the guard’s throat.

“Excuse me, what?”

“N-n-nothing.”

“Not so brave anymore, aren’t ya?”

“What’s going on here?!” A different voice comes from inside the town, a tall woman in decorated plate armour walks up to us with a couple of other guards by her side.

“Drop your weapon!” She commands Hilda.

“No, no I don’t think I will.”

“Wait… I think I saw that movie…” Sam whispers, just loud enough for me to hear it.

I look up at her. “Hmm?”

“I’ll tell you later.” She whispers back and gives me a quick kiss on my forehead.

“Your guard here tried to rob us of some money and was going to pull a sword on me as well.”

“N-no, they attacked us first, isn’t that right, Peter?” The man with the knife to his throat looks over to the nervous soldier from earlier.

“U-uhh…”

“Private Sornssen, is that true?” The captain of the guard looks over to him now as well.

“C-captain…” He looks over to us, back to his captain, back to us and back to his captain once more. “The adventurers are telling the truth…”

“You fuck, you will pay for this!”

The guard tries to move but Hilda keeps him still with her knife. “Oh no you don’t, sunshine.”

“Guards, take the former corporal into custody.” The guards move over to Hilda and handcuff the troublemaker. “Take him to the dungeon.” The guards follow her command and take him away.

“I’m so sorry… He threatened to do something to my family if I ratted him out…” Private Sornssen apologizes to us and to the captain who stayed behind.

“I understand, I will post some guards near your residence to make sure he doesn’t retaliate.” The captain lays a hand on the man’s shoulder and then turns her eyes on us. “Sorry for the mess, budget cuts have lowered military discipline and recruitment standards a lot, sadly this is more common than I’d like. The naval faction is just eating up all the funds these days. Did you come from Parma perchance?”

“Yes, how did you know?” Hilda replies.

“I got word of an adventurer party defeating a band of deserters there, they matched your description. Especially yours was quite striking, Miss Goddess.” She winks at me.

Whaaaaaa?! How do they know already?! 

The captain of the guard gestures to us to follow us through the city gate into the city itself.

“At any rate, I want to apologize again for the inconvenience you have suffered at the hands of our guard. Could I offer you a free night at the best inn in town?”

Hilda looks at the rest of the party and then back at the captain. “No thanks, we just got on the road and we’d like to make it to Skaok before the evening if possible.”

“Ah, I understand. What are you going to do in Skaok if I may ask?”

“We’re looking for a ship to bring us to the new continent.” My sister replies, getting a nasty look from Hilda almost immediately.

“Lise! How do we know if we can even trust her.”

“She looks okay to me.” She shrugs.

The captain starts laughing. “Haha, no offense taken, I can definitely understand where you’re coming from with what just happened. However I can swear upon all the Gods that I am of noble intentions.”

“If only Ami had a lie detector skill…” Hilda sighs.

“What is not can yet come to be.” Nikki replies.

“Guess that’s true.”

The captain continues. “Nevertheless I’d like to at least show my gratitude towards you by writing you a letter of recommendation, so to speak, for a captain I happen to know in Skaok. She’s not affiliated with the military whatsoever but she’s one of the best captains around. She’s rather picky with her clientele though. If you follow me to that building over there I can write one up for you real fast.” She points at what looks like a castle in the center of town.

“Sure, I guess that can’t hurt.” Hilda agrees

“Good.” She smiles. “Just give me a minute or five. You can wait in the stables next door so you are out of this drizzle.”

“Thanks.”

Our party heads over to the stable, feeding and watering our horses while we wait. Élise has taken a seat on a fence, overlooking the market square while she noms on some dried meat. I take a seat next to her.

“Here, make sure you don’t fall.” Lise offers me a hand to get me on top of the fence which I gladly accept.

“Thanks.”

“Want a piece too?” After I’m seated nice and securely on top of the fence she offers me a bit of the dried meat she was nomming on. “It’s beef jerky.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” I take a piece out of her hand and start chewing on it. “Oh, it’s pretty tasty.”

“Mhmm, somehow it reminds me a bit of chewing gum… meaty chewing gum…”

“I think I know what you mean.” I look at her, she’s smiling at me with a big smile. “I-is there something on my cheek?” I quickly rub my cheek with my hand.

“Nah, it’s nothing.” She gives me a head pat. “Was just thinking how glad I am that you’re happy now and that we can have little moments like this.”

“Oh. Me too. Sam said something similar as well.”

“Well, you are our communal treasure after all.” she leans into me for a second so our arms are touching.

I start blushing. “Awh, don’t make me blushy!”

“Sorry sis… ah, oops, I think I might’ve accidentally rubbed a bit of beef jerky in your hair earlier.”

“Eeeeeh!? Ewwww!! Lise!!” I softly start punching her arm.

“It was a joke, a joke!” Élise giggles. 

“Such a baka!”

Lise starts laughing even louder. “Help, my sister is a tsundere!”

I put on the biggest pout in the history of pouts. Which only resulted in me getting headpat even more.

Grrrr… gwwrrrrr… prrrrr… puurrrrrr… Dang it!