Chapter 4: My Name Is Urich

Crunch.

Urich chewed aggressively on the strange dried food he found among the expedition team’s supplies as he tightened one of the explorers’ cloaks around his shoulders. The arrow wounds were itching and aching at the same time, but he tried not to give them too much attention. He placed his faith in his youthful strength.

Urich descended the Sky Mountains on what seemed like an endless trail to the bottom. He tripped and stumbled at times and even nearly fell off a cliff, which would have killed him.

The mountains were showing him how difficult it was for an intruder to make it out alive. The cold and heartless treatment from the mountains made Urich realize that his presence was not welcomed. The Sky Mountains wanted him dead.

Schlup.

“Kaagh!”

Urich sensed a presence in his sleep. He quickly drew his sword and stabbed a wolf that had come too close to him for its own good.

“I guess I’m having wolf for breakfast,” Urich said as he snickered at the cluster of eyes of the wolves that glared at him in the darkness. Urich was able to see the faint glow in their eyes from the reflection of the moonlight.

'There’s five of them,'

Urich counted in his mind as he stretched his cold-stiffened body and turned his head left and right.

Crack, crunch.

His cold muscles warmed up rapidly. Urich was ready for another fight.

“Huff.” Urich’s slight exhale created a trail of white steam that quickly dispersed into the cool morning air. He had descended a considerable distance, so he was feeling much less of the altitude sickness that had been bothering him. The wolves seemed to recognize that Urich was not prey and treaded back into the woods.

“Pretty smart for an animal,” Urich murmured as he watched the wolves disappear into the dusk. The sun wasn’t going to rise for a good while, but Urich decided to resume his descent.

‘The world beyond the mountains!’

Urich’s eyes sparkled with curiosity and wonder, and he caught himself grinning at the new possibilities.

‘I’m going to see it with my very own eyes.’

Urich now had the expedition team’s supplies at his disposal. He ditched his battle-worn leather clobber and dressed himself in the clothes of the explorers.

‘Their metal armor is stronger than ours, and their clothes are soft yet warm.’

Urich was fascinated by every new object that he discovered in the supplies. He was headed away from his home without even letting his brothers know that he was still alive and well. His heart was about to explode from a mixture of emotions.

‘This new land has to be worth all of this trouble!’

As the sun peeked over the snow-capped mountaintops, Urich was finally able to see what he had been dreaming about for as long as he could remember. The other side of the Sky Mountains.

“Oh, strange land, I’m finally here!” Urich let out a powerful roar, one that was loud enough to scare the mountain birds away from their trees. He was feeling a new wave of fresh energy in his fatigued body.

“Hah... haha!” Urich cackled with ecstasy as he sprinted all the way down the rest of the mountains until he reached the plains without making a single stop.

“I knew that senile old lady didn’t know what she was talking about! This is not the world of the souls. It’s all the same land! With people like us!” Urich exclaimed as he grabbed a handful of grass from the ground and smelled the familiar scent of dirt. The grass, the dirt, it was all that he had already seen and felt in his motherland.

“Hahaha!” Urich’s laughter sounded almost insane. He was overwhelmed by the overflowing joy that he didn’t know what to do with himself. Things that he had never seen before, never experienced before, were right there, waiting for him.

“I’m coming, here I come! Urich is coming!”

Urich searched for a river. He knew that to find a village, he had to find a river stream. Villages were always built along the body of water coming down from the mountains because there wasn’t a single person in this world who could live without water.

* * *

Somewhere on the outskirts of a town not too far from the Sky Mountains, a con man was being chased by three big gang members.

“Dammit! Get back here, you scummy scammer!”

“Huff, huff.”

The conman was a fragile-looking skinny man. He made his living off of rigged-up bets and unfortunately today, he was running for his life after he was caught red-handed by these three men.

“Ugh, hugh.”

The conman was very quickly running out of breath. He was in no way in good shape.

‘If they catch me, they’ll kill me. Even if they don’t kill me, I’ll be beaten to a pulp.’

He was, quite literally, running for his life. Then, a small rock just big enough to make itself an obstacle caught his desperate foot, and he collapsed on the ground. Perhaps it was karma.

Thud.

The conman was covered in a cloud of dust as he rolled helplessly on the ground.

“Haha, you scummy son of a bitch, look at you now! Hey, bring the dagger over. We’ll take care of his dirty little fingers first, sneaky bastard,” one of the gang members asserted as he grabbed the conman by his collar.

The frightened conman desperately begged for mercy. “Oh, please sir, please forgive me just this once, I’m begging you! I’ll never try to trick you again. I’ll do anything you want, please spare my life!”

“Sir? I don’t want to hear all this bullshit from a scummy lowlife like you.” The gang member cackled as he grabbed the dagger handed to him.

“No sir, please, not my hands! Ah!” The conman struggled aggressively in a feeble attempt to escape the grasp of the man who was much bigger and stronger than him, but it was no use. The men had him locked down by his shoulders.

Step, step.

While the four men were busy causing a ruckus, another man approached them.

“Oh! P-please help me! I’ll give you anything you want!” The conman called out to the mysterious man in desperation.

One of the men then slapped the helpless man across his face. “Geez, just shut up before I cut your tongue out first.”

The gang members took a look at the mysterious man. He was dressed in dirty clothes and only had a sword in his belt. By the looks of it, he seemed like a traveler.

This traveler was Urich. These four men were the first people he had encountered since he made it down the mountains. He observed the men in front of him with curiosity.

“What the hell are you looking at? Get lost,” one of the men said to Urich, but just like with Fordgal’s men, Urich didn’t understand their language.

‘A bunch of them are going after that one man. What are they doing?’

Urich wanted to know what was happening, but there was no way for him to communicate with these men. He could only watch and see what they were about to do.

“I know you don’t understand me, but carry on. I just want to see what you’re doing,” Urich said to the men as he folded his arms. The men were taken aback by the sound of a foreign language.

“Is he a... foreigner? I don’t think I’ve heard that language before,” one of them said to the others.

“He’s probably a hillbilly from the south.” The gang members laughed among themselves as they shooed Urich away, but Urich had no intention of moving even an inch. He was determined to find out what happened next.

“Hey, man, can’t you see what we’re doing here? What, you want to die with him? Get lost, it’s for your own good!” One of the men sighed as he walked up to Urich. He shifted his hand to grab the dagger that was as big as his forearm to try to intimidate Urich. But as soon as he put his hand on the dagger, something flashed before his eyes, even before he could blink.

Crush.

‘Eh?’

What had just happened was too quick for his brain to register. Everything suddenly seemed upside down for this gang member as his neck snapped like a twig. The other men jumped up, screaming at what they had just witnessed.

“What the hell? This crazy lunatic just snapped Max’s neck!”

“Get him! Kill that bastard!”

The two remaining gang members cried out as they pounced at Urich.

Urich couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. He’d only snapped the neck of someone who was about to draw their weapon against him. It was easier than taking candy from a child.

Urich looked down at the man on the ground. He was convulsing with a broken neck, so Urich finished the job by trampling on his head.

“You guys started this!” Urich shrugged casually as he looked at the men charging at him.

Woosh.

Urich moved like lightning. As he breezed past the two other men, their lifeless bodies dropped to the ground like a couple of flies.

‘What is this man?’

The conman was shaking in terror. This strange man had just murdered three big men like they were nothing.

Step, step.

Urich walked up to the conman who was still trembling from fear. “Bring me to your tribe,” Urich said to the man.

The conman didn’t seem to understand what Urich was asking for. Urich let out a tired sigh and took a seat on the ground.

Scribble, scribble.

Urich drew some houses and people on the ground with a stick and showed it to the conman.

“Oh, you mean the city! Of course, I can take you there, follow me!” The conman exclaimed as he nodded aggressively.

‘I’m safe. I’m still alive!’

The conman was as confused as ever, but one thing he knew for sure. Without this strange traveler, he would not be alive.

“My name is Donau, Sir, Donau.” Donau the conman told Urich as he pointed at himself. Urich picked up on his name and repeated it to himself.

“My name is Urich. Urich.”

Donau took a quick glance at Urich.

‘Is he really a traveler from the south?’

The south was composed of several regions that all spoke different languages. Donau assumed that Urich must be from one of those regions.

“I know you probably don’t know what I’m saying, Sir, but it would be good for you to learn Hamelian. It should get you by just about anywhere,” Donau muttered with a slight frustration in his tone because he knew this man wasn’t understanding a word he was saying.

‘Regardless, he is capable of snapping necks like they’re dry twigs.’

A chill went down his spine as he remembered what Urich had done just moments ago. He was trying his best to mask his nervousness as he guided Urich into the city.

“Ah!” What lay before Urich’s eyes was a city beyond the Sky Mountains. “That must be your tribe!” Urich was awestruck by the sight. For the first time in his life, he saw buildings after buildings that were made of solid stone, not clay like back in his homeland.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

“We’ve reached our destination, Sir! This is Ankaira.”

Ankaira was the city closest to the Sky Mountains. Their prosperity sourced back to the discovery of copper veins near the foothills, making it their specialty and main export.

“The sheer size of this village, it’s breathtaking!” Urich’s eyes didn’t have a second to rest from taking in all the unusual sights. He noticed how the people in this village didn’t care to acknowledge the others, which was strange to him as everyone knew and greeted one another in his.

“Well, we’re here, so I guess my job is done! Take care, good sir! Argh!”

Donau’s attempt to get away from this murderous man was squandered as Urich grabbed his shoulder with what felt like an unbreakable grip.

“Not so fast,” Urich said coldly as he stared into Donau’s face. Urich was well-versed in reading someone’s intentions just by their facial expression and body language.

“Eek!” Urich’s determined gaze was enough to make Donau flinch.

‘Damn, but he did save my life earlier... he’s strong and knows how to fight, so maybe if I can get on his good side...’

Donau was already scheming a way to benefit himself with the situation at hand, then he came to a realization.

‘It doesn’t seem like he knows his way around the world, even though he’s a traveler!’

Donau decided to bring him to a local bar that travelers were known to frequent.

“Hey, does anyone here speak whatever language this man is speaking?”

Foreigners made up a good chunk of the traveler population. Donau went around the bar using his coins to try to find a foreigner who could act as their translator.

“Sigh, I’m from the other side of the mountains,” Urich murmured as he watched Donau scurrying around the busy bar. He had no intention of making his origin known, not that anyone could understand him, anyway.

‘They seem fairly harmless now, but that might change once they find out where I’m from—they could very well be just like those men who attacked my brothers and I.’

Urich conducted every action with caution. He didn’t know anything about this new place that he found himself in.

“I have never heard this language. This Urich guy can’t be from the south!”

“He must be from real far out, maybe a small outskirt village. Or could he be from the north?” The men in the bar couldn’t pinpoint where Urich came from.

“Now that you mention it, he does seem more like a northerner. He’s got the size of the northern barbarians. The men of the south are short and weak, like little girls!”

“What did you say about us Southerners? You want to have a go? Huh?”

“Hah! I knew your skinny ass was from the south, kek.”

“Oh, you bastard!”

The drunkards and the foreigners quickly lost their interest in Urich, and a fight broke out.

Donau let out a tired sigh and turned his eyes to Urich.

“Where in the world are you from, Urich? Is it the south, or the north? Surely, you’re not from the other side of Sky Mountains.”

Urich was too busy looking at the drink that was in front of him. The drink was clear with a yellow tint—it was beer. The only liquor that Urich knew of was fruit wine. The beer was a strange drink for someone who had never heard of using grain to make liquor.

‘By the looks of it, this definitely is liquor.’

Urich took a quick look around the bar. The lively banter, interactions, and even the smell of alcohol weren’t too far from what his nights out with his fellow warriors were like back home.

“It’s on me, Urich,” Donau incited Urich as he tapped his finger on his pint.

‘Can’t refuse a drink,’

Urich thought as he downed the strange drink along with the others in the bar. The unusual bitterness of beer filled his mouth. Urich wanted to spit it right back out, but he decided to hold it down.

Burp.

“Woah, look at this guy! You can drink! Then we go for another,” Donau called for another pint. It didn’t seem like Urich had much of a choice other than to accept the new pint of beer.

‘What is that?’

Urich took another look around the bar when something caught his eye. People were exchanging something that he could only assume was their currency. These people were using money instead of bartering like the tribesmen did. Urich had never imagined something like this before.

‘Everything here is completely different from our home. We’re living in two completely different worlds.’

Ecstasy. Any fear that Urich had from being in this strange place was overtaken by excitement. He wanted to show his brothers what lay beyond the Sky Mountains.

‘The world is massive. How much more will I be able to see?’

Even the blatant bitterness of the beer started to feel refreshing. New tastes, new architecture, and new people.

“Haha!” Urich laughed. He was finally feeling good.

“Seems like you’re liking the beer, Urich!”

“This tastes like shit, no, probably more like piss! This is probably what piss tastes like.”

“Haha, Ankaira indeed makes the best beer in the whole region. Alright, another!”

The content of their conversation didn’t fit whatsoever. Nonetheless, it was a conversation.

Urich’s eyes continued to shine bright as his face was flushed with alcohol. He made sure to remember what these people called ‘money’ that they exchanged with one another. Back home, tribes often bartered with dried meat, animal hide, livestock, and metals and minerals. Although it was an exchange of goods, the items did have a set value to them to be used in the trades, somewhat like this ‘money’ thing.

‘I see how it is.’

Urich understood what he needed. He needed money.