Time is a gift for the bard of the great tree.

The bard slammed his jug on the counter. “More!” he pushed it to the barkeep. 

“Julius! I told you…”

“More.” The bard laid his tired, drunk eyes on the worried friend. Every night the bard had used the counter as a resting spot for his sorrows, drinking himself silly. The barkeep knew that he should enable, but those blue eyes that seduced many a woman could convince even a bald, burly man to yield. 

“Fine.” He snatched the jug from the counter and started filling it up with ale. “Only because you pay your coin in time.” A full jug of ale appeared by Julius. A wink of thanks to the kind man, the bard immediately chugged it whole.

“Woah! Slow down.” A woman's voice spoke on the bard's left. “You're drinking like it's your night.” The bard's eyes search for the annoyance. A soft-looking breast welcomed him. 

Mmm…

His drunken mind remembered to look up from the cleavage. Dark hair fell down around a pale face with juicy lips. Julius put his ale down for another distraction that caught all his attention. 

Leaning his lute on the side of the counter table and wiping his wet mouth, the bard held his hand out for the sweet lady. “Julius, Milady, it is an absolute pleasure to meet you.” The stranger gave her hand, and the seducer kissed her warm hand, noticing the shiny nail paint.

A rich lady?

The pale lady's eyes looked for the now half-empty jug. “Who rejected you?”

“Rejected!? Hahaha.” The bard forgot when that was even a possibility. He was more used to staving wishful girls away. 

“Got to have tried to get rejected.” The barkeep said as he dried unused cups. 

“Fuck off, mate. Just serve some other lost soul.” The bard reacted in anger.

“But it's true! There is only one reason someone as good as him would be in this ramshackle of a place. Love.”

"Oi,” the bard pointed like energy were to zapp the barkeep. The barkeep smiled and shrugged. “It's sad, you know. Coming here-”

“I am warning you, bastard.”

“Love?” The pale lady interjected, displaying her breast as she leaned into our argument. “I’ve heard of your name, bard. Julius of Astoro. Travel storyteller. Genius of voice and lute. Bedded every whore in all the whorehouse with a single coin.” The bard smiled as he heard of his prestige. The barkeep cringed. 

“A man surely bored of woman cannot feel... Love… intriguing.” 

The bard turned away. “It isn’t love.” His hands on his ale, he got ready to rid himself of this sudden soberness. 

The barkeep gestured with his hairy, grinning chin.“Oh OH! She here!”

Heavy gauntlets whacked Julius on the back. “Julius!! You came!” His back stung and a tree fell on it, but his heart pitterpattered. Julius turned around to see the most beautiful woman in the world. 

Despite days on the hunt for cores, her skin shone like new polished marble. Her rich sepia skin reminded him of the sunset. Obsidian hair was corded and braided like rope fashioned by a deity into many patterns on her hair down to her shoulders. Lips like an exotic butterfly, she smiled wide, hiding her brown eyes that sparkled like rare stones. He stepped back of his chair, averting his from his sun. 

Fuck sake…I am too sober for this.

“Kaara…It's been a long time.”

Jumping in for a hug, Kaara pressed with her impressive strength. “Indeed. Too long.” She let go, still smiling as she noticed they were still the same height. Always taller than him. Always better. It's what made Julius admire her.

“What brings you to the hunter lodge? Thinking of applying to be a hunter finally?” 

“No…Just a coincidence.” It was not. All week he waited for her return. “Just a stop before I go to the count's ball. My services are needed.”

“Services?” Kaara asked, folding her arms covered with her enchanted gauntlets

The bard brought his lute from the ground. “Tada!”

“A jester!” Kaara shouted.

The bard’s eyebrows dropped. The barkeep chuckled so much, his potbelly undulating like rough waves. 

“Haha. I ‘jest’ too! Hehe,” Kaara’s laughter sounded like music in Julius’ dulled ears. “I hear rumbles. The great Julius!” 

“Ah, shit.”

“I know about other rumours too.” She winked. 

Fuck my life. “They are still rumours!” The bard countered. 

Leaning to the side, Kaara’s long sword on her back clinked, and she eyed the stranger at my back. “I am sure of that.” She said, with the childish grin that brought Julius decades back, she rested her stronger hand on the bard's bony shoulders. 

“Since you are here, apply.”

“Apply!? And get killed on my first hunt?” 

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“There you go. Always the downer.”

“I think I got good reason to be solemn.” 

Kaara bit her lips in frustration. “I am sorry-”

Julius stepped away from her arms. “I can’t. That day, I threw that dream away.”

“You found a better one?” Kaara's apologetic eyes began to make the bard feel guilty. A good swig of the strongest alcohol would normally destroy those useless feelings. 

“I found a good way to make money. I make people happy. Maybe I have found a better one.”

Silence lingered for longer than was needed. The barkeep's eye darted between the two in a staredown.

Kaara gave up first, sighing aloud. “If you are happy.”

“I am.” The bard lied. 

“But if you change your mind, say my name at the reception. Your talent shouldn't be squandered. Jeff! Give his tab to me.”

“He pays well but okay.”

Her hands found Julius’ shoulders again. “Please.” She whispered. “I want to see you more.” A twist on her heal, and she sped out of the lodge. Trudging outside with her heavy boots, with twelve other men following her. Their glares were meant to scare only made the bard laugh at their embarrassing attempt to protect the queen of their guild. 

Jeff coughed. “I thought you were lying like bards usually do.”

“There is a reason I am famous.” He chuckled, throwing a gold coin to the old man “Don’t like to owe people.” 

“Good way to live! Hahaha!” The barkeep inspected the coin with his teeth with delight.

Julius put his lute around his back, ready to head back to his rented room. 

“That wasn’t love?” The distraction stayed in her chair, showing her assets and making hunters twist their necks as they walked by.

The bard exhaled. His breath was a mist made of his exhaustion from his talk with his sun. A moth needed a candle. 

“I have wine in my room.”

Under the covers, fingers traced down the bard’s hairy trail, and the bard slapped them away. 

“I need wine.” Pulling the covers off, the bard walked to the drawer where his wine waited. He surprised himself in the mirror. Long brown hair fell like a listless waterfall was tied behind like a blue cloth special to him. Blue eyes like sapphire, chest red like ablushy cherub. Julius understands what a face likes means in this world and how to use it. He felt horny eyes on his naked body. 

“You're no warrior, but that body... No useless fat. Like the stone statues of the old age. So young and supple, like an angel manifested before me. So different from him.” The bard had grown bored of the same compliments by the same boring women, and it seemed today wasn’t any different. “No wonder word had gone round of yoyour..." e looked down. “-worthiness.” 

The bard drank more wine, dulling his senses just how he liked it. A lay this bad made him pray she was a generous lady like his other admirers.

“Why don’t you come-”

“I have been inspired!” he began his bullshit. “This night. Both of them, interweaving like long-lost souls had brought up inspiration from the depths of my very being. Would you-” Like a performance, the bard swept up his worn lute from a chair with a spin and strummed a chord. The naked lady cheered on the bed. 

“Would you give me the honour?” 

The pale lady clapped like the seals of the southern archipelago. “Yes, yes, please!!”

My lady, beautiful and fair.

Lovely out and in. Sporting a lovely pair.

The pale lady caught his choice of words and laughed. 

Satisfaction from her touch made feel me aware

All my strength to pull me away from her hairy lair. 

While she laughed, the bard strummed, slowly getting close to the bed. His lute covered his prized jewel, and his blue eyes captured her gaze. 

Me and her, our bodies together hot as a furnace. 

He was close enough to hear her panting; her breath full of strong wine almost made the bard flinch. But he was professional. 

My lady, my lady... Tonight. It is only us.

A door was blown from its hinges. Hit by debris, Julius was frozen in absolute terror. Multiple heavy footsteps crunch the wood on the floor and surround our two lovers. 

“Told she was here.” One of the men spoke. Julius held both hands up, letting his lute hang on a strap around his neck. 

“I-!-! C-can ex-explain!!!” Julius turned around to see his visitors. Worn faces, he knew a thug when saw one.

“No need to for you to. She will.” The ugliest one said as he lifted up an axe that sparkled in the candlelight. 

“WAIT WAI-”

A blink of an eye later, he lay on the soft bed which he spent two coins for. Warmth dripped from his mouth, yet something cold and heavy stopped my wailing. The woman put on her robe slowly, not a tear for the poor bard. 

“I am sorry. My husband likes to keep tabs. Should’ve been quicker.” Her lipstick-ladden mouth kissed the bard on his forehead, and the pale woman was escorted out with grace.

A thug pulled the axe out of Julius’ mouth, and pain flooded in like a million insect bites. 

The axe was lifted high. 

Kaara… I should have said yes…

“Shit. Never had good aim.” 

And an axe fell, and death came. 

De Capo

25th perfomance. 

A door was blown from its hinges. Hit by debris, Julius ran for the open door. 

Subito Forte

The bard’s left elbow broke a thug's nose before he could enter the room. Pulling off an axe from a now-loose grip, Julius swung up. Killing the thug for the twentieth time today. Teeth burst from a split head, and the bard kicked the big thug into his friends. 

“HEY! WHA-” The bard’s new axe ended a second thug with a whack on their temple. Another scrambled off the ground, and a clean cut to his neck brought him back. Two were left, unsheathing their old sword from each end of the corridor. Giggling, the bard picked up a stray axe. 

“Come on, you pussies. Scared of a naked bard?” 

They rush in, piercing the air with swords too long from the corridor. Julius spread his feet on the bloody floor, heaving his small chest. 

The left goes for my head. Right for my chest.

The thugs followed his prophecy, and Julius bent and guarded his body with two axes.

And we go down. The two axes lock the right thug’s sword down to the floor. Summoning all his speed, the bard blitzed the left thug, hitting his sword up with a left uppercut. Julius’ foot located the thug’s knee, snapping it backwards.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Music to my ear. 

Catching the falling sword as if gifted from the heavens, the bard pierced the neck of the thug until the body stood itself up with the blade. One more to go. 

Leaning away from a sword strike on his back, Julius countered with his left forearm to the face. 

I meant to use my fist. 

Tilting away from a desperate slash from low, the bard grabbed the last thug's forearm. The bard choked a neck and a right leg swept feeling the big man. 

Naked, the bard straddled the frightened visitor. A few punches on the nose snuffed out any rebellion from his eyes. But the bard wasn’t satisfied. Twisting the sword out of the pleading man’s hand, he began pommeling. One two. One two. One two. A steady drumbeat on his face that turned to mush. One two.

A pale lady held my arm back with teary eyes. “Please! Please! He is gone! It's Over!” 

“Ah.” bloody hands pushed the lady away. This is who you cry for? 

“Was he your husband?” The pale woman fell in the corner, wailing her soul out. Julius’ hands felt slick, looking down at bloodied hands; the disgust he should have felt left him by performance fifteen. He still felt a bit cold down there. 

“HEY!!” A smoke-ravaged voice shouted from outside the inn. “WHAT’S TAKING YOU SO LONG!!?? BRING HER NOW!!!”

The bard smiled at the pale woman as he rummaged through drawers from a smoke and a good set of breeches. 

“You husband?”

The pale woman nodded her head.

Julius jumped up, buttoning his breeches. “Great.” He said sarcastically “Now. I don’t have to search for him. Dress warmly, milady; we will get many more visitors.” 

Twenty-four tries. I am not as talented as you said, Kaara.

De capo