The Calling by Liam Lombard

Author:Liam Lombard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liam Lombard
Published: 2024-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

The Mansion

During his third day working odd jobs for the tavern owner, Dromdil found his body was dealing well with the labor and his mind was slowly healing as it focused on his activities. He was also happy to have been able to coax Alone to come along and chat with him during the most recent day’s activities.

Thus far, Dromdil had completed two different types of jobs: splitting and stacking firewood and errand-running. He found that stacking the firewood was to his liking as he had time to himself and didn’t have to communicate with anyone. He could easily let his mind wander, which seemed to help slowly keep the pieces of his mind together.

He also noted a distinct change in the nature of his scales. They appeared tougher, darker, and had a soft violet gleam that seemed to emanate from within. It was rare for such things to happen to dralings after their last permanent change, but there were stories that told of radical transformations caused by extreme stressors. Dromdil attributed the effects to have been caused by his laborious efforts mixed with the healing of his trauma. Upon further inspection, he found he was quite proud of the color and toughness.

Dromdil found the errand-running was less to his liking but did offer a good way to get to know the town. The town itself was not very large, though the population seemed disproportionally large as the many buildings were crammed closely together. The main street of Treeford contained a large tavern, some governing buildings, and a central market. Surrounding this were the homes of the townsfolk, a few farms, and a mansion where the city lord lived. Dromdil had frequented the mansion several times, mostly running letters and requests from Caiden.

The mansion was a small wonder for Dromdil as it was much larger than anything in Dralington. Even when compared to the largest homes here in Treeford, it was at least triple the size. The mansion was a large rectangular building with a lookout spire connected to the right side. The first level was made of stone, which seemed to be slowly sinking into the marshy mushroom-ladened ground. The second and third levels were made of wood, usually a luxury item, but quite plentiful in this region. The doors were large wooden behemoths located in the center of the stone wall. Oddly, there were only windows on the second floor, and it made the first floor look rather menacing without their presence.

Dromdil had just finished his morning meal of aldeves and ham, though most of the ham went to Alone, when Caiden knocked on his door. “Come in,” Dromdil said cheerfully as Alone scampered to hide beneath the bed.

Caiden stepped in, still surrounded by the strange purple haze that Dromdil couldn’t seem to identify. It turned out the rest of the townsfolk also had varying colors around them. Some of them fluctuated between colors while others flitted through patterns of a primary color. The more time Dromdil spent in the town, the more obvious the haze appeared.

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