Chương 559: Chapter Five Hundred and Forty-Four - Come Here and Die

We got a little lost. Mostly it was the streets that never ran straight, constantly rising and falling and branching off into side passages that had side passages, but also the heat. It was so warm that I was soon feeling like the top of my head was boiling. Maybe the ostri were onto something when they wore full-body coverings?

I did see a bit of skin, here and there, but most of them had loose clothes that probably did a good job of keeping them cool, and the rest had tight wraps that I bet were really good for absorbing sweat. Eventually, though, we stumbled into an open space, and all four of us paused.

"I cannot decide if this is beautiful or morbid," Desiree said. We had arrived in a large, open plaza. The sun beat down on us, but it was held at bay by a breeze that seemed to be channeled through the open space, in the center of the plaza, a large fountain shot misty water into the air. Ostri and a few non-ostri were ambling along at a slow, leisurely pace, taking their time as they crossed the square.

Everything here--the walls, floor, benches, even a few sculptures and pillars--minus the fountain, was made of helmets. They were metal helmets, with cheek guards and a fixed visor at the front. Most of them had small carvings around the eye slits. The helmets were stacked along the outside of the plaza, taller than I was by half. There were pillars of them as well. Hundreds of helmets stacked up to rise over our heads. Some sort of tattered banner was wrapped around the base of each pillar.

"Those aren't fit for ostri heads," Amaryllis said.

"Or at least, they're not of the local style."

"They're human," Awen said.

"From Pyrowalk." I slowly moved closer to one of the pillars and looked at it. The helmets had been stacked very neatly, but there were also a few small welds holding them together. A careless bump wouldn't collapse one of these pillars. Glancing around, I tried to count, but gave up. There had to be a few thousand of these helmets here.

All of them were nearly identical, but those along the tops of the walls and pillars often had small racks above them, for standards and big brush-like bristles of colourful materials. The helmets of officers, maybe?

"You lot seem curious," someone said. I glanced up, then behind us, but couldn't see who had spoken. The voice had sounded kind of grandfatherly, but there was no one like that around. Clear across the sun-drenched plaza, a seated figure half-raised an arm to wave at me.

"Yes, you," a warm, slightly raspy voice said, as though it came from right in front of me.

"All of you, really." Despite the distance, that was clearly his voice. I could see his lips move as he spoke. He sat on a bench near the fountain, stooped over, one hand resting on a cane. His loose robes covered all his skin except for his spidery, leathery hands.

"Hello?" I asked. The old ostri chuckled.

"Come. I am to teach the young, and no one said I had to limit myself to my own kind. Come come." He waved us closer. I looked at my friends, then started to walk over. He seemed nice.

"Hi, sir," I said.

"My name is Broccoli, and these are my friends."

"I see," he replied with a slow nod.

"I am Scorpio Lastson, Spearfighter, Shadowkiller, Slicer and Sandspeaker. It is the last that I live as now." Four last names, which meant... four classes. This old ostri had more classes than even Abraham Bristlecone!

"That's impressive!" I said.

"And now you teach?" He bobbed his head in a quick nod.

"Just so. Sit, sit. Let me tell you why this place has helmets piled up like cordwood." We had a lot of things to do... but I sat down on the ground in front of the old ostri anyway. There were thick, colourful rugs set on the ground, and we were close enough to the fountain where there was a faint splash of water that reached us. It was nice. Somehow the sun didn't feel quite as overbearing here, and I could feel the heat seeping away from the top of my head and ears.

My friends hesitated for a moment, but soon all of us were sitting down and ready for storytime. Scorpio rubbed at his chin, then nodded.

"This is the story of how this fair city earned its warning, and in doing so, a new name." This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Oh," I said. That was interesting!

"Long ago, this place was a prosperous trading outpost. The people of the desert came and enjoyed the bounty of the ocean and the coolness of the waves. We found dungeons in the caverns, gold in the ground, and precious gems in the hills." He gestured all around, and in the eddies of humid fountain air and the slight brush of sand in the wind, I could almost imagine the city as a desert still, with only a handful of large homes and compounds and many ostri passing through.

"As time passed, tales of our wealth spread out across the world. The humans of Pyrowalk were, at the time and still today, hungry for more. They have power -- and the desire to use it. Thus, if they can take something for themselves, they will. Pushing outwards, subjugating those around them, they are the definition of an expansionist empire." I blinked, almost catching sight of a marching army, but... no, that was just sand caught in the air... ohh, that was a cool trick!

"Through the jungles they came. A host a hundred thousand strong. Warriors and fighters, swordsmen and bowmen and spearmen. With gleaming armour and tactics honed through many long battles, they cut straight across the burning sands." The old ostri leaned back a little, his arms falling.

"They were, together, stronger than we. And yet..." I leaned forwards myself, waiting.

"They expected war. They expected us to meet them on the field of battle, arrayed in neat lines. Formations, cavalry, great spellwork and organized warfare. And so we gave them none of that. The army marched through the ostri desert, and when they passed, news scurried ahead. Of who they were, and why they'd come."

"Ah, but eventually, after many hardships, they arrived here, in this place. At the time it was the Bounty By the Ocean. We had no walls except to keep the sand and wind at bay. No army, no generals. They arrived and demanded to speak to our leaders... but we had none. They demanded our taxes, but we did no such thing. They wanted our stocks of riches, but who keeps their riches piled in a single place?" I giggled. I could imagine the consternation of the army already.

"Ah, but then they made a fatal mistake. They imposed. They demanded straight roads and the following of exact rules. They told some ostri that they were now responsible for others. They took what wasn't theirs to take, often like thieves."

"Oh no," I said.

"Ah, yes," he replied.

"And so, we fought them. But not in the way they wished. An angered ostri would walk to the one who'd taken from them, and run them through. They would take what was theirs back, then return to their home. The soldiers would punish them, only to lose in turn. Soon, the city rose against them, but still, we never met them in the combat they wanted. They called it honourless, but we called them stupid. Our strongest warriors were far stronger than their strongest generals.

They had spent too much of their time and skill on learning to lead and fight as a group. When denied as much..."

"You defeated them piecemeal," Amaryllis said.

"Yes," he replied.

"And when the army retreated, several thousand souls lighter, they said that this was a place that they had only come to to die. And so we renamed the city accordingly, as a warning. These helmets are those left behind by that army, voluntarily or no."

"That's a cute story!" I said with a clap.

"No it's not, it's horrific," Amaryllis said.

"I found it nice," Desiree replied, and next to her, Awen nodded. The old ostri seemed pleased with himself, at least. He asked us what we were doing in the city, and when we told him, he was kind enough to point us in the right direction. Then he gave us some thin cloth scarves, made of an airy, white cloth that we tied around our heads. My ears stuck out of my turban, but that was fine. It was enchanted to keep the head cool, so that we wouldn't get a heatstroke before midday.

New Skill Acquired: Sandwalking Rank: F We left, with new hats, and a better idea of where we were going. Our next stop would be a place to buy fuel, and then a shop for supplies, then we'd be ready to leave. But maybe we could scroung up some local snacks on the way...