Welcome to Orario

The burnt orange of the evening sun cast a glow over the labyrinthine buildings of the city. Adventurers and city-dwellers milled about on the streets, laughing and trading goods. The gentle summer breeze cooled the early evening air. Ravens flew across the sky and nested deep in the woods to the West. In the upstairs loft of an old house off of Main street, I lie unconscious.

The darkness consumed me, it filled my lungs and silenced my screams. I wandered aimlessly with no direction, a light glowed in the distance.

Drip…Drip…Drip…

The sound of running water slowly permeated my senses. My eyes were closed, and my limbs felt weighed down and heavy. My head pounded, I grimaced. Slowly, my eyes fluttered open. I was in a small private room. I was on a mattress made of straw and cloth, a small wooden table sat in the corner of the room. The dripping came from a bucket in the corner of the room, leaking into a basin.

I sat slowly, looking down at my body, I was in a thin cotton shift. There was a bandage around my stomach, but I felt the spot and the pain was gone. I leaned over, expecting the normal stinging pain and coughing fit of blood that accompanied my morning routine, but I felt… free. The pain was gone. No coughing. I didn't feel weak. I raised my hands in front of me, they were pink with colour. I clenched my fists with strength.

The wooden door on the other side of the room creaked open. I looked around me for something to use as a weapon. There was nothing in reach, I clutched the edges of the blankets, prepared to run. A young woman, approximately middle aged comes walking in, carrying a tray with food. She smiles at me.

"Ah, good! You're awake." She approached the bed and placed the tray down on the edge, moving it towards me. "I'm sure you're starving, you've been out for a few days." She said. A few days?! I had medications and my jobs, my poor dog left in my apartment. She was right though, I was ravenous. I nodded to her in thanks and dug into the tray that held a bowl of stew and some bread. I ate quickly and efficiently.

"What happened?" I asked her. Looking around the room, this building didn't seem to have any sort of modern electricity or amenities. The bed was made of straw. The woman pushed her dark brown hair behind her ears and lowered her brown eyes.

"You were found outside the city walls four days ago. You were unconscious, with a stomach wound. A travelling merchant brought you here to an inn in town." She answered. "You've been sleeping since. We couldn't find anything to identify you on you." She said softly. I looked around the room. I know who I am. I'm Mira Watkins, a twenty-three year old bartender who lives in the United States, I have terminal lung cancer, and a five year old mutt named Darwin. Somehow, I didn't think I was close to home anymore.

"Excuse me, what city is this?" I asked. She raised a brow and looked shocked.

"Why, Orario of course! Greatest city in the land." She said with a grand sweep of her arms. Orario? That's not a real place! She must have registered the shocked look on my face, because she rose up and went over to the wooden shutters in front of the window and spread them open. The sunlight was fading outside, but I could see the busy streets from the window. Horses and carts wound their way down cobblestone streets. Hanging lanterns were scattered about for light in the fading daylight.

Merchants set up their stalls on the side of the main street. They had rudimentary market stalls separated by cloths and drapery. The thing I noticed immediately were the people. People with various degrees of armor wandered the streets, swords strapped to their waists. Daggers, axes, lances. All kinds of weaponry was represented, the women wore tunics and breeches out of a medieval novel.

In the distance a tall tower ascended in the center of the city. It rose toward the sky, a massive monlith the city was built around. I stared in awe at the landscape around me. I placed my hand at my throat, and felt the familiar weight of the gold coin necklace sitting there. I sighed, something about this necklace! It glowed. It was burning when that man was on top of me… What on earth happened?

I sat back on the bed, my eyes wide. My brain was overloaded, I was in some sort of medieval city, nowhere close to home. I was found unconscious here, but how did I get here? Where did I come from? Where is here? How do I get home? I needed my medications, my jobs would be looking for me. I placed my head in my hands, suddenly overwhelmed.

I felt a hand soothingly rub my back. I lifted my head to see the girl beside me, cooing softly.

"Poor dear, it will be alright. We'll track down your family." She said. I looked up and hugged my knees to my chest.

"I don't have a family." I said honestly. "I'm alone." Her gaze softened in compassion. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"There must be somebody looking for you, where did you come from?" She asked. Typical that it would seem odd to her for a female to be travelling alone. I shook my head and stared down at the blankets.

"Would you believe me if I said I don't remember where I came from? Or what I was doing?" I tried to answer as honestly as possible. I couldn't tell her where I had come from, she would think I was insane. "I don't know anything about this place." I said, my distress coming through my voice. She was silent for a moment, biting her bottom lip. Then she nodded her head.

"Well, then. We'll have to get you introduced to it, now won't we? You can work help with work around here for room and board, and maybe in time your memory will come back. You can get used to the city and get on your own two feet." She said. I looked her in the eyes gratefully.

"Really? You'd let me stay here?" I asked her. I honestly didn't have anywhere to go. She rubbed my hair and nodded.

"For now. We'll see how it goes." She said slowly. I nodded. I didn't have a penny to my name, or even know what the currency in this place was. I would have had nowhere to go, except the streets.

"Now tell me your name, lass."

"Mira." I said slowly, poking out my hand for her to shake. She looked at it oddly then grasped it.

"I'm Nadia. Welcome to Mayfair's inn, in Orario. Now, let me tell you some things you'll need to know about this place…" She began.