23) Braggarts
-Solitude-
A big burly Nord was standing out in the middle of Solltude, surrounded by several hot ladies.
"Did you know that I once killed three Dark Brotherhood assassins that were trying to kill me, all attacking at the same time?" the Nord boasted.
"Wow! That's amazing!"
"You're so brave!"
"But who would send Dark Brotherhood assassins after you?"
"A man like me makes lots of enemies," the Nord answered. "People are jealous of my strength, my popularity, my looks. There are so many reasons why some people want me dead."
"You must be living a difficult life then."
"Not at all! I am able to hold myself against dragons too. I killed numerous dragons before!" the Nord continued. "They are ferocious and fearsome, but I can still hold my guard every time those reptiles tried to burn or chill me!"
"Wooaaahhhh…"
"By the way, see the stitches on my knee?" the Nord said, pointing to his right kneecap, where there is a bandage on it. "Bandits gave me four arrows in the knee, but I was still able to put up a good fight!"
"Awesome!"
"You're much tougher and braver than all of the hold guards combined."
"By the way, when I was sixteen, a wolf attacked me once," the Nord said.
"What happened to you?"
"Well, I was able to put up a good fight and killed the wolf with my bare hands," the Nord boasted. "The wolf clawed my face before I giving it a few hard punches to its gut, and killed it. Look at this scar on my face." The Nord pointed the small scar on his face.
"Oh… that looks a little bad…"
The Nord laughed. "Ha! That was nothing! I also…"
"IIZ!" a loud voice came from nowhere and before he knew, the Nord was now encased in a block of ice. Despite being frozen, the Nord was able to twitch both of his eyes to the source of the shout.
"Bitch please!" Draco shouted from the distance as he pulled off his mask, showing the claw scar on his face. "When I was thirteen, back in Valenwood, a Senche-Tiger attacked me and gave me this bloody scar! And I was able to hold myself against it! Another thing, there was one time that a wolf tackled me to the ground! Before it could bite me, I waited for the exact moment to break its neck!"
"I thought you hated to boast about your achievements," Erandur murmured behind Draco.
"I had to say it," Draco murmured back. "I'm trying to make a point to that braggart that he is not the best guy in all of Nirn. By the way, what I shouted just now about the Senche-Tiger and the wolf were true stories. Whether you want to believe it is up to you."
24) Very annoying; irritating; stupid laughters
-Valenwood, in some forest- (4E 193)
"BWAHAHAHAHA!" huge laughter erupted from nowhere and killed the ambience in one of the quiet forests of Valenwood.
In that same forest, a thirteen-year-old Draco was training himself in hand-to-hand combat. Although the area he was training in was small, there was enough space for him to train his hand-to-hand combat in the thick forest. He delivered a series of punches and kicks to the air, not only with power, but also with speed and precision. It was a good area to do his training due to the ambience, but now it was disrupted by very loud and intolerable laughter. Draco immediately stopped his training and spun his head around to the source of the laughter, which was a group of his (fellow) Wood Elves.
Draco was pretty annoyed. Laughing can lighten up the mood, but to a certain extent. When it goes over the extent, it can be really irritating.
And this kind of laughter is one of them.
Draco clenched his fists as the group of Bosmer continued to laugh ridiculously. He wanted to shout at them to keep quiet and give them hard punches to their gut, but he knew using violence against them is never a solution. Draco decided to take a deep breath, calming his nerves. That group of Bosmer was not worth his time dealing with anyway.
"Inner peace…" Draco muttered as he closed his eyes.
After a few seconds, Draco opened up his eyes and continued his hand-to-hand combat training. However, after a few punches to the air, the laughter erupted again.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!"
'Who knows what are they laughing at anyway?' Draco thought in irritation. 'Keep your cool Draco. Patience. Learning it can be a difficult experience, but once conquered you will find life easier.'
Draco took another deep breath and continued his training. There is an occasional laughter every few minutes, but Draco did his best to ignore them and focused on his training. After twenty minutes, Draco finished his hand-to-hand combat training for the day, but the annoying group of Bosmer still hadn't left.
Draco was surprised to see that they hadn't left and started to wonder what was exactly so funny. After a few seconds, he decided not to think about it and start on his sword fighting training. He walked over to his bag, pulled out his sword and started slashing the air immediately. However, not for long, laughter erupted once more.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!"
Draco was slightly distracted and accidentally cut his left arm as a result. Draco did not yelp or groan in pain when the cut was made. Instead, he checked his cut and fortunately, it was minor.
Draco turned to look at the annoying group. They were still laughing at God knows what. Draco sighed. He can't really train himself under these circumstances, but then again, he can't afford to waste a few hours of his training with a sword. He had to get rid of them.
A Bosmer from the irritating group said, "Hey, did you see what happened…" before he could finish, a sword flew past him with close proximity and plunged into the tree behind him. Initially, the flying sword took the group aback and for a moment, they froze in their positions. After recovering, they turned their heads to see Draco glaring at them. As they saw Draco's glare, they knew that he was the one that threw the sword into their direction, and not long after, they burst out in a mocking laughter.
"Ha! You missed!" one of the Bosmer taunted.
"You suck!"
"Where did you learn how to use a sword?"
As the group laughed, Draco sighed. He DELIBERATELY missed, but in close proximity as he wanted to deliver a message to the group, but they don't seem to get it. In frustration, Draco punched the tree beside him but quickly tried to reduce the pain on the fist that punched the tree. He expected to leave a dent on the tree, but it was clear that he did not train hard enough to leave one.
"Hey! Did you guys see that? He punched the tree and is now in pain," one of the Bosmer said before the entire group burst in another mocking laughter.
'Mother has forbidden me to use destruction magic in dense forests but this is absolutely necessary,' Draco thought.
Draco took another deep breath as the group continued to laugh. When it was clear that the group paid no attention to him, a small flame began to light up on his hand and reached out for the closest tree. The flame grew bigger and bigger until the group felt the heat. When the group felt the heat, they looked up in horror as the flame on Draco's hand started to reach for the tree.
"You don't…"
"This is mental!"
"You wouldn't dare…"
"Put the fire away now…"
"What you're doing is forbidden…"
"No, I wouldn't put the fire away. Yes, I would dare to light up this tree and spread fire," Draco said in response.
One of the Bosmer in the group decided to act tough and said, "Ha, you think we're afraid of you?"
"Oh well, it's a pity you guys didn't get the message…" Draco said as he placed his burning hand onto a leaf as it burned away. Draco kept the fire really small as he didn't want to spread it to the rest of the forest.
The entire group gaped in horror as they saw the poor leaf charred and burnt. Soon, the group began to take a step back. And then another and another, before one of them shouted, "RUN FOR IT!"
And in a flash, Draco was now alone in the serene forest.
'That's taken care of, now back to my training,' Draco thought as he retrieved his blade.
A/N: Sorry for the mistake in the previous chapter. Actually, this is the second last chapter. The last chapter will be up soon.
"Learning patience can be a difficult experience, but once conquered you will find life is easier."
~Catherine Pulsifer
"Stressors are everywhere. Each and every day, we run into situations that constantly test us, rob us of our patience, strip us of our sanity, impact our focus, and cause us to lose control of our days."
~Colleen Archer, The Power of the Positive
"Patience is the companion of Wisdom."
~St Augustine of Hippo (354AD-430AD)