the four horsemen

The Old Bear

**

Scaf was walking between the tents, or at least he was trying.

His state of mind-absolutely drunk at 7 am, but that's because he's been drinking since 7 pm- and his size did not facilitate this task.

His days had been pretty much the same for the last couple of months.

Living in a camp for disabled soldiers didn't sound like much fun anyway.

But hopefully for him, being an alcoholic was considered a disability, so he had the right for free food and shelter.

As he found his way to the only passage that was big enough for him to not hit someone's leg or head as he stumbled, he caught part of a conversation.

And as he looked in the direction from where the voices came from he saw it.

The face everyone make when they get hit by the hard reality that people are assholes and they don't deserve to be trusted.

The conversation was between a man, probably a soldier, who had apparently lost an arm, and a woman, that Scaf thought was pretty as he saw her.

And then he heard something along the line of "But you said you loved me whole", and as the woman looked at his arm stump, with a look of mixed disgust and pitty, Scaf heard her say something along the line of "But you're not whole anymore"

Scaf didn't find her that pretty anymore, and as he chuckled, he ddn't find himself that pretty either.

So he simply kept walking until he reached what he liked to call 'the gates of misery', not because everything inside was full of misery, but because what was outside sorely missed it.

There was a fair going on in the town for a week maybe, Scaf didn't know anymore, time don't make any sense when today is like yesterday and tomorrow will be like today.

But he had some fun destroying the ego of men that thought they were so strong no one could face them.

Little did he know today he was gonna be on the other end of the table.

There was one context he particularly liked to go too, it was the arm wrestling context.

Most men there were big and strong, and even the biggest of them seemed thin in comparison with Scaf.

And today's champion, or until now at least thought Scaf, was thinner as usual.

Actually, *she* looked thinner than everyone.

And yet there she was, with her beautiful short dark hair, her sharp yellow eyes, her small frame, destroying men that were at least twice her size.

Scaf thought they were simply trying to get her favors by acting like gentlemen, but he knew those men, the principle of gallantry and flirting were as strange to them as basic hygiene.

If they want something from someone, they either directly ask for it, or take it by force.

So Scaf pushed threw the crowd, his bottle still half full on his left hand, he sat down at the table in front of the woman.

He heard someone mumble something behind him about breaking lines, but he spent enough time around here to make himself a reputation.

They stared at each other for sometime, he was feeling something he didn't feel in a long time,and thought he would never feel again.

He needed to dull this felling.

So he took a sip of his drink, that was now a quarter full, and offered some to the woman.