The other side of the fancy gate was markedly different.
From serenity to rowdiness, from order to chaos, from tranquility to tumult...
*Need I say more? It looks like everyone has somewhere to be.*
I couldn't find many people like myself who were just taking it easy.
*Though I can't stay like this for too long, the carriage driver said I should easily be able to reach the Guild in under 3 hours by walking.*
I didn't even need to walk - horse-drawn carriages, oxen-driven carts, and some other strange vehicles lugged around by unrecognizable four-legged creatures roamed the streets, kicking up dust wherever they wandered.
*Is that a dinosaur pulling a floating platform?*
It was a strange mishmash of things I recognized and things I didn't.
*How am I supposed to get across the street?*
My hometown was orders of magnitude more strict and orderly than this place - no one would even dare to set foot on a crosswalk if the sign was red. Here, though, streetlights, crosswalks... they were nonexistent.
*I can't spot any signage at all, actually.*
Even the countless tiny shops were not labeled at all. The ones that had any semblance of a sign nearby were so worn down they didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being understood.
*The dust's not making anything easier, either...*
Nearly everyone was covering their nose and mouth with some sort of cloth, and I was drawing several stares as the odd one out.
*In more ways than one.*
Most people were wearing white or some other very bright colors, while I was dressed in jet-black. The locals were covering their hair, and I took no such precaution. My sword was among the largest weapons anyone was carrying - those that did equip themselves wore daggers on their hips.
Surprisingly, my cyan hair color was one of the things that wasn't super out of the ordinary. While most did have some sort of dark-colored hair, eccentric ones could be seen as well. Maroon, lime, chrome silver, and deep purple were visible among the crowd, to name a few.
*But I don't see anyone else with cyan specifically... Oh well. I guess I'll just have to draw stares unfortunately.*
I didn't want to stand out *that* much, but it couldn't be helped.
*Now, how do I do this...*
I observed the locals scurrying to and fro, back and forth across the streets. They just seemed to know exactly when and where to speed up and slow down to avoid traffic, whether it be animals or pedestrians. I had no such practice.
*Well, here goes.*
I took a deep breath and plunged into the crowd.
The feeling wasn't far off from swimming against a raging current. Much of the sound drowned out only to be replaced by lower-pitched rumbling. It was a stampede of men and beasts alike.
I imagined that, if cars existed, the honking horns would be blaring all around me. I kept my wits about me and focused on the sliver of a path that extended before me.
*Dodge, weave, heh. In a way, it's not too different from fighting.*
Avoiding people, avoiding vehicles, knowing when and where to move... it really was a sort of dance.
*...*
I feel a small tug at my waist.
I whip around to make eye contact with a silver-eyed, black-haired boy my height.
*Boy, do you have to be dumb to try to steal someone's weapon.*
I was clearly a foreigner, so perhaps he thought I'd be easy pickings for pickpocketing.
*I have a literal pouch of money in my pocket, yet he tries to go for my sword?*
I give him an intense glare and he scurries off like a mouse seeking refuge from a cat.
*It's a good warning, at least. Thanks kid.*
If I wasn't paying attention to the money in my pocket before, I sure was now.
With a bit more focus, I emerge safely on the other side of the street, and the sounds of the wider world enter my ears once more.
*Whew. ... Wait a second.*
I was cheerful, but perhaps it was a bit too early to celebrate.
*How many more streets do I need to cross??*