Humble Beginnings

New York

New York was awfully dreary. That was all Alfred could think when he had recovered from his seasickness. There were thick gray clouds hovering over the city, threatening rain. People within the city were busy, running back and forth, conducting business. They seemed to not mind the inclement weather. Alfred curled into himself and burrowed into his jacket. It was scrappy, but it had seen him through worse. Actually that was a lie. It wasn't even his jacket. Penny had gotten it for him before he left, but it was worn through in parts.

After getting over the weather, Alfred made his way towards the more central part of town, away from the docks. He was going to go towards the wealthier part of town, since it seemed as though most of the colonies were attracted to wealth. (There were exceptions, there always were. Mary, Jersey, Penny.) So actually not most of them, but he figured it was as good a place as any to start. Because usually as soon as he entered the area under the jurisdiction of the particular colony the call would end, and he'd be on his own. However, as he was passing a rather nondescript street that seemed to have a decent number of businesses on it, he felt as if he just had to go see what was down that street. So he turned.

Alfred was walking toward the left edge of the street, looking at some of the businesses when he accidentally bumped into someone. They both stumbled backwards from each other, and the boy Alfred had run into dropped his packages on the ground.

"Godverdomme! Kijk uit je doppen!" he snarled.

"Sorry" squeaked Alfred, "here, let me help you."

He frantically gathered all of the packages that the boy had been carrying. The boy simply grabbed them out of his hand and went off to where his errand was, without once looking back.

After the boy disappeared down the street Alfred didn't really know what to do. He finally decided on a tour of the city. It was nice, he supposed. Very busy. Traders and merchants and trappers and farmers were everywhere. Essentially, anyone who had goods to sell or provided services for trade was somehow involved with the city.

~~Time Skip~~

By the evening Alfred was footsore from wandering everywhere, and very hungry. He found a nice looking pub away from the wharf that was relatively busy, but not crowded. He bought a serving of the soup and a glass of ale and sat in a corner to watch everyone. People came and went, and most seemed to know each other, there were smiles and loud greetings whenever people came in. The whole room was full of chatter. Suddenly there was a thunk at his table. The boy from earlier sat down heavily, with a tankard of ale and a plate of meat.

"What are you doing here?" asked Alfred, hesitantly.

The boy snorted, "Could ask you the same question, actually."

"Oh," murmured Alfred. He waited a bit, but the boy didn't say anything, so he turned back to his meal.

"Hey," the boy tapped at the table angrily, "You didn't answer my question. Why are you here?"

Alfred looked back up at the boy, "I wanted to see New York. Is there something wrong with that?"

The boy frowned, "Yes. Who are you?"

"What do you mean, 'who am I'?"

"You clearly aren't human, so who are you?"

"How do you know I'm not?"

The boy shrugged, "I don't know, you just feel older."

"Oh, well then. I'm the British American Colonies. Most people call me America though."

"America?" the boy said, testing the word out, "Well. Hallo dan, I suppose. Ik ben New York."

Alfred stuck out his hand, with a large friendly smile "Hello New York!"