I have gotten close to the big people city before, well close as in a few miles but I could smell it. This time though I got very close without even being aware I did it. That is what happens when you are so focused on the hunt. I was tracking a deer.
The walls were so high and the smell was almost too much for me. But I was drawn to get a bit closer. I was hiding as best I could by the side of a lake, in the reeds, when of all things I run into another forest gnome. Fern was her name and she was as far from home as I was. We almost went into the big city but decided to visit a gnomish town I had heard about that was near by and think things over.
We were not the only new comers to cogswell (I think that is what they call the place) that day. There were a few other gnomish like folks there as well. Two of them looked like they were not feeling to well as they had very ashen skin. And they spoke in sayings a lot, reminded me of dad a bit. After watching them all fiddle around with some big metal monster. That kept trying to squish them by the way, and some flying machine that had something to do with water, we all ended up in the local inn. They wanted a lot of gold pieces (I thought they were gold parts at first) to get food and shelter.
Fern and I did not have any gold pieces or trues and one of the other gnomes called them. So we decided to help the two ashen looking gnomes who seemed eager to find some work to do. We they did find us all a job, killing a lot of rats, big rats. In the course of that one of them bite me good and I was sick for quite sometime. We killed a lot of rats and then some of the others found a way to drown the rest of the rats. We then got a lot of trues, after some very animated bartering by one of our group and the person that hired us. We also got rooms and food. I got a good rest and felt much better after that.
I tried to hide a bit when we were looking for the rats, but there were so many of them that there really was no way to sneak up on them. Also it was much harder to be quiet and stay hidden inside the building we were in. I will have to work on using inside stuff to hide behind and in like I use plants and trees in the forest. There were a lot of shadowy places that might have worked.
I used just a little skinning knife to help kill the rats but I think if we have to fight anything again I will use my carving blades. Should have done that in the first place I think. I am fast with them and I think they will be effective. We will see.
