Li pressed his hands to the village gates. They were made of solid iron but when he applied even the slightest bit of pressure, they groaned and creaked. Beside the gate and stretching all around the village was a rudimentary wall of hardened clay about as high as a man but not nearly high enough that a healthy man couldn’t pull themselves up over it if they tried.

Not a village with many resources, that was for sure. Li knew it was unfair to compare a simple village to a city, but Riviera was absolutely majestic in comparison, with towering stone walls lined with archers uniformed in blue and gates of reinforced oak barred with thick bolts of heavy iron.

But Li had expected this. Villages weren’t known to be rich, after all. Even in his world, when they were still a common existence, they had little resources compared to urban areas. What did surprise him was how utterly quiet it was.

Li peeked through the gate bars. He understood that it was night, but there would still be some activity. He had been here a month now, and he knew that night was when people let loose after a day of hard manual labor. They clamored at their taverns, drinking their woes away or putting up toasts to their successes.

There would always be atleast a few lights. Some lanterns hung by the sides of homes where perhaps a farmer had to tend to an unruly animal, or maybe a blacksmith needed to finish out an express order.

But there was no such activity. Li saw the cottages silent and still, wreathed in utter dark. His superhuman eyesight, even with night vision, caught nothing. His inhuman hearing heard only the night breeze and the creaking of a few doors left open in a haphazard hurry.

Old Thane parked his cart outside the walls and stood by Li. He cocked his head.

“Aye, something is mighty strange. Gate closed without a sentry, doors creaking at night, and no footsteps to be heard. Village is empty, seems to me.”

“Well, we aren’t turning back now, are we?” said Li as he tested the integrity of the gate, putting in just enough force to get it to groan especially hard.

“Did I ever say that?” Old Thane smirked. “Make sure to put your hood up before you break in. Wouldn’t want any stragglers, if there even be any, to panic.”

“Good to see you’ve still got life in you, old man.” Li put his hood on and pressed his palm to the center of the gate, where both halves lined up, and pushed. His immense might easily pried apart whatever lock was on the other side, and the gates flung open.

Li and Old Thane, wagon faithfully carried behind him, stepped into the village. The gates led to paths dug out in the grass that weaved through the residential area of the village. Small cottages of clay with thatch roofs stood in precise order with every resident getting the same amount of land to build on.

All the cottages were empty. Not a single living thing stirred within them. Not men, not women, not children, not animals.

“The villagers ran,” said Old Thane as they passed by yet another ghost cottage with its door swinging open in the wind. “In a mighty hurry, too. Left all their doors open. Has to be bandits. If it was a monster, they would have stayed – monsters don’t like to sit in human settled areas for long.

But bandits? They’ll sit here and take the women, the food, and the drink. Can’t help that they’ll make a mess of the fields and steal some things here and there, but it’s better than losing your life, women, and children.”

“You think your dealer, I mean, merchant is still here? I don’t put a lot of faith for criminals to brave bandits.”

“Oh, I’m sure of it. Scoundrel would’ve tried to sell to them, too.”

Eventually, they did find their merchant of questionable reputation.

He was by the gate at the opposite end of the village.

Li looked him over from a distance as Old Thane walked up to him. The merchant sat atop a black horse that, from its jutting ribs, looked like it could use a few more meals. Tied behind it was a wagon very similar to Old Thane’s. A tattered cloth tarp covered its contents, but it was evident that there was very little to cover.

The merchant himself reminded Li of a weasel. He was thin and lanky with a small, round face with shifty little blue eyes that never seemed to settle on one spot. Despite being a man of evident age with greying locks, he maintained a sense of youth with a natural pudginess to his cheeks that was reminiscent of baby fat.

Old Thane greeted the man, but the merchant did not respond. Instead, his gaze locked in on Li. Old Thane noticed and waved Li over.

Li shrugged and came forwards.

“Who’s this?” said the merchant. His voice was surprisingly deep with a gravelly rasp to it.

Old Thane slung an arm around Li’s shoulder and brought him close. “A nice young lad who’s decided to help me with the farm.”

The man gave another look at Li, but this one was just a quick glance. He dismounted his horse with practiced agility, settling on the ground like a fallen feather. He wore an abnormally long cloak that fluttered as it settled down with him, ending at his ankles.

“To think the Bloodfist needs a farmhand now, eh?” said the man. “I about died of surprise when I’d heard you’d dropped your fists and taken up a plow, but time is a right old bitch, isn’t it?”

Old Thane said surprisingly seriously, “Enough with the pleasantries, Vincentio. Do you have seeds?”

Vincentio sauntered over to his wagon and put a gloved hand over the tarp. “What’s this? You want to get high? Memories of the war not treating you well? Maybe it’s the dead wife?

But no worries, I have seeds. Only thing I have left, really. Tried selling those bandits some, but their leader came up to me all big and tough going on about how they were there for change and that they weren’t addicts.

He scowled. “Gods, if only they were addicts. Instead, they steal my food and water.”

“I’m in no mood to talk,” said Old Thane. “Just show me the seeds. We’d both be better off going our own ways sooner rather than later.”

Vincentio shrugged. He lifted the tarp slightly and pushed his skinny arm into it, rummaging around before taking out a small glass jar and placing it atop the tarp. He repeated this process until there were three jars, all filled halfway with seeds.

“Spriteseed, Milk Poppy, and Fumegrass,” said Vincentio proudly. “Hidden among anise, bay leaves, celandine, chamomile, fennel, and other useless junk.”

Old Thane jutted a thumb back to his own wagon. “Berries.”

Vincentio carefully put the jaws back under the tarp and went to Old Thane’s cart, inspecting the berries and smelling them. He licked his lips.

“You’re lucky I’m hungry, Thane, or else this wouldn’t nearly be enough. Prices have gone up, you see.” Vincentio placed a hand on the berries and smiled. “But as it stands, I can offer you quite the ravishing deal. All of this and you can have the seeds.”

Old Thane’s jaw set as he exhaled slowly. “All of it?”

Vincentio took a handful of berries and popped them into his mouth. He started chewing loudly. “Your hearing going? Yes, all of it. You have no idea how much coin I could make off of this if I went to Riviera. It’s a right sin that I should be selling it to you for just berries.”

Vincentio took another handful of berries but Li stopped him, grabbing his arm.

“You don’t get to eat those without paying first,” said Li as he squeezed just hard enough to make the man yelp and withdraw his hand as if he had touched hot fire.

Old Thane put a hand on Li’s back. “It’s okay, young lad.”

Li shook his head. “No. I won’t see you be disrespected.”

“Disrespect?” said Vincentio. “Rubbish. I am the one being disrespected here at my very own stall, of all places! What are you? Some mercenary? Bandit, perhaps? Maybe even a knight undercover? Remove your hood, or the deal is off.”

Li sighed and tore it off. He was tired of hiding his face, anyway. He could stomach doing it for regular people, especially with Old Thane’s urging, but in front of a lowlife like this, he couldn’t do it.

“A foreigner?” said Vincentio. He crossed his arms and spat into the dirt. “A bloody foreigner, eh? Look at that sickly pale skin. The demon-black hair. The crooked eyes.” He clicked his tongue. “You consort with trash such as this, Thane?”

Before Li could separate Vincentio’s head from his body, Old Thane had lunged forwards.

Old Thane tackled Vincentio. Hard.

Vincentio practically flipped in the air as he slammed into the dirt, the breath knocked out of him. Old Thane immediately leaped atop the man and began slamming his fists down. His muscles bulged and he loosed a roar more animal than man as he mauled Vincentio, his trunk-like arms and rock-solid fists shattering Vincentio’s jaw, knocking in teeth, and fracturing his skull.

Vincentio, despite taking a heavy beating, moved his arms under his cloak and withdrew a dagger. Li opened his palm as he readied to cast a spell, but the [Deathbloom Triggerseed] that he had planted on Old Thane activated.

In an instant, masses of black vines emerged from Old Thane’s shirt back and honed in on his aggressor. Their tips ended in thorns that were as large as spearheads, and they stabbed into Vincentio with savage energy, stopping him from even screaming, punching him full of holes again and again until the body just fell apart, unable to hold itself together.

The vines retracted as quickly as they had come, funneling back into the seed on Old Thane’s back. The seed unstuck from the old man’s shirt and disintegrated in the wind.

Vincentio’s horse whinnied as it smelled blood.

Old Thane stood up shakily. “I’m…I’m sorry lad. I let my temper get to me. When I heard that vile filth spewing from his mouth, I just couldn’t stand there.”

Li squeezed Old Thane’s shoulder and went to the horse, grabbing its reigns and calming it down.

“It’s alright, old man. He was going to be a dead man no matter what happened. Thanks for having my back, though. And I mean it. You know that I’m far stronger than you, but you still stood up for me. Honestly, I feel a little bad that I even had to make you spend the effort, old as you are.”

Old Thane wiped his bloody hands down on his trousers and smiled. “Like I said, young lad. I know what it means to be different. I’ll not have anyone insult your honor or your person like that while I walk, even if they be the mightiest of knights. But enough of that. Get the seeds, Li, and let’s leave before any patrolling knight comes to harass us.