Past-Part Fills Post 1 -- CLOSED
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This time he had left the money behind, but brought along a map ‘borrowed’ from the library, and after another idea struck him, brought a pencil and paper with him as well. This time he didn’t wander the city, preferring instead to find one place to sit and just watch.
He found the prefect place to perch himself in the middle of a square, at the intersection of four major roads. There was a fountain in the middle of the square, and no one even looked in his direction as he sat down. He crossed his legs and glanced around the square: he vaguely recognized his particular place, or at least the fountain looked familiar. He couldn’t be sure, everything looked different from above.
Regardless, he was content to sit and look around. There were lots of people here, milling around, speaking to friends, doing... whatever it was ordinary people did. It was almost surreal for him to look all the activity around him and their their voices and realize they were his people. And there were so many of them. There were a number of children playing with a hoop, while their mothers chattered. There was a pair of men - possibly businessmen of some kind, discussing something in low voices. There were a number of watchmen, identifiable from their uniforms of blue leather and chain-mail, wandering around, trying to look intimidating. Then there was a man in a blue and white coat, carrying an ivory staff -
Alfred recognized him immediately. It was the sorcerer from yesterday!
Some force that may have been blind enthusiasm propelled him from a seated position to the sorcerer’s side before Alfred could completely register that he had moved. The sorcerer was rather surprised to suddenly see the boy standing by his side.
“What are you doing here?” The sorcerer asked. He was smiling, but it wasn’t a very friendly smile.
“See? I’m not dead yet!” Alfred gloated. “And you were all oooh, keep in mind that such ‘excursions’ don’t always end well! Ha! Take that!”
The sorcerer was not amused.
“I see you are the stubborn type.”
“What, you thought you had spooked me that much?” Alfred said, smirking.
“No,” the sorcerer admitted, “but I had hoped you had more sense than this.”
“I’ve already been here an hour and nothing bad has happened,” Alfred pointed out. “So I’m already doing better than yesterday.” He made a face. “Are you going to lecture me or something now?”
The sorcerer sighed. “I suspect you wouldn’t listen to me if I did.”
“Damn straight.”
“Not even if I said there is a high probability that you will be robbed?” Ivan said, tapping the end of his ivory staff against the cobbles. “That helpless expression of yours almost begs to be assaulted.”
“Nah, I think I’ll do fine,” Alfred said, trying not to imagine himself laying unconscious in the middle of some dark alley somewhere. “And I am not helpless!”
“So what would have happened to you yesterday had I not been there to keep you from having your limbs ripped off?” The sorcerer asked, smiling now.
“I would have thought of something!” Alfred protested, his imagination running wild now. “But I’m okay now! That’s the important thing! I’m not going to run home, and nothing you say will change that!”
The sorcerer shrugged. “Good luck.”
“Hey, what’s your name?” Alfred asked, suddenly changing the subject. “I’ve never been outside the city, but I do know that people have names in other countries. ...Don’t look at me like that!”
The sorcerer considered Alfred for a moment. What he saw was a young man - or more of a boy, really - who couldn’t keep his mouth shut, naive enough to think he would survive in a strange city on his own, probably couldn’t reason his way out of a paper bag, but was still endlessly curious about everything.
“My name is Ivan. And you?”
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