On an otherwise lovely and unremarkable day, while a rather tall man with dark hair paused out of the passing foot-traffic to look at the shopfront practically overflowing with flowers, a passing beast of burden spooked and startled badly. Before it could be brought back under control, its thrashing shook the heavily laden cart behind it, rocking the huge containers dangerously until they tipped too far - the snapping of wood as the wheel collapsed proceeded the crunch of the side of the cart as all the containers broke free.
While there was a lot of startled yelling and scrambling out of the way, most folk had instinctively shied away as soon as the animal bellowed and began to struggle, the rest moving after to give a wide berth once the overburdened wagon began to rock. Had one lone man not seemingly missed all the signs of danger, the accident would have been only a terrible mess rather than a tragedy. Instead, the stranger had turned just enough to glance back at the danger as it collapsed directly atop him, and in an instant he disappeared beneath hundreds of pounds.
A silent moment of shock passed, eerily still, before the small crowd erupted into noise and action.
Was that man dead?? Somebody needed to call for a healer! Where were all the able-bodied folk, they needed to start lifting those crates! Surely he had not survived that?? You're responsible, over packing the cart like that! Everyone step back, things could still shift and fall! What made the animal spook like that??
Then the pile abruptly shifted, causing another ripple of panic, before the bloodied figure of a man re-appeared, standing carefully as he easily shifted aside the various crates and barrels and sacks and such that had previously been crushing him. Other than being disheveled and, uh...the blood...he seemed otherwise unperturbed as he blinked a bright blue eye at the crowd now staring back at him.
"I am alright."
