The young man jumped down from the back of the wagon and thanked the elderly couple that were sitting side by side in the front for a second time.

“Thank you very much for your kindness,” he was smiling while shouldering his small pack and then offered them a wave.

“Good luck to you youngin!”

“Be safe!”

The husband and wife responded after one another with some waves of their own before the elderly man clicked his tongue and gave the reins in his hand a little shake. Soon the two horses, the couple, and the wagon were pulling away. As they did so the young man turned his gaze to the massive stone wall that now loomed above him.

Taking a deep breath he turned and began to make his way toward the end of the line that stood in front of a wide metal gate that was currently open. He wondered if the other entrances were as busy as the one he had been dropped off in front of, which was the south gate.

Trying to ignore the looks that were cast his way he kept his gaze on the ground just in front of him. It was low enough to avoid looking at anyone’s faces but was high enough that he wouldn’t walk into someone. He was a genuine boy, earnest even, but didn’t do well with others, and especially didn’t do well in crowds.

Fidgeting with the strap across his shoulder he looked everywhere he could that didn’t have a person who may be staring back. First he looked over his shoulder, taking note of the vibrant landscape that he had just traveled through. He even frowned a bit when he considered he was looking at the very grass, trees, and hills that he was looking at earlier from the back of the wagon.

After giving himself a mental smack he turned to look to his right, carefully looking toward the carriages, wagons, and carts that were lined up along the wall. He followed the line up to the gate in front of him and noticed there was a separate group of guards handling them specifically. It wondered if the second group had more guards than the group handling the line he was in, which, after carefully peeking out from behind the man in front of him, on the left side of course, he confirmed. Only three guards were in the group handling his line, which he noted was comprised of people on foot with only small pieces of personal luggage, or in some cases, no luggage at all.

Looking back out from behind the man, this time on the right hand side again, he silently watched the exchanges between what he assumed to be merchants, farmers, or similar, and the guards. It seemed to be going smoothly, albeit a bit slowly, but no one was getting too rowdy. The ones in line would show something to the guards, sometimes it was paper, sometimes it a small item of some kind, and then offer an explanation for their arrival and a list of what they were carrying. After they represented this information two or more of the remaining guards would move down along the wagon, carriage, or cart and seemingly inspected the contents. From what the young man had been able to gather so far they were confirming what they had been told was true. He wasn’t sure what would happen if the person lied, as that hadn’t seemed to have happened yet, but after the inspection they were allowed to move in through the gate.

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He had been so engrossed in watching the other line he hadn’t noticed his line had moved forward. Unfortunately, none of those around him right now seemed to be as nice as the elderly couple of had given him a ride, because everyone behind and around him simply ignored him and got in front of him. When he returned his gaze to his line he blinked a few times in confusion upon seeing a different colored shirt in front of him.

“Was the shirt always blue?” He thought to himself while trying to remember. He could have sworn it was white.

If the guards had been watching further down the line they may have noticed a little head peeking out from behind a tall man in a blue shirt as the boy tried to figure out what happened. They would have also noticed a frown appear on his face before the head disappeared behind the tall man.

“Yea, it was white.” He said in his mind as he figured out what happened. He noticed the man in the white shirt, which he had been behind earlier, standing about eight people ahead of him. Letting out a sigh he simply looked down and said nothing.

It took about 30 minutes before he was next in line to speak with the guard. He was once again fidgeting with the strap, and was now whispering to himself in an attempt to calm his nerves.

“Everything is ok, this is normal, everything is ok.”

“Hey kid!”

The young man suddenly looked up hearing the raised voice and realized the guard was looking at him. He gulped and moved forward after the guard beckoned him what happened to be the third time.

“What busin……”

“Watch out!”

Well, he would no longer be considered ignorant to what happens when a guard finds something in your cart that you hadn’t mentioned was there, because that is just what happened in the other line. The guard that had been talking to him was interrupted in mid sentence by the yell of another guard who was trying to grab the reins of horse in front of him. Usually that would be easy, but the man on the cart was smacking his reins violently against the horse’s rump in an attempt to get it to move. Finally the horse decided the pain was scarier then man in front of it and pushed forward with a squeal and trumpet. As those in the line behind the boy fled and the guards behind the horse attempted to pull the offending merchant from his seat on the horse and wagon was now heading right for the young man who hadn’t moved.

“Look out!”