We arrived at the tiny settlement a day and a half later, by which point I thought my arms were going to fall out of their sockets. I might have been used to riding in wagons, but I certainly wasn’t used to having to hold the reins. It was a damn tiring business and I had decided that if I ever had to do it again, it would be too soon.

The settlement as Sir Harold had said was new and hardly had any of the usual buildings that even a small village would, including a tavern. Not that I wanted a drink, but a chance to get inside and sit on a proper chair wouldn’t have gone amiss, but alas it looked as if I was going to have to wait a bit longer for that privilege.

While Sir Harold and his guards did...whatever it was they were required to do, I looked about trying to figure out what exactly the differences were between a Camelot village and a Caerleon one. It was nothing particularly evident, the building structures weren’t radically different, nor were they doing different work, but the behaviour and dress of the villagers was different. For one thing their clothing was less...slapdash, not high quality fabrics by any means, but where as a Caerleonian didn’t pay that much attention to what type of fabrics they wore, mixing wool, leather and cotton with abandon, the people of Camelot were far more likely to have clothes that complimented each other, not quite to the extent of Mercians, but they looked quite a bit more put together, for lack of a better term.

As for their behaviour, well, there seemed to be a general politeness, their accents were more refined than that of the average Caerleonian, although on the whole my own accent and that of my parents weren’t particularly harsh, but I could still tell the difference.

All in all I found this study fascinating, I might not have any use for it so to speak, but as a general thing, just to know was good enough for me.

We didn’t stay in the settlement for long, just a night, but I was impatient and one can only spend so long studying human nature, so it seemed the time dragged. It didn’t help that there was nothing I could really contribute to the situation, indeed a few of the older villagers gave me distrustful looks. It seems that it hadn’t been all that long ago that our two kingdoms had been at war.

In addition because the settlement was so small and we were a rather large group, only Sir Harold was offered a bed to sleep in. The rest of us had to make camp on the hard ground near the village stables. Of course, I didn’t complain out loud, it would have been badly done, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit put out and my annoyance was probably the reason I slept so poorly that night. Well that and the incessant braying of the donkeys in the stables. Not being from a farming family I had no real experience with donkeys and I certainly had no idea that they were wont to stay up all night making noise. They timed it well too, it seemed that no sooner had I begun to drift into deeper sleep than one of them would make an almightly racket that would jerk me awake and I’d have to go over the whole process all over again.

I can safely say that night proved to me that farming would never have been a viable career option for me. I thanked the Lord that I had discovered the pleasures of literacy instead.