Chapter 18: Ch18 – Elerea

“Nothing! Said Eleanor, her eyes darting around the cart.

The Elf responded, “No need to be so cautious, miss…?”

“Eleanor, and I am Ryan.”

“Nice to meet you both! My name’s Deuteros, and this is my horse, Franz!” Deuteros said, pointing at his black thoroughbred horse while parting the curtain revealing a jiggly short, white beard.

Huh, didn’t Eleanor say that a man named Dueteros was the leader of that town, Elerea?

Sensing their confusion, Deuteros said, “Before you ask, no, I’m not Deuteros Dargin the mayor of Elerea; I am Deuteros Dargin the merchant and his twin brother.”

Wow, odd. I wonder if his brother is also friendly to humans.

“Why do you both have the same name?” Asked Eleanor, completely puzzled.

“Our father was, as some people said, a prankster, or a troublemaker even up until he became a father.”

Ryan couldn’t help but chuckle and tried to cover it up, but received a slightly perturbed glance from Deuteros.

“Why are you helping us, elf?” Eleanor asked, now peeking through the curtains from inside the cart.

“As I told your friend already; your kind don’t deserve this discrimination, human.” Grinned the elf, who had now turned around to face Eleanor.

“Thank you for the help then, but could you do another thing for us? We need to enter Elerea, for food and sleep. If you need to, you can drop us off before we reach the town, and we will try to sneak in ourselves.” Eleanor said.

Deuteros thought for a couple seconds, before proudly saying, “Sneak in? Haha, worry not! Elerea is welcoming to all races; you will find elves, giants, dwarves, and humans. Our town is a melting pot of culture!”

“Ah, but it would be best if you acted like you were envoys for the Rupes kingdom so that you are not disturbed by the minority of elves who do not think alike to me and my brother.”

Eleanor looked up at Deuteros, who was still driving the cart. “Yes, the Rupes kingdom…”

Deuteros turned to Eleanor, puzzled. “How do you not know the name of the human kingdom 100 or so miles away?”

Elerea was now coming into view, and Eleanor did not want to explain to Deuteros that she and Ryan were heroes. How would any elf react knowing that Ryan and Eleanor could become extremely powerful heroes who would be the cause of death for thousands of elves? So she changed the conversation: “Is that Elerea?”

“Mhmm, it is,” responded Deuteros, noting her reaction to his simple question.

Eleanor quickly hid back inside the cart so that Deuteros wouldn’t ask her too many questions.

The cart leisurely trundled down the road and quickly reached the town.

A sudden gruff voice shouted, “Merchant Deuteros!”

“Rickon! How have you been?”

“Terrible without you!” The gruff, cheerful voice shouted atop a thick stone wall.

“Open the gate!” Shouted Rickon, the town guard, to other town guards below.

Two large wooden doors parted ways, letting the small, rickety cart in.

After a couple of minutes Deuteros said,

“Alright, you two, out you go.” while he softly told Franz to stop. Ryan and Eleanor reluctantly hopped out of the safe cart.

“Bye! I’ll see you both around!” Shouted Deuteros, waving good-bye.

Ryan waved good-bye after which he stood, speechless at his surroundings. Wow, This place looks like an old, medieval town!

Ryan and Eleanor were currently a small ways away from the town gate, standing upon the main road and facing into the city away from the town gate. To their left was a blacksmiths, a small dwarf could be seen hammering away at a hardened lump of red-hot iron, sweat glistened on his forehead. To their right was a large building and a crest could be seen adorning the front of the building: It had a black background with a yellow rat’s head in the center.

Hmm, every town guard is wearing that crest on their chest, it’s probably the crest of Deuteros’ family who owns runs this town.

Eleanor, who seemed unbothered by the amazing town, probably due to living in a similar world to this one, turned towards Ryan and asked, “You have money, right?”

“What? I don’t even know what money here looks like here! You came to this world a week before I did; if you don’t have any money, why do you think I would?”

“Keep your voice down! Are you trying to get us caught as heroes? Forget it, we’ll get money somehow. Let’s just stop creating a scene.” Eleanor said, noticing many beady eyes watching them.

Eleanor and Ryan began walking down the main street of town, trying to act casual.

This place really reminds me of a medieval village, (MAYBE CHANGE THIS PART) it’s like I have traveled back in time. Thought Ryan, who noticed many different kinds of buildings with architecture both completely different and similar to Medieval Earth’s.

The closer they came to the center of the town, the more commercial buildings they found; shops, restaurants, a tavern, however Ryan couldn’t help but notice that there were no other humans on the street, but hundreds of elves, giants and some dwarves.

Didn’t Deuteros say there were other humans out here? There are only elves, dwarves and giants! Speaking of giants, they don’t seem that large. ’Giant’ is a bit of an exaggeration. Ryan thought, looking at an eight-foot muscular monster stomping down the side of the road, seemingly taking up as much space as he possibly could.

A yellow, black-rat crested guard suddenly shouted at the two humans, “Hey! You two, what are you doing walking about without your owner?”

“Uh, what?” Ryan said, puzzled.

What does he mean, owner?

The guard came closer and slapped Ryan straight in the face.

Ouch, what’s this guy’s problem?

“Answer the question!” The guard continued.

Suddenly, Ryan caught sight of Deuteros jogging down the road towards them.

“Hey, Deuteros, Help us out here!” Shouted Ryan.

The elf guard turned around meeting Deuteros’ gaze and bowed, “Good day, Lord-Mayor Deuteros.”

“Good day Umbar, what’s the problem here?” Mayor Deuteros asked the guard.

“These two slaves were walking about in public without their owner!” Responded Umbar.

Deuteros nodded, and asked the humans, “Why did you two shout my name?”

“It’s because we thought you were your twin brother; he brought us here.” Eleanor said, understanding the situation.

“Ahh, I see. Come with me. Thank you Umbar, I can handle this now!” said the mayor, who began walking back the way he came.

Ryan and Eleanor quickly followed, eager to escape Umbar.

Now slightly far away from Umbar, Deuteros sighed and said, “Let me guess. My brother told you that this town was friendly to humans.”

Now that Ryan was close to Deuteros, he noticed differences between the Deuteros in front of him and the Deuteros from the cart.

Although they had very similar features: Both of them had short white hair, and spiky white beards with deep black eyes, there were very small differences, like the shape of Mayor Deuteros’ body being slimmer and having tattoos covering his arms, but also a large and obvious difference which was that Mayor Deuteros always had a stern cold look, but Merchant Deuteros was always cheerful.

“That is exactly what happened, mayor,” responded Eleanor.

“I apologise for his behaviour; he enjoys winding up people as much as possible.” Responded the mayor.

An elf apologising? That’s very odd for such a stubborn and stupid race. Thought Eleanor.

The mayor continued, “In reality, the only town in this country worse for humans than this one would be the capital, Elveria.”

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