Marie was an upbeat girl, but also was one of the worst guides I'd ever had in my life.

Which was saying something, since I've had more than my fair share of odd ones. Like those unable to even speak, or even recently a monarch of all things. At least the snake that had just led me here had done its job properly and without any deviations or distractions…

"Let's go see what that is!" Marie shouted as she grabbed my sleeve and tugged me away from the food stall we'd just got some pretzels from.

I sighed as I allowed the young woman to drag me over to a fountain. We left the small market area and entered what seemed to be an even larger one. The center of it, Marie's current focus, was a large fountain… one that oddly had rather blue water within it.

Stepping up to the fountain alongside Marie, I frowned at the water within it. It seemed to not just be very blue; it looked like it was even faintly glowing…

"How does it spit water out like that?" Marie asked happily.

"Pressure…" I answered. But I was not interested in the fountain itself, or its many little spigots and water features. Instead I couldn't help but try and comprehend the water within it.

Really, what was it…? Some kind of coloring? It almost looked like some kind of lubricant or something… it was that bright of a blue…

Reaching down, I went ahead and put my hand into the water. I cupped some and brought it up to my face, to smell it.

It smelled kind of sweet.

"Should you drink it?" Marie asked.

"Probably… not…" I let the water drop back down, but wasn't too confident in my statement. If it was standing water, I'd have not hesitated to answer in such a way, but this water was flowing. In each cardinal direction around the fountain, little grooves in the ground emerged. Water was flowing from the fountain, spreading outward from it inside the grooves almost as if acting like a water network system for the city or something.

It'd surprise me if this was part of the cities actual water supply. This capital was large, bustling beyond measure, but it seemed a tad… undeveloped.

There was no electricity. And few if any places had plumbed water, it seemed. The place was clean, its people cleaner, but there was no denying this place was far more primitive compared to most of the other nations in the world today. Especially the one I had helped build.

But I knew better than to outright claim this place was undeveloped. Because for what it lacked in technology… it made up in other ways.

Like this blue water.

I turned, losing focus on the fountain and its glowing waters, and watched a large bull walk by. It was thrice the size of any bull in existence, and its golden lines of fur made it glimmer like a gem as it pulled a huge wagon full of massive crates. I didn't need to feel the heart within it to know it was a monarch.

It wasn't the first monarch I'd seen. Marie and I had taken nearly a week to get here to this capital, and along the way we had passed dozens of similar monarchs. None were the same type, or style, but they all had the same societal function. Working hard labor, or something like it.

Most had been working in the huge fields we'd passed to get here. Miles and miles of food were tendered and harvested by the creations of the gods, it seemed.

This wasn't the first time I'd seen monarchs used in such a way… but I had to admit it was the first time I'd seen it done so smoothly. I wasn't entirely sure if the monarchs had much sentience yet, since I'd been trying to avoid them, but it did seem to be that they obeyed orders. More than once I'd seen a human, or a non-human, walking alongside them and talking to them… not in a way a farmer would his favorite horse, but as a co-worker. A friend.

"Vim! Let's try that next!"

I turned to watch young Marie run off. She crossed a street and headed into a store, one that looked like it had large wheels of cheese displayed in its window.

Sighing I went to follow and join her. Although annoying, I actually found her childish actions useful. Being led around by her like this had allowed me to easily blend in and look around, which now I realized was difficult.

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Although this capital, this City of the Blue, seemed rather populated… everyone seemed to obviously know one another. Upon entering through the main gate, one of the men stationed there had recognized Marie. The man had known her parents, having been from Marie's hometown originally.

Strangely enough the man, and Marie, were both human. Entirely.

A rarity throughout the rest of the world, but not here. From what I had been able to tell so far, from the few small towns we had passed through on our way here and this capital that I've seen so far, nearly half of all citizens of this nation were human. A startling percentage, especially when the population of this place was rather large. This was not some little community, or city-state. This nation had hundreds of small towns, spread out over hundreds of miles. And each town had thousands if not tens of thousands of inhabitants.

And half of that large population was human…? It should be impossible, but here it was.

But such a thing only further proved a god was here.

"A whole block…? Surely not! Here, I'll give you an assortment though!"

As I entered the cheese shop, I glanced around at the hundreds of truckles. Wheels of cheese. They were stacked on shelves, with little loaves packaged nicely in little displays in front of them. The place looked far too fancy, and had likely over a hundred different types of cheeses… some rather unique.

A woman with floppy ears was behind the counter that Marie stood before. They looked like the ears of a pig, and she was gathering up a bunch of smaller loaves of cheese and putting them into a basket.

"Here you go, dear. Don't eat it all at once, you'll get a stomach ache," the cheese clerk said as she handed over the basket to Marie.

"Thanks…!" Marie happily accepted it, grinning wildly as she turned to face me. She showed off the basket, that looked a little heavy since it was full of dozens of blocks of cheese, so I went ahead and took it from her.

"Thank you…" I thanked the pig-woman, and wondered why this place had no form of money. Just like everything else Marie has purchased, or acquired, she's not had to pay for a single thing. And by the looks of it, no one else did either.

"It's nothing. I suggest Lerry's for drinks, he's the shop at the corner down the way with a yellow sign," the woman said.

"I'll go there now!" Marie happily said as she hurried out of the shop.

I sighed as the young woman left the shop without any hesitation. "Sorry, first time she's been here. Thank you for the cheese," I said as I went to follow her.

"All is well, visitor. You'll learn it too, eventually."

I paused at the door and glanced back at the pig-woman. She had a gentle smile on her face as she nodded, as if to tell me it really was okay.

Should I read more into that…? Or…

Looking away, I decided it didn't matter. I really didn't like how easily so many people seemed to be able to tell I was a foreigner in their country, but I wasn't sure yet what to actually think about it. Maybe it was for the best…

Leaving the cheese shop I found Marie had gotten sidetracked again. She was several shops down, heading towards the yellow signed shop, but had stopped to talk to a pair of women. They were sitting at a small table, and by the looks of it they were playing some kind of board game.

Walking over to them, I glanced down at the basket of cheeses… and wondered what I was going to do with them.

There was enough cheese in this basket to feed a large family for weeks. Just how much did that pig-woman think Marie was capable of eating…? The young woman was scrawny and small… and human, of course.

"I'm Marie!" the young girl introduced herself to the two, and they both glanced at me on my approach.

"And you, a visitor! Showing him around, are you?" one of them asked.

Marie nodded happily. "He's here to see the Goddess!"

The two frowned in understanding. "Most are, aren't they…? Though admittedly we don't get many anymore do we? Used to get you folks all the time, back in the day!" one said.

"Right…? Come to think of it, how long has it been since I'd last seen one…?"

The other woman scoffed. "Like you could remember anything past your last move. Anyway, young Marie, make sure you escort him to the center keep before nightfall. They only allow visitors during the day, since the Goddess performs her miracles at night," she said.

Marie nodded quickly. "We were heading there just now!"

No we hadn't been… "Miracles…?" I asked innocently.

The two older women frowned at me, as if they couldn't understand why I'd just asked such a thing. Then the one on the left nodded understandingly. "Right… outsiders don't live amongst their gods anymore, do they?"

"That they don't! Makes you wonder how they all survive out there!" the other added.

"He doesn't seem that bad! He's been letting me slack off and have fun!" Marie lowered her voice and said as she stepped forward, as if to whisper about me out of earshot.

Least she was aware, I guess…

Both of the women smirked and giggled at that. "Must be a mighty good one then, huh!"

Marie nodded happily at that.

"Well, if he's going to oblige you, may as well make the most of it! Why not head to the theater, or the water-park?" one of the women then said.

"Where're they!?" Marie asked excitedly.

I groaned as they quickly told her of all the sightseeing features of the capital.

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