Nero of the North

The Arrival

I felt like shit. Laying on the course ground wasn't too good for my aching back. Laying on said ground in only shorts and a tethered t-shirt wasn't too good for my mind either. Not as bad as a small group of people in weird colorful clothes, gathering around to stare at me though.

I couldn't move, and the smell of burnt hair was making me nauseous. All I could do was roll my eyes around, trying to understand where I am and what's happening. This was a mistake and quickly made me feel even more sick. The world around me blurred and I fell into the darkness, as I lost my consciousness once more. Last image I saw was a shiny helmet with a giant red comb.

Something felt alien about the whole situation. My head throbbed with pain, and I could barely remember anything from a second ago. Well, nothing other than my neighbor's stupid dog, which ran out on the street barking. There was a screech of wheels and white clouds of burnt rubber all over the street. And then...

***

It must have been late, because the room I found myself in, after waking up, was pitch black, with only a streak of moonlight going in through a blocked window. It was enough however to notice that the floor was covered in loose straw and the walls were made out of badly plastered brick. I felt warm and safe under a woolen blanket, which smelled a bit funny, but was thick and cozy, so I couldn't really complain. I didn't even know who I could complain to, or how.

Luckily for me, my question was quickly answered by a flickering light of a fire appearing behind the cracks of a badly made wooden door. If I didn't know better I'd guess I was in some kind of a crack den or medieval museum. But I was pretty sure that there was nothing like that anywhere near where I lived. Either way I was about to finally meet someone, who might shed some light on my situation, and I really hoped that someone had good intentions.

What I saw when the door opened wasn't something I could have predicted. A rather tall woman in an orange dress, with her head covered in some cloth, peeked inside, lifting the candle higher. She must have noticed my open eyes, because she quickly hid back behind the planks and left, her steps quickly disappearing down the corridor. But in that brief moment, when the flame lit up the room I was able to make a mental note of everything in it.

It was a rather modest room with 2 beds, one of which I occupied. The other one was without a mattress, and it looked more like a table than a bed, but due to its height I assumed that's what it was supposed to be. In the corner of the room opposite of the slim window, which turned out to be really small, not closed, was a tall tree stump, with short pieces of branches emerging from it in different directions. It reminded me of a coat hanger. Next to it was a chest which seemed to be made out of wood, but was covered in some kind of fabric and leather.

Other than that the room was empty. It felt very odd to me, I've never before seen a room like that, but I suppose that just meant I was wrong about the lack of crack dens in my small town.

My thought process was interrupted by another set of footsteps, definitely louder than the woman's. I instinctively got closer to the wall, covering myself a bit more with the blanket. The straw in the mattress rustled loudly.

The door opened quickly but without too much noise and I saw a tall, muscular man, standing behind it. He was also wearing a dress, with a shirt tucked underneath it. He stared at me, scanning me with his eyes. His expression quickly turned from that of a worry to something almost like a smile. He turned around and took the candle from the woman who completely hid behind him.

"I see you're finally awake." He said, in perfect English, but with some weird accent I didn't recognise. "No, stay how you are." He added, seeing that I moved a bit.