Looking Over The Town

The sun was hidden by thick grey cloud when Aaralon stepped out onto the muddy street in front of the tavern. The world cast into that odd shadowless half-light that he had always tied in his mind to the dullest of lessons and most boring of days off.

Around him, the town was full of the odd, halting kind of life that his home town had been. People moved about only if they had to and so you ended up with these strange pools of humanity around the blacksmiths. Hostelry and tavern with great empty spaces in between.

As he walked around the square of the town Aaralon realised that this place was far less densely populated than he had thought at first. The side of town he had arrived through seemed to be the most built-up part, houses crowded near the road for a good two miles, but beyond the town square, the space between buildings quickly began to increase.

He had picked a road at random and found himself walking over a slight rise that showed him the rolling farmlands beyond. The fields filled with rows on rows of cabbage and wheat and all the other things that Aaralon had ever known as an overboiled mess on his dinner plate.

The odd farmhouse dotted the landscape along with a church that seemed to sit at the end of the road he was on. From here he could see the doors were open and a few figures milled around in front of the place. The little voice seemed to awake for a moment to point out that the church was his major threat in this place. Not because of the protection of god or any other such idiocy. His Master had made a great show of opening up the Chapel in the school, collecting up the blessed oils and then having Aaralon use them to lubricate his Master's cock until he came over the Altar.

No, the power of god held no sway over him but the power of a pitchfork in the side or being thrown onto a bone fire most definitely did. So he needed to be careful of the church and getting to know his enemy seemed like a good way to start.

Yet as he turned to look back at the town he saw, over the tops of the buildings, the other road that led out of the town and that seemed to lead to some squat stone building that was quite unlike even the church.