Chapter 262: Chapter 239 – Alfheim, City in the Plains

"You'd figure that with how active the wild beasts of the plains are, Alfheim would be a walled, enclosed city, but nooooo. Instead they built a city without walls, with fencing all around the cultivated lands that encircled the city proper that twisted and turned like a labyrinth.

 

The outermost layer of the city itself - which kept moving outwards bit by bit each year - was affectionately called Adventurer's Heaven. This mobile suburb of wagons and other establishments on wheels doubled as the first defense line of the city against the wild animals.

 

It was a fair trade, a riskier place to live, in exchange for getting all rights and first chance at whatever animals or monsters delivered themselves to the vicinity. A lucrative arrangement that made both parties happy, and kept the farmers and ranchers safe.

 

After all, it's not everywhere you find gold coins delivering themselves your way like this." - Rothgar Großmaul, dwarven adventurer from the Kingdom Down Under.

The rest of their journey to Alfheim was relatively uneventful after that early encounter with the Gale Rippers and their flock. Of most note was how the entire caravan feasted on poultry every day of the journey, a very welcome change from the usually more limited traveling rations most consumed on the trails.

 

It was not that they ran into no more animal attacks along the way. The caravan was attacked three more times. A second wolfpack that was smaller and quickly scared off, a pack of six-legged lizard-like predators that had poisonous bites and whip-like tails that contributed a few more coins to the adventurers purses, and a stampede of wild buffaloes that just happened to be headed their way by sheer bad luck.

 

The buffaloes were easy to scare off after the adventurers dropped a dozen of them. The beasts themselves weren't that useful outside their horns, but the adventurers still eagerly dismantled them anyway, because while it might not sell for much, their meat remained a treat for those on the road.

 

One time a lone Saberfang - a young male that had not managed to either start or claim a pack for itself yet - jumped them at night, but Willa had tackled the poor beast before it could pounce on its target, and quickly went to work.

 

She had been told before that the pelt of the beast was the most prized out of what could be harvested from it, so she killed it in a way that wouldn't mar its pelt. She grabbed the beast from behind and choked it with one arm, while her other arm held the beast aloft, and thus unable to find purchase no matter how hard it struggled.

 

A few minutes later, she delivered a dead Saberfang with no visible injuries on its body beyond a few old scars that had been there since before Willa caught it. Helgr himself had volunteered to help her skin the beast, and handed the cleaned pelt over after a couple of hours.

 

Willa paid for his services with the beast's bones, claws, and fangs, all of which were quite desirable. Sadly the meat proved to be rather bad in taste, and they just sold it to the merchant's guards to feed their mounts instead by bulk.

 

After a little over two weeks of travel, Alfheim finally made itself known on the horizon. It was a large, sprawling city surrounded by farms and ranches, with another circle of wagons and what seemed to be wooden buildings on wheels around them.

 

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Two large rivers crossed the city from the west, joined as one on the eastern side of the city, and continued further east towards the ocean, which divided the city into three uneven parts. Cal saw at least a dozen bridges connect the three separate parts.

 

The city proper was built on the center, right next to the confluence of the rivers, and dominated the western section. The north-eastern and south-eastern sections were smaller and mostly consisted of farms and ranches.

 

When they reached the circle of wagons and buildings-on-wheels, the merchant paid both groups the agreed-upon fees and gave his thanks. They separated there, as most of the adventurers streamed to the nearby wagons and buildings, and the merchant's caravan went further in, towards the city.

 

Cal and her entire group followed along the merchant caravan, chatting as they walked. Helgr had also followed with a couple of the older adventurers. The guild in Alfheim was apparently in the middle of the city, so they went to report there.

 

As well as to frequent the more expensive establishments the younger ones are likely too green to appreciate yet.

 

It was still springtime, and the fields around the city had only been sown with fresh seedlings a few months ago. The tender green sprouts and budding leaves filled the plains around the city as far as the eye could see, while further afield, all sorts of livestock were reared in the ranches.

 

From typical animals like cows and sheeps, to less typical - Cal saw one ranch which had thousands of bipedal, small lizards roaming around - ones, all sorts of animals were raised there. Some were raised for their milk or meat, others for their eggs, and yet others for their feathers or wool.

 

A good portion of the populace Cal saw working on the farms and ranches were either elves, or had tell-tale signs of elven heritage. There were far more mixed-breeds than purebred elves, however, which matched what she learned from the history books.

 

Unlike their forest dwelling cousins, which favored lighter clothing, the plains dwellers wrapped themselves in multiple layers of cloth. The men mostly wore what looked like baggy trousers and loose fitting robes, often with a turban-like head wrap covering their hair.

 

The women Cal saw favored a fashion where a long strip of patterned cloth was wrapped around their waist, then draped and tucked over one shoulder, usually with a short top on their chests which left their midriff revealed. Some also wore gossamer sheets as hoods.

 

Even the workers in the local guild adopted a similar manner of dress, so the way Cal and her group dressed instantly marked them as foreigners in the city.

 

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