Hydrangeas and Callunas

Chapter 5: Barstools

I opened my eyes to face a day that I didn't want to live. I had no reason to get out of bed but I did so out of habit anyway.

I pulled my clothes on and wrapped my belt around my waist sheathing my two shortswords into their corresponding scabbards. I didn't quite know why I was equipping myself with weapons, I had quit my Beast Patrol job weeks ago after my best friend died.

I couldn't catch a break when it came to relationships. It was only two months ago that Durlan died in my arms. Within three days a came across a fairly large Teurellian city. As I approached the members of one of the Beast Patrol Scouts groups found me and brought me in. They offered me a job with them. I accepted.

They placed me with a single other person, an elven ranger named Ophelia. She accepted me into her home and trained me in the ways of her profession. She was considered one of the best patrollers they had ever had.

Over the next month and I half we became very close friends and I couldn't help but begin to become infatuated with her, though I never would've let her know that. We lived together for about a month and a half and I found happiness and comfort in her presence. Her company became the thing that I looked forward to each day.

It was a simple patrol the day she died. We were simply hunting down a grizzly bear that had become too bothersome to the people on the outskirts of the city. Through a series of unfortunate encounters we found ourselves trying to outrun a pack of wolves before coming upon a small ravine. Ophelia misjudged the distance and managed to break her ankle trying to jump to the other side. While we escaped the wolves it was certain that it would've been hard to get back to the city.

A few hours later, after I had made a makeshift splint for Ophelia's ankle, we came across the bear that we had been hunting previously. However, we weren't informed that it was actually two young male grizzly bears. Ophelia and I took one bear each. I managed to down my opponent but not before I heard Ophelia scream and then hear that scream get cut off. I turned to her just in time to see the bears jaws around her throat. Blood poured from her mouth and her eyes were blank. It shook her body and then dropped it carelessly on the ground before it rounded on me.

I didn't want to think about what that bear looked like after I was finished with it. Needless to say it wouldn't be bothering the city's citizens anymore.

I carried my best friends limp body back to her parents. They cried and I just left. I didn't return to the house Ophelia and I had shared, without her there there was no reason for me to go back. I went back to the Beast Patrol Scouts headquarters and told them what happened before informing them that I was quitting.

I had been renting this room in a small tavern for a week now. My funds were slowly dwindling but my head wasn't clear enough to try and look for a job.

I walked over to the window and looked out at the streets. I couldn't shake the image of Ophelia's dead body from my mind and tears began brimming in my eyes. I hastily unbuckled my belt and let it drop to ground with a dull thud and I forcefully wiped the tears from my eyes.

I can't sit in my room alone anymore. I thought to myself. Inhaling deeply, I headed out my door and down the stairs to the tavern. I didn't drink but I just needed to be around people and away from myself.

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It was almost night time now. I hadn't moved from my table all day. I just kept ordering water over and over, flipping a copper piece or two to the waiter every time he brought me a glass.

I had seen many people enter and exit the bar. Some came to remember something, some came to complain or boast loudly about things. Others seemed like myself, drinking to forget something they didn't want haunting them anymore. I mildly wished I could drink but I had made a personal vow not to.