Chapter 56

Rain strode forward, ignoring the fretting sheep girl. It was strange being back in Lynthia. Everything looked so incredibly ... small. What had been a vast building that loomed over Rain in his past life was now ... kind of tiny looking. He knew exactly where he was and exactly where he was going of course, he knew Lynthia like the back of his hand, well the parts where low levelers were allowed to go anyway. Gated areas and high leveler reserved areas were still unknown to him.

A Human woman carrying a pile of scrolls and books in her arms appeared around a corner as he passed. She screamed and fell back against the wall, dropping everything, looking up in open terror at Rain as scrolls bounced and rolled across the cobble around her feet. He snorted a laugh. He wasn’t even doing anything yet they feared him this much? He considered how he felt about that. The contrast between how it had been when he was last in Lynthia and now was almost painfully jarring, going from something people felt contempt for to something that made them fear for their lives. They were afraid of him now, he could almost relish that change.

He took them down alley after alley, avoiding the main streets, deeper into the low leveler’s quarter of town. The buildings rapidly became more run down and decrepit, trash and horseshit were scattered across the unpaved roads and sketchy vagrants huddled in quiet corners doing gods knows what. The occasional waft of sewage and the rank smell of trash left out too long in the sun drifted past, all competing with the more isolated aromas, the ashy scent of a tobacconist, the distant stench of a tannery, the burnt tang of a blacksmith, even further away, the chemical stink of a leatherworker and the fragrance of a flower-seller, all blending together to create a unique miasma that took a sledgehammer to the nostrils.

Rain did not remember the lower leveler quarters smelling quite this terrible and he wrinkled his nose in distaste. Apparently his sense of smell was a step up from when he had been Human. He wouldn’t call it anywhere near as good or as useful as an actual wolf, or even a dog, but it was good enough to be distracting while walking through that part of town. He almost wished he had his Human sense of smell back and could ignore it more easily. He hoped that his new nose would get used to it after some time and naturally filter it out.

Well, despite the strange change in building size, and the more intense smell, it still felt like one thing, It felt like home, as rough and as dangerous as a home it was.

Thinking about it it was a minor miracle he had survived as long as he did when he was Human. He supposed it was a matter of luck and knowledge, easy to avoid getting into trouble if you simply avoided being around trouble altogether. Avoid this alley between noon and evening, only go to that street late at night, never ever go near that building. Rain had found late night and very early morning the least risky, the best time to scavenge. Survival meant figuring out the gaps in society and slinking between them. It wasn’t a good way to live but it was a way to live, and that was what mattered, he’d never given up despite hanging on only by his fingertips most days, despite most people he met either being dismissive of him or wary of helping him for fear of the Ranker.

A wild eyed man with an unkempt red beard suddenly burst from an alley. He held a rusted sword in his hands, the wobbling point aimed at Rain.

“The gods sent you, didn’t they! They knew I was stagnating with my leveling, they sent you for me to kill! To level me up! To make me strong!”

Rain stared down the man and he practically wilted under his gaze, his shoulders slumping and his legs trembling.

“Sorry sir but you are mistaken, this is a leveler, not a monster, an easy mix up, it happens,” said Lyra coming up behind. “Have you seen or heard of a monster species that looks like him before? Why would the town guard let a free monster into town? Come on, think about it,” she scoffed.

The man looked at her sceptically. As he did so Rain reached forward and ripped his sword from his hands sending the man stumbling. Rain then turned and threw the sword into the sky, literally, the sword went up and it just didn’t come back down, becoming a dot and then vanishing from sight in the blue above. The bearded man was left gaping at the sky, his arms limp at his sides as Rain passed by.

“Clean your act up,” growled Rain in passing.

The man blinked, taking a moment to realise the monster had spoken to him. He stared in confusion at the monster’s back as it turned a corner and disappeared from view.

“Someone you knew Rain?”

Rain stopped and turned on the sheep girl, she took a step back instinctively.

“I forgot to come up with a name for you to call me while I’m here. I shouldn’t have spoken to that man, It’s better to avoid any connection to my old life if possible. What should I call myself?”

“Let the Goblin name him,” came a muffled voice, a sense of amusement in it.

“Yeah, Boner’s right, I should come up with your leveler disguise name, I’m good at names.”

“I’m pretty sure both of you are absolutely terrible at names...” muttered Lyra.

Opal tapped a finger on her chin, thinking deeply. “How about Nightfang?”

A cackle could be heard from with the pack.

“I think he needs a really boring name to fit in amongst levelers ... Barry?”

The cackling went up a notch.

Rain stared at Lyra.

“M-maybe not?”

“My Father’s middle name was Fitz. I guess that will do for now.”

“Fitz ... That’s a nice name.”

“It’s a common name so it won’t be noticed, it’s good enough. There’s somewhere I want to check before we go to the mid leveler areas of town, it won’t take long, it’s right here.”

Rain turned and passed from the alley and into the street. He took a few steps forward and turned toward a larger four storey building. The larger building was run down and poor like the other buildings but it clearly saw a fair amount of use and someone had put some care into basic maintenance. Which was surprising considering it was quite clearly a whorehouse.

A scantily clad woman who was standing outside smoking went pale as a sheet seeing Rain and ran inside.

“Why are we here?” said Opal. “Is that building special somehow? Why are you looking at it that way?”

“I used to live here, or rather, I used to live in the old shed out back.”

Opal turned to Lyra who was looking at the building a little uncomfortably.

“You know something don’t you, tell me why he is acting weird.”

“It’s ah where he used to live, I don’t think it’s more than that, but this is a place where people go for, uhm, sex, to pay for sex from, ah, professionals.”

“Huh,” said Opal, looking at the building with new eyes. “Well that explains some things. I did wonder how he knew so much about that stuff.”

Opal gave the entrance one last glance before she wandered after Rain who had disappeared around the back of the building. There she found him looking over a dilapidated shed cloistered at the back of a weed filled dirt yard. It was fortunate the shed wasn’t a small one as Rain would not have been able to fit inside, even so he had difficulty getting through the front door and part of the wooden door frame collapsed around him. He dug around inside until he found what he was looking for underneath the floorboards. Then he withdrew, a very raggedy stuffed teddy bear with half its fur and a button eye missing held in his paw. He flipped it over and began picking at it with his claws, not very successfully as his claws were simply too big.

He was getting frustrated until Opal put a hand on his arm and gently took the bear from him. She turned it over in her hands with curiosity, examining the worn away fluff and loose stitches. Whatever it was it was obviously very old and worn.