The Power Of Radiation 19 Warm Receptions

Both Vlad and Mark quickly stop their conversation when the notice the quiet atmosphere around them. The deafening silence from the surrounding crowd of people is odd and Mark wonders if it is a glitch or even a special event. So, engrossed in their conversation, the two travelers turn a blind eye to the guard who is taken to be just another part of the scenery. Vlad had never had any interaction with the guards before and most of his short visits to Stone city consisted of paying the simple fee at the gate without a word being said otherwise. The majority of Vlad's time was spent actually selling his produce brought from Brambleton and enjoying his cut from the sold goods at the pub away from his family for the evening.

Mark on the other hand considered the guards like the ones who manned the city walls from his home city, simple backdrops. The presence of gate guards at mega cities is much like the guards at Stone City in the sense that they don't do anything important and have no real capabilities.

The fat guard sees the lack of respect and even outright disregard these travelers have for someone like himself and becomes angry. His face turns so red it almost looks purple; it could be considered a similar color to Mark's new eyes with all the blood rus.h.i.+ng to it. The much slimmer guard next to him, on the other side of the gate looks at his face with indifference. Like many people in the lower cla.s.s of the city, workers don't care about their jobs and only put the minimum effort in to collect their small pay at the end of the week. The slimmer guard only cares about collecting the entrance fee and could care less about the fat guard's ego or unruly travelers so long as they paid their fees.

With a much angrier and shriller voice after being ignored the gate guard continues with his plan.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE TRAVELERS! FOR YOUR PROFANE ACTIONS AGAINST THE CITY AND ITS RULER, YOU ARE HEREBY SENTENCED TO JAIL FOR A WEEK OF TIME!"

Vlad and Mark's complexions pale dramatically as they slowly realize the situation they are in. Vlad in a fit of anxiety becomes more emotional than usual and pleads with the guards for leniency, to the score of the fat guard and the indifference of the slim one. Mark on the other hand is bemused and thinks this is the most exciting event that has happened to him since his previous encounter with bandits. He also wonders if this is scripted somehow and if all new players face this same event when coming to a city for the first time. Seeing Mark's bemused expression and taking it as disdain and scorn against himself personally and the city's law, the fat guard takes even more drastic action.

The guard unsheathes the cudgel at his waist to the stunned expressions of the pa.s.sersby and surrounding crowd. Many of the surrounding citizens forgot the gate guards were even give weapons considering how they never seemed to move or even do any meaningful actions at all day in and day out. The slim guard's expression slowly changes as well when he realizes how out of hand this situation is becoming. Mark's expression doesn't change and even his smile becomes wider in reaction to what he thought this way a scripted event. Mark raises his arm to scratch his head in embarra.s.sment and apologize to guard who seems to have misunderstood something when the situation becomes very heated very fast.

The fat guard's eyes widen as he sees the mini crossbow attached to Mark's wrist as he happened to scratch his head and takes it to be a real threat that he is not trained to handle. The shock and screams of the surrounding crowd and the unintelligible yelling of both Vlad and the slim gate guard are the last things Mark sees as everything turns black.

As Mark's body crashes to the ground, Vlad pushes the fat guard away from Mark in his haste. The slim guard's eyes widen at Mark's unmoving body and then narrow in an almost pitying expression when looking at the fat guard holding the bloodied cudgel. A smirk of righteousness and cruelty adorns the fat guard's face as the watches the reactions of the crowd. The fat guard's mind rolls with thoughts as he processes the danger Mark posed and how his action was the quickest and most efficient end to the situation. Vlad after a very heated look ignores the gate guard to check on Mark's body on the cold cobblestone at the gate. Mark's head is covered in blood and seems to be at least unconscious if not dead according to Vlad's layman expertise. Vlad's next actions will be fondly recalled by the surrounding crowd as heroic and admirable as he screams for a doctor to help Mark. A larger and more ell armed group of guards led by a young man dressed in finery arrived shortly and a red robed person arrives with a bag shortly after them.

The young man had an air of royalty and pride that only comes from someone of n.o.ble birth. This is quickly understood by the surrounding crowd as mumbles of his ident.i.ty pa.s.s from person to person. The young man is Derek and he is the son of the ruler of Stone City, Duke Stone. His personal entourage of guards also makes a stark contrast to the poorly equipped and slouched gate guards. The difference is like night and day and is even more p.r.o.nounced when the new guards surround the fat gate guard after the slimmer guard and Vlad explain what happened to Mark with the a.s.sent of the crowd.

As the crazy story is told and paints the fat guard into a cruel and murderous villain, the red robed man introduces himself as a regular ranked doctor by his badge and proceeds to check on Mark's forgotten body. The check leads to a relaxing conclusion and the red robed man sighs in relief that Mark is only unconscious and not dead by the guards misunderstanding. "This could have led to huge incident with the city and its welcoming att.i.tude to pa.s.sing merchants and travelers", he thought.

The routine check continues with Mark's pulse and breathing when the doctor screams in shock and fright. This scream startles the surrounding crowd including Vlad and Young Master Derek, and they look over askance to why the doctor is acting so strange. In a much shriller voice than before and a trembling tone the doctor explains, "Look at his eyes! They are bright purple, he must be a demon!"