Upon waking up, Athys realized it was already growing dark out, he stood up and felt an instant hunger in his stomach. Quickly pulling out another potted meat he stops, setting it back into his sack, he pulls out the jar of beets and opens it after some difficulty with the seal. Pulling one out he pops it into his mouth and chews it with relative ease. The brine alone fills him with energy as he swallows and drinks the last of his water. Closing the jar, he sets it back into his sack and ties it off. He makes his bed and slides on his pack before slipping out the door and down the stairs, arriving at the bar he hands the Innkeeper his room key with a "Thank you for your hospitality." before heading towards the door. "Thank you for staying the night er.. day." the Innkeeper responds as Athys closes the door to the tavern.
The sun is setting just above the roofs and people bustle quickly along the street, mothers and children return home from a late grocery run, merchants finish closing their market stalls and night workers switch their shifts with the day workers. As Athys walked through the closed market place, he noticed an older man in dull armor taking his time with closing his stall. Athys pondered what to do for a moment before approaching the man "May I help you close your stall, sir?", the man looked to Athys "I would be grateful for the assistance." the armored man responded. Athys took the other side of the stall and helped the man fold it up onto the ground. The man eyed Athys with an inquisitive thought, "What is your occupation young man?", "I arrived here this morning so nothing quite yet." Athys responded. With a perk in the mans facial expression "Well, I run the recruitment for the city guard and our enlistments have been... lack luster. Would you be interested in signing up for a training position? At your age you probably have a few years before you are of service so you would have plenty of time to train before coming of age.", Athys looked at the man and with a serious response he asked "Would I receive at least one meal a day?". The recruiter chuckled and said "If you pass the entrance test then you get 3 meals a day and a bed in the barracks.". Athys nodded and with a decisive tone "Alright, I'll sign up.", the recruiter sighed in relief and pulled out a stick of charcoal and a recruitment paper from his satchel, "What is your name young man?" the recruiter questioned.
"I am Athys Belthi of Dentan village." Athys responded, the recruiter nodded and put down Athys's name and title before handing it to Athys. "Tomorrow morning, head to the barracks and show the man at the desk that paper, he will take it from there and you will be on your way to the test. Oh and remember this, the city guards motto is "Pull them by the roots so that the garden may flourish.". "If the man at the desk asks who signed it, my name is Jonathan Motella." and with that, the recruiter headed off, leaving Athys with the document in his hands. After a few moments, Athys walks follows in the direction the recruiter headed off and ended up at the entrance to the barracks, a formidable looking structure that looked like a ships hull turned over and covered in shingles. Not wanting to intrude, Athys took a seat next to the door as the suns light finally fell below the roofs of the city and gave way to darkness. Reaching into his sleeve absentmindedly, he feels for his dagger, not being able to find it left him annoyed and admittedly a little afraid. Confused as to where it might have gone, he realized that it must have been taken by the man at the counter of the bath house. Standing up, he started walking down the darkened street, not noticing the shifting in the corner of his vision, suddenly a hand cupped over his mouth as he jolted to a stop and a point was felt at his throat. In his ear he heard the familiar voice from earlier that day "Your pack or your life.". Thinking quickly, Athys grabbed the blade of the dagger at his throat and straightened it out in the mans hand, its curve dug into Athys palm but only ended up helping Athys's grip on it. The man tried to over power Athys by pushing him down, but as he fell, Athys used the momentum to pull the push dagger out of the mans hand. With a severely cut hand Athys wielded his dagger again and turned over as the man tried to grapple him on the ground. Athys tried to stab the man in the stomach, but his hand was caught and pushed against the ground. The man started hitting Athys in the face as he kept his balance on top, before Athys could react any further. Suddenly a light was appearing just out of the mans view, but within Athys's. "HELP!" Athys screamed, suddenly the light appeared around the corner and the man looked back to it with fear, in that moment of weakness, Athys shoved the point of his dagger into the mans wrist. Recoiling from the sudden pain the man let go of Athys.
Foot steps were heard coming closer and the drawing of a sword from its sheath, but before the guard could react to the sight before him, he suddenly saw an arm swing up and a blade go into the mans neck. Athys was given the chance and he took it with all his might, sending as much force as he could into the mugger above him. The man shuddered a bit before slumping to the ground and clawing at his throat as he spit up blood. Athys let go of the dagger in the mans throat and looked to the guard with wide eyes as he sat up. The guard looked back and forth from the man to Athys back to the man and finally sheathed his sword before picking up Athys by the arm, "What happened here?!" the guard said in an angry voice. "He tried to rob me with that dagger, luckily it wasn't a regular blade so I was able to grab it and wrestle it from the man. He tackled me and because of you, I managed to turn it back onto him. I didn't want to kill him, I was afraid he would kill me if I didn't." Athys responded calmly. The guard looked at Athys with a serious expression and he let go of his arm, "You are going to come with me to answer some questions.", Athys nodded and followed the man, rubbing his back since the impact of the ground made his pack dig into his skin. They returned to the barracks and stepped inside, the guard looked to the other one at the desk and said "This kid was supposedly mugged by the young man who ran the bath house, grab someone and go collect his body from in front of the bakery. The other guard nodded and gave Athys a confused but annoyed look and walked off down the hallway behind him. The guard Athys was following walked down another hallway and down some steps, into a room with a thick wooden door, the guard stopped and motioned for Athys to sit down at the table. Athys did so and the guard sat down on the other side of it, "What is your occupation in the city?" the guard asked in a calm voice, "Well, I just arrived here this morning and in only recently signed up for this." Athys responded while pulling out his folded document and handing it to the guard. The guard opened it and looked from the document to Athys, "What is your name?" the guard asked. "Athys Belthi of Dentan village, sir.". The guard stoppec for a moment before inquiring "Who signed this paper for you?", "His name was Jonathan Motella" Athys said after a few moments. The guard nodded and said "This checks out, why were you outside after dark anyways?", "I arrived at the city gates this morning just after the sun came up, I had been walking all night from my village to here. I went to the tavern and passed out after that journey, only waking up as the sun started to set." The guard looked at Athys and back to the paper for a few moments then stood up and said, "Well, the man-at-arms is currently retired to his bed, so you will have to wait to be tested until tomorrow. Hmm, would you mind sleeping in the holding cell for a night? We can't have you sleep in the barracks as killed someone earlier and we can't let you sleep at the tavern since you well, killed someone earlier."
Athys nods and stands up as well. The guard leads him down to the holding cells and opens one for the night, Athys steps in and the guard closes it with a click and checks it to make sure its locked. "Sleep tight, you have a big day tomorrow since this murder is going to be cleared up as well as your peculiar position as having just signed up for the city guard."