Dustin began his journey in Maldor. Maldor was in the east, wasn't known for anything, but in this time frame most people only knew what the surrounding cities were. Each town was separated by large farms, various farm animals roamed through some fields. But all the towns were small, no more than 30 buildings per town. He was the only link between townships, travelling back and forth looking for news and bringing news back.Communication between townships was difficult, the distance between townships prevented towns from interacting with others. Maldor was a quiet little town, that is until Dustin rolled in. He had been travelling by horse, just like anybody else who wanted to go to another town.
The town was a small X on the map of the known area. Maldor was between five other towns, and had two main streets. About 20 structures were lined up on either side of the two roads running through town. At the intersection in the centre of town was an Inn on one corner, a saloon on the opposite corner, a jail and a blacksmith on the other opposing corners. It was quaint. Sun was still high in the sky and all of the town was busy.
The Inn would have a place to tie up his horse, the journey to the next town would have wait until tomorrow. This was his thirtieth trip to Maldor he had made one or two friends in Maldor. The messenger business was booming he made a decent amount of gold just delivering messages between towns. As he grew up in Atanna, a neighbouring town, he had heard rumors of Maldor, and the three other towns surrounding Atanna. But this time he was only passing through.
Dustin had an appointment to keep with the messenger from Colodia. Galen was his name. The two had met on Dustin's last trip to Maldor, fifteen days ago. Curiosity had seized Dustin the occasional messenger from two towns away would stop into town. Messengers always drew a crowd they were the celebrities of the known world. There were rumors of great big towns, the handful of messengers that had seen them always had a story to tell of them. This time Galen was meeting him to bring him into Colodia. He had been promised a guide to bring news to Colodia from Atanna.
He didn't have any news for Maldor today none of the towns people even noticed him. Usually he was greeted with fanfare, today was different. The air even had a different smell to. Something had changed.
There was a distinct difference between the way people of the town went about their business than in previous trips, he knew his trip to the town of Colodia was ahead and the journey between the two towns would take at least six days. At least that is how Galen described his trek, not many details, just the number of days between Maldor and Colodia. Dustin walked his horse into the stables at the Inn, requesting lodgings for his horse for the night from the stable hand. Of course he still had to make arrangements for his lodgings for the night. Thankfully the small Inn really only catered to messengers, there was only a handful of them and a room for each of them.
He always carried his saddle bag with him, even though his horse was safely stowed in the stables, there still was a few items he needed to carry with him. Of course he carried gold on him, they were coins, only an inch big, but one of the necessary evils of the messenger trade. He also carried a very large axe this was sheathed and slung across his back. Each trip carried its own dangers he knew the trip to Colodia was no different. Danger was part of the job, he accepted that.
To Be Continued - Next installment January 4, 2008
Image source: Federal Highway Administration
