Chapter 4: Orphan
... After a moment a small smile appeared on their face and they said "Blake".
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I was irritated when I heard the name Blake.
'What is your gender!' I screamed in my mind, I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. The name, the face, the clothes, the voice, and Everything else about them told nothing about their gender!
Jacklyn and Grant laugh seeing my distraught expression and tell me something surprising, it appears Blake is a guy.
Irritated at the others for laughing in this situation, he smirked " Fine, I'm not helping pay for the new Identification token for Alice"
And like that the mood was killed.
Shortly after we left, Our first goal was to get to the adventurer's guild so they could turn in the mission they completed.
We arrived at the guild and it looks like a massive castle, it was one of the largest buildings around by far. Inside, the guild was spacious and not as disorderly as I thought it would be. Nice, dark, wooden floors complement the stone walls and the dim lighting well, but you could still easily see your surroundings, it was calm and easy on the eyes. We weren't the only people in there, but not many, other than us, were present. Upon entry three booths can be seen on the far wall from the entrance. Small tables filled the room relatively spaced out so as not to interrupt others' conversation and the center was open for people entering but it still felt filled. Near the entrance were stairs leading to a second floor with what seemed to be some form of cafe/ restaurant, maybe a bar? There are four visible offshoots from the main hall on the first floor all labeled in a way so I could read it, unfortunately I couldn't see much of the second floor thanks to Jacklyn pulling me along.
'I love magic already' I thought to myself, assuming it was the reason I could understand at least some of my surroundings.
Each corridor had its own use. The passage to the left was for turning in requests and selling monster parts, the one on the right was for people to disassemble monster corpses they brought back, beside the front counter on the right was a hallway with a set of stairs leading to 'dorms and guild master', don't quite know what dorms are needed for but ok, and lastly to the left of the counter leads to training grounds.
We approach the main desk and Jacklyn begins to talk to the attendant we receive, I assume she is just the designated overly enthusiastic spokesperson of this little group, and I am once again reminded I really need to learn how to talk to these people. Ignited with a want to communicate I begin murmuring to myself with Blake and Grant giving me weird looks. Since I am incapable of speaking and most of the things coming out of my mouth are soft weird noises and odd combinations of one to two syllables I sounded a little odd.
I stop my speaking session having noticed everyone looking at me. I feel embarrassed being the target of their gazes and a slight blush appeared on my face. Jacklyn just laughs a little and we're off.
We now leave for a new desk, not far down the left corridor we reach another desk this one looks similar to a post office, open holes in the wall labeled with requests fill the back wall. Each was cubby filled with some sort of reward, the details of the commission on a card shown underneath.
Jacklyn approached the desk and began to talk to the lady. The desk clerk asked for the 'Quest notice and Proof of completion' and Jacklyn pulled out a smaller bag out of a bag she was carrying and a piece of paper from seemingly nowhere, then gave it to the clerk. The clerk poured the bag's contents onto the table and five small horns fell out counting them quickly. She puts them back in the bag and places the paper against the Cubby's. A glass like substance appeared across the entire wall, but only covered the openings with things inside. A square broke off the weird glass and the paper disappeared. After the clerk took a bag out of the cubby that opened, giving it to Jacklyn.
Jacklyn took the bag and we returned to the main hall. They opened the small bag they revcived and distributed the 10 small silver coins they were given. Then walked to the desk again. I got bored with their talking and I decided to continue with my speaking attempts. I found singing to be the most fun because of the noises I made when doing it, so I softly sang to myself attempting to use universal language and I got another notification.
[Universal language (lv1->2)]
'This seems to be easy enough' I thought to myself so I continued to sing, this time however the pitch was there and I sounded like a two child who could barely complete words, but progress was being made. Hopefully. At least the sounds were coming together. While the others were talking I was sitting on the floor constantly singing for what felt like hours with the amount of songs I ran through and I was beginning to believe they forgot I was there.
[Universal language (lv7->8)]
I had finally got to level eight and I noticed with each level increase I could talk better. At level three I could say one word phrases and that's it, at four I couldn't talk better but it became more often I made actually comprehensible sound, At five I could say simple sentences, at six the time between my word reduced again and finally at seven I could form full sentences but the time between the sentences were like three minutes. Eight reduced it to 2 minutes. Watching my vocal progress made me happy and, I'm in awe at how much a single change in a statistic could actually change a person's performance. The thing that sucks with Universal language I can still only say one sentence before I begin to sound incomprehensible again for a short time. Not perfect but progress.
Finally having had enough sitting around I got up to see if I can convince Jacklyn to get some food, because I just realized I hadn't eaten since I died. Standing up I realized everyone was gone, the clerk, Jacklyn, Grant, and Blake all missing. Finally, understanding I lost them, I panic for a moment. Then, I remember I am a tiny independent adult and didn't actually need to be with them to function.
I decide to look around the guild and see what I can find. I start by going right because I had already been left and was immediately turned away by a smell that almost ruined my appetite. I then remembered seeing something on the second floor that may have food, so I bolt up the stairs and reach the bar like place. It had a L shaped table with stools surrounding one side on the other was a man who was busy cleaning up the table and some glasses. He looked like he was preparing for something. I look at the man for a moment and noticed a sign on the wall behind him that listed food and drink items and their costs, or rather I assume that's what they were. I approached the man and remembered I had no money. I gloomily wander to a table not far from the man and sit occasionally gazing at the sign with a pained expression or looking over the railing behind me to the desk at the second floor to see if my food tickets, I mean friends, returned.
While staring at the front desk, the man approached me and set a glass in front of me and said "miss?" I jump not realizing he was there and knock my chair over, hitting my head on the wooden railing behind me. The man chuckled at my actions, helped me up and told me "don't worry about paying". With that he returned to his work. Confused with his words, and irritated at the lingering pain on the back of my head, I pick up my chair and notice the glass on the table. It was a glass of milk.
I never really liked milk, but I would occasionally buy some for the little kittens. My mood dampened thinking of the kittens and how much they used to like milk. Returning to reality I notice my stomach growling and decide to drink it anyways. I bring the glass to my lips and take a small sip of the pearly white liquid and a wave of happiness flows through me. My ears perked up and my tail began to sway in a satisfied manner. I close my eyes and continue to enjoy the blissful taste of the milk savoring the flavor and feeling it gave me. Before I knew it the glass was gone but the happiness lingered as I then hear a commotion on the floor below. I heard a loud overly enthusiastic voice now laced in panic and immediately knew it was Jacklyn. I ran down the stairs and tackle hug her, causing her to stumble and fall over. Jumping back up with a smile on my face I look down and notice Jacklyn was crying with fear, anger, and panic in her eyes. Though we only met a day ago she already saw me as a little sister of sorts, and practically had a heart attack when she returned to find me missing.
After being scolded for leaving, I asked why they left me instead of telling me to come with them at the first possible moment and the argument ended there. while Jacklyn was recomposing herself, and Grant was laughing at how fast she lost an argument against a small child, Blake approached me.
"You're doing well in your Universal language."
I nod my head
"Still can't speak consistently. I see well your progression is Extremely fast regardless, so congratulations. Anyways after they calm down we will leave to get you an Identification Token from the church. They're usually issued when a person is born and are used to get into cities among other things, understand?"
I nod my head again,
"Good" Blake says with a soft beautiful smile. I'm still finding it hard to completely believe Blake's a guy, but whatever.
As we watch Jacklyn and Grant who were calming down, both with tears in their eyes but for different reasons. Blake and I both simultaneously think of how weird the two of them are.
We now leave to go to the Church, as we were walking along we discussed what we were going to do after.
"After this we need to get Alice some clothes, and then the festival too" Jacklyn said with her trademark enthusiasm Blake immediately agreed, probably because he wanted his coat back.
"We probably won't be able to afford anything after the Token and cloths" Blake reminded Jacklyn
"Whatever, Then we need to go to the guard house and find her parents." I then realized I never told them I didn't have parents, well technically I did but they were pretty far away, and not worth the effort of finding.
"I don't have parents," I told the group. Jacklyn tripped and fell face first into the ground, Grant was silent and Blake looked downcast, when I told them this.
" Well then ... we'll bring you to the orpha-" " NO!" Jacklyn began but was interrupted by Blake. " We are not sending her there"
"Then, what should we do!? We can help her now but we're only students, not even full adventurer's yet we can't keep helping her. Where will she sleep? How will she eat? I know you have bad memories of that place but it's the best chance she's got.'
" She can live with you and ... she can help earn her keep it maybe, I don't know." Blake started to sound desperate
" ~Sigh~, I know how you feel, but the dorms don't allow others to even enter the rooms unless they're injured or it's an emergency and the only way she could get her own is to enter the academy and she can only do that if she can get a class, and pass the test, people can only get in when they awaken. If she's lucky she could awaken sooner rather than later." Grant added
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone