Mark had read enough fantasy books to know that normally when strangers walked into a backwater village they got a lot of stares and occasionally fights broke out. So what he wasn’t expecting was that everyone at the inn basically ignored their group. That was other than the server who had got them seated and their food and drinks readied with commendable speed.

Looking round at the villagers, Mark noted that most appeared to be normally human, although a few were bigger than Mike and generally hairier as well. He couldn’t be certain but it looked like their teeth were slightly different from the standard arrangement. He certainly wasn’t going to go up to one and ask to look in his mouth. Mark also noticed a couple of villagers who had slightly pointed ears, these were both quite slender but otherwise not notably different. Finally there were a few folk who were noticeably shorter and stockier. Again, they didn’t look that much different from human norms. They certainly didn’t look either like fantasy dwarves or people suffering from dwarfism.

After eating their own food for the last week, the food in the inn was extremely tasty. In particular the bread was melt in the mouth wonderful. Mark had the pale ale and that was just as tasty as the food. He could almost feel the stress that he had been feeling over the last week drain away.

Everybody else seemed to be in a good mood as well. Emily had managed to get some raw meat strips for Julius and was trying to teach him to do simple tricks like staying still and rolling over to get fed. As she did this the villagers were gradually noticing Julius and the group could hear a murmur of conversation as they looked over and then looked away again.

Even though it was still light outside the inn gradually emptied. Mark thought that a bit odd but nobody else seemed to notice anything. Perhaps it was midweek and they all had to be up early. It wouldn’t surprise him as this looked like a low tech culture. Certainly they hadn’t seen anything more mechanised than a cart being pulled by animals as they walked in and the inn was mainly very simple other than the lights which were large flat squares that attached to the ceiling and glowed brightly enough that Mark hadn’t really noticed how out of keeping with a medieval setting they were as they fit what he was used to.

As the guests left, the barman cleaned the tables and pushed the tables and stools into the side of the room. Stacking things together as much as possible. Soon there was a cleared space all around them and the inn was emptying fast. Mark and his companions had spent over a week sleeping rough and so weren’t interested in staying up and drinking and so after Jo had paid the remainder of their bill they all made a move for their rooms.

Mark diverted to the privy which was at the back of the inn and made use of the facilities. As he made his way back through the room he was surprised when the barman started muttering and suddenly Mark could feel various energies being summoned and manipulated. He looked over at the server who had a ring on his hand and was pointing his hand carefully around the room. Mark could see that all the dust and dirt was being moved to the side and the flagstones were being washed and dried where he pointed. The ring on his finger held some sort of white crystal but otherwise looked fairly normal. Mark tried to focus on the ring and thought he could sense something within the structure of the crystal but with the constant movement and the energies being used he couldn’t determine what.

Mark thought about asking about the ring but then thought that he could look really stupid asking about something that everybody should know about. He knew he was probably in a game but everything was realistic, including the people. The fact that they spoke English suggested that they were in a game but the fact that the English they spoke was sort of archaic and consistent implied that it was a derivative of English that had developed on it’s own for a while. It didn’t seem logical that a game developer would do that.

By the time he got back to the room Kajal was already in bed and so Mark quietly got ready and laid down. It was at this point he realised something that he hadn’t noticed before, with the group all sleeping nearby. Kajal had asymmetric breathing. There was no pattern to his breathing in and out. Instead at some points he breathed long in breaths and short out breaths, sometimes it was the other way around, sometimes he was consistent. Even the depth of breath was wildly inconsistent. Mark was tired but the way Kajal’s breath failed to happen when he naturally anticipated, kept him awake.

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As he lay there in the dark of the room he noticed that Kajal was emitting a very vague golden light. It wasn’t really enough to illuminate anything. He wondered what the light signified. Speculation suggested that maybe Kajal had some sort of cleric powers if they were actually a D & D party. In RPG’s that generally meant an ability to deter undead and evil and an ability to heal. However Kajal hadn’t really done much and whilst the evil insects from the cave had avoided him that wasn’t hard evidence. He was also aware that it was easy to pigeon hole people into what seemed to be a role whilst the reality was that people were generally much more complex than just having one skill set.

The speculation wandered through his mind until he drifted off.

>>>

The next morning broke with a wonderful smell of cooking breakfast percolating through the inn. Mark rose, washed up in some of the water and got dressed. He didn’t want to think what he smelt like and was resigned to being fairly smelly for some time. The server at the inn hadn’t mentioned anywhere to bathe, even though one of the girls had asked. He thought it was unlikely that a small village would have a public baths and so didn’t expect to get clean until they were somewhere secluded and could wash in the stream.

Making his way downstairs he saw Emily and Charlie were already sat and drinking some sort of juice. There was bread and butter on the table and a variety of conserves in glass jars. Mark’s mouth started to water.

A girl of around brought out plates of food for the two ladies. On seeing Mark she remarked “I’ll tell mum and we’ll have another plate ready in an instant.”

“Make it two.” Mark said, as he could see Kajal making his way downstairs.

“Sure.” The girl said with a smile and left quickly.

Very shortly afterwards two plates appeared and Mark tucked in to the breakfast. It was so good that nobody spoke for a while whilst they ate. Eventually they had finished and sat back.

“Plans for today?” Mark asked.

“I don’t know about anybody else but I need some more clothes. “ Charlie stated and Emily was quick to agree. Given the change in everyone’s shapes over the last seven weeks, nobody had clothes that fit. Charlie and Mike in particular looked like they were wearing clothes made for people much smaller.

“I wonder if we want to sell some of the weapons we are carrying or whether it is better to wait for a bigger place with more money?” Mark mused.

“I think the more basic things we could sell here. There’s some of the knives we’re carrying that have fancy handles and might make more elsewhere. Also I know that I don’t want to carry any of the tools we found any further than necessary.” Jo stated emphatically.

“So that’s a stop at the blacksmith and a stop at a clothier. We are going to need to get provisions as well and then see how much transport costs. Let’s assume that will take most of the day, if not longer. I wonder if they have an assayer here?” Mark stated. “Shall we wait for the other two or get on with things?”

“We’ve no idea how long they are going to be and this place isn’t that big. Let’s just leave a message here and they can join us when they’re ready. They may not have got much sleep last night” Emily stated with a smile.

At that the group got themselves ready and left the inn.

Walking through the village it was obvious where the blacksmith was situated and they headed towards him first. As they walked through the village they could see that all the buildings were log built, which was no surprise as they lived in the woods. The exception was the building they were walking towards. They stopped outside the building and knocked on the door but there was no response. Opening the door, Mark walked inside. The others followed.

Inside they could see a two men bashing metal on anvils or thrusting the metal into a charcoal filled fire, whilst a younger man worked a pump as directed to get the fire hotter.

“How can I help you fine people?” One of the smiths stopped his work and turned to talk to them.

“We have some bits and pieces we acquired along our journey that we were hoping to sell.” Jo replied.

The group of four began to go through their packs and produced a variety of knives and tools. The smith gestured for them to pile the items on a bench and started working through them, inspecting them for quality. Suddenly he stopped whilst holding one knife. “Where did you get this he asked?”