The Unicorn's Forest

Of course, the biggest reason was the fact that Ralph wouldn't be able to just sit down at his leisure. Which was really what he wanted to do right then. Standing on the side of the street of one of the main roads, near some merchant stalls, was annoying, since there wasn't any place to sit and Ralph couldn't be sure how hygienic sitting on the ground here would be.

Yet at the same time, he couldn't be sure that doing this wouldn't prove to be better. After all, he might find a place where it didn't look so disgusting to sit on the ground as he used his magic to play the music CDs.

"Maybe I'll look for a place," Ralph said after a few minutes of thinking about it. If nothing else, he'd be able to come up with an excuse and return to their inn and relax the rest of the day. He was confident he'd be able to talk Feon into that as well.

"Feon, would you accompany Ralph?" Wes asked as Ralph accepted Wes' CD case, causing both Feon and Hesha to turn their heads towards him.

"Why?" she asked, apparently not having listened to what they were saying. Which for some reason irked Ralph more than he knew it should have.

"Because we're going to try something different and see if we can have Ralph do this somewhere else. We hope we can get more money this way, but we can't be sure," Wes explained.

While Ralph would have been willing to explain, he was happy enough to let Wes do the honors. It meant he wouldn't have to put out as much effort, which he was completely fine by. This whole situation was more trouble than he'd realized it would be. Besides, Feon and Hesha seemed to accept Wes' explanation well enough, so there wasn't any need for him to waste his energy dealing with it.

What Ralph hadn't expected was how enthusiastic Feon seemed to be. Not only did she seem to like the idea, but before Ralph had taken a few steps away from Wes, she'd confiscated his hand and was pulling him along, like he was trying to go slower. While he wasn't unused to this behavior from kids, he still found it annoying. He could recall a few times when Beth's siblings were like that or even when Amelia's younger siblings did that to him.

"If you want me to take longer, feel free to keep that up," Ralph warned her. He was willing to take longer as well, if only because her doing that was irritating him. However, he didn't care to go slower, simply because then that would mean he'd be out her that much longer when he didn't really need to be.

However, Feon didn't know that. Which, as she immediately stopped, he suspected that she didn't want to be out here longer than necessary either. Which seemed good for his plan on getting to take it easy at the inn.

As Ralph wandered around the city with Feon, he couldn't help but feel shocked at how different this was from any place he could remember being. If he needed a reminder about the differences in the culture here, just wandering around the city was enough to drive many of those differences home to him.

Not only were most of the men that Ralph saw wearing dresses themselves, but he also saw women doing most of the manual work. While Ralph couldn't care less about various gender roles and everything, he still found it weird when the saw it on this kind of a scale. Not only was the heavy lifting being done by women, but so was the construction projects and various crafts. He occasionally saw a man doing some of that, but they were few and far between.

Some people were using coins to buy things from various merchants or whatever deals were going on, but there were others who were essentially trading one item for another. Ralph had heard his father speak about bartering once and Ralph had a feeling this was what it was. As he could see someone trading a head of what looked like lettuce or cabbage for a small piece of jewelry. Not that he had any idea of if that was fair market price or if it was a rip off.

Then there was the fact that everything seemed so dirty. Like most people couldn't be bothered to wash themselves regularly, if at all. Some looked like they were caked with dirt and children ran around in the streets, weaving in and out of people and animals doing whatever it was they were doing. Some had clothing that was so old that Ralph couldn't help but wonder why it hadn't fallen apart already and what those people would do when it came time to replace it.

While he was used to the idea of poverty, he couldn't say that these people would have considered themselves impoverished, but it was clear that the way they lived was deeper into poverty than he had ever witnessed. He couldn't even be certain that the children who wore ragged clothing actually had someone to take care of them.

What was most striking to Ralph was how this looked worse than how he'd seen third world countries depicted in movies. The smell was also something he wasn't sure he'd be able to get used to. Sometimes he noticed it while others he didn't. He couldn't be sure if it was from the way the wind was blowing or if there was something else.

Overall, he wondered if this was the worst city in this world or if this was going to be par for the course. If it was par for the course, Ralph was ready to be done with this world. Unless it improved on it's own, he'd be just as ready to leave and let that get dealt with on its own as he was to head back to the inn.

Not that Feon was willing to entertain such a notion. Feon seemed determined to find another place that they could set up. Initially, Ralph had planned on just looking around, but when Feon insisted that they set up somewhere, he was willing to seriously look into one or two places.

However, the places they first looked were either already taken by someone else, not that Ralph objected to that, or there wasn't room for them to do anything other than be in everyone's way. Yet, each time they had to move on, Feon seemed to get even more excited somehow. Like she had an endless pool of energy that only seemed to get stronger each time they had to look somewhere else. Like she was a demon come to torment his lackadaisical attitude about things.

Not that he really minded for some reason. Somehow her enthusiasm was infectious and Ralph found himself starting to find her efforts more amusing than annoying. Which meant what they encountered on their fifth location all the more shocking for Ralph.

There didn't seem to be anything special at that point, aside from a building that seemed rather busy. There wasn't the usual shops or stalls nearby, so Ralph couldn't make heads or tails about what was so special about this building, but there were a lot of people around it. There seemed to be an intricate design over the door to the building and Ralph had a feeling that it was supposed to be well known.

While Ralph was preoccupied by the scene before him and figuring out what it was all about, he realized Feon had kept her mind on the task that had brought them there. When she tugged on his sleeve, pulling him in a direction to the side of the building, he nearly fell over as she almost pulled him off balance. Not because she was that strong, but simply because he was moving with her while his feet hadn't gotten the message that they were moving again.

Feon glanced at Ralph when he kept himself from falling, clearly having some questions about him in her mind. Which Ralph was willing to accept. He would be doing the same if he saw anyone else in that same position nearly fall over because their feet weren't moving with them.

Fortunately that was merely a hiccup and he didn't have any trouble going to the location where Feon seemed to think would be a good spot for them to do their thing. Yet, as they reached the spot, a young man stopped and looked at Feon.

"Weren't you supposed to have gone with that merchant through the Forest of the Lost?" he asked, sounding surprised.

Ralph felt surprised himself, as it seemed like this person recognized Feon, but at the same time, Feon seemed surprised, which only added to Ralphs initial surprise. Though, he wished this wouldn't have happened. He was certain this was going to add another headache to the several he'd had to deal with that day.

"What? This is my first time here," Feon said, looking unsure about how to respond.

The young man looked closer at Feon, who seemed to think that Ralph was a good barrier against him, though she had her head peeking out from Ralph's left side. While Ralph was confident he'd be able to be if anyone tried to take Feon against her will, he wasn't sure about how to handle this situation in general.

"I guess I was mistaken," he apologized. "You look just like one of the mercenaries who went with her. I guess I mistook you at first glance for that girl."

Ralph was ready to dismiss the incident from his mind entirely, but it seemed like Feon seemed to have other ideas.

"What was the person's name?" she asked, still peeking her head out from behind Ralph. "The one that you mistook me for?"

"What was her name?" the man mused, looking rather thoughtful. "I did the registration, so I should know it…" his voice trailed off as he seemed to get lost in thought.

Ralph was willing to move on, but Feon seemed to have given this young man her complete attention. Which meant to Ralph that he'd have to wait, no matter how he felt about the matter in the first place.

"Embris! That's her name!" the man cried after a few minutes of thinking. "She had with her a boy and girl that she said was her brother and sister."

Ralph felt like he'd heard the name 'Embris' before, but he didn't have time to think about it when Feon cried out, "She made it! Embris made it!"

Ralph noticed Feon's outburst drew a few looks, but it didn't seem to make people wonder what was going on, which Ralph couldn't help but be thankful for. He really didn't want to get in the wrong kind of spotlight, and he suspected this might land him there if enough people decided to pay attention to what they were talking about. Not that he could be certain of that. Just that he had a feeling about this.

"I take it you know her?" the young man asked, smiling.

"She's my older sister," Feon answered as tears started to form in her eyes. "Our village was attacked by bandits and we had to split up. I couldn't be sure if she made it or not."

"Come now," the young man scolded. "Girls don't cry, only boys do."

Ralph wished he was away from everyone around him. If he was, he could scream about how messed up this world was. Not only did he have to wear a dress, but now he was hearing that it was boys who were supposed to be the ones that cried and not girls. He really felt like he was living through a Twilight Zone episode with how surreal everything seemed to be from time to time.

"Sorry," Feon said as she wiped at her eyes. "I just thought she'd either been killed or taken by the bandits."

"If you'd like, I could help you write her a letter. That way you can let her know you're okay too," the young man offered.

Feon smiled at him and opened her mouth to reply, but then stopped. When she glanced at Ralph, he was certain that she just remembered what it was that they were supposed to be doing right then. Which seemed to create a conflict with the girl.

"We can take some time to do that, if you'd like," Ralph offered, not wanting to be the one who had to tell her 'no, we already committed to this,' when he'd be just as happy to be sitting down to the side, taking it easy.

Yet, his offer didn't seem to resolve the conflict in Feon's eyes. She spent a couple minutes looking back and forth between Ralph and the young man. While he had thought his statement would have resolved the problem, he now couldn't think what the problem was in the first place. If he had been correct, he was confident that she'd have agreed with the young man to get a letter written or whatever. The fact that she didn't jump at the chance told Ralph that there was something else going on in the girl's mind.

"How late will the guild hall be open?" Feon finally asked.

"It'll be open until the first watch changed," the young man answered.

"Would I be able to get it written when we finish what we were going to do here?"

The young man smiled. "Of course. Just come in and let me know when yo'd like to do that. We'll have to charge a small fee, of course, but I'm sure you already expected that."

Ralph felt like they were being fleeced, since this was the first he'd heard about a 'fee' for the letter. Although, he suspected it probably made sense, since he didn't see many people who seemed very literate. Even considering the possibility that men getting an education here might be looked down on. Yet, he didn't see the women showing signs of being any more literate than the men around here. At least for the most part.

As far as Ralph knew, if they went to a different part of the city, things might be different.

As the young man walked away, something that had been said tugged at Ralph, though he couldn't figure out what it was. It felt like it was something that he should work with, but his mind remained blank about it. Like it didn't want to be cooperative at all right then. Which merely made him feel like he was back in school, as he often had that sensation in his classes, especially history class.

When the young man entered the building, Ralph suddenly realized what it was that had been said that piqued his interest. It was about Embris having become a mercenary and how the young man had done the registration or something. Yet, he still wanted to confirm something. If he was right, then he had a few ideas of a couple songs he could play that he was pretty sure Wes had a CD for, even though if he didn't, Ralph was confident he'd be able to work the music out on his own.

"Is this building supposed to be important?" Ralph asked, intentionally playing dumb.

"It's the mercenary guild hall," Feon answered calmly, like it didn't matter.

Ralph nodded, wondering if it would still work with the songs he had in mind. However, there was only one sure way to find out. Which was to play them. Although, he planned on waiting a couple songs first. Just so he could at least get a little bit of attention. Otherwise, he was afraid his best shot would be missed by those around him. Which would mean he'd be wasting some of his best effort. Not something he'd be happy to have done.

The songs that Ralph did first, were simple ones. He couldn't really be sure what the names were called, since they were all instrumental classical music pieces. Which did at least get a few coins tossed his and Feon's way.

While he didn't care so much for them, he was at least pleased that they did what he had intended for them to do. Which was to get noticed among the people around him. When he was confident that he'd gotten the attention of at least some of those around him, he switched to an army song he remembered hearing about. He hoped it would work, although he still had his doubts. He just hoped he remembered the words to at least most of the verses to the army song: 'Gee But I Wanna Go Home.' He hoped it would do better than the songs he and Wes had done, but he was hesitant to get his expectations up.

He got through three verses before he couldn't remember any more that would work in this world. As it is, when he got to the turkey marking time after rolling off the table, he started marching in place to illustrate the idea. It got several laughs, but not much more in the way of coins. However, he did notice more people staying to listen as he moved to another instrumental.

He could think of one that he might be able to get to work if he could just rework a few of the words, but he wasn't optimistic about getting that taken care of before they returned to the inn for the night. He'd like to be able to get it done before then, but while doing this, it wasn't like he had time to really sort out which words would be able to be replaced that would make it work, but also make sense. If nothing else, he was certain it was going to just wear him out altogether.

He wished he could access the internet, so he could try to find more verses to the song that would work. If not get a few ideas of writing his own verses for the song. However, since he was pretty sure this world wasn't connected to the internet, he might as well wish for a double cheeseburger while he was at it. Since it wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Which was just what he knew when he'd agreed to come on this search for that griffon canyon. Still, it would make this just a little easier if it was possible.