The first thing that I heard was the sound of hundreds and hundreds of voices ringing out all at once.

The next thing that I heard was a single loud voice yelling, “open the gate, open the gate!”

After that, I heard what sounded like an enormous, wooden door slowly creaking open.

A few moments later, I stepped out of the quiet forest, and looked around.

In front of me was a huge stone wall stretching out in a circle along a flat, green plain. A ways up and to my right, there was a single large wooden gate, that appeared to be the only entrance into the city. The gate was slowly being pulled open by large, black metal chains, as the gatekeepers made room for a huge wooden carriage to roll its way into the town. Then, once the carriage had passed through, the gate began to close back up again, leaving just a little bit of an opening for the townsfolk to pass through.

There were a few human beings among the throngs of people swarming in and out of the gates. But mostly, the people here were “humanoid,” rather than strictly human. There were people with dog ears like Lily, and people with cat ears instead, and tall bipedal lizard-folk with big green tails, and people with human-like bodies and the heads of owls, and tiny people about 50cm high, and many, many other races besides.

As I watched them stream in and out of the gate, I noticed that none of them seemed to be showing any sort of passport, or providing any payment to the guards who stood watch over the town. So I figured that I could probably just walk in as well, without that causing any sort of trouble.

As I arrived at the open gate, a lizard girl who looked to be about my age waved out to me, and greeted me.

“Ho there, traveler! What’s your name, stranger, and what business do you have the town of Westfall?”

I hadn’t expected that.

I must look a lot more lost than I had realized.

At any rate, if this town really is as safe as Torver said it was, and if he recommended it for beginners, then there's probably no reason for me to lie.

“My name is William, and I’m a traveler. I’m here to - travel," I added needlessly, before I realized that there was no reason at all to say that.

Damnit, I thought. It's been too long since I've had to really talk with too many people.

Fortunately, the guardswoman didn’t seem to mind at all. She only smiled a little, clearly amused by my answer.

“Well, welcome to Westfall then, ‘traveler.’ If you need a place to stay, there’s a few inns just a little that way,” she said, pointing to a corner of the town. “There are also some guides who can show you around the city, who are stationed right in front of the bell tower. The guide service is free, so please, help yourself. And, welcome to the town of Westfall!”

“Thank you very much,” I said, giving a low bow. The guardswoman seemed a little surprised by my gesture, but not at all offended. She gave me a warm smile, and bowed her head to me in return.

As I made my way through the entrance, I just let my eyes take in the whole town that was spread out in front of me, as I tried to familiarize myself with this new world.

The streets were filled with what must have been thousands of people, and all of them seemed to be walking briskly, each one rushing through the streets to their destination. In the center of the town, a huge bell-tower loomed over a large marketplace, and I could just barely make out some sort of large hammering device that was about to strike against the bell. A few moments later, the sound of the bell rung out through the whole town, and echoed out into the plains beyond. There was another strike of the bell after that, and then the mechanism ceased, and the tower fell silent. It seemed that it was now “two" here, whatever that might happen to mean, and I was sure that was part of why everyone had been in such a hurry.

A little after the second strike of the bell, the throngs of people started to thin out, and the crowds began to diminish considerably. It seemed that seemed that now that it was “two,” most people had made their way to their destination, and no longer had to run to and fro.

Because of how different many of the races were from my own, it was hard to figure out how old a lot of these people were. But it seemed to me that most of the people here were quite young, being just a few years older or younger than myself. That fact, combined with the way that everyone had rushed to a new place right when the clock was about to strike “two,” gave me the distinct impression that Westfall was something like a college town, filled with many people who were rushing off to their next class or lesson.

Before I could carry out those speculations any further, however, I was interrupted by someone shouting for me to “get out of the way,” as the huge wagon from before began to rush back towards the gate. It seemed to have dropped off whatever supplies it was carrying – quite rapidly, it seemed – and was now headed back outside. I quickly darted off to the side, then – once it had passed – made my way back onto the large, stone-cobbled road that I had been standing on before.

It was difficult to make out all of the town’s architecture from where I was situated. But, the basic design appeared to be something like this.

The whole town was ringed by a large, circular stone wall, with a single wooden gate that opened up onto a largely empty plot of grassland that stood right between the town and the quiet forest.

The wall was thick enough that a human being could walk comfortably on top of it, and a few guardsmen were patrolling along the tops of the wall right now, using some sort of device which they carried in their hands to look out into the distance. Each one of them seemed to also have a small horn attached to their belts, in order to alert each other of any sort of approaching danger, and there were also a number of what seemed to be “alarm” systems – large metal gongs with sticks to beat them – positioned at various points along the top of the wall.

The people patrolling the walls seemed to mostly just be idling around though, and quite a few of them were laughing, and chatting, and playing at cards. That meant that there probably hadn’t been any sort of danger or threat to the city in quite some time, which was good to know. Still, judging from the walls and the guardsmen posted all around, it was clear that the city was designed for war, and that the whole town would be ready to defend itself if the situation ever happened to arise.

Inside the town itself, there was a single large street that ran from the opened wooden gate all the way through to the other side of the town, like a diameter cutting its way through the center of a circle. That diameter-like street was quite wide, big enough that at least two of those large wagons could have squeezed through side-by-side, if they had needed to. Large, important looking buildings were lined up in rows on either side of the large street, each of which faced out onto the busy road. The large buildings all had wooden signs in front of them with pictures engraved on their surface, and those pictures seemed to signify what each building was for.

To my left, there was a building with a sign of many armored soldiers lined up in a battle formation (which was probably a sign for a soldier’s barracks, judging by the people standing outside), and to my right, there was a building with a sign of a single wooden bow (which many of the younger people – and especially the girls and boys with cat ears – had just been streaming in and out of). But there were dozens of these different buildings, each with their own peculiar sign, and it seemed to be these buildings that almost everyone was either coming from, or going to.

In the very center of the large main thoroughfare, there was the bell tower that I had mentioned before, and a huge, central marketplace that stood below, with many different kinds of stalls. Behind the marketplace, along the other end of the big main road, there weren’t as many of the large, important-looking buildings, but there were instead many different open spaces, which seemed to be used as training grounds. I thought that I could just make out a few armored figures striking cloth-covered mannequins in a grassy field, and archers firing at rows of targets with their bows. But I was far enough away that it was difficult to make out anything all that clearly.

This town is huge, I thought.

I hadn’t even seen any sort of housing yet. But I did notice that there were many small alleyways which branched off of the main road, then snaked and wound their way behind the large rows of buildings to my left and right, before vanishing behind the big buildings that concealed the rest of their path. I imagined that if you went down those alleyways, you would make your way out into the housing and residential districts, and probably also out to the inns, pubs, and restaurants, none of which I saw along the main thoroughfare.

I wanted to explore as much of Westfall as I could, if I had the time. But for now, I made my way further down the large central street, trying my best not to bump into anyone, or to stare at any of the more fantastic races, as I approached the market place at the center of the town.

While the main thoroughfare had thinned out quite a bit after the bell had rung, the market square seemed to be just about as crowded as it had been before. The stalls were arranged in four rings of concentric circles, with the bell tower at their center. Most of the merchants in each of the different stalls were chatting with their customers, and it seemed like many of the people here knew one another, and were good friends. It gave the whole place a nice feeling to it, and there was a kind of warmth and amiability that seemed to run all throughout the town.

As I stepped closer towards the center of the market, I could now also make out what seemed to be a very large bulletin board just in front of the bell tower. There were a few people in armor standing there, and I saw one of them take down a notice from the board, then carry it over to a large wooden building just off to the side, and step in through the door. Even as someone who had almost never played a single fantasy game in his life, or even read all that many novels, I still got the strong impression that this was a board filled with quests for adventurers. So, I decided to come back and to examine the board a little later, once I had gone through and looked at each of the stalls.

The stalls themselves were filled with all sorts of different goods and treasures, ranging from very mundane things like socks and shirts, to truly extraordinary objects like magical suits of armor, and large marble statues. But just about anything that you could think of to name, you could find here – clothes, food, weapons, armor, paintings, furniture, books, and even beautifully hand-crafted toys. One stall in particular had some especially lovely miniature toy houses, villages, and creatures, each painted with extraordinary care and attention to detail. Idly, I wondered for just a moment if each of the children might happen to enjoy those sorts of things... but then, I snapped my attention back to the present, as I continued to focus on the task at hand.

There were quite a few beautiful and useful objects here. But for now, with my limited funds and the total lack of food back at the house – not to mention the way that I had acquired that money in the first place - there was really only one thing that I could spend my coins on. So, I made my way towards the outer ring of stalls, where most of the food-merchants seemed to be, and took a look at what was available.

When I had first made my way into the town of Westfall, I had been worried that picking out the right sorts of food would be a pretty difficult and challenging task. But fortunately, there really didn’t seem to be any sort of problem at all. Each merchant just stocked the sorts of food that his own race happened to like, and just from glancing at the stalls for a few moments, it was clear that there was a lot of cross-over between each of the different races.

I did notice that the dog-eared race seemed to stock almost nothing but meat, so I decided that I should pick up as much of that as I could for Lily, and then maybe also some vegetables and tubers to go along with the meat for myself and Aaron. I didn’t recognize most of the food, but really, meat was just meat, so I grabbed some of the pieces that smelled especially delicious, and then asked some of the merchants of my own race about what other foods would go along well with the meat that I had chosen. They were happy to help, and after a little while, I’d paid for all of the food, and had a wooden box filled with enough supplies to last us for at least three or four days.

Still…

If the owner of the house didn’t return, then our limited funds probably wouldn’t be able to get us more than about a weeks’ worth of food. After that, we’d be on our own.

And, even if he did return, I’d still need to find a way to buy food for myself after that, and probably also a way to rent some sort of room, or to at least buy some materials for setting up a camp out in the woods, and some utensils.

In either event, I was going to need to find a way to make some money, preferably within the next couple of days.

Of course, I hadn’t figured out just yet how I was going to do that. But so, far everything seemed to have been working out pretty well - and the whole pleasant and cheerful atmosphere of the town had really elevated my mood, and made me a lot more cheerful and relaxed. And so, with a lot of optimism, and with my mind running through many different sorts of possibilities and adventures, I began to make my way over towards the notice board, curious to see just what sort of quests and experiences might be available in this strange and beautiful new town.