The second day in Marten ended. On the third, we headed back to Asteno.
We came out onto the road from Marten's east side and started walking toward the waystation. The return journey felt strangely shorter than the way out — it often does. We passed travelers going the other direction, and I told Teok about the day before.
"Huh. Quite the eccentric old man. I've barely been anywhere outside Asteno and Marten myself."
That reminded me — I'd never figured out what race Riyuudo and Riyo were. Teok might know.
"Hey — Riyuudo and Riyo's race. He had grey skin, white hair, a long beard, and Riyo had bluish-white skin and horns…"
Teok looked up and thought for a moment.
Then he turned back to me.
"Ah — Majin, probably. They're demikind who don't fit neatly into any of the other races — their appearance is closer to human than most. Though from my perspective, it's humans who look like Majin."
Majin belonged under the demikind umbrella, but didn't have the clear defining boundaries that other races did. Even within Majin, apparently, appearances and abilities varied so widely that no single description held. Maybe that undefined quality was exactly why they got their own category.
"Riyuudo… that name does ring a bell somewhere."
Teok thought about it for a bit, then seemed to decide it wasn't worth pursuing and let it go. Was Riyuudo someone notable? I didn't push, but the thought stayed with me.
---
We reached the waystation a little after midday.
Still early, but Asteno was a full day's walk from here. We'd stay the night and set out in the morning.
Teok declared he was exhausted and disappeared into the room almost immediately. For someone well-traveled, fatigue seemed to hit him harder than expected. Or he'd simply had too much to drink in Marten.
With the room to myself for a while, I walked around the waystation, then settled into the tavern for a light meal. The quiet of the place — somewhere between Marten's noise and Asteno's stillness — suited me fine.
After dinner, Teok and I were drinking at the tavern.
The place was simple — wooden tables and chairs, nothing else to speak of. With just the two of us as customers, it felt emptier than its size warranted. We hadn't seen other guests during the day either. We might have the whole inn to ourselves.
I was near the bottom of my first drink when the tavern door opened.
An Orc came in — visibly agitated, moving fast. He spotted us immediately and came straight over.
"Teok, and you — the human adventurer. I need your help, right now."
"You're from the inn next door — what's happened?"
Teok knew him. He'd been through this waystation enough times that faces were familiar.
"Undead. Heading this way."
"Sorry — Undead?"
I couldn't help asking.
---
By the time I'd registered what was happening, we were outside, in front of the fence, with a small group of others. A boy was staring out at the dark grassland. He spoke quietly.
"Skeletons, looks like. Count is… fourteen humanoid, three large, four beast-type. Twenty-one total."
From where I stood, there was something white at the horizon — that was all I could make out. Teok was squinting beside me with similar results.
The boy turned and looked at us.
"Wait — this is everyone?"
Present: me and Teok. Facing us, the boy and a bearded man standing next to him. To our right, a Lizardman. Behind them, two Orcs looking anxious and an elderly Ogre — the Ogre was the owner of our inn, the two Orcs apparently ran the other establishments. Counting everyone who could actually fight, including Teok and me, we had five.
"I could handle this alone, easy."
The bearded man next to the boy.
The boy answered without missing a beat. "Not at that number. Even for you, Elkan."
While the boy and Elkan talked through it and the Lizardman watched them without comment, I leaned toward Teok and asked quietly.
"Teok — Skeletons. That means actual skeletons? Bones?"
"Right. Should've explained Undead to you at some point. Skeletons are animated bones — demikind, animals, magic beasts, whatever's dead. Undead attack anything without discrimination. Nasty things."
Ghosts and others fell under the Undead category as well, apparently — as dangerous as magic beasts, by a different measure. Back in my old world, something like this would have had me shaking. Right now I felt almost nothing. Was that adaptation? Or was it just the drink doing its work?
"Hey — you two doing alright? The Skeletons are actually coming this way, you know."
The Orc who'd pulled us out of the tavern. We'd been talking like nothing was happening.
"We've got about ten minutes," the boy said. "Let's figure out a plan. You two — and you — are you in?"
He was looking at us. At me, at Teok, at the Lizardman.