3. SkyHaven

     After Claude finished his meal, he headed to his room. The space was a modest 12 by 12ft. The small space was made presentable only by the placement of the wide double hung window to the right of his room and another directly above his bed so that he could bathe in the sun and moonlight on the weekends. Since his room wasn't very spacious all he had was his twinsized bed with a small and chipped rack of practice swords. Among the wooden weapons was one that shined silver and radiated with true killing power. His shortsword.

     He looked at the foot of his bed where his beaten leather backpack was and began putting his books inside in preparation for his 5 mile walk to the C.S Academy.

"Old World History..uhhh. Check. Team Formations and Strategy...Check. Wildland Exploration...and Animal Identification. Check." Claude continued loading his back with books and homework until it filled out completely with the weight of all things scholarly.

With his backpack loaded and ready, he put on his shabby reinforced leather chest piece, gauntlets and shin guards. In a ritualisitc manner, he began shadow boxing in the armor-- as if he was checking its comfortability for the first time before rolling his shoulders, grabbing his shortsword off the rack and beginning his journey to the Academy.

The smell of wood, grass and a familiar iron-like scent hit his nose once he left the comforts of the cabin, he felt that he should be wary in response to the last scent that fell on his human nose.

As he walked out onto the trail in the grass and out from under the cabins expansive shadow, to his left he saw Frosty. Only he now had company. Company that came in the form of a dead and mangled buck laying in front of him as loose as a rag doll.

Claude was horrified at the state the buck was in, he could tell it went down fighting due to the marks on its face, hindquarters and the broken antler. But by far the worst part was found at its throat-- which had a huge chunk missing and was what had to be the result of its demise.

Despite the disgust that would naturally be felt from such a sight, Claude felt incredibly happy for the PitWolf. "Great job Frosty, that's your first Buck!!"

"WOUUUWOUUU!!!" Frosty replied with an excited howl while thick red blood dripped from his snout and his tail wagged at a mile a minute.

Once Claude was finished celebrating with Frosty, he started down the path that led directly from his house, through the forest into the city of SkyHaven.

***

SkyHaven, a beautifully clear skied city within the Angelos District-- boasting a very low crime rate, high number of influential Noble families invested in the cities success and a great Academy for molding young warriors into matured Heroes of the Tangent's.

Claude entered the city of SkyHaven, viewing the familier blue skied city with all its different colored brick and stone buildings tipped by slanted rooftops billowing out spirals of smoke that disappeared as they ascended. It didn't look lke the prestigious city it was made out to be until you saw the great cathedral-like building that was the Combat/Strategy Academy of the Angelos District.

He started down the stone path going deeper into the city, passing Merchants selling anything they could while they strolled past flamboyant street performers who got their earnings depending on how merciless....or charitable the people walking by felt. More often than not he'd say the people of SkyHaven felt at least a bit charitable based on the way collections of coins glimmered within their flipped hats and opened suitcases as he passed.

After about 15 minutes of walking through SkyHaven at a brisk pace, the general look of the public seamlessly morphed into an entirely new demographic.

He passed groups of men and women in various types of armor, brandishing well crafted weapons that shimmered beautifully under the morning sun. Claude was in the Hero area of SkyHaven. As he continued his walk, he noticed Heroes stomping their way into bars, Weapon-Smith Shops, and Guildhalls with the relaxed calm of professionals starting their dayjobs-- while others wearing dark colors and even darker expressions headed the opposite way out of the city with metaphorical gloomy clouds of dreariness looming overhead. One thing he knew for sure was that the Heroes weren't monolithic by any means.

It took Claude a matter of minutes to enter a nearby Armory and purchase his new set of armor. With that task done, he took a quick detour to one of his more favored spots in the uncomfortably full feeling city. Bergrin's Blades.

If the title wasn't on the nose enough, Bergrin of Bergrin's Blades made sure his entrants new what would be inside based on the large sign above the shops doors-- borderlined by two terrifyingly sharp Claymores (GreatSwords.).

Despite the name of the place, blades were not the shops best made weapon in Claude's honest and...completely unbiased...opinion.

As he entered, he saw the shop's showcase of beautifully crafted high class weapons mounted up on the walls like Rune Written Blades, Elemental QuarterStaffs and other Tangent Crystal infused weaponry, a single weapon on this rack easily costs more than everything Claude owned. A fact that often made him feel incredibly small and out of place inside the shop.

He continued to survey the weapons until he started to see the shops truest gems. The spears. With their impressive range and versitality, Claude felt like he was drawn to them, and seeing them reminded him instantly of his simple single purpose shortsword that dulled more and more by the day.

Claude continued to browse the shop until his eyes landed on the owner. He watched Bergrin socialize with the other customers like it was as easy as breathing. His booming laugh and natural charisma made his shop feel like a staple location of the city. He continued to watch the owner while the man chatted up a beautiful curly red haired Archer. She was as strong as she was pretty. He could see it in the definition of her calves that tensed everytime she got on her tip toes to lean over the front counter in laughter. Or the way her biceps stood overly pronounced on her pale-skinned arms-- a feature most Archer's had from pulling back the powerfully resistant string of a bow all day.

In an attempt to no longer look like a creep hungrily studying a young woman's figure, Claude made his incredibly dark brown eyes roam elsewhere. Elsewhere came in the form of a the display case/counter that Bergrin and the Archer chatted over. He noticed something.

"Ah...a new weapon." He thought, inching his way closer to the display case until he was able to get a clear look and easily surmize what weapon was now on display for everyone to see.

Coincidentally, it was exactly what he hopped it would be.  A spear.