Chapter 4

"Good morning Eirwen" Ollie called with a grin.

"Good morning Ollie," I greeted back opening my locker that contained my work clothes. I had gotten a mechanic job, basically, I fix machines and Ollie is my mentor. My coveralls were a dark blue telling people I had just started while Ollies was orange a higher rank than me.

"What will we be doing today?"

"We're going to the Province to check out a broken street robot, don't worry it'll be a quick fix."

I nodded in understanding while putting brown gloves on.

The streets were damp with rain from weeks ago, every step made my boots lose a bit of their momentum slowly eroding the sole. If you listened close enough, rodents could be heard speaking their voice or chewing on whatever they could find to survive. In the ally paths of the city, the scent of garbage and waste had sometimes wafted its way into the busy open streets. I glanced into the narrow ally little wais from me, a recently new word I learned came to mind "homeless." The people that couldn't get jobs due to personal problems and take care of themselves leaving them to rot in the crevices of the city. They remind of the original Eirwen, hopeless, depressed, sorrowful, they need a helping hand, just a little push to get them going in life. But the people here don't help. The children sometimes throw rocks at them, even though they're the same in many ways, adults sometimes beat them, and few pity them. I pity them.

"Were here, ah that's the robot!" Ollie pulled my arm in alarm as the robot went berserk causing a disturbance to the people. Netting the street robot was easy as Ollie opened up its control box. I squatted down to Ollie's level as he took out many tools while I observed.

"Ollie do robots have a conscience?" I had never worked with a robot yet and have only seen them passing out flyers or welcoming people into shops, they never did anything more than their job and seemed lifeless.

"What? Haha no no, don't you know what a robot is snowman?"

He gave me an irritating nickname.

"No, how are they made? I only recently came to this city and lived in a rural village. This is very new to me."

"Ah, I see why you're confused. Robots are made by the dwarfs to function for certain things. Here look at the screws that I'm taking apart. Basically, they're just made of parts like iron and they run on oil."

I looked down as he twisted things and flicked switches. I tapped my finger on its surface hearing the tap of thick hollow metal, these robots kind of remind me of myself. They were made by species to function in their desired way. But these things are different, no magic is tied to them making them just shells of iron with no conscience at all. A weird feeling bubbled up in my chest that I can't describe, it felt like sadness but im not sad. I narrowed my eyes in contemplation.

"Lunch break snowman! Cmon I'm starving," a few hours later of roaming the city Ollie stretched popping his back before grabbing my arm and pulling me to the market.

"Wow, dosnt that look good?" Ollie pointed at the skewered meat sticks with hot sauce smeared on its crust. "It smells so good, let's get some I'll pay," Ollie smiled as I nodded, patted my shoulder before heading off to go buy some.

I sat on a bench while watching the crowd in boredom. Human, vampire, oh a mermaid, that's rare, beast-man, half beast-man, cultivator, magician, doctor, elf, angel, dwarf, dwarf, more dwarfs. I named off all the people I found interesting in today's crowd before only seeing dwarfs and reluctantly ended my game.

"AH let go," the cry was of a little girl she was a half beast-man dog species. The cry wasn't heard by many in the bustling crowd and the people that did hear it ignored it. A human had her arm in a tight grasp speaking in a rough tone, it was clearly a bad situation. The man was pulling her to a cart while the girl struggled profusely as if her life depended on it. A struggle to survive. I looked closely at the destination the man was bringing her, the cart held people in collars, it was a variety of species. Their eyes were soulless much like the homeless, given up on life. They were "slaves." They were one of the things I hated most learning about. Anger brewed in my chest.

Something happened, a tavern boy around fifteen grabbed the girl's arm yanking her back from the man's grip. They yelled back in fourth the boy protected the little girl in a defensive posture while the man grew more and more aggressive and reckless. I began to wonder where the guards are.

The man started to use magic to choke the human boy, but the boy's eyes didn't let up, he continued to protect the little girl. My eyes glowed with this newfound curiosity. I read about heroes in books, the boy reminds me of the heroes that fight against humanity's corrupt inner walls. Although sometimes it's the heroes that think they're doing good but actually working for the corrupt beings.

Luckily the boy was saved by the guards finally showing up and reprehending the man that attacked. It was a happily ever after, for now.

Cultural divisions is another thing I learned and how species arent really in harmony-

"Snowman here ya go," Ollie shoved spicy meat into my mouth. I swelled up with tears, another thing I learned...

I hate spicy food.

-

"I'm home Doxin!" Finally in the comfort of my home where I can relax and eat good food with Doxin and talk about whatever I want with him. I took off my boots and my cloak as I always did, hanging them up before trying to find Doxin who should be home by now.

I frowned as I didn't hear anything, the kitchen light was on so I assumed he was there. Opening the door my eyes widened in shock. Doxin was curled up in his arms on the floor and faint sniffing was heard, he was crying.

"Doxin are you okay?" Suddenly I had a fear of not knowing how to comfort.

Doxin flinched before looking up, his eyes were swollen with tears, he rubbed his eyes wiping them off before standing up.

"Im fine Eirwen don't worry."

He isn't fine.

"What happened, tell me," I glared seriously at him pressuring him to tell me, and eventually he relented holding me in a hug and trying to get his words out.

"T-They k-k-kicked me out *sniff* they d-don't want m-me anymore."

I scrunched my brows in confusion as I patted his back, why would they kick him out? He's good at everything he does. A top tier butler.

"It's okay you can always get a new job, anyone would want you," I tried to comfort.

"You don't understand! I need a master, I need a master Eirwen! it's too scary without one. They said- they said I was-"

"If you need a master so badly I could replace the role until you get another position." I could feel a hidden trauma in Doxins words, so to calm him down I must first feed the trauma with reassurance.

Doxin paused before looking me in the eyes, an unknown luster swam in the mix of golden honey.

A weird sense of danger pumped through my heart.