The true knight continued his series of measured movements, repeating the same patterns over and over. It almost seemed like he would die if he failed to perform them once.

  Seated on the bed behind him was a young man, he had brown hair and a very willful spirit. For the past few days he had constantly found his way over to his room, usually after he had received his treatment and would mostly stay the whole day and try to convince him to train him.

  But every time the true knight would stay silent, he would ignore him completely. He had always cherished the silence that came with his ritual, he had always hated the attention his title always brought him. But being a high ranking true knight he could always avoid attention.

  But this young man had a stubborness about him, he would come and watch him silently. He had expected the young man to call out to him once or interrupt him but he remained silent like, the only time he would talk was when the daughter of the town physician would come by to check up on him, but even then they did not say much.

  He finished another round of his training and by the end his body was giving rise to steam, hot sweat bathed his body and back, they trickled down and filled the room with an odd stench. The wound by his side no longer gave off the foul purple liquid.

  He started to breath in exasperation, his long strands of hair stuck for his back with the cohesive force of sweat. He raised bits hands before his face and stared at it for a long time but he said nothing. His eyes remained souless and unmoving, they showed no hint of what he was thinking or if he was thinking.

  A young male voice interrupted whatever he was doing just as a small animal skin water bottle was sent flying in his direction. "Quit staring at your hands like they could fall off and have a drink." Tomas was more interested in the man's strange ritual.

  He had observed it for days and had always seemed to fall in a trance after a few minutes of observing it. Watching it felt live living on a battlefield, or that was what he thought it had felt like. There was always something about how the man moved his body and feet, it seemed like a complex weave of movements.

  Almost like it was meant for battle, but there was something quite amiss about the whole display. It did not seem entirely for attack or defense, though at times it would get very violent, it would also become smooth and fluid almost immediately.

  It reminded Tomas of something the women in his town loved to hold, they would gather around in small groups ranging from the old women to young girls, to grandmothers. Each division singing and performing a series of sacred dances, it was an orchestra that always warmed their souls in their frozen world.

  What the true knight did before him, seemed just like that. An orchestra that shifted and changed with the pace of the battle, when Tomas thought of it like this it became much easier to understand. But a problem always remained, whenever he observed the man's movement. He could never be able to follow it completely before he would receive a huge headache that threatened to split his head open.

  The true knight held the water bag in hand for a short moment before tossing it back to him. "If it's not something that can get me drunk I won't take it, I've had enough of the piss medicines that bleach my tongue out."

  Tomas continued to sit on the bed, saying nothing at first. He let his gaze drift from the water bag next to him then to the old man who had a menacing look on his face. "A sane person would say thank you, you old fart." He hissed.

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  The old man only met his remark with more hostility. "Well a sane person would never get drunk on water, nature's piss." He reached for a shirt left somewhere near the bed and slipped into it.

  Tomas watched as the cloths got immediately tarnished by the mass of hot sweat still radiating from the man. They stuck to him, showing certain curves of his muscular frame. He watched the man approach him only to walk right past him.

  To his surprise he reached out to grab them and hand and regretted it almost immediately. It felt like holding on to a huge pole covered in series of thick wound wires. Once again he doubted it the man was even human.

  "Let go if you still have any respect for cripples." The man boomed.

  BA-DUM!

  He could feel the man's heartbeat practically exploding through the veins in his arms.

  Tomas jumped back frightened, letting go of the man. One part of his mind wondered where the man was heading, while another part wondered what the threat was supposed to mean. He wondered if a true knight would have really harmed an innocent such as himself.

  Noticing the true knight already halfway down hehall he hurried up to reach him. "Hey, wait up. Where are you going?"

  The man responded after a moment's pause. "For some proper enlightment."

  It took Tomas a while to get what he meant, "Don't tell me he's planning on getting drunk." He told himself. "He should shower first, he reeks." He tried hard not to gag.

  As they walked out of the building he wondered why no one stopped them or bothered to. They all seemed to be very afraid of the man, whenever he walked by everyone would run away like they had seen something incomprehensible. He became puzzled, and wondered what the true knight had done to warrant this treatment.

  It was also late in the night which did not seem to help the situation any bit. Lanterns were hung on the lamp posts and outsiders the various shops and houses in the vicinity. It made the streets look serene in a way, well aside the occasional sound of people scrambling from them. The rest was mostly entrancing. It served as a constant reminder that Tomas had no real knowledge of how the real world worked.

  What was perhaps more shocking than the frightened looks on the faces of the faces of the people they walked past was the look they gave him. They made him feel like the crazy one for walking with the true knight.

  It reached the point where he was forced to actually ask the pressing question. "Everyone seems terrified around you."

  The true knight responded in a deep voice, "Every damn town should have at least a bad pub, if not decent. I just have to find it."

  Tomas did not like the feeling of being ignored one but but what could he do about it? The true knight did not seem to be bound to anyone or anything.

  A short moment later he spoke in a somewhat less violent tone. "Ah, there it is. Let's hope it better than cows piss." He headed into a small tavern and walked though the door and into the small establishment.

  Walking into it felt like walking into an entirely different world for Tomas, outside the tavern was quiet and small but inside was the total opposite. From the moment he entered through the voice, three things hit him.

  The first was the noise that came from the tavern, they were mostly laughter. But not all of them were happy, some were sad, some were borderline drunk and others were made to jest someone. The second thing he noticed was the light, the inside of the tavern burned so bright he almost thought they had lit a small sun inside it. The third thing that had him the most speechless was the space within the tavern, outside it was small. But inside it looked huge.

  "Is this a trick of the mind?" He asked, staring wide eyes at the number of tables and number of people seated around them all drinking and dancing in merriment.

  The true knight walked forward to the counter, since he was a talland hefty man his presence did not go unnoticed. It even caused the noisy tavern to be as quiet as a coffin.

  Tomas was starting to rethink ever associating himself with the man. "Wow, you really are a mood killer."

  The gruff knight walked up to the counter and ordered a drink, Tomas leaned closer to hear the bartender ask. "And how are you going to pay for this drink?"

  The true knight said, "Put it on my tab."

  The bartender further looked at him and said. "Sorry, ser knight. But you don't seem to have a tab here."

  "Then open one, for me and my good friend the physician." The true knight said in his defence.

  They both reached a stalemate for several seconds before the bartender broke into a wide smile and poured out a huge mug of a thick foamy substance and pushed it towards the true knight. "Works well for me, the old physician is stinking rich anyway."

  The true knight banged his fists on the table before raising the mug over his head and saying. "In the light of that information, all drinks are on me for the next few minutes. That is if you can chug it down." A collection of loud cheers brought the tavern to life and music played again.

  Tomas watched the entire thing, with his jaw dropped. "He's even trying to be stingy with someone else's money."

  The true knight turned and looked over at him, "Come on over boy. Have a drink."

  Tomas waved his hands frantically and said. "Sorry but I don't drink."

  The huge knight walked up to him and smiled proudly. "Nonsense, the day a boy has his first drink. He becomes a man. This ale is not even that good but it's decent."

  Tomas tried to fight his way out of it but he soon found himself forced to chug down the full pint only to pass out halfway through.