2Juliana, the little girl mentioned before, was about 11 at the time of these events. It is not clear on exactly what she was doing at the exact time our story begins, as I say, there are conflicting views on the subject. We only know what her daily routine was in the afternoon. That is that she walked through the center of town, selling playbills, which weren't much good, as the town had recently been struck by an attack from the evil conqueror VanGarn who had recently taken over the country, and now his army was trying their best to occupy the town. The villagers wouldn't have it, and they had attacked. As the city of Lee Walls was the only community to resist VanGarn's attacks, the evil emperor had come down especially hard on the little town. He had sent one of his most powerful Generals, Benson Shallonde, to occupy the town. Shallonde was under orders from VanGarn not to let anybody enter or exit the city. As a result, the town suffered horribly. There was no way to trade or sell with any other cities. There was also no way that anyone could send relief to Lee Walls. The economy became unbearingly pitiful. Jobs were lost. Anyone who tried to escape were either caught and brought back, or became a fugitive, with a price on their head. There was nothing that anyone could do to stop it. That said, you can imagine the situation. It does not take much thought to understand nobody was really in the best shape to be seeing a play. Mostly they had broken bones or were starving to death, or something of the sort. Juliana, our unlikely heroine had red hair and was tall, and was dressed in a thin little shift and a black cloak. Both were somewhat dingy, for obvious reasons.
"Come and see the adventures of King Arthur and his search for the Holy Grail!" she called.
"Oh go away!"
"Shove off!"
"Ye e'nt needed 'ere!" came the common reply of the townspeople. Juliana simply sighed and walked on. She had only sold one playbill so far, and that was to a young man who seemed quite well dressed, and in need of a good laugh.
"How much are they?" he asked, looking her up and down, sneering in disgust at her dingy shift.
"Two pence," replied Juliana, eyeing the man warily. The man dug two pence out of his pocket and flipped through the playbill as he walked away.
Juliana walked to the theater and deposited the unsold playbills on the doorstep. She couldn't bear to look behind her. She knew that the people who had refused her before would steal the playbills when she wasn't watching. They would rip the pages out and use them to start fires. She could hear their scrambling footsteps behind her now. Juliana ran away from the scene and didn't stop until she reached home. If a little shack was what one would call a home. But she was luckier than most. At least she had a roof over her head. She had seen some families with nothing more than a sheet covering them. Juliana saw her house in front of her and slowed down to a walk, and walked up to the front door, where the large wooden door was hanging off its hinges. Juliana thought she heard her mother telling her sister that she would have to feed Juliana before she went to the theater for the play that night. Juliana worked at the theater, not just as a playbill-seller, but also as an extra, in case she was needed for any group scenes. Since most of their actors were often seriously injured or dead, Juliana was often needed to help. Tonight she was to be one of the angels at the side of God during the play. It was, as the playbill said, about King Arthur and his quest for the Holy Grail. Juliana knew that there would be no real turnout for the play, because it cost two pence to get in, and nobody was willing to waste that kind of money on a good play, and maybe get a laugh or two, which was what everyone needed to have, in Juliana's opinion. She opened the door to the house and went inside.