by David Gunter
“Oh my, Oh my!” The caravan owner interjected. “It is rare that I have the opportunity to work with esteemed clients like yourselves. I see that you are returning home from a long voyage and that one of your group has lost most of his clothing. Please allow us to also add some good shoes to those clothes and offer all of these free of charge. We hope that you will look kindly on our humble business and forgive the miscalculations we’ve made as we’ve only just arrived.”
The merchant looked up at the pairs of shoes that hung above all the other clothing items. He seemed to be judging his own stock and then immediately reached out to a very clean pair of black leather boots and, after bringing them down, ceremoniously placed them on top of the pile of clothes David was holding.
David looked at all the clothing in his hands and then up at four people looking at him and who were clearly awaiting his next words and asked, “Well, is it custom to simply drop one’s clothing and change while standing naked in the street?” The reaction from the four other people was mixed from startled looks on the women to shock and smirks from the men.
“Oh no! This way, good Sir!” The caravan assistant led David to the rear of the caravan, where she pointed at a door that David thought must lead to the caravan owner and assistant’s sleeping quarters. The caravan assistant clambered up a few steps and led the way through the door, and then closed the door behind them.
David never remembered walking into a changing room with a store assistant and a lady at that, back in the real world, so he wasn’t sure what was expected. But it soon became clear that she intended to have a private conversation with him.
“Sir?” she said questioningly, “I’m so sorry for the way things have happened. Please be kind to your servants. We are but humble merchants. Like you, we’ve also been traveling for many days, and we’ve done so, at great peril.”
“Peril? Yaaawwnn,” David said somewhere between interest and a yawn, which he thought might have crept in due to poor sleep or simply being the morning. But he also felt a sense of disorientation beginning to creep into his vision. The woman, however, continued.
“Oh yes, Sir! The thieves guild is a very real threat nowadays. If one caravan out of two makes it to their destination, we say the gods have shown us favor. Sir, I don’t know how high you stand with the royalty, but I implore that you show mercy on my uncle and me.”
David thought for a few moments that the girl was waving her hands around in a peculiar way. It reminded him of a middle eastern dancer in the way that her writs seemed to make her hands glide. The motion seemed to send his vision into complete disarray, but then it was gone, and he was simply looking at a woman with a friendly expression on her face.
He knew she was waiting for him to do something, but the delirium returned again, and he almost stumbled backward against the caravan wall. The plump woman grabbed him by the waist right in time and pulled him back to a somewhat uncertain stance. She was awfully close to him in that move, but David felt powerless to protest.
“Good Sir! You are certainly forward behind closed doors”, She said this with an odd and clearly false smile. David had the distinct feeling that he was not in control of things and that his situation was anything but safe.
“Estendo millagro de flores”, was the last thing the woman said, and with a motion similar to the ones before, David felt the room strangely narrow, and with it, the entire caravan became complete pitch black. More decidedly, however, David lost his sense of awareness, and time simply stopped.
❧
David opened the door leading out of the caravan. The light was blinding, but he fought through it as he used his hand to defend against some of its effects. He dared a look back toward the inside of the caravan to see if the woman would try to stop him. He couldn’t deny that he felt a certain panic at the thought that she would protest. Instead of finding her where she had been standing moments ago, however, he saw that she was sleeping on a simple bed to the left of the caravan’s quaint interior.
How had she gotten there so quickly, he wondered. He paused to ponder this, but then she moved, and the covers shifted over her figure to reveal that she was not simply asleep. She was also in the nude.
David wanted to flee, but the only thing he could muster was a single step forward. He soon found out that the floor was much further away from his feet than he had calculated, and using reflexes he was sure were imagined, managed to land with both feet upon the solid ground.
“Ahoy there, good Sir!” The caravan owner said as he spotted David reorienting himself to the ground and squinting about while attempting to adjust to the light of the afternoon sun. “I trust that the clothes have been a good fit?” Then he added in a lower voice. “Among other things?”
“Yes, yes, everything fit just fine, I mean things are fine, I mean to say… anyway, I wonder if you know where my two associates are?
“Oh yes, they left word that they would meet you later this evening at the Dragon’s Tongue Brewery and Tavern. I trust that all is settled and that our business has concluded to your satisfaction?”
David understood then that the affair in the caravan had been a way of doubly preventing tensions from renewing on account of them having attempted a swindle. Trying to recall what had transpired in the caravan, however, resulted in a large blank spot in his memory. David wondered if it had actually been a double swindle or if the two strangers had, in fact, been officials. He wondered how the two strangers had simply appeared at such an opportune time and how their chance meeting had aided them in some way. Seeing, however, as they had decided to proceed into the city he couldn’t fathom how he had helped them in any way. He would certainly make a point to find the Dragon’s Tongue later that evening, but more pressingly, he would need to come up with a good reason for visiting the city in case the guards at the entrance asked.
Sure enough, as he was making his way over from the caravans to the closest city entrance, he saw how the guards randomly stopped travelers asking for any travel documents and place of origin. He felt the only option laid out for him was to continue playing the part of someone who was a member of the court and who was entitled to a certain treatment by others. He paused for a moment to rehearse a short speech in his head and then proceeded directly to the guards as if entrance into the city were the farthest thing from his mind.
“Hey there, guard! I will have a quick word with the both of you!”
The two guards stiffened slightly at being addressed so directly and looked at David quickly, attempting to figure out if the person addressing them was someone who could, in fact, do so. David, however, not wanting to give them the chance to, quickly continued.
“I’ve been gone on an errand for the Emperor, but before my departure, I was informed that the decree on the state of the royal mint would happen within weeks of my departure. When was the decree actually made?”
At David’s words, the two guards immediately and decidedly stiffened and went into attention as they recognized the formality of the address and the severe concern in David’s voice as someone who might give them trouble if they didn’t show the proper respect. David noticed too that their eyes seemed to dart back and forth as if both were trying to see in the other any sign of recognition as to the person who was addressing them.
“Can the two of you loosen up and pretend that you’re speaking to any common person? Can’t you see I’m dressed this way to avoid detection on my travels? When I appear dressed in the clothes of my station, you can stand as stiff as a board but please not on other occasions. Do we have an understanding?” David fixed the two guards with a stern look and hoped that they would relax enough not to attract any more attention.
“Sir, yes, sir!” They both responded.
And David fixed them with a wide-eyed stare as if his eyes were about to leap out of his head.
This caused the guards to stutter and shuffle about as they both r
ealized instantly that they had done the very worst thing imaginable and the complete opposite of what David had just asked of them.
“We’re sorry Sir! We mean no disrespect”, One of them stuttered, attempting to say.
“We’re pretty bad at pretending at pretending, or what is to say, we’re just not trained for this sort of thing.” The other guard added.
“Alright, alright, let’s at least keep our voices down,” David interjected before things got even worse. “So answer the question that I asked earlier at least.”
It was clear that the confusion had made both of the guards forget the question entirely as they fixed him with a blank expression, and then, after a moment, one of the two seemed to find the string of conversion and the question that it led to.
“Oh yes, yes. The decree went out last week and from this very entrance actually.”
“Good good. Well, I’m going to ask that the decree be repeated once more as it would appear new caravans have arrived who have heard nothing of the matter and who are charging travelers illegal amounts.”
The panic in the two guards was suddenly very visible, and almost in concert, they both asked which caravans had been doing business illegally.
“Now now,” David interjected, attempting to deflate the situation. “We’re not going to start chopping the heads off of merchants that have been traveling for weeks to get here, and that simply need to be informed of the changes to the coin. I will speak to the court today about making the decree more effective but for now, simply take turns going to the new caravans as they arrive and inform them of the changes. Are we clear?”
“Sir, yes, sir! Both the guards responded in unison.” David was taken aback by the response but even more by his ability to command respect in the two men. He turned and headed into the city without another glance at the guards and hoped that his performance had been entirely convincing. Of course, he breathed out with a large sigh of relief once he’d gone about ten paces and heard the guards restating the decree loud enough for him to hear it. He’d done it.
Of course, now that he had walked into the city, he had to find another hat to wear as pretending to be a member of the court or royalty would only get harder and possibly get him into serious trouble. His earlier realization of needing to find work was still his only option, and the only thing that came to mind was to use skills that he had possessed in the real world.
Seeing that he’d had so much success with the guards at the entrance, he looked about to see if he could spot another guard somewhere within the city. He looked near to his vicinity, however, and noticed a few interesting characters who were looking at him either directly or pretending not to do so. He noticed, too, that as others entered the city, they were also being observed.
The first one such character was an old man sitting on the sidewalk playing with a yo-yo. The old man saw David looking at him and looked away, instantly finding the stones on the street to be the most interesting things in the world. David then noticed a small boy on the closest corner who was looking from one traveler to another as if searching for someone. The young boy caught the eyes of three travelers that were passing near, and David heard the boy ask if they were interested in making some easy coins and offering to give them each one gold coin if they would help his mom and he find their father and older brother that had gone missing.
The possibility of making some easy coins by going on a search seemed easy on the surface, but the night in the forest was still very fresh on David’s mind, and he wasn’t about to tempt fate once more by going on some deceptively simple quest. David quickly looked back at the old man and saw that the old man was clearly very interested in what the travelers would say to the boy. David looked about and saw several other men, also keenly interested in the dialogue. This had to be some sort of trick, and perhaps a group of thieves whose scheme involved sending travelers into the neighboring countryside in order to rob them, he imagined.
David just shook his head as he told himself that he would need to keep an eye on the schemes of the city residents. He looked around some more, and his eyes landed on a couple of guards that were near the entrance to what looked like an exchange or bank; he wasn’t sure which. He made his way directly to them, and once the first guard noticed his approach, he bowed a bit and introduced himself.
“Hello good sirs, my name is David Gosling, and I’ve only just arrived in this lovely city. I wonder if I might ask where one could find employment and a place to stay for a few nights?”
The two guards looked David up and down and decided that he was dressed well enough to warrant a conversation, so they responded.
“Well, there are a number of places around the city where one could stay for a night or two or three. The ‘Dragon’s Tongue Brewery and Tavern’ isn’t too far from here, and they usually will have a room for a reasonable price. The girls aren’t too bad there, but if you want a really fun place to stay, I will try the Black Salamander, which is a left at the next street and near the end of that street on the right. As far as work, though, what can you do?”
David was pleased to see the guards were easy to talk to, and he instantly felt grateful to the two strangers for the clothes they had helped him acquire. He was certain that the first impressions he’d made so far had made the difference in his treatment.
“Well, I can work with all kinds of metals, plumbing, and welding. I can make all sorts of weapons too, I suppose, but it’s usually plumbing and welding that people want.”
The expressions on the guards went from mildly interested to wide-eyed and finally to something like mirth. The younger of the two guards spoke after a quick glance at the older guard as if looking for confirmation. “Traveler, you could have said you were a plumber or a welder or maybe even a blacksmith but all of these things? Well, that’s where your story fell apart.”
David was a bit confused by the response as he knew, certainly, that he was all of these things and was tempted to mention his musical talents but bit his tongue instead. He, instead, put his ego aside and considered that he might have stumbled on a very good opportunity if his skills were in such short supply. He responded but tried not to show his building excitement. “Um, well, if you met someone with all those skills, would you turn them away?”.
The guards fixed him with a blank stare, seemingly working through the possibility of his claims.
“Hey Francis, we’ve got someone you might find interesting.” The older of the two guards said this without taking his eyes off of David.
David was a bit confused as it seemed no one around was responding with the name of Francis, and he wondered if the guards had been talking to someone he hadn’t yet spotted. He turned and looked behind and saw no one.
A man farther away and who sat at a desk with stacks of paper all about spoke. “Well, come over here, traveler, and let’s see if any of what you said is true.” The man looked up from his desk at David and waved for him to come over to this table. David saw the opportunity and the possibility of proving himself, and it felt like a welcome change from all of the unpredictably he had seen thus far. It struck him as odd, as he approached the desk that the man had simply been sitting there listening to their conversation in a sort of removed state of mind.
Francis looked David up and down once David was standing before his desk, and for a short spell, David wondered if he was waiting for some sort of document or introduction, seeing as there were so many documents before him. Then Francis broke the silence.
“So you are a plumber?” David tried to correct him, but the man continued. “So you aren’t someone who minds getting his hands dirty, I take it. The city has only afforded plumbing for the most wealthy, so a vast majority do not have the luxury of clean water and waste disposal the way that the rich and powerful do. Would you be willing to work towards changing this?”. Francis paused and fixed David with a studious look.
“I woul
d be willing to work for honest wages but not having clean water and sewage disposal means everyone has to suffer, and even the wealthy have to walk through these streets and breath the same city air. Setting up plumbing for all should be worth a tax for all who live here. A city of this size should have a functioning waterworks and treatment facility and the infrastructure throughout to bring water quickly and effectively to any part of the city. Without this, a fire could break out that could burn the city down. Rich or poor, the fire never asks.” David noticed a slight change in the man’s eyes as he said these things. David suspected that the man had been waiting and perhaps hoping to hear words like his but didn’t want to give it away just yet.
“Those are good observations,” Francis said after a moment of thought. “But are you saying that you’d be able to create this ‘waterworks and treatment facility’ you mentioned? How would you do such a thing?” The man paused to see how David would respond.
“Well, I haven’t set one up before, but I understand the science behind it. What I would do is find a place outside the city and remote that had a sufficient amount of fresh water, and then I would create a man-made water reservoir and funnel the fresh water into it. I would set up a four or five-stage process. Varying degrees of water would be collected and processed, removing the waste through chemical breakdown, fire, and other natural agents. The water would be purified through these stages and tested for purity until it has reached a high degree of cleanliness, which could then be pumped either back into the natural water source or into the city for consumption. By-products of this process could come in the form of manure for farming or other chemical agents, which form naturally when stronger agents come in contact with wastewater. We could find uses for some of these and use them for creating paint or disinfectants. Alcohols can also form which can be used for fuel or other applications.” David felt he could go on and on about the possibilities, but he noticed that the man’s eyes had enlarged a few times throughout his discourse, and he suspected that he might have said too much.
