It was a surreal sight. Some sort of a medieval English town and James was standing right in the middle of it. The streets were lined with two story cottages and townhouses that seemed to get wider as they got higher. On the ground floor most of the houses were either stores or workshops. There were stores for all sorts of things, butchers, fishmongers, tailors, leatherworkers and many more. Above the stores were wooden signs hanging down. There were pictures carved into them relating to whatever they were trying to sell. He also noticed that the majority of buildings didn’t have glass in the windows, just shutters that could be closed at night or during bad weather.
James just stood there, mouth agape, looking around him. He had been hoping to borrow a phone off someone but that was not going to happen now. That doorway must have sent me back in time or something, he said to himself. The streets were busy with people and horse and carts making their way up and down the streets. Some people, especially small kids, were slowing down and pointing at him, sometimes laughing at him and other times just giving him funny looks. He certainly stood out. For one thing he was the tallest person around by a good few inches. But the thing that was sticking out the most was the smell. The place stank. There was piles of horse dung and other, hopefully not human, dung all over the street.
“Get out of the way you damned fool!” A man shouted angrily from atop a horse pulled cart behind James.
“Sorry!” He replied while jumping out of the way. The man with the horse and cart quickly made his way by James.
“What are you doing just standing in the middle of the road sir?” A small scruffy looking child asked. He looked like he had been crawling through mud.
“Walking, I guess.” Just after speaking, James’s stomach rumbled loudly.
“Hungry are ya sir?”
“I suppose I am. Where do people go to get something to eat around here?”
“Most people just eat at home of course, but travelers head to one of the inns. There’s a good one just down that street.” He said while pointing down a side street.
“Thanks kid” James replied and said his goodbyes after his stomach rumbled again.
He set off down the street the child had pointed to. This one was much darker and more narrow. But hunger lead him further down until he came across a large two story building with a small stable to the side. The sign above the door displayed a beer cup overlayed on top of a bow and arrow. This must be the place.
The inn was quiet, not surprising as is was still early afternoon. There was lots of wooden tables all arranged haphazardly around the average sized room. The bar was quite long and up against the front wall. There was also a row of high stools along the bar. It kinda reminded James of a traditional Irish or English pub except it was missing the shelves of nicknacks and random pictures. A few candles on shelves near the back and open windows next to the door lit the place up. The narrow wooden stairway to the rear and left of the room finished the look of the place. The few customers in the place looked up, gave James an odd look for a second and then went back to their meals or conversions.
“Hello sir! Can I help you with anything?” A portly, balding man said as he was walking behind the bar towards James.
“Looking for something to eat.”
“Certainly.” The man rattled off the short menu. After making my order the man asked for two copper. Taking out his wallet, James grabbed all his coins, and picked out two pennies.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“Will these do?” He asked while handing them over.
“Yeah they’ll do fine.” The innkeeper replied after taking a good look at them. He then made his way into what presumably was the the kitchen.
I sat down at the the bar, not too far away from the door. The innkeeper came back with a cup of cider and said, “stew will be out to you in minute, just warming it up”. I nodded and he continued, “haven’t see your like round here before. Haven’t ever seen clothes like that either. Where are you from?”
Thinking quick James replied with “just got here today. Thought I might find some work.” I guess I need to stick to that story now.
“There’s a lot of people thinking the same as you recently. A lot of them end up disappointed. Hasn't been much jobs around town lately. So where are you staying?”
“I don’t know actually. Have any free rooms?”
“I do indeed.” The innkeeper replied while nodding his head. “Rooms are 3 copper a night. Breakfast is extra.”
James took another look at the coins he had left. He had a enough pennys to do one night but after that he had no idea what to do. He handed over the 3 pennies and said, “I’ll have a room tonight then.”
“Excellent!” the innkeeper said, looking happy with himself. He grabbed a key from the back wall and lay it down in front of me. “There’s your key. One of the barmaids will be more than happy to show you o your room when your ready.”
“Sounds good.”
“Ahh!” said the innkeeper, looking startled. “I shall be back with your food.”
While he was gone James took a sip of his cider and got to thinking. What was he going to do tomorrow? Where was he going to get money to stay here tomorrow night? He couldn’t use any of his quarters. They’re just nickel plated copper, using them could get him into trouble. Maybe he could sell them for the raw metal. That will probably be the best course of action. He could see the innkeeper making his way towards him with his food.
“Enjoy!” He said as he set a wooden bowl down and stepped away to deal with his other customers.
----------------------------------------
James was walking down one of the main streets and still getting odd looks now and again. He was coming up on the centre of the town. He had asked the innkeeper before he left where to sell some metal he had with him and as James had suspected he directed him towards the blacksmiths Those directions could have been better he said to himself. Upon showing the blacksmith the coins and explaining that they were mostly copper with another metal covering it. He explained that by the time the metals were seperated there would be no profit to be made, which was fair enough.
By the time he was finished with the blacksmith it was beginning to get late. He’d been walking down this busy main street thumbing a cheap bracelet he’d been wearing. He had a habit of buying those cloth bracelets with multi-coloured plastic jewels at concerts and other events. Seemed to be a better way of remembering it instead of random pictures that he was never going to look at again. Then he had an idea. He remembered passing a jewellery shop not long ago. That was his new destination now, let’s hope it’s still open.
The jewellery shop looked a bit more upmarket than most of the other shops he had seen and was one of the only shops with glass in the windows. He opened the door and stepped in. Immediately in front was a waist high counter that ran the length of the shop. Behind that were display cases of different types of jewellery.
A cute petite women appeared from the doorway behind the counter, gave James a strange look and asked, “Hello sir! It there anything I can help you with”. Her voice was quite melodic.
James quickly took off the bracelet.“I’d like to sell this.” He said and placed it on the counter.
“Well, it’s certainly interesting.” She picked it up and had a good look at the ‘gems’. “These don’t feel like any gems I’ve seen before. There crystal clear and smoothly cut. Very impressive.”
This was good news for James they sounded expensive.
“I’d say they’d worth about one gold.” She said upon further inspection.
James knew he could probably get a bit more out of her and made a counter offer, she made a further counter and on it went until they finally agreed on one gold and six silver coins.
“You drive quite a hard bargain...”
“James”
“Alright James. I’m Nicola. If you come across any more gems like this you know where to find me.” She said while handing over the coins.
“I’ll be sure to do that Nicola. It was nice meeting you.”