The dirt streets were packed with people moving around the various shops and stalls, all the while doing one type of activity or another. A lot of people were dressed up in some sort of variation of medieval clothes or armor. Sometimes taking a picture of another dressed up with their phone, with everyone posed in some sort of dramatic stance. Some people rested in the shade to fight off the midday heat. The Renaissance Festival was certainly one of the more exciting things to happen when people gathered together to have fun.
Jaime Kingston always loved these kinds of things. He smiled to himself and stuck a plastic spork into a plate of funnel cake, making powdered sugar nearly explode in his face and cover his armored form from head to toe. Jaime stuck a piece of the deep fried treat in his mouth and chewed, wondering what he should do next. He rolled a shoulder to help relieve the tension as best he could since he had his armor on.
The gold painted steel clinked around as he moved and thought, “I wonder why I decided on going as some sort of golden knight, this isn’t a Game of Thrones convention after all. I probably give off the impression of coming here as Jaime Lannister. My name and hair don’t exactly help either… I’m just glad my eyes are blue and not green and that I don’t have a white cloak on.”
Jaime snorted to himself and chucked his now empty plate into a nearby trashcan. After giving himself a quick once over to ensure he didn’t have any leftover sugar on his armor Jaime picked up his Barbuta helmet, put it back on, and walked back into the crowd of festival goers. The helmet didn’t help offset his Kingslayer look but luckily it did not look like the Kingsguard helms in the show, it didn’t have the ridges up top.
He just walked past the arena when he heard a voice say, “Whoa dude, is that real gilded steel?”
Jaime stopped and looked over at the voice. Jaime smiled politely over at the modernly dressed guy and chuckled, “Sorry dude, it’s just regular steel with a bit of washable golden paint over it. Real gilded armor is just a touch too expensive for me.”
The guy didn’t seem put off by it and shrugged, “Eh, it still looks cool though!” He grinned over at Jaime, “So you coming here as Jaime Lannister?”
Jaime chuckled and shook his head, “Hah, no actually. To be honest I didn’t even realize I looked like him until I was already here. People constantly stopping you for pictures and complementing the ‘cosplay’ really gives you a hint I’d say.”
“Heh, I’ll bet. Still though, it’s a good look for you. You pull off the Jaime Lannister look scarily well.” The guy said, making things sound a tad too weird for Jaime. He didn’t let it show on his face though.
“Thanks,” Jaime said, nodding at the stranger. “Funny thing is, is that my name is also Jaime. Weird how that works right?”
The stranger chuckled, “Heh, that’s really odd alright. Say,” He paused for a second and rifled through a backpack Jaime had not noticed before. He pulled out a stitch-able crest that someone would put on their shirt, it looked just like the Lannister’s family crest. “I have absolutely no use for this thing. Don’t even know why I bought it really, it must be fate or something to buy this crest and meet some exact lookalike of Jaime Lannister.” He held it out to Jaime and said, “Here, take it. Free of charge. Hell, maybe you could put it to better use than I ever could. Might as well go full cosplay at this point eh?”
Jaime was at a small loss of words, he never expected something so random like this to happen to him while at the Renaissance Festival. Still, he reached out anyway and took hold of the shirt crest. “Thank you, and I guess you’re right. Might as well go full cosplay then right?”
The two men laughed good naturedly. The stranger wiped an eye, nodded, and said, “Yeah, going full cosplay is kinda the point in this sense.”
Before Jaime could even ask what that was suppose to mean the crest glowed golden and in a flash of light he felt himself seemingly stretch and disappear from his spot on the ground. The patch of bent grass was the only indication he was ever even there.
Jaime groaned and opened his bleary eyes, only to quickly snap them closed when the bright sunlight hit them. He held up a gauntleted hand in a desperate attempt to block out the sun’s rays. Jaime rolled over on his right side, the side that did not have his sword attached to it, he rolled over further onto his stomach and pushed himself up as much as he could.
“Oh gods damn it, feels like my head has been repeatedly smashed with a hammer all morning. Is this what a hangover is suppose to feel like?” Jaime, now on his hands and knees, took off his helmet, ran a hand through his hair, and just stayed where he was on the ground for a few more moments. He soon decided that enough was enough and pushed himself back on his feet, putting his helmet back on in the process.
Now back on his feet, Jaime cracked his eyes open once more and the light that hit his eyes was much more tolerable now. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was but did not have the slightest idea. The only thing that seemed promising was the dirt road he was standing on, though he didn’t know which way to go. One might lead to civilization, the other to no civilization at all.
Jaime looked down at his sword and saw that the zip tie around it was gone. He looked at it quizzically, “Odd, I could’ve sworn it was tied up earlier.” Jaime shrugged and decided that wasn’t something he needed to worry about. He pulled the sword out and checked its edge, it didn’t seem to have been damaged, it looked oddly sharper than normal really, he resheathed it and shook his head at the oddities.
Deciding to leave things to fate Jaime simply turned to his left and walked down the road, idly examining the dense trees and bushes on the sides.
“How the hell did I get here?” Jaime asked to himself. “Was it the glowing crest? Where is the crest anyway?”
Jaime examined his person and saw a small pouch he didn’t have before tied on his right hip, he stuck his hand in there and pulled out the crest. Jaime rolled it around in his hand, giving it a closer look. It didn’t shine with light this time, “Was it all in my head? But what about the guy?”
Jaime bit his lip in thought as he continued his walk down the road for another ten minutes or so, “The hell is going o-”
He was cut off when he heard the sound of a wagon coming up behind him. Jaime turned around to see who was coming. It was a rather heavy set woman, a guy that looked like a medieval farmer, and the horse that pulled the wagon along. The wagon stopped next to Jaime and the farmer guy looked down at him.
“Well, aren’t ya a fancy lookin’ knight. You don’t have a horse?” He asked Jaime.
Jaime figured this could be some sort of roleplay or something, and even if it wasn’t it’d be best to play along for now. He smiled sheepishly at the farmer, “Yeah, lost it. Suppose that doesn’t make me much of a knight now eh?”
The farmer laughed, “Ha! Ya got a sense of humor, sadly most knights don’t now a days. A bit too uptight. So, ya need a lift? We’re heading back into town right now.”
Jaime smiled genuinely up at the farmer, “That’s very kind of you sir. Thank you.”
He just waved Jaime off, “No trouble,” He pointed behind him with a thumb, “Just jump on in the back and we’ll be off.”
Jaime complied and got himself situated in the back, taking off his helmet to give his head some much needed breeze and air, he looked at his two saviors and said, “My name is Jaime by the way. What’s yours?”
The farmer looked over his shoulder and said, “Mah name is Green Harvest,” He placed an arm around the heavy looking woman’s shoulders, “and this beautiful woman next ta me is Rosy O’Dawn.”
Jaime smiled at Rosy, ignoring the odd names, “A pleasure ma’am.”
She smiled back at Jaime, “The pleasure’s all mine Ser Knight.”
Jaime didn’t bother correcting her and instead asked, “So which town is up ahead? I’m afraid I’m rather new to these parts.”
The trees and road passed by as Green said, “Well, we live in Baltimare. Still a small town right now, but I betcha it’ll grow to somethin’ big.” Green seemed proud of his town, a fact that Jaime didn’t miss.
“If you’ve got so much pride for it, then I guess I gotta take your word for it.” Jaime said, while inwardly wondering what Green meant by ‘Baltimare’. Jaime always knew that it was actually called, ‘Baltimore’, he was beginning to suspect something was up. Didn’t help that Baltimore was all the way in Maryland and he lived a few thousand miles across the country from it.
“I assure ya, ya won’t be disappointed. Might not be fancy, but we got a strong culture over there.”
The group passed the trip in moderate silence, sometimes bringing up small talk here and there. Though the talking only further convinced Jaime that there was something not right with what was going on. Like how Green kept on mentioning something about ‘Weatherwalkers’ who created weather, ‘Spellborn’ who could cast spells and that the noble families were all made up of them, and ‘The Earthen’ who were usually farmers or traders. It was confusing for Jaime, at this point he was starting to question if he somehow ended up in another world altogether.
“Ah tell ya, Celestia knows if those damn Weatherwalkers ever get a rain shower properly scheduled. How are we farmers suppose ta grow crops if we ain't getting rain?” Green just shook his head in exasperation.
Jaime was silent before asking, “So, the weather doesn’t just do its own thing here?”
The two people up front looked over at him in bewilderment. “No, of course not! How the blazes does that work? Weatherwalkers have always been the ones to create and manage the weather. Even before we settled this land and founded Equestria. Anything from thunderstorms to pleasant breezes. You… you really are new to these parts aintcha?” Green said, looking at Jaime with both eyebrows raised high up in the sky.
“Heh, yeah. To be honest I’m starting to think getting home is not going to be as easy as I thought…”
Green shook his head, “Well, don’t get discouraged now. Ya don’t know what the future holds right?” A building appeared over the horizon, “Ah! Seems that we’re getting closer to town now. And don’t worry about money, I’m sure there is something that needs to get done by a Knight or just any adventurer really.”
Jaime considered that, he never did that sort of work before. Of course, that will probably be the only thing he could do anyway. His skill set back in his home town did not look like it would fit here, computer programming rarely does when there aren’t any computers around.
The buildings got closer and the roofs looked to be made of thatch, poor choice as thatch is pretty flammable. Hopefully Trogdor doesn’t decide to come through the town. Jaime looked around and examined all of the people here, they were dressed similar to Green and Rosy. Jaime couldn’t help but stare at a pretty brunette, a young woman that had honest to gods wings growing out of her back. He knew that the Weatherwalkers had wings, Green told him so, but to actually see it in person is vastly different from hearing it.
The young woman seemed to sense his staring and looked over at Jaime. She blushed when she noticed he was staring rather intensely at her wings and winked flirtatiously back at him. Jaime blushed as well until an older, well built guy came up next to her, probably her father, placed a hand on her shoulder and glared heatedly at Jaime as he and his two companions rolled by. Jaime smiled sheepishly back at the man and turned away, settling back inside the wagon.
“Ha! Better watch yerself around Builder’s daughter. He don’t take kindly to men flirtin’ with her. Chase ya across all of Equis if ya even look at her weirdly.” Green said, turning around to smirk back at Jaime. “Not a soul here in Equestria or even in Griffonstone that would take a chance against him.”
“I figured, that glare was about to turn me into ash.” Jaime muttered, just loud enough for Green and Rosy to hear. They just laughed it off.
Jaime went back to looking at the people, he finally noticed another oddity. A guy was walking down the street with several crates in a blueish glow. Jaime took notice of the same glow coming out of the small jewel floating just in front of his forehead, smack in the middle and probably less than a centimeter from his skin.
“Must be one of those ‘Spellborn’ Green talked about. I guess this settles things then, if the winged woman from before didn’t. I’m in another world.” Jaime sighed silently, “I suppose it could be worse. Hell, the natives could have been an entirely different species! I’ll just have to make the most of this until I find a way back home.”
Jaime was broken out of his thoughts when he felt the wagon come to a stop. He looked up and saw a large wooden building in front of him. This one didn’t have a thatch roof, instead it looked tiled. Off to the side of the entrance was a large bulletin board with a lot of papers and various posters nailed to its surface.
“Well, here ya go Jaime. This is the town hall, over there on the board is where ya can find anything the mayor might ask fer someone to help out with. Or ya can just head on in and ask yerself.” Green said, pointing at the board then to the entrance of the building.
“Thank you for your help.” Jaime said, giving a nod of respect to Green as he picked his helmet back up and got off of the wagon.
“It’s no problem,” Green said. “Now it’s time fer me to finish up here, got a farm ta run after all. Have a fun time here in Equestria.”
Jaime waved goodbye at the two as the wagon moved forward through town. He brought his hand back down to his side and turned to walk to the board, helmet tucked under his arm. Once he stepped up close to it he looked at the papers strewn across. Most were advertisements for stores or local events that Jaime didn’t pay much attention to. One caught his eye though, seemed like a local iron mine was recently taken over by some thugs.
Jaime plucked the paper from the board and walked inside the town hall. He was greeted by a small circular room. The only interesting things about it was the decorative mirror to his left, a potted plant by the entrance, the door outside, the door to the rest of the hall, and an empty front desk. Jaime stood awkwardly in the room, he had no idea if he should just wait here or walk through the other door. He settled on looking in the mirror.
Jaime wished he had one sooner, he looked different. His now green eyes widened considerably, his hair seemed more golden and luscious, he also looked much, much more handsome than he did before. And he was not a slouch in the looks department before coming here either. Jaime tilted his head and examined his face from as many angles as possible.
“My gods… I think I’ve become Jaime Lannister. The book one too, since I don’t look like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.” He muttered. His examinations were cut short when the door to the inside of the building opened up to reveal a slightly more finely dressed, Spellborn woman. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Jaime.
Jaime smiled at her, “Ah, hello ma’am. I was here about this problem you have with some thugs in a mine?” He showed the paper to the woman. The woman didn’t seem to do much except stare. “Uh, excuse me?” Jaime said, trying to garner some sort of reaction from her.
That seemed to do the trick as she shook her head and blushed when she realized she was caught staring, “Erm, my apologies Ser Knight. Just give me a second to get the correct file.” Her gem lit up and a drawer of the desk opened with a piece of paper flying out of it. A quill rose into the air, dipped itself into a pot of ink, and followed suite to her hand.
“Now, all I need is your name and I will mark this job as taken.” She said sweetly.
“My name is Jaime…” He paused for the briefest of moments. “Jaime Lannister.” He continued.
“Well, I figure if I’m going to look like Jaime Lannister then I should adopt the name. I mean why not right?” He thought to himself as he watched the woman in front of him write down his name on the paper.
“Alright then! Is there anything else you need? Anything at all...” Jaime figured she said that last bit just a bit more flirty than was appropriate for the setting they were in.
“Actually yes.” The woman’s face brightened up, “Do you happen to have a map of Baltimare I could have? I don’t exactly know where to go, a compass too if you have one.”
He face dimmed a bit and she sighed before nodding, “Yes of course. We have spare maps and probably a compass or two to hand out, I’ll go get one now.” She walked back through the door she arrived in and Jaime felt just a tad sorry for her, he got her hopes up just to crush it.
Still, Jaime waited for a few minutes. The secretary came back with a folded up piece of paper in one hand and a small compass in her other. She handed the two things over to him, “Here you go, one map of Baltimare and it’s surroundings and one compass. You can keep them too, we have plenty of spares laying around. Luna knows why no one ever wants one. I’ve also circled the mine on the map so you can easily find it.”
Jaime went to grab the items, smiled at her and said, “Thank you ma’am, you have been very helpful.”
She blushed, “It’s no problem Ser Knight.” She curtsied, “May Princess Celestia guide you through the day and Princess Luna through the night.”
Jaime winked back at her, “You too.” Jaime turned himself around and left the building. He pulled the map up and opened it once he was back outside. He scanned the paper for a moment to try and figure out where the mine is. Jaime saw the circled location, it was just outside of town past the north entrance.
Destination in mind Jaime folded the map back up, stuck it and the compass in the small pouch he had, and walked down the road. “I should probably get a canteen soon, or waterskin if they have those instead. A ton of other supplies too. I’m just glad that wilderness survival thing my dad forced me through in high school is actually coming in handy right now.” Jaime thought, mildly amused that his dad’s ‘you never know when you might need it’ argument is actually plausible right now.
Nothing of interest went on during his trek, other than the stares of the women, the envious glares of the men, and the odd respect they seemed to have for him. Jaime looked at a pair of giggling young women and thought, “If I’ve been turned into Jaime Lannister then I must be even more attractive than I originally thought. That would explain some of the looks I’m getting. This could be both a great boon and an inconvenience.”
Jaime passed the last house that marked the edge of the town and stopped off to the side to pull the map back out. “Let’s see… If I’m here then it should be the first dirt path on my left that leads to the mine.” Jaime bit his lip in concentration, map reading was never his strong suite. Google maps was always more his thing.
Jaime put the map back away and continued his walk. Oddly enough he finally noticed after all this time that he didn’t feel all that encumbered by the weight of his armor. Sure he still felt it was there, and wasn’t straining hard back at the Festival, but now it felt like a second skin. He brought a hand up and looked at the gauntlet that protected it.
“Must be because I was turned into Jaime Lannister? Maybe more than my face and hair changed, I likely have his body as well. At least it looks like a younger version of him and a version that didn’t look beyond my current age of twenty two.” He thought to himself.
Jaime looked around at the surrounding forest for the next few minutes until he saw a trail lead off to the left. “This must be my exit.” Jaime said to himself and veered down that road. He made to sure move a bit more carefully now, trying to keep his noise down to a minimum and a watchful eye to his surroundings. Nothing greeted him, it turned out to just be a quiet trek through the woods.
Jaime looked to the front and saw that the trail started to open up, he figured that the mine was close now and silently stuck to the edge of the forest and off the path. He got to the edge of the tree line and looked out over a bush, easily spotting the mine’s entrance and it’s lone guard sitting out front on a stool. The guard looked absolutely bored out of his skull while he sat on the stool in the shade of a small makeshift twig roof he had over his spot.
Jaime looked around the tiny cleared space between him and the mine entrance. There was nothing he could use for cover and it was at least twenty to thirty feet between himself and the guard thug. He licked his lips and thought about his current situation.
“I could rush him, but by the time I get over there he could raise the alarm. I don’t know how many people are in there, or how deep the mine is. I’m in a full suite of armor so stealth really isn’t much of an option either. Perhaps just walking up to him nonthreatening would work?” Jaime thought before deciding on a course of action.
He stood up straight, dusted himself off, and simply walked up to the mine casual like. The guard did not notice him at first, he was practically nodding off. But once he did, Jaime was halfway there at this point, his eyes shot open in surprise. The guard jumped to his feet and picked up a club he had off to the side.
“Hey! Who the hell are you buddy?! Get lost!” The guard yelled.
Jaime just raised his hands, stopped around eight feet from the guard, and said, “Hey now, let’s just all relax here. I’m just a simple wine merchant, I just figured some hard working miners could use a drink or two.”
The guard bit his lip and raised his wooden club up before motioning with his head to Jaime. “Oh yeah? Well where is your wine then? I’m not stupid,” He shuffled nervously as Jaime simply smiled at him. “No merchant would be so well armed like you are. Not how about you get out of here before I teach you a permanent lesson.”
“Now what lesson would that be?” Jaime said, placing his hand on his sword’s handle.
“Oh please be a coward dude, I really don’t want to hurt you. Keeping up appearances is all I can do right now.” Jaime silently begged in his head, he didn’t really want to be a killer but if he wanted to find a way back home the life of an adventurer would be the best way to find one.
The guard seemed to have a brave streak, “The one where you shouldn’t have come here alone!” The man lifted his club over his head and charged at Jaime, swinging down once he got close enough.
Jaime wasn’t idle though, he jumped back a bit to let the club swing down in front of him as he unsheathed his sword. He stepped forward and thrusted his sword point first at the guard. Everything felt so natural to him right now, like he had gone through this kind of motion all the time. The point of his sword cleanly pierced the man’s heart, making a sick flesh parting noise. The guard dropped down with a strained gasp and fell silent as blood pooled out of his mouth.
Jaime staggered back, freeing his sword from the body. Jaime brought the bloody sword up to his sight and simply stared at it for a moment. He wretched his helmet off of his head, dropped to his knees, and puked on the ground. He gagged out the last bit and spat out the refuse. Jaime was glad that he hadn't eaten anything recently, the feel of food coming back up would not have been pleasant.
“Oh gods…” Jaime muttered. “I hope I don’t get used to this.”
Jaime picked himself back up and looked down at the dead body before him. He put his sword on the man’s clothes and wiped it clean, taking notice of a pouch on the man’s belt. After re sheathing the blade Jaime bent down on a knee and took the pouch. He jiggled it a bit and figured that it was a coin purse, he put the purse in his pouch and took something else from the man. A waterskin.
“Oh goody, I can wash the puke out of my mouth now…” Jaime bitterly said. He uncorked the waterskin and poured some into his mouth, but spat the contents back out almost immediately after it came in. “Damn it, it’s a wineskin not a waterskin. It's really crappy wine at that. Still, at least the taste of puke is gone, though I can’t say which is better.”
Jaime just shook his head and recorked the wineskin, tying its strap around the same belt his pouch was tied to. He might need it later. Jaime picked himself back up and placed his helmet back on, then turned to the mine’s entrance and sighed.
“Let’s get this over with.” Jaime simply said, unsheathing his sword and marching up to the shoddy wooden door.
Author's Note
I figured the Displaced group needed a more regular guy amongst its fellow displaced beings.
I've got some big plans for this story.
Jaime grabbed the handle of the mine door and turned the handle down before pushing it forwards. The decaying door squeaked open and light flooded inside the poorly lit mine. Jaime took a cautious step into the rocky man-made cavern and gently closed the door behind him, dimming the surroundings of the mineshaft immensely.
The mineshaft looked to have a sort of systematic lantern pattern, lanterns that did not look to be fueled by any kind of oil or coal. Jaime took a closer look at one, squinting his eyes at the nearly unnoticable light coming from it. “Huh, it has a crystal in it.” Jaime muttered to himself, guessing that whatever fueled the light’s source of fuel was likely magical.
Jaime ignored the lights now and crept onwards, keeping his steps light and carefully placed. The ground was rocky and despite the lamp lights Jaime could barely take note of where the dips and bumps of the floor were. After a minute or two of creeping closer Jaime saw a brighter glow of light up ahead. He pressed himself against the grey rocky wall and peered around the corner.
The large room around the corner was much more spacious than the mineshaft Jaime was occupying. There was a table in the middle of the circular room that had its own lamp on its surface. Several chairs were placed around the table and three men were sitting down on a few, laughing and drinking from some wooden mugs.
The first thug was one of the Weatherwalkers. He, like the other two Earthen of the little group, did not wear any armor. Instead they were all wearing raggy looking tunics and pants. It made Jaime wonder how they even managed to take a hold of this mine for so long, anyone with some armor and a good blade could probably kill them. The big difference between the winged guy and the other two was the fact he actually had a blade.
“So, it's the winged guy first then?” Jaime thought to himself.
Jaime debated on how to proceed, there were three guys in that room so he would not have the advantage in numbers. Surprise would be his biggest asset, if he could take at least one of them out then his chances to beat them increased. Jaime pulled his head back and looked around for anything that could be of use. He spotted a pickaxe lying unused on the ground.
Jaime reached down and picked it up, he took a heavy breath and swung it into the wall. The impact of the mining tool and rock make a very loud clanging noise, nearly instantly bringing attention to himself.
“What the hell was that?” Jaime heard one of the thugs say, he didn’t know which. Jaime swung the pickaxe one more time against the rock, the clanging noise filling the tunnels. Jaime set the pickaxe down and readied his sword.
“Oi! Is that you Meathead? Aren’t ya supposed to be guarding?”
“Meathead? Oh, that has got to be a nickname. No parent would be that cruel to their child.” Jaime thought to himself and rolled his eyes.
There was a pregnant pause until the same guy said, “Hey! Answer me dammit!”
A shadow slowly covered the light coming from the circular room. Jaime swallowed nervously and shifted his hold on his sword. He licked his lips just as the shadow reached its full height and a foot passed the entrance of the room. Jaime quickly stepped forward, his sword already being thrust forward.
“What the-” The Earthen guy was cut off, Jaime’s sword piercing his throat. He let off a strangled gurgle before falling to the ground, clutching his bleeding throat. The other two shot up from their seats, the winged man pulling out his sword and the other Earthen grabbed what looked like an iron mace.
Jaime flicked his blade to the side and twirled it, then placing himself into a basic stance. A stance he didn’t even know he knew, it was as if his body already knew exactly what to do. A fact that Jaime felt he needed to address once this was all over. The two opponents yelled and charged Jaime, hoping to overcome him all at once.
Jaime sidestepped to his left, putting the winged man between him and the other normal guy. Jaime blocked a sideways sword slash from the winged man with the flat of his blade, the Weatherwalker pulled back and swung down this time. Jaime parried, batting the blade of the other man to his right and quickly slamming the back of his left armored hand into the face of the Weatherwalker.
The man cursed and held his now bloody face in his hand, blood gushing from his nose. Jaime wasn’t able to take advantage though, he was forced to lean back and let the head of a mace swing past his face. The mace attack was overcompensated, the Earthen man putting way too much power into it. Jaime seized his arm and jerked the two of them together, his sword cleaning gutting the man.
The Earthen man fell to the ground in extreme pain, his mace forgotten, and crying out loud. He desperately grabbed his torn stomach as blood gushed from the wound. Jaime tore his eyes from the sight and focused on the other guy. Jaime slowly stepped to his right, circling his blade wielding opponent.
“Who the hell are you.” The Weatherwalker growled, eyeing Jaime in anger.
Jaime was silent before shrugging, “Jaime Lannister, maybe you’ve heard of me?”
The Weatherwalker took a step closer, adjusting his grip on his sword. “Can’t say that I have, must be a poor excuse for a knight then. You look like you belong in a brothel more than that armor of yours. How about you hand it over and then you can adjust your lifestyle?”
Jaime rolled his eyes, “Oh, well aren’t you clever. If your sword skills were as sharp as your tongue then you might even be able to compete with your dead friend over there.” Jaime jerked his head in the direction of the now dead man lying on the ground.
That comment seemed to anger the winged man enough for him to launch another furious charge. He swung wildly down with his sword, a move that Jaime easily parried. His opponents blade hit Jaime’s at a downward angle, causing it to skitter down the flat of Jaime’s blade and veer off to the side. Jaime took this as a chance, he immediately stepped forward at an angle and took a swing at the man’s side.
The winged man roared in agony, nearly dropping his sword as he fell to a knee and clenched his left side, smearing his hand in blood. Jaime waited for him to get back up, idly twirling his blade as the Weatherwalker shakily pushed himself back up and glared at Jaime.
“This guy has got a bit of tough in him,” Jaime thought, morbidly impressed. He nodded at the man and asked, “What’s your name?”
The guy, finally getting to his feet, held his blade in only his right hand now. His left hand was still at his left side, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
“Cloudy,” he gasped, trying to hold himself up through sheer willpower.
Jaime nodded at the now named Cloudy, readied his blade and said, “Then let’s get this over with Cloudy.”
Cloudy fast walked to Jaime, slashing down at an angle that would’ve cut Jaime from his left shoulder to his right hip had he not dodged to his left. The sword passed harmlessly through the air, Jaime quickly counter attacked with a thrust of his sword into Cloudy’s chest. His sword sank deep into Cloudy’s heart, and Cloudy fell to his knees as Jaime twisted the blade and yanked it free. Blood now covered Jaime’s gauntleted hand that held his sword.
Jaime wiped his blade clean on the clothes of the winged man and checked for any money on Cloudy’s person. He found a pouch on all three men and dumped the contents into the money pouch he first got. Jaime tucked the empty bags into the pouch that came with him.
“Never know when I might need an extra pouch.” He thought.
Jaime looked around, trying to see if he could spot any other mineshafts. Jaime found one on the left side of the room, if you were heading in from the entrance. Jaime started forward, intent on seeing if anyone else was occupying the mine. He got three quarters of the way there when the door suddenly burst open. The door slammed into the wall it was attached to and splintered.
“What the hell is with all of the racket?! I’m trying to- The hell is going on here!? And who the hell are you?!” Yelled a burly looking Earthen man. He stood a good foot above Jaime and was clad in heavy looking armor sans helmet. The joints of the iron armor seemed to be only protected with leather and not chainmail like heavy armor wearers would usually use. He carrying a heavy looking warhammer over his shoulder.
“Maybe this is why they were able to take the mine.” Jaime thought, a bit worried now. “And it seems I’m facing a mountain on the same day I get to this forsaken world too. Maybe a bit of bravado will get him to surrender?”
“The name is Jaime Lannister.” Jaime said, pacing his left hand on his beltline then gesturing to the corpses behind him with a flourish of his sword. “And I’m the one that killed all of your men, with quite a bit of ease too.” Jaime pointed his sword at the newcomer, “I’d like to ask you to surrender, things will be a lot less messy if you do.”
The big man bellowed a genuine laugh, “Haha! You think a puny guy like you could win against me? You think pretty highly of yourself after killing a few grunts like those. What’s someone like you got against me?” The large Earthen gripped his warhammer tighter, likely preparing to swing it at any second.
Jaime got back into a ready stance before snarking back, “Besides my obviously superior good looks? Seriously, it looks your face went through a meat grinder.”
“What the hell am I getting myself into…” Jaime inwardly groaned to himself as the big guy silently lifted his hammer and swung down a heavy blow at Jaime.
Jaime jumped back, the massive warhammer slamming into the rocky ground. Actual cracks formed from the impact of the man’s strike. “Well fuck me, if that even glances me I’m done for. I’d be crushed like a tin can.” Jaime thought grimly to himself. He silently wished he was wearing lighter armor, like leather, right now.
The massive Earthen picked his hammer up like a toy and charged Jaime, he swung his hammer upward. Jaime jumped back again, noticing that he previously stood next to the table and chairs. The large Earthen’s hammer smacked a chair and sent it flying into a wall. The shoddy wooden chair exploded in a shower of splinters.
“Stay still and let me hit you dammit!” Yelled the Earthen warrior.
“Hah, like a meathead like you would even be able to hit me! Even when I’m standing still!” Jaime taunted, figuring that getting him mad would lead him to make mistakes.
“Meathead was my brother!” He roared as he lifted his hammer and charged like a raging bull at Jaime. He swung the hammer down, in a seemingly perfect arc, to hit Jaime in the head and crush him like he was a piece of fruit. Jaime jumped forward and just a little to his left side, he landed on the ground and skidded loudly behind the large muscle bound man as he heard the telltale crash of a hammer striking rock.
Taking this as a chance Jaime quickly got up and stabbed the large man’s right knee from behind. The steel sword easily piercing the leather protecting the back of his knee. The man screamed in pain, giving an even louder scream when Jaime twisted the blade for maximum damage and yanked it out. The man swung the hammer behind him blindly with one hand, Jaime ducked under the much slower strike and scrambled back out of his range.
“All right, I think I got this.” Jaime thought, smirking at the large man which only served to irritate him further. “Just have to be calm and calculative about this.”
“What’s your name anyway,” Asked Jaime, keeping himself in a ready stance even with the other man’s crippled state. “I don’t want to just call you Mr. Brute.”
The other man slowly pushed himself up, the head of his hammer was one the ground as he used his weapon as an improvised crutch. “The name’s Rumble.” He said, glaring at Jaime with undisguised loathing. “And I’m going to have fun stuffing your corpse when this is all over.”
“We’ll see about who will stuff who.” Jaime simply said. He carefully kept his eyes on Rumble as he inched his way to the dropped mace near the mineshaft’s exit.
“What? You running pretty boy?” Rumble growled out, now standing shakily. His right leg looked like it was about to give out any second.
Jaime chuckled, “Of course not. I just figured that if you get such a huge weapon then I should be allowed another.” Jaime reached down for the mace with his left hand, grabbing the handle. “Let’s continue our little tango.”
Jaime started moving towards Rumble slowly. He licked his lips and regarded the large man, twirling the mace in his left hand in a slow and mocking manner. Jaime ran forward like he was going to charge Rumble head first. Rumble took the bait as he scrambled to swing his hammer. Jaime stopped as the heavy weapon sailed way passed its mark, throwing the large man completely unbalanced when his wounded knee gave out from the strain.
The hammer flew from his hands and Jaime took that as his cue to strike. He raised the mace in his left hand over his right shoulder and crushed Rumbles wounded knee with it. Rumble screamed in pain and swung his right arm out at Jaime, backhanding him and sending him flying into the table in the middle of the room.
“Ugh, holy hell I’m glad I was wearing a helmet after a hit like that.” Jaime was practically seeing stars. Jaime staggered back up and said, “That was completely uncalled for.”
“Argh!” Rumbled cried, “You crushed my fuckin’ knee! It was completely called for!” Rumble was clutching his very bloody knee now, screaming obscenities.
Jaime ignored his screaming and walked behind Rumble, once close enough he swung the mace down on Rumble’s head. The head popped with a sick squelch, brain and blood flying everywhere from the impact. Jaime was better prepared now and forced his nausea down, he was still forced to look away from the head lest it returned. Jaime examined Rumble’s belt and didn’t see anything on it.
“Must be in his improvised room.” Jaime thought and walked through the now broken door Rumble came through. The tunnel was a short one and lead to a dead end, but that dead end was clearly being used as living space. There was a pile of hay and a blanket plus pillow, a large chair and table, and a chest.
“Well, I hope this has something in it.” Jaime said to himself and tried to open it. “Oh, it’s locked. No matter.” He swung his new mace down and destroyed the lock.
Now free of locks Jaime opened the chest and looked inside. Aside from a large bag of money and gems the rest of the chest was worthless. It mostly consisted of extra clothes fit for a large man like Rumble and an extra pair of boots that were about five sizes too big for Jaime. Jaime shrugged and took the money, setting it on the table.
“Money is money I guess.” Giving one more once over of the chest’s contents Jaime closed it and went over to the table. “Now, let’s see what the currency of this new world is. I probably should’ve done this first when I was outside.” He said.
Jaime rubbed his hand and opened the pouch. Inside of the pouch were dozens of golden coins, each a different size. Jaime whistled and picked one up to examine it closely. One side had a picture of the sun, the other had one of the moon. Both images had a number under it, likely corresponding to its value with each higher number belonging on a thicker coin. No other markings seemed to be on it.
“Hmm, just a picture of a sun and a moon? Anyone with the right know how can easily forge money for themselves like this. I hope this country has some sort of system in place…” Jaime muttered, shaking his head while closing the cloth pouch and stuffing it into his side pouch.
“Hmph, my pouch is getting a little heavy. I should get some sort of backpack when I get back into town. A knife as well.” Jaime said to himself, turning to walk back out of the mine.
A short trip back out and Jaime was greeted to the late afternoon, borderline evening, sun. He looked around and spotted an old fashioned water pump. “Good, I can wash out all of this blood off of my armor now. And replace this disgusting wine with fresh water.” Jaime said as he went to work on cleaning himself up for the meeting back in Baltimare.
It was late evening by the time Jaime got back in town and, aside from a few nearly unnoticeable nicks on his armor from scraping the rocky mine ground, he looked none the worse for wear. Jaime walked back the same way he went, quickly finding the town hall in the process. He saw that the secretary was still working inside so Jaime just let himself back in.
“Excuse me ma’am.” Jaime said, causing the woman to quickly looked back up. “I’ve finished with those thugs you wanted gone.”
She looked shocked, her jaw dropped and her eyes widened in disbelief, “B-But, you don’t even look injured! Their leader was a brute of a man and a wanted criminal!”
Jaime shrugged and leaned against the doorway, “Well what can I say? He was a tough guy yeah, but much too slow. You can send someone up to the mine if you want, I recommend soon. I sorta left the bodies where they were, I don’t know what you people here do about your dead.”
The woman looked a tad pale when Jaime mentioned the word ‘bodies’ and Jaime did not blame her for it. She nodded and said, “I’ll speak with the mayor, she’ll send out a party to confirm everything. It should be done by tomorrow, if you want I can show you to a tavern close by.”
Jaime nodded, “That would be most appreciated. But I should head to the nearest store first, I don’t have a backpack or any sort of clothes other than my armor right now.” Jaime winked at her, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Jaime turned around and left the blushing woman behind. He looked around for any sign of a store, not finding any he stopped a random stranger. “Excuse me sir, do you know where I can find a store that sells backpacks?”
The man pointed down the road, “Three blocks down that way, it’ll be the store with ‘Barnyard Bargains’ written on its sign.”
Jaime nodded at the man and patted his shoulder, “Thank you stranger. Have a good one.” He quickly walked down the road, making sure to try and get his much needed chores done. The street blocks went by and Jaime saw the store on the other side of the street. Jaime jogged the last stretch of distance and pushed open the door.
A bell jingled when the door opened and a happy voice said, “Hello! And welcome to Barnyard Bargains!” Jaime turned to the voice and saw that it came from an older man, if his wrinkles and greying hair were anything to go by.
Jaime nodded to him and said, “Hello, do you think you could tell me where I could find a backpack or something?”
“Of course Ser Knight,” The storekeeper said and motioned with an arm to an aisle, “It’s just down that aisle, you can’t miss ‘em.”
Jaime looked around the store, the walls were a boring brown and nearly every part of the store was a shelf of some sort, save the entrance area and the walking space between shelves. Items of every kind were on the shelves. Jaime wandered down the previously mentioned aisle and found the aforementioned area. He simply grabbed the nearest one and set about finding some much needed supplies.
The quick walk around the shop led Jaime to have around half the backpack to be full of supplies. Including a map of the country that Jaime was glad to be able to find. Even a simple set of dark green cloth clothes, a set that really needed to be replaced with something better, but it was certainly better than sleeping in armor. Jaime set the backpack on the shop’s counter and said to the old man running the place, “I’ll take the pack and everything I put in it.”
The old man nodded and began to look through the items and mutter under his breath the prices of each. The old man stopped his searching and nodded to himself before grabbing some paper and a quill. He wrote something down, looked up at Jaime and said, “That’ll be a hundred and six bits.”
Jaime nodded and pulled out his side pouch and counted out the money. “The highest coin seems to be a twenty.” Jaime thought to himself and placed five twenty bit coins, one five bit coin, and one one bit coin on the counter. The old man seemed satisfied and Jaime closed the bag and walked back out into the street.
“Who knew such a shop existed in any version of a medieval time period?” Jaime said. He sighed and quietly said to himself, “I suppose all that is left is a knife, I can get that tomorrow I suppose. A cloak and a horse too, I don’t want to carry all this junk all the time.”
He looked around for a tavern to spend the night in. Jaime spotted a sign over a building that had a picture of a mug on it and guessed that was a tavern. He walked inside and instantly knew he was correct. It was loud, and full of drunk people being rowdy and having a grand time. Jaime simply paid for a room, wine, and some food before retiring for the night. He would gladly have fun in a tavern some other time.
Jaime laid down in the bed, backpack away from the sights of the window and sword close at hand, and muttered quietly, “Right now… I just want to sleep all this away like a bad hangover. Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and find out that all of this was just a bad dream.” He rolled his head to stare out at the night sky and bitterly laughed out before closing his eyes, “Heh, I don’t think I’m that lucky.”
Author's Note
Here's another chapter. Can't wait to eventually kick start the real big adventures, but ya gotta start small first.
