Curselock

Chapter 71: Frostford

“Are you here for the herb collecting competition?”

Leland and the others eyed the young woman and her hearty smile. The cold day seemed to warm up with her question, like a little furnace in the center of a cabin in the mountains. She looked between the boys,while holding a clipboard and spinning a short pencil between her fingers.

“Uh, yes?” Leland answered. “Something wrong?”

“Nope!” she sang. “I’m with the town’s festival organizers. We are just trying to get a headcount before the town really starts getting busy.”

The boys were still in line outside of Frostford, but they were nearing the front of the tourist and adventurer line. More than a few times, the boys watched unlucky parties wait in the exact line they had been in hours earlier only to be rejected at the front. There was a sort of silent agreement to those in the correct line not to correct those entering the other line.

That, or everyone was just antisocial.

“Yes we are,” Glenny answered.

“Just the three of you?” she asked back.

“Yes.”

“Jude, Leland, and I’m Glenny.”

“Alrighttty,” she said, scratching their names down. “And what rank are you entering as? That would be team average rounded.”

The boys looked at each other. Leland frowned and looked away. “Two,” Jude answered.

“Oh! Rather young to be rank two, aren’t you? I don’t know much about adventurers.”

“We’ve had an… eventful debut,” Leland said, trying to forget about his lack of progress. Internally he cursed at his grimoire more than ever. It was one thing to acknowledge his problem between friends, it was another thing with strangers. Or maybe he was just being insecure… Did she even ask about individual rank?

“Well, I hope you three are strong!” the young woman said. “We’ve got some tough competition this year for your bracket.”

“Does strength really pertain to collecting herbs?” Jude asked. “I’d guess simply having more competition would be worse than, well, stronger opponents.”

She shrugged at that. “You are correct, and you don’t have to worry about too many competitors. That’s part of the reason I’m out here. It's first come, first entry. You three are already signed up, so you don’t have to worry about that!” Then her face fell. “The issue is, there is no one maintaining the laws on the island. We have set rules, yes, but that doesn’t stop people from attacking others.”

Leland’s brow shriveled at that. “People attack others to steal herbs?”

“It's rare, yes. But it does happen. Others wait for teams to encounter the island’s monsters and swoop in after they are weakened. So, please be careful!”

“All in the name of reward, huh?”

She smiled at that, stepping away. Before she began to talk to the next team, she said, “This year is supposed to have the best rewards yet! Rumor is something about enchanted items!”

The boys looked at each other after that. Their faces had hardened at the warning, yet they didn’t inch away from the town. In fact, they moved along with the line and eventually reached the front. They went through the ordinary guard questions, names, reason for visits, how long they were planning on staying, any warrants out for arrest and/or outstanding fines. The usual.

“Does that question about warrants ever catch anyone?” Leland asked.

“You’d be surprised at the level of stupidity of some criminals ,” the guard explained as he ushered them in. “Who knew that such a simple question could count for so many easy bounty collect—”

A shout from the adjacent line pulled the guard’s attention. He cursed, rushing between the boys and to the commotion. He drew his weapon as he ran, a short spear with a lead weight opposite the tip.

The boys stopped and watched the scene, as did pretty much everyone else. There was something said about waiting in lines. They were boring, and a potential fight was interesting.

A group of four, each carrying various weapons and/or traps, shouted at the gate guards. They were mad about waiting in the wrong line, and demanded entry. The guards shouted back, ordering them away, and soon the commotion turned into a competition of who could say the most creative insult.

“Those are some weapons,” Glenny commented. “Crossbows, bows, survival knives, steel traps, even cages. Something tells me they aren’t here for the herbs.”

Jude and Leland both agreed, but something strange bothered Leland about the group.

They were people of the wilderness, that much was apparent. But the way they stood, the clothes they wore, were all wrong. He attributed this to them simply being higher in rank, and walking for miles and miles in the cold simply didn’t affect them like it did lower ranks.

They didn’t shift their weight between feet, hoping to stave off aching soles or blistered toes. They didn’t seem to mind their oversized packs stuffed with different wilderness gear. And they didn’t care about irritating the guard or the town. It was like they didn’t care if they were barred from the festival, almost like they were here for something else.

The leader of the group had just spit in a guard’s face, ushering a punch to the gut. Soon a small brawl started. A voice stirred the boys from watching the fight.

“Poachers.”

They spun finding the young woman from earlier. She continued. “There’s always a few groups of them this time of year. They think they can get into the town by pretending to be festival goers..”

Jude frowned at that and set his jaw when he turned back to the now-ending fight. “What do they poach?”

“The island has plenty of rare game. There is a dungeon that’s said to be hidden somewhere in the thicket, and well, it's overflowing. Some want to take advantage of that, but Frostford clamps down hard on things like this. Our Guardian Spirit Beast wouldn’t take lightly to such a thing.”

Leland hummed at that. “This Guardian Spirit Beast, just what is it?”

The young woman gave a big smile and gestured to the gate. “That’s what the festival is for! It is said our Guardian always loved the snow! Please, enjoy your stay in Frostford!”

With that, the group was told to enter by a fresh guard, as the other one was still dealing with the poachers.

The first thing that hit the group was the smell. A sweet, decadent, fruit, smell. They followed their noses, finding a candy store with a large glass window at the front of the building. Through the glass, a burly man hand-stretched molten sugar on a hook without gloves. With each pull, his hands glowed blue, then white, then yellow. The sugar took to the color changes, eventually turning into a green blob.

With a show like that, the boys had to go in. A few minutes later, they exited with a pound of still hot watermelon taffy. Continuing down the street, they window shopped for what felt like hours. Every building they passed seemed to be food or drink oriented, and each had roaring fireplaces and workers moving around completing orders.

When they eventually exited the food street, they entered the town’s main square. The usual fanfare had been moved to the edges, and a great wooden stage had been erected in the very center. Citizens and tourists alike gathered ‘round, watching a children’s play.

The cast took on cheap costumes, spouting off mumbled lines about starting a new town and looking for places to settle. Kids dressed in patchy fur suits came in at that point, scaring off the others giving the previous monologues. Then, with the flare of an accompanying flute, a bigger child entered the stage.

She wore a similar fur suit to the others, but instead of playing common wolves, this young girl wore the skin of a monster the boys couldn’t recognize. She had a circular mask, one with thick fangs and an angry temperament. She charged the wolf-children, banishing them from the stage before slowly inching towards the settler-kids.

The lead then initiated a slow contact with the Guardian Beast, seeking its protection. A silent deal was struck, and the Guardian-child exited the stage as the lead planted a flag of ownership. The play ended with a flurry of paper confetti.

“And just in time for the first snow of winter, the town of Frostford was founded by partnership of protection. Human and Guardian Spirit Beast, living together and protecting each other,” the lead kid said to the crowd, before being outshined by applause.

The boys clapped along and eventually left the main square. They ventured around the town, finding an inn and grabbing a proper meal. As the darkness rolled in, and with it, dark clouds originating from further north, they walked along with the nightlife, taking in everything the early days of the festival had to offer.

Jude danced with a woman much too old for him. Glenny helped fend off multiple pickpockets before fading back into the shadows. Leland talked with two magic scholars visiting from a prominent city. All in all, the boys felt like this was the first night in forever that they’d simply had a good fun night.

Too bad the overhead clouds were shifting and twisting into something fierce.