Coming up to the portal, it is outlined by a few different balloon type animals. They look like a hairy pufferfish with a coiled tail, similar to a pig's tail, that they can twirl to move around. They also have cute faces, like a baby kitten being pet. They seem to come in different bright colors.

  “Say Hildi. What are those things?”

  “They’re Flumps.”

  “What tribe are they? Faunites?”

  “Oh, they’re not Fey. They’re animals, they’re about as smart as dogs and they’re used as pets by flying Feyfolk. Or for doing jobs like this, to mark sky portals.”

  “They’re kinda cute.”

  “Yup, no pets at home though, at least not until you’re old enough to take care of them!”

  “Huh, sure and when would that be?”

  “At least until you’re 150.”

  Damn, they really do like their experience. It’s like I can’t do anything until I’m like a few decades old. I mean how hard could it be to take care of a flying dog? Although…to be fair, most adults in my world can’t be trusted with the care of any animal, so maybe that policy isn’t that dumb when life expectancy isn’t an issue. I wonder what other animals there are that are native to the Fey realm. Like, I’m pretty sure a lot of the weird and pretty plants in Hildi’s garden were Fey exclusive plants. If I remember correctly one of them even stared at me, kinda creepy.

  Then as we get close to going through the portal, Hildi suddenly picks me up, puts me on her lap and holds her hands over my eyes.

  “Hey! What are you doing, Hildi?”

  “Preparing the surprise for you! It’s better when you don’t see it coming from a far and instead get to see all of it once we’re there!”

  “Man, that’s not fair! I don’t like surprises!”

  “You’ll like this one, I’m sure of it.”

  A bit of time passes, maybe five or ten minutes before Hildi says, “Alrighty, you ready?”

  “Yes!”

  It is then that she removes her hands and lets me look out the window, “Welcome to the black-market Sammy.”

  Staring out of the window in excitement I see that it is night, without any stars or moonlight. The scenery is entirely illuminated by what looks like a mix of a giant amusement park and a busy bazaar. There are thousands of colorful tents, weird architecture like towers that split into two and then curve around themselves again and different sorts of mansions and weirdly formed houses in the middle of it. Furthermore, I can see hundreds of different people of all tribes and races, shapes and sizes moving in and out of the main gate in front of it. I can’t really read what it says on the gate but I’m guessing it means entrance or welcome.

  “This really is a nice surprise Hildi!”

  “Told you”

  Jumping up from my Hildi's lap, I ask, “So, what are we going to do first???”

  “Firstly, I’ll go to the loo and then we go visit some shops and friends of mine”

  “Can we do some sightseeing too?”

  “Sure, why not.”

  “YAY! This is gonna be so great! We’re gonna have a bunch of fun!”

  “Yeah! Oh, also, before I forget…here put these on,” she says as she hands me two bracelets.

  “Do they have a purpose or are they just normal jewelry?” I ask, somewhat confused.

  “They’re kidlets, when you put them on, they shine in different colors depending on your age, pink for infants so 0-20 years old, red for toddlers so 21-50, yellow for kids 51-300, different shades of green from light to dark for adolescents and then rainbow colored for adults. They’re also trackable in case you get lost. They’re important because different races grow at different rates, so it’s sometimes hard to tell what age kids are, especially since glimmer is somewhat vague and unreliable in that regard.”

  “I see…can you put them on first so I can see what that looks like?”

  “Eh, sure?” She then proceeds to put them on herself prompting them to turn a dark green. “See? They work just fine, no weird tricks or anything.”

  “Hmm, ok I trust you,” I say, putting them on my wrists, prompting them to turn a light pink. Aaaaw damn it… guess they don’t count my mental age after all…

  “Aaaw, they suit your outfit, Sammy!”

  “Really? I kinda feel like a 5-year-old that got lost in a Halloween store.”

  “I have no idea what that is,” Hildi says, confused.

  “Ehm, it’s a type of costume store for special events.”

  “Ah! I understand. Don’t worry though, it’s not that extravagant. I already told you there will be a lot of people with way more revealing and extravagant clothing than you, you’ll see when we land. Either way I really gotta piss,” she then jumps out of her seat and goes to the bathroom.

  “Ohohoho, finally MY chance to chime into all of this! I, El-BEE-zabeth, the third, Queen of the Grand Hive, shan't be outdone in the giving of gifts!”

  Welp there she goes again. Better try and smooth things over before she does something that Hildi will regret later.

  “My queen, I doubt that someone of as high a standing as yours needs to compete for my attention. Your presence is enough for me, I do not need any gifts.”

  She then gasps and drops the teacup she was holding.

  “You truly understand me BEE-atrice, such a fine and humble daughter Hildegard brought in… It truly brings tears to my eyes. Fine, then I shall not give you anything as is your wish…”

  “Well, I’m glad we met my queen, but Hildi should be done any second so I will take my lea…”

  “BUT!”

  “But?”

  “You still need a reward for your humbleness, so that you may repeat said behavior!”

  “Really, it’s fine.”

  “No, it is not! It is the duty of a parent to reward their children appropriately! Beecky! Attend me!”

  “Yes, my queen!” A young-looking worker bee lady says as she comes running toward El-BEE-zabeth. She is wearing a maid outfit, has fluffy curly hair and a pair of big circular glasses adorning her face together with her freckles.

  “Turn around dear, I need your abdomen.”

  “Of course, my queen!” She turns around with her bee abdomen facing toward El-BEE-zabeth, who then starts rubbing it up and down while the other bee workers look at Beecky enviously.

  It is then that I ask “Ehm, my queen? What are you doing, fondling your servant?”

  “Ohohoho I’m not fondling her, the only one I would do that to is Hildegard!”

  “Then what ARE you doing?”

  “I’m gathering wax from her glands for your reward! There, I’m done,” she says as she reveals her wax covered hands. “You’re dismissed my dear.”

  “Yes of course my queen!” Beeky says, giddily getting back to her post.

  “What are you going to do with that wax now?” I ask her.

  “Watch a master at work!” She answers cheekily, and starts forming the wax into a ball before putting it into her mouth and chewing it for a while. She then spits it back out revealing some sort of coin.

  “This, my dear BEE-atrice, is a royal hive coin. With it you should be able to buy whatever single thing you desire; just don’t tell your mom, I don’t want her to mistakenly think I’m spoiling you. Ohohohoho!”

  “Eh…sure. I’m…happy about this gift of yours!”

  “Good, very good, now shush. I believe your mother is done relieving herself. Ohohohoho.”

  I quickly hide my coin in my pocket and watch as Hildi comes out of the bathroom.

  “Alright Sammy, ready for the market?”

  “Yeah!”

  “Then let us go. Elbee, are you staying?”

  “Yes, I shall stay here and await your return! Have a great stay you two,” she says as energetically as ever, though her face looks a little bit disappointed. I feel kinda bad, leaving her here all alone…granted she is living in luxury but still.

  “Hey, Hildi…” I whisper.

  “Yeah?”

  “Should we maybe invite her along? I feel bad for her…”

  “We can’t take her with us, she's a queen of a region in the Spring Court, she can’t just waltz around the Unseelie black market, she’ll get killed.”

  “Oh wow, so she is not Unseelie?”

  “Nope, she is the leader of the most important kingdom in the Spring Court, besides the royal Spring family. It’s because their work is so valuable for creating spring in the world that they have gained such high standing and influence.”

  “Wait, so Elbee is actually a bigshot?”

  “Yup, I know it’s hard to believe, but she actually does her job quite well too. Only downside is, she doesn’t get to socialize much with people that aren’t trying to kiss her butt. That’s why those Seelie folk annoy me. They’re all so damn fake. Just tell others what you actually mean, don't just be passive aggressive about it, you know what I’m saying?”

  “Eh, yeah. At least I think so.”

  “Good. Now let us go visit the market.”

  It takes a few more seconds before the carriage gets to the ground but after it does, I am the first to leave it.

  Ok Sammy, time for some criminal market.

  “To adventure. HUZAAAAAH!” I yell running outside the carriage, instantly drawing unwanted attention to myself as a bunch of bystanders look at me. And… yeah Hildi was right, these guys are dressed about as ridiculous as I am and a lot of them have similar styles of clothing to when I did that tribe test.

  “Oy kid, stop being a nuisance,” a man with rabbit ears, and a snake body under his torso yells at me before quickly adding, “Oh shit you’re a baby??? I’m so sorry, kid, go have fun with mommy.”

  Huh I guess, these kidlets do have their use.

  Sigh “Sammy, what did I tell you about going around screaming? Why are you even saying that phrase so much in the first place?”

  “It’s…from a piece of entertainment by an artist called Joel Haver I like…I just think it’s fun and motivating.”

  “Ok…just make sure not to overuse it, screaming in public and charging at things is not necessarily something people will be keen on. Also, I am going to say this right now. Just because I can locate you with your kidlets does not mean I want you running around to places without telling me where you’re going, got that?”

  “Yes ma’a…om, yes mom?”

  “Nice save there Sammy, totally not obvious…” She says sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Now let’s go already and don’t forget, always keep your kidlets visible over your cloak!”

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  Trying to follow her directions, I make my cloak into a makeshift cape and keep going, the smell of sweets and greasy foods lingering in the air the closer I get to the entrance. Near the entrance, on a box, stands a hairy…ape person with a flower crown?

  Wait a second… is that a fucking Big Foot??? My grandpa and I used to go hunting for these things…he always told me he’d seen them, that they were the nicest people he’d ever encountered and that their fur is softer than anything else on this world. He told me he got lost one time in the woods and they nursed him back to health and sent him back home. Apparently, they also give the best hugs…and I never believed him…boy do I feel stupid now.

  He always said he just wanted to go meet them one last time to say thank you and feel that hug again…I’m going to do it for you, gramps! You may have died before you could hug them again, but your dream lives on with me!

  “Hildi?”

  “Huh?”

  “Can I…can I hug the bigfoot?”

  “Who?”

  “The guy on the box”

  “That’s kinda rude Sammy, reducing him solely to his big feet”

  “Then what are they called?”

  “The race is called Furman, they’re Humanoids, but this guy specifically is named Owen. He does the announcements when exciting new stock comes in.”

  “So... can I hug him?”

  “I mean…I guess you could ask him? Oy, Owen!”

  “Yo, what’s up. What’s ma favorite Tickian doing here today, man?” Owen answers in a deep and calming voice.

  “My daughter wanted to ask you something, go ahead Sammy ask him yourself”

  “Um, hi Owen…can I give you a hug?”

  He looks a little bewildered before his eyes wander to my kidlets, he then instantly changes his demeanor to be a lot more upbeat and giddy saying, “Sure, little girl! Here I’ll give you a big one,” and goes down to one knee to carry me on top of his box.

  Looking one last time for confirmation by Hildi, she just nods, and I go toward Owen.

  Finally, Grandpa…I have achieved your dream.

  I think as Owen picks me up. I give him a big hug only to realize…he smells like a wet dog. His hair is really fluffy however, so grandpa was right!

  “Nice to meet you, what should I call you?”

  “You can call me Sam. Hey Owen?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Can I ask you a favor?”

  “Sure, Sam, ask ahead.”

  “When you see other Furman or your family, can you tell them that Felix J. Gardner says thank you for everything you’ve helped them with?”

  “Ehhhh… Sure, I guess. Is that a friend of yours?”

  “He’s a relative of mine. He got saved by Furmen once but never managed to thank them before he died.”

  “Eh, sure man. Why not? Hey, say while you’re up here wanna do the noon announcements with me?”

  “Sure! What should I do?”

  “Can you already read?”

  “Ehm, not this language.”

  “Then just yell into this seashell, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new shipment of weapons, magic items and random bobbles we couldn’t identify here today,’ do you think you can do that?”

  “Yeah!”

  “Alright” he takes the seashell to his mouth and starts yelling “Ladies and Gentlemen, today the noon announcements will be made by a special someone, a first-time visitor and infant, Sam!”

  “Ehm…hello! Ladies and Gentlemen. We have new shipments of weapons, magic items and random bobbles we couldn’t identify here today! Have a nice day shopping!”

  “You heard it here first, Ladies and Gentlemen. Go ahead and take a look before it’s all gone!”

  The audience cheers and I hear a lot of aawing and ‘how cute’ as I look into the faces of hundreds of people. Owen then puts his seashell back into his pouch and tells Hildi excitedly

  “You raised a damn good daughter, she’s a natural at this!” He then puts me back to the ground and gives me a sugarcane to chew on for doing a good job.

  I did it grandpa! Your dream has finally been achieved.

  I think to myself pointing to the sky.

  “Well, I didn’t raise her much but you’re right, she is pretty advanced for her age. Did you have fun Sammy?”

  “Yeah, can’t wait to see more though!” I say walking through the entrance gate.

  Instantly, the first things I see are different food stands. They seem to sell both normal things like candied apples, chocolate bananas, fish on a stick and even ice cream. But also other things like a flying serpent type thing made out of different fruits or dancing flowers with smiling faces on them and a plethora of other different types of meats, fruits, sweets sometimes with seemingly life imbued in them being sold at the stalls. They also seem to have a selling roof solely for flying customers.

  “So Hildi, where are we going?”

  “We’re going through the food district, then we’ll take a right at the clothing district, go through the first housing district, then we get to the weapons district and find something you want to use. Afterwards, we’ll go through the trinkets and bobbles place that is right nearby to check out the new shipments and then go back to the housing district to stay there for the night at an inn. Next morning, we go to the magic district to find out what that necklace of yours does as well as your magic aptitudes and maybe check out some of the new animals they brought in the pet and livestock district. After that, we’ll visit some Elemental friends of mine at housing district 13, stay there for a day or two and then make our way back home.”

  “That’s definitely a plan all right. Can I look around a bit while we’re going there?”

  “Sure, but only if you stay close to me.”

  “Ok, so Hildi? Why can those fruit snakes fly? And why do they look so alive?”

  “They look alive because they are alive. They’re fruit drakes. Different sorts of fruit pieces are glazed over with sugar and then given life through magic, then using repulsion magic they become able to fly as well.”

  “So, you make dead things alive only for them to then be killed and eaten? Do they feel pain? Can they think?”

  “Oh, don't worry it's nothing that sophisticated. They don’t have nerves so they can’t feel pain. They’re just animated using life magic. The only thoughts they have are, ‘fly around’, ‘obey’, and ‘want to be eaten’. It would take HIGH level mastery over life magic to make an actually sentient, intelligent creature out of inanimate objects.”

  “Hmm, ok that’s good. Can you do life magic Hildi?”

  “Eh… a little. Here I’ll show you.” She takes out a coin out of her bag and shows it to me.

  “This is a one Flake coin. Or Flake for short. See the snowflake on it?”

  “Yeah”

  “Now, let me show you what happens when I animate it.”

  She then takes the coin to her mouth, breathes on it and says, “Live.” She holds her hand with the coin on it out to me and I’m able to see the snowflake bounce around and bounce from side to side like a dvd logo.

  “Woah…that’s really cool Hildi!”

  “It’s not that impressive. Like I said, magic was never my strongest subject,” she then takes the coin back to her mouth and says, “Die,” before breathing in and stopping the movement of the snowflake once again.

  “Woah…so did you kill it now?”

  “In a sense, yes. I took away the life I imbued into it.”

  “Damn, that’s kind of scary. Can you just give and take away life?”

  “No, it’s all a lot more complicated. You’ll find out when you go to school.”

  “School? When do I go to school?”

  “Probably when you turn 100. Provided we have your whole…flesh situation, figured out by then.”

  “Huh, ok. What school would I go to then? I obviously wouldn’t qualify for pure blood school, are there other options?”

  “I could send you to half-blood school or mixed blood school.”

  “Why is there even such a distinction of blood purity in the first place?”

  “It’s to ensure the kids get the best education. If you're a pure blood, they focus on your specific racial powers and there are specific tribal houses that people can share. Incidentally that’s where I met Elbee, we shared a room together. As for half-blood schools, they’re important because you’ll have a hard time belonging to either race, it’s especially hard when you also belong to two tribes, the powers might be completely different from each other and if it’s only two different races it’s still manageable to coach you on them separately. If you have more than two races in you though, they send you to mixed blood school where you go to different classes for all tribes to try and learn how to awaken your different powers. There is less of a focus on just one or two and more on a general mastery over all of them. The pure and half blood houses are usually better funded though.”

  “Hmm, ok. Sounds good.”

  As we keep walking, we pass multiple other food stands and restaurants. They seem to be separated by tribes. While you do find the occasional people that don’t look at all like the owner or other patrons that eat there, they are quite rare overall. It seems the humanoids have the most diverse restaurants they frequent, so it’s hard to pin down a specific taste profile. The Ogrin seem to enjoy hearty stews, soups and crunchy fried meats. Gnomelings seem to prefer anything mushroom, cheese or alcohol related as well as ground vegetables like potatoes and carrots. The Faunites seem to split off into herbivores, carnivores and omnivores while the Florans tend to prefer rotten meats and plants loaded onto flower pots that they sit in and sometimes even share like a community bathtub made of compost. The Elementals seem to have their own cliques according to their race. The fire ones seem to like hot and spicy foods served in a sauna, the water ones enjoy soups and broths with noodles in them while swimming, the earth ones enjoy salty foods like pickled fish and beef jerky and the air ones enjoy light food like salads, whipped crème, cakes and sparkling sodas. There also seem to be a few mixed food places for people of mixed blood to eat at.

  “Hildi, I have a question.”

  “Sure, go ahead.”

  “Why are there so many pure bloods or at least pure tribes?”

  Letting out a chuckle, she answers, “It’s interesting that you phrase it like that, a few hundred years ago kids would have asked why there are so many mixed bloods, maybe we truly are entering the 4th age.”

  “Wait what? What’s the 4th age? Also, you didn’t answer my question!”

  “Right, well time for a little history lesson. Once upon a time, there was nothing besides the different forces of existence, nature, chaos, order and entropy. These forces existed since the beginning of existence and they formed a delicate balance. Nature pushed against entropy and order against chaos but they could never completely separate because one common force tied them together. It attracted them all to it, that force is named matter. After eons of time, nature bore life and life came upon the matter, entropy bore death, and it too brought it upon the matter. Order brought laws to the matter and chaos brought magic to go against these rules. But most importantly, matter gave form to all the forces. Nature bore the archfey, entropy bore the archlich, chaos bore the archfiends and law bore the gods. That was the beginning of the first age. Not much is known about this time, all we know is that the forces of nature, order, chaos and entropy were at war. The boundaries of who was to own what in the matter were not drawn yet, so in their need for more forces the archfey created the fey, embodiments of all of nature of which the strongest were those we call mythical today; they were closest to the archfey in power. The archlich created the undead creatures that could siphon life and turn them into one of their own. The archfiends created the demons under them, masters of magics and deceit who spread disorder upon the matter and the gods created the angels to enforce their rules and destroy magic. It is said that in these wars, the gods allied with the archlich giving them dominion over the afterlife and the archfey allied with the demons, teaching us magic and deceit which was something we lacked.

  When this war ended, there was an age of peace, the 2nd age. The boundaries, if shaky, had been established on the material, and the material was forever changed. The earth and other planets were able to develop on their own with different compositions of all five forces combined in them. One of those places that nature came out on top on was the earth, as humans call it. Life was able to evolve further on its own thanks to the influence of the four forces.

  Things changed however when the first apes evolved into Humans. They were thinking, like us, and as such, great vessels for all the forces to spread their influence on and turn the tide for a new war. We created from them the humanoid tribe, the gods created the first religious people like Adam and Eve following the commands of the gods. The Archlich created the necromancers and the demons created free will in them, so that the humans may always be able to disobey the gods and another war started. It was important for the bloodlines to stay pure during those times to preserve the old powers, so people did not intermingle for a long time. Until recently, a few millennia ago when the Fey became weary of war and spent their time with leisure and art, boundaries were broken up over time and the first half bloods were created, from them came more mixed bloods and now the pure bloods are the minority. It is due to that fact that historians believe we might be at the beginning of the 4th age. That is the short explanation at least, there are of course many, many details of rising and falling nations and kingdoms, races and tribes I left out.”

  “Wow, so is that all a legend or is that actually confirmed how it went down?”

  “Well, obviously history is written by the victors, but yes generally speaking this is the consensus of how it went down.”

  “That's both really cool and really scary.”

  “Why do you think it is scary?”

  “Well, does the fact that demons, liches and gods exist not scare you?”

  “Why would it? Even I, am not so arrogant as to think we’re the only powerful race in existence. If anything, I think it’s kind of interesting to know we’re not the only ones out there. Maybe if a time of absolute peace comes, we can live together.”

  “Huh, that’s an interesting perspective…I just thought about inevitable wars and genocides until only one prevails.”

  “Oh gosh no, we aren’t barbarians like those humans, I doubt we’d ever let it get that far. The four forces might have their differences, but I doubt peace is impossible.”

  “Hmm, if you say so…I’m a little skeptical but you DO have a few thousand years of experience over me, so I trust you.”

  “I appreciate that Sammy, but don’t let age cloud your judgment. Being older doesn’t make my opinions fact. Now be careful, we have to turn right here and go through the clothing district.”

  “Oh, ok.”

  We then turn right at a crossing, going past the food district through the clothing district.

  Hildi was definitely right with the female clothing style for each tribe, it’s quite similar to what they sell here. I haven’t really seen the male versions yet though, some are very similar and others not so much. The male Humanoid clothing is basically the same as the female one, bright colored silk dresses and gaudy jewelry, seems pretty much unisex to me. The only difference seems to be that the male dresses are shorter than the women’s and only go down to the knees. The Ogrin one seems a little different though, they have a fur loincloth and a big belt together with different vests that are way too small to actually cover them. They seem to prefer earth colors, so browns and grays but as to everything there are exceptions. The Gnomeling clothing basically just looks like how you’d dress a garden gnome, so no big differences there; the only minute difference being that the men wear pants and the women skirts. Also, the colors are a bit more earthy for the men while the women choose more flowery colors. For the Fairykind men’s clothing, it’s essentially the same as the womens. There are dresses and pants available for both men and women. For the Faunite men there are a lot of overalls, suspender pants, shirts, straw hats, essentially like a fashionable farmer style, mixed with some pelts or bones for decoration. As for the Florans…yeah there are bags for men to carry but they seem to mostly go fully nude, which I have seen on my way through the market quite a lot so far so that confirms that they weren’t just streakers. As for Elementals...They don’t really seem to sell Elemental clothing in most stores. It seems instead there are elemental clothing stores that are specialized only on elementals. The actual clothes sold though are basically the same for earth elementals, meaning no clothes just jewelry, fire elementals same full body winter wear, water elemental men get speedos instead of bathing suits and the air elemental men basically wear the same as the women but without the bikini top. I don’t really see any ice elementals like me though…

  “Hey Hildi, how come there aren’t any ice elemental clothes?”

  “That’s because they’re relatively rare. The four elements are the most common, so ice or lightning elementals for example need to go to specialized shops”

  “Huh, ok.”

  “We’ll be at the housing district any moment now. I’ll get us a place at the inn and then we go to the weapons store.”

  “Sounds good!”

  It takes us about ten minutes before the tents start to end and houses start to appear. Many of them are built strongly in mind for the races that live there, like a cave for Ogrin with a house for flying races built on top of it or giant tree houses for Florans. There is even a giant mole hill with a sign in front which I’m guessing means something like ‘for sale’, or maybe ‘get out’. As we keep going, we essentially come upon a huge castle made out of candy with a garden that has multiple tree and mushroom houses. The castle has different pancake towers with balconies that seem to have numbered doors on them.

  “This is where we’ll be staying Sammy, Gundola’s Gorgeous Inn.”