8- One rude awakening

Once dismounted and now walking along the cobblestone paved streets of the kingdom, Ayi found herself again in awe by the sheer size of the place as well as the amount of people.

Particularly by the amount of people, which she found staggering. By her own standards, even a small gathering of people was already to be considered a crowd, a crowd she would rather not bother dealing with.

As they got closer to the market zone, they found themselves quickly leaving behind the small wooden houses closer to the gate, finding more stone and mortar edifications, shops, commercial residences and the like.

As they approached the market zone, the flow of people traversing the path seemed to only increase in exponential proportions, the streets were quite big and even with a big part of those paths being occupied by merchant carts and other kind of carriages, it felt like there was still very little room to move around.

Still, holding hands with Zoey only seemed to make the little girl happier, so there was that. By now the little wolfkin girl was taking the lead, practically pulling Ayi along as she would more often than not stop by and look at the buildings, entranced by the amazing level of detail she was definitely not familiar with.

Somehow the trip to the market was quite uneventful, Zoey went straight for a few stalls getting some choice fresh produce from each vendor, handling the transactions all on her own, making Ayi stare at her with a combination of tenderness and pride for the little girl, which at some point Zoey must have realized, because she stared at her and for a brief second she saw not the little girl’s bright smile but a small confident grin as she obviously puffed her little chest out.

A few stalls later, with a basket full of fruits, nuts, and what seemed to be some sort of meat, the both of them were walking towards a nice place to relax. Ayi imagined it was the floral gardens in front of the palace, she recalled the place being popular among players in order to take “cute picnic” pictures. Although she wasn’t quite sure now, because she was pretty sure Zoey mumbled something about “sure victory”.

With her insistence on looking at the whole place, almost too different to how Ayi remembered it, she soon found that Zoey had taken a different route to what she recalled being the shortest path to the palace and the gardens, but sure enough to lead you along more of the fancier and prettier residences to walk around.

Soon after a little stroll along the nicer part of the kingdom, Ayi now managed to pull the little wolfkin girl behind her, soon finding herself compelled to go and take a brief look at the craftsman guilds near the docks, mostly out of curiosity to see the place. Now that everything seemed much more detailed and with a “new light” as Ayi figured for what was going on, she was soon wondering how the places she spent the most time at, looked like.

After what was definitely not a little walking and sightseeing, the two of them soon found themselves lost in the smaller pathways and alley-like detours within the port and craftsman areas. Unfortunately, all the walking around the less savory parts of the city soon incited the wrong kind of attention.

While walking around one of the smaller pathways still trying to find their way back to the palace, they were soon stopped by two thuggish looking men, Ayi was at first amazed on just how cliché they looked for the role they put themselves at, it took very few words from them for Ayi to know they were quite on point about how a robber would talk and threaten others.

She honestly didn’t pay much attention to what they were saying, it was quite obvious what they wanted, and most important what their role was in her 'dreams'. She wasn’t happy, or proud of this part of her nightmares… It was just how they usually went, regardless of how she felt about it, the silver lining was that at the very least she would get some degree of cathartic relief… Even if feeling a little guilty about the vindictive role she always took.

At this point she was just staring at the two thugs, waiting for the moment the face of the pair of lowlifes would just suddenly convert onto those faces of the malicious self-important buffoons she once had for coworkers…

But. It just never happened.

Their faces weren’t changing at all! She also soon realized a prickle of pain on her hands, as she had tightened her fist to such degree she was hurting herself, getting distracted then upon noticing Zoey taking cover behind her, soon realizing the panicked face of the little girl as she was trying her best to hide from the ruffians.

One of the thugs, tired of not having any response, just dropped his charade and took onto his hands the action he was sure it would bring results. Moving forward towards the both of them, with all the experience of someone that claims that which is not his, with a brute display of his force, threw his fist at Ayi.

It was then, several things happened just in the blink of an eye.

Zoey’s shrill cry, Ayi finding her view turned around all too quickly to understand what was going on, marked pain on her face, and a sickening crunching sound that echoed in the small pathway, making all those involved have their blood run cold in an instant.