New Fantasy World: Galeia-Chapter 54

A large hexagon was drawn on the right part of the paper with ’Riverfield’ written on top. A river crossed the city from south to north sticking to the rightmost wall. It then went north to the top of the paper. What I assume was the forest surrounding the city took most of the space on the map, green ink the only hint of it’s meaning.

A lake to the west surrounded by mountains with various dots on them. Each had a name, but were in an alphabet I didn’t know. A little separated from the mountains was a small circle that had ’Mountroad’ written above it. A road crossed it, continuing to a mountain chain if my understanding was correct.

To the north, more mountains. To the south, forest.

A few squares here and there with ridiculous names like ’Peakside’, ’Lakeview’, and more. There were a lot of dots with weird writings on the map, small settlements nearby.

Dungeons? I wondered. That’s a lot.

"We’re around here." a scaly finger pointed at a point west of Riverfield, about a fourth on the way to Mountroad.

I nodded. "Do you have a map of the world?" I excitedly asked.

"I have one." Lapia said, taking out a map of her own.

I walked over to her and looked at the map.

Three continents were drawn on the map. The biggest of the three was to the left, leaning diagonally to the right. It was pretty thick at the middle. The top and bottom were narrow. The top fourth was grayed out for some reason.

The second biggest was at the bottom half. It was shaped like a trapezium with very rough edges. At the bottom left of the continent, a massive delta formed a lot of islands.

On the top right of the map an almost circular continent was drawn. A massive amount of islands sat in the middle of the three landmasses.

The trapezium and the circle came pretty close to touching each other.

"This is Patuk." she pointed at the circular continent. "This is Makah." she pointed at the left continent. "This is Leks." she pointed at the trapezium.

Was there no Pangaea? I wondered. Right. Gods or Halves maybe changed shit.

"Where are we?" I looked closer.

"Lumin Kingdom is here." she pointed at a spot near the middle of the trapezium, a little up.

"I came from the south. So maybe near the bottom coastline?" I wondered.

Twelve thousand kilometers should be enough to cross the continent. I thought.

"The continents are way bigger, Natasha." she giggled.

"Wait, so how much land did I cross?" I tilted my head.

Russia is a little over eight thousand kilometers from west to east. Was I wrong about my speed?

"From here to here if you kept your speed constant along the river." she pointed at a lower point in the continent. Not close at all to the edge.

"Alright." I felt a buzz in my ears. "So this is the world?"

"Pretty much." she nodded.

This wold is massive! I looked up. I never left the forest while running.

"That’s a big forest." I sighed.

"The biggest in the world." Alyssa said, smiling at our exchange. "It’s called ’Cradle of Life’."

"It covers Leks from east to west. Twenty five thousand kilometers." the Elf nodded.

No... that’s... like half of Earth, only one forest? I sat down slowly and closed my eyes.

"This is hitting me harder than I thought. Give me a minute." I managed to say.

Three moons... twenty four hours... three hundred and fifty four days a year. How fast is this planet spinning? I felt nauseous. Two suns.

My hands went numb and a shiver ran up my back. How strong is gravity here? To pull three moons and keep them away from two suns. How far away are they? Does it even work like that? Is this one of those super planets or whatever the name was? Shit, I’m gonna have a panic attack.

I took deep breaths. The sheer size of the world made me feel extremely small. I relaxed and let the feeling run its course. A single river is thousands of kilometers long. I didn’t see any mountains. I should’ve paid more attention in school. I chuckled.

"You okay?" Lapia asked. "I can feel your heartbeat through the Bond going pretty fast."

I shook my head. "A little existential dread."

I need a smoke. I stopped the thought. No, I shouldn’t pollute my new body.

A hand rested on my head, a gentle warmth spreading into my body. My panic lessened and I opened my eyes. Alyssa was smiling, kneeling in front of me.

"Better?" she asked,

"A lot. Thank you." I sighed.

Bless this woman.

"What happened?" Lapia asked in a soft voice.

"I felt... small. So incredibly tiny." I whispered.

"It’s okay." the healer comforted me. "We live long, so we can explore it all."

I winced. "That’s a red flag."

"Only in fiction, silly." she pinched my cheek and stood up. "We should sleep, how will we handle watch?"

"I can do it." I raised a hand, a slight dizziness still in my head. "I can forgo sleep until we reach Mountroad."

"What’s the limit?" the Elf asked.

"Uhh... it says ’Choosing to stay awake spends a variable amount of E’er a day until proper rest’, so I guess until I run out." I shrugged.

"A being of E’er I tell you." she shook her head. "That means you could fight as long as you absorb E’er. If the cost isn’t exponential, of course."

"If you drop below half, we’ll rotate." Alyssa declared.

"Okay." I gave her a cheeky smile.

She’s the experienced one when it comes to traveling around, after all.

"How about a little sex tonight?" Lapia smirked.

"The tent is not sound proof... we might attract something." the Luzo pointed out.

"Tch!" clicking her tongue, the wizard crossed her arms and looked away. "Can we make out, at least?"

I chuckled as I stood up, walking over the Elf and giving her a juicy kiss. Alyssa joined us and wrapped her tail around us.

"Go rest." I said after separating. "Sleep tight."

Lapia nodded, holding the Luzo’s hand and entering the tent.

I sat down and took out my journal.

While updating this journal, some things have come to mind.

I have seen men, but they don’t look like I expected them to.

When Lapia first told me women chased, I thought men would be timid, shy even. That was not the case. My guess: it’s not a matter of gender expression, more like sexual roles, if that can be differentiated between the two.

Although it may sound narcissistic, I am quite the beauty now that I am a Halve. Not that I wasn’t before, but it’s much more pronounced. I didn’t see the stares I was familiar with. Most were filled with amazement, respect, some fear. None had the desire I want from men.

The little understanding I have about the subject is that roles in a society shift when ’nature’ is conquered. That is not the case in this world. I faced a herd of animals that could easily trample over the entire populace of Riverfield.

Even if it’s something I don’t really need to think about, and hardly comprehend, it comes to mind. Comparisons are inevitable, I recall Earth to find common ground and understand more, which sometimes confuses me further.

If an Elf can live up to five thousand years, how long has the species existed? How long did it take for a fox to evolve into what they are today? Could Lapia be considered a fox girl?

Wonder is what I feel as I write this.

I will continue next time, the suns are rising.

7/3/1980. Yiama’s Era.

I looked up and saw Alyssa leaving the tent. The fire had kept the early morning from enveloping us in fog. Now dispersed, the air was comfortably moist and warm. I didn’t want my sanity to drop, so I didn’t question how a fire lived through the night without fuel.

"Good morning." I waved at her. "Did you sleep well?"

"Hey... I did." she yawned and nodded, receiving a peach I offered. "Ohh! Thank you."

Sitting down, she bit it and swallowed a few times.

Lapia came out of the tent next, her hair an absolute mess.

We had breakfast, fruits and dried meat. We cleaned ourselves with a magical cloth Alyssa produced. I still felt dirty, however. Then, we fed the animals, packed our stuff, and resumed the trip.

That day, Alyssa continued her lessons on Dragon Tongue. When we took breaks, they’d teach me a few songs in common and were surprised by my vocal range.

When the sky darkened we camped on a clearing and I checked my E’er pool, ten points of E’er were missing. Alyssa accepted that and went to sleep with Lapia.

I spent the night walking around the clearing, a few animals came close but were harmless critters; birds, rats for some reason, weird miniature wolves, and a few cats with talons on their leg joints. Just approaching made them leave, so all was good.

When dawn broke we had breakfast, cleaned ourselves, fed the mounts, and left. The two got worried when I told them about the little forest friends that visited. They said those were all dangerous predators. I hadn’t appraised them, because I’m dumb, apparently.

The Luzo said that unlike the Me’ik, the weird moose, most predators have a semblance of intellect, and must’ve realized I could have deleted them from the mortal realm, so they chose to leave.

Alyssa asked me to speak in Infernal, and I said a few lines. We all cringed at my voice. Lunch was had and when the day started to darken with the coming of late evening, we spotted a town.

It was a normal sized, regularly built, medieval looking town.

The suns be praised!

A stone wall surrounded a group of buildings, mostly wooden houses.

Guards stationed on a large wooden door greeted us.

We paid the tax and entered the town. I equipped my helmet to avoid being called cringe names.

"Let’s go rent a room at the inn. We’ll spend the night here and continue in the morning. It’s pretty late. We can check if there’s anyone interesting at the local Church, too." Alyssa commented from the front of our formation.

We continued into the town through its narrow streets and stopped at a tall wooden structure, four stories and a double door at the front.

Now that’s more like a fantasy inn. I smiled at the building. We left Sonya and the Bhin outside.

I walked in first, pushing the doors open. At first, I wanted to do it wild west style, but that might have ended destroying them and causing trouble. Easy does it.

A tavern welcomed us.

FUCK YES! This is what it should have been. I clenched a fist in celebration.

The space was dead silent, however.

The bartender, a male Luzo, was chatting with a Human waiter.

Blue scales covered his visible body except his face, two horns to the sides.

The interior had twelve tables, of which eleven were occupied. Elves, Dwarfs, a couple Lupum and some Humans. The table farthest from the entrance was free, so we walked there and sat down.

I stored my armor, the chair might have broken otherwise. The waiter approached us and smiled.

"Good evening. My name is Mako, what are you having?" his brown eyes scanned us.

"Vegetables and ale." Lapia put five silver coins near the man.

"Meat and wine." Alyssa did the same.

"Meat and fruit." I put two gold coins on the table. "And alcohol."

"How many bottles?" he asked.

I looked around, noticing a few patrons glancing my way.

"Enough for everyone." I said loudly.

A booming chorus of cheers followed. The bartender shook his head and took out bottles from under the counter.

It feels as good as I imagined! I smiled widely.

A female Lupum stood up and started singing, the Elves on her table followed her lead, taking out lutes and flutes.

"As the suns rise, so does the protector~ Eternal watcher, forever our savior~" she sang.

That’s cringe. I covered my face and laughed.

"Well, that’s a way to brighten the day." Lapia chuckled.

"We’ll be staying the night if you have free rooms." Alyssa put another ten silver coins. "One room."