After Iris and Doxan had gotten the static out of their hair. The pair had then started moving again towards the town where they had planned to meet Stavic. Iris and Doxan did not run into any more groups of Mushmen again. Which Doxan explained would be understandable after the spell she let off.

“Mushmen go into hiding when there are storms around. They aren’t exactly built to deal with wild weather. While they are a nuisance to most cities, they really are just a pest monster, more than a dangerous one.”

Though Doxan admitted as they walked that the spell would have likely scared off even some of the larger monsters if they had been within earshot. “Just be prepared to deal with some of the local guards asking some pointed questions. I don’t know if they saw us down there, but it would be prudent to have our story straight if they ask you what happened.” Doxan said as the wagon line entering the city came into view.

The pair could see their wagon in line as they walked towards it. Noting that Stavic had gotten to about halfway in the queue while waiting for them to return.

Iris nodded as she thought, “So just saying it was a lightning spell I lost control of won't cut it?” She was hoping against hope people wouldn’t have noticed it but knew that was likely to be impossible.

Doxan thought on the topic for a moment before nodding to Iris. “That would be a good explanation. Since it’s not that far from the truth. You weren't controlling it in any way other than giving it a target.”

He smiled to Iris, “Let’s just go with that. If I corroborate your story, then we shouldn’t have any issues. Other than possibly a guard captain giving you the riot act about casting uncontrolled magic near a town.”

Iris winced, “Let’s hope they didn’t see us, and I don’t need to listen to another lecture. The first one was bad enough.” she grinned down at the shorter Dwarven man.

Doxan groaned, “I still would like to give your magic teacher a talking too. How could they just skip the basics like that?”

Her grin became a laugh as she thought back to how she was trained, “I honestly think they didn’t know that you were supposed to hold back at all. I think they use a completely different magic style than us mortals.”

Doxan looked up at Iris, “Well, I guess you’re right. It is not like we’ve had an angel descend down to the mortal plane in any recorded history.” He sighed as his shoulders slumped, “We will just have to swing by a bookstore and get the basic magic texts for you to study.”

Iris nodded along as he said that. Another fantasy thing to check off her list. Going to a fantasy bookstore to climb around and possibly find lost tomes or other magical trinkets.

Doxan spoke up and asked her as she was daydreaming about dusty libraries stacked with arcane tomes. “You understand that there are different schools of magic, don’t you? Why not tell me what you remember about what I told you?”

Iris hummed a little before she nodded to him. “Yes, there are three major schools of magic. Natural Magic, Focused Magic, and Balance Magic. Natural magic is a catchall for wild magics and unspecified magics, also called Nature Magic. While also being the widest available pool of magical types. It is also not seen as the most powerful. People who train in Natural Magic don’t focus on the types of magic, and more on being jacks of all trades.” She looked to Doxan to see if she was describing it right.

Doxan nodded in response, “Go on.” he said to keep her going.

Iris continued, “Focused Magic is more like a title for a bunch of single element schools. Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, and a bunch of other elements. While Natural magic and Focused Magic share the same elements, a Focused Magic practitioner will have the upper hand in pure strength. They have honed their training on a single element and have focused on strengthening their abilities with it.”

She walked along beside Doxan as she recited the knowledge he had given her the night before. “While Focused Magic is stronger than Natural Magics in a single element. Natural Magics though have a much wider range of applications and can cause just as much damage if trained correctly.” She shrugged as she then said, “At that point, you started an argument with Stavic over which school was stronger.”

Doxan coughed, “Well yes, the debate is something that is often had over the differences between the Magical schools.”

Iris laughed before going on, “Well that just leaves us with the Balance Magics. It is pretty much the same as the Natural Magic schools. While being more of a catchall for the Holy, Unholy, Light, Dark, Necromantic, Golemancy, and other non-elemental schools. This really just seems like whoever named these just got bored and tossed them together.”

The old dwarf chuckled and nodded, “An argument that has been debated several times.”

She grinned at him as she then went on, “Although, I can see why it’s not the same as the first two schools. All of them require focused training, but they also have a lot of melding from other schools on the side of the light or dark magic users. The neutral schools like Golemancy could also fall on either side of the scale. It all depends on how their golems are powered.”

Doxan shook his head and chuckled, “Fine, fine. You have a good memory; I’ll give you that. Some of the young trainees I have taught over the years had to have that pounded into them for weeks.”

Stavic had noticed their approach and waved to them as they got close to the wagon. He smiled as he greeted their return. “From the noise I heard, it sounded like ‘Someone’ had a lot of fun.” he turned his roguish grin towards Iris, who had the decency to look embarrassed from the jibe.

She coughed into her hand as she took a seat in the wagon, “I will not argue the point you have so succinctly brought up. Instead, I will just say in response to your statement. Yep!” She grinned back, “I simply found out I am too awesome to have to worry about mushroom men!”

Doxan groans, “Do not encourage her.” but the slight smile on his face showed he was not annoyed with the turn of events.

Iris got up to look down the line of wagons, “How long do you think we’ll have to wait?” she asked Stavic, as she wondered to herself about how the inside of the town was going to look like.

Stavic rubbed his chin as he contemplated the question, “Probably another hour. Why? Going to go off and cause another explosion?”

Iris shook her head, her purple hair bouncing around from the force of her movement, “No. Nope. Not today anyway. I was going to take a nap. Unless you want me to take over driving while you do?”

Stavic blinked and looked at Iris for a moment, “Do you even know how to handle driving the horses?”

Iris grinned widely at him, “Not at all! But there’s a first time for everything!”

Stavic groaned as Doxan laughed, “I think he’ll be fine while you take a nap, Iris.” This caused all three to start laughing.

Stavic waved Iris off to let her go get a nap while they waited for their turn to enter the city. Iris felt that she had barely laid her head down on the bedroll before she felt Doxan shaking her shoulder to awaken her for them to be inspected at the gate by the guards.

Iris had felt a little worried about the usual fantasy tropes of corrupt gate guards and the usual trouble they caused. So she had been a little stressed out while they were being inspected. Contrary to her expectations, the guards had been nothing but friendly and helpful.

When it was her turn for the inspection, Doxan stepped in. He explained to them that Iris was a new priestess under his care and that they had a small problem coming over the mountain pass. She had lost the backpack she had kept her identification into a monster attack, one of the creatures making off with her pack before they could stop it.

With Doxan giving his assurance and his own identification as proof of who he was in the church. It had been easy enough for the guards to pass Iris a temporary pass to allow her into the city. Then ask her to return it within three days with her new identification from the Mercenary Guild to avoid any complications.

One had even given them the directions they needed to get to the church. Meaning they could go where they needed to go without having to hunt around for the information.

As they were leaving, Stavic looked to Iris and raised an eyebrow at the look on her face, “Why do you look so dissatisfied? You would think you were hoping something would go wrong.”

Iris widened her eyes before letting out a laugh, “Oh I really was expecting something to go wrong back there. It's kind of what always happens to me. Everything going smoothly? Not today~.” She smirked back at Stavic, “I think I was just disappointed that I had all the plans in my head, and I didn’t need any of them.”

Stavic laughed, “You should have been a rogue, not a priestess. That’s generally how rogues think, a thousand plans, and all of them are backup plans for when things go wrong.”

Doxan spoke from the back of the cart, “Not all rogues, Stavic. Mostly ones like you, who try to plan their way into and out of a situation.”

Stavic beamed a grin out at the city in front of him, “Being prepared for all situations is not a bad thing, Doxan.”

It was Doxan’s turn to bark out a laugh, “Planning to misbehave is not a good use of your planning skills.”

Stavic just continued to grin, “You have your opinion on this matter, and I have my own.”

Iris giggled as she listened to the pair of old friends banter at each other. Her eyes were on the city itself. The buildings were all much like the Tudor style on the upper floors. Old styles of plaster and wood. Framed and built with a consistent design. But the first floors were all made of stone. The windows were caged in iron, and the doors were all heavy thick wood, and even iron here and there that she could see.

The shops that had open fronts to allow people to see the wares had large folding doors. Each door seemed to be several inches thick with what looked like heavy beams to drop into specially crafted slots in the back to lock them closed.

Iris could not help but ask about this design choice, “Is this a normal style? It looks like every building is built to outlast a siege.” She pointed at the nearby stone façade of the building they were passing.

Doxan and Stavic both looked a little stunned at her question. Both men were so used to the look of towns like this that they had not really thought it would look strange to anyone.

Doxan quickly spoke up as he came to his senses, “That’s because they are. If a Dungeon overflow happens. With a city that has a dungeon inside its walls, the citizens need to have the ability to defend themselves. At least until the guards and kingdom army can muster and come to their rescue.” he motions out at the city ahead of them. “This is a fairly normal design for a city with a dungeon inside it.”

Iris ohs and nods, “That makes a lot of sense then. I was just wondering if they got invaded a lot or something.” she smiles, “Good to know this place is safe in case of that kind of emergency.”

She then continued to watch the city and the citizens that they passed while Stavic drove the wagon to their destination.

Her sense of fantasy was again being pumped to the maximum. Iris saw all kinds of different races pass by as they traveled through the city. From the classic Elves and Dwarves to the Beastmen races with their tails and animal features. People with curled horns looked human other than that one feature. There was a large variety of species intermingling in the city. Which showed that the Dungeons were drawing in a large number of mercenaries. As well as showing that the businesses tied to the dungeons must be booming.

She once again got that almost overwhelming urge to go dive into the nearest Dungeon. To fight monsters and find treasure. The sense of this world being both at the same time alien and exciting washed over her.

They passed a smithy that had swords and weapons hanging from racks in front of the huge shopfront. The sound of metal being hammered echoed in the street. Iris had to grip the edge of the wagon to stop herself from jumping over to have a rummage through the store. Wondering if she'd find some long-lost heirloom or another trope encounter.

In the end, she just enjoyed the view, bouncing a little in the seat as she watched it all unfold around her. Iris knew she had more than a single day to see all that this city had to offer. She had an entirely new life waiting ahead of her, and she wanted to take her time to savor every moment of it. To enjoy all that was coming. No need to rush any of it.

As Iris was grinning at some children running around playing knights, interrupting some of the adults nearby with their loud squeals of joy. Something truly fantastical happened in front of her eyes.

A small flock of rainbow-colored, winged lizards leaped from a nearby rooftop. Their glittering scales reflected the light of the afternoon sun, causing rainbow sparkles to fill the air as the flock spun and turned to reach the ground. As a group, they scampered off down a side street to make their escape. As they made strange little noises that reminded Iris of a bearded dragon hissing. They sounded agitated and seemed to be running from something.

Which quickly came into view. As another of the winged lizards leaped off the roof in chase of the ones that had escaped. But this one seemed to be smaller than the others to Iris’s eye. It was also a soft light ash grey coloration that showed none of the vibrant colors of the other ones.

Doxan said, “Ah Fae dragons. There must be a colony of them around here to have that many flying about. They are considered helpful monsters. So don’t hurt them. A lot of people keep them as pets.”

Iris barely heard what Doxan was saying as her eyes followed the little monochromatic Fae dragon. Its wings barely kept it aloft. Then she saw it stutter in the air, still far above the ground. And she knew, without even thinking, that if it fell from that height, it would be badly injured.

As such, her body moved before her brain could even think of a coherent sentence. Making her leap off the wagon, landing herself under the falling creature. It seemed unable to support itself any longer in the sky as it plummeted down and landed in Iris’s outstretched hands.

Its small body was barely as big as one of her hands as it curled up to protect itself. The small Fae dragon shivering. Afraid the huge being that caught it was about to do it further harm.

Stavic pulled the wagon up beside Iris, looking at her with awe, “Nice catch."

Iris smiled up at Stavic, “Thanks, though I kind of did it on reflex.” she looked down at the balled-up creature in her hands. She was not an expert animal handler, but even Iris could tell that the small Fae dragon was injured and definitely not doing well.

She then looked up at Doxan as he had stuck his head out of the back of the wagon and asked him, “Do you know much about these guys? I think this little guy is injured.”

Doxan shook his head, “No, I’m not much of a veterinarian, but Milly has been saving lost animals for years. She should know more about helping a Fae dragon than I would. I’ll cast a healing spell on it. It won’t hurt it anyway.”

Iris smiled as she looked down at the creature in her hands. “Okay then. I guess I have one more reason to find and meet Milly.” she held the little injured Fae dragon in one hand as she clambered back up onto the wagon. “Exploring the city is for tomorrow then.”