A man pokes his head out of the window in the far wall and smiles when he sees James entering his establishment. James is startled for the man is the spitting image of Alexander.
“Good afternoon my good sir,” greets the man. “My name is Thelonius and how may I help you today?”
Coming to the window, James takes out his letter of account from Alexander and hands it to Thelonius. At the same time he asks, “Are you the brother of Alexander who lives a ways north in Trendle?”
His face brightening, Thelonius replies, “Why, yes I am. Do you know him?”
“I did have the pleasure of meeting him on two occasions,” he answers. “When he gave me that letter he asked me to tell you that ‘all is well here’.”
“Ah, that is kind of you to deliver his message,” Thelonius says as he briefly scans the letter from his brother. “I am assuming that you wish to open an account here?”
“Yes, I would,” replies James. “I also would like some coins as my trip down took all I had brought with me.”
“Have you decided how much you will require?” inquires Thelonius.
“I was thinking perhaps fifty golds,” James replies. “Say, five broken into lesser currency.”
“Very good,” he replies. “I’ll be right back with your coins and the papers for you to sign to set up your account.” He then ducks his head back into the room and a minute, returns with a sack full of coins and several papers.
Thelonius empties the sack onto the counter and together they count the coins, making sure the total equals fifty golds. Once counted and they are both satisfied as to the count, James takes the papers which are identical to the ones he signed back in Trendle. He signs his name and then hands them back to Thelonius.
Taking the papers, Thelonius asks, “Now, is there anything else I may help you with?”
“As a matter of fact there is,” James says. “Could you perhaps direct me to the Inn of the Silver Bells?”
“The Silver Bells, eh?” Thelonius responds. “You can find it further toward the castle, past the second wall on Long Street. However, you may wish to stay elsewhere, it’s pretty expensive. It caters mainly to visiting nobles and the wealthy.”
“Could you recommend one that would be nice but not too dear?” James asks him.
Thelonius gestures to the right, “There is one down the street called the Dancing Squirrel,” he replies. “The place is kept well and the rooms are fairly priced.”
Extending his hand, James says “Thank you Thelonius.”
Taking James’ hand, he shakes it warmly, “You are welcome,” he says. “Should you ever need my assistance in the future, please call again.”
James tucks the sack of coins within his shirt and exits out the front. Miko still sits upon the steps, idling away the time by watching the people passing by on the street.
Hearing the door open, he turns his head and comes to his feet when he sees James coming out.
“There’s an inn down the street that the fellow inside said would be a good place for us to stay,” James informs him. Untying the horse, he leads them down the street to the right. They don’t have very far to walk before James spies the inn bearing a sign depicting a dancing squirrel.
James has Miko wait outside with the horse again while he goes inside to see about getting a room. The door opens onto the common room, and off to the side sits a long bar running half the length of the wall behind it. To James’ surprise and amusement, he finds a rather large, fat man standing on top of the bar, trying to coax a yellow cat down out of the rafters.
“Come on kitty, kitty,” the man on the bar says to the cat. He has a bowl in his right hand and is passing it under the cat as if to entice it down for a treat.
“Ahem,” James clears his throat to make his presence known.
Startled, the fat man drops the bowl. It hits the edge of the counter and falls to the floor on the far side. The sound of shattering pottery tells its fate. The man turns with face turning red in embarrassment to find James standing there. Giving the cat a last look of exasperation, the portly man climbs down off the bar and comes over.
“How may I help you today?” he asks as he approaches.
Looking up at the cat, James says, “I was about to ask you that same question.”
“Oh, that damn cat,” he curses. “She always gets up there and then expects me to get her back down. Sometimes I think she does it just to annoy me.”
“Cats are that way I understand,” James replies sympathetically and slightly amused.
“Yes, well, I’ll deal with her later. How can I help you?” he asks again.
“I was hoping you might have a room available for me and my companion,” he explains. “Thelonius down the street said this would be a good place to stay.”
“He did, did he?” the innkeeper asks. “I do have a couple of rooms available. How long were you planning on staying?”
“Perhaps a couple days, maybe longer,” James tells him. “I also need a stall for my horse.”
“It’ll be two silvers a night for a room on the bottom,” he says, “an additional two coppers for one on the second floor. For your horse, another three coppers a day and that includes food and exercise.”
Amazed at how expensive it is, he says, “I’ll take the one on the second floor.” Pulling out his pouch, he removes seven silvers and hands them over. “I’ll take the room for three days and let you know if I need to stay longer.”
The man takes the money and walks with James over to the bar where he opens a cupboard on the wall behind it. Inside are rows of hooks with room keys. He pulls out one of the keys and hands it to James, “You are in seventeen, top of the stairs and fourth on the left.”
Taking the key, James says, “Thank you,” and then walks over to the door. Before leaving, he glances back to find the man starting to climb back up on the bar to once again attempt coaxing his cat down out of the rafters.
Chuckling to himself, he goes outside and tells Miko they’ll be staying here for a few days. Untying the horse, he and Miko head around back to the stables.
A large, muscular man is back by the stable shoeing a horse. When he sees them walking toward him he says, “Just a minute.” He takes another shoe nail and hammers it into the hoof of the horse, securing the shoe in place. The man then puts down the hammer and inspects the shoe, making sure it’s on secure and even. When he’s satisfied with it, he lets the hoof go and turns toward James and Miko.
“Yeah?” he asks them in a surly tone. “Something I can help you with?”
James shows him the room key and says, “Just need a stall for my horse.”
“Got one,” he says as he gestures over his shoulder, “second from the front.” As if that ended the conversation, he turns back to the horse he had been shoeing. Taking the other fore hoof and a file from off a nearby worktable, he begins evening out the hoof’s rough edges.
James leads his horse into the stable and finds the stall, second from the front. It’s a clean and roomy stall with shelves lining the rear wall. It takes them little time to get the horse settled in. Once the horse has been properly taken care of, they grab their things and exit the stable, making for the door to the inn. Outside, the man is still shoeing the horse and pays them no mind whatsoever.
They enter the inn and go upstairs, finding room seventeen. Entering the room they are pleased to discover two beds, which brings a smile to Miko’s face.
“No floor tonight,” he says to James as he places the bags on the room’s small table. He then crosses over and lies down on the bed closest to the door, “I could get to like this.”
Taking the bed closer to the window, James places his backpack in the corner next to his bed, then lies down and literally sinks three inches into downy softness. “You’re right,” he says to Miko, “I could get to like this too. It’s far superior to any bed I’ve slept in for quite a while.”
Before growing too comfortable and loses the ability to get back out of the bed, he gets up and goes over to the window. From their room they have a good view of the inner city and spires of the castle. The castle is very majestic, it reminds James of castles he’s read about and saw on documentaries. He seriously doubts if there are any tours of this castle he could take.
Judging by the position of the sun, he figures they have close to two more hours till dark. Turning to Miko he says, “I’m going to go explore the town before dinner, want to go?” He sees Miko has already fallen asleep on the bed so decides to just let him sleep as he heads off on his own.
