BagsNPockets

[joegoda]

A loud knocking awoke the sleeping trio the next morning. Bags groggily tossed on his trousers and answered the door. There was a very large man at the door, wearing armor.

"Umm." said Bags. "What ever he's done, we don't know about it."

"Who?" came the deep growly reply.

"I don't know." answered Bags.

"All right. That's not my concern whatever you're talking about. I'm here to escort you to the mansion." The helmeted eyes flickered briefly over Bags' bare chest taking in the muscles and the numerous scars. "I see you've been in a few scrapes."

"You might say that." Bags said as he pulled a jerkin over his head. "Umm, would you like something to drink? Coffee's not done, but we do have some mint tea. It'll just be a minute while I get dressed."

"Tea would be fine, thanks." the armored man came in and stood by the door while Bags got a mug filled with fragrant tea. The man took the mug and raised an eyebrow. "What are these chunks in it?" he called as Bags went toward the back to get Grizelda up and finish getting dressed.

"That's called ice." Bags called from the other room It's frozen water. Cools down the tea. I didn't know if you wanted warm tea or cool tea, so I guessed."

Grizelda came out, her long brown hair tied in a ponytail, her nails polished to a gleam, her face made up with just the slightest hint of color. She was wearing a long and flowing dress, covered in bright colors. "Greetings, Sir Knight." she said. "And good morning to you."

"Greetings, ma'am. I'm not really a knight, just an guard of the king. You can call me Harv. And don't think me rude but I didn't expect simple gypsies to have such manners. And this 'ice'. Where did it come from?"

"Would you have a seat, Harv?"

"No, we really must be going, and quickly. The king's schedule is very full." In concession to manners, he removed his helm. He had the face of a simple farm boy, hair brown and full, eyes bright and curious. "Where did this ice come from?" he asked again, sipping his tea.

"Oh, it's just a little experiment a friend of ours is working on. Something he calls 'fridgeration'."

"Fridgeration. Hmmm." Harv moved the word around and tasted it. "I heard there were three of you here, but so far I've only seen two. Is the third one the one who created this ice?"

"Yes." "No." Grizelda and Bags looked at each other. Grizelda nodded at Bags to be the one to untangle the mess.

Bags said "He didn't exactly create ice. Ice has been around for a long time. He's not here right now, though. He left the pub we were at last night and hasn't been shown up. We figure he's ..umm.. busy."

Harv took a minute just looking at the two hosts. Then he nodded. "Well, if he doesn't show up soon, you might want to alert the guard, which would be me. We don't get much trouble here in Tears, and we'd like to make sure it stays that way." he sat down his mug, hitched up his helmet and sat it back on his head. "Besides, I have some ideas of my own, and someone that can create 'ice' would be interesting to talk to, don't you think?"

Grizelda nodded. "Oh, most definitely. He's interesting all right." She led the way to the door and opened it. "If he doesn't show up soon, we'll come find you. I'm concerned something might have happened."

Harv stepped out into the morning sun. "No need to be concerned, ma'am. I'm sure he's just out catting about and will show up in due time." Bags and Grizelda stepped out of the wagon behind him, blinking the sun out of their eyes.

"How did the city get it's name?" asked Grizelda. "Tears is such a sad name, and this place seems to have an almost carnival atmosphere."

"Ah. Excellent question." Harv kept an easy pace, and nodded at the few folks he met on the street. It seemed he was well liked as everyone appeared to know his name, and he theirs. "Tears, in it's early days, before the wall, was just a little desert village. Then, one day... well.. a year, actually, bandits came swooping out of the forest. This was before the desert appeared, of course, otherwise I would have had the bandits swooping out of the desert."

"Of course." said Grizelda. Bags marched at the rear, preferring to let Grizelda do the friendly talk. His eyes were constantly on the move, observing, noticing, making note of exits and opportunities.

"Over the course of thirty years," Harv continued " the bandits came just as the town had begun to get themselves back on their feet. They would rob and murder and burn whatever they could find, leaving just enough to allow the folk to rebuild."

"How odd. How did the bandits know when to attack?"

"That has never been explained, but you're right, it's very odd, or so I always thought. The folks in the town just called it Tears. They figured there was no need to call it anything else, since it would just be torn down again in a few months."

"And the wall?" asked Bags.

"Ah. That was a stroke of genius, but it didn't come from a person actually living in Tears. One day, out of the forest came a wizard, or so the story goes, who conjured all the trees of the forest to wrap themselves around the town like a blanket, and to grow a hard shell, like a turtle. I don't know the truth of that, of course. It was supposed to have happened so long ago, nobody remembers exactly the details."

"I suspect the truth is that someone just got tired of being robbed and pulled or chopped all the trees down, built the wall, covered it with cement, and there you have it. No magic or mystery at all."

"But," pondered Bags, "Wouldn't the bandits have heard about it, and rushed to put a stop to it?"

"One would have thought so, yes. But they didn't. Just another mystery about the City of Tears. There are others, like how can a town so small survive out here in the desert. The answer to that is simple. We trade, just like everyone else. The nearest village is about one day's ride away, and there are others not as close, but close enough."

"Another is, where do we get our water? That's a trade secret, of course. If I told you, I'd be violating one of our trade rules."

"Perfectly understandable." Grizelda winked at Bags. "We'll just continue to get it as we always have, and support the commerce of Tears."

"And it is appreciated." Harv replied. "You can see that we are not a rich city, barely above a town, really. Most of our buildings are just straw and wood, some are stone. The mansion, for example. It's basically just a simple two story house that the King uses. Easier to heat and cool in the winter and summer. No need to house prisoners there, since we don't get many, and it's much more comfortable to entertain guests such as yourselves inside a cozy wooden house, than some big imposing stone structure, don't you think?"

"Absolutely." said Grizelda.

The city of Tears was as Harv described it. Nothing fancy, shops, stalls, wheeled carts, a few actual houses, but primarily just one large shopping community. Bags was had a nagging feeling he was missing something but couldn't quite put his finger on it. Nothing sinister, just something that wasn't quite... right.

"Are there schools?" asked Grizelda. "I don't see many children, so I was wondering if they were at school."

"Ah." said Harv. "There are schools, but not in the city. We take them to another village, the one that's a day away I mentioned previously. They spend the week there, learn, then come back to spend a week here. This just happens to be the week they are there, rather than here. That village does nothing but teach, and in return, they trade that skill for what they need. That village is very wealthy, compared to us."

"I hope we're here long enough to meet some of the children. I do love the sound of children at play." Grizelda looked over at Bags, who just rolled his eyes.

"You will be. I believe the king is wanting to contract Mr. Bags' services for a period of not less than a year."

"A year?" Bags exclaimed. "A whole year? I don't think we've ever been in one place for a year before."

"Ah?" said Harv. "You must lead an adventurous life, indeed. However, if there is not an agreement reached, then you will have to move on, as ever household's head in the city has to have gainful employment. If you don't work, you can't stay."

"Then I'd have to say it was darn well about time we stayed in one place for a while." Grizelda added. "Wouldn't you agree, dear?" She looked hard at Bags, pinning him to the answer.

"Why yes, dear." Bags answer dripped with agreement, "I do believe it's time we spent more than just a few days in one place. I'm sure our friend Pockets would agree as well." In a quieter voice, just below normal hearing he added "We might have to nail him to the ground, but he'll agree."

"Good!" said Harv. "It's important that we all get along here, as getting along is the basis of our city. Why, we haven't had a major crime here in years. Any one that remembers the last time remembers the punishment for anything serious."

"Since we weren't here, what's the punishment?" asked Bags.

"You get placed atop the wall, and slowly impaled all the way down. You did notice that the wall had a pointed top?" Harv asked.

"Umm. Yes."

"Did you also notice that it was razor sharp? For anyone committing and convicted of a serious crime, they get to straddle the wall. No ifs, ands or buts. No appeal. Very simple. And it keeps order"

"But what if an innocent man is convicted?" asked Grizelda, eyes wide from what her imagination had been telling her.

"If someone is innocent, it always comes out during the trial, which is really just meeting the king. He's very perceptive. Some have said uncanny. And there are those that say he's down right spooky."

"And this is the king we're going to meet this morning?"

"Yep. And this is the place." Harv said.

The house they had stopped in front of was just as plain as all the other buildings around it. Two story, with dark wood overlays on simple light wood panels. The roof was peaked slightly over the second story, and thatched with dark green branches of unknown origin. They couldn't have come from the forest, as the forest did not exist anymore. "Just another mystery" thought Bags.

Harv noticed where Bags was looking. "I see you're noticing the thatching. The reason why it's so green is because it's not really thatching." he waited, obviously expecting a question.

'Okay, I'll bite', thought Bags. "It's not?" he asked.

"No. What you are looking at is in actuality the top branches of a tree. Inside the mansion there is an actual, growing tree, whose branches hold up the roof."

"Okay." said Bags, working hard to be impressed.

"I'm sure it's lovely" said Grizelda.

"Shall we go inside and meet the king?" asked Harv, who opened the plain ordinary front door to the plain ordinary mansion with a tree inside of it.