Julie straddled her horse as it trotted up the paved highway leading to the outskirts of the
city. Merlon was beautiful, houses and
buildings built close together, slopping gradually up to the monolithic palace in the
center, the entire scene framed by the setting sun.
Beautiful she thought to herself, especially after two days of riding
horseback.
A smile crossed her wearied face, Kenan's stupid artifacts could wait until tomorrow, Julie
needed rest. Her smile widened at the
prospect of sleeping in a proper bed by herself, gods she felt as if she could fall asleep on
the horse right at that moment.
Julie reluctantly opened her eyes, she really needed to find an inn or
something.
However as the tired traveller and her horse rounded the corner her eyes widened in surprise, the street was packed with people, sights, and sounds the likes of which she had never seen before. Lanterns were strung across the rooftops as well as orange banners. More orange banners hung from windows and the street was filled with people drinking, dancing and generally looking like they were having a good time. A band with otherworldly instruments filled the scene with beautiful, music as people wove in between booths and tents.
Julie steered her horse away from the din and merrymaking of what must have been the
entire city and off down a smaller side street,
no way she was going to make it through that. After the noise died a bit she came to a
tall, narrow building displaying a faded paint
sign reading 'Forests Inn' in large bold letters.
Breathing a sigh of relief she slid off her horse and tied him too the post in front
then pushed the heavy wooden door open.
At first glance, Forests Inn was disgusting and grimy, at second glance however, it had a certain homely quality about it, a friendliness to it's grime. The woman at the counter looked up a bit startled as the bell above the door gave a little tinkling sound. The woman was pretty, blonde curly hair tied in up, a pretty face, striking blue eyes and an attractive figure with slight curves. She wore a faded blue dress with ruffles and pouffy sleeves with a low cut neckline that showed off a modest amount of cleavage.
" 'Ello miss, here for the festival then?" She said in a sweet voice.
"The what?"
"The festival of Eho, goddess of change , 'alf the country's turned up for it I reckon. T'be honest I wish I were there." At this the girl gave a little sigh then offered her hand.
"I'm Catia by the way, Catia Forest, 'me dad owns the inn." Catia gave Julie a sweet smile as she took her hand.
"Actually I'm here on... business. Didn't know about the festival."
"Well it'll be like this for the next two days, this is the first night though, openin' ceremonies will be comin' soon." Catia turned and checked the large clock on the wall with a pained expression.
Julie felt bad for the girl and gave her a weak smile, "I didn't see anybody else out there on the streets, you could probably slip away to the thing if you wanted."
Catia beamed, "You'd look after the place for me?"
"I don't see why not."
The girl practically leaped over the table and gave Julie an affectionate squeeze.
"Oh thank you, miss!"
Giving Julie a large key on a loop, Catia told her where her room was then, after Julie
insisted she didn't need help with her bags, the
sweet girl left for the festival, a definite skip in her step.
After her horse was stowed safely in the stables out back, Julie smiled as she carried
her two travel bags up a flight of narrow
steps, arriving at a heavy wooden door displaying the same number as the key. She turned
the key and pushed the door open onto a
room just as grimy and dirty as the rest of the inn, tiny too. A single bed took up most of
it, aside from that there was a small bedside
table that seemed to double as a dresser and desk, a small stool, a tin bathtub and a
mirror that hung over the bedside
table/dresser.../desk. As well as a window that seemed to open up onto the wall of the
next building over.
Julie smiled contentedly, the room possessed the same charm as the rest of the inn, she let her travel bags drop at her feet and collapsed on the bed fully clothed, not caring about magical artifacts, or evil wizards, or mutated villagers, or that she was so very far from home...