In the quiet darkness of night, the growl of Lilis little stomach could be heard. Above her, in the night sky, the clouds slowly were departing and letting the moon's bright light shine upon her path. For almost a whole day now, she had been on a constant running pace and now her legs were aching and her run had turned into a sluggish walk.
With each step she took her legs hurt and her body wanted to stop, but her mind stayed strong, it told her to keep on moving and to never quit and never surrender. She rubbed her hazy eyes lazily and looked into the dark distance lit only by the moonlight. Then she spotted something.
Up ahead, she could see the forest end and vast fields of something beginning. A light of hope was lit in her heart and she once more pushed herself onwards to see the sight better. As she came closer she realized that indeed they were fields, but not just any field but vast fields of wheat by the looks of them. In front of her for the next couple of hundred or so meters, there was nothing but fields of wheat.
Stopping there at the line where the forest ended and the fields of wheat began she started to observe her surroundings.
Looking at the scenery around her she could see a decent sized river on her left, hilly terrain covered by trees to her right and up ahead next to the road there was a line of bushes and behind the bushes, she could have sworn that she saw the shapes of houses and some light that was definitely not coming from the moon.
With caution, she started walking down the road closer to the long rows of bushes that flanked the road on both sides. Coming in closer she could see that behind the bushes were a few more small fields of wheat that then led to what seemed like small wooden walls made out of tree trunks that had their tops sharpened to a point. And there in front of her just at the end of the dirt road was indeed what seemed like a wooden tall gate also made of thick tree trunks. Although in the darkness all she could see was the outlines of the walls so she wasn't quite sure if this was what she saw, so she pressed onwards.
Walking even closer the sight became even clearer and her eyes widened in excitement. Finally, she had found civilization, although this seemed to be nothing more than a medieval farming village it was still a good start. But there was also a sense of caution in the back of her head as the village did seem oddly quiet and dark. Slowly picking up the pace her sluggish walking quickly turned into a sprint as her legs were once more filled with adrenaline.
Coming in front of the gate she stopped and listened, finally she could hear the voices of people on the other side and smell the smells of fresh homemade foods. Her small nose sniffed the air and its many delicious smells that consisted of meat and vegetables mixed in with some fish and most importantly actual fresh bread. Her mouth drooled as she smelled the scent and her stomach growled. Sure she could have eaten all her berries to ease her hunger, but honestly, she was completely over eating berries at this point. For the past 8 winters, her food had been too simple and too full of berries to her liking.
Placing her hands on the smooth wooden gate she then pushed with all her might. The gate felt solid and heavy to her and it wasn't budging at all. There must have been something blocking the gate on the other side, she thought. In annoyance, she pouted at the gate and looked for another way inside.
Looking at the gate she could see that it was definitely too smooth for her to grab onto and climb over and way too tall for her to jump up and grab a hold of its top from where she could then pull herself up. So she turned to the walls and went in front of them.
Looking at the individual logs, she could see that each one of them had a small round portion of them sticking out which gave her hope. Maybe she could use that as leverage to climb up. Or well that's what she thought anyway, almost immediately after trying this she realised it to be fruitless. She just couldn't find a good grip on the damn things.
Shaking her head in disappointment, she then tossed this idea into the trash bin section of her mind. Thinking further on this problem she then remembered some climbing videos she had seen in her previous life.
In those videos. people could climb pretty much anything as long as they could create some leverage on something. Those people could even climb smooth large pillars by simply placing their hands on the pillars side and by pressing their hands hard against the pillar they could create leverage like that. After that, they would simply go up inch by inch and use their legs as well if possible.
Just like in those videos, she spread out her hands and pressed hard against the wood as if she were trying to crush something in between her hands. She could feel her little chest muscles bulge as she did this and then she was lifted slightly off the ground with her face hugging the wall.
With all her might she kept on pressing and managed to lift her legs up against the wall. She could feel the burn in her muscles and the sweat starting to form as she then attempted to move her right hand up, But as she did so she lost control and fell on her little ass.
With her many plans coming to a disappointing end she then went on to her final plan and most daring plan of all. Walking in front of the wooden gate she took in a deep breath of air and started to yell pleadingly.
"Please let me in! Please I beg of you to open this gate! You can even have my strawberries if you let me in! Please just open up!"
Then she waited for a response, but there was no response. Most likely it was as she had feared the people in the village were simply being too loud for anyone to hear her small yells.
Seeing no other choice Lili started banging her little fists at the gate as she kept on yelling and screaming for somebody to come and open up the gate.
" Please let me in! Please let me in right now! Fuking hell let me in you bastards! Doesn't this village have any gate guards, holy shit! Let me in right now or I'm going to scream! No answer? Well here goes! Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Fucking shit Iiiiiiiiiiii!"
For an entire minute, she kept on screaming until a dogs bark came from the other side of the gate followed by some mans yelling.
"Jesus Christ Fenton, stop! Christ oh mighty, what's making that noise?"
Then she heard the dog go quiet and the sounds of somebody climbing a wooden ladder up to the wall could be heard. Then the man's dark figure came into view on her right side atop the wall. In a rough brutish old man's voice, the man yelled at her.
" The hell was that screaming about? Oi, who are you? State your name and purpose!"
Looking up at the man she could see the outline of him in the darkness and by the looks of it he seemed to be holding something that seemed like a bow in his hands. Seeing this Lili felt nervous as sweat started forming on her face as she stutteringly came up with a response.
"I I, I, I am Lili. I'm j just, just a traveler looking for a place to stay the night. That's all sir."
The man didn't speak immediately as he seemed to be looking for something in the darkness behind her. Then he turned to her and said.
"What's a little kid like you doing out here in the middle of the night? The nearest village is over 40 kilometers away. Are you an orphan or something? Where are your parents?"
Hearing the man's words made Lili gasp a little in shock. If the nearest village was so far away then just how few people actually lived in these lands. To her amazement, she had truly made the right choice by picking the right side. If she had gone left then she wasn't sure if she could have actually made it to civilization before sunrise.
Pushing these thoughts away she honestly answered the man by saying.
"No sir I'm not an orphan. I do have a father and a home in the woods. It's just that I have never seen my father or much of anybody for that matter so I got a bit lonely and wanted to see what the rest of the world looks like. That's all sir I swear."
In response, the man's tone of voice seemed to turn softer as he said.
"And, what's your fathers name then? You know that at least don't you? Is he from this village? Maybe I can help you find him?"
Hearing the man's question made her feel sad. Sure she couldn't quite yet truthfully say that she was an orphan as she hadn't seen her father die, but she for sure was a lonely neglected child without any parental figures in her life. In the end her situation in this life didn't differ much from her previous life which made her feel a bit depressed. Saddened by these thoughts Lili shook her head and said.
"No, I don't know his name or where he is, but I'm sure that his going to find me one day."
The man seemed to be doing the sign of the cross as he then tossed a rope down the wall and said.
"I see well come up quickly its not safe for you out there."
Seeing the rope she didn't hesitate to run to it and start climbing the wall. Although it did seem quite strange, why couldn't he just open the gate? Coming close to the top of the wall she felt the man grab her cloak and start to lift her. Surprised by this Lili screamed like a little girl.
"Kyaahh!"
The man acted as if he was lifting nothing but a light 24 kilogram sack of potatoes as he easily pulled her up the wall and into his arms and then set her down next to him. The man placed a gentle but rough hand upon her head as he crouched down almost to her eye level and spoke again.
"Are you ok little miss? I didn't scare you did I?"
Looking at the man Lili could see that his hair was gray and messy, his teeth were crooked and his skin dirty. The man also smelled a little sweaty and even worse was his breath which stank like rotten eggs. Dressed in some dirty medieval peasant clothes that had multiple patches on it didn't do any favours to his appearance either.
Honestly, she felt like pushing this disgusting man away and she probably would have if it wasn't for the man's kind looking small hazy blue eyes. Despite his rough appearance the old man did have a comforting air of an old grandpa around him that made her feel at ease.
Despite this, she felt great annoyance towards the old man because of his words as she then said.
"I'm a boy, not a girl. And no I wasn't scared, that shout you heard was just a slip of the tongue. It happens sometimes to me, I can't help it."
The old grandpa seemed confused at her words as he looked her up and down several times and then said.
"I see. Well, you have an interesting name for a boy then Lili. But I will not judge you for it. I myself am called Alcott Alsfield but most people here in this village just call me Old Man Al. Feel free to do the same."
Hearing his words Lilis head turned downwards in thought. Wait his right, isn't it extremely strange for me to call myself Lili and yet say that I'm a boy and at the same time I also look like a girl? If you think of it its like I'm asking to be teased for my name and appearance.
Feeling conflicted over her own thoughts she looked to the Old Man Al and was about to speak, but the old man had already stood up and started some kind of an introduction of the village as he then said.
"Well Lili, allow me to bid you welcome to our little Village of Einsway. It's not much but I'm sure you'll find all that you'll need here."
Looking into the village Lili couldn't see much as a lot of it was covered in darkness. But what she could see was about 40 or so square shaped houses with small courtyards in the center and only a single arching entrance to sed country's. Around them were some smaller buildings seemingly for storage or for the animals and pretty much everything was in complete darkness.
In fact there was indeed no electricity here to be seen, the house's were made of wood and had roofs seemingly made of straw. Also the homes had seemingly no large windows, or any glass windows for that matter. There were no cars either, just some wooden carts, small fences around and grassy fields around the houses that had seemingly been eaten by some animals.
The village was built in a surprisingly large oval shape with the river guarding it on the left and wooden walls all around. On the other side of the village where the dirt road led to there was another gate with another guard. In the center of the village there seemed to be an Inn that was lit by lantern lights.
And overall it to Lilis amazement truly did seem that she had come into some medieval world from the dark ages. Although she could also see a watermill next to the river and even a windmill on a small hill overlooking the village, which were things that didn't belong to the dark ages, but a bit later on.
In fact if she recalled correctly, that windmill that she could see was something called a tower mill. The sight of it baffled her, to her knowledge tower mills were an invention of the late 13th century. From the looks of it, it seemed to be built for grinding the grain, while the water mill seemed to be working as a sawmill which was also quite a late invention. But just how could such things be here in this village that seemed to belong to the Dark Ages? To her it didn't seem to make sense and made her feel quite confused on what time period she might've actually been in.
While interested by this her thoughts were soon taken elsewhere as the old man pointed at the largest building in the village situated in the center of the village. This building was only three stories tall and fully made of wood, but compared to everything else it seemed like a luxury mansion. The building even had actual lanterns around it to create some light. It looked just like some old Medieval Inn from the Middle-ages, with its three chimneys and white walls mixed in with wood.
Looking at this large building Lili then heard the old man explain.
"That there is our village pride and joy, The Dancing Dragon Inn. If you're looking for a place to stay then that's where you'll find it, they are also always looking for little helpers so you might even be able to find yourself some work there. The building was actually just recently upgraded by the orders of the lord. Now It also works as a messenger post. You see this is a halfway point between two large towns and our village chief is called Ein, so that's why we call this village Einsway You see."
Rubbing her dainty little hands against her chin Lili couldn't help but feel that there was certainly something off about this place. In a way, this place didn't seem to fit the picture she had of a normal medieval town. Why were all the buildings built into square formations with little to no access inside except for one single opening? In wonder, she spoke to the old man and said.
"Old Man Al, why is it that your village is built so defensively? Even though this is such a small place you still have these walls and men like you guarding them. Are you perhaps under some kind of threat here? Is this a safe place to be?"
Hearing this the old man Al turned to her with a serious look and said.
"I see so nobody has ever told you?"
Raising an eyebrow at this question Lili simply shook her head as the old man pulled up his shirt sleeve and revealed multiple scars hidden there that seemed like they had been done by blades. Then he pulled down his sleeve and said.
"Bandits Lili, bandits. All these scars you see have come from them specifically, sure there are other threats as well, but here we are luckily only facing a few bandits as all. And their blades are quite dull usually so only scars are gained and no limbs of mine have luckily been cut off thus far, hahaha.
You see times have been tough around here recently because of the constant raids in the north by those fucking dogs, and so when times are tough many turn to crime. Luckily there are brave young knights roaming around these lands in search of those bastards, but I would not travel away from home if I were you. If those bandits spot you then you are as good as gone, they ain't going to hesitate to put a chain around your neck and brand you as a slave, so be careful when traveling alone. But don't worry this village is safe. Sure we do have a group of strangers staying at the Inn, but worry not their only four men strong and no match for our villages many men. So if they try anything we will be sure to give them a good bloody nose as punishment."
Lilis eyes turned wide in horror as she asked.
"What do you mean people get enslaved? Isn't that illegal?"
Placing a hand on her head the old man laughed and said.
"Hahaha, what do you mean illegal? It has always been legal. Its one of the most common forms of punishment here for any criminals. You see once a criminal gets their slave mark they lose all their rights. If a slave escapes and is seen wandering around without their master then its everyones responsibility to see that person reported to the guards or see that slave arrested."
Shocked by this Lili couldn't help but say.
"What? But that's wrong, how can you just assume that somebody is guilty by their slave mark? What if somebody is taken against their will and then branded by a slave mark, wouldn't that just cause massive amounts of kidnappings to take place then?"
Once more the old man laughed and said.
"Indeed, but you see most people have large families and many relatives, plus a lot of friends and if they can prove that you are not indeed a criminal worthy of being a slave. Then the one that placed the slave mark will be sentenced to death. So no one would ever dare to do such foolish things usually, but kids like you are a whole other thing. Thats why I'm warning you to not go out there on the road alone. Its best If you try and build an honest life here in the village if you can. We are always open to welcoming new people to our village if they are good honest hard-working people."
Hearing all of this Lili couldnt help but shiver slightly at the thought of slavery. But luckily for her, she wasnt an ordinary little helpless girl. She was a former Police Officer and a fighter. This primitive medieval world could not hold her down, she was no doubt destined for greatness and probably lots of money as well.
Maybe once she became somebody of great importance she could then make a change to this primitive world. With these thoughts in the back of her mind, Lili just scoffed at the old man's words and said.
"Dont worry old man. I'm a lot tougher than I might look like. You'll see."
The old man just laughed and said.
"Hahaha, sure kid. I like your attitude, lets just hope it doesnt come and bite you, hahaha. I say feel free to do as you please. Just remember no stealing or entering buildings without permission or there will be trouble. And, dont worry about my dog Fenton, his a good boy."
Nodding her head Lili thanked the man for his advice and started to climb down the ladders down to the grass below where she could see what looked like an Old English Sheepdog waving its furry tail.
Stepping down onto the grass she was immediately met with the dogs sniffing and licking. The dog was so big that it almost came to her chest height and seemed absolutely massive compared to her, especially with its thick fur coat. Although after giving the dog a few pats on its head it seemed to quickly lose interest as it just walked away to an open patch of grass and lay down.
Despite the shortness of the moment, Lili felt quite happy with having gotten to pet the furry dog, although she did feel that petting her chickens was maybe a bit nicer. Then she felt her stomach growl once more reminding her of what she came here for. As she started heading towards the Dancing Dragon Inn, she then heard the Old Man Al shouting.
"Have fun little Miss, I wish you the best of luck!"
Hearing this Lilis eyebrow rose as she wondered why was he all of a sudden calling her little miss again, she didnt correct her own words did she? Maybe the old mans memory was just that short? Shrugging her shoulders at this thought she just waved him goodbye and headed for the Inn.