Tracks

Even with all its shine and prestige, the plaza displayed itself with, an innate judgment of separation was about the crowd. Not from a lack of personnel present, no, there was a plentiful array of colourful characters brandishing their medals and pearl jewellery alike. Men in and out of uniform sharply dressed in pinstripes, Palm Beach suits, wide lapels and tunics, ladies gliding across the terra cotta paving in shoes just a little too small, midi cut dresses with embroidered patterns and beads sewn into them, shiny and sunkissed in the afternoon sun.

The street buzzed with excited upper-class flair, all present ignorantly, or otherwise willingly, blissful of any catastrophes currently tampering with the world's fragile balance. But what concerns did that have, all of that was over there, and they were here in the radiant sun. Here was safe, with no tarnish from the outside ugliness or its messy politics, only idealised scenery and a lively city that these people were so patriotically proud of.

A quick skim with the eyes would help one quickly deduct a predominantly elvish turnout. But even with the occasional half-man-half animal hybrid, orc or merfolk flocking the street, nothing about the scene was too out of the norm. Just another sunny July by most accounts to Takashi, and it was nothing Osmond wasn't too unfamiliar with. Still, he found this heat and mere implication of the sky's existence to be anything but comfortable.

Long stretches of stalls popped up parallel to each other with their clerks hollering and begging the attentiveness of every bystander passing them by, Osmond's and Takashi's presence requested just as much so. Ordinary was the marketplace at first glance. Fishmongers, butchers, tailors, jewellers, potion brewers, and handcrafted attires synonymous with a publicly shared sales ground. Takashi was no stranger to other strangers poking him for his attention, Osmond also did not feel as alienated in this environment as Saventviet previously achieved with its more volatile wildlife. He still felt the slither of seaweed down his back from occasion...

"Doktor I don't zhink you filled me in before we departed, or are we here for actual work? Not to pry given the often sensitive nature business would imply but-" he pulled up next to Takashi's side to properly address him, "we've been valking for a good while now."

On cue with Osmond's query, Takashi disposed of a piece of crumpled parchment, tossing it into a waste bucket. "We were meant to find that dumb blonde's dumb house but I lost the dumb coordinates and that's why we're here. We're lost basically."

"Ja, I thought so. But vhy are we going there of all places?" Osmond's face creased up slightly at the unpleasant memory of the last confrontation Takashi and Wendell clashed in, something only comparable to a sub-par soap opera scene really, but enough to put the injured horse of their turbulent ... friendship down and out of its misery for good, seemingly. "How long zince you last zpoke?"

"You were there, Goggles. And I left my uh... What's-it-called, my thing, you've seen it, it looks like..." Takashi trailed off into a mumble as he stopped to motion to Osmond, his hands stroking the air as to indicate a loose description of a cylindrical thin object. Not at all narrowing it down for Osmond in the slightest seeing as it could mean anything from knives to candy canes when describing the contents of Takashi's inventory.

Stopping to stand in the middle of the narrow walkway proved to irk pedestrians, forcing the two to retreat to the side, a nearby stall owner none too keen with their loitering or persons which blocked a good view of their shop.

"Ah," Osmond smiled meekly to him, brows arched sympathetically, aware of his uneducated question and Takashi's frail excuse for a game of charades, "vell regardless, and seeing as you probably just threw out the only map we had back there, we can just ask zomeone."

"If you somehow manage to understand and resight whatever language they're regurgitating be my guest."

Osmond retreated into his own thoughts, unable to contribute.

Takashi huffed, wiping the sweat from his brow and fringe from his eyes. The sun was blocked by considerately placed tarps and blankets suspended by ropes attached to the buildings behind the stalls. Even so, the heat of the summer characteristic with the S.R's climate it advertised beat down through the shade still.

Osmond being non too vocal about it suffered silently with occasional tugs on his jumper.

Both taking a break from walking, pulling into the side into a quieter ally across the street to them, more sheltered from the sun but no cooler. At the very least, less traffic meant they could catch their breath and rest.

The ally itself while shrouded and more lonely was but an extension of the market. People perusing goods not deemed the main street-worthy nestled into a 20x20 space. Stalls here were more elaborate and less orthodox in their wares, appealing to a more elusive, but still legal crowd. Extremely tame with what Takashi's jobs could entail, but a little too explicit were these items for the respectable public in Sanventviet, with the concoctions and "cursed objects" for many an ailment or pleasure you wouldn't find on orthodox store shelves.

The plain, brickwork walls of the neighbouring housing incapsulated the surrounds in a cube, the sky blocked with a large trap. Tobacco smoke poisoned the air along with an array of sweet aromas emitting from incense and bubbling pots. Having a quick scan of the area, the two gauged several characters and their businesses; predominantly they all appeared to be witches or other spell-casters, human and otherwise mythical in stature alike. They did well not to eye-up the newcomers, but under the brim of their hats they snuck peeks at Takashi and Osmond. A shady looking bunch to a novice shopper, but all legitimate practitioners of the magical arts still.

Many debated the legality of unlicensed brewing and charm/curse crafting but with the war effort diverging many a witch into its efforts, the rules were lax, and it was prime time for more risque buyers and sellers. One vendor and their stall, the most intricately decorated and whimsy of the others, snuggled into the ally facing the entrance noticed them from the get-go, unblinking and curious they stared them down from afar, only just managing to eavesdrop. They crossed their appendages patiently, waiting to intervene.

They bickered politely on their next course of action, the conversation diverging on whether to take up sign language to commune with locals, a failed proposal by Osmond to just let this whole thing go, to the topic of the appropriate pronunciation of "Eksaul." Ultimately all matters concluding at dead ends.

Propped against the wall Takashi and Osmond weighed their options among themselves. bouncing off and debunking flawed and disparate ideas and suggestions, not going anywhere but in a frustrating circle. There wasn't much hope for Takashi to reunite him with his doohicky-thing-a-ma-bob, and he felt it in his gut, exclaimed in one last miserable sigh as he slumped onto the floor next to Osmond.

"I got nothing, you got nothing. Nothing. Great."

"Are you sure you left your... zhing, at Mr Vendell's? Are ve even looking in the right world, Doktor?"

"Absolutely. He's probably got his baby-bitch hands on it by now just to spite me."

Osmond turned his head to hide that he was rolling his eyes. As must as they didn't get along, he was sure Wendell had more urgent matters to contest with his time than solely dedicating it to spiting Takashi behind his back, but he humoured his friend with a laugh.

The two sat in silent contemplation for a total of a minute before a shrill voice blaring out above them sounded.

"Gentlemen!"

They both looked up with a jolt to greet a hooded individual swinging from an iron lamp nailed into the wall. Initial disbelief out of the way, upon closer observation the other-worldly voice and its owner squeezed itself between Osmond and Takashi as if to greet them as friends. Their body was wrapped up in ashy cloth that smelt of that thrift store odour. Overconfident and abrupt was this person in their presentation as they extended both hands to Takashi and Osmond.

Takashi shifted away to make room between it and him, suspicious, looking to it only to see it was not a person, but some legless manifestation dressed flamboyantly in robes, tassels, and accessories resembling a wealthy person's burial garbs, except for their dress being extremely decorated and rugal. The pitch dark space under the hood where its "head" should be housed two flaming pink eyes, the trail of flames spewing from them flickering independent from their control, caressing Takashi and Osmond with a cool flame as they emoted.

The creature bobbed its head excitedly and the arrival of possible customers, kindly waving its palms, prying them to shake them.

Grabbing its "hands," being nothing resembling flesh but rather ribbons of silky cloth cut into a child's interpretation of a hand more so than anything anatomically correct, Takashi and Osmond obliged as they greeted it. Now that they had formally met so to speak, the creature continued to speak;

"Please pardon me and my presentation, I mean no ill-will to you either of you, but I, as well as this establishment most likely too, couldn't help but become aware of your predicament."

Takashi and Osmond looked to each other, the creature, to the market before them and then back to the creature, nosy shop clerks averting their gaze now that the noisy newcomers were being seen to.

"Then you'll already know we're lost, huh?" Takashi grunted, still wary of this new character. Osmond shared the same sentiment, but his attention was more transfixed on the creature and its body, eager for it to continue. This impossible apparition with hum to its voice as it spoke was yet another showcase to them both that they couldn't so much as step out the door without harassment from this world's inhabitants.

"Indeed! You needn't be a master of the international market to see that you two-" the creature zipped from where it sat and spun to address them face on, switching its attention to Takashi and Osmond in turns, floating in the air as they outstretched their arms excitedly, "-are tourists! We don't get many of those anymore."

"In a matter of fact, ja, haha," Osmond scratched the bridge of his nose sheepishly, "it's likely painfully obvious, nein?"

"Indubitably!" the creature's eyes sparked into crescent moon shapes, emoting glee, "but please don't make of me as a nay-sayer, nothing ventured, nothing gained, exploration must be encouraged to more travellers. Which is why I ushered over here... I noticed during your chat that you expressed how you wished to get to the grand Eksaul estate. I must warm, it is by no means up for sightseeing, so I assume you're headed for their business."

"Yeah, business. Go on, what do ya want?." Takashi ushered, a feeling crept into his gut. He felt like he knew what the creature was getting at off the bat, and he was ready to disappoint.

"I am an uwa merchant, but I'm sure you already knew that, men of such distinguished dress as you! And with a small exchange-"

"There it is," Takashi mumbled, calling it as he saw it.

"- I am one thousand and one per cent sure I can point you in the right direction. I know a thing or two about Llinolin, you see, which is where you are, so you're in the best supplier of information if you wish to navigate this grand old city."

Takashi patted off his slacks and sighed with a half-assed smile, shrugging, "Would love to, really, but unfortunately, not a dime to my name unless you take American dollars. Or pocket lint."

Osmond nodded in solidarity with Takashi when the creature looked at him.

A brief pause ensued with nothing but a wild crackling from the creature's eyes as it stared back. It broke their silence with a cackle that sounded like two voices contesting for the spot of one.

"I know I'm funny but I don't get what I did." Takashi looked to Osmond for support but didn't find anything but a puzzled look from him.

"Oh-ho, pardon my unprofessionalism, but it is as if you don't have an understanding of how this exchange works. I must say, such a shame, that your homeland does not seem to have an uwa branch of its own, at least that's what I am assuming."

"Right... So since I'm so uneducated on how this thing will go down, elaborate. Is this gonna be some riddle solving shit because I ain't got nothing for that either, and I'm not slaying any dragon either, I just want directions not some friendship is the magic quest, thanks?"

The creature, dubbing itself as an uwa, broke into giggling once more at Takashi's ignorant fantasy assumptions. He was glad at least someone was having a good time with his begrudged wise-cracks.

"Oh, sir, your estranged vocabulary is endearing," the uwa adjusted themselves to become more composed, "but allow me to shed some light, lest I waste any more of your time, and that you may find your way, hm?"

The two nodded in agreement.

"Fantastic! Now, this is not complicated in the slightest, I assure you, but all I ask, in exchange for something minimal, is exactly that! An exchange of anything you deem equal in value of my directions."

"What? like a trade? Do you want my stuff for directions? Why kind of economy do you partake in, ghostie?" Takashi asked.

"Precisely! A trade!"

"And how do we know the worth of spoken word, huh? How do we know you're not screwing us? And why not just accept money like normal people?"

The uwa crossed its arms and the tendrils flowing from its body wiggled in objection, "Good sir I am not an orthodox merchant, this is nothing but ordinary sales practise amongst spectre vendors, would it serve me and my associates to throw possible customers new and old off with trickery? Furthermore, money in all its material forms is the currency of mortals, what do the likes of the departed have with such things? I beg you to refrain from comparing me to a swindler."

"Okay, okay, okay, sorry, go on."

As if forgetting all its frustration on the spot the uwa clapped once and outstretched its palms, "fantastic! now, show me what you have, if you will!!"

Frantically and with an awkwardness about their pocket-digging, Osmond and Takashi searched for anything on hand they could equate to the uwa's demands. They looked to it as they searched, hands awaiting an object to be presented patiently.

Finally, Takashi found his object, though he wasn't thrilled with his find. A small keychain hanging off his housekeys attracted to a mini Rubix cube. He figured maybe they hadn't invented one of these just yet, so this would have to do and hope for the best.

Osmond wore his satchel, which housed many a small trinket, but not much he didn't suppose the uwa already had, so in his desperate plea to produce an offering he grabbed the next thing his hands blindly landed on. One of many gnomes he'd collected when they encountered the gorgon. He neglected to remove this one from his satchel, but seeing as Takashi always made a point of saying he had too many as it was, he thought parting with one wouldn't be too disastrous. If anything there was a story tied to it, so perhaps there was the narrative value of sorts there.

They both gave the uwa their offerings, and just as they had, the uwa examined them enthusiastically with its tasselled tendrils.

"Oh wow! Please embellish on what you have, gentlemen, so I may gauge their quality, that is. All a part of the exchange of course."

"Twist the cube," Takashi instructed bluntly while demonstrating the required movements to make with his own hands.

The uwa did so accordingly and shrieked happily, the puzzle becoming obvious to it. Its childish merriment was clear as day as they twisted the colourful new toy, ecstatic and literally buzzing, like a cicada.

"I see! So the objective is to make all sides match! Very inquisitive!"

"Yeah, maybe you can complete it, I gave up within a day, aha."

"I surely look forward to trying! So, with this next item, Mr?"

"Boman," Osmond nodded, "und vell, eim afraid zhis is all of the direct interest I have on me right now. I believe it's called a gnome, Doktor?"

"Yeah, we got it when we fell into that snake lady thing, fucking almost had us too, I'd blame Blondie if the gnomes didn't lead us there in the first place, almost got flattened because of those."

Osmond went slightly pink, reminiscing on that venture and its events just as clearly as if they happened yesterday. The Doktor was certainly right, but how was Osmond meant to know giant snake women with poor garden decor would throw them into a Clash of the Titans-like scenario.

"A gorgon, I muzt say it was a gorgan, or at least that's what Mr Vendell referred to it az." Osmond clarified, and with that addition to the story, the uwa's interest was peaked once more.

"Were it not for the peculiar nature of this stone and the aura of its departed self, I would have dismissed this as nearly a cheap art piece, but with your story attaching itself to this little ornament, I am confident in your tale! Just as welcomed, this item, many thanks." The uwa examined the gnome from all angles, its petrified face still in the position of initial realisation. Its fat little face and body coated in a light fuzzy moss.

With yet another clap, the offerings in the uwa's grasp popped out of view in a burst of embers, de-materialising before their eyes in a brilliant yellow flash and crackle. "Well I must say, this exchange," continued the uwa as it danced in the air, "was a roaring success, yes yes, I shan't keep you much longer, now let me enact my end of our promise."

Pulling two pieces of cloth from a small bag attached to one of its tendrils, it held them to Takashi and Osmond. Scrappy and brown, they looked hardly worth the items they were exchanged for.

Disgruntled and jaded from the summer's heat, Takashi blurted out objection, "are you shitting me, this is what yo-"

Before finishing his tangent, still holding his piece, Takashi felt a small burning from his fingertip. No more than a slight sting before the flaming fabric fizzled out, as it burned, the charred material chipping away to reveal a thin strip of paper under it, the ashes floating away, it becoming obvious as to what it was: a ticket for one, most likely to board a train...

Osmond too looked down in wanderlust at the unravelling transformation.

"Now I must ask you not to disclose where you got these, as they're not entirely..." the uwa twirled its wrist in a big to fish out the rest of its sentence.

"Are these fake?" Takashi scoffed, a grin stretched across his face, "are these fraudulent?"

"On I wouldn't say that they are but duplicates of pre-existing originals, let us just say beings of my stature are not usually permitted to acquire these. After all, conductors usually are only inclined to transport the living. Such is the world we inhabit."

"How shitty, huh." Takashi looked down at his ticket, pocketing it swiftly.

"What are you still here for gentlemen!" The uwa screamed, once again making Osmond and Takashi snap to attention, "your tickets are for your five o'clock ride! you only have but half an hour to board your train! Make haste!"

"We asked for directions! What good are these if-"

With haste and an invisible grin, the uwa shoved a familiar piece of parchment into Takashi's hand, the map he so carelessly chucked out from before.

The crumpled page was marked with instructions on where to go from here to the nearest terminal, Hélios Cross Station, not but a fifteen-minute walk away provided they could read the map properly this time. Wrapped inside the parchment were two ambiguously wrapped candies, a customary gesture that uwas grant after a good sale as a token of thanks. Takashi scrunched his nose up at the parchment, bewildered and certain that uwa more shifty he gave it credit for. If not neighbourly.

The uwa waved back at them with contempt, Osmond waving back the whole time they were in sight of each other, before exiting the ally and making strides for the station. Takashi being quick to find his candy wasted no time in devouring it. Homemade toffee!

"Until we meet again, gentlemen, I await your next visit with great enthusiasm." the uwa chirped to itself before retiring to its stall. It pondered to itself finally, and with a slight worry twinging in its fibres. looking to the entrance of the ally from where they had appeared and departed from, they asked the empty air;

"What do they want with such a twisted place as that manor I wonder."