As I block the sun's shining arrows of light raining down on my eyes, I gaze at the village's large structures and machinery. Bang! Bang! The loud sounds of hammers and tools clanging back and forth repeatedly as people worked on fixing up many construction projects, while others were selling materials on the streets. There were even people walking on the road, pulling carts laden with gems and jewelry, most of which were intended for trade and other expenses.

While I pulled out my map from my bag to follow down the sidewalk, I could smell the gas and strong fumes from all the fumes from people's homes, while some of the people inside were staring at me weirdly. One-half of the people were whispering to each other, while the rest were giving a displeased look, all watching me.

Even after living in this village since I was a baby and being adopted by their leader, I’m still recognized as an unwanted bum by them. If you think about it, I could save these people from a burning building, and yet they would want me to put them back into the fire, just because they saw it was me who saved them. Despite having half the townsfolk thinking unkindly of me, I still kept my positive attitude. At least I try to.

While walking down the streets and passing through the marketplace, I heard a familiar voice calling out to me. “Hey, tall stranger with messy hair, haven’t I seen you from somewhere?” a deep voice said, coming from a nearby market stand.

The man behind the wooden stand leaned on his chair, a large blanket covering many items on the table, as he smirked smugly at me. He had orange goggles on his face, while his chin was covered with his freakishly short black beard. His clothes consisted of a dark apron and a white shirt underneath, and he wore brown gloves.

“Good morning, Vidor. I see your memory is the same as the amount of money you're making over here,” I replied in a comical tone to Vidor, while he only laughed at my remarks.

Vidor is known as the village's craziest and yet smartest Harken through the village, but to me, he is the only friend I have. Vidor mostly likes me for two reasons: I am the son of his best friend and am one of the few people who are brave enough to buy from him. But I wouldn’t say he is super insane or anything; he is just a normal guy trying to make a living in the world.

“I know Bouer Academy is starting today, so let me get you educated on the things going on behind the scenes in town, and I will quickly introduce you to my new batch of goods before you go.” He chuckled wildly and waved his hand over the table before slowly pulling enough of the blanket off so I could see. “Since you are my favorite customer, I will give you a seventy percent discount off everything if you don’t report me to that old fart Udo about some of the stuff I'm selling.”  

Vidor calmly smiled at me as I saw the reason why he would want me to be quiet about what he was selling. Also, I think I changed my mind about him not being slightly insane because only a madman would dare try to sell these dangerous items. The table was filled with many potions with warning signs, weapons with enchantments, and other dangerous items that a person would think twice before using.

It was a little unusual to see so many threatening objects in one place, but what was even more unusual was seeing Vidor selling them. Vidor used to sell unusual materials and other unconventional inventions all the time, but for Vidor to be selling weapons out of the blue is quite unusual.

“I mean, I wouldn't mind buying some of this stuff as every warrior needs a powerful weapon, but may I ask why you're selling this stuff instead of your other machines or the other toys?” I asked while Vidor sheepishly looked around the street corners.

“I mean, I thought you would have some new action figures in stock for me like last time, and these things are forbidden to sell without permission from–” “Okay, I’ll explain in a second, but just keep your voice down!” He startled before quickly pulling me behind his stand and hiding underneath it with me.

He sighs quietly and peeks over his sheets on the stand as if someone were watching him.

“You see those guards over there?” He asked, pointing at two guards talking to an elderly woman who ran her own shop. The guards were bearing heavy armor and holding sabers in their holders. The two gave off an intimidating look at the fragile woman as they seemed to be interrogating her.

“Yeah, those are just the village guards; they always roam around here, making sure there isn’t anyone causing trouble or breaking the law,” I replied before scratching my head, still confused. "Oh, okay, if they're just doing their daily job, then why are there four more of them at that other stand?” He sarcastically pointed out again, but this time, it was at four more guards arguing with a person at another stand.

“Kaipo, take a close look at all the business here, and try to understand what I am trying to say.” He grabbed my chin and directed me into his view of everything. I must have been too focused on following my map earlier, because so many guards have spawned out of nowhere, as if we are in lockdown.  

Almost every market stand was filled with guards either arguing or talking to people while checking every inch of their stand. While the rest of the market was being searched, though, one guard didn’t notice me peeking but saw Vidor's face peeking over his stand instead. He looked different from the other troops around, with him barely wearing much armor and having a silver-colored helmet on rather than the standard brown ones. The guard narrowed his eyes before approaching us as Vidor quickly leaped over with no hesitation, giving the guard a fearsome look to defend his stand.

“Wait Vidor, he has an echohound behind him,” I whispered to Vidor before he was soon tackled down by a small creature as it slipped through the guard's legs.

Echohounds are small, four-legged, furry creatures with no eyes, yet they have large jaws and claws, and their back is covered with razor-sharp quills. I've been told before by Udo that echo-hounds are known for their loyal and engaging nature, as well as their incredible sense of smell and hearing.

Too bad for Vidor, he has to deal with one of them, causing even more problems for him.  

“Get off me, you furry little mutt!” Vidor pushed the echohound off him, as it quickly barked furiously at his stand and sniffed around it. “I didn’t give you permission to be scooping around any of my business, either!”

“But I did . . .” The guard responded sharply before the Echohound ripped the sheets off the stand, revealing all the weapons.

Vidor didn’t like the guard’s words one bit, and I covered up my ears from all the shouting between them, but it still wasn’t enough to stop their words from reaching my ears. To make matters worse, the echohound pokes its head underneath the table stand, staring almost directly at me. The feeling of air being pulled in and out by the mutt's hairy nose was too unbearable, with its almost toxic warm breath blowing towards me.

“Go away. There is no one here. Umm… I'm a wooden magic statue, so go away before I turn you to wood or something…” I whispered to the small beast as my voice cracked a little with annoyance, and my small movements to scare it weren’t getting through the creature's mind. A row of sharp teeth arose from the large jaw of the small hound, gripping onto the back of my shirt, using its force to yank me from underneath the stand.

“Stop wasting your breath and quit speaking all this claptrap of yours, you mad scapy griddler.”

The guard yelled back at Vidor before taking his attention off him and towards me, picking myself off the ground.

“Oh great, I knew you would be spitting out rusted nonsense, but I didn’t think you would try to get the chief boy along with it. This is why you're only known as some crazy madman.”