Nothing that would make Freyan stay out of the town any longer. He followed the main road and stepped through the magic circle coloured red, blue and in between. It was different than what he saw in the forest, as he could cross it with ease. As he walked slowly down the street he tried to look at everything he could, inspect everything the merchants sold. But it was no easy feat. He tried to move without bumping into anybody, he wanted to be one of the crowd and not to be noticed. He imagined it wouldn’t be that simple given his raggedy looks. The cloths he wore were torn to the part they barely held together, and were filthy even though he tried to clean them in a small lake or river. Even if he checked twice were there monsters in the water or not. But in the end, to the surprise of Freyan, no one bothered to look at him a second time.

The bazaar offered many things. From potions in weird looking glass philters, to strange constructions, some of those which looked like charms to Freyan, food, even raw meat, cloths and so on. What was the strangest, as he passed by one of the butcher’s stand, he couldn’t smell even slightest scent of blood. Though the meat, well those that were recognisible for him, looked fresh. Was it because of the ice chunk looking things they embedded on? They looked like smashed ice, but they showed no sign of melting. There was no way for him to know it for sure.

He stopped at two other stands for practical causes. The first one offered many things, much like a normal merchant’s at a flea market. What caught his attention though were the books. He thought that learning more about this place, or his condition could help him a big deal. Or even if he could know even a little about magic. Sadly, most of the books titled were wrote in strange letters, if they had one. It was more than clear now, this place had its own language. A language he had to learn in order to survive. Given just a little moment to listen, it was obvious everyone around him spoke it. The second stand offered different kind of cloths. Not the most plains of course. If there was an other merchant who offered simpler rags, it was Freyan’s habit that he didn’t notice. He inspected them longingly. He spent lasting minutes just looking at them. Than he tried to interpret the sloppy handwritten tablets before them. They for sure informed the customers about the prices. If he looked at them enough he even could make out some similarity with the numbers they used back home. Well at least in some cases. With other numbers or letters, not so much.

In the meantime the merchant started to look at him frustrated. Everyone could notice it, except Freyan. Still it didn’t seem to be a problem until Freyan tried to touch one of the coats. It was a result of fine craftsmanship, you could tell it just by looking it. And it was blue, of course even if it was not in the usual light hue Freyan liked so much, with silver lining and buttons.

So in the end he looked puzzled at the merchant for a whole minute or two. Of course he couldn’t understand a word he was shouting. And the fact that the stand owner looked more like a sea monster than a human or anything else made his furious words more intimidating. The shooing waves of his hands made at least that part perfectly clear what he wanted to tell.

So Freyan left downhearted. He didn’t know what could have he done so the outcome would be different. He had no means to pay anyway. Probably this was the first time he had to feel like this. And who knows, even if his attackers didn’t took his money, and mostly everything else from him, probably that money wouldn’t worth anything here.

Lost in gloomy thoughts he walk forward on the street. He didn’t even know which way he came from and where should he even go. It didn’t matter anyway. He haven’t even noticed when someone following him caught up with him.

“Welcome to Ga’Balgala, friend!” said a creaky voice as an arm was put on his shoulders.

Freyan looked puzzled to the creature which was somewhat an anthropomorphic figure with toadish features. Its skin was deep green, like venom, and it was truly oozing with a sweat like thing.

“You look like a bit lost. Aaand if you don’t mind me saying a bit broke too.”

“You… I understand what you say! How?” Freyan was confused and surprised. A little bit happy too. But given who, or what was he speaking to didn’t let the discovery become too emotional. Never mind that he could also speak with the lady in the forest just fine.

“Well it wasn’t hard to notice you don’t understand the vaia here. Assuming that you speak at least qvilick was the most logical thing, no?”

“I suppose” nodded Freyan.

“Qvilick is the closest place here after all, you know… on the other side.”

“Suure… You, by any chance, don’t happen to know how could get there?”

“What? To Qvilick?”the surprise could be read on the toad’s face even if other things was hard to understand for Freyan from a face like this. “Nah! Even if I knew I wouldn’t wanna go there! Listen, but here is what I can tell you. Would you interested to make some tikka?”

“Tikka? What is that?”

“What do you mean, what is tikka?! Tikka is tikka! Tikka is your best friend” the creature smiled, showing Freyan a small round blue coin, made probably from some kind of transparent crystal.

“Oh! It’s money! I see...” Freyan’s eyes widened on the moment of clarity.

“Now you get it! So are you game?”

Freyan thought for a moment, for the other creature’s much frustration, which he didn’t noticed in the end.

“It depends, what do you want me to do” he said finally.

“Well… There are some nasty drovarra in a swamp not far from here. They are quite poisonous to everybody except your kind. I need their glands for a customer of mine. You bring me the glands and I pay you… a thousand for each. What say you?”

There had to be some catch, right? It was a hard decision without knowing any background of this world. In the end Freyan did need the money. With no other chances, what was to lose?

“I guess… I can hunt down some animals…”

“Wonderful! Do you need directions for it?”

“I think so. It would be easier if I knew where to look for them and everything else.”

It was as the toadish person predicted, he was lucky. This vampire knew nothing. So he told him, what he must knew. How to find the creatures, how they looked, how to extract the glands. He even gave Freyan a little map he just drew up as he spoke, and a sack he hoped to get back filled.

With the final words, that Freyan should wait here on the main street if he done collecting, they went on their separate ways.

Strangely Freyan felt even a bit better, having a little purpose, an idea where to go next day, not just wander around aimlessly. He searched for a place to rest. So he could begin the journey on the new day.