Finding my Parents in Another World

Zoe hated riding horses. When she was a child, her father often took her to their family farm and tried to teach her horse-riding. But she never really tried to learn it. Riding on a horse was so uncomfortable, it hurt her back and it hurt her buttocks when she got off the horse saddle. Why would anyone ride a horse in the modern day when there were cars available?

She never thought that she would be in a world where cars weren't available, and have to ride a horse at the age of almost forty.

"Come on its not that bad." Famina said from beside her with a smile as she watched Zoe grimace.

"It's worse." Zoe grunted as she tried to steady the reigns of her horse, as Famina laughed beside her.

Over the last few days after their arrival at Castin and the reading of the prophecy, Famina had grown more and more cheerful, and more and more attached to Zoe herself. As for Zoe, she also began to look at Famina as something akin to her own child.

She was also constantly impressed by the composure and sense of responsibility shown by Famina at such a young age and after suffering such a brutal tragedy in her childhood. Most of the town of Castin, even people older than Zoe, depended on Famina and her advice. Her booth was the most popular in the Church, and even priests and nuns of the Church would come there to seek Famina's guidance.

Such huge responsibilities on such small shoulders

Zoe also felt pity for the poor girl. It was she who needed therapy, who needed someone to guide her, someone to help her overcome her trauma, but there was noone like that in Castin. Thus Zoe had decided that she would try to fulfill that role.

Which is why she had objected strongly to Famina coming along with her to this journey.

"Father Andrews, she is still just a child. You can't ask her to risk her life." She had protested.

"She is no longer just a child, she is an adult, same as you are just younger. Without Famina you will never find or reach the Caves of Bloodfell. Famina is essential and besides she herself volunteered for the role." Father Andrews had responded.

Zoe gritted her teeth but she had no appropriate response. It was clear neither Father Andrews nor Famina herself would change their minds.

The bloody Caves again.

Zoe remembered the day she first met with Father Andrews and had agreed to help rescue the Goddess.

"How exactly are we supposed to begin this?" She had asked, at which Father Andrews had nodded towards Famina.

Famina took out a tattered book from the pockets of her tunic and handed it over to Father Andrews who held it up towards Zoe.

"The Goddess has bestowed nine great treasures to humankind during the time she still graced us with her presence. These nine treasures have been lost in time, and currently only cryptic clues guide us to their location. For a thousand years since her disappearance we have been searching for them but we have found none till date.

These treasures, gifts will lead us to the Goddess."

"And this book helps us how?"

"The Church you woke up in was the first Church of the Goddess in this Kingdom. The priests and nuns of that Church codified the location of one treasure in this book. We will work on decoding it, and that will give us the location of another such treasure."

"So that's how you got the location of a treasure in the Caves of Bloodfell?"

Father Andrews nodded solemnly. "Many of our members gave their life to acquire knowledge of it from the far west. Now they are immortalized as part of the First Expedition of Revival."

"How exactly are these treasures going to help restore the Goddess?"

Father Andrews paused. "There is a legend that once all treasures are gathered together, there will be a birth of a divine creature who can communicate with the Goddess directly no matter where she is."

"A divine creature?"

But Father Andrews refused to elaborate further on what divine creature it was, perhaps because he didn't know for certain himself. However Zoe had other priorities to make clear.

"As I said before, I will help you but not at the cost of finding my family."

"Of course. The Church will lend you its full support. After all the prophecy requires both the son and the father to restore the Goddess. We will spread word through our other branches. The prophecy had begun to move, no one has the power to stop it now." Speaking almost like a zealot, Father Andrews had promised.

And now two days later, Zoe found herself riding along with Fatima on a horse. The uneven road amplified the bumps and Zoe winced everytime there was one.

"How long?" She asked Famina.

"We'll reach Satoky within an hour." Famina said still amused.

"I might not be able to walk when we do." Zoe grumbled.

.XX.

It was around an hour and a half later when Zoe and Famina reached the sprawling city of Satoky. Initially Zoe was overwhelmed by the sheer size and scope of the city. Perhaps it was because she was used to small towns and villages like Castin, but Satoky was easily five times the size of that. The noise, the stench and the milling people entering and leaving the city from the main gate reminded Zoe of a city like Rome or New York than something in a fantasy world.

Perhaps that is why she felt a sense of comfort and home, even among the chaos of the city. The city however had huge walls surrounding it on all sides, and there were six guard towers on top of the wall, though none of them seemed to be manned yet.

"Are you feeling well?" Zoe asked Famina, concerned. She had grown extremely pale and looked like she was about to throw up.

She nodded however. "Don't do too well with crowds." She said with a weak smile.

Zoe and Famina left their horses outside the city gates and proceeded inside, jostling and shoving their way through the crowd of people. There were a few guards stationed at the gate, but most of them couldn't be bothered to check or verify the people entering or leaving the city. Once they had made their way past the crowd and actually entered the city, both Zoe and Famina breathed a sigh of relief.

They were in a kind of open plaza just in front of the gate. There were still a lot of people moving towards or away from the gate but the open space allowed them to breathe more easily.

"Let's never do that again." Famina grunted, still looking pale.

Zoe laughed. "That's my revenge for all the horse riding we had to do to get here."

.XX.

Old Fyodor Tuy was tired of sitting every day at the inn counter. He wished he had married, just so he could have his heir take over the inn while he would be free to leer at passing women. The Tuy Inn was not the most popular in Satoky, even during the peak season owing to its awkward location far from the city center.

And this certainly ain't peak season.

However he was duty bound to keep sitting there, in the unlikely event there was a customer who walked in. Fyodor grunted and started scratching his long white beard. He had always been too lazy to shave or cut his beard, and now at the age of sixty he had given up on trying it.

The sound of the door opening broke Fyodor out of his daydreaming and he looked towards the open door, almost automatically drawling out, "Hello and Welcome to Tuy Inn."

However having said that, he immediately fell silent and watched the two women entering the Inn. The one on the right was one he knew, a nun from the Church who often came and stayed there. While she was beautiful enough, the one who caught his attention was the one on the left.

This woman must have been around thirty nine or forty years of age. Yet her face was shiningly beautiful, completely overshadowing her companion, who was young enough to be her daughter. There was a mature elegance and sensuality in her movements. She was wearing a long black skirt and a black tunic above it. Her hair was pitch black, and her eyes were the same. Her skin was a darker shade than the native people of Satoky, but still fairer than brown, leading her to have somewhat of an exotic look. Her huge breasts swayed sensously as she moved, and her hips were fittingly curvaceous. Her entire body seemed to radiate something that awoke a primal desire inside Fyodor.

I want to fuck her so bad

I want to defile her. I want to defile her. I want to defi...

Fyodor felt his cock hardening under his trousers. The woman on the left simply evoked a visceral sexual reaction. He was still staring open-mouthed at her as the nun was speaking.

"I am Famina and this is my companions Zoe. We have a room booked?"

"Yeah yeah sure here's the keys." Fyodor said, still half lost in a dream looking at the woman's face.

Zoe huh.

The woman called Zoe was looking at him warily but he didn't care. He was thinking from his cock now and kept openly leering at her.

"Ook then we'll take the key I guess." Famina said, taking the key and walking with Zoe up the stairs.

Fyodor kept staring at the heavenly ass of Zoe as she walked up the stairs, imagining his cock nestled between them and almost climaxing there itself.

.XX.

"That old man didn't seem trustworthy." Zoe said as soon as they were out of earshot.

"Who Fyodor? Don't worry, he is a bit of a pervert but harmless enough." Famina said dismissively.

Zoe however was not convinced. She had met her fair share of perverts during her career as a model prior to her marriage, and she had developed a kind of sensor for the truly depraved perverts. Old Fyodor below certainly caused all those sensors to go off.

But there were bigger things on Zoe's mind so she decided not to think too much about it. After all if Famina said he was harmless then she trusted her intuition.

Once they had entered the room though, Zoe asked, "Why did you choose this Inn though? It's so far from the city centre."

"Two reasons." Famina said holding up two fingers.

"Reason number 1, it is close to the house of a trusted friend of mine, who can guide us to the Caves.

Reason number 2, and perhaps the more important reason, it is close to the Guild of Adventurers of the city."

Zoe nodded, understanding. An Adventurer's license, like the one Famina carried, was indispensable for providing access to restricted areas and allowing people to take on quests and earn actual money.

"I assume they have some criteria for giving someone a license here?"

"Yes. In Satoky, the criteria for getting a license is demonstrating Inito."

Zoe groaned. Famina had acted as her magik teacher for the last few days and had taught her the basics of magik and the different categories, as well as about Inito and Word of Power. In fact, given Zoe's advanced control over her Sand Magik, they had even started Inito Training. However here there was no progress yet, and this was making Zoe somewhat frustrated.

"Don't lose hope." Famina said with a smile. "Inito training can take upto a year for most people. Even with your outrageous talent it will take time. A life or death situation can sometimes speed it up tho."

"Yeah let me try jumping from this window, maybe that will speed it up." Zoe said sarcastically causing Famina to laugh again.

"Let's go see my friend for now and maybe then we'll start your training for today by jumping from windows."

.XX.

Famina led them to an old broken down house a little distance away from Tuy Inn. There was a sign in front of the house that said "Midir Guides", but the words had already almost completely faded out.

Famina cautiously knocked on the door and shouted, "Midir?"

"Go away. We are closed." A gruff voice answered from within.

"It's Famina. From the Church."

There was silence from within for a while, to the point where Zoe wondered whether the man inside had even heard Famina. But after a while there was the sound of the lock being opened and the door opened to reveal a man standing there, looking at them irritatedly.

"Well you're certainly in an uncharacteristic good mood." Midir said, looking at Famina.

"We need your help Midir. We need a guide to the Caves of Bloodfell."

Midir grunted. He looked as if he hadn't gotten much sleep for a long time. His beard and hair were both unkempt and the gray hairs in both betrayed that he was older than even Zoe.

"It's gonna cost you. The Caves are no hiking destination."

"I thought we might get the friends discount." Famina said with a wink.

Midir looked at her incredously. "You really have changed haven't you? Where is the gloomy Famina I came to know as a friend?"

Famina stuck out her tongue in a mocking gesture and Zoe thought for an instance she spotted a smile flicking across Midir's face. Almost instantly though it was gone and replaced with the scowl.

"A hundred gold coins. Not a coin less, not a coin more."

"Do it in seventy five and we have a deal."

"Eighty"

"Deal"

"Done. When do you want to go?"

"How about tomorrow morning? Say around six? We need to reach there as early as possible."

Midir nodded. "Earlier the better. I don't wanna stay in those blasted caves after dark if possible."

Finalizing the deal, Famina said her goodbyes and departed the guide store.

"That seemed expensive." Zoe said as they were walking back to the Inn

Famina shrugged. "Midir is the best in the business. We need his help otherwise the Tal is the biggest forest in the Kingdom. We would be hopelessly lost before we find anything in there."

Makes sense

As the sun started setting on the horizon though, Zoe felt a chill run through her spine. She had a sense of extreme foreboding about their journey into the Caves. Famina seemed to think it was a simple fetch quest, but Zoe had her doubts that it would be that simple.

However she again decided to suppress those feelings and concentrate on her upcoming Inito training.

No use thinking about something I can't control.