Ship to a New Life

As Markus entered the city, it felt like he was slowly being devoured by it, chewing him up as its inhabitants went about their daily life, bumping into him on their way past. His thoughts dwelling on when it would either swallow him whole or if it would spit him back out, though nobody in the city seemed to even acknowledge his existence at times making him feel lesser than he already was. The streets of Hanuk were mainly dirt trodden pathways, with the few odd stones in the way, to its sides ran small streams of water from the houses of the city. Giving the air a quick sniff he soon realised just how different things were here. In Luik there was a sewer system that ran under the city, it would be dumped into cesspits at its end and certain individuals would remove it. Yet here people threw their shit into the streets, and their piss ran along the side in small streams.

Hanuk was packed with traders and docile customers from The Continent, it's streets breathed new life into most of those that had finally made their way here. Markus himself quickly peered back to the gate to see if anyone else had arrived from Luik yet, but to no avail, but he continued on. Weaving his way through the crowds, and blocking the noise of the sellers.

"Fresh Fish!" a man yelled to the top of his lungs.

"Fruits and Veg!" from another.

The market day was in full swing and Markus tried his best to not get caught up into it, from what he could tell Hanuk was a district based city, unlike Luik where houses were mixed together and had been so since its conception. However here, the poor lived on the direct outskirts of the city, the not so poor then filled the gap between the poor and the rich who lay at the center. Markets were close to the center but opened up crossroads for many to get more direct routes to other places in the city, such as the church or the port. Looking at the buildings themselves, Markus could tell that most were well in need of repair from where he was, the wood had started to decay a little, and the stonework was chipping away with the weather, yet the dark oak of the wood held firm against the elements but the silver granite would slowly begin to crumble and fade away.

Pushing ever on, Markus found himself at the foot of a guild hall, it was close to the market about a few houses down the road. It caught his eye due to how different it was from the rest of the houses in the city. It was tall about 50 feet high, a spire protruding from its front center, unlike the other housing it was all stone, a mixture of pure white marble and the greyish silver granite from the other houses. The look was alien compared to the rest, and above its door lay a stonework sigil, as Markus stared at its design he quickly felt familiar with it. Soon he reached into his pocket pulling out a sigil with a similar design, glancing between the two he soon reached the conclusion that it was a perfect match. Taking a deep breath he slowly approached the door, which itself was about 8 feet tall, made of hardened oak that had been darkened also, its handles were two large steel rings that when twisted pulled up latches on the other side.

Slowly the door creaked its way open, the hinges obviously in need of some oil as it grew stiff about half way open. As he opened the door Markus noted the stained glass windows like those in a church that had different phases of the moon with a wolf howling towards it. Under each there was writing engraved deep into the stone, in a language that Markus couldn't read or understand. Taking a slow look around the hall, illuminated in the stained blues and silvers of the glass panes, there was a section strictly held with tables all marked to the bone, scratched all the way through. At the end of the hall it diverged with two doors and a stairs leading to the second floor, between the two doors lay a counter that seemed to work much like a counter at a local tavern. His thoughts wondered why this place that was so beautiful to be in would be so empty, slowly it came to his mind a remembrance of the sight he saw on the road.

As he finally entered, a bell rang as the door closed, and from the door on the left side a tall man, arms like pieces of twine hanging on both sides. Resting upon his hooked nose a pair of glasses, no legs on them, only a simple chain that rolled over his ears and rested on the back of his neck. Almost all the hairs on his head were gone or bleached from exposure to sunlight, his ears pointed at their ends, this man was an elf. He seemed to judgingly gaze around the room, tired of its look but as soon as his eyes met with Markus's, it seemed as if an interest grew inside him, a sort of shallow curiosity.

"And who might you be?" He said, deepening his voice near the end of the sentence, yet the pitch of his voice seemed to be quite high, Markus nearly thinking it to be the squawk of a gull from outside.

"Nobody you know." Markus replied, beginning to try and look closer at the engravings on the walls from his distance. He slowly began to walk into the center of the hall and eventually passing the few tables before the reception, placing his hands down firmly on the counter as he arrived.

"If you are nobody I know, then why are you in a hall that should be filled with people I know." The man retorted, as if his curiosity had peaked a little and had begun to die down.

"The carving above the door… it… matched these sigils I found on some corpses on the road here." Markus slowly pulled out all the sigils he had taken from the bodies, laying them all down on the counter as the man behind it stood there in a brief moment of shock.

"I see. You wouldn't happen to know how this happened?" He asked genuinely, picking a couple up and examining them closer, his eyes lasering in on every detail. Slowly his lower lip puckered, some of the darkest ideas of what could've happened filling his mind.

"From what I could tell, ambushed by bandits with no survivors." Markus replied, looking at the man's reactions, trying to find something worth the journey.

The man would nod in understanding, writing a quick note down with his inkwell and quill that he pulled out from underneath the counter, his face puckered up slightly as tears began to form in his eyes. Sliding the paper to one side to let it dry, he continued to let the tears stream down his face, tumbling down like a box caught in the wind, leaving a snail's glistening trail behind it.

"Well, thank you for this notice. If you have any more of these sigils then I'd like to take them and send them home as evidence." he'd ask as he started to pick the rest of them up and placing them in a small box that he had grabbed from behind the counter.

"That's all I have." Markus replied, lifting his hands off the counter, preparing himself to walk out before realising somethings that he had forgotten. "What even is this place?" He'd ask, his hands sliding down into his pockets as he once again turned and looked at the walls and windows, the light seeping through had dimmed as dark clouds moved overhead and slowly onto the panes dripped water as the rain began to quietly fall to the ground.

"This is the Jyellik guild hall for the Lunar Wolves Mercenary Company. A prolific company on The Continent, we're still trying to get more traction here in Jyellik though." The man answered looking to the windows as the rain got heavier and the pattering got louder on the panes.

"Mercenaries? So they just take job requests and such?" Markus asked as he turned away from the windows shaking his head knowing that he now had to walk around the city in that oncoming storm.

"That's what mercenaries do no? They go where they see money." The man replied, pulling out some glass cups from the counter and a clean cloth and began to polish them as he continued his conversation with Markus.

"Are they currently hiring members?" Markus again questioning the man, the man beginning to feel like a pincushion with Markus needling away at him.

"They always are, but you'd have to go to The Continent to ask them personally." the man said slowly, putting down the glass and picking up another continuing to polish them, sliding them slowly down the counter to keep a clean working space.

"I see, and how would I get there then?" Markus persisted on with his questions as the man behind the counter felt burdened with his presence.

In an exhausted sigh he went behind the door to his left and came back with a ticket, a pass that allowed Lunar Wolves to travel freely on ships coming into port as long as they paid a monthly fee to the captains on the ships.

"Take it, and hurry quickly. The boats will be leaving shortly anyways, since I have no use of it anymore." The man finished his last glass and moved them all back under the counter, sighing again, "I'll send for another soon enough, this is my thanks for passing on the information about the deaths on the road." He ushered Markus off with a shooing motion, as if he wanted Markus to get out of the building as fast as he could. Markus grabbed the ticket and left the building hearing a loud clunk as the latch fell into place and soon the noise of multiple keys being locked.

Looking along the streets Markus realised that mostly everyone had cleared out due to the rain, and those that were still out lay under the thatch roofs of the market stalls still buying their daily needs. Placing the ticket in his pocket Markus began on his journey to the port, the rain soaked him to his skin as he rushed through the streets, mud kicking up behind him as his feet sank into the ground slightly with every step. The puddles forming in the gaps between stones in the road and the rivers at the sides of the road burst their banks slightly, the on rushing water from them had the ability to knock one of their feet if they weren't careful about their step. Dipping through some roads, following signs as they pointed towards the port's direction.

His hair began to turn a deeper brown as it was flooded with water and as he turned the next corner he could see it. The docks, ships lined across it, dozens of tall masted ships. One had a painted hull, green in colour with red trimmings and its sails were dyed black and adorned with golden edges. Others were bland fishing boats, stocked to the brim with large nets that looked like they could tear at any moment. Then there was one ship that stood out, a large frigate like ship, cannons poking out of its sides, the sails blood red with a black bear placed firmly on its center. The hull was made of a fine pine, with a chestnut finish to the railings that lined its edges.

Markus approached the giant ship, a size he had never seen before, it floated in the center of the port, its size too large to even fit in the space left by the other ships. It's captain lay at the dock, waiting for the rest of his crew to arrive, Markus slowly approached him with the ticket in his hand and showed him it. The captain looked Markus up and down without a word before slowly gesturing to the small row boat next to him, as while this ship could be used for war, it's main role was to transport people between here and the continent.

"Get in the boat." The captain said as he climbed in over, Markus followed suit but struggled to keep his balance as the row boat rocked to its side slightly as he entered it.

"This will take me to The Continent?" Markus asked, the captain pulling on the oars, pushing the boat through the water and pulling up beside the ship.

"One of the many that do lad." The captain spoke softly gesturing for him to climb up the side of the ship, a small wooden ladder had been built onto its side, it was like steps to a stairwell but each step acted more like a ladder than some stairs. As he summited the ladder he took a quick glimpse around the ships deck, it was stocked to the brim with different crates all waiting to be moved down into the cargo hold; assortments of fruit, weapons and armour all lay visible and all lay getting wet in the rain.

"Down here lad." The captain said to Markus as he dragged him under, the second floor of the ship had been made into a living space, multiple rooms lay around like an inn, below him he could hear the crew quarters, a couple of the crew playing a game that was causing chaos. The captain hearing the loud bangs simply shook his head as he brought Markus to one of the open rooms.

"This is where you'll be staying for this journey." He said as he turned to walk away and headed down to the crew quarters to deal with the loud rabble. Markus's room was small, a tiny candle lay on a night table next to his bed, the bed was old and firm, obviously slept in by many people. It's covers were cotton, blue trimmed with red and the pillows made from wool. Exhausted Markus lay down as his belly rumbled, forgetting that he hadn't eaten yet today. Before he could sate his hunger, he quickly nodded off to sleep.