A Salamander, but Mighty

Two days – and two wilflies – later, Tamara came within sight of the town of Stanbroodge; by eye, Tamara calculated that the city must have had at least thirty-five thousand inhabitants, with a fortified citadel close to the river which had been transformed into an island thanks to an artificial moat, with the rest of the city connected to the citadel via two bridges.

There were also what appeared to be religious structures, two that barely peeked out from the tops of the red porphyry roofs of the mainland downtown and a much larger one that dominated the entire citadel.

There was one thing she had thought about during the last hours of the journey, which, thanks to Velen, was quite simple as she protected her from dangerous encounters and guided her until she was less than half an hour from the city limits.

“Velen?”

"Here I am!" The guardian spirit exclaimed appearing in front of Tamara, “we're almost there now. I thought of the plan to get into the city without getting killed!”

“Um… good! Good… but I have a little question,” she said, “I killed two wilflies but I didn't level up, I'm close but I would have to kill another one to be able to go up to the third level…” she explained briefly, “to reach the second level I only had to kill one. Why am I getting less experience from their kills?”

“Increasing levels not only increases the experience points needed to level up further, but also decreases the experience points you receive from monsters lower in level than you,” Velen replied, “eventually, the wilflies will stop giving you experience points altogether."

“Oh, how nice…” Tamara murmured ironically, not at all enthusiastic, “let's move on to the plan to enter the city.”

“Well, then, listen to me carefully,” Velen paused, pure theatricality, “how about we look for some isolated and vulnerable person, make some wilflies chase us, and then turn them against them?”

“And how is this supposed to help us??”

“Well, the idea is that if we save them, they will understand that we don't want to hurt them and they won't attack us.”

“They won't attack me…” Tamara muttered softly.

“Now don't start talking like that! We're both on this boat!” Velen protested, “don't you think this is a great plan? It will definitely work!”

“Isn't it a little bit morally wrong to put someone in danger only to then save them and gain their trust?”

“If you have better ideas you are free to propose them,” Velen said confidently.

Tamara didn't answer immediately, instead she started thinking about possible alternatives. The most obvious idea was to skip putting someone in danger and instead try to approach that someone in the good old fashioned way of being peaceful and approaching slowly – as well as in plain sight – the problem was that Tamara no longer had a human body - or face - and she didn't know what body language would be best to show to ensure she didn't become the target of some spell or arrow or anything else that she didn't know and could have been very painful to experience in the world of Tala.

Tamara shook her head. What if she enters Stanbroodge after dark? She was sure that in this way she would not only be able to enter the city, but perhaps even rummage through some garbage piles and eat something a little less disgusting than wilflies. This obviously didn't solve the biggest problem Tamara had at the time: a complete lack of connections, Velen was nowhere near enough to orient herself and learn about the world outside of the one immediately adjacent to the Velenaria River.

Other plans that had any chance of success? She could hide out in the countryside and discover things little by little, going further and further away and widening her area of exploration as she leveled up… but it was a long time coming, and there was no guarantee that something wouldn't have gone wrong if she had given fate enough ammunition.

"So? Hmm?” The orb of light approached an inch away from Tamara's muzzle, "so?"

“Do you know of any objects that could be used as a symbol of peace in this area?”

Velen became thoughtful, “there would be the rondadrilla. It's a very common wildflower that grows all year round, it has long stems covered in a myriad of white and yellow petals and locals usually exchange some as a symbol of brotherhood and good intentions.” Velen fluttered towards the river, maybe she was looking around? Hard to say, Tamara had the impression that Velen had the ability to be aware of everything that was happening and was in her domain at any given moment, “there's some within a short distance of here, maybe not even five minutes further back, why do you care?”

“We will not endanger anyone, we will approach by taking up the mighty weapon of peace.”

Tamara had the impression that Velen was snorting, “it seems like a less exciting plan than mine, and besides, you need more experience points! With my plan we would have taken two piholohs with one stone!”

“Piholohs?” Velen asked questioningly.

“They're bird monsters that… nevermind, let's go get these flowers.”

- - -

Ten minutes and a few rondadrilla branches later, Tamara and Velen returned to the countryside where there was a long road made of smooth and polished stones wide enough for two carriages to pass in opposite directions at the same time, probably the main link between Stanbroodge and other large cities or crossroads in the area. They waited a long time, looking for the ideal target for their attempted peaceful approach: first a knight passed accompanied by some squires, all so armed and well protected by shining armors that Tamara was convinced that if she approached them the knight wouldn't have hesitated to attack her, maybe declaring that peace was never an option.

It was the turn of some farmers. Those were discarded by Tamara because she doubted that befriending one would have helped her enter the city and reveal the magical mysteries that would – presumably – allow a guardian spirit to free itself from the place in which it had been confined.

No, something different was needed, something that wasn't looking for a reason to move its hands like a knight or too secluded in its countryside life to possibly be able to help Tamara.

Something like the individual Tamara had just spotted.

The humanoid creature had funny, long hare ears, with a small tail coming out of a special hole in their pants just above their butt. They wore dark clothes and a wide-brimmed hat, with a poncho that covered them almost to the height of their navel; they advanced with half-closed eyes, plucking with manicured and painted nail fingers the strings of what looked and sounded like a mandolin. What made Tamara a little anxious was the rapier dangling at their left side...

“Are you really sure you just want to show up this way?” Velen asked hesitantly, “Leporans are quite quick to sprint and their rapier thrusts are legendary.”

“They seem like the perfect element for our plan, we can't let them slip away to go look for some wilflies,” but that didn't mean that Tamara wasn't terrified. She twisted the rondadrilla branches between her little teeth, “it will be fine… I hope.”

Tamara took a deep breath through her nostrils and began to approach, emerging from the grass about fifty feet from the leporan, she brought her large and completely black eyes into the pink ones of theirs and began to approach slowly, trying to appear like a salamander monster coming in peace.

The leporan stopped on their feet and took one hand off the mandolin to place it on the hilt of their rapier.

Do we still have time to go look for those walflies?