Nonetheless, Onion felt her heart constrict momentarily as he folds of her linen skirts were examined by prodding hands. That those hands took liberties with the exploration of her body barely registered in her mind. Not many Nü traveled the inner parts of the continent. It would not take much for one of the GuardHands to have heard the recent news...
And before she could take those thoughts to their natural conclusions, Onion was shoved along forward. She glanced back in time to see Gregor also routinely and personally violated, but the shaggy blonde man seemed to pay no heed. They had made it outside of the city with little incident. That was all that mattered.
On the other side of the massive sandstone walls was another world entirely. In a matter of the 25 feet that were the thickness of the fortifications, cosmopolitan life had died out entirely, though the handiwork of humans was not lacking. In the distance, ancient and temperate plainslands rolled out from the coastal oak wood forests located to the north and south of the city. In the vicinity most of the plainslands had been converted to kingdoms of millet, maize and hemp monocultures. Further north Onion could make out the Rein Peaks as a hazy purple backdrop, whereas further west the vague hints of the Ghetan Buttes could be seen.
At the entrance of Eirdred City, however, amassed a conglomeration of canvas covered wagons, tents of various shapes and sizes, and a few outcroppings of lodges and taverns that served at the shanty town's lone permanent structures; the sole needs of a town of transients and day laborers.
The odors of fresh, wet clay could be experienced fro the nearby clay pits that dotted the riverbed. Not far off the sounds of steel against rock emanating from the sandstone quarries orchestrated the ambiance of the day.
The town had no name, and could barely be considered a settlement. It served to support the men and women working daily in the native industries of soil, rock and clay, but over time the outpost had also become a meeting place for the myriad of peoples traveling to and from the city. Onion recalled a mere week ago when she and her party of kinsmen first collected the nervous and twitching Cedric in that nameless tavern, face drowning in a mug of cheap mead.
Today's atmosphere was a little different. Families and merchants gathered traveling companions and goods, preparing to make journeys north, south or west. Others arrived from the west, road weary and occasionally bearing the cute, bruises and emotional scars of the highway.
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