…Oh the surprises I met.

After listening to what seemed like a caveman with a cat, I decided to head my way towards a town called Henesys. Being a bowman, I figured, wouldn’t be so bad. I was quite happy to find that Henesys was not very different from Amherst, so I plopped down on a bench and dug through my bag for an apple, and was just about to take my first bite when a shadow fell over me.

“What is your business here, young man? Speak up!” said the shadow, armed with a decidedly dangerous looking cane.

I stared at the man, and foolishly decided to be smart with the guy. “Is this some sort of trick question, old man? I’m havin’ a snack. See? Apple! Malus pumila! Red, sweet, and jui-“

WHACK. Okay. So he must not have been THAT old. That man is lethal with his cane.

“Do you know who you are speaking to? I am Chief Stan of this town! Don’t you try smartmouthing me! Now shoo! There’s no loitering around here! Scram!” He waved his cane threateningly. After deciding that an intact skull was more important than personal satisfaction, I quickly threw the apple in my bag and hurried to the nearest portal. Anywhere to get away from the scary “Chief Stan”.

Eventually, I found my way to the house… ahem, TREE house, of the fabled Athena Pierce.

“Can you train me to become a bowman?” I asked her.

“No.” …Man this lady was straightforward, “You lack the dexterity for a true archer.”

Somewhat dejected, I thanked her, and decided to just wander around a bit. Not in Henesys, of course, due to one very scary, heavily armed Chief. So I walked, ran away from mean-looking pigs, jumped over nasty-looking thorns (not quite so successfully), and reached the treeline of some woods. Okay. Woods is an understatement. It was a freaking FOREST. A big one, too, but not in the sense of the area of the forest. Instead, the trees were big. Very big. Did I mention that I was never one for heights? After much wandering and fleeing from monkeys with vacant looks, I reached Ellinia. Would you believe that these insane fairies built their entire town on shaky branches? Sure, fairies have wings, but these little folk better have some good lawyers if they have to scrape me off the forest floor. What’s even better, Old Grendel’s house had to be at the tippy, tippy top. A little over a mile above the forest floor.

(Random geekiness. Did you know that given no air resistance (friction), an object falling from rest from a mile up would result in a velocity of 177.09 m/s, or 398.45 mi/hr, right before impact with the floor? That’s faster than the speed of sound! Ouch! NOTE: Yes, I bothered to calculate it <_<;;)

…And the old man said no. And this one was actually old. Except he commented that I wasn’t Magician material. In other words, I was too stupid to become a magician. Whoopdeedoo.

…The tribal leader in the middle of the dust-ridden desert was even worse. He told me: “YOU… WEAK… NO… WARRIOR…” Then proceeded to stare at the wall. And grunted.

So that left me with Kerning City. And, of course, that’s a story within itself.