Splitting from him hit me harder than I thought it would. I felt sad and angry. My mood went down the drain, and I didn't just feel bad emotionally but physically too. My head was stinging and the worst part were my eyes, it felt like they were pulsating, every now and then my vision became blurry. Maybe I should go to a doctor …or not, what would I tell them? I had an encounter with mystical beings, now I feel bad? I'll just have to hope that I will feel better on my own after a while.

The city was farther than I expected. I was already walking for half a day and visually I made no progress, I was still just walking on a dirt road with nothing on the horizon.

I had to rest soon, I felt more exhausted than usual. It could be explained by me lying unconscious on the wet ground for some hours, of course I'd feel bad.

I sat down on mossy rocks that were next to the road, either they were quite comfortable or my standards have dropped the last few days. I looked down the road; the city was nowhere near in sight. I still must be some hours away from it.

I sat there thinking while playing with the moss on the rocks. The necklace and the ring should get me some money to start with. I didn't know exactly how much they're worth but if I get at least sixty Iz. I can live in an inn for a while and in the meanwhile, I can search for a job or be an apprentice as something. I'm skilled with my hands, I could be a weaver or cobbler.

Cobbler.

Didn't he mention that his mother used to bake pies with berries?

Lost in thought I looked up and saw a carriage coming my way from the direction of the city. I could ask the rider how long I still have to walk until I reach it. I sat there looking at him come my way, when it was close enough I held out my hand and called out.

"Excuse me, Sir?," the carriage stopped, and I saw a man, he didn’t look that old but his hair already decided to turn gray and in turn, his beard did too.

He looked down at me from the carriage. I got a closer look at his carriage. It made out of old wood, the yellow already faded into a brown but it still looked very robust.

"Greetings young man, what can I do for you?" he asked with a gruff voice.

"I was wondering if you can tell me how long it would take me to get to the city."

"You're almost there. I only rode for about two hours or so, on foot you could reach the city in less than a quarter of a day. If you're quick on your feet you'll maybe only need four or three hours."

"Thanks." I stood up to start walking again but stopped, hesitant I began to speak, "could you spare any food?" I felt pathetic asking for charity.

I saw him rummage through a sack and then he threw two apples towards me, "here, catch."

"Thank you."

"Stay safe," he nodded then rode off again, I gave a slight wave as he did.

I took one apple and ate it while walking. I had a small crisis thinking about how I will spread out the food I have, even if I ration the one other apple, the meat, and the dried fruit correctly, I still only have less than a week worth of food left. And with me feeling generally bad who knows how long I will last like this but at least, to my knowledge, I had no fever. I could think about it later, at the moment I'll just focus on walking.

After some hours of journey, I finally saw the city in the distance. From where I was standing I could barely see the very tall watchtowers, not because they were so far away but because it already turned dark and the only things lighting the way were the torches on it and the moon.

Finally, I could really rest somewhere.

I saw some other torches they had on the walls next to the gate and was disappointed to see that the gate itself was closed. I got closer and grabbed its bars and started rattling them, shouldn't there be guards?

"Hello? Can somebody please open the gates?" I said tiredly.

"Hello there," I heard somebody above me say.

"The watch is very relaxed here," I thought.

Looking up I scanned the darkness, there was a man on the watchtower. He wasn't hard to see from down where I stood, in fact, he seemed to glow, like he was fire but the flames weren't red. It startled me and I couldn't help but staggered back, I couldn't explain it. Did he not notice anything strange about his appearance?

"Can I help you young 'un?" He said impatiently.

I rubbed my eyes, and the flames just vanished. This wasn't the time to go crazy.

"Yes, can you open the gates? I want to get into the city," I snapped myself back to sanity.

"Sorry, the gate's closed ‘til mornin'. You have to come back then."

"Damn," I whispered so that he couldn't hear me, "see you in the morning then," I didn't put up a fight.

I was sure I couldn't bring that guard or anyone, for that matter, to open the gates while it was that dark out. I just had to camp outside of the gates until they were open again, but what is one night so close to my destination after I had to sleep in the mud for days in the forest. I searched for a nearby tree and rested my head against the trunk with my sack as a pillow and tried to sleep away. I still had the headache, and the image of the flaming guard scared me, it reminded me of my mother. Sleep didn't come easy to me and when I finally did fall asleep I had a nightmare.

I was in a building, and I could see the interior but there weren't any walls. I was in a void, and it was hot, there was a fire burning inside. A figure entered, it didn't have any defined features. It looked like a shadow that took human form. It put something on a table before another figure, something small. I heard them talking, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. It didn't like what the other was saying. It was angry, I was angry too. A scream came out of nowhere, it went through my head and didn't stop then everything burst into flames. I screamed too and woke up while doing so.

I was sweating and my heart was racing, it felt as real as a dream like that could. I looked around, it was already morning and even though I should have slept long enough to feel rested I was more exhausted than I was yesterday but I couldn't sleep more now. From where I was lying I could see that the gate was already open and that a wagon was entering the town. I walked to the gate, but I could just enter it yet. I saw two guards above, in the watchtower.

I put my hands to my mouth in a cone, and I yelled. "Guard!"

One of the guards rushed over to look down at the gate.

"What is it?" he yelled back in an alarmed fashion.

"I have to know if something happened to the guard who was station here last night."

He relaxed and looked at me puzzled, but humored me. He turned around and went out of eyeshot. I heard him ask another guard, "did something happened to Jennings last night?"

The other guard responded with a surprised tone, "What? No, I saw him this morning when we changed guard duties. Why?"

"I don't know, some kid wanted to know," he looked down at me again and took on an annoyed tone. "If this is some sort of prank, cut it out."

"Could you please just tell me?" Even though I heard what the other guard said, asking was the polite thing to do and I don't want to be rude to the city guard. He hesitated and looked at me suspiciously, "No, he is fine."

The other guard looked down too, and I could clearly tell that he was curious, "what’s this about?"

"Nothing," I gave my thanks and walked through the gate. It looked like yesterday was just a delusion of fever or exhaustion.

I felt a strange sense of relief.