Billy Part 8

She didn’t understand her son’s strange comment but it did not linger in her mind as she started taking in the sights and sounds of the town. All along the inside of wall were stalls where merchants were packing away their wares for the night. The smell of roasted meat mingled with the smell of refuse on the ground beneath their feet. The path wound around the insides of the walls and branched off in narrow alleyways into the heart of the town. It was obvious that this was the poor side of town with the short houses made of wood and mud in sharp contrast to the castle looming above. The muddy road was overflowing with slime and sharp pungent smell made Billy and his mother nauseas. There was a thin crowd of people in street still but their mood was subdued. The day was coming to an end as people began making their way back to the homes or the alehouses. A few guards could be seen walking up and down the road lazily.

The traveler stood in the middle of marketplace unsure of what to do next and slowly began their ascent towards the cathedral. They would seek shelter for the night there, they decided. Billy kept one hand firmly on the mule’s neck and his mother held the other, leading her blind son into the town. She could see the cathedral looming about the houses, dwarfed by the castle beyond it and walked in that direction. Maneuvering the narrow alleys was more difficult that she had expected. This side of the town was crammed with small houses leaning heavily upon one another and the alleys were littered with garbage making it slippery and Billy’s mother feared her son would slip and fall. She tried not to think about that and instead focused all her attention on getting to the cathedral safely. Billy himself was subdued, he had finally began to feel the effect and burden of his blindness as he stumbled, holding on to his mother and the mule for support. He suddenly felt helpless, a feeling that was entirely new to him and it made him feel afraid. He could sense the closeness of the walls and the smells around him irritated his nostrils and his stomach. He felt his head spin as he put one foot in front of the other and he tightened his grip on his mother’s hand, relying on her entirely to bring him to safety.