Chapter 37: White Wood 3

Reysha walked through the streets. Unlike a certain slime, she found them to be almost empty. Ctania was a small world and the narrow roads reflected that, every person there had more than enough space to walk. It was very much unlike her homeleaf Ragressa, which was large and heavily populated due to her people’s tendency to fuck at any given moment.

The lack of space had been one of many reasons she had left that world to find her luck elsewhere. If she had found it was up to debate. The fact that the smell of the bazaar, a normally rejuvenating mixture of spices and herbs brought in from nearby leaves by daring cross-world traders, was only dully reaching her nose made her currently lean towards no.

With every passing day, it seemed her senses were just getting more and more distanced from reality. Thankfully, the misery was limited to her sense of taste. At least something amongst the plainness that could be described as a silver lining.

She attracted several gazes on her path, as was to be expected when a fiercely hot redhead was parading through the streets in a skin-tight one-piece. Most of the city’s inhabitants were long-eared elves of a creamy brown colouration. Wood elves, they called them, a species that appeared on many forested ever-summer worlds. It was only a majority by rank, however, as Ctania was a popular world both for vacations and beginning adventurers. Dozens of different races were buzzing the streets and of all of them there were some interested in the tiger girl. Having always been someone who drew attention, be it with her looks or her mannerisms, Reysha paid it no mind and continued making her way through the city.

One dullness she was thankful for were her otherwise keen ears. After the symphony that was the wildlife, with all of its quiets and all of its roars, the constant cacophony of the city seemed suddenly unbearable. Were it not for the metaphorical layer of foam in her ears, she would have drowned in the storm of talking.

The trees loomed over her as if their branches were long arms about to descend in a deadly embrace. Growing hollow in their adulthood, these thick birches were the most common houses in the city and entered a somewhat symbiotic relationship with whoever lived inside them. Between individual trees stretched facades of stones, smaller houses but houses nonetheless.

She increased the speed of her step, the quicker she got both her answers and out of here the better as far as she was concerned. Back, back into the wilderness and back to Apexus and Aclysia. To a world with little rules and nothing but the sky above, the ground below and the hunt for prey as rules. Not this social place where the houses looked as much like walls as the people inside, erected around them in search of normalcy, safety and routine.

Reysha left the bazaar with its many shops behind and crossed a street to enter a large plaza, surrounding the largest building on the leaf. All roads in the city ended or started there, at a two-storey tall fortress of untouched stone, much wider than it was tall. Hashahin himself had placed it there, a gift to those that would administer this leaf.

All newcomers and those who wanted to leave were forced to wander through its sturdy gates. An easy way to control otherworldly influx and keep criminals locked. Like every system, there were ways around it though and Reysha originally had wanted to stick it to the elf and do her best to subvert this whole thing, smuggling herself out in some way. The money on her hips would have gone a long way in that regard.

Instead she had to swallow all of that and make her way to one of the many impressively large buildings that also lay on this plaza. As it was the first place every new person saw upon entering the leaf, it was also the place any organization stretching over multiple leaves had set shop at. Only one of which Reysha was interested in, being the Adventurer’s Guild.

Aside from its size, it wasn’t much, just a bunch of cobblestone, wood and glass stacked together into the shape of a large block with a wooden sign dangling above the entrance to make stand out more from the wall it was part off. Reysha suppressed her urge to hiss at the wooden door as she opened it, then she decided to do it anyway. Everything inside her hated to go back in there, but it had to be done. At least the annoyance washed the dullness right off her senses.

Of course, walking in hissing and looking ready to jump on the first thing she saw netted her a lot of attention. “Look what the cat dragged in,” a slow voice belonging to a broad-shouldered person with a large body greeted her in the tone of someone who was particularly proud of the joke they just made. Reysha thought otherwise and the guy pretty quickly learned not to make jokes about a tiger girl in an assault pose, especially when he was hanging around without his armour on.

Launching herself right at the guy she toppled him over and went right ahead to try and claw at his face. Being much larger than her, he immediately threw her off by crashing his thick arm into her side. The impact caused Reysha to roll over the floorboards, but she recovered quickly and was right back on her feet.

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A ring of people formed around them rather quickly, amused adventurers ready to witness a brawl. Some of them had trouble standing, were already drunk. The large ground floor of the guild served as a cantina, a bar and a blackboard for new missions. One could find all manner of people at this place, at any given hour.

Albeit slower, her adversary also heaved his massive body back on his feet. “What the shit, Reysha?!” he wanted to know, cracking his knuckles. A Warrior like him had the luxury of being pretty dull, after all his entire point wasn’t the brains but using his body to keep harm away from the rest of the party by standing in the way.

“I always hated your cat jokes,” she growled and then went right back into movement. Keeping her body low, she ducked underneath his arms as they tried to grapple her. Dumb as he was, he possessed battle instinct and pulled his knee up to prevent her from getting any sneaky hits in on his chest or groin. It worked and Reysha had to slow her momentum, dancing to the side.

The Warrior moved surprisingly nimbly and threw his weight into motion right after her, his left arm about to crash into her again. Dodging would have been an easy task in theory, also resulting in the assailant losing his balance, if she hadn’t needed to stop dead before someone in the crowd put a leg in her way. While she didn’t fall for the age-old trick, and consequently didn’t trip, she now needed to confront the Warrior’s attack.

Raising both arms in defence, Reysha’s body already thought ahead about how to best get back on her feet again after that one, her active mind currently subservient to raw and primal fighting instinct. However, all thoughts turned out to be unnecessary when she successfully blocked. Forearm clashed against forearms, her body resonated under the impact, but she stood her ground. The room went silent, a known Rogue had just taken a head-on attack by one of the most able-bodied beginner warrior’s in town.

Who looked much more surprised than Reysha did, who giggled insanely and then grabbed the arm and whirled him around in basic over-shoulder throw. She had no idea why she was this physically capable, but the sound of his back banging on the ground, air pressed from his lungs by the force carried by his own mass, was true art.

“Fuck you, Martek,” she stated before clawing at his face, this time successfully. While she did have the courtesy to keep away from the eyes or anything else important, Reysha felt perfectly justified in leaving some rather deep trenches in his face. Especially since she knew this bootlicker wouldn’t be too far away from a certain Priest.

“Out of my way!” and there she was. Peeling herself out of the crowd, a woman with dirty blonde hair and wearing a blue and white robe interrupted. Immediately she scrambled to Martek’s side and began a simple healing spell. “Have you gone totally insane, Reysha?! This is exactly why we kicked you of the party!”

“YOU kicked me out of the party,” Reysha laughed. “This guy just wants to fuck you so he agreed.” The broad-shouldered man had no reaction of denial, just glaring at Reysha, one lid closed to protect from the trickle of blood running down his face. Glancing over to the guy who had held out his foot, the tiger girl added. “Guess you got a new Rogue too.”

“None of your business!” the Priestess decided, turning around now that the bleeding had stopped, only to find Reysha’s face right in front of hers.

Blue eyes opened wide, Reysha purred. “Right, it isn’t, so tell your guard dog to not bother me again before I castrate him and sell his balls at the bazaar,” a rather clear announcement, loud enough for everyone else in the room to hear. The primary ruffian around had lost the tavern brawl, so the crowd had no interest in getting on her bad side, quickly scrambling to go after their own businesses.

The Priestess noticed something else though. “What is wrong with your eyes?”

Straightening her back, Reysha giggled and turned around. “None of your business,” she mused, walking away in a hip-swinging, happy walk and right up to the counter.

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