The kingdom of Glade was divided into three large sections by circular walls known to the people of the kingdom as the rings. The three rings where known as the innermost ring, which housed the royal capital and noblemens homes. The central ring that was home to most of the trade and business as well as higher class commoners and merchants. And the outermost ring, housing middle and lower class commoners and farmlands.
The cities of the kingdom were tucked in between the rings with the farthest ones from the capital being outside the last ring. These cities were known as the cities that country bumpkins and undignified nobles came from. The closest to being a backwater city was Wormwood which had become famous, or rather infamous, for an incident in which the entire population had been badly poisoned. It was a city just inside the outer most wall. The water supply had been contaminated with a poisonous plant that caused seizures and heavy vomiting. A large portion of the population succumbed to the effects and died leaving behind only those with enough money to pay for healing treatment.
The city later became named after said plant and became a hub for unsavory individuals to linger due to the low surviving civilian population and lax taxation enforcement. Sol was now walking into this very city. He'd arrived at the edge of Wormwood after traveling for a few days. He'd had to pass through the last ring to get there. Sol was walking on one of the main streets and watched as several unsavory individuals turned in his direction, observing him with the look of a lion eyeing a piece of steak.
Sol pulled his hood down over his face and glanced around. He spotted an alley off to the side without anyone standing near it. The men who where eyeing him nodded to one another and stood starting towards Sol. He decided that the alley was probably better than getting robbed in broad daylight and swiftly walked into it.
The alley seemed to lead from one main street to the next and Sol sighed with relief when the suspicious men didn't follow behind him. The feeling of relief dissipated as someone stepped into the alley in front of Sol. The man before him stepped from the shadows into the light allowing Sol to make out his features.
Dirty blond hair that was straighter than a pencil fell just below his ears. It was cropped shorter in the front by his eyes. His eyes were closed as he gave a small wave to Sol. His mouth stretched into a strained and sarcastic smile, his peach skin glistened slightly in the sunlight. He wore a pair of tan-ish beige dress pants with similar colored loafers and a white dress shirt with the top two buttons unbuttoned. A deep blue blazer with black hems and accents was laid over the shirt. He also wore black fingerless gloves with metal plating over the knuckles and a silver pendant that disappeared under the collar of his shirt making it almost impossible to notice.
"Hi there. You must be new here. Didn't you notice that no one else even dared to approached this area?" The dirty blond haired man said with a condescending tone. He opened his coral pink eyes are glared at Sol, his smile dropping from his face. "Or are you just stupid?"
Sol was stunned into silence. He was taller than the person before him but they radiated such a threatening presence that Sol was wondering if he would've had a better time getting mugged instead. Sol swallowed the dryness in his throat and spoke, "I - I was just trying to avoid some people who probably thought I was an easy target."
The man frowned, looking Sol up and down. He crossed his arms over his chest. "You certainly don't look like one." He said, disbelief evident in his tone. "If you want to lie to me why don't you try coming up with something better?"
Sol took a tentative step back as sweat formed on his face. He was more muscular than the individual in front of him but he was certain that if it came to blows he would lose. "I don't want any trouble. I'm just trying to get to the capital." Sol said putting one hand out in front of him and waving it wildly in a nervous manner.
"People who say that are almost always the ones who seek out trouble on purpose!" The blond haired man yelled with an angry expression on his face. He lunged forward and threw a punch at Sol's head. Sol barely doged out of the way in time as the punch whizzed past his face leaving him with a small cut on his cheek. The force of the punch generated so much wind pressure that Sol's hood flapped around helplessly before falling down, revealing Sol's face.
The man turned to attack Sol again but, upon seeing Sol's face, stopped. The man looked at him with a shocked expression. He grabbed Sol's face with both of his hands and looked deeply into his eyes. Sol's eyes widened in surprise and the yellow and auburn in his eyes fought for dominance in his irises. The mans gaze intensified watching the two colors swirl about in Sol's eyes. Sol tried to pull his head back but the man wouldn't let go, his grip only tightened, slightly squishing Sol's face in his hands. Sol's eyes flickered completely auburn for a moment before resuming the yellow-auburn battle.
The man seemingly satisfied with this result gave a small satisfied smile and let Sol's face go. He let out a hearty chuckle and slapped Sol on the back. Sol stumbled forward a little from how roughly he had been hit. He rubbed his back a little and looked at the man before him confused.
"You should have just said something! I wouldn't have attacked you if I knew you were, well, you!"The man with dirty blond hair said. "Come on! Let's go to this super sick place I know!" He said grabbing Sol by the collar and starting to drag him out of the alley on the opposite side of where Sol came in from. Sol started trying to pull the man's hand off while talking.
"Hold on! Hold on! I don't even know your name, why would I go with you?!" Sol half asked and half shouted. The man stopped mid stride in the shady part of the alley. His face was shrouded in darkness for a moment. The feeling of terror started building in Sol. Then the man turned with a smile on his face and it faded.
"My names Oregrulous! There! Now you know me! Let's get going then!" The man now self identified as Oregrulous said. Sol was dumbfounded by the way that Oregrulous seemed to charge head first into everything. "We were just fighting and now he's acting like I've been his best friend for years. What is going on? Why is he being so friendly now?" Sol though as he was dragged from the alleyway and across the street to a tavern with saloon style doors.
Oregrulous pushed open the doors and the entire place that could be heard from the street went silent. Oregrulous walked in seemingly unfazed by the eyes of the entire establishment on him but Sol shifted uncomfortably under the weight of their gazes. He pulled up the hood of his cloak. Sol glued his eyes to the ground as Oregrulous pulled him across the room to the stools in front of the bar.
Oregrulous finally let go of Sol's collar and Sol's body relaxed a little. Oregrulous sat down on a stool, patting the seat next to him. Sol gave him a questioning look but still sat down.The noise returned to the tavern as soon as he sat down. Sol looked up at the bar keep who was standing behind the bar drying the inside of a beer stein. The bar keep had his eyes closed like he was refusing to acknowledge the person who just sat down in front of him.
He had long spikey black hair that went down to his waist and was pushed back away from his forehead. He looked a little on the older side plus he seemed rather tall. He was wearing a black and red striped vest with a dark grey dress shirt underneath. He also had a red thin bowtie around his neck. He turned around and Sol noticed that he was wearing black slacks with a chain connecting from the back pocket to the pocket on his vest.
Oregrulous had a big goofy smile on his face as he tapped the bars counter with his finger. "Hey now Besin, you know you can't just ignore a customer like that! It's pretty rude ya know." Oregrulous said in a joking yet forceful tone. Sol started getting a little nervous but it was obvious to anybody who witnessed this interaction that this wasn't a first for either of them. The bar keep sighed and turned around to face the only two people at the bar.
"It's not rude if I hate ya." The bar keep said. He reached his hand up and started ruffling Oregrulous' dirty blond hair. He let out a huff of protest as his straight hair started standing up in every direction. Oregrulous let out a sigh and the bar keep laughed. "What can I do ya for, Rulo?" The bar keep asked. Besin allowed his eyes to dart over to Sol for an instant and the two locked eyes.
"I'll take two of my regular." Sol heard Oregrulous say but he was distracted by the dull red eyes that were staring into his own. "One for me and one for my new friend!" Rulo said pulling Sol under his arm and breaking his and Besin's eye contact. Besin looked dazed for a moment, blinking slowly a few times. "Alright, I can do that for you. Give me a second." He said and turned around readying the drinks. He turned back with two glasses full of yellow golden liquid, a solid looking layer of green at the bottom.
Besin set the drinks down in front of Rulo. He went to pick one up but Besin put a hand out to stop him. "You know the deal. Pay before you drink. Can't have you walking out on your tab." Besin said putting out his hand. Rulo rolled his eyes but still pulled out a few Grass coins and dropped them into Besin's waiting hand. Besin checked the amount and nodded, letting Rulo take the drinks.
Sol noted the amount. "5 Grass coins. That's not terribly expensive but it's also not exactly cheap either." He thought wondering how far his 35 Dirt coins would take him in this area. The kingdom of Glade used coins that had the engravings of the life cycle of a tree on them. The lowest denomination of coins being Dirt coins and the highest being Great Oak coins. In order of least to most expensive the coins go Dirt, Grass, Seed, Sprout, Sapling, Young Oak, Oak Tree, and Great Oak. Each coin cost 10 of the previous coin. 5 Grass coins are 50 Dirt coins. 1 Great Oak coin is 10,000,000 Dirt coins.
In the backwater little town that Sol had originated from almost nobody had a Grass coin. 50 Dirt coins was considered a great amount back in Wesi, enough to pay off a small house even. Sure it's not considered a large amount to the rest of the kingdom but knowing that a house was equivalent to two drinks was a little disheartening for Sol.
Sol was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't heard Rulo tell him to grab his drink. He didn't even look up from staring a hole into the bar until Besin slid the drink in front of him. "You know this is the kind of drink that's best drank before it goes stale." He said in a kind of sarcastic tone. Sol looked up and nodded.
"I'll drink it now. I... Was just wondering... Are all the things around here that expensive?" Sol asked taking a sip of the beverage. The green from the bottom of the drink swirled up into the yellow golden part making it shine with emerald speckles. When the drink hit Sol's tongue he was surprised at the refreshing taste of star fruit and lime that greeted him. He licked his lips and then started greedily drinking it down.
"Nope! This drinks just pretty special. Most only cost a few Dirt... Hey you might wanna slow down. That's still an alcoholic drink ya know." Rulo said as he watched Sol basically chug the glass. Sol stopped and looked at the nearly empty glass. "Is it made using a magical element? It's so hard to taste the alcohol in it." Sol said astonished at the familiar feeling of heat begining to rise in his cheeks.
Rulo chuckled at the wonder in Sol's eyes. He couldn't help but notice that Sol was rather uneducated about the world. "He's ment to be that person yet he's still so naive to the ways of the world. Why didn't they tell him? I'm sure that once word gets out people will try their damnedest to get their hands on him. He should enjoy the world while he still can." Rulo thought while enjoying his own drink.
He noded to Besin. "Yeah, it does have magic in it but that sort of thing is more his specialty than mine." Rulo said looking at Besin with a look of admiration and expectance. Besin rolled his eyes but still seemed willing to explain.