58 Felix

Felix sat calmly outside the southern gate of Frontier town. He had on a cloak and eye patch, while he waited for someone to take pity on the poor beggar he currently was. He had been here for over a week, listening for any news of what became of the expedition north. He looked at one person passing by to get into the town.

"Spare a coin?" His old raspy voice whispered out. The man, probably a farmer, looked at him with disgust and said,

"Get away from me you filthy beggar, surprised you didn't kick it during winter like most of you do." The man kept walking, showing his ID to the guard who was practically napping, before entering the town. Felix mentally sneered at the man, thinking he wasn't much better than a beggar himself. He never understood these humans, with how the smallest difference in status seemed to make even the lowest classes feel like kings to others.

Only a few more days until he'd leave, and return to scouting the humans cities. Ever since he started investigating the northern expedition, Felix had found that they'd been gone nearly two months, yet no one had heard or seen any of them since. He overheard some people talking about a mutant village hidden in the mountains, and the concerns of the people was that they were annihilated by them. If this was the case, then there must be hundreds, if not thousands of mutants there and they were worried about retaliation.

Felix had laughed silently to himself when he heard this, because there was no way a village that sized would've gone unnoticed for so long. He knew that the further north you went, the more vicious and powerful the monsters were, so his conclusion was that it was a combination of the monsters and mutants. It wouldn't be that hard to pick off tired soldiers when they had to fight monster after monster, especially when they lived there.

It was this moment that Felix caught sight of the next people to enter the town. Two men, and what his senses told him was a woman under the cloak, all carrying what looked like furs. His instincts went off when Felix laid eyes on them, especially the dark red haired man. When they got close enough, Felix repeated with caution what he said before in his raspy voice,

"Spare a coin?" When they heard him, unlike the farmer the man handed something to the woman who came and dropped it into the tin Felix laid out. Seizing the moment when she had dropped the coins, Felix reached out with his wrinkled and pale arm, and grabbed her hand, while crying out,

"Thank ye gods that such a kind mister and missus let me eat tonight, bless ye lass!" The woman reacted when Felix grabbed her, while the man tensed up and was about to come forward, when he released the woman's hand. The whole time he was muttering thanks like he wasn't right in the head. The man wrapped his arm around the woman, while shooting a glare at Felix. They continued walking towards the gate.

Felix was sweating, there was no way those two especially were ordinary humans. When he grabbed the woman's arm, he felt as if the lord of death was about to descend on him from the way the man looked at him. He had also noticed, ordinary people had the stink of the humans all over them from their time in the towns or cities. None of those three did, as if they had never spent any time in a human city, they did however have the smell of the forest on them. Felix thought about the missing soldiers, and his exposed eye narrowed. If they had anything to do with them, then they were too dangerous to let live, especially that man.

He walked through the wall, and his image shimmered slightly, as he waited for them to finish entering the city.

***

Leo was on edge. This was his first time entering a town since he had arrived in this world. Due to the fact that he and Iris weren't human however, he was worried about being found out, and being dragged into fights unnecessarily. They had spent the last week traveling after leaving the village. Since they waited until the full moon passed before leaving, Leo still had almost three more weeks until the next one. One of the biggest things he was concerned about, was what he would do during the full moon while traveling. He pushed those thoughts away though, and focused on entering the town they were about to reached.

In order to minimize suspicion, they had taken the long way and gone to the southern gate. They even had some money to pay any entrance fees, since Thomas told them that it varied on wether or not they'll have to pay any fees. Then, in order to ensure that they wouldn't be short on expenses for a while, they had saved many of the skins from their kills while traveling to sell.

Iris though seemed even more nervous than Leo. She had taken his advice about growing out her bangs, and she also had a hooded cloak over her face to ensure no one saw her eyes. It might seem suspicious, but the story they had prepared was that she was mauled by a high wolf, and was left heavily scarred and half blind as a result.

As they approached the city, Leo saw an aged beggar sitting a distance from the wall. He felt it was suspicious however, due to the fact that the winters here were quite intense, so he thought it was strange that such an old beggar would be able to survive it. He handed Iris some copper coins, and quietly whispered,

"That beggar is somewhat suspicious, go give these to him and see if there's anything unusual about him." Iris nodded, and walked over to give him the coins. However, the moment she did he grabbed onto her arm and started ranting about something. Leo didn't care what he said though and his killing intent became directed at the old man, before he quickly released iris's arm. As she walked back over to him, Leo put his arm around her as if to protect her, and they continued to the gate.

As if he had been thoroughly scared, Leo could suddenly smell the old mans scent with sweat, but what caught his attention was that his scent wasn't human. Leo quickly looked back at him, only to find the old man vanished. He memorized that mans scent, hoping that was just imagining things, and arrived at the gate.

"Need to see ID's to enter." The guard said lazily. Leo fished out his ID, while Iris and Thomas did the same. They all pricked their fingers, and dropped some blood to verify them. Leo and Iris had cards personally prepared by Artemis, so both of theirs said human under races. He had been concerned however, due to the followers number on it, so Artemis changed it to only those who followed him could see it. He had been depressed, due to the fact that after the wedding the number jumped to count everyone in the village; but it and dropped when the three people died during the attack.

After they verified the ID's, Thomas led the way into the town. According to him, it was called Frontier town due to the fact it was the northern most point of civilization, and considered on the frontier. It was one of the several towns in the vicinity. When Thomas had been explaining however, Leo felt a gaze, and turned to see a pretty young woman staring at him. When she noticed his gaze however, she shot him a wink and disappeared into the crowds. He glared at the direction she vanished in, and turned back to the discussion.

As they walked further into town, Thomas led them to the local tanner to sell the skins. The smell alone was almost enough to knock Leo and Iris out though. As they approached someone, Leo walked forward and said,

"Who do we talk to about selling the furs we have?" The man looked up, and his eyes widened from seeing the amount of furs they had. He straitened himself, and said,

"You're looking at him, Tanner the tanner at your service." Leo wanted to laugh at the name, but limited himself to a small smile. He didn't want to annoy their potential money source. Tanner led the way to his shop from the tanning vats, and they started getting to business.

"We need to sell these for traveling expenses, as we need to reach Lawrence city. But we might be traveling a lot in the future, since furs would be our main source of income it would be nice to know a decent place to sell them." Leo casually mentioned them returning in the future so that Tanner would be more honest with prices, as he would most likely be seeing them again. Tanner, hearing that they might return in the future, and seeing how skillfully the furs were skinned, decided to be a bit more lenient with the price. Not too much though, since he needed to ensure a profit.

In the end, Leo walked away with one gold coin, and five silver coins. He was suddenly glad for the extra training elder grandma had him do, to listen to heart rates and see facial cues with his heightened senses, when someone was bluffing and to haggle better. He added their new wealth, and counted one gold coin, twenty five silver coins, and thirty copper coins. Leo had learned that it was fifty copper coins to one silver, and fifty silver coins to one copper. All the coins had the image of the sun on one side, and a handsome guy with a fierce look on the other. He figured the guy was Arthur.

After selling the furs Thomas led them to an inn, where Leo booked two rooms for the next two nights for twenty coppers total. Then Thomas and Iris left to explore the town and listen for news, while Leo would stay in the tavern of the inn and eavesdrop. After a couple hours of drinking and listening though, and he had nothing except people being worried about the lack of news regarding the expedition north. Leo tried to not look guilty when he heard this, and eventually returned to the room to wait for Thomas and Iris.

Though he was immune to the effects of alcohol, the comfort of the bed after a week of the ground called Leo to dreamland. Leo quickly locked the doors and windows since Iris knocking would wake him up, and started to slumber. He didn't know how much time passed though. When he felt someone press against him, waking him up and he opened his eyes to see Iris on top of him. He didn't register that he didn't hear her come in, and only enjoyed her embrace. As she pressed her lips against his, Leo managed to ask,

"So when exactly did you guys get back?" With a smirk. She smiled while answering, and said,

"Just now, I let myself in, for a surprise." Something didn't seem quite right to Leo, as he continued kissing her. But when he inhaled through his nose, he suddenly opened his eyes, and grabbed her by the throat. Iris started coughing as he lifted her into the air by her throat, and looked at him with pleading eyes. Leo looked at Iris with rage in his eyes, as they started glowing orange. He spat out at her,

"Who the hell are you, and why are you impersonating my wife?!" 'Iris' opened her eyes in shock at his own eyes and words. But she didn't answer, only for Leo to tighten his grip on her throat. She reached a hand around her back, and pulled out a knife that she sank into his side. Leo flinched, before grabbing the handle with his free hand, and pulled out the blade. He let the blade drop, and looked back to the fake, before slamming him fist into her jaw, and knocking her out.

At that moment he heard a commotion on the other side of the door, and unlocked and opened it to see the real Iris and Thomas on the other side. They were surprised to see the fake on the floor, before Leo quickly took the rope they had, and started tying her sitting on a chair. He then explained what happened, before leaving them to watch over her so he could rinse out his mouth.

That done, he returned and literally slapped the fake awake. She woke up with a start, but before she could say anything Leo got behind her and grabbed her neck in a loose grip. He then explained to her,

"I locked the windows and door before napping, there's no way you could enter the room with out me noticing unless you could walk through walls. Forgive me for not taking chances." The fake laughed at his thoroughness, and said,

"I knew it, you're a champion aren't you?" Leo didn't day anything, and only said,

" Iris, check her arm. The only people that would have those kinds of powers are other champions." She ripped the fakes sleeve, and exposed the brand shaped with a mask and two daggers.

"Loki!" Thomas suddenly said, recognizing the symbol. The fake laughed with iris's voice, which annoyed Leo so he ordered,

"Shift back into your true form!" She stopped laughing, and her form shimmered for a moment before it turned into the pretty girl who winked at him earlier. Leo knew this was another disguise though, and said,

"I said you're true form!" Surprising the girl for a moment. She looked thoughtfully at Leo, before her form shimmered once more, and there sat an extremely good looking young man. He was no older than Leo, but what caught his attention was the fox ears and tail. The beast man laughed bitterly and said,

"Nice to meet you, my name is Felix."