Gatekeepers Book 2: Galeforce

After about a half hour of flying, Galán began to rapidly lose altitude. Draycos followed his example, chasing after Galán as he landed lightly on the ground below. When he was low enough, Draycos hopped off his conjured broadsword and landed on the ground on one knee. The broadsword disintegrated as Draycos got on both feet and took a look around.

They were outside the gate to a large city nestled in a valley between the mountains Draycos spotted when the pair first left Dragonspire Castle. The curved walls surrounding the city seemed to be made of solid, aged marble, and a great deal of people were flooding through the massive arch of the gate from both ways. Draycos spotted people of all sorts of races mingled in the crowd: elves, humans, and orcs made up most of the crowd, but there were a handful of other races that Draycos hadn’t seen before in the prison or during the tournament.

There was a group of short humanoid creatures camped out around a shabby fireplace outside the wall, dressed in rags. White tribal markings covered their exposed skin. Draycos could only guess they were goblins. Something buzzed past Draycos’s left ear, and he turned his head just in time to see a tiny person with butterfly wings zip past is face. Startled, he took a step back and bumped into Galán.

Galán laughed and pushed Draycos away. “That surprised you, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. What in the world was that?”

“That was a pixie. They’re distantly related to the fairies here. They may be tiny, but watch out if you irritate one. They have some pretty potent magic at their disposal.” Galán pointed his chin at the gateway. “Let’s not waste any more time with this idle chit-chat. We’re heading for the Gatekeepers’ Headquarters, which is the heart of Draiotic City.”

Galán and Draycos mingled into the crowd heading into the city. A few people gave Galán curious looks, but no one paid heed to Draycos who walked behind him.

Looks like I don’t attract too much attention looking like this after all. Draycos pulled the rim of his fedora farther down his forehead in an attempt to cover his eyes, then remembered they weren’t black and yellow anymore. He nearly laughed out loud at himself. Some habits will never die, I suppose.

Galán and Draycos slowly drew closer to the gate as they walked with the crowd. Just as they were about to pass through it, something grabbed Draycos’s wrist. Surprised, Draycos looked down and saw one of the goblins from the nearby campsite had grabbed his right wrist. It only up to Draycos’s waist in terms of height. The goblin’s large nostrils flared immensely as he sniffed Draycos’s bag that hung on his right side. Its pus-yellow eyes widened, showing off the horizontally slitted black pupils.

“I smell good gold,” it cackled in a high-pitch voice. He tried to yank the bag off of Draycos. “Gimme!”

“Hey, what are you doing?!” Draycos shouted. He grabbed the bag and proceeded to have a tug-of-war for a few seconds with the goblin. The people in line behind him and Galán began raising a commotion.

“Hey, what’s the hold up?!” someone shouted.

“Keep the line moving!” another voice yelled.

“I have an appointment soon! Hurry it up!” a third voice called out.

Galán said nothing as he turned around and witnessed what was going on. He merely folded his arms over his chest and observed in silence.

What a bother. Draycos shook his head in annoyance. He did have a small pouch of gold coins sitting at the bottom of his bag. It was given to him by Vertex before he left to use as he saw fit once he made it down to the surface. This guy must be some kind of animal if he could sniff out the gold like that. I’ve barely been on the surface for five minutes, and I’m already being mugged.

Draycos’s eyes turned to their normal black and yellow as the struggle continued. His hair turned black, growing short and spiky as it changed colors.

“Enough of this!” Irate, Draycos placed his right foot on the goblin’s chest and pushed as hard as he could. He felt something crack under the sole of his boot as the goblin lost its grip on his bag and was sent flying, landing in a heap among its friends around the campfire. It immediately began screeching at the top of its lungs, thrashing around on the ground as if possessed.

“Guards! Guards! Help me! I’ve just been kicked and injured while trying to recover a precious belonging!”

“What was that!?” Draycos screamed, pointing at the goblin. “That’s a load of bullshit! You came up and tried to steal my bag!”

The sound of about a dozen footsteps reached Draycos’s ears, along with the clanking of armor. Draycos turned his head and saw about six people decked out in silver full body armor burst out of a door set on the wall inside the gate, rushing over to where he stood. Draycos reached up with his right hand to pull the rim of his fedora down again, only to find it wasn’t there. He glanced around and saw it laid on the ground by his feet. It must have fallen off his head when he kicked the goblin. He picked it up, dusting it off before placing it atop his head as he turned to face the guards. The guards froze in their tracks and stared at Draycos. The stare down continued for a few moments before the guard at the forefront of the group gulped and took an unsteady step forward.

“W-we heard shouting,” he stammered, still staring at Draycos’s eyes. “What seems to be the problem here?”

“That scoundrel stole my bag of money!” the injured goblin shrieked, sitting up and pointing a gnarled finger at Draycos. “He then kicked me away! I at least have one broken rib after that kick!”

“Shut up!” Draycos snarled viciously. The guards and the goblins flinched at the sound of his voice. Draycos’s glare practically burned the accusing goblin to ashes. “Here I am, minding my own business and in a good mood for the first time in a while, and a fuckin’ waste of space like that runs up and tries to grab my bag before I even get to see the city for the first time! I swear, if I’m made out to be at fault here, I’ll cut you all down! I’m really pissed off now!”

The six guards drew their swords after Draycos finished speaking, pointing their blades at Draycos. Still furious, Draycos raised his right hand high up in the air, palm facing the ground as he prepared to summon his Blade Storm to take out everyone. He and the guards continued to face off like this in silence for a few moments as the people going in and out of the city quickly formed a huge crowd around them, curious and excited to see what the commotion was about.

A hand suddenly plopped down on Draycos’s shoulder. He felt someone’s warm breath on his neck.

“Calm down,” a familiar voice ordered in a hushed whisper. It was Galán whispering in his ear. “I know how you feel, but there is some corruption in this city, despite the fact that we Gatekeepers have our base of operations here. Just take a deep breath and calm down; I’ll handle the talking from here.”

Draycos took a deep breath before nodding at Galán, stepping back and pulling the rim of his fedora down as far as he could. Galán took a step forward and gave the guards an exaggerated bow.

“Greetings, good gentlemen,” he said, looking up at their faces from his bow. “I presume you know who I am?”

The guards let out sounds of shock and surprise. Quite a few swords clattered to the ground as they all gave Galán a nearly ninety-degree bow, cold sweat running down their exposed necks.

“O-our apologies, Sir Galán!” the foremost guard sputtered. “We didn’t realize you were here!”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Galán breezily answered, standing up straight. He stuck a thumb over his shoulder at Draycos. “I apologize for the commotion my companion caused you. This is the first time he’s been to Draiotic City, so he’s a bit on edge on top of his already irritable personality. I do hope you’ll forgive him.”

“Of course! We had no idea he was your companion! If I may ask, is he a new recruit for the Gatekeepers?”

There was a low buzz as the crowd around them stirred, exchanging whispers with one another after hearing the words ‘recruit’ and ‘Gatekeepers’.

“That remains to be seen,” Galán answered, avoiding a direct response. “We may never find out if we can’t even make our way into the city like ordinary folk.”

The guards took Galán’s subtle hint. “O-our apologies!” the way for Draycos and Galán, bowing. The crowd followed suit, making a clear, wide path to the city gate

“Come now, Draycos,” Galán called, calmly making his way through the parted crowd. Somewhat flustered by the development, Draycos took off after the quick moving figure. However, just as they reached the gate, Galán stopped in his tracks and turned on the spot.

“Oh, before I forget,” he added, pointing a finger at the guard who’d been doing all the talking. “The rest of you: check his pockets. I think you’ll find something interesting in them.”

“Wha--?” Before the guard in question could even object, the two guards standing on either side of him grabbed his arms and held them behind his back while the other three approached the restrained man and dug their fingers into his pockets. It was only a few seconds before one of them pulled their hand out, revealing a blue diamond-shaped crystal and a weird, tiny golden tool that reminded Draycos of those scopes fancy people would take to soap operas.

“Vice Captain Aniko! What is the meaning of this?!” the guard shouted, shaking the items in the other’s face. Ankio’s expression reddened and he clammed up, refusing to speak.

Galán sighed. “If you search the goblins, I’d imagine you would find another one of those blue communication crystals,” he said. “Looks like Vice Captain Aniko was looking to line his pockets with some extra gold by making the goblins mug whoever he saw had some decent gold.”

Draycos’s jaw was literally on the ground after seeing such an amazing display from Galán. Galán turned around, and Draycos quickly shut his mouth before Galán could see his expression. The crowd was in an uproar, cheering for Galán as he walked through the gate with Draycos on his coattails.

Draycos quickened his steps so he walked side-by-side with Galán. He couldn’t contain his curiosity anymore. “What was that all about?” he asked.

Galán gave him a bitter smile. “Like I said, it looks like that guard was working with the goblins to mug people with gold as they went in and out of the city. Did you see that tiny golden scope he had in his pocket? It’s a magic tool treasure hunters use to assist in finding gold. It can even let you see gold through solid rock walls. I bet you he was sitting in the guard house with his face to the wall as he scanned for people with a decent amount of gold on them before working with the goblins to seize it.”

Draycos glared back in the direction they came from. “What a rotten guard.”

“Indeed. He will not be doing any guard work for the foreseeable future, I can guarantee you that much. Anyways, allow me to properly welcome you to Draiotic City!”

Draycos faced forward again as they came out of the other side of the gate. It felt like they had exited a tunnel as Draycos shielded his eyes from the sunlight. After his eyes adjusted, he lowered his hand and looked around.

They appeared to be in some sort of large city plaza sitting right on top of the gate. The cobblestone streets were painted in different colors and arranged in the center of the circle to form a large image of a copper-red wyvern ascending into a blue sky above a canyon. There were potted trees and brilliantly-colored flowers set around the entire perimeter of the plaza, and park benches were placed between them. A mixture of people from all races sat or milled around the area, some of them hugging or laughing or eating with people not of their native race. The gate sat on the western end of the courtyard, and on the eastern end was a large fountain with a statue of the copper-red wyvern placed as its centerpiece, spewing water out of its open maw. Behind the fountain, as well as at the northeastern and southeastern sides of the plaza, were three wide streets that gently curved upwards along the mountain Buildings made of white and grey stone, as well as brown wood, lined the sides of the streets. At the very top of the city, almost at the top of the valley, sat an odd-looking building that Draycos couldn’t quite make out.

Galán turned around and faced Draycos, arms spread wide as he gave Draycos a warm smile. “This is Wyvern Plaza,” he announced, rotating on the balls of one foot, staring up at the sky. “It’s mostly used as a social gathering place. Lots of people from different races come here and enjoy each other’s company.”

“Stop that,” Draycos sighed. “People are staring, Galán. And why are you playing the tour guide part now? I thought we were in a rush?”

Galán abruptly stopped his spinning. “Quite right, Draycos. Let’s be on our way.” And with that, Galán set off at a quick pace towards the central street. Draycos shook his head in exasperation, but there was a slight smile on his face.

“At least it’s never boring around him,” he mumbled to himself. His hair and eyes turned brown again before he ran off after Galán’s fleeing figure.