It was a nice day of summer, the occasional drop of water refreshed his skin. He was laying on a drop near the sea with a circular hat and a sword. He was nearly sleeping, keeping just an eye half-open on the road to see if someone came.

And someone came. A group of ogres badly drunk to be exact. They were horrible, their belly fat, their muscles lacking any tonne, their faces that of beasts. Those were creatures who only existed to drink, sleep and cause trouble.

He stood up and applied on his blade a blue oil, on his other hand he picked a flint.

The ogres looked strangely at him, probably deciding if it was a plant, an animal, or both. They came closer.

“Ohii, you know wwHat I do to such people as you?” An ogre said with horribles smells coming out of his mouth.

He lightened up the oil on his sword, now his flames were shining with blue flames.

The ogre took a step back:

“Who are you?” He asked terrorized?

“I am dead.” He said before cutting his head off.

The entire group started running away.

Looking at them he was a bit deluded, he excepted some sort of fight, oh well better was him, less work to do.

He had travel for an hour or so when he entered this house. The entire place was still a mess from yesterday activity, that didn’t matter to him. He was lead to see the head of the house.

When he entered she was still half sleeping.

“Oh… hi, already done so soon?”

“It’s 11 am.”

“Ah... “ he said like a child “11 am…”

“The ogres wouldn’t cause any more trouble to you,” he said with decision.

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“Dead?”

“Only one”

“Good, usually they are our best customers, but they passed the line. Take your reward and go away. That is if you don’t want any services…”

“No. Thanks, I will pick the reward and leave”

He knew, from personal experience, that you enter those places at night and left two days after, drunk, without a single coin, cloth, reputation or secret.

He counted the money, barely sufficient to pay the fake blue oil. One that made the sword seem like glowing with fire when in reality it wasn’t. Really useful against drunkards.

He found a nice inn where to sleep and wonder what to do next. This lifestyle was unsustainable. Bounties didn’t pay, the road was dangerous, items costed a fortune, and to top, all of there was always the chance to meet one of those strange kinds of beasts who many believed invincible.

Drinking a beer he heard two-man talk behind him

“That dragonslayer… do you know what they say about him?”

“Yeah! A madman, insane, bloodthirsty, yet I wonder how in the hell did he manage to kill such a huge dragon?”

“I think that those beasts do something strange to your mind. People who encounter them are no more the same. Words say that he talked to the dragons for months before killing him.”

“Months!?! That will make every man go insane.”

“That is not the best part, the best part was the visions.”

“Visions?”

“Yeah, it was not that he didn’t distinguish between the real and the fictitious. He didn’t even distinguish the various form of fictitious! He was gone truly insane.”

“Truly.”

“Truly.” The other man agreed.

He knew that story very well, it was a famous one. It was a too familiar one.

He wondered many times what he would do if some beast started talking to him. What if the beast was far too powerful than him? What if he offered him something interesting? What if he had too? No. Second law: of the hunter, you don’t talk to monsters. First law: you kill them. Nor that he believed in such things as the honour or the hunters or such things, he just recognized that they kept him alive and sane.

Little did he knew that the famed dragon slayer was far closer than he thought.

He took another sip from his beer, paid, and went to bed. He wondered if there was any destiny to him. Any grand project, or if he was just some side note on someone else story. Not that he would have minded, he liked being a side note. Being a side note for him was easy and comfortable, even though…. Nah, he was fine really.

He went in the clumsy bed of the inn, undressed, and while the men downstairs talked, drank and danced a bit he slept soundly. What a beautiful life he had, what a beautiful gift it was to be still so young and strong. To be able to bear such a life, such a free life…. a free life...?

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