"Hm, so that's what the village looks like up close." Nin remarks between his obnoxious chitters. I look his way, keeping my best hand on Heiya as his words put the village or whatever into a new light.
We've been on our way for a good while now, and, frankly, I just want another place to put up my feet. Thankfully, it seems like this place has that. Room and plenty of it. Reminds me of previous job, in a way. Though, I won't be lingering for any reason unlike that place.
"Quaint." I quip as we finally pass the perimeter of the village proper. The squires and boys certainly bring a lot of eyes our way. Though, Nin, unfortunately, is getting most of the attention. We come to a stop, lingering in our footprints as a bunch of them rush off without reason.
"DOCTOR! DOCTOR! DOCTOR!" echoes throughout the village and someone comes rushing in. I look towards Nin, brow cocked and ready.
"Look at you, people are actually excited to see you." I comment, a slight smile on my lips.
"Not sure why." Nin goes, ignoring everything about my behaviour as the squires all seem to suddenly remember something.
"Ah! That's why I had such an elated spirit meeting this tall and fair man!" one of them says, his eyes and lips wide with joy. They make a gap in their formation and some of the villagers rush to Nin, grabbing him at the first opportunity. All sorts of noise comes out of all of them and it becomes hard to figure out what's going on.
"What's this about?" I ask, turning towards the head squire.
"This out-of-way village requires a man of medicine. Your compatriot just so happens to be the very treasure they need!" he explains and I hold back from so much as doing anything. No scoff, no laugh. No nothing.
This place needs a doctor and they don't supply it themselves...? I guess that certainly settles one thing about this place. For all the strength in the mountain, this place lacks magic. Medicine is a dated profession used only really by criminals who can't go to a proper clinic. Very few places even have proper hospitals anymore, they just pump magic into you and you're healed.
A phantom pain lights up on my chest and I flex to grab it. Nasty, nasty images of chair-bound torture going through my mind. Magic is the universal healer. And it cares not for who is the one using it and why, only that it is used.
"So, are we fine now or...?" I ask, returning my attention to the real world. Or this strange mountain-hidden parody of it. Some noble's delusions and mess of a personality.
"I believe we shall needest only one of thine company." the squire chirps and I nod, turning down towards Heiya.
"You want to go have a look around?" I ask her, knowing how eager she is to get away from all these helping hands. Maybe find a tree or something to just sit down and think on. Hopefully, she'll focus on this little wonderland we've found, rather than... I try to offer her a smile, but, all she has to offer is a slow nod.
"Stay to the village." she presumes and I nod along with her.
"And a little bit into the nearby fields." I joke, tussling her spines and leaving her be, much to the confusion of the others.
"What nonsense did my ears just experience?" one of the squires asks a little too loudly.
"The world beyond this mess." I subtly growl at him as the lead squire shepherds me elsewhere.
"If you will accompany, we shall't steal only a glimmer of sunshine from you." the lead squire insists and his choice of word brings me to a halt. Sunshine? As in dead god? Gods in the actual above, what have we ended up in...?
"Hopefully." I say, shrugging as we carry on our way towards a cobbled together fort of some kind. Some kind of cement mixture and all the stones people can find and pull from elsewhere. Thick doors of the typical wood brown colour and plenty of crude, black iron holding it all together.
I'm not even going to try and imagine where they get the material for things... Living in a hollowed out mountain and all.
"You coming in or not?" I ask the lot of them still with me, their eyes agape at me holding the door open with one hand.
"God be wondrous, what a vigorous man!" a woman from across the street cheers, a kiss blowing my way. Confusion aside, I take it and gently slap it right onto my cheek. A new thought to my head.
They were surprised by me being able to easily open a door. A thick, decorated door, I'll give them that. But a magic lacking one. So looks are deceptive in the same way a prop is not quite the same as the real deal. One rock not as hard as the other.
"It makes quite the wealth of sense, really. Having a doctor by your side. Gifted people come together like any flock might," one squire remarks, his kelbalid not all that bothered he's still riding him even indoors. Strange colts these lot are.
"Gifted, huh?" I go, not really part of the conversation forming. I look around the establishment, minding the strange mixture of temperatures. No electrical lights of any kind, and few candles. Nearly everything is a proper, flaming torch with some kind of long-lasting fabric and wax or whatever on them. Quite the girthy, resistant sticks, too, barely burning even as the fires come close.
"Ok, here we are. Paper to scratch the tale on." a new man goes, his backside plopping down right in front of me. The mess of style and work saying only one thing. Bureaucrat. Exactly the same on the surface, underground and in hidden mountain resorts.
I carry on waiting, offering only the slightest glances and more and more tools fill out the crudest table I've ever sat on. It's like they barely had time to so much as sand it down. Plank the log and then smack a nail right on through. Maybe even not if they're this lazy. Though, I guess most people sat here are armoured, so the problem is never noticed at all...
"So, may you begin? We can have any worries of great concern tied to ankle and up in the air in no time." the bureaucrat explains and I just cock my brow again and nod.
"As I told the knights back down the road. We were travelling the tunnels, earthquake happened. We got cut off from the others on our route and we thought this was the surface." I explain, and it only makes it worse.
"Tunnels?" the man with the inked feather repeats and the squires are no help at all.
"Yeah, you know? A tunnel." I go, hooping my finger and putting a finger through it as the most impromptu way of doing it. A nearby barmaid spots my gesture and hurries off, my eyes passing her at too bad of a time. Though, at least everyone gets at least that thing.
"Sex...?" except this guy.
"No, a literal tunnel! You know, a long bridge covering your head. A digging into the mountain. A. T u n n e l!" I reiterate, not understanding at all how they might struggle to understand what a tunnel is. Gods above, please tell me that they're just not sure how to drop the resort staff act. I can't handle idiots right now.
"On the road when disaster struck..." he mutters, filling in for something else.
"No, not really... Not at all..." I mutter back, so close to sighing as I feel the need to pull out one of my sticks. The lot of them lose themselves in my pastime and they keep on staring. Their eyes lighting up as much as my lighter does.
"Fascinating! Genius! A true mechanical wonder and marvel in one, small device no bigger than a feather!" the bureaucrat suddenly goes, leaning forward with no regard to the spilling ink across his front.
"What? Never seen a lighter before?" I ask, slipping it off and putting it back into my pocket. Though, the stick is just as interesting to them.
"You package your mix so tightly?" one of the squires asks, the familiar curve of a smoking pipe coming into view. I smile slightly, knowing I at least will be able to keep up the habit.
"Not mine, tailor-made." I explain, and it only sets them off more.
"A tailor made these?" the bureaucrat goes and I ignore him completely. I've had enough of hearing their way of speaking and I'm not wasting my time explaining anything.
"Sure thing." I go, my mood as calm as a thin piece of ice ready to crack.
"But, yes, I beg a thousand pardons. This will do fine for the moment. Now, is your travels in any way related to the Crack in the Sky?" the man asks and I nod.
"Yeah, we walked right on through." I answer quickly, and, somehow, despite not even knowing what a tunnel is... He takes it without much issue.
Whatever...
"Will you be needing me anymore?" I ask, and they shake their heads and I get up, eager to leave. The door swings fast, only fascinating them more so and my mood simmers with such irony. Pestering action ruins one's mood, and yet, I'm forced to improve my mood just so I don't see more of them!
What a world we've walked right into... Well, at least I'm not the only one being hounded over the most ridiculous of things. Nin over there is right tight and snug with those admirers of his. Though, if they're too nosey, we could be run out of town and the next and the next...
"Alright, alright, break it up!" I bark, approaching with my height as stretched out as it can be. Shoulders wide. The kids mostly bugger off, but the adults stay.
"I'm a doctor now?" Nin goes, not quite getting it himself, even with how he's clearly coming back from his first patient. Taking quite the bitter pill, I pull up around him and guide him away.
"I need a drink." I tell him straight up, and he nods, something rattling in his grip.
"And I can pay," he goes, still lost in that head of his.
"You can tell me all about it while I swig down whatever swill this bloody place pisses out of the barrels." I go on at length, taking us along a quieter path as any signs of a pub, bar or even a fine dining spot come about.
"I really hope there's somewhere with magic here. I felt bullied into giving away some of my own stuff." Nin explains, and I can't help but huff.
"Big scary Nin getting bullied into offering a bit of magic? Whatcha do? Rub your thumb along a scraped knee?" I question, and he lifts a claw. Nothing about it striking the locals as odd. Not even his awful sense of fashion with those bandages. Then again, how did they figure him as a doctor...?
"Actually, sort of? Someone had an accident, and a nail went right into the knee joint. They were scared to do anything about it at first, as the blacksmith couldn't find the right kind of pliers. So I just... Yanked and rubbed it over. Boy went off to play in a river or something to bathe." Nin explains and I nod along, still missing the core detail.
"Truth of it aside, how did they figure you for a doctor? You know quite well there's no magic at all here. Not enough, anyhow..." I point out and he nods slightly.
"Apparently, long masks are the wear of doctors. And they have no idea my long face is the reason why." he goes, keeping it quiet as his mandibles do the opposite.
"Let's keep it that way, hm?" I ask of him, pointing out the telltale signs of a pub as a pair of lads come out, flagons frothing and full.