Dralin

Chapter 1

“Hello, pretty little miss.  Would you like to see the sights of Dralin?” the hawkish Guardsman asked with a leering grin.  He brushed a few flakes of lightly falling autumn snow from his shoulder-length brown hair.  A polished chain shirt peeked out from underneath the collar of a standard-issue black and brown tunic, while a long sword waited in its sheath at his waist for the opportunity to commit malice.  Sheela stepped back in apprehension.  Everyone in Dralin was to be feared, even many of the guards from what she had been told.

“No thank you, Sir,” she responded firmly.  Just because she was a plain farmer’s daughter didn’t mean she was a fool.  Her stomach knotted in dread when the guardsman took a step forward and put a powerful hand on her shoulder, which menaced rather than comforted her.  The smile he must have thought was charming came across as sinister.

“Come now, lass.  My shift is nearly over and the sun is about to set.  I’ll take good care of you and keep you warm on this cold evening.”  He tried to slide his arm around her shoulder, but she spun away off the sidewalk and into the roadway.  “Hey!  Don’t be like that!” the man exclaimed in surprise.

Sheela had to stop and straighten suddenly to avoid a passing wagon.  Its wheels splashed muddy water from the cobbled road onto the worn dress she had run away from home in.  It was hard to tell that it had once been warm yellow with sturdy threads.  A year of hard work in the fields and weeks of walking dirt roads had taken the color out to leave a drab, torn garment barely hanging onto her shoulders.

She felt the guard’s hand on her shoulder again, gripping firmly.  “Careful.  Those wagon drivers won’t hesitate to run you over.”  He pulled her back onto the sidewalk where she managed to twist out of his grip again.  There were too many people around to simply run and she really did want to go into the city yet, so she moved a few steps away and stood with as much resolve as she could muster.

He held up his hands and yielded.  “Whatever.  Go learn about the city on your own.  We’ll probably find your body in a gutter after you’ve been thrown out of a brothel somewhere.”  The look of snarling contempt on his face as he spit on the ground at her feet stunned her.  Sheela couldn’t help the tears that began to well up in her eyes.

With a stomp of her bare foot, she drove the tears back.  After everything she had been through, harsh words wouldn’t drive her to despair.  The guard turned in disgust and traipsed back to the large guardhouse that bordered the crowded highway leading into the main city.

Sheela held her chin up as she looked at the people and wagons passing by.  She was on the sidewalk to the right of the highway leading into Dralin from the east.  It was her hope to ask one of the guards for a safe place to go and she had seen one that looked like he might be helpful, but the leering guard had intercepted her instead.

The enormous city before her was daunting and goosebumps appeared on her arm when she thought about the stories she had heard of it.  Snow drifting down heralded that winter would be starting early.  Sheela wiped some off her eyelashes and turned to leave.  Heading away into the cold emptiness of unknown roads scared her too.  She had come too far to turn back, but fear of going on made her freeze in her tracks.

“Are you alright?” a strong, deep voice asked from behind her.  Sheela slowly turned around and looked up into the brilliant blue eyes of a tall, young guardsman.  His nose had been broken at some point and the tip aimed a little to the left, but he was handsome in spite of that.  “I’m sorry if Tobe bothered you.  He’s good with a sword, but not so much with people.”

An aura of safety about the man drew Sheela to him.  He was the guard she had originally been heading to talk to before the one named Tobe had intercepted her.  Still, in Dralin it wasn’t safe to trust anyone too easily.  “I’m hoping to find someplace safe, but I don’t have any money,” Sheela answered tentatively.  She had survived the trip to Dralin by sleeping in haystacks and by stealing a little food wherever she could, a fact that shamed her.