Chapter 2: The Slum Existence (Edited)

After dashing far out of the forest, Franswift looked back and reassured himself nothing was coming after him. With the urgency to run regressing, he flopped down on the ground for a breather. I should be more careful the wolf almost had me for lunch. He looked at his malnutritioned body that had fresh new scratches. Maybe a snack. As he sat down his excited state began to recede and he felt the stings of the newly implicated cuts slowly surge over his body. He let out a hiss through his teeth and took out an ointment from his pocket to spread on the wounds. It would not heal the cuts but it would kill the pain and make the scars left afterward less noticeable.

Finished, he felt a soothing sensation spread through his skin and placed the tin back in his pocket. He looked at the sun and mumbled, “It seems that I will stay here for some time.” He had harvested the flower earlier than he thought. He had thought that the flower would bloom by noon like it was commonly known, and that he would not return anytime before the afternoon. But nothing these few days was “common”. He laid down and watched the sky letting time pass by since he had nothing to do. He would be a fool if he returned to the slums now

By the evening, most of the people would have gone around and been busy hiding their loot. They would not go troubling others. He’d had his fair share of being robbed and nabbed by going early. And although he was no longer afraid of the trouble, he would rather not meet those green-eyed goblins.

Franswift waited until the sun started to set down. When its light that fell upon the northern part of the city dyed it in red light blood, he decided it was time to return.

As he walked over the brown cracked ground once more, he saw in the distance the same depressing scenery. Franswift looked forward and he glanced the city from afar. As atrocious as ever. Surrounded by a grey lofty wall enveloping it in a circle. The closer one gets to the wall the easier he would see the engraved small glyphs and patterns. As well as the profound dark color covering its bottom. What made Franswift abhor the sight was the dark black color smeared on the bottom that gave it a fiendish aura.

The city had two walls. Standing in the sky and looking down one would see the second circular wall inside the city. The residents named what is within it the “Inner City”. Looking from above the inner city would be a bit hazy and distorted but the towering buildings, castles, and blockhouses, which all stood in contrast to the low-rise buildings of the outer city, could be easily discerned.

The outer city was divided into three parts. A part of it was the slum, the only area enclosed by walls from the inside to divide it from the other two. The outer wall held four entrances corresponding to the four cardinal directions. The people of the slum could only enter through the northern gate where the slum was.

When Franswift reached the city gates, he saw the other residents also going in and out of the city. Still, most of them were entering as always. To outsiders, the procedure of entering and leaving would be bizarre, to say the least. The strangest would be the guards manning the gate and the wall. They bothered to neither organize nor search the people passing through the gate, save very few people.

The rules the residents knew were simple. If the enterer had large baggage or a visible weapon, he would be halted and searched. Otherwise, all other people can enter but at a maximum of two at a time. It goes without saying there were different procedures at the other gates.

A single guard stood beside the gate and permitted entry, while the rest surrounded it two rows. One from the inside and the other from outside. All the guards wore the same thing: A full set of intricate armor. It was golden-colored with white horizontal stripes, with inscribed glyphs across its torso. As Franswift passed through the gate alone, he locked eyes with the entry guard for a second. He swiftly sneaked a couple of coins while whispering, “Any news?”

The guard carefully weighing the coins in his hands before handing Franswift a piece of paper as he shook his hand. He whispered back, “It is very abnormal, so be careful.”

Franswift shoved the piece of paper in his pocket and walked through the gate as if nothing ever happened.

Fortunately, he reached his tent without trouble as wanted.

The first thing he did when he settled into his tent was to take out some food to eat and replenish his energy, while he read the paper. As his eyes rolled down his face slowly started to wrinkle. He placed the paper back into his pocket with a frown on his face.

I will ask him about it while I am at it.

He had finished what he needed to do so he got up and out of the tent. This time he walked towards the south. Whilst moving, the view of the slums started to change as buildings began to appear in sight. Although they were dilapidated, cracked, and damaged. They were still better than whatever the people in the slums lived in.

However, the area itself was still part of the slum. It had the same disgusting sights, smells, and sounds. The building area didn’t differ away from the chaos of the slums, it was as improperly planned, to put it kindly. It had its wide streets be connected to each other by much smaller ones that could not handle the flow of people. While the tiny alleys between the buildings that were basically a riddle and a maze for those who don’t know their path took more than one-third of the area.

Franswift walked the street and then in-between the damp alleys littered with garbage everywhere. Being familiar with the area, he was able to move quickly while also avoiding the people that riddled the alleys.

Finally, he reached the place he wanted. A backdoor of some dilapidated building in the middle of the alleyways.

He knocked three times, waited a small period, then knocked again two times.

A sound came out from behind the door. “Who?”

“The swift bird.”

The door creaked ajar after he answered. A stout man with a bald head and a chubby stomach appeared at the door and let Franswift in. He wore some relatively decent looking clothes. A mix of white and dark yellow, trying to appear grandiose. But the dirt at the edge of the clothes could not be concealed.