Sweet Dreams | Dream Of The Endless

15 | As The Years Go By

*1589*

Atia and Morpheus walked into the White Horse tavern to meet Robert Gadling once again. As they entered, they couldn't help but listen to the conversations around them.

"Well, Kit, your theme as I saw it is this: that for one's art and for one's dreams, one may consort and bargain with the darkest powers," one of the men they passed said.

"'Tis so," the other laughed.

"My friends!" someone called and the two turned towards the source of the voice.

There, they saw Hob, sitting by the table filled with food. He was dressed in fine clothes, finer than most people in the tavern.

He stood up to greet then and gestured to two free chairs.

"Sit down," he told them. "Got in a couple of bottles of good wine for us. Already made a start on 'em."

"I doubt they will be as good as I remember," Atia shrugged, as she walked over to the table.

"Oh? Is that so?" Hob challenged.

"I believe it was better back in my days," Atia smirked, raising a cup Hob just poured the wine in, to her lips.

"'Back in your days'?" the man repeated. "And when would that be?"

"I believe it's been... about two-thousand years since I..." she hesitated. "About two-thousand years."

Hob's eyes widened, as he looked at her. She shrugged and sat down in her seat, that Dream pushed the chair she sat on.

"Hello, Hob," he greeted, taking a seat beside his wife.

"'Hob'?" the man raised a brow. "Faith, that takes me back some few years. It's Sir Robert Gadlen now, old stranger."

He playfully curtsied towards them, before taking his seat.

"You've had a good fortune, I take it," Dream mused, glancing at all the food on the table.

"The gods have smiled on me as they smile on all England where no man is slave or bondsman," he smiled, then pointed to one of the dishes. "Venison pasty? No? They're good."

"I'll have some," Atia nodded and held out her plate.

Hob smiled at her and put one of them on it. She nodded in thanks and then, almost carefully, she bit into it. Her eyes widened at the taste, as she looked down at the dish in wonder.

"See?" the man chuckled. "Told you so."

The Queen glanced towards her husband, who looked at her with a raised brow. She ripped off a piece and held it out for him to try. He didn't take it.

She rolled her eyes but put it on his plate anyways.

"Let's see," Hob said, as he bit into his own pasty. "Last we spoke, I was working with Billy Caxton. Made some gold with that. Put it to work in Henry Tudor's shipyards. I made a small pile. Then I went north for a year or so, came back as my son. Done that twice now."

While he asked for more wine, Atia turned towards her husband and once more tried to convince him to eat something.

"Come on, it's good," she told him.

"I don't need it," he said simply.

"No, but you can try it," she said sending him a look. "I mean, when was the last time we shared a meal?"