It was late-afternoon, and the duo had been 15 minutes, according to Andy, away from Burford for at least 2 hours. Avakian was starting to think that either Andy did not understand how time worked, or he was the victim of some kind of 'practical joke'.

"Just another 15 minutes Avakian." Laughed Andy.

Definitely the latter.

After a considerable amount of time later (not 15 minutes), Avakian started to see signs of civilization; cobbled roads instead of muddy bridle paths, and hedgerows clearly maintained by farmers. He spotted a field populated with black-faced sheep, differentiated by numbers painted in red on their flanks.

As they ascended out of the hedgerows, they came across the first houses in the village; mostly wooden or stone, with thatched roofs, none as well made as Andy's though. Walking into Burford they were approached by an older man wearing a flat-cap.

"Andrew! Wasn't expecting to see you here for another month at least." Exclaimed the man.

"Ah, well I'm travelling back a mite earlier to take young Avakian here back to the City."

The man shifted his gaze to Avakian, before double-taking slightly at the sight of him. Avakian offered his hand and prepared to make his introductory speech, but was interrupted before he could by the man making a tutting noise.

"Make sure he doesn't make trouble Andrew." He grunted, before walking away in a hunch.

Avakian was not overly disappointed over the rudeness of the man, but he noticed Andy's mood had worsened slightly, the almost ever-cheerful man frowning slightly as they walked down the road in the direction of the inn.

"Its always those who know the least that act like they know the most." He sighed after a while of silence. "Sorry about Fred back there, some in these outer villages hold prejudices towards anyone they perceive as 'other'."

"It's only natural I suppose; if one has a pattern that works, then they would be sceptical of anything that threatens to disrupt it."

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"Awfully cynical for a man who claims to be 3 days old aren't we?" Andy snorted with laughter, seemingly cheered up by Avakian's sage wisdom.

---

It was decided the day before that they would sleep in an inn for the night, as they had missed the last scheduled locomotive for the day.

Avakian was the first to spot the sign of the only two-storey building in the village, a pub that also doubled as a hotel and restaurant, named 'The Joy'. As they entered the pub he could not help but notice the dichotomy between its epithet and the general atmosphere of the place. All the joy in this place seemed to have fled to greener pastures decades ago.

He let Andy do most of the talking to the woman behind the bar, as he examined the pub. Most of its customers looked to be farmers or workmen, and didn't look to be particularly interested in Avakian. The only one who had noticed his entrance was a serious-looking man reading a paper, his eyes now widened in shock.

Andy seemed to have finished negotiating their keys, and they walked off down the corridor to find their respective rooms. A cursory analysis of the room revealed it only slightly more palatable than a prison cell. Avakian's room lacked a shower, but had a sink with a faucet in the corner which he used to wash himself. He finished off the rest of his history book, before turning in for the night.

---

The morning arrived and Avakian woke, he rendezvoused with Andy and they started towards the station, where the locomotive was scheduled to arrive within the hour. Evidently word of his arrival in the village had spread, as he was accosted by a host of young children, looking to meet the 'Elf boy'.

"I don't actually live in the centre of the world, I'm actually homeless."

"Ethics notwithstanding, I don't actually possess the capabilities to 'magic' anyone."

"I haven't met a dragon, I saw a bear once though."

Eventually the horde grew uninterested, and were led away by apologetic looking parents. Avakian spent the rest of the time waiting for the locomotive discussing frivolities with Andy. He realised he frequently learned more from these conversations than he did when actively trying to glean information from him, so he resolved to engage in 'pointless' conversations more often.

The locomotive arrived shortly after Andy had finished explaining, in nigh-excruciating depth, the difference between the various systems of government in the Manifold. Andy seemed to be a proponent of the system of democracy utilised by the 74th Fold, in which anyone could be awarded a vote if they passed a simple sapience test.

"Theoretically even a farm animal could vote if it was smart enough to take the test." He said.

Avakian boarded the locomotive considering the intricacies of intelligent livestock running the government.

'You could probably write a halfway decent novel about that,' He thought. 'Title it 'Farm Animals' or something.