Kelos: The Digital Otherworld

Chapter 3: As A Traveler

The small patches of farmland ended before a simple palisade, which stood at twice my height. Its sides were chipped and worn with use. The dirt path ended at a closed wooden gate, only about as wide as a single lane road, with a mismatched iron armored guard to the left side.

I slipped off the VDG and told Alinore to stay in his place until I called him. He just jiggled and didn't move.

I approched the guard with caution, slowly but not suspitiously.
"Who are you?" he called out to me when he noticed.

"I am but a traveler." I responded quickly on the top of my head. "You don't look like one." he called back.

I looked down to see what I was wearing; it was the suit I had on at work, which I had long taken off in real life. "No. No I don't." I remarked.

The guard got a little closer, "I've never seen clothes like that. It's too eligant be a commoners and tax collection is next week." he mumbled. He raised his polearm, "So, who exactly are you?".

"As I said before, I'm just a traveler from a far off land." I felt beads of sweat roll down my face.

"And how would you prove that? How would I know you didn't steal that off some noble? It's dirty enough to be." the guard narrowed his eyes.

"Well," I put my hands into my pockets and felt around. I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt my wallet. "Here we go." I said as I pulled out my ID.

I walked up to him and handed him it, "What's this?" he asked. "It's my identification card." I said as I pulled my hand back.

He took the ID and waved it in place, he then squished it long ways. "You shouldn't do that..." I interrupted. "Right, right. What's it made of?" he asked as he looked at my picture. "Plastic." I said simply.

"Your name is Kansas?" he asked as he rubbed his finger on the card. "No, that's where it's from.", "Then which is your name?" he looked up to me. "The squiggly writing on the bottom."I said and he squinted at the text. "It's Elias Kubovy." I affirmed him.

"Elias Kubovy-, so you are a noble! I'm terribly sorry of my suspicion!" he bowed to me. "It's nothing." I gave a short, cold laugh. 'That was close' I wiped some of my sweat away.

"It was just a thief tried to do the same thing a few weeks ago and you can never be too safe." he handed me back my card.

"You're welcome to come right in, the name's Durde." he turned and knocked on the gate, "Herande, can you open the gate?". "Sure thing." a voice came from the other side as the gate began to creak.

It opened a bit slower than I would of liked. "Do you mind if I get something before I go in?" I asked a little awkwardly. "Go ahead." Durde laughed.

I turned back to the fields, "Alinore!" I cupped my hands around my mouth. The wet slaps could be heard from the distance. The guard turned to see what was up.

Alinore hopped as fast as the little slime could, which was pretty fast. For a person, it wasn't that fast, but for the gelatin-like creature, this was max speed.

He reached my feet in around a minute, where he jiggled in content.

Durde finally said something, "So you can tame them...". "I really don't know how I did it, but he followed me and saved my life." I said as I bent down and pet Alinore. Slimey.

"Well then, come in." the guard waved at us. We followed him to quite a spectacle. 

The town was small, with only about 35 small to medium sized houses which were made of wood and stones. It filled me with a homey feeling, safe and warm.