The town isn’t that big, maybe a mile in diameter. You estimate around 1,500-2,000 residents. A wooden wall and a few archer posts serve as fortifications. Not strong enough for a proper siege — but enough to keep wild animals and ruffians out. Three guards stand at the entrance, lightly-armored and carrying spears.

“Eomer!” one of the guards hails. “How was the hunt? Will we get to see more boar at the stands?” he asks eagerly.

“Indeed, indeed,” answers Eomer. “We managed to subdue three of the beasts. My part should be enough to cover the wife’s delivery and the new kid.”

“I heard your wife was due any day now,” remarked the guard. “It’s a good thing you got back in time.

The guard finally notices you — or finally chooses to notice you. “Who’s the new kid?” gesturing towards you.

“He’s a fellow hunter from Fishcreek,” answers Eomer. “He’ll be living with Thomas for the time being until he can settle on his own.”

“Caleb,” you introduce yourself to the guard.

“If Eomer and his hunters will vouch for you — then you’re more than welcome in Ashford,” the guard says as he shakes your hand. He looks to Eomer afterward, “Get that boy a bath. Where the hell did you find him?”

Eomer and the hunters laugh but provide no further answers.

“I’ll be taking the wagon with Trent to sell the goods,” says Eomer. “You guys can go home.” He pauses for a bit and turns to you, “Do you want me to sell your pelts and beast cores?”

“Yes please, thank you,” you answer as you give him the beast cores and two of the pelts. You keep one of the frostwolf pelts for yourself.

The hunters go their separate ways, although you and Thomas stick together. He wanted to get dinner in some inn but decided not to. “After a bath,” he chided. “Alice will kill me if I bring someone as grimy and smelly as you to her inn.”

You laugh silently. You’re looking forward to the bath yourself so you can get to know more of this town. At first glance, everything seems so alien and a bit primitive. Everyone you pass by seems to be living comfortably, but something tells you — you’ve seen far better conditions.

After a few minutes of walking, you arrive at Thomas’s residence. It is definitely not a commoner’s house. It has its own courtyard and the house is relatively large compared to the others that you passed by. It even had a couple of archery targets by the wall. The location isn’t that good as the house is located directly beside the town’s defensive wall, so maybe that brought down the cost a bit.

“Welcome to my home,” Thomas proudly says. “The bath is to the left and I will get you a fresh set of clothing before you’re done.”

You nod in gratitude and enter the bath. It was a crude and simple one — with just a large barrel filled with water and a copper water dipper. Surprisingly, you find a crude form of soap.

You quickly take your bath, getting rid of the accumulated grime and bear musk. You open the door to find a fresh set of clothes on a stool. The clothes fit, a bit tight in some places but quite suitable.

You hear sounds of splashing water as you approach the house. Apparently, Thomas had another bath inside — quite luxurious for a mere hunter.

Thomas emerges from the house, dressed in flamboyant red clothing. It’s a good thing he gave you plain-looking clothes — at least this way he gets most of the attention.

“Let’s go,” he says walking towards the street. “Time for you to get to know the hungry cat.”

You follow in his footsteps and after a couple of minutes walking, you arrive at your destination. Hungry Cat was the name of the inn.

You hear boisterous conversations inside as well as the sounds of everyday people having their meals. You count twenty-three patrons inside and three serving girls. Alice is probably the older woman behind the counter.

You and Thomas approach the counter and take your seats.

“A house special with double the servings of meat for me and my new friend,” Thomas orders for the both of you. He looks at you and says, “My treat for the time being — you can pay after you get your money from Eomer by tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” you accept the small kindness.

The meal consists of what seems to be double portions of leg of lamb, some vegetables, and a pint of ale. It was quite suitable, easily digestible and filled with nutrients. The ale had an alcohol concentration of around 6 percent. You could have made a more accurate measure but you didn’t bother with the insignificant detail.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

You see Thomas chatting with one of the barmaids. It seems they have some sort of relationship or the barmaid is just really good at her job. Eventually, Thomas got tired of flirting with the barmaid and the two of you return to his house.

He leads you to a small shed behind the house. It’s dark but you could see a wooden bed with a somewhat thin mat.

“This is your place for as long as you need it,” says Thomas. “I should have cleaned it before we left, but it’s still better than the open ground.” He gestures at a few objects inside saying, “There’s a lamp, some wood, and flint inside if you want light or fire.”

“Thank you,” you say wholeheartedly. “I’m sure this place will be fine.”

“We’ll meet Eomer and the others in the guild tomorrow for our money,” he says with a bit of excitement. “Those boars will sell for good money and those cores of yours will probably get the attention of the more expensive shops.”

Thomas enters his house, visibly tired from the journey — leaving you alone in the converted shed. You light a fire with the flint, making a small fire before eventually lighting the lamp. You start working on your solitary wolf pelt — shaping into something like a hood that you can wear. You do this not out of a sense of fashion but protection.

You have an instinctual aversion to cold and this wolf’s pelt seems to be immune to it. You saw one of the wolves getting hit with another’s frost breath but it didn’t seem to take any damage and you’re hoping the pelt somewhat retains this ability.

You entertain the thought of roaming inside the city but felt it would be better to give your new companions the opportunity to guide you. However, outside is another matter.

You leave your room and head to the wall, noting every possible handhold and foothold before even getting there. The wall is fifteen feet high but it only takes you a couple of seconds to scale it and jump down the other side.

You land with minimal noise and note the position where you exited the wall. It is fairly dark so you dash outside the city with little fear of being spotted.

You leisurely walk around the perimeter of the city, but far enough away to evade the eyes of any sentries. The town has three entrances all manned by four or five guards. The roads are somewhat paved, similar to the town’s streets but they extend no further than 3 miles out.

Trade with the town is probably limited because of the unpaved roads — but this isn’t a problem that concerns you for the moment. You visit a few of the residences outside the town — a few loggers and a couple of families that just want to live outside the city.

You come across an abandoned house. A fire seems to have destroyed it and vegetation has taken over the surroundings. Judging from the growth, the place has been abandoned for at least a couple of years.

“Life is hard,” you think. These peasants were probably done in by bandits or orcs. While there is a certain freedom in living outside of town — it’s always safer to live in a walled community. If anyone wants to live outside of the town, they better have the means to defend themselves.

Moving further away you find yourself back in the forested area from before. You decide to pick up the two frostwolf pelts you discarded earlier that day — assuming they’re still there.

They were gone.

You see trails of what seems to be small humanoids. “Goblins perhaps?” you think to yourself, remembering the stories the hunters told on the way back. One of them included sightings of goblins and this might just be that group.

You decide to chase after them but remember your clothing. It would be a shame to mess up your borrowed clothes with goblin blood — not to mention all the explaining and deception that would entail.

From the tracks, you figure that there are around seven or eight goblins. Judging by their footprints, these goblins were probably the size of children. Even if they were strong, the weight difference puts them at a big disadvantage — and you probably weigh four times as much as a single goblin.

Armed with a borrowed dagger, you figure things won’t get dangerous even if things go south. At the most, you would just dirty your clothes.

You gather a few stones. These goblins would probably go down with one hit. You’re not sure if they have some sort of night vision so you keep your distance. Although you can see fairly well with just the starlight, you decide to try something new.

You close your eyes and snap your fingers.

It takes a few tries but soon enough you begin to make out a mental map of the things around you. You try again with your eyes open and it takes a little more concentration.

“Useful,” you think. Maybe those crimson bats had the right idea after all. Although perceiving the world through echoes had its advantage — you lose a lot of detail and there’s a slight delay in transmission. Light is faster than sound, more so because sounds have to bounce back.

The all-around vision is a bit useful, but snapping your fingers constantly won’t work. You try humming a soft drone instead — and it works perfectly. While you’ll still be primarily relying on vision, you now have an extra line of perception to cover your back.

Soon enough, you easily catch up to the goblins. The small humanoids are walking three hundred feet away and they seem to have no idea they’re being followed. They are indeed the size of children and you wonder how they can even pose a threat to the townspeople.

You move closer, making sure not to get heard. The goblins make no effort at vigilance so it’s not a difficult task. You take out a few of the stones you picked up while you trailed the goblins — normal pebbles around an inch or more in diameter. You mark the two goblins with wearing your wolf pelt and you throw two stones consecutively.

The two stones hit. One piercing a goblin’s head, the other smashing through another’s ribcage. “Fragile creatures these goblins,” the thought comes to mind.

Before the other goblins can react, two more of their band are hit with your stones.

They flee, or at least try to.

Even as they scatter in different directions, three of them get hit by flying rocks. The last goblin managed to run a few yards before finally getting hit by a dagger.

You retrieve the dagger. The last goblin actually managed to get you to run.

You retrieve your pelts. Wild animals will probably take care of the goblin corpses and you didn’t want to dirty your clothes by searching their bloody corpses.

You head back to town and straight to the wall you exited from.

You throw the wolf pelts over the wall and then scale it with ease. You take a little more effort to land silently lest you wake up your sleeping host. The pelts get stuffed in one of the drawers in the room and you finally lie down to sleep.

New town, new beginnings — and definitely a myriad possibilities.