Jeremy Laszlo - The Choosing

“Good night my angel.” Seth whispered into her ear.

“Good night love.” She replied.

Morning came quickly, and with its coming the companions awoke and prepared to travel the last few hours to the fortified city of Valdadore. While packing their things they decided before leaving they would let the horses again drink from the river. This decided, they slung their packs onto their shoulders, untied their respective mounts, and led them to the river. The horses drank vigorously for many minutes while their temporary masters waited impatiently for them to drink their fill.

Finally, seemingly satiated, the horses lost interest in the water and the four companions mounted the beasts and set off once again at an alarming pace towards the giant stone city.

The hours passed swiftly as they thundered down the wide paved road towards the capital city. The nearer they got, the larger the city grew. They began to notice more details about the city as they grew steadily closer. There were narrow slits in the wall near the top, and also guards could be seen patrolling the top of the wall. The Unbelievably high towers each had several windows upon each level, facing out in all directions. As the companions raced nearer, it became apparent that the city was much, much larger than they had presumed before. Being just a few miles away from the city at this point, the massive stone wall surrounding it stretched as far as the eye could see, from one horizon to the other, hiding anything beyond the walls from view. It was easily twenty miles across from corner to corner on this particular side of the city with the huge portcullis being directly at its center. The sheer size of it all was enchanting to the travelers. Never had any one of them believed that man could create anything this vast or marvelous.

Still growing nearer they could now see the lines of people flowing through the opening in the massive wall. People were coming and going at a steady flow all the while being randomly stopped and questioned by the guards at the entrance.

Not only were people on their way in and out of the city, but dozens of people could be seen off in the distance in any direction performing various yard work and landscaping tasks. This entire side of the city sat upon a vast field of manicured grass and shrubs. Occasionally a fruit tree jutted from the ground, and though it was getting late in the season, fruit still clung to the branches amidst multi-colored leaves. People also climbed dozens of ladders of varying heights up the outside surface of the wall. From these ladders the people were seen painting the stone surface with a thick white substance. This explained why the stone walls did not resemble those in Stone Haven.

About a mile from the city the four companions reigned in their mounts and slowed them to a slow trot. Ahead of them, about a half a mile, was the end of a line of people waiting patiently for entrance into the city. The line of people moved steadily toward the massive gates, which emitted nearly all, though denied a few seemingly at random. Carts full of wares and crops stood in the long line, along with groups of people, and small herds of animals. Children darted around and through the line all the while being fussed and shouted at by their mothers.

Coming to the end of the line the companions decided to dismount and lead their horses. It was easier to guide the animals amongst the other people this way, and too was more comfortable keeping the slow steady pace on foot. Now dismounted they could no longer see the entire length of the line, but assumed that with the current pace it should take them less than half of an hour to reach the city. They waited patiently, moving slowly and steadily ever forward. The giant walls of the city seemed to loom above them even from this distance. The closer they got, the more ominous the walls became.

Only a hundred or so feet from the gate remained, and the travelers grew impatient. From here they could see past the gate into the city where hundreds of people walked to and fro going about their daily tasks. Buildings could be seen from where they stood and one in particular that they would need to visit. From here, as had been promised, the group could see a stable building just beyond the gate. It was an odd looking structure. The bottom half of its walls were made of the same gray stone that had once been quarried at Stone haven. The upper half of its walls were made from giant logs. The logs were carved in such a way as to cross each other at the corners where two walls came together, and some sort of blue-gray tar was pressed between the logs to seal the joints. A large double door was cut into the end of the stable building facing the gate, and one door was propped open revealing a large man leaning against a post just inside the door. The man wore brown leather from head to toe. His cap, smock, leggings, and boots were all stitched out of animal’s hides, and all dyed a deep brown, the color of wet soil. Leaning upon a large wooden post, the man was almost camouflaged. If it were not for his hands and face no one would ever have noticed him. But the man too had noticed Garret and his companions. Even as Garret looked at him, the man looked back, appraising either the large mounts they led, or the mount’s leaders themselves.

It was nearly their turn to pass through the gates when they were forced to abruptly stop. The guards had pulled a young boy out of line and were questioning him vigorously. The boy nodded his head exaggeratedly, and flailing his hands about him wildly, answered the questions given him, gesturing oddly as he did. Seth, being the closest to the commotion could not hear the conversation clearly, but was able to make out something about a new invention, and something about increasing the length of something that would reportedly attract women. Seth shrugged to himself assuming the young boy was probably just making up whatever story came to mind in an attempt to gain entry. Seemingly finished with their questioning, the guards pointed back down the road away from the city, denying the boy entrance. They boy’s head dropped and his shoulders slumped as he turned to walk back the way he had come. Finally the line started moving again.

Seth watched as the boy approached. The boy walked, his face to the ground, grumbling to himself about the technology ignorant guards as he neared Seth. Seth, unprepared for what he was seeing, stood slack jawed staring at the small figure passing by him. It was not a young boy as he had believed. He was indeed the height and scrawny build of a young boy of eight or nine, but his fingers were thin, his knuckles swollen. Looking up from the miniature man’s hands Seth was amazed to see his face. It was as wrinkled as a grape left to dry in the sun, his lips were shrunken, withered and an odd shade of purple. The man’s cheeks were weary and the skin clung loosely to the bone beneath. Also the small mans eyes sat deep in their sockets surrounded completely by a vast ring of wrinkled flesh. Seth was shocked at the revelation. The tiny man that had passed him was extremely old, and extremely odd. He appeared entirely too small, entirely too old, yet bounced down the road as if he were the child Seth had previously thought him to be. Perhaps it was some disease that had shrunken the man, or perhaps he was just a freak of nature.

The quartet of travelers had their turn at the gate, and the guards simply nodded to them in approval, and so without so much as a pause, the four continued on to the stable just ahead. The street was crowded, but people cleared the way for the companions, not wanting to be trampled by the large steeds. Their focus on the building before them, none of the companions had yet to look at the vast city they now were immersed in. Stopping outside the stable, Garret passed the reigns of his horse to his brother then entered the building alone. The man clad in the brown leather still leaned, as before, against the wooden beam just within the building. Nodding to Garret as he entered, the man shifted his weight off the beam and stood waiting for Garret to speak.