TFT Chapter 5

This was one of those chapters that I really could have skipped. It doesn't accomplish much for the plot, but I really wanted to show you the city of Garemath. The next chapter will be straight up plot moving so I'm looking forward to writing it and I really hope you're looking forward to reading it. I also wanted to continue to develop the relationship between Nafi and Graves before the plt really starts moving. I plan to add a little more to this chapter later, but it won't be anything that affects the plot. Probably just a few more gags along the way.


Chapter 5
The forest looked different for the first time all day. Up until now, it still looked like early morning. Now it looked like the late afternoon that it actually was. They followed Nafi into the forest for a few hundred yards.
“So what are we to do differently this time?” asked Graves.
“We have to get to the clearing. It’s not hard to find. We just have to walk straight ahead until we get to the rock I was sitting on and then we can get to it,” she answered.
“Sounds easy enough.”
“You seem a lot less afraid of the forest this time,” she smiled.
“I was never afraid!” he snapped. “I’ll admit I didn’t know what to expect. The way it was described to me, I was expecting the trees to start walking around and talking to me.”
“Ha!” she laughed. “Walking, talking trees? Who would ever believe that?”
“I don’t know, some people might.”
“That sounds really silly. Some people will believe anything,” she smiled again.
Graves said nothing. He just patiently followed her. Argyle had jumped up onto the horses back and was now sitting directly in front of Graves. They walked for nearly an hour, passing the trail marker, which was now facing up again, until they reached Nafi’s boulder on the right side of the path. She stopped, and then flew around behind them.
“Ok, turn around and face me,” she said. Graves wheeled his horse around. Nafi then turned her back on them and faced the same direction.
“1… 2… 3…” she began counting to herself until she reached ten. “That should be enough. Ok, turn around.”
Graves turned them around again, only this time; there was a large, bright clearing ahead of them. Graves and Argyle tilted their heads to the right and stared in awe,
“…The hell?” he said. Argyle turned his head around and looked up at Graves, confused. “I don’t know,” he said to Argyle. “Ask her.”
“You have to trick the forest into thinking you’ve given up! That’s the secret! Come on, let’s go!” she said and flew off to the clearing.
They trotted down the rest of the path into the clearing. It was not particularly large, about the size of someone’s front yard. The grass was a beautiful green and appeared to be freshly cut. In the middle of the clearing was a large smooth stone, the height of a person. There was an inscription on it, but it was in an ancient language none of them could read. There were also four ways out including the way they came in.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“The middle of the forest. We’re halfway there,” she said. “Now follow me or it will be dark by the time we make it out,” she said and flew around the rock. She moved back toward the same way they came in. Graves followed.
“No no, go around the rock first, then follow me.”
Graves turned back around, trotted his horse around the rock and then back toward Nafi who led them back into the forest. Then he realized where they were headed.
“Um… Nafi… you didn’t happen to realize where we’re headed did you? This is the way we just came in.”
“I know! That’s the other trick of the forest! Go halfway through, turn around and go right back out. Trust me, we won’t come out at the same place we went in. Most people can’t even find the middle! And when they do they always go the wrong way. Who would think to just turn back?”
“I hate this forest. Promise me we’ll never come here again.”
They walked back the way they came in, passing all the same things again for just over an hour before finally seeing an end. Graves followed Nafi out of the forest and the sun quickly shot out of the sky just below the horizon. Afternoon became dusk in less than three seconds. Graves looked behind him and the trail he had just traveled down looked completely different. They had reached the other side of the forest.
The capital city of Garemath was visible in the distance. Just ahead of them was the intersection of the trail through the forest and the trail around the forest. Just shortly beyond that was the Razolith Umpiera, from the ancient language meaning “Bridge of the Emperor.” The locals usually just called it ‘The Bridge’ for short. It was absolutely massive, made of stone, and was the only way across the river from the south.
“Well… let’s go! If we hurry we might find a place to stay before dark,” said Graves. With Argyle sitting in front of him and Nafi sitting on Argyles head, they sped off over the bridge toward the capital.
*****
Graves awoke the next morning in the bed of a room in the very first inn they found the night before. Argyle was curled up at the foot of the bed, still asleep with Nafi sleeping comfortably in his fur. He got up and walked to the window, opening the shutters letting the morning sunlight fill the room. It wasn’t enough to wake them.
He gently picked up Nafi in his hands. It was the closest he had ever seen a fairy before. She would be incredibly beautiful, he thought, if only she were around five feet taller. Holding her somehow made him feel a little happier. Maybe fairies were less of a menace than he thought. No. No, they still were. He just happened to find one who was less of menace. He gently laid her back down on the bed and then shook Argyle awake who gave him a dirty look for his effort.
Argyle stood up, gave a long hard stretch, then circled and lay back down.
“What the… no no, up!” said Graves and threw Argyle on the floor. “We’re going to get some answers today so we can start looking for her.”
His voice woke Nafi. She sat up, and then flew into the air.
“Morning already?” she asked.
“Yes. We should go.”
“The castle would be a good place to start,” she suggested.
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“King Richard should remember me. If we can actually get a chance to talk to him, I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to help us.”
“That’s right, you used to live in his garden. That makes speaking to him even more important. He may be willing to help us along more than he would someone he doesn’t know. Talking to him will be easy. Getting to him may prove to be slightly more… difficult.”
“Difficult? He’s a really nice man. I’m sure it will be easy,” she said with some optimism.
“Yes he is, but his guards aren’t about to just let us in to talk to him. We’ll need some kind of plan.”
“Well how badly do you need to talk to him?” she asked.
“Very badly. We need as much information as we can get. We also need him to prevent other would-be heroes from interfering with our efforts.”
“So would you say you need to talk to him?” she smiled holding up her wand.
He smiled back devilishly, “Yes. Yes I would.”
“Then don’t worry about a thing.”
*****
The capital city of Garemath was an impressive place. Hundreds of street vendors lined almost every road in the city. There was traffic on every street, as it seemed the entire city tried to get all its work done at once. It was a very busy, very bustling, very loud place. The people were all mostly friendly, but a certain amount of patience was required to make way through a continually unyielding crowd. Michael Graves was a man of little patience.
Having a horse was a slight advantage when attempting to navigate the streets of Garemath. People tended to move out of the way instead of getting trampled by animals much larger than themselves. They slowly made their way through the crowded streets, avoiding vendors and other salesman along the way. Some were more aggressive than others.
“You! You there on the horse! Look at your armor!” shouted a rather pushy vendor. He had a covered stand on the roadside that was filled with armor of all shapes and sizes, swords, shields, battle-axes, spears, maces, and other assorted weapons. He took a keen interest in Graves at the first sight of his rusty armor.
“Come down from that horse and look at some brand new armor and maybe a nice new shield for yourself! Come on, don’t be shy!”
“I don’t need new armor or a new shield,” said Graves, impatiently. “I only wear it for protection in battle, not as a fashion statement. I am as well protected in this as I am in anything else.”
“Not with those leather gauntlets. These here are made of metal! Could be handy when fighting a dragon!”
“A dragon.”
“Of course, a dragon! Those old leather gauntlets won’t help at all.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Are you sure? You really need some new armor!”
“If I really needed new armor, I have a new friend willing to provide me with it for free.”
“But it still wouldn’t be as good as my armor. Why don’t you come down from your horse and have a look?”
Graves was becoming impatient. The only thing worse than a salesman was a pushy salesman and the only thing worse than a pushy salesman was a pushy salesman who doesn’t understand the word ‘no.’. He motioned to Nafi to stand on his right shoulder.
“I just thought of something. Question first though,” he turned to her and whispered. “You have to use your power whenever I tell you to. What if I tell you to give someone else something?”
“Same rules apply, I guess. If you tell me to give someone something they don’t need, they’d still get something they don’t need or want.”
“Wonderful. Nafi, my dear, that man needs a hat. Kindly give him a new hat,” he said pointing to the pushy salesman.
“You’re just cruel,” she said. She waved her wand in a circle and pointed it at the salesman’s head. Fairy dust shot from her wand straight at him and a rather large pile of dirt dropped onto his head, covering him.
“What the…” he made some odd noises in disgust and shook himself off. People in the passing crowd took notice and laughed.
“Now you need a hat and a bath. I’ll leave you to that though. No means no,” said Graves, and they slowly continued on with the man shouting in the distance.
“I really don’t think you quite understand how my power works,” Nafi sighed.
“It seems to me that I do,” smiled Graves.
“You’re terrible,” she smiled.
“One of my finest qualities, dear fairy.”
They continued on their way down the crowded streets passing all kinds of famous Garemathean landmarks. The library was a massive grey marble building with a double row of stone pillars. There was a vendor in front the building selling paintings of it. The museum of Garemathean history was an equally amazing building to behold and there seemed to be a steady flow of people going inside.
“I’d love to see what’s in there!” Nafi smiled.
“We showed up, fought some people, built a city and saved some stuff that was left over. We put it all in here. That’ll be five silver coins please,” said an unenthusiastic Graves.
“There’s more to it than that!” she argued. “The original King’s Throne, artifacts of battles from thousands of years ago, and even more current things people might want to see.”
“Current things, like what?”
“King Richard donates things to the museum all the time. There is a replica of his crown so the people can get a close view and see what it really looks like, since most people will never see it. And some of Princes Delle’s baby things like her crib and some of her toys.”
“Well then we can skip it because we’re going to see his crown today when we talk to him.”
She only sighed again. Graves had only one thing on his mind continued toward the castle. They weren’t counting, but there had to have been over a hundred reward flyers posted between their inn and the museum and they were only halfway to the castle. Each one of the flyers was a reminder to Graves of why he was going through the trouble.
The castle grew larger as they approached it. It was simply an awe-inspiring spectacle. People often joked that there was no more white marble left in the world because it had all gone to the construction of the castle of Garemath. The castle had multiple courtyards, gardens, fountains, hedge mazes, pillars, and even it’s own waterfall.
Each king had brought to the castle, his own taste for magnificence. King Roger II loved courtyards, and so he added three of them to the original one. King David planted the castle garden that was once home to Nafi. Each king added a little more to the castle, slowly building it up over time to the unbelievable structure it was today.
King Richard’s passion was pillars. He appreciated more than any previous king, the architectural beauty of pillars. So he had them added to hallways, entryways, and the courtyards. Yes, even the courtyards had some freestanding pillars just because he loved the sight of them.
“It feels so good to be back here!” said Nafi, unable to stop herself from looking up at the impressive spires of the castle.
“I wish I could say the same, dear fairy,” said Graves looking up as well.
“You’ve been here before?”
“Yes, and the last time I was here was under,” he paused. “Somewhat different circumstances.”
“I’m getting the feeling I should have stayed in the forest.”
“Yeah. You probably should have.”