Legend of Ransera

It was the crack of dawn. Dakkur had already made his preparations from the night before just for this moment. No need to meet his hostess so early in the morning and as he could not be sure if she would be awake or not, there was no reason to even put himself in a position to have to wait; his goodbyes, his appreciation and his future plans of coming back, they were all already done the night before anyway. Indeed leaving as soon as he could at the start of the day is the best course. Not only did he want to make sure he could get to the obelisk as soon as possible since the news already reaching Zaichaer means his competition back home would have a significant head start, he also needed to get as much distance from the city as possible. Less chances to get caught that way. There was no one who was after him in Zaichaer of course, those people were in Zeraphesh, hopefully; it was more to prevent any witnesses from seeing him doing anything he was not supposed to.

And over the seasons, Dakkur has so many chances to find out for himself the absurdly long list of things which were not allowed in Zaichaer and it was surprising that people could even live here and... why did he chose to hide out here too come to think of it? There were plenty of other places to hide out in if he was to stick around in Karnor. His family who sent him better have a good reason because it was a torturous experience, akin to him stepping around all these eggshells with his legs tied together and trying not to fall because for some ridiculous reason, the eggshells were really sharp too.

The first few days away from Zaichaer was pretty uneventful as it was still close enough to the city to necessitate the presence of patrols on the road. Like the plenty of lone travelers he met on his way, no doubt just like him, he was promptly let off on his way. Even the one time he was stopped was because his revolver was in open carry, a reasonable precaution since Dakkur had no idea who he would run into on the road but as he also had his license, they had no other reason to keep him. That's not to say that Dakkur was actively avoiding the authorities... yet, as they were useful in their own way. Even if there was a well maintained road to follow with the Merchant's Highway, Dakkur still had his worries about getting lost since it was his first time travelling alone; his first time alone meaning he was more vulnerable to the hazards like being chopped up by bandits or torn apart by wolves or something.

One such patrol thought his worries endearing; the idea of one giant Moratallen being overly afraid of the dangers which could befell him, a statistical improbability in the patrol's experience, would have been something rarer than any incident and boy, were they enjoying it. However to Dakkur's benefit, he was able to score a free meal and a safer night out than he had over the course of days. They even gave him some pointers. These patrols must be really boring correcting the giant in his struggles was their entertainment. Dakkur put into practice their tips to improve his riding which he hopes would translate into an increase in speed for him, far better than the method he was using- just hugging low on his horse to maintain his stability and avoid falling off. Functional but not effective according to them and likely for him to end up with a dead horse long before he reaches his destination. Surprising it had worked so far.

They corrected his posture, from where he parked his ass to where he set his legs and how he braced his head to not get a pain; as a civilian it was more better for Dakkur to be able to ride for a length of time without exhausting himself rather than to try and be fast. The pointers may seem simple to him but already they were effective. Not only would they help him with his travels but they should help with his concerns with being attacked by wild animals. As for his concerns with bandits, it was obvious Dakkur was not already making use of the best of options, travelling with a group nor did he actually hire anyone to protect him on the way; the next best thing he already made use of just by being on the Merchant's Highway. Though not foolproof, the fact it was public, there would be patrols to help him if he got into trouble or other travelers who can call on the patrols. Running into more than one patrol a day would already be considered lucky.

A finger pointed towards the revolver, the third and least desirable option. To fight. Dakkur thought the idea funny, the patrolmen thought it a joke, pointing out all the flaws of that plan. First the limitations of shells. Ignoring how many shells Dakkur had to spend, after he fired all the rounds and in the best outcome he hit with all of them, there would still be bandits remaining to rush him when he has to reload. If he had really properly prepared for this trip he would have gotten a good weapon to use as an alternative, like a sword which would not run out of ammunition; another joke on their part it may be, there was a sense of reason in making use of his large build to just pick up the most sturdy log or rock he could find and wildly swing or toss it around. This brought up the question of whether Dakkur was a good shot at all and they asked him to demonstrate but with him actually having limitations in the shells he carried like they expected, he was reluctant but...

Wait they can actually do that? That really shattered the image of the military he had in his head but apparently plenty of things happen in these patrols like being attacked by wolves, being attacked by bears and yes, being attacked by bandits although they usually had a tendency to run away. Oh yeah the 'better' squads did not even need to use these excuses since their superiors encouraged them to keep in practice and signed things off for them and "yes I will not tell anyone else about this." Kind of stupid if he did since the patrolmen would only be punished but he could get into a lot of trouble or worse, investigated. And so they handed him a revolver which was pretty similar to the one he had and told him to fire on the tree. He held it out straight and braced before he fired. The lead patrolman smacked his elbow about and told him to fire again. Another came up to him and kicked his legs apart, hard, and then had take another shot. One more suddenly appeared behind him and squeezed him hard on the hips before twisting the giant about and told him to fire. The abuse, if Dakkur was allowed to call it that, seemed to be something they enjoyed doing.

But as long as he was able to maintain that form, his shots were kind of accurate and the rest decided to have something else. "That bunny? But why would I shoot the bunny? A moving target? Yeah, I guess..." and then there was something about food so after he lined up his shot, he shut his eyes and pulled the trigger. Bang! and a miss. He agreed with the commentary that he should keep his eyes open when making the shot but what they all did not know, until Dakkur revealed it, was he never ever had to shoot something living before. After a few more missed shots it was concluded that this was not a good place to start and maybe when he was actually under fire, he would be able to force himself to shoot his enemies.

Which left them with one last ditch effort. They emptied Dakkur's revolver and stood in front of him and had him think of them as bandits and asked him which one of them would he shoot first. "The leader?" Maybe he could scare the rest of them off if he took down the leader first. But who was the leader? "Obviously its your captain," but not this time. They exposed the flaw of Dakkurs plan in that he could recognize who the leader was. So one of them broke rank, took Dakkur's hand and moved it around as he pulled the trigger, click! Click! Click!" It did not matter who he actually shot, just that he hit so he could shoot wildly as long as he made his shots in between all of them. it is guaranteed it would hit at least one of his targets and even if it did not kill them, it would knock the wind right out of them long enough to take them out of the fight and hopefully anyone else who was concerned with their wellbeing. After that only one thing to do.

"Run? On the horse?" That was the exact plan. So they were back to not fighting and no other tricks they could teach Dakkur at least in a day which was alright, "I guess. Thanks. See you guys next time if I get to make the trip back." Or not. The tough training was not something he enjoyed or looked forward to again.