“So how did it go?”

Mr Hildegard poked me for information. His sweet voice was missed thoroughly, and I wanted to blurt out everything. I got to opening my mouth before remembering that I shouldn’t do that.

Mr Cedar returned to his role but before he could open his mouth Mr Hildegard shot him down.

“Not you, the short one… has the sun taken my eyes?”

All three of us tilted our heads in confusion at Mr Hildegard’s exclamation. Mr Cedar took vengeance for his fun being ruined and took things literally. The man leaned in close to Mr Hildegard and looked him dead in the eyes before responding.

“No, I don’t believe so, they are still in their current position. if they weren’t like that before then I would propose visiting a doctor or licenced physician. asking strangers in a bar is not a great idea that will give you any good results.”

“Not what I meant you tosser, look at the wee one, hasn’t he grown?”

Mark decided to take Mr Hildegards observation as an opportunity for him to show his weirdness as well.

“Well, ain’t that neat, ey have too. ow tall are ya now?”

I could have sworn Mark spoke far more eloquent than that on the trip. And heck he spoke better before we left as well.

Mr Hildegard moved a few steps closer and used his arm to measure my height against his. I was only up to his chin but that was an achievement compared to before.

I turned my head to the two old men, surely, they would have realized. Their stillness spoke otherwise. I didn’t know exactly how to react; it was good news… I hadn’t heard good news about myself in… it wasn’t exactly my greatest idea to try and remember those times and I pushed my head into my palms.

Mr Hildegard’s attention was grabbed more than the other two’s and he tride to distract me.

“So anyway, how was it kiddo?”

I looked at him, I was about to try and voice some sort of complaint but saw pen and parchment. I took the offered parchment and moved to a table.

My pen hovered over the parchment for a while. I tried but I couldn’t seem to put it onto the page. What happened made absolutely no sense. I killed people and I didn’t care. I killed more people and then I cared enough to break down. After I broke down I magically didn’t care again.

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I wanted to dig my nails into my scalp but I couldn’t. the word quickly added itself into the list of words I detested. I should be able to do whatever I wish, why should I be constrained? I wanted to write out my frustrations, but I couldn’t.

Finally, I decided to ignore the problem of the bandits and focus on the journey. I wrote about how we had met a Relic; how cryptic they had been and all the struggles of finding a comfortable bed.

Once I finished writing I stepped back and Mark gave me a poke.

“don’t forget you “gotta get me some books once we are done here.”

I gave Mark a punch in the stomach which was a mistake for multiple reasons. Not only did Mark spiral into another laughing fit but my hand was the only one hurt.

MR Hildegard was too caught up in the note to notice our conflict and soon another man was chuckling next to me. I wondered whether Mark’s laughter was contagious, but Mr Hildegard cleared everything up when he spoke.

“ahhh, a Relic. I remember the first time I saw a Relic; it was back when I was but a wee boy. Back then I hadn’t met a woman that could compare to her beauty, I still haven’t but I know what. It’s a bit of bad luck that you met one that didn’t offer a hand but then again, it’s good luck that you didn’t die.”

How positive, I didn’t need to know most if not all of that. But no, Mr Hildegard wasn’t done.

“you know I once slept in the insides of a Caltor. It smelt like rotten meat and Caltor droppings but that was kind of to be expected. The fit was tight, and I ended up having to sleep with my knees sticking out but…”

At this point I tuned out. It seemed like everyone was a yapper inside. Some people like Mr Cedar could harness their yappiness but others were at it’s whim. Other than rolling my eyes which had no affect on anyone but me I couldn’t do anything.

Mr Hildegard was having a great time talking at a mask, but it also wasn’t really that bad. I just wasn’t in the mood to listen. Perhaps if I hadn’t spent a few weeks stuck near Mr cedar and Mark then I would find his yapping quite interesting.

My brain took a back seat for the next few hours and when I returned, I found myself at Mr Cedar’s house. Thinking back on it I realised that nothing important had happened. Unwilling to sort out the plethora of new information that kept flowing in I looked around.

Our loads had been dumped on the floor, everything just sat there except for the plaque which got returned. How gullible was Mr Hildegard to give such a dangerous thing to the equivalent of a child and two old men such a thing when he hardly knew them. huim being gullible made less sense the more I thought about it, how did he get the position if he was like that? The only excuse I could find that he knew us already, but I saw him for the first time when I signed up.

That night I got the comfortable bed. Whether it was pity or caring for a child didn’t matter. I won it fair and square through the only reasonable method… gambling. We each grabbed a handful of dirt and the person with the least amount of debris won. For fairness the grab area was restricted to the sides of the path outside the house.

I think each of us had managed to collect a different type of rubbish each but that wasn’t the focus. That night I relished the joy of sleeping in a proper bed.