shutting behind me announces my arrival louder that I could have. Not that it serves any purpose as it was damped by the shouting of half-drunk men playing cards around tables in small parties. Only a few patrons turned half a eye at me before turning their attention back to more important matters than a form cloaked in a light wool garnment that had been badly worn out by months out in the weather.

I scrunch my nose, both from the acrid smoke of many pipes lit in a closed space, and from concentration, as I quickly scan the place, out of habit more than of any sense of danger. In the back was a group of three women chatting away - an oasis of light and peace that was hard not to notice. My first impulse was to go and great them, but the rivulets of icy rain water I could feel falling from my the bangs in my face and running down my cheeks and my neck, the fatigue that suddenly took over as I stood there after days on the road reminded me that all that was fair and noble about me had gone that day, and that my place was by the bar, among other worn out travelers, and not by ladies, all fair and maybe even noble. I walk to the nearest empty stool, and try to block out the noises and try to decide where I shall be headed to next