14th day of the 3rd month 650th year of the 8th era

Rolando and Jeemo walked down the gangplank onto the dock in Pergasus. The city was situated at the bottom of a large snow-capped mountain range. The buildings were made from carved stone fitted together so well that individual stones couldn’t be discerned. The dock and piers were made from grey stones. Rolando and Jeemo, with bags in hand, stepped onto the pier.

“We need to find a ship going to Ishtaree,” Rolando said, taking hold of Jeemo’s free hand.

She nodded and let him lead her down the pier. Her blue dress flicked against her legs from the sea breeze. At the end of the pier stood a small stone building that housed a dwarf sitting behind a desk. His bright blond hair and beard obscured his face. He looked up at them as they approached.

“Welcome to Pergasus,” he said.

“Thank you,” Rolando said. “I was hoping you can tell me when the next boat for Ishtaree will be departing.”

The dwarf scrunched his face and looked back down at the papers piled on the desk. His long hair blowed gently as he muttered to himself. “I am sorry but the ship to Ishtaree left yesterday. It won’t be back until the twenty-eighth.”

“What do you mean?” Jeemo asked.

“The boat left yesterday,” the dwarf repeated calmly. “I thought I made that plainly obvious. It says right here that the next time the ship is due in port is the twenty-eighth.” He pointed to a line on a shipping timetable.

Jeemo bent over to look at the line and couldn’t understand it. “I don’t know what I am looking at.” The whole timetable was written in a complicated script that she couldn’t understand.

“Sorry,” the dwarf said. “I write everything in my own code to prevent espionage. You will have to trust me.”

“What are we going to do now?” Jeemo asked. “Is there another way to Ishtaree?”

“You could take the caravan up to Pe’trim,” he said. “They have ships crossing the river every day.”

“Thank you,” Rolando said, and led Jeemo away.

“What are we going to do?” she asked.

“Don’t worry, there is always a way,” he said. “This is what adventuring is all about, learning to handle setbacks.”

She nodded, placed her hand on his chest and then placed a kiss on his lips. “Let’s go find out when the next caravan is heading out.”

Rolando smiled and took her hand to lead her out of the harbour and deeper into the city. The skilfully-placed stones of the pier gave way to a cobblestone road with large stone buildings on each side. The dwarves they walked past were all shoulder height to Jeemo and all thickly set. An armoured patrol walked past in gleaming plate armour; swords strapped to their backs. Merchants wore loose-fitting white robes that left muscled arms exposed. They walked by a large temple with a huge statue of a woman naked from the waist up facing the mountain, her arms outstretched, her face cut in rapture. Several male and female attendants of the temple were cleaning the temple floor. They were dressed to match the statue, with simple white cloth trousers. Two doors down, a loud tavern roiled with noise and laugher. They came to a large crossroads that met at a large plaza. Several smaller stalls had been erected in the centre and the dwarves moved around it, only stopping to engage the vendors of small trinkets and fruit. Down one street was a series of houses that were three storeys high with matching windows. Another street had more stores and was crowded with dwarves in their simple clothing and polished armour. A third street was quieter and was lined with statues of half-naked women facing the mountain, men in regal armour, and large pillars that pointed skyward. The last street was filled with fewer people but had tables and chairs sitting arrayed around the café entrances. Rolando pulled Jeemo down this last street and looked at the shingles hanging off the structures. Jeemo saw several bakeries, a wine merchant, a grocer, and even a shop selling hot drinks. Rolando turned into one that read The Wise Goat. Inside were more tables and chairs and a bench ran along the back wall where a dwarf with blue hair braided on either side of her head stood counting out small coins into a drawer.

She looked up at them and a pair of half-glasses perched on the end of her nose became visible. “How can I help you?”

“We are looking for a quiet place to rest,” Rolando said.

“The best place would be in a tavern,” she replied, looking down at her silver and bronze coins.

Rolando reached into his belt pouch and placed a silver piece on the bench. “The taverns are a little too loud for my friend here.” He kept his finger on the coin.

“Is she your wife?” she asked, looking at the coin under Rolando’s finger.

“Yes,” Rolando said looking at Jeemo. She nodded.

“Ah. You humans and your quaint notions of matrimony,” she said. “I have a bedroom you can use for a few days, but it will cost you.”

Rolando took his finger off the coin and placed another on top of it. “Surely this will be enough for a night.”

“It will do,” she said.

Rolando pushed the two silver coins towards her.

She scooped the money into a small leather pouch and tucked it into the loose-fitting robes she was wearing. “If you will follow me, I will show you to your room.”

Rolando and Jeemo followed her to the back of the store and up a set of stairs. They saw three doors on the second level.

“These are my rooms,” she said, waving down the corridor. She led them up the stairs. At the top was a single room that was a large open loft that filled the whole floor. “This is your room for tonight.”

The room had a gently sloping ceiling. In the middle of the room was a large bed, big enough for three people, and a table on each side of the bed.

“If you could serve avocado and onion soup for breakfast, please,” Jeemo said with a smirk.

“You want what in a soup?” Rolando asked. Both of them looked at her with a shocked looked expression.

“I don’t serve food to you,” she said. “That will cost extra.”

Rolando blinked, nodded, and turned back to the proprietor. “What is your name? I didn’t catch it.”

“You didn’t ask,” she said, smiling at them. “I am Hukkestr Ashbrew.” She extended them a hand and Rolando took it and pumped it once. Leaving behind a simple bronze key, she turned and closed the door behind her.

Jeemo dropped her bag on the floor. “It’s so hot here,” she said and peeled her dress off her sticky back. She flopped naked on to the bed. Rolando smiled at her and peeled off his own clothes and, dumping them and his bag on the floor, joined her on the bed.

***

The sun was setting out over the west when Jeemo and Rolando emerged from their room and descended the stairs. They came to a store that was packed with people sitting down and eating small pieces of meat stuck on a thin metal rod. The smell of roasted meat filled the whole store. They pushed through the queue of people who were waiting at the counter for their food. Hukkestr nodded at them as they left the building. The street was cramped with dwarves milling about and talking in a fast-excited way.

“I think most people sleep though the warmth of the day and come out at night,” Jeemo said.

“It would seem so,” Rolando said. “We need to find a gate.”

Jeemo took his hand and they wove their way through the teeming mass of dwarven kind and down streets packed with men and women working, shopping, drinking, and fighting. At last, they came to the end of the street; it was marked with a large stone wall that towered over the buildings. Rolando turned right and walked down the street, keeping the large wall to his right. The street was intersected by several other streets until they came upon a large open road, wide enough for twenty men to march shoulder to shoulder. The buildings here were all straight up with miniature towers at the top. Each of the towers had crenelations atop them. Rolando guided Jeemo to the right again and was confronted by a large steel door. Three guards in brightly polished steel plate armour stood near a stone guard post on the far-left side of the gate. As they approached, the guard with a red feather in his helmet raised his hand in front of them.

“What are you doing, human?” the voice a deep bass rumbled in the helmet.

“My name is Rolando, and I was looking for a caravan,” he stated.

“This gate is closed until tomorrow,” the guard said. “If you want to find a caravan you will need to find one in a tavern. I suggest The Lusty Wench.”

The other guards started laughing.

“Where is The Lusty Wench?” Rolando said. Jeemo stepped in behind him.

The guard with the plumage raised a mail-covered hand and pointed down the road that was teeming with dwarves. Rolando turned and headed down the wide road, looking at the shingles of the shops that lining it. A few blocks down the road, Rolando spotted the sign for The Lusty Wench. Under the gold lettering was the painting of a woman standing provocatively. They stepped across the threshold and into the smoky tavern. The smoke made their eyes water and the sounds of laughter and music assaulted their ears. Stepping through the smoke, Rolando led Jeemo to a table against the wall.

“Caravaners,” Rolando said, “normally stick out from the local population.”

“I can’t tell one job from another,” Jeemo stated.

“They all seem to be wearing the same thing,” he said.

“What’cha have?” a deep feminine voice sounded.

Jeemo looked up and saw a thickly-built dwarf woman in a white sleeveless tunic holding a wooden tray in her hands. “We are looking for a caravaner, can you point one out?”

“I just get drinks, dear,” the tavern wench said.

“Bring us two ales please,” Rolando said.

The wench nodded and strode away.

“I think she will be willing if we buy some drinks before asking questions,” Rolando said.

“Two humans in the tavern,” rumbled a dwarf from behind Rolando. “What has the world come to?”

Rolando turned. “You don’t like us?”

“It’s not that,” the dwarf said. “Just that we don’t get many humans in here.”

“Why is that?” Rolando asked.

“We do the trading around here. We don’t need humans to do that for us,” he said.

“Don’t get many human traders?” Jeemo asked.

“Just the one that left yesterday,” he said. He turned his chair around and came and sat next to Rolando. “That little thing is hardly a cargo ship. We don’t need much except meat, and that comes in by caravan from Pe’trim.”

“So, the ship that we missed is more passenger vessel than anything else,” Rolando said.

“That’s the truth,” the dwarf nodded.

“When does the next caravan come in from Pe’trim?” Rolando asked.

“It just left this morning at first light,” the dwarf said.

“How do you know?” Jeemo asked.

“I work the morning shift on the gate,” he said. “It won’t be back for at least four days.”

“We seem to arrive just after need we to,” Jeemo said.

The dwarf shrugged and returned to his friends at the other table.

“At least we can now explore the city,” Rolando said. “Maybe I can also use this time to make some connections for trade.”

“Shouldn’t let a great opportunity like this go to waste,” Jeemo said.