Eager to get out of the raging dust storm that seemed to be engulfing the entire rural countryside at this point, Devon sprinted towards the forest as fast as his weary body could let him, the knapsacks on his back weighing him down significantly. His boots scraped against the waist-high tall grass like a pokemon trainer’s first venture into the wilderness. Traveling by foot across long distances was a hell of a lot easier on paper than it was in reality. His feet blistered with sores that opened up faster than he could regenerate the tender skin, and his eyes watered. 

As he closed in on the swaying trees that denoted the entrance to the forest, the dwarves and amazons came into closer view. Devon realized that the dwarves were part of a dwarven convoy, with bags and other belongings attached to their backs with sturdy straps and buckles, and several boulder sized sacks inventory pulled by two mules each.  

Some of the boulder sized sacks had to be heavy machinery of some sort, judging by the metallic rounded angularity and the distinct shape of knobs and rounded corners poking out of the sacks. They also had food and water, with one of the dwarves in the speaking group munching to great satisfaction on a blue spotted bell mushroom, taking swigs from a beige canteen every other bite. 

The red haired and tan skinned amazons had necklaces made of small animal bones draped around their necks, as well as wristbands similarly made of skeletal fragments, all tied together with some black twine that Devon couldn’t tell was of animal or plant origin. They probably ate those little mammals before making them into decorations, he mused. Either way, the decorations were certainly not vegan or cruelty free by any stretch of the imagination in earth terms, Devon thought…

It was strange when he thought of things in earth-supermarket terms that clearly made no sense in this world. The inhabitants of this world had no sense of veganism or cruelty free products. They didn’t shop at supermarkets with aisle upon aisle of electronically powered lights and rows of refrigerated product displays varying from fish to pork to plant produce. Actually they might not even consider things in terms of ‘animal produce’ and ‘plant produce’ here. It was all the same to them and under the edible food category. Technically, both plants and animals were living things, so why differentiate between them at all? 

Then again, he lived on mother earth for a good twenty years, so a lot of mannerisms and cultural nuances that originated from there still stuck with him to the new world. 

The thought of food and beverage in a supermarket setting made Devon’s stomach growl and his throat sting. 

He was nearly there. Both the convoy of bearded dwarves and the pair of red haired tan skinned amazons with bone necklaces turned and observed him run towards them, before turning their attention to the massive dust storm which had begun to take the form of multiple tornadoes in the background. 

One of the amazons pointed their spear at the dust tornado and spoke to her colleague with a worried expression on her face, while one of the dwarves took out a telescope and began to squint at the dust tornado, dictating some meteorological observations about the dust storm that another dwarf beside him scribbled down as notes. Another dwarf took out a strange bobbling measurement instrument from his personal carry-on inventory and placed it on the ground, watching a ball affixed to a string oscillate back and forth to the changing wind pressure. He too took out a piece of parchment and a stone slab, and used the stone slab as a clipboard so to speak to lay the parchment on top of and write on.

It was clear that the dwarves in this world had developed some sort of advanced mathematics and science, while the other races lived a slightly more primitive lifestyle or supplemented their technology with magic. 

“Oy, who goes there?” a dwarf asked in a gruff voice, holding his palm up in a stopping motion as a disheveled and worn out Devon approached the edge of the forest. The other dwarves and the two amazons from earlier stopped talking to observe the newcomer. “Identify yourself!”

Devon winced, dropping his knapsack onto the ground as he caught his breath for a moment from the hectic sprint. After regaining his breath, he answered. “I’m Devon. Just a traveler trying to get to town to buy some water.”

The dwarf looked him up and down, frowning when he noticed the earl’s colors on Devon’s officer’s uniform. “Traveler, eh? Why’re you wearing the colors of an army?” He glanced at the knapsack Devon was carrying, bulging with coins and other valuables. “You a deserter? Looted somewhere nearby?”

Devon shook his head, taking out the black card from his wallet and holding it up for them to see. “Nope. I was on a mission. Backroom business.” 

melonball

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