City Life

I leave the stone fortress and take my first steps out into the city once only barely visible from the hills. The sun is blinding after having not seen it in nearly two days.

"This is quite problematic…"

Never in my life have I left that little village. As one might expect, I'm completely lost. The only possessions on me are my torn fiber clothes, the pouches Charles gave me, a bow, and a quiver of arrows.

"Take your pick of whatever you like."

"Easier said than done…"

I think back to the brief adventure I had inside the barracks. Swords, spears, shields, and anything else a knight might need to fight for his life. There was plenty of metal armour that might have been useful, but I felt tired after having tried platemail for only a few minutes.

"I'll stick with something familiar for now…"

My hand reaches for a long item on the wall. One side is an ornately engraved arc while the other is a thick and sturdy wire.

"Now isn't this fancy!"

At first, I hardly registered the item as a bow because of its lack of splinters and lamp oil stains.

This is the only weapon I have experience with, inherited from my father. I'm not a great shot, but it's better than nothing. Perhaps this sleek and shiny wood would make it easier than the literal twigs that ours were made of. That was what I thought at least, but an issue soon arose when I tried to draw the string.

"Hrng! The heck is this thing made of!?"

No matter how hard I tried, the wood would not bend.

"Hey kid, I think something's wrong with this one!"

"Are you sure? Let me see."

The young knight takes the weapon and effortlessly pulls the string back. With the same lax expression, he slowly releases it.

"What are they feeding you kids here…"

"I'm sorry?"

"Don't worry about it."

My eyes scan the room once more, looking for just about anything that I can use. Unfortunately, I can only see bows with this sturdy construction.

"You don't have any of these made from like…a skinny pine or something else that's soft?"

"Of course not! All of our bows are made with only the best yew wood for proper strength!"

"Figured as much…"

I take the weapon back along with the proper ammunition.

"I'll just take it."

It is very unlikely that I'd need to use it anyways.

As I'm about to leave, I notice a draft entering the holes in my tunic. People will be thinking of me as some beggar on the street if nothing changes.

"Hey kid, got any…clothes around here?"

"Clothes?"

"Yeah, say a shirt or some trousers?"

He looks at me with a blank stare behind the gaps in his helmet. I didn't think my question was all that strange, but I guess the city has its own standards.

"We don't…keep those on hand here. You're best off searching for a shop that sells clothes."

That is how I ended up here with the summer sun and a lot of stares bearing down upon me. Considering that some form of prison was underground, I must look like an old man finished with his sentence. Somehow there was an option worse than a beggar.

"Just head straight and look for the tents…"

I recount the instructions I was given to find the market where most everything is sold. Surely even I can't mess up going in a straight line."

"Why…"

I thought that I couldn't make any mistakes. It shouldn't have been possible, if the universe weren't so cruel.

"...Are there so many people!?"

A sea of moving bodies stand between me and enjoying a pleasant walk through a beautiful town. I wish I could appreciate the detailed multistory buildings, the colourful bricks and banners, and the well maintained stones of the roads. The latter I can't even catch a glimpse of through all of the legs.

"Help! I'm going to drown!"

I've been suffocated in a herd of sheep before, which feels tame compared to this mess. Never have I seen so many human beings in one place. Never have I seen so many people so discourteous to their fellow man whilst attempting to trample everyone else beneath their boots. Even as I scream in pain, nobody stops to give me space to breathe.

"AH!"

Something with a hardness between a bone and a steel block hits me in the knee and sends me crashing down. By some miracle, everybody manages to step aside just in time to not collide with my floundering body. They can't even be bothered to be inconvenienced by my stumbling.

"I hate the city!"

That was all I could think about as I struggled to push through the people moving in every which way.

One arm feebly reaches forward to drag my body, then another, and so it continues in the shadows of the passerbys. Feet plant against my crawling back, sometimes those of humans and sometimes those of horses or pigs. Each one causes my head to spin and the breath to be knocked from my body.

"Watch where you're going!"

Those words weren't mine. They were those of some lady who planted her wooden heel against the back of my head. If I weren't busy tasting gravel and bird droppings, I would have gotten up and yelled for sure. I didn't even have the chance to see her hideous face by the time I could look up again.

"Just…a little bit…more…."

A patch of open space comes into view between the trousers and boots. Every last working muscle in my body pushes towards this oasis within the violently shifting sands. When sunlight finally graces me with its presence, the meat on my broken bones is nice and tender.

"Did I make it…"

Propping myself up against a nearby wall, I find myself in a space between rows of buildings. People are still crowding in like a flock of wild geese, but there is enough open space for me to stand once more.

"Let's see…tents…tents…Hm?"

I see my destination. Unfortunately, my heart cannot accept the reality of it.

"AAAARGH!"

Two more strips of bustling road still stand between me and the market. I thought that the street I just crossed was bad, but the upcoming ones are wider and somehow even more crowded.

"HOW DOES ANYBODY EVEN LIVE HERE!?"

My shouts are drowned by the noise, as is my battered body when I enter the storm once more.