“Excuse me! Old woman!” Sir Maxwell called out to the hunched figure, walking a few feet in front of the knight.

“Man!” The figure called back.

“Man! Sorry! Could you spare a moment of your time old man?”

“I’m thirty-seven!” came the indignant reply of the man, now looking over his shoulder awkwardly and revealing his face quite unwrinkled.

“What?”

“I’m thirty-seven, I’m not old!”

“My humblest apologies, sir! It’s just your hunched appearance led me to believe-“

Interrupting the slightly confused warrior, the man turned to reveal he was carrying a box filled with enormous, black-shelled eggs. “I’m carrying a box of dragon eggs, what do you expect me to do? Carry them with my spine straight and shoulders back? I’ll fall on my back and crush myself if I do!”

Rubbing the back of his head nervously, Max tried again, “Good sir, I do apologize for my actions! I just wanted to know… wait… you’re carrying what?”

With a growl, the man declared, “Bah! I don’t have time for this nonsense! I’ve got a quota to meet… begone!”

“Hey wait! I just need directions to the stables! Wait! Ah damn it all…” Maxwell cursed as he gave up his half-hearted pursuit of the egg-carrying man, looking around desperately for another passerby to acquire information.

For five minutes now, Maxwell had been wandering the halls of the Dome, completely and undeniably lost. What few signs and maps that had been put up never seemed to make sense to the knight, and the people he met were either too busy, or gave directions so complicated and confusing that mere seconds after they gave them, Maxwell forgot it all. Really, all he wanted to do was find his horse, then figure out where to go from there, was that too much to ask? No, but the folk he met seemed to disagree.

Sighing in exhaustion, the green warrior found an unoccupied bench to sit upon and think about what to do next. Not to mention all the odd things he had discovered while he was searching.

For one, most of the people he met were dressed in queer ways, carried even stranger objects, and more often than not, they spoke in odd tongues that seemed nothing more than babble to the confused knight. One man was completely encased in black metal and wielded a sword of red light, and his voice was inhuman, it scared Maxwell out of his wits. Another, a beautiful woman clothed in a simple white toga, kept claiming that Maxwell was looking at her indecently. Of course, it was hard not to, considering the way she was dressed, but the warrior could swear anything he did wrong was completely unintentional. That logic was met with a literal slap to the face, and threats to do more than that if he didn’t turn around and walk the other way immediately. Then there was that talking lion… he seemed nice enough and willing to give directions, but there was something about the animal that made Maxwell suspicious. Perhaps it was because he overheard the lion talking earlier about how hungry he was…

Whatever the case, he was making little to no progress towards the stables, and it didn’t seem like he would any time soon. “Well, I suppose I’ll just wander around… it’s how I landed here in the first place…” Maxwell muttered as he stood, and began doing just that.

Ten minutes later, the green knight decided he was being a complete idiot, because now he managed to find himself even more lost than he was before. Further, he was beginning to get a few suspicious looks, as it was rather obvious he had no idea where he was going.

“Bah! This is hopeless! I might as well start calling out his name, seeing as everything else I’ve done doesn’t work… BROM! Brom, where are you?! Brom!” Even this didn’t seem to work, his voice echoing down the halls in all directions, except perhaps earn him more stares. Letting out a cry of frustration, Maxwell sunk to his knees in the middle of a rapidly clearing hall, as the people were now purposely avoiding the strange knight who not only looked completely lost, but called out for a being no one knew, and no one cared to find out about.

“Damn this place… and damn these people who refuse to help me…” Maxwell muttered under his breath as he tried to restrain himself from collapsing into total despair.

Just then, he thought he heard a familiar sound, and he looked up with hope, but the sound faded away, and he could hear nothing more except the distant bustle and chatter of the other people. He could’ve sworn though… and there it was again! This time he was sure what it was. It was neighing, and if he didn’t know better, it sounded like the neigh of a very familiar companion.

“Brom!” he exclaimed as he got up quickly, looking around him frantically for the correct hallway, and made his best guess as he chose one, rushing down it with all the speed he could muster. Weaving through crowds of people, he shoved those who he couldn’t dodge quickly enough aside as he made his way towards the source of Brom’s neighing, which was definitely getting louder and clearer. There was also a rich, pungent scent that strengthened along with the sound, and it was a very familiar scent to Maxwell, the scent of horse dung.

Finally, he made it to a large doorway, with two wooden doors painted bright red and a sign above that said in clear letters, The Stables. He made it! Grabbing one of the massive door handles, he tugged with all his might, and slowly but surely, the door creaked open enough for Maxwell to slip inside.

Immediately after he entered, he staggered back out into the halls, a hand over his nose and mouth. “Good gods! It stinks in there!”

Indeed it did. The smell of horse poo was quite overwhelming; mostly because the floor was completely covered with dung, some fresh, others several days old. The knight couldn’t quite tell what was inside, though he knew Brom was in there, somewhere. The only problem now was getting to him without stepping in, or the gods forbid, slip in the carpet of manure.

“Damn it all! I just polished this armor too!”