The sun was thinking of slowly going to bed behind us as we crested a hill and saw a long stretch of glistening white.

The famous ancient inner Great Walls of the Royal Capital.

Another spark ignited deep in my brain.

This was... familiar?

Several stories high, with squared towers breaking the run every so often, the Great Walls gleamed of a rare white granite.

A... memory?

These walls had only been breached once - and by a single mage of extreme power.

Why did I know that?

As we got closer, I saw that the city had spilled out from the protection of the Great Walls.

Judging roughly, there was much more outside of the Great Walls than inside.

There was now a secondary run of walls, much lower, but also spanning a much longer distance, with many square towers placed within bow-shot of each other.

These "Lesser Walls" looked to have been built from local greyish-green granite, instead of the much denser and sturdier white granite.

If the Great Walls had not existed, these lesser ones would have been mighty impressive all on their own!

No enemy in their right minds would want to pick a fight with a city protected like this.

As we walked closer to the city, I noticed that some of the sections of the Lesser Walls had been whitewashed and painted very colourfully showing various advertising of some local specialty or local shop.

A clever way for the city to bring in extra income, and also brighten up the place a bit - some of the ads were quite amusingly painted!

We finally made it to the first gate in the Lesser Wall.

"Oi! Ibehru! Good evening! Fair travels?" [Bolfen]

"Hey Bolfen... sort of? Seven hours from here as the Donkey walks, about the middle of the ancient Mage Wars battle field, we encountered three bandits... can you report to the Commander, please?" [Ibehru]

"Oi, of course! Almost feel sorry for those punks - bet you really taught them a solid, not to try anything with the Royal Post, hehe..." [Bolfen]

"Ah... yes... you could say that" [Ibehru]

Ibehru looked at me with a grin and a wink.

After going thru a similar conversation at the main Great Walls gate, just inside we finally reached an ancient and slightly run down building.

Badly tarnished brass letters above the main door declared this to be the "Royalle Poste".

Traces of golden paint still shimmered on the cracked stucco over the doors and windows.

Blue and white ceramic tiles covered the stairs - some cracked, some missing now all to get her, showing the raw sandstone the steps were made of, beneath.

The sun had set now - and although it was not completely dark, there were no lights at all on in the Royal Post Office - guess everyone else left for the day already.

"Come on Donkey, lets get you to your stall..." [Ibehru]

A fountain - now dry - graced the middle of the courtyard, a white marble figure of a winged messenger looking as if to leap into the sky to deliver an important message, as its centrepiece.

The stalls took up the back wall of the courtyard - I guess the offices above were for the lesser workers, who couldn’t complain about any smells from the stables.

And talking of the stables - they too were dilapidated and looked to be mostly abandoned - most of the roofing was missing tiles, and there were old packing crates dumped in most of the stalls.

Only one stall had a carefully patched roof, fresh hay, and a clean trough of water.

A carefully hand printed sign hung just inside from a rafter.

"The Royalle Poste Donkey"

My stall, I guess?

And... was I the only beast of burden left in the Post Office’s employ, I wondered?

"Here we go... Sorry, I don't have any carrots on hand - but I really promise to get you some tomorrow!" [Ibehru]

Ibehru then proceeded to thoroughly brush the road dirt dirt and sweat from me, while humming a melody less tune.

After a bit...

"There we go! Sorry.... oats again - oh and a few apples I got the other day - they are still juicy. Nightly night! Oh.... clouds. Looks like rain - good thing we made it, right?" [Ibehru]

A patter of drops started just as Ibehru said that.

"You’ll be cozy and dry in here..." [Ibehru]

Ibehru waved to me as she dashed across the courtyard trying to avoid the constantly increasing downpour into a dark doorway on the courtyard side.

After a while, a dim lamplight shown from a window on the upper floor. A shadow passed by the window a few times, before the light finally was extinguished.

Guess that was were Ibehru lived?

It was quiet now, the rain pattered softly on my stalls roof, and yes, with the fresh hay and the door closed to my stall, it was actually quite cozy.

Eventually, I too dozed off......

---

Ibehru and I were walking to the Royal Palace to deliver the last items, and to pick up the next job. The city was still quiet - the sun was not yet showing on the horizon, but the sky was already a deep cyan.

Some whisky half hearted cloudlets lazed around to the south, and the night’s rain had soaked the cobbles.

For a change, the normally stuffy and smelly air that always accompanies cities was clean.

"So... call me crazy talking to a donkey... but I don’t know - since the last few days since that fight, you seem... different. You respond to everything I say..." [Ibehru]

I nodded my head and whinnied softly, trying to make it sound affirmative.

"See... like that now. I’ve heard tales of animals suddenly protecting their caretakers in crisis - but I thought those were just fanciful tales country folk told during the cold winter evenings for entertainment... but... here you are..." [Ibehru]

We were getting closer to the palace.

This particular Quadrant was reserved for the nobles. The streets were very wide, with a row of trees and flower patches down the centre.

A real classical "Avenue".

"Wait... I want to test something..." [Ibehru]

I stopped and looked back at Ibehru.

"What is... what is 2+2?" [Ibehru]

Without hesitation I tapped out 4 with a hoof.

"3+3?" [Ibehru]

Tap tap tap tap tap tap.

Ibehru’s voice rose a pitch, and she stood now akimbo, her fist raised slightly and clenched.

"2x5???" [Ibehru]

I tapped ten times.

"OK.. Ok... One more..... how many people are on the senate?" [Ibehru]

Trick question!

There were two senates - the common and the Royal.

Cautiously I tapped out 15 for the Royal senate with one hoof.

Then 21 with a back hoof for the common one.

"YES!!!!! THIS IS AMAZING! It... it is like you are actually a person! Oh Oh Oh... tap once if you are a trapped Royal, twice if you are a trapped commoner, and 3 times if you think you are a donkey." [Ibehru]

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Well, as far as I knew.

"Oh well... was worth a try! Either way, I'm glad you are with me, Donkey!" [Ibehru]

My memory sort of started under that ancient tree, even though I seemed to have some common knowledge and skills from somewhere....

No other memories from earlier.

Hm..........

I wonder if I can read or even learn to write - that would be handy!

But by now we’ve reached the Royal Stables, and I suspected I was not welcome further in.

The Royal Palace.

It was the only one I knew - well as far as I could recall, anyways.

Glorious white stone covered every surface, even the street was set with huge slabs of what was some rare form of granite - the same rock the Great Walls were made of.

You’d expect marble for a palace normally, but marble was soft compared to this granite.

Granite of course has the bonus of being increasingly durable - and here is the kicker - resilient against any nefarious attackers’ siege weapons.

And some memory wafted in - this specific granite that started to feel familiar, was also good at deflecting even high caliber magic!

Again... I wondered where that memory came from....

"Donkey! I’ll park you here in the Royal Stables in the Royal Post section - as smart as you are, I fear the nobles might get upset if you track in road dust on their spotless Palace floors..." [Ibehru]

Yeah.

Figured as much.

"Heyo! Stable hand? Can I get a bucket of sweet sweet carrots for my friend here?" [Ibehru]

A teen girl in an immaculately clean and starched Royal stable hand suit jumped out of the stable office.

"Oh hi Ibehru and Donkey! Sure thing - I’ll go steal the best carrots the palace kitchens has to offer for my cutie fluffy pie donkey wonkie!" [Milly]

Heh...

Guess she knows us?

"Thanks Milly! I’ll be back soon!" [Ibehru]

Milly left for a bit, and soon got back with a bucket of washed fresh carrots.

While I munched, Milly gave me a brush down.

{
Stat Auto Upgrade:
Charisma +1
}

Oh?

Nice!

I didn’t even have to do anything for that!

Must have been from the brushing and being spoiled.

The sun had just started peeking over the Great Walls when Ibehru returned.

"Whelp Donkey, we got more work to do... this delivery will be a bit... weird, I think?" [Ibehru]

We aside our goodbyes to Milly, and off we went again.

No rest for the Donkey, as they say.

---