East Meets West 4 (Patreon)

The pay wasn’t as generous as the Critter was probably worth, but it came with a lot of supplies on top of the coin. It was enough that I decided to stick around for a bit, helping out with the cattle and other odd jobs around town.The kids in town loved rides with Rocco, and he seemed happy to oblige. A pleasant side benefit, I managed to get a better grasp on the local language.

I took a few days to help around town before deciding to track down a mapmaker. I wanted to get an idea of the geography of this country, and where these towns were located. There might be others near the mountain passes I'd crossed, and I wanted to know about them. The blacksmith gave me directions north for the town most likely to have a mapmaker, so a week after dealing with the giant snake, Rocco and I were on the road again.

It took less than a day to reach the town, most of which was along a riverbed, and then we came upon a bridge across a deep section of the river. All things considered, it wasn't much of a bridge, but it was all that we needed. We rode across until we reached the other side, and I dismounted.

“What brings you to Yellow Peak City?” asked a man who appeared to be a city guard.

“I'm just looking for a map,” I answered. I'm sure my accent was atrocious, but he still understood me.

He nodded and gestured down the street, “Let's go this way, there's a bookseller with a workshop behind him.” He pointed to a sign above the door, a depiction of an open book. I nodded in gratitude and led Rocco into the city.

After walking a few minutes, I realized why the guard had directed me here. The shop sold books, maps, and other such items, and the workshop was where someone like myself could purchase blank parchment to write upon. I entered the shop, seeing a middle-aged woman sitting behind a desk. She looked up as I approached, and she smiled warmly.

“May I help you?” she asked.

“Yes,” I replied in return, speaking slowly and carefully. “I would like a number of maps. Showing the country and the...states?”

I didn’t know what the local word for the equivalent of states was yet, and as best as I’d been able to determine I rather doubt that they didn’t have one. It was just too big, from what I’d seen so far.

“Of course, Honored Customer,” she said as she stood and made her way over to a shelf, pulling out a total of five scrolls, one showing the nation in its entirety and four showing different areas of the country. They were beautifully illustrated, showing cities, towns, villages, rivers, and mountains. I paid the woman and took them away, carrying them to an inn.

I unrolled the largest one and studied the illustration. It showed the country in a manner similar to how the maps at home depicted the world. If I was understanding correctly, there were a series of mountain ranges that ran along the northern countryside down along the eastern border, and then further south. There was a section to the west of the northern mountains that, if I was reading the images right, were tundra. Cities were shown in small boxes, and each of them had a name.

Not that the cities being labeled meant squat to me, seeing as my progress in understanding the spoken language did not extend to the written. Still, it gave me more to go by than I’d had. I was able to determine the state I was in, based on the river bed and other landmarks I’d seen during my travels, I was also able to figure out precisely where I was.

Satisfied with that, I made my way to a bar, ordering something light while keeping my ears open. You never know what you can learn by sitting quietly and just listening. It was something that Jedediah had picked up on even before I found myself in his body. He had listened to the conversations of others so intently, he could learn to speak their language in a matter of weeks.

And now I was doing the same thing, trying to pick up some of the languages used in this region. After a couple of hours, I was beginning to understand the words without having to concentrate as hard, and I paused as a conversation sent a chill down my spine.

“I’m telling you, the Apple Rat Gang’s got lots of new performers. They’re being brought in through the North Gate tonight,” one of the men sitting behind me said to another.

I couldn’t point to anything specifically about the conversation that put me so on edge, but I looked back at them from the corner of my eye. Both were somewhat scruffy looking, dressed in clothes that appeared to have been worn for several days. The one who spoke first was a bit younger than the other, and he had a badly scarred face. He was starting to turn his head towards me, and I turned quickly to look the other way.

“They ain’t coming in the North Gate, that place is guarded twenty-four seven by the Guard,” the second man said.

The young man snorted, “You think those guards are going to stop them? Half of them are in on it, and the ones that aren't are smart enough to look the other way. They'll be coming in from the North Gate, that's all there is to it.”

I took another sip of my drink. If these two were involved in smuggling people into the city, they were probably involved in other crimes as well. I hoped that I wouldn't run into them again.

[hr][/hr]

I left the ‘tourist’ district early the next morning, heading out of the good looking areas for the more illegitimate parts of town. I wasn’t particularly worried about being robbed or worse, as I figured the locals wouldn’t be any more likely to pick fights than those back home. Besides, something about the two I'd overheard the night before gave me a bad feeling.

It took quite a few hours of walking before I finally came across a street that I felt might be worth investigating, and I went into a tavern that seemed fairly busy. The patrons all looked like they were having fun, laughing and chatting loudly, which told me it was probably safe to ask questions. I headed up to the bar and ordered an ale, then sat down at a table near the door.

There weren't many people around when I entered the tavern, but that changed almost immediately as people saw me enter. Not because they thought I was with the local law enforcement, but because I was obviously foreign.

Conversation didn’t resume for several minutes, but when it became obvious that I was focusing on my drink, slowly the regulars turned back to their own drinks.  I decided that, if I was going to try to find out anything more about the area, I was going to need to start by asking some questions. If I was going to gather more information on whatever was giving me my bad feeling, I'd have to play up my foreigner status, make them think I wouldn't understand what was being said around me.It took a few hours, but I finally managed to overhear two people mention the “Apple Rat Gang” and I sharpened my ears.

“...performers from as far as the capital,” a woman’s voice said excitedly.

“So what, whores are as common as rice grains,” the voice of the man next to her shot back.

“Not like these,” the woman insisted. “Trust me, you won’t find any performers like this in a street corner brothel.”

“I’m listening,” the man said, his voice lowering in volume.

I strained my ears, only just barely managing to catch what the woman whispered, “These performers, if the guards catch us, would see us dead by dawn. Still interested?”

My eyebrows furrowed, trying to understand what the woman was suggesting. I wasn’t particularly familiar with the local laws on prostitution, but from everything I’d gathered I was pretty sure that it wasn’t illegal, by any stretch of the imagination. I listened closely, but never managed to hear exactly what the woman had offered the man.

After a while, I gave up on picking up anything else by just listening, so I turned my attention elsewhere. Raising my glass to get the bar maid’s attention, I waited for her to refill the glass and, pretending to not know as much of the local language as I did, quietly asked, “Where find… company?”

The woman smiled at me, almost too brightly for my liking. She was very pretty, and she definitely looked trustworthy. Her hair was black and long, tied neatly behind her head, and her skin was a deep tan with slightly olive undertones. She wore the sort of clothing that would allow easy movement, yet still look good enough to impress anyone paying attention.

She leaned over the countertop and said in a low whisper, so that no one could hear us, "Follow me!"

I followed her around a large corner, then through a small door which led onto a narrow, winding stairway leading downward. I glanced around and saw that we were completely alone on the stairs, not even seeing someone coming toward us from the bottom.

"This place isn't really suitable for customers," she said, glancing over her shoulder at me and smiling. "But I'm willing to show you, if you're interested."

"Interested?" I queried.

She nodded, "You heard of the Apple Rat Gang, right? They're a group of...entertainers who travel about the provinces, although they prefer to do private shows rather than the public kind. That's where I come in. We can talk here, or we can go somewhere quieter. Your choice. But, if you'd like to see what they offer..."

Her words trailed off as she turned away from me and started down the steps. She kept her pace slow, allowing me plenty of opportunity to follow without appearing suspicious. As we descended, our conversation continued.

“What kind entertainment?” I asked, that bad feeling I’d been having getting worse.

She smiled, a bright, cheerful thing that for some reason made my stomach churn, “Trust me, you’ll love it. You’re a b̀҉̕͢͜͜͞͠a̷̧͜͠͏͏̢̕ŗ͞͏̵̨͘͠͝b̷̷͟͏̸̨̀͏á̷̶̶̢̨͟͡r͡͏̶̧͢͜͡͡i̶̷͡͏̨̨͢҉a̴̷̛͢͏̡͜͞n̵̛͘͠͡͝͞͡, it’s the kind of thing you’ll be interested in.”

That strange word seemed to have some importance to her, as she repeated it several times under her breath before finally saying, "Oh, don't worry, I won't let them hurt you. I've done this many times before! And besides, I promise, you'll enjoy yourself. Trust me."

We reached the bottom of the stairs and she motioned for me to follow her into a dark room. It was furnished sparsely, just two tables that might have once been used for playing games, chairs and cushions strewn about haphazardly. She pushed me to one of the chairs, all but bouncing on her feet.

“I’ll be right back with your entertainment. Don’t move!”

With that, she turned and disappeared out of the door. The room suddenly went silent, leaving me alone in the darkness. My heart hammered in my chest. I didn't want to stay here any longer than necessary, but I knew I couldn't leave. Not until I found out what was going on.

And so, despite my instincts screaming at me to run away, I sat there, trembling slightly with apprehension. I had no idea what I was trying to do here, what the hell I’d been thinking. I should have stayed in my inn. Why hadn't I listened?

I tried to calm myself down, telling myself that everything would be fine. It always had been before. So why did I feel such a sense of dread now? No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't figure out what was wrong. It was as if a little voice inside my head was telling me to keep alert, to pay close attention.

My mind raced as I waited for her to return and bring me whatever it was she promised. Finally she did, but not alone. When I saw who was with her, my blood boiled.