Between the Veil and Crown

Arvek 37

They continued along the side of the cliff, not stopping even as the suns came up over the horizon and pierced through the branches of the trees.

As much as he tried to keep proper riding posture and pay attention to where he was supposed to be going, he would every so often catch himself slouching and drifting off. His body was not content with the amount of sleep he had gotten, which he figured had to be only about three hours. In addition to drifting off, he had a low grade headache. As time wore on, he was sure that it would go away.

It was midmorning when the city guard led them out of the forest. As they turned away from the gorge where River Jeopardy was, Arvek looked back at the edge of the Veil Forest. As impossible as it was, there was a small part of him that hoped he could see Selim, peering through the trees. As expected, there was nothing, and the party parted from the gorge.

They were brought to a town that was off the main road, but not far from it, by midday. Arvek thought he had thanked the city guards and bade them farewell, but things were getting too blurry to remember. Since it was still daylight, he reasoned he just needed something to eat and drink, and then he would be awake enough to head back out. Three hours wasn't a lot of sleep he knew, but it was doable to work with. The sooner he found Selim, the sooner he could go home and make sure everyone was alright.

They found a tavern, and Arvek informed them, "As soon as we're done, I say we need to find our way back to the main road and head out." He then went on to dismount his horse. It was certainly not the most graceful dismount, as he stumbled upon hitting the ground and bumped into his horse. But it certainly didn't warrant the glances the guards exchanged.

Arvek strode determinedly into the tavern, hoping to walk off the embarrassment of the dismount.

Inside, he found the tavern jampacked with people. Very loud people at that. Even though it was the middle of the day, every chair was filled, standing space was taken, and the only way to get through was to squeeze between everyone- a talent that the barmaids apparently possessed as they held their trays of beer and other drinks over their hands to ensure its safety. There were at least seven different bar songs being sung at once, each group getting louder when they couldn't hear their own lyrics. Every once in a while the songs would be interrupted when a barmaid passed out orders and the table cheered. Woven between drunkenly sung lyrics was uproarious chatter that occasionally dissolved into laughter. Colors of red, green, orange, and yellow were splashed throughout the whole tavern, making it near impossible to focus on anything else. Faces became blurred as nothing more than a background to the colorful clothing they were wearing. With all of the people and the movement, it was unbearably warm.

A guard joined Arvek at his side and began to muscle his way through the crowd. The two by some miracle were able to make it to the counter where the bartender was handling several different orders. The guard shouldered himself between two singers in order to lean over the counter. He waved for the bartender to come over. The bartender attempted to make the guard wait, but he only waved more urgently.

With an obvious look of frustration, the bartender headed over to him, leaned over the counter, and yelled, "What?!"

"Firstly," the guard yelled back, "what is going on here?!"

The bartender gave him a look like he was crazy. "Farewell," he yelled back in a tone that suggested the guard should already know that.

"I beg your pardon!" the guard said, missing the tone.