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Pelu awoke early, as was his custom, and made the bed he had slept in. When he walked out to the main room he saw Dima washing dishes. A pot of porridge was warming on the stove. Dima greeted him and explained that her mother had already left for her new housekeeping job and her father was at the shop he worked in. "It won't be long before I have to go out to the laundry" she explained. "You can stay here if you like, or you can go along with my brother Jacob for the day. If you stay with him you won't get lost." Just then, Jacob emerged from the small bedroom. "I'll show you around" he said. "Maybe we can even make some money on the side while we're at it." With that, he scooped porridge into a pair of bowls and handed one to Pelu.

After their simple breakfast Jacob led Pelu out into the city. "This is Brownburgh. If you remember that much you should be able to get back here if you get lost. Number ten. Same as the number of letters in Brownburgh. Makes it easier to remember. The neighborhoods in the city get richer as you get closer to the center. When you get right up to the center you find the palace, the temple and the Inventor’s Guild. Around them are the nobles, clergy and inventors. Further out you get the rich folks and then move out to the slums around the edges. Outside of the slums are the farms. People treat the farmers worse than the beggars around here. They smell like their animals but at least they work for what they have."

Through all this they were slowly working their way toward one of the main roads that penetrated to the heart of the city. Jacob continued to tell Pelu about the city as they turned onto the main road. "This is the Gold Road. The city has three main roads that go from the outer wall all the way to the center of the city. The gold road goes right up to the front gate of the palace. The White road goes to the temple and the Brown Road goes to the Inventor’s Guild. Each of the three main roads has a royal raceway in it. That's the middle part. Don't walk in that part unless you're crossing to the other side. You can get arrested for it. That's where the horseless carriage runs."

"Horseless carriage?" Pelu had never heard of such a thing. "Yeah. The Inventor’s Guild made it. It can take a full load of people from the center of the city to the wall faster than a horse can gallop. Only the most important people get to use it. The royal stables are at the outer wall so they can get a regular carriage from there if they need to go anywhere. People say they use water to make it go so fast. I don't know how they do it but the water from the aqueduct stops flowing whenever they use it."

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As the reality of his situation settled over him, Pelu began to despair of ever reaching the Inventor’s Guild. He had no money or friends and he was further from home than he ever thought possible. Something happened at that moment, just as despair was closing over him. He heard a voice cutting through his thoughts. "Why don't you stay with us for a while and get used to the city. It must be a hard place to get used to. Friends aren't easy to come by in these parts, but you can count on us to help you out if you need it." Pelu was shocked by the generosity of the offer. It seemed impolite to take so much without giving anything in return but he had no other choice unless he was to become one of the vagrants living on the streets. "Thank you" he said. "How can I ever repay you for this?” Dima's father winked at him. "I'm sure you'll find a way when the time is right. Come on, I'll show you your bed."

In addition to the main room, the house had two smaller rooms. One was shared by Dima's parents and the other was shared by Dima and her brother. A small bathroom was shared with the house next door. Dima gave up her bed for Pelu, who protested to no avail. She was firm about giving up her bed for him since he was a visitor. She laid out a pile of blankets on the floor of the main room and slept on that instead.

If you are new to this blog I suggest you go back to the oldest post and work your way forward. On with the story:

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Sitting at the table in the small main room of Dima's house, Pelu almost felt like he was at home again. It had been weeks since he had eaten a home cooked meal. Most of his food had been dried rations that wouldn't spoil as he traveled. It was a simple meal of stew and biscuits, but it tasted like a meal fit for a king to Pelu. The meat and vegetables were fresh and the biscuits were warm and soft. There were flavors in the stew that he had never tasted before. The capitol city was a hub of trade, and even those who didn't have much still had access to ingredients that were unknown in the countryside. He ate with gusto, not speaking and hardly hearing the words that drifted across the table around him.

As his hunger subsided Pelu finally became fully aware of the room around him and people he was sharing it with. It was a small, dark room. The walls were papered with a simple pattern and only a few small oil lamps lit it. One corner was filled with a range where the stew was being kept warm. A few cabinets and bureaus provided a useful adornment for the rest of the room. The stone floor was covered with a thin rug that looked well worn. The table he was seated at filled the center of the room. He shared it with friendly young woman he had met earlier along with an older couple who had been introduced as her parents and a boy who was her brother.

Pelu glanced at Dima and sensed that a smile was hiding just behind her gaze as she looked back at him. He suddenly realized how rude he must have been as he focused only on eating, and he became embarrassed. "I'm sorry" he said, "it's been a long time since I had a real home cooked meal."

Dima's mother smiled at him. "No apology needed. It's a compliment to my cooking to see you enjoy it so much. Tell us, what brings you so far from home?"

"Well," he began, "I grew up in a small village at the outer edge of the kingdom. We didn't know much about the capitol except the stories we heard from traveling merchants and the soldiers who came to collect our taxes. Everybody agreed that the royals were good for us. They protected us from invaders. Everything else was a mystery. People were content to raise their crops and livestock. To cook their bread and smith their plows. We had everything we needed right in our own town and everybody seemed happy with that. Except me."

"I always felt like there was more to life. Like there were things to see, places to go and people to meet. I felt like there was something bigger and greater that I could do to make a difference instead of just living each day like the last one. Some of the traveling merchants had told us wondrous tales of the Inventor’s Guild and the magnificent things they created. I have dreams and ideas, and the guild is filled with people who create things that change the world, so I decided I would go find a way in. Now that I'm here, though, that dream seems further away than it ever did before I started following it."