Pre-read: Reap What You Sow - Chapter 2.

                                                                  Chapter 2

Sable stood by the warm fire, completely ignoring the human guard talking directly in front of her. Her head ever so slowly leaned to the side in an attempt to look at the fox person. The human guard just shifted his body to block her view, causing her to scowl at him.

Sable just wanted to examine the fox person. He had humanoid features, and his face was quite like a human's. He had two long, bright orange pointed ears atop his head. His shaggy haircut was hiding where the ears were connected. Not seeing any ears where they should be, threw her off a little more than she thought it would. From his elbows down, his arms were coated in fur of the same bright orange color. She could make out his long brown-colored nails on a five-digit hand, more claw-like than actual nails.

She wondered if his legs were coated in fur, just like his arms, but couldn’t really tell because they were covered by leather armor. What wasn’t covered, though, was his wavy, black-tipped, orange poofy tail. It had to feel like heaven, and she dearly wanted to touch it.

Her scowl was out of frustration at her view being blocked, but to the human guard, it was taken as something else entirely. The guard stepped closer, blocking her view even more. His face grew dark as he spoke loudly and sternly so the fox guard could hear.

“He is a member of the watch, and you will treat him with respect. If you enter this city and I get a single whiff of any racist comments coming from your mouth, I’ll personally throw you out myself. Do you understand?”

For a moment, Sable was silent. She blinked with her mouth agape, then eyed the guard in front of her with outrage as she hotly fired back.

“Are you fucking kidding me!? Do you think I’m some sort of racist? I was just admiring him. I’ve never seen someone like him before. I scowled at you, you prick! What’s your name? That was uncalled for. I’m gonna tell your higher-ups!”

Sable engaged into her full Karen Mode, but to be fair, the human guard did seem to look slightly abashed after realizing his mistake, but he also held firm.

“Guardsman Slade—and you’re free to do so, but my statement still stands.”

Sable never really had great control of her anger, and it was showing in full force now. Anger management classes had done what they could, but she still had her episodes now and again. She clenched her jaw and tried to rein it in by trying to see from the other person's point of view. It was what she did to rationalize her anger most of the time.

I’d be defensive of my friend if a racist were around too. As a guard, you didn’t want to let those people into your city either. It did probably look like I was mad at his friend just for being him.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then brought up her vape to take a hit. She had a mod, not a disposable, so it wasn’t a stealthy move. The sound from the vape had a unique wispy sound, which caused the ear of the fox guard to flick. Slade immediately backed up, hand on the hilt of his sword once more.

She finished her hit, then blew the mango-flavored vapor out the side of her mouth, away from the guards. She opened her eyes and looked at the guards; then, her simmering anger turned to fear.

Oh, shit…

“Uh…” Was the only thing Sable managed to say as both guards were now alert and wary.

Slade backed away from the trailing vapor as he murmured under his breath. Sable could barely make out what he said.

“[Laws abound]”

After a few moments of nothing happening, both guards eased. Slade narrowed his eyes as he spoke to Sable.

“That wasn’t against the law, but don’t do… whatever magic that was again.”

It was still a tense situation, but Sable couldn’t help but let out a little grin and laugh upon hearing that they thought she was doing magic. As she finished, the fox guard spoke up for the first time. He used his spear as a walking stick as he stepped next to Slade.

“Get the visitor form and send her in.”

His voice was deep and had a slight rumble to it. His frame was pretty lithe, and he looked to be in his late twenties. So the deep voice was unexpected.

Sable was all too willing to throw all of this under the rug and move on. She did not want to have to explain any what, whys, or hows about her situation. Forcing a smile, she nodded once and asked Slade about the papers.

Slade was having a tense staring contest with his partner. They seemed to be having some unspoken conversation. A second later, Slade broke off and walked into a side door next to the large wooden gate. Sable assumed it was some personal door for guards. He returned carrying a few sheaves of yellowish parchment, a small inkpot, and a feather quill. He handed them to Sable, then walked off to the side with his fox friend in tow.

Sable followed them with her gaze before blankly staring at her given writing utensil. She skimmed the paper and was glad that she could actually read it, but also very confused about some of its contents. It had most of what she would have assumed to be the basics. Her name, age, and home city, but it also had other information requests. Levels and classes.

Levels and classes? What is this some sort of game?

She began to fill out the information as best as she could. Her attempt at any sort of legibility was butchered as she struggled with the feather quill and ink. The only hard surface she had to work with was the stone walls of the city.

She filled out her name, age, and home city, but she didn’t know what she was going to do about the level and class sections. She didn’t want to lie and write that she was level one hundred, only for that to be some level that was impossible to get. There were five blank rows for each of those sections, suggesting that it was possible to have multiple classes and levels for each.

She looked over her shoulder toward the two guards having a private conversation, probably about her.

Do they have a [Guard] class? Is that why they’re actually guards?

Sable played games, not often, but she dabbled. She never recalled any of the games she ever played having a guard class, though. She was thinking of classes being more along the lines of [Warrior], [Archer], [Rogue], etc. Those types of classes.

Maybe a guard is a special class? Are there special classes? Wait a minute. ‘Don’t do that magic again.’? Magic is a thing?

She hesitated about writing down [Mage] or some made-up class. Slade seemed to have taken her vape as some sort of magical item or spell. If she was going to blend in, she needed to not build upon a castle of lies. She was most definitely not going to tell them she was an alien, but she figured she probably shouldn’t display her great lying skills in earnest.

She reviewed the paper for any more information while she waited for the two guards to finish their private conversation. The visitor registration paper listed that it is for the City of Slatt, of the Alliance of Severi. So, at least, she knew where she would be if she ever found a map.

There wasn’t too much information hidden away in this simple visitor form that she could use, but with her now knowing her location, the knowledge of classes and levels, and the fact that the paper was old parchment, which let her know roughly the level of technological advancement, it was good enough.

As she finished, Slade and the fox guard finished their conversation. They strolled back over, and Slade gestured for the papers. She handed it to him.

Sable slid over next to him and tried to read over his shoulder as he read through. He raised an eyebrow at the location listed but didn’t raise a fuss about that. Soon enough, he made it to the end and had to ask the question.

“Well, Miss Thresher. I very much doubt you forgot to list your classes and levels. So, why didn’t you list them?”

Sable didn’t have a great answer to give, and as she didn’t want a foundation of lies to build upon, she ended up just telling the truth.

“I don’t have any.”

Slade slowly turned his head and looked her dead in the eyes as he calmly asked a follow-up question.

“Is this a religious belief? You don’t look the religious type—unless it’s some blood god. I’ve heard of a few people like that before. Never met any, though.”

Blood god?

She looked down at her very black and red appearance. Her crimson-red hair, a red leather jacket, black leather boots, and pants, and she remembered she had her red contacts still in from the night out. She wore them because her murky green eyes didn’t really fit with the rest of the ensemble.

Okay, I’m not even mad. That’s kinda a good point from an alien perspective. Badass too.

“Not that reason, no.” She replied.

Slade locked eyes with his partner for a second, then just nodded to Sable as he rolled up the visitor form and walked back into the personal door.

Now alone with the fox person, Sable decided to break the ice. If she was going to be around a completely different race, she wanted to get to know them. She glanced over him head to toe, then stared forward again.

“I’m not a racist. I’ve just never seen your kind before and was interested. What’s your name?”

His ears twitched as he slowly turned to look down at Sable. He was tall, much taller than Sables, 5’7. He had to have been at least 6’5. He was quiet for a second, causing Sable to think he was going to ignore her, but eventually, he spoke.

“My name is Guardsmen Femir. I am Foxkin, part of the Beastkin.”

Femir had a very slow and methodical way of speaking. He thought hard about the words he wanted to say, and Sable noticed. Not wanting the conversation to end there, she asked another question.

“Are there a lot of Beastkin in Slatt?”

Once again, Femir took a second or two before he answered.

“There are not many. Only a few.”

Femir keenly watched her react to the information as closely as he could. Almost as if he was interested in her response. Sable didn’t mind it much, as she was inspecting him head to toe earlier without much shame.

Slade returned through the small door with some more sheaves of paper and gave a forced smile as he interrupted their small conversation.

“You’re almost ready to enter. Here is a list of laws for visitors. Please read it in its entirety.” He handed the papers over to Sable. “All that’s left is the entry fee, and then you’re good to go. It's three coppers for visitors.”

Sable was inspecting the papers when she realized she didn’t have any money. She never thought that a city would require an entry fee. She meekly looked up at Slade, and as if he could read her mind, he closed his eyes and sighed.

“You don’t have any money, do you?”

Sabled looked from Femir to Slade, then said the first thing that came to mind.

“The bandits took it.”

Having already forsaken the foundations of her castle, she was about to explain the concept of an IOU to Slade when Femir spoke.

“Even if you enter. Where will you stay?”

That… is a good question.

She didn’t have her purse, and even if she did, she doubted the US dollar amounted to anything here. She doubted that she could find a place to stay for free, and she also didn’t have much to sell. She only had her clothes, vape, and phone. As she would rather sleep outside in the cold, rather than give any of those things away, selling any of her belongings was off the table.

She tried to think of some medieval times or video game ways of making money. She could get a job or something like a side quest. In some of the games she played, the side quests were easy. They were things like delivering a letter or picking a certain amount of apples. She could definitely do that. They probably wouldn’t be that easy, but she was willing to try.

“Well, I could get a job or do something to help out around the city for a place to stay?” She asked hopefully while watching their reactions. Any information she could glean from these interactions could be useful.

Femir nodded slowly and answered in his deep, rumbling voice.

“That is a possibility, but you don’t have any classes. Without one, you’re going to have a difficult time finding employment.” He paused and put on his thinking face again. “Are you willing to get a class for a job?”

Sable didn’t know if having a class had any sort of drawbacks or consequences. If she got a [Waitress] class, if that was even a real thing, would that prevent her from getting a class to help her get home? She did want to go home. You could teleport as a [Mage] or [Wizard] in some games, so those were where her immediate thoughts went to for a solution.

But, even if she did get some magic class able to teleport. She didn’t know how long it would take for her to get the means of teleportation. How difficult would that be? She didn’t even know if that was a thing that was even possible. It’s not like she would be teleporting across the world. It would be teleporting to another world entirely.

She needed to get her priorities straight first before she even thought about returning home. She needed to survive. If she remembered correctly, you could live three days without water and three weeks without food. She, of course, needed shelter. That was the most important thing to her at this moment. It was cold, and she was unprepared. To get shelter, food, and water, she needed money. And to get money, she needed a job.

She had worked fast food before, so a job at a restaurant wouldn’t be too out of her comfort zone. She only had her bachelor's degree in general education from a community college. So, none of those classes would have helped here here. She could listen in on conversations and try to obtain some general knowledge about this world, too, if she became a waitress.

Sable decided that that would be her immediate course of action, but she would like information on classes first. Just in case these things were irrevocable. She looked to Slade.

“I am willing to get a class, but I would like to know the details of what getting a class means. My parents never brought up these types of classes with me.”

Slade stepped back almost as if he had been struck after hearing her speak. He looked at her with pity. When he spoke, it was with a slight waver in his voice.

“That was the truth...”

Slade coughed to clear his voice as he looked to Femir and nodded once. Femir’s face didn’t change as drastically as Slade’s. Femir just wore a slight frown.

“I’ll waive the entry fee. Go on in.” Slade said as he began walking back to the side door where he got the papers from.

Sable realized that Slade might have been telling the truth when he said he could detect lies. She did tell the truth there. She had purposely chosen her words carefully. After all, she had never had any conversation with her parents about how classes worked on this world, but she did have conversations about classes for school. And, if classes and skills existed? A lie detection skill sounded very fitting for a [Guard].

Not wanting to stand out in the cold and give them the option of changing their minds. She gave them both a slightly forced smile, not appreciating the pity they seemed to radiate like an aura, and walked towards the slowly opening large wooden gate.