Story.

The next day.





He was rudely awakened the next morning by a man who was standing over
him with a wooden pitchfork, yelling at him. He couldn't understand
a word the man said, so he held up his hands then put them over his
ears then nodded a few times. The man backed off as Linc tried to
raise up waving his hands by his mouth and ears. The man finally left
him alone and went to fork hay
down from the loft. Linc hurriedly rolled up the mat and put it back
in his pack before climbing back down from the loft with out saying a
word to the man. Let him think maybe he was deaf and dumb or
something.

Back out on the street, Linc walked back up toward the big arena. His
boot lace was loose so he bent to tie it back up tighter. As he
scuffed the dust around, he saw a coin. He picked it up, but had no
idea what it was, since the coins of this time period are different
than home. Since it was silver, he figured it was enough to get a
bite to eat with and wandered over to a booth set up by the wall
across from a small park. There were a couple of people sitting by a
makeshift table, eating small loaves of bread, salami, fruit and
tomatoes. Tearing off chunks of bread and dipping it into cups with
some oily herb stuff in them.
Linc pointed to a loaf of bread and a large tomato. Placed the bread
on the table and took out his knife and slit it end to end. Not all
the way through but almost. Then he took the tomato and sliced it and
put the slices in the slit. Motioned for some of the dipping sauce to
be put on the tomato slices. He gave the coin to the tender and got
back two copper coins in return. He held out the coins and pointed to
a big pot of tea of some kind, and was surprised to get a cup for one
coin. He started to put his knife away when he felt some one pat his
arm. A very cute gal had moved in next to him, and wanted him to fix
her a sandwich too. He did it, then she bumped his hip a couple of
times. Oh no! Linc thought. A hooker. The last thing he needed was
to get one of them on his case. He shook his head and crossed over
the street and sat on a bench by the park to eat his breakfast. A
husky dude came and stood by the hooker, and patted her butt. She
gave him the hip bump and he put his arm around her. She laid her
sandwich down to pat the guy and a kid came up and grabbed it and ran
away as fast as he could down the street. The hooker stamped her
foot and screamed at the little devil. All the people around laughed
at that. The dude pulled her away from the table and drug her off down
the street the other way. Linc looked across the way and saw the
tender was using a big brass knife to fix sandwiches for people who
wanted them since they saw the one Linc had made. He had to drag the
knife across the top of the wall to sharpen it a bit but he raised his
hands to Linc and nodded his head at him too. Wonder if this is how
sandwiches got the start here? Who knows?

Linc finished the sandwich and took the cup back to the tender.
Tender raised his hand, so Linc gave him a high five. Tender nodded
and laughed.

Linc could see that a lot of people were headed toward the arena.
Wow! He thought. Things get started pretty early around here.
The arena was quite large. Stood three tiers high. There looked to
be four large openings into to it. Linc saw that there were a lot of
people going into the different openings. There was no one standing
there to take a fee to enter, so he figured jousting must be a free
event and a lot of people must enjoy the game.
He went into the closest opening. Just inside there were steps to the
right and left, up to the first seating tier. He went up the left
side, but instead of finding a place to sit, he stood against the
railing just above the entrance.
Looking across the arena he could see the time masters standing
against the rail, over the opening opposite from him, like he was.
Linc scanned all around the arena. The place was almost filled with
spectators. Most talking to people next to them, and a lot of the
eating as well.
A man with a green flag walked out into the arena and Called for
quiet. He announced the events of the day and then call for the first
set of young junior jousters to enter the arena They came riding in
from opposite entrances and galloped around the arena once then back
to the place where they entered. The flag man then called out the
rules to follow. There were to the best two out of three tries.
Called at ease, and the jousters placed their wooden lances, that had
the points covered with a padded cloth at the end., across the front
of their saddle. He then called out ready, and the jousters raised
their lances forward. When he lowered the green flag, then the
jousters each made their play to unseat the other rider. They were
given points for the different contacts the made as they raced their
mounts back and forth and around each other. The best you could do
was to unseat the other dude as fast as you could, by ramming him with
the padded end of the lance. There was lots of cheering and yelled
advice from the spectators.
After five sets of junior jousters competed, some more advanced teams
preformed. They were wearing armor, helmets and the points of their
lances were not protected. There was plenty of cheering and some
onlookers had noise makers of some kind they kept using.
Linc was beginning to get tired of standing when the flag man called
the main event. The bully who challenged Roland was called in. The
flagman called, out, " Thorn, the champion jouster". Thorn raced his
horse madly around the arena, fogging up plentiful dust in the
process, then into the middle where he made his mount rear up, kicking
up more dust, raising his lance above his head amid the cheers and
jeers of the crowd. The flagman chastised him loudly, and told him
that his juvenile display was going to cost him two points off his
final score. More cheers and boos emanated from the crowd. Then he
moved over to stand just below where Linc was standing. The flagman
then called out, " Roland, the , the master charioteer". The crowd
cheered madly as Roland trotted around the arena, then went to stand
across from Linc, below the standing time masters.
Linc noticed that Thorn was wearing a much heavier armor than Roland,
who was wearing highly polished armor that the charioteers wore.. The
other jousters didn't wear the heavy armor either. This looked more
like the armor that warriors wore. It must be legal as the flagman
said nothing about it. They sat at ease till the flagman called the
action and lowered the flag. Roland lopped around Thorn and did a few
feints as he passed. Thorn galloped at him with a raised lance, looked
like he was aiming for Roland's head. Roland ducked down at the last
second and used his lance to whack Thorn in the back. Causing a loud
clang on his armor. The flagman called out the points for the
contact. They retreated to their mutual starting places. As Thorn
drew near below Linc, Linc could see him pull his lance back and
attach an iron spike to the end of it that he had pulled out of a
pocket on his saddle.. Roland was already sitting at ease, but before
the flagman went out to call action, Thorn kicked his horse viciously
into a charging gallop, with the pike out in front of him. Linc yelled
out, " He has a pike, watch out". People in the crown began to stand
up and scream. Thorn raced at Roland so fast, he didn't even have
time to raise his lance when the iron pike pierced his thin armor and
into his chest. The crown went wild. People dropping the six feet or
so down onto the arena floor. They tore Thorn from his horse and
began beating him with everything they had. The time masters went to
Roland and when one of them pronounced him dead, one of the spectators
Grabbed the pike and rammed it into Thorn's throat. The arena had
dissolved into pandemonium.. People were screaming and crying. Linc
was so stunned, he could only stand there and stare unbelievingly at
the horrid scene in front of him.
A couple of people had brought in Roland's chariot and then they
loaded his body onto it and drove out of the arena with it.
Not knowing what else to do, Linc went outside and saw that there were
lots of wagons filing up behind the chariot. People were piling onto
them so Linc climbed up onto one of them as well He could see the
time masters were in a wagon next to the chariot. There were a mass of
people in the procession. Linc figures well over a hundred. They
drove out into the countryside. Where they stopped and starting
digging a very large hole
As the hole diggers were busy digging a very wide but shallow hole,
there were others dismantling the chariot, and yet others removing the
armor and wrapping Roland's body in in shrouds. The chariot parts
were placed in the hole. The armor placed on top of it. Then the
people began bringing various offerings and flowers that were placed
in with the chariot parts. The crowd became very quiet while
Roland's body was placed on top of the chariot and covered with a
blanket.
There were loud cries and wailing as all the people began to pile dirt
on top of everything. By the time they were finished, it was dark,
and the crowd of mourners left. Linc was still sitting on the big
rock he found when he arrived, and the time masters went over to the
huge mound after the crowd left. As they stood with bowed heads, one
took the broach he had removed from Roland's body, dug a small hole in
the mound and placed the broach in it and covered it up. Linc could
hear him say, "Maybe some day a Hancks will come along and find it.
Rest in peace Roland Hancks"
The time masters then turned as a portal opened up and they went through.
Wow! He thought. Another Hanks.
Linc went to the mound to see if he could follow them instead of
retracing back to where he entered this time period. As he drew close
to the mound where they disappeared, he could see a pale blue light
glowing from the mound. He dug in the dirt and his hand closed on the
broach. He drew it out and was quickly thrust through a new portal.
He found himself back at the mine adit, and saw the time masters
standing by the truck.

To be continued.