THE REALM

Chapter Eighteen

  "Enough with the questions for now, Benaiah. Time will tell as to exactly how the future will unfold. Only El Elyon knows for sure when the end will occur. Now, are you ready for your reemergence into civilization?"

  "What?" I asked, at a loss because of the sudden change of thought.

  I glanced forward and saw the dim outline of a village taking shape before us on the plain. I swallowed nervously in sudden anxiety at re-exposure to society.

  How had I fearlessly killed ferocious monsters in close combat but a few days ago to now feel fear at the unknown world of men?

  It didn't make sense and yet there was excitement to my fear as well. Idly I wondered if there were any pretty girls in the village ahead.

  What if there were?

  It was an uneasy thought and I viewed the approaching village with new trepidation.

  *****

  I dismounted and tied my horse off just as Kuri had done. Reluctantly I followed him into the poorly lit building constructed of mud and sticks that looked to be on the point of collapse.

  As bad as this building was, it was still the best looking of all the shacks that the village had to offer. I found myself wanting to be free of this place and all of its squalor, but out of obedience to Kuri I sat down at the rickety table off to one side of the open room and mentally prepared myself to choke down whatever was put before me.

  There were only a few others within the room and they stared at us suspiciously out of drunken eyes. I did not like the place at all and I certainly did not care for those present either.

  My eyes found Kuri's, only to see him looking at me with a censoring gaze. Immediately I felt that I had messed up somehow and Kuri, always the teacher, didn't let me dwell in the question of my unknown trespass for long, "Do you think yourself so much above these people to look at them with such utter disdain and disregard?"

  I ducked my eyes down to the table. To be truthful, I did think of myself as being better, but was I right to do that? Apparently not.

  I looked back out at the room with a new regard for what I was seeing. Instead of seeing what I had the first time, I now saw beneath the drunken visages of the shacks' patrons to their underlying weariness of spirit. It was as if everyone within the place could barely summon the strength to keep drawing in their next breath of air.

  It seemed that the only solace anyone was finding came from the foul-smelling tankards of alcohol set before them. I felt pity for them now in place of the disgust that I had earlier. Something of my inner thoughts must've reached my face, because the hostility of the drunken onlookers seemed to dissipate away and one by one they glanced back to their tankards and took a swig as they resumed their usual business of hopelessly watching time go by.

  This was diplomacy. My first lesson so to speak.

  My attitude of dislike had been clearly evident to all within the room and I had made potential enemies of all of them, until I'd had the sense to really see them for what they were. They were simple, but tired out people with no hope of anything ever getting better.

  Even as I now pitied them I found myself rather thankful to not be sharing their lot in life. What a change in perspective could make in terms of viewing a situation.

  "Can I get you something to drink?"

  The voice was feminine and youthful in quality and inwardly I girded myself against any sudden infatuation with a member of the opposite sex. My head turned to take in the speaker and I relaxed instantly.

  No vision of temptation's beckoning allure stood before me. It was just a girl of perhaps 10 or 12. She had a pretty face, but she was so thin that she appeared to be on the point of starvation.

  Her features, stark as they were with the lack of food and meaningful care, echoed of something finer. What was it?

  I glanced from her to Kuri and back again. She was a Yesathurim, or at least partly so. What was a girl of her ancestry doing in a place like this?

  "We would like the best of what you can offer," Kuri said, giving the girl his full attention.

  The girl's darker cast features blushed for a moment and she looked down before haltingly asking, "Can you pay?"

  Kuri reached forward and pressed several coins into the girl's dirty hands. Her eyes got huge and she quickly hurried off, I presume to get us the best that this place had to offer. That said, I wasn't expecting much.

  She came back quickly with two tankards that looked marginally cleaner than the others on display around the room, although the contents still stank of the same vile concoction of alcohol mixed with something that smelled like rotting fish that the others within the room had before them.

  "I'll just have water. Thanks anyway." I said.

  The girl snorted derisively at me and I glanced at her in indignation as I started to hand my tankard back to her. Kuri's fingers closed about my wrist and the tankard stayed on the table.

  "My friend has reconsidered and will be more than happy with what you have brought," Kuri said smoothly and the girl, after sending me a condescending look, hurried off to what I presumed was the kitchen.

  Kuri released my wrist and picking up his tankard he drank an unhealthy amount of the foul-smelling fluid. He shook his head at the taste of it for a moment before motioning to me to do the same.

  I still had some stale water in a skin bladder out on my saddle that, although gamy to the taste, was, by comparison, a far better alternative to what the tankard before me contained. I shook my head and asked, "Why couldn't I have had water instead of this?"

  Kuri's brow wrinkled good humoredly, "Have you ever had the tumbly grumblies?"

  "Worms?" I asked, in verification of what he meant.

  He nodded, still smiling.

  "Goodness, no!"

  "Well, if you'd like to continue being unfed upon from within, you'll drink the beer that's set before you. The fermentation process of the alcohol kills off all the parasites and, while it doesn't taste good, it's the safest thing you're going to find around here to drink."

  I stared at the tankard before me in revulsion. As revolting as it was though, it was less so than the thought of invaders twisting about in my guts feeding on me from within. I took a sip and about spewed it across the table.

  The stuff was as vile as it had looked and smelled! I took a second sip and managed to hold it down and fight off the urge to vomit.

  The girl was back with two steaming bowls in her hands. She sat them down with a flourish and I stared at the contents in the bowl before me. The contents of the bowl, for lack of a better description, looked like a grey mound of mud with lumpy twigs stuck here and there in it. No wonder the girl was so thin.

  "Thank you," Kuri said warmly; not at all put off by the sick looking porridge before us, which I wasn't entirely sure was completely dead. Was that twiggish looking lump moving?

  I glanced up to see the girl looking at me and I said, "Thank you." I saw her smile for the first time and then she left us, presumably for us to enjoy our meal.

  I looked back down to the bowl before me. I poked the one lump suspiciously, but there appeared to be no movement. My reintroduction to society wasn't going well at all.