Summer 23, 509 A.V.
Sitting in his saddle for what seemed like the hundredth day in a row Jason was feeling the effects of the many days he had spent riding with the Sylrian caravan heading to the port city of Zeltiva. Rubbing his lower back to relieve the stiffness, he looks around at his traveling companions: the horses with riders carrying swords, spears, bows, and other such weapons of war, the wagons carrying crates of goods for the city or to be shipped off, and the few number of people on foot, mostly other guards. Jason had gotten to travel with the group after paying a small sum of money to the owner of the caravan, being told he would have to provide his own horse or end up walking. Looking to his left at the never ending woodlands that he had been seeing since they start their journey six or seven weeks ago from the city with a bit of sadness at the fact that the landscape stayed the same throughout the majority of trip, only broken up by the occasional river, stream, or meadow. ‘What I would not do for a bed and a pot of tea’ was the thought that Jason had as he looked to the front and continued their slow steady walk to the knowledge center of the world or so he had been told.
Hours pasted and the sun had pasted its high point before the mountain pass they had been seeing most of the day began to take shape. Spurring his horse in the sides to get him to trot faster to the front of the group, the young man smiled as he seen the city gates through the pass. “Do not be so happy boy; we still have many hours of travelling ahead. Those mountains make your mind go funny due to their size" said the caravan leader. Frowning slightly and giving the man a nod, Jason fell back a few places back to his original spot in the group.
The sun was setting as the caravan finally made its last approach to the city gates of Zeltiva. Looking around Jason was shocked to discover no gates, walls, or any kind of defensive structure at all. "Yeah, that was my first thought too" spoke one of the caravan guards, a slim young man roughly my age. “Yeah, are they not open to attack from bandits and other creatures?” I asked the young guard. “No, this mountain pass is so narrow that any group coming in will be forced to attack in small groups. So these mountains are as good of defense as any.” He answers me back. Nodding to his answer, Jason looked back to the front as the passed by the small number of guards maintaining presence to deter any thought of lawbreaking. ‘Here I am finally. I can now start my search for knowledge to learn what had happen and how to stop it from taking other mothers from their children’ was my last thoughts as I entered the city.
