Capítulo 144: Olrad
My father returned the following day, but the atmosphere was totally different than what he expected. "You guys are a mystery to me. At least the issues seem to be sorted. Anyway, I've collected all the Yellow Dust from that and other places. There shouldn't be any left, at least easy to access", he said.
"What will you do with that Yellow Dust?", I asked him. "I don't need it really, but I'll keep it. Just like I said before, the Distortion Realm will arrive. This thing can potentially deal with a few of them, make things easier for us", he replied. Well, that wasn't a bad idea. Besides, he wasn't wrong. He could potentially just go to the Endrosian Empire, and destroy whole cities. Where my father went, Frosty followed. Both of them were at the Primal Limits stage.
"That's good to hear. Now, I should return to Arangard. There's more work in front of me, and the course isn't fully designed yet. I'm not sure when I'll return, but perhaps I will take a break or two during the project. After all, getting here takes only a few seconds now", I said but then recalled something.
"By the way, who called this place Varia?", "Oh, that'd be me. You might not know that yet, since Frosty didn't teach you Hal Wshtar much, but Varia refers to a collection of different things. Like we have in our language 'variety', that means something similar", my father explained.
Once he explained the name, the meaning became clear. After all, my father was a Human, my mother Half Furian and Half Human. Me and my brother were the same, but that wasn't all. We had a Taurus, wolves and even a pine marten. Heck, there was a Dragon just outside. Our home was indeed a place where various races met.
"So, our little home has a name now. Make sure others know, because I'm tired of saying "North" all the time, hehehe. Anyway, I'll be off now. You guys take care". After a short farewell, me and Curly returned to the Formation room, and left for Arangard. "Ready for another day of work?", "Arf!".
Curly wasn't acting as a simple pet, or a companion for that project. Once the materials were chosen and the obstacles created, she'd be checking for cracks, imperfections and so on. Me alone checking everything would take time, but Curly was intelligent enough to find such things and notify me. Besides, we had a Blood Pact, I'd always take Curly with me.
A few days went by. Me, Leran and even a few of his friends came up with some ideas for the course. They all agreed one one thing though. Using both stones and glass would be the best idea. Not only would that make the course unique, it would look great. Since Leran and his friends were mostly driven by performances, this wasn't even surprising.
Either way, once the design was completed, I gave it to my uncle and he passed to the Royal Lizards. "From what we discussed so far, they'll probably go for the mixed materials approach. Of course they want uniqueness, and sand is not that hard to source. Stone is a bit more tricky. Obsidian would be the best choice, since that'd be like a statement to others. They will not use Obsidian… Or maybe in a few places, just to add a hint of that. For the rest of the stuff, we will use marble and ordinary stones. Anyway, we should have the answer in a day or two", uncle said.
Since waiting was all we could do, I decided to visit another place. Arangard became a somewhat familiar place for me, yet there were two other cities in the Obsidian Mountains area. Namely, Olrad and Erandar. Of these two, Olrad was closer. There was another reason. My father met uncles and aunt at Olrad. That place had some history with my father, which in effect made me curious. Unfortunately, Leran wasn't around at the time, me and Curly had to go alone.
Olrad wasn't a quiet place. The insides of the volcano were bustling with activity. People selling, buying or even making all sorts of things. I was offered swords, daggers, axes and other weapons, of course for a price. Food stalls were plentiful too. One could grab something to eat at almost any time. They had all sorts of dishes available too. Plenty of them involved a creature called Lears.
"What is that Lear?", I asked one of them. "You don't know? They get them from Land of Sands. These guys are really tasty, but the price of each Lear is high compared to the past. Yea, we used to get a lot of them, but they are much more expensive now", the old Lizard replied. Since we were on that topic, and he didn't seem to know about me, I decided to find out more stuff.
"Well, in the past, Olrad wasn't as bustling as it is today. Sure we had people trading and whatnot, but not to this extent. You guys used to visit us much more often back then, though just like you, we get some travellers sometimes. There used to be a special house in each major location. The House of Tasks which specialised in fulfilling requests. When your fellow men came here, they'd usually take a job or two", he started.
"Of course Humans don't use Hals as currency, and we don't use their currency. Hence these jobs were a good place for them to earn our money. Moreover, they'd help us out at the same time. Now, we get a few visitors once in a while, but they're more interested in other things than tasks. Besides, the House of Tasks no longer exists", he continued.
"I'm not complaining though. The Dark Traveller ended the war, allowing us to live a peaceful life here in the North. With Elysians and Furians announced as part of the North and neutral races, you guys stopped coming here that much. Hehe, we can always use people like you for some work. If you ask around, you'll find people who need an odd job done. You can earn some Hals in the process", he added.
'This is a kind of new feeling for me. People asking me to do odd jobs… I wonder what expression he'd make, if I told him about my parents', "Hehe, maybe later. Thank you for the chat, I'll take a few roasted Lears as thanks", I replied. After giving it a taste, the meat was good indeed. "I still don't know what Lears look like. Could you draw it for me perhaps? Maybe I'll be able to hunt them in the future".
The old Lizard smiled, then took out something wiggling from one of the wooden boxes. "Hahaha, yes, that's the reaction I remember. Sure, Lears don't look great, but the taste isn't bad, eh? Since you asked me about them so much, I gather you've enjoyed the meat", "Yea… I just didn't expect this form. You are right though, the meat is great. I'll be sure to get some when there's a chance".
Though Lears looked like some sort of big larvae, their meat was really decent. Besides, something like that wasn't available in the Endrosian Empire. This was indeed the Northern delicacy. The old Lizard also explained where to find them. These creatures originated from caves in the Land of Sands, and Golems used to grow, collect as well as sell them to others. Lears remained in the same form throughout their lives. Capturing them wasn't difficult either, one had to simply catch them.
"Here, you can have some too. It's really good", I said to Curly. "Eh? That was a creature all along? Who'd have guessed? You Humans have loads of unusual creatures... At least from what I heard. Some of them even appeared on the Arena as prizes, but that was a few good years ago", the old Lizard said, surprised.
"Yes, there's plenty of creatures out there. Anyway, I'll be on my way now. Take care of yourself", after that short farewell, our small exploration of Olrad continued. There were a few notable locations, such as a small palace-like building at the top of the city. There was a smithy at the bottom of the city, bustling with life, and even an area for adults… Or so it seemed to me.
Other than that, the usual shops and houses where people lived. There were some youngsters practicing all sorts of performances in front of their houses. They'd jump, sing and whatnot, but also kept it to a rational noise, so as to not disturb others. 'Heh, even people in Arangard don't do that. Olrad is different for sure'. A lot of shops sold clothes… My mother's clothes to be precise. I knew she didn't make them, but the design was hers. 'I wonder whether… Ah, no… They already advertise her here. That's master tailor for you, mom', I figured.
To my surprise, the clothes weren't expensive at all. Sedon was more expensive for some reason. Perhaps it was due to size, and the fact that Sedon's the only city Shades had. Olrad was one of three cities, which made sense for them to ask smaller prices. The competition was tougher, therefore a low price tactic was used to attract the customer. That was my assumption, but seemed likely.
Our trip to Olrad ended in the evening. The place surely had a different feel, and people seemed to like my father over there. During a few conversations I had, people spoke good words about him. How he ended the war, and helped out before that.
Most of these people simply assumed I was just another Human traveller visiting their city. They were oblivious to a lot of things, but happy at the same time. Their lives reminded me of my own mother. 'She never told me, but my guess is, she wanted to live a simple and happy life', I figured.
Perhaps that would be the sort of life I'd choose. People don't usually travel their whole lives, my mother surely didn't, and my father settled down too. What will happen to me? That's for the future to unfold. Just like my father used to say, 'Stories are like that. We tell our history, not our future. No one knows what the future holds, because no one lived through it'. His words couldn't be more true than that.
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