Walking into Pretta on a Market Day
If we were to take a journey to Pretta on a market day, here is what you would expect to find.
Approaching the east gate you face a stone wall 16 feet high and 5 feet in thickness. Its rough stone would be easy to climb during an attack, that is if archers didn�t pick the attacker off from behind the embattlement. The gate is 9 feet high and 7 feet wide. Its doors are of solid wood, reinforced many times. To the left the wall stretches on as far as you can see. To the right it ends 30 feet away in a 34 foot tower, meant to guard the gate. It, along with the wall, is covered in a fine green scum that dries out in the summer and renews itself every winter.
One either side of the gate there stands a guard. Both are short, pale, and blond, carries a spear. The other a short sword. Both have knives hanging from their worn leather belts. The one with the spear is leaning on the wall, his helm laying on the ground beside him, one hand on his partizan (a 5�4�� pole arm with a wide blade with small protrusions on its base), staring fixedly at a wooden sign fixed above the gate written in three languages. Judging by his expression he can�t read any of them. The sign, if you could read Eastern, Elvish, or Orcish, in bold letters reads, �Beware of the Law. Breaking it may cast you your life.� It is ironic to be nailed there above the gate, since so few people can read it, especially the kind to wander into town and break laws.
The soldier with the partisan is dressed in chainmail and a surcoat. His surcoat was brown naturally, and extra brown from being so dirty. On it is embroidered a single partisan, a mini replica of his own. The second soldier is dressed the same but with a chereb short sword on his surcoat. He has stopped a man a little taller than himself dressed in a very plain tunic, obviously a peasant. The peasant man is holding a long stick and a huge hog is waiting obediently beside him while he takes two little gold coins out of his pouch and places them gingerly in the guards waiting hand. A few kind words are exchanged- the peasant is proud of his hog and the guard agrees his has a right to be. Then with a few gentle prods of the stick the man and pig enter into the cobbled streets.
After paying the two gold head tax and registering your weapons (so that customs won�t tax them on the way out) you would walk under the arch of the gate into the city. The first thing someone not of Pretta would recognize would be the smell. The heavy smell of sweat and livestock looms over the city. And the smell of mold. At this point you would probably realize the cobble stones are covered in the same slime as the walls, with animal urine and feces mixed into it. Second you would notice the fact that it isn�t just humans walking around talking, buying, and selling. An orc, only feet away, is arguing about the price of some ale with a slightly intimidated vendor. He is taller than the vendor and tosses his wild mane backwards as his talks. In it are several strands of beads and braids. He is wearing only a tan vest and leather pants, so his huge muscles stand out fiercely, accented by a necklace made of sharp teeth on a string. He is an alarming sight to anyone who has never seen an orc before and you might wonder what the vender is thinking holding out for a few more gold. Quickly, however, they make a deal and both are laughing and talking like old friends.
�Excuse me, kind sir; may I interest you in a honey sweetened apple?� You would turn and come face to face with another non human, or at least a creature whose humanity is debatable. A beastman boy, about fifteen, is holding up a tray of delicious smelling apple slices that have been roasted in honey. The boy is almost human, yet different, most of this difference you would sense subconsciously and not be able to place. His nose is unusually flat and his upper lip points upward in the center, giving him a catlike appearance. His ears are the most inhuman, larger than an elf�s they jut out from the side of his head, again, in a very catlike manner. His hair is shoulder length and dirty blond and his smile accentuates unusually long canines. �Would you like an apple?� he�d prompt if you stared too long. He�d be a little nervous being stared at by a human, since humans tend not to like beastmen, and beastmen like to watch their backs. The apple slices are two for a silver, a silver being a third of a gold. It�s a good deal, so your virtual visit must be in the fall, when the apples are in season.
After all this one would hardly notice the elves, who by dwelling in the city have become quite human. It�s their elegant dress, their smooth walk, and their deliberate gestures that set them apart from the bustling creatures around them.