A figure in ragged straw clothing looked down at a dusty old map, which looked old and worn from age, then back to the gate he was crossing with a look of confusion. He didn't see any real resemblance to the Castle Town indicated on the map. With a shrug, he just strode over the drawbridge, figuring the location fit and that they just...renovated it a bit...a lot. As he crossed, he moved to walk past the guards that were stationed there.

One of the guards to the side-a middle-aged man, stubble lightly dusting his face, squinted and studied the diminuative figure crossing the massive entryway into the city. "You... you're a Skull Kid?" he called over with the mildly stern frown of a disaproving father. "What're you doing here, travelling alone?"

The Skull Kid would pause as the guard spoke to him, his mind working to think up a decent lie, though he had to admit that, considering how infamous the legend of Skull Kids being little demonic imps was back home, he was surprised he wasn't being arrested on the spot. "I-I'm not a Skull Kid. Skull Kids can't leave Lost Woods, silly. I'm...uh...a Deku Scrub obviously." he says, trying to play that off as the truth.

The guard was unamused. "Kid, we get enough of your kind through here to know a Skull Kid when I see one. Not many, but enough. And it's a crime to [i]lie to a guard[/i]," he retorted. "Now what business do you have in the city?"

Recco's first reaction probably should've been to ask how the heck he [b]wasn't[/b] the first Skull Kid the guard had ever seen, but he was too scared of the guard in general. "Geez I don't remember guards being so scary..." he muttered to himself before looking up and swallowing his fear. "I'm looking for my family from before I ended up like...this." he replied, gesturing to his current appearance. "Our town used to be near the forest, but I didn't find them there..."

"Uh-uh," the guard said, metal chinking as the maille hauberk under his blue tabard shifted as he crossed his arms. "Well, there's no guarantee that you'll find them here. Still, it's cause enough. Come over here and let me check you for anything contraband and then I'll fetch another guard to bring you to the census to see if they can help you find them. Alright?" the man sighed.

"Uh sure. No problem! Thanks!" he replied, smiling hopefully. "And I thought I'd have to walk in and find them myself. You guys really improved the place quickly..." he finished.

"Define 'quickly'," he muttered as he set his spear against the wall and stepped over, kneeling down to frisk the forest child, searching through his filthy and ragged garments for weapons and other contraband. He scowled over the slingshot, although, upon standing, left it for him to recover, apparently deeming it as little more than a child's toy. "When were you last here?"

"Never in my life! It's a lot bigger than my father told me it was!" he answered gleefully, secretly glad that the man didn't know the flute doubled as a blowgun and that the books weren't normal books. "When did you guys add the giant walls and bridges?"

"... several hundred years ago, kid."

"Oh...geez this map must be older than I thought! My parents must've took really good care of it before leaving," he said, thinking that the most reasonable possibility out of any of them. "Well is there anything else, mister?"

"Not right now, no," he said while looking inward toward the city. He waved overhead as another guard approached.

"Kid's looking for his family from before he turned into a Skull Kid. Bring him to the tax collector to look into the records, see if you can find him. Make sure he doesn't cause any trouble before you turn him loose."

"Right..." the younger, clean-shaven man sighed before looking to Recco. "Come on, then," he called as he turned on his heel, heading over the second bridge towards the inner gate.

"Are we going to go to the senseless the other guard mentioned?" he asked, following close behind as the crossed the drawbridge, his hands casually behind his head, he himself seeming in no big hurry.

A groan came back in response. "Cen[i]sus[/i]," he corrected. "It's a record of people living within the country. Unless your parents were hiding fugitives, there should be tax records showing where they went. And yes," the tall young man muttered as they neared the ornate inner gate, its ornate trims, colorful banners hanging from the walls and complex carved stone walls hinting at the splendor of the city within. Even now, the loud bustle of the city could be heard, the occasional wafts of foods, spice and the dust of cramped living wafting in the air. It was a lively day, it seemed.

Recco couldn't help but appreciate the smell of food, having eaten nothing, but whatever he could forage and steal in the Lost Woods, but the door's intricacy was lost on him. "Why'd they bother making the front door so pretty looking. Seems like real good way to dump Rupees if ya ask me..." he said, not grasping the concept of making stone look nice.

"A long list of reasons that you likely won't understand. It's a statement-and it's not like they spent it all on just that," he said as he gestured around them with a broad wave of his free arm. And indeed, the buildings to the sides of the massive cobbled road where exact, colored and complementary to each other. Many along the edge were made of stone, at least for the first level; others wood and colored plaster, with crossed supports and many with a larger second story and even third story than base and topped by steep roofs made of tiles the deep blue of a stark, azure sky. Most had at least one chimney, wafts of smoke rising high into the air streets and alleys crossed between them below, branches from the tree of the main road interlacing the city like a complex web of roots. Small gardens accompanied a house here and there, fenced with thin and ornate metal grates or walled off with high cobbled walls dashed with vines. Intermittently, a park could be seen between the buildings, or a small square with wooden stalls, wells and ponds as people moved about, talking, arguing, children playing and many attentive to odd machinations, many exhibiting a glow and sounds indicative of magic. And in the distance, near a large plaza, the buildings grew to immense proportions, some of them towers of width and height that they looked preposterously impossible, the people at their bases nearly invisible next to them.

Recco could hardly take it all in, glued to the spot at the sight of it, the sprawling city so very different from the forest he'd spent years in or his hometown before that. He suddenly failed to remember the guard was taking him somewhere, his brain trying to register it all.

They continued onward towards the central plaza, more people passing them by now-along with horse, mule, donkey and ox-driven carts of varying size and purpose. Some were simple wooden wagons loaded with a farmer's goods; others were large caravans with soldiers in toe, filled with supplies. Rarely, a noble's carriage drove in and out, dark and richly colored with wheels ornate even to the spokes and tiny glass windows as men and women dressed in fine livery glanced out, largely hidden from the public view. Shouts, meanwhile, occasionally called out from the higher levels of the city where bridges, stairways and stairwells became corridors between buildings and large structures with decorated shop signs were held alot entire stories above the ground by narrow supports and atop other buildings in increasing size, scale and complexity the deeper into the heart they delved, save for the fifty-foot wide road.

"Almost there, kid," the man said nonchallantly with the voice and gaze of one maddened with dull boredom. "It's just a block from the other side of the central plaza."

"Gee you sound [b]thrilled[/b] to be doing this. What's the matter? Nothing to do?" Recco asked with a eye roll, finding this guard to be a total buzzkill in comparison to the last one. At least the last one was scary. This one was just dull.

"I [i]am[/i] doing something. Escorting a child," he replied "Which is not my idea of fun."

"Well sorry to burst your bubble. It's not like it'll take long and you apparently didn't have anything better to do." he said with a bit of snark. "Geez I'm hungry. Is there anywhere to eat before we get there? Cause this walk is taking forever."

The man loosed another groaning sigh with an upward look, then glanced around. "Yeah, sure..." he muttered as he glanced down a wide alley lined with street vendors doing business, a long, narrow bazaar between the buildings. "This way-but you're paying for your own!" he called back sharply, albeit with a hint more lively tone to his voice as he waved overhead for him to follow.

((Nevis collaborated with me on this post in TitanPad. He directly typed up location description and the guard's dialogue just so that you're all aware.))