Chương 47: Andy’s First City

Kesseroth did not land in the city. Word of an ancient dragon still existed was not the heads up they wanted to give the Facility. Instead they landed in a dense forest several miles away where their descent would not be spotted. The moment Kesseroth landed, Andy decided to dismount. Attempted would be a more accurate description. His feet hit the ground. His legs forgot how to stand. The earth punched him in the face.

"I don't spend a lot of time on land, is it customary to kiss the ground so often?" Sessaly asked with a smile.

"No it is not customary," Andy huffed.

"It's just that," he groaned, getting back to his feet, "gravity has a personal vendetta against me."

"It does not." Georgina hauled him upright.

"It does. You should've seen me when I was a frog." Everyone stared at him.

"What?"" Come on. We need to get moving."

"Alright." Andy took three careful steps. Then four. Then five. By the tenth he was beginning to remember how humans managed this whole bipedal thing. By the twentieth he was enjoying it. By the thirtieth he was running. [GALLOP EFFICIENCY: 5%]"Look!" he shouted.

"I'm people!"

"You were already people." Georgina said unamused.

"I have hands!"

"So you've mentioned."

"I can point at things!"

"Get it out of your system. We need to act normal very shortly. On the way you can practice your glamour."

"My glamour?"

"Yes. It's how you hide your horn."

"Reach for that same thread that you activated your transformation with. You should be able to push your will into it and control how you look to a certain degree. It does not fundamentally change the way you are. So your horn will still be there, but it changes the way others perceive the space around it." Andy began concentrating as he walked. Activating the glamour was harder than he thought it would be and he spent the next several minutes with his face scrunched up in concentration.

Finally the system gave him the update. [NEW ABILITY: GLAMOUR MINOR]"Hey guys! I think I did it!" Georgina turned around and shrieked.

"What is wrong with your face?"

"What do you mean?" Sessaly turned and began laughing uncontrollably. Tears rolled from her cheeks. Reginald and Gustave stared in a stupor.

"Andrew." Reginald began.

"You appear to have a Groucho Marx disguise on." Another round of laughter ensued for all. Once she caught her breath Sessaly said, "I have no idea what that means but here let me help you." She held out her cupped hands. They filled with a still reflective water. Nervously, Andy leaned in. The reflection showed a beautiful man, or what would have been a beautiful man. His skin was ivory, his hair was long and in the dappled sunlight it shone a striking blue-silver.

However, on his face where his face should be was a pair of thick plastic framed glasses, complete with a very large and very fake looking nose. Two bushy black eyebrows stuck up from the glasses and a thick black mustache crested his upper lip.

"Well hey. No one will recognize me this way." Andy said, stroking his mustache.

"Can you please fix it," Georgina asked. Andy sighed.

"Fine. I think it's a rather good disguise." Andy scrunched up his face again. His cheeks turned red as he concentrated and then slowly his glasses and nose went away. He looked up at Georgina and smiled.

"No." He grumbled.

"Fine." After another couple of seconds of concentration Andy looked into Sessaly's water mirror. Two golden eyes stared back. The mustache and eyebrows were gone. His face was smooth. Way too smooth.

"Why do I look like that?"

"Like what?" Georgina asked.

"Like someone forgot to install my eyebrows." Sessaly lost control of the water mirror as another fit of laughter struck her. Reginald looked genuinely disturbed."

"You look like a white walker."

"Aw come on." Andy reached for the thread again. This time when he looked in the mirror above his eyes sat two light eyebrows. He looked relatively human. Actually, he looked very human. He was handsome. As the crested the next hill the city came into view. Stone fences divided property lines, a windmill slowly turned in the breeze, watchtowers overlooked the surrounding countryside, and hundreds of buildings sat at the center. Smoke billowed up from chimneys.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Even from a distance Andy could hear it. The city was loud. The murmur of people talking over each other blended with the sound of bells, and wheels clattering over brick paths. Andy's mouth slowly fell open, "Oh. Oh, wow." Georgina smiled knowingly.

"First city?" Andy nodded, "For a long time." People. Real human people living their lives, going to work, buying food. Seeing it Andy thought he would feel the yearning for his old life.

But the desire to work a job to pay for a life he only slept in, to pay for a car he needed exclusively to go to work, to have a family he only saw on the weekends in between chores and maintaining the house he never used, and to fill his life with things that reminded him of a simpler time wasn't as appealing as he had once thought it was.

"So," Georgina said.

"Everyone get your supplies. Meet back at the gates in two hours. Andy, you're with me." A wagon rolled by piled high with dirt. Andy's eyes widened. Then the smell hit him. No, not dirt. Fertilizer. He wrinkled his nose. Human olfactory senses processed the smell of fertilizer differently than it had as a horse.

"Oh. Oh!"

"Yeah," Georgina said.

"We need dirt."

"We do."

"We need vine cuttings."

"We do."

"My B. A. L. L. S. are critically under supplied." Georgina frowned and several nearby travelers glanced over curiously. Sessaly nearly choked.

"Andrew," Reginald projected from the saddlebag turned knapsack that Andy was carrying.

"Yes?"

"You are no longer allowed to say that in public."

"You just don't understand because you've never seen my B. A. L. L. S."

"Additionally," Reginald projected.

"You're currently talking out loud. And I'm only talking in your head." Sessaly quickly hurried away. As did Kesseroth. Georgina pinched her nose between her fingers on the bridge of her nose.

"Let's go Andrew." The first thing Georgina stopped for was first aid supplies. She walked into the shop with Andy on her heels looking around in wonder. The bell on the door chimed. An older gentleman hurried from the backroom wiping his hands on his trousers.

"Welcome, Welcome. How can I help you today?"

"Hello. We're looking for travel supplies. Bandages, antiseptic, stitching kits, two large sacks. Anything suitable for wilderness travel."

"Of course." He gave Andy a second look who was staring wide-eyed at everything, "First time outside of the manor?" The shopkeeper added quietly, nodding in Andy's direction. Georgina smiled politely.

"We're going for an excursion to… visit family."

"Ah." The old man smiled knowingly. Andy stared at shelves filled with items. He clumsily picked them up, knocking over stacks of tins, small glass vials.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He turned and knocked over something else.

"Oh I'm sorry. Let me get that." The shopkeeper stopped him.

"No no. It's fine. Don't touch anything else, I've got it." Georgina whispered to him, "Yes, this is his first time outside of the manor." The shopkeeper worked very quickly packing the supplies. He hurried the two of them out of the store, taking Georgina's money and shooing them away when Andy asked about a salve.

"Oh so sorry, I have to close up and run home for a few minutes. Thank you for your business. Take care." Outside Andy was unphased. Georgina looked at him and whispered, "Andrew. Are you aware of what inconspicuous means?"

"Oh, sure." Andy said. A horse drawn wagon rolled by and Andy gasped. It was then he noticed the abundance of horses in the city.

"Georgina, what if they're… like us?"

"They aren't."

"How do you know?"

"This is a long conversation and this is not the place for it. But I assure you. These are horses." The pair (four if you included barnacle and Reginald in the knapsacks) continued on to a shop that sold farming supplies.

"Good afternoon." Georgina said to the gentleman in the shop.

"Ah!" the shopkeeper said.

"It is you! I would recognize you anywhere. How did you like the cuttings you got?"

"That's actually why I'm here. Those cuttings were perfect. I need twelve more. And two more sacks of that incredibly fertile soil."

"Right away miss. Right away." The shopkeeper smiled, walking hurriedly to the backroom. Andy looked at Georgina with pursed lips.

"Oh so it's fine when you talk about fertility."

"Andrew." Georgina said with a warning tone.

"I mean, I cause animals and plants to multiply more and faster just by being in their vicini–" She elbowed him hard in the diaphragm causing him to immediately get the wind knocked out of him.

"--oof" Andy was bent over at the waist trying to catch his breath when the shop keeper walked back in.

"Your… brother?" He guessed, "is okay?"

"Oh he's fine." Georgina said with a smile.

"Sometimes he just gets overwhelmed. The only thing he can do is well… this." She gestured to him. Andy projected a glare at her. Georgina paid for the supplies and they walked back out into the city.

"Let's stop and get a bite to eat. I know just the place." Georgina moved through the city with a practiced ease. She effortlessly passed between the crowds, weaving around merchants, laborers, carts and the occasional runaway child or animal without breaking stride. Andy meanwhile, was learning that being back in a city was far more overwhelming than it had been in his previous life. A man carrying lumber clipped him on the way by. A woman hauling baskets practically ran him down. A dog barked and lunged at him.

A child tried to pick-pocket him, realized he had no money and threw a clump of dirt at him before running off. The city was bringing him an anxiety he hadn't felt in... a very long time. Too many things, too many noises, too many smells. A baker's door opened and Andy's stomach rumbled.

"Ah, this is the place." Georgina said, ushering him inside. The moment the door closed the city vanished–almost. The bakery was warm, quiet and comfortable. It also smelled amazing. The smell of various fresh breads and herbs filled the air. Several patrons sat at the tables speaking quietly to themselves. A fire for baking the bread crackled quietly behind the counter. Andy felt his shoulders relax and his mouth water almost immediately.

"Better?" Georgina asked.

"Much." They sat down at a table and a server came over. Georgina looked up at her with practiced elegance and said, "We'll take two of the focaccia please." The bread was amazing. It was stuffed with fig, olive, red onions and cherry tomatoes. The rosemary, butter and sea salt was almost an otherworldly experience. Andy's horn began singing.

"Oh no." Georgina looked up from her meal, "Andy. Stop it." Other patrons began looking over at Andy.

"Georgina I can't. When my horn is happy it sings." He hissed quietly. She got up and walked to the counter while Andy did his best horn ventriloquy. She came back with two pieces of parchment paper, wrapped their bread and ushered him out apologizing as she went. She took him back to the meet up where Sessaly and Kesseroth were both waiting. Georgina handed them each their own wrapped parcels.

"Food." Sessaly accepted hers graciously. Kesseroth frowned.

"Bread isn't usually my meal of choice, but I trust you." Andy took a bite of his focaccia. His horn sang. Onward. Too late to go back now. Forward.