They were in a narrow alley, squashed between two buildings. Sintian and Bane had already moved to the end of the alley, muttering to each other darkly.

Seconds later, the portal from Veneseron dissipated behind them.

“You okay?” he asked Emi. 

“Yeah, that was my first time travelling by portal, other than when I was rescued from Sarume, but I barely remember that. Portalling’s not that bad, quite fun really.”

Evan chuckled. “It’s a bit like a roller coaster, I guess.”

He felt surreal, he was actually doing it, his very first mission.

“I can’t wait to…hey,” Emillia stopped mid-sentence. “Where’d they go?”

He followed her gaze and saw that Sintian and Bane had vanished. His stomach plummeted at the thought of being lost here. Bane had the Rambrace they’d need to get back to Veneseron.

“Quick, we can’t lose them.”

They hurried to the end of the alleyway, which opened up to the city square. Evan never thought he’d be relieved to see Bane and Sintian just up ahead, easily distinguishable by their expensive cloaks.

“Hurry up, amateurs.” Bane glared at them over his shoulder. He and Sintian towered above the civilians around them, possibly because the civilians were all three foot tall gnomes.

Evan and Emi hurried to catch up to the older Realmers. Evan marvelled at the glory of Gno-arin as they went.

Immense buildings of green stone chased with gold, rose up like titans. Evan was astounded by the sheer size of the buildings, considering the gnomes were so small. All the buildings were circular, with green roofs in the shape of shells, and the peaks of every building were crowned with golden statues of heroic gnomes from history.

The sky was not only brimming with clouds, but full of Ornithopter’s, driven by the gnomes. Evan vaguely remembered learning in his old school that Ornithopter’s were the flying inventions created by Leonardo DaVinci. He didn’t know how they had come to this far-off realm. Whilst the sky had flocks of gnomes flying to their destinations, the streets teemed with gnomes driving metallic vehicles that looked like go-carts carved out of bronze. The gnomes must’ve been unfathomably rich. He even spotted rubies engraved at intervals on the pavement.

“Just follow me,” Bane ordered, joining the line of civilians moving down the road.

Evan and Emillia fell into step behind Sintian.                  

The city folk were similar to the crowds of Veneseron City, although with less variety in the races. Gnomes were the most prevalent, but there was a hefty amount of dwarves too, and elves of all kinds. Only one in a dozen was a troll or Mandon.

There were fewer shops than in Veneseron, although Evan did spot a pet store, which sold blue rabbits the size of grey-hounds.