The Innkeeper

“Oh? Should I put you down then?” he asked, smirking.

Tom leaned over to look behind Lex’s shoulder and saw their pursuers. Although they had started lagging behind, they were very much still in their view.

“Kidnap me faster,” Tom said finally, deciding that the men in black were scarier._.

Lex let out an amused laugh and picked up his pace. For some reason he found this young girl to be very adorable and instinctually wanted to help her. Only a few minutes later the men in black had stopped chasing as they were completely out of breath, and Lex had left them far behind.

“Run into the field,” Tom said. “I know a good place.”

Lex listened to the girl’s instructions and followed where she directed. Soon he found himself in the wild, far away from any indication of civilization. Ultimately they stopped by a small creek with a hidden tunnel and that began from the base of the tree. Tom, climbing out of Lex’s embrace, led Lex into the tunnel before covering the entrance with a wooden board. The tunnel was not dark however, as luminescent flora lined the walls. Eventually the tunnel opened up to a small yet cosy room with a few chairs, a cot, a table and a LOT of books!

Tom sat herself down on one of the chairs before she started breathing raggedly, as if she had been the one running. Then she did an action to indicate she was wiping the sweat off her brow, before turning to look at Lex.

“You are welcome,” she said, her voice loud and magnanimous. “If I hadn’t told you where to go you would have probably kept on running on the road and then the bad guys would have caught you.”

Lex’s lips twitched. It seemed he had a knack for finding unusual people. “Thank you, but I get the feeling they were more interested in you than in me.”

As soon as he said that Tom’s face grimaced, her hands clenched into fists.

“Do you need any help?” Lex found himself asking.

“Those bad men want to hurt the Lord Protector! Father Henry found out about them, but before he could tell anyone they came to hurt him. He wrote a letter and told me to take it to the capital, but before I could do anything those bad guys started chasing after me. If I don’t take the letter to the capital soon, they might end up hurting Lord Protector!”

“In that case, let me take you to the capital. We shouldn’t waste time sitting around here, we should be moving.”

Lex needed to help the girl with her task for his quest, not to mention she seemed very upfront so would be a great source of information about this world.

Tom hesitated. “Why do you want to help me? If you stay with me, those bad guys will come after you as well.”

“Of course, it’s for the Lord Protector!” Lex boldly claimed, having no idea who he was talking about at all. “How can I relax when I know someone wants to hurt the Lord Protector! Not to mention, I also need to go to the capital, and as I told you already, I’m kinda lost.”

Tom was hesitating, deciding whether she could trust Lex, until she finally decided that if he wanted to hurt her he could have done it already.

“Okay, then we should go. But I need to rest a little first, I’ve been running all night. By the way, my name is Tiffany. I’m sorry I lied to you, I thought you were also a bad man.”

“Haha I can’t blame you. I am dressed a little strangely, anyone would be afraid. But these clothes are really good for traveling, which is why I’m wearing them.”

After that little exchange Tiffany let her guard down, and Lex began asking her random questions to try and understand the world a little bit. He could not ask directly, but fortunately Tiffany did not think his questions were strange and answered him honestly.

First of all, he was in a country called Red Nation. Tiffany didn’t know much about the world, but Red Nation shared a border with at least 3 other countries. Civilization on this planet seemed to be developed at the level of the middle ages on Earth, but there was one very prominent difference between Nibiru and Earth. Humans were one of the lowest on the food chain on this planet. This world was ruled by beasts, and humans did not seem to have any knowledge of cultivation at all. The countries weren’t dictated according to the will of the people, but according to the territory of the Beast Alpha that occupied the lands. How the people of each country were treated was completely up to the will of the Beast Alpha, however it seemed the consensus was that humans made very good workers and soldiers. The people in Red Nation were treated relatively extremely well, but in some of the neighboring countries humans were completely treated as slaves.

This information was extremely shocking to Lex, and it left him with a strange bitter aftertaste in his mouth. All the humans on this entire planet, or at least in the nearby countries, lived at the mercy of beasts. Of the three worlds Lex had been on, he now realized how blessed he was that Earth was where he lived. To distract himself he asked Tiffany a little more about herself.

She was 13 years old, almost 14 now, and was raised by the priest she called Father Henry. Father Henry and his colleagues worked directly for the Lord Protector, and were given tasks that helped keep their country vibrant. After asking a few more questions, Lex came to the conclusion that the Lord Protector of Red Nation might not actually be a beast, but some kind of spirit plant that had gained sentience. That was because all the priests of Red Nation were tasked with taking care of all the flora of the country, and often performed rituals that involved taking care of forests. From starting controlled fires, eliminating pests, spreading fertilizers, collecting or spreading seeds to many more tasks that Lex could not understand, all their actions had something to do with plants.

Fortunately for him, he also learned that humans were a protected class in Red Nation, which meant that as long as he stuck close to the roads he would not come under attack from spirit beasts. If they strayed too far into the wild, however, then their survival was in their own hands. As a mere Body Tempering cultivator, Lex decided that even if had to risk running into those pursuers, he would promptly return to the main road once they left.

Eventually, after all that talking, Tiffany became drowsy and lay down for a nap. As soon as she woke up, they would leave and begin their new adventure.