Chapter 2: The Gleeman's Advice

Flusk strode into the inn later that night and saw that the inn had not had any less people than it had earlier today. In fact it might've had more. Men were sitting as if they never left their seats the whole day, still laughing and drinking. Flusk patted the side of his cloak to make sure his package was still there. Light it was expensive! Flusk thought grimly to himself.

Flusk sat down at the only empty table in the inn and ordered wine from one of the serving girls. His meals and drinks were free of course; no one had to pay for food of their own inn. He received the goblet from the serving girl and she gave him a mischievous smile before turning to leave. Flusk had to force his eyes off the woman as she walked away. The way she walked just glued his eyes to her. And what was that smile for? I didn't pay for this drink or anything. The drink was quite good. The goblet was full of spiced wine with a bit of sugar added for extra sweetness; just the way Flusk liked it. He never liked drinking hard ale or brandy, it left him with a huge headache the day after, and the momentary lift it brought was not worth it. Wine was as far as Flusk would go with alcohol.

Taking a sip from the wine, he brought his mind away from the serving woman and the wine, and watched the gleeman performing on stage. He actually was quite good with that harp. Music flowed from it as he danced about on stage relaying a story about a king and a peasant. Apparently the peasant had always wanted to be an amazing artist, yet he never had enough money to buy materials. The king took the peasant in and told him that if he would practice every day and paint only for him, than he would cover the costs of the man's materials. And so the peasant practiced night and day on the paintings for the king. And day by day he'd get better, until one day he became the best painter in the world and sold expensive paintings all around the kingdom. It actually was a fair trade in Flusk's mind. All the peasant had to do was paint for the king, and he compensated the costs. A deal any man would've taken.

The gleeman was relatively tall and was not very old at all, maybe late thirties at most. The man had dark hair and black eyes, and he would even go as far to wager most women would consider the man handsome. Hardly the kind of man who would be a gleeman with those looks, but I guess you did what you wanted to. Flusk let his mind wander from the gleeman as he recalled today's events. While he was strolling the streets today trying to figure out what to spend his money on, he had run into his father talking to, well more like yelling at a short pale little man in the streets. Flusk walked over to see if he could help his father out, but when he got to Bartim, the man was gone and his father was shaking his head. When he asked what that was about, Bartim merely said, "Some guy looking for some of his friends, wanted to know if I'd seen em". After that incident Flusk had found what he was looking for a haggled with the man selling it. He couldn't believe the price the man had for it, any other day in the year, Flusk would have walked away. But because of his father's recent "fishing" outing, he didn't mind the heavy price. But Light that man kept to his original price! What really had Flusk angry was that about 2 hours after he bought the items from the man, he ran into another man selling the same things for a fraction of the cost. That really had Flusk angry that he had over paid so much.

Flusk slammed his clenched fist onto the tabletop and actually put a splintered dent in it. The gleeman actually missed a note on his harp and faltered in mid sentence to turn with a surprised glance at Flusk. He didn't care about the gleeman right now, he felt filthy, and angry at the same time, because he overpaid. He wanted to take a bath right that instant. The gleeman had gone back to his story and music as if nothing ever happened. Flusk rarely let anger get the best of him. Then again, he rarely got angry. Frustrated yes, but not angry. Slowly he let his anger subside and with it, the feeling of filth. When he completely calmed down, he glanced at the table where his fist had hit. He was slightly surprised at his strength; he didn't know he was this strong. Flusk looked down at his wine goblet. It was lying on its side with wine leaking out of it onto the table. A serving girl came over and mopped up the mess with a towel and handed him a new one. She winked at him and gave him a smile similar to that of the first serving girls. And then she strode off the same way. Light these women must be mad. The gleeman finished his song and dance and bowed to the crowd of people who roared applause in return. He placed his harp in its case and walked to the kitchen. He came out almost as fast quickly as he went in and walked toward Flusk. When he reached his table, he made an elegant bow deep enough for any king with a flourish of his gleeman's cloak.

"May I have a seat?" He asked politely from beside the table. Flusk gestured him to sit and he took a seat opposite Flusk. A serving lady came out of the kitchen and placed a plate of bread and cheese with a sauce in a little cup. He made is thanks and the serving girl walked away. But before she went to the kitchen she flashed a smile at Flusk over her shoulder, and then proceeded in. How long has this behavior been going on? He just started seeing it today, but then again he wasn't looking out for this kind of behavior in the past. How long? His gaze went to the gleeman and he blinked in surprise. He almost forgot the man was there. He was eagerly eating his bread and cheese, and dipping it into his sauce quite quickly. He was probably performing straight all afternoon and was starving.

"I don't believe I introduced my self properly," the man said all of a sudden. "My name is Jasin Natael." He said with a flap of his cloak behind his chair. Even that seemed to be elegant. "Who might you be?"

"My name is Flusk." Flusk replied simply. The man seemed to be waiting for more of an introduction that Flusk, so Flusk said, "I don't have a last name, well if I do I don't know it, I was found as a child." He said sadly. Jasin nodded almost knowingly and tilted his head on its side. He then continued eating his dinner. Flusk's mind wandered from the gleeman and he began thinking about the serving girls again. They obviously thought him to be handsome and were hinting at something. But what could the serving girls want... Flusk's cheeks reddened at the thought and suddenly realized that he did not know what to do about the situation. He had little experience with woman, being that he worked in the inn his whole life, and desperately wanted to know how to deal with the situation.

"I don't think a gleeman would be the person I'd ask for advice about that sort of topic." Jasin said with a chuckle. If Flusk thought his cheeks reddened before, they were crimson now. He did not realize he had spoken aloud and he hoped none of the women heard him. He really had to control his thoughts.

"Oh, uh sorry, I was mumbling, disregard that." Flusk said clumsily to the grinning gleeman.

"Well in any case, here's my advice: flirt back amongst all the women who smile at you and make them believe you've chosen them over the rest. But don't take it any farther than slight flirtation back. Then pick out the most beautiful woman amongst them all, and well," Jasin said with a shrug of his shoulders, "instinct should take over from their." Flusk couldn't believe the slyness of this man. He was basically advising him to toy with these women's minds and inevitably heart some of them emotionally. The gleeman sat back grinning with delight at his own genius. Well advice or not, Flusk was not going to toy with these women. Well a lot of help this man was Flusk thought. Back to square one. The gleeman finished his dinner and his smiles went away. His tone became very serious as he spoke to Flusk.

"Now, are there times when something happens, and you don't know why it happened or if it was even possible to happen?" Jasin said as he leaned forward looking at Flusk. Flusk wasn't sure what the man was hinting at, but he thought it had to do with something he said or did recently.

"Not that I know of," Flusk began, "do you want seconds? Because I can have a serving girl bring you more." Flusk said in an attempt to change the topic. The man did not alter his expression at all and did not answer the question, but replied with another question instead.

"Do you ever feel more aware of things, when normally you wouldn't have been aware of them?" He said softly. Flusk wasn't even sure if that sentence made sense, or if anything the man had just said made sense, but the man was right in a way. Sometimes he did hear something that no one else did, or saw something in the distance that would have escaped the sharpest eyes. Usually he was angry when this occurred. The anger must trigger those heightened senses. Since the man knew about this, he might be able to tell him what it meant. But Flusk was not sure he wanted to know, some things are better left unknown.

"I don't know what you are talking about Jasin, but I really think…" The door opened to admit two young men. "…that I should see to these two patrons immediately before they go to another inn." Flusk said hastily with relief to be away from the gleeman. He slipped out of his chair and walked over to the two men. He glanced over his shoulder back at the gleeman and saw him taking his harp back out of its case. At least he was leaving him alone now. The two men both wore swords at their belts and wore brown breeches covered by a thick wool coat. The night was much colder than the day so he couldn't blame the two.

"Welcome to the Wayfarer's Rest." Flusk said with a slight bow. "Can I get you something to eat, perhaps some rooms for the night? We have a gleeman performing and he'll be here all night." The two men both nodded in unison and asked for an evening meal and 2 rooms for the night.

"Yes, yes very well, I shall have rooms prepared immediately and a fine dinner made. You may sit at that table." Flusk said and pointed at the table he had sat at with Jasin Natael. Flusk went to the kitchen and told the cook to make 2 meals for the new guests and then he told one of the serving girls to prepare 2 rooms upstairs for tonight. The serving girl flashed him a smile and he quickly told her that it was for the 2 men who had just walked in. She smiled at him again and gave a deep curtsey before scurrying away to prepare the rooms. Light women were mad.

Jasin Natael had begun singing and strumming his harp again. Though his advice might not be the greatest, his performance was. The only table remotely un-crowded was the one occupied by the two men who had just come in. Eh, never hurts to make new friends. Flusk thought as he strode over to the table the men were sitting at. They were in deep conversation as he approached.

"….bloody care if you beat me again, I still taught you." One of them was saying to the other. He was clearly the older of the two by his air of authority over the other as well as the look of him. The other man laughed outright and said, "Ok Dan, you're clearly superior, even though I beat you twice. And the second time you didn't try to make up a new technique out of nowhere. You even…" The man trailed off as he became aware of Flusk approaching. The one called Dan turned around and scowled at Flusk in a very demeaning way. Flusk stepped back a bit under his gaze and held up his hands defensively. Light he has a stare that could scare away a Myrddraal!

"Whoa, sorry there fellas, I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but would you mind if I sat down here?" Flusk said as he eyed their askance. Dan nodded and Flusk took a seat.

"My name is Flusk." He said as he held out his hand. Dan looked at his hand and practically snarled. Flusk retracted his hand immediately as if he had touched something hot.

"Forgive my friend Flusk," The man said as he gestured to Dan, "Dan doesn't like city folk very much. He doesn't trust them." HE doesn't trust ME? I'm not the one who tried to rip his bloody arm off! "My name's Garc." The man said as he extended his hand for Flusk to shake. Flusk shook his hand and then pulled it back slowly when Dan gazed at it.

"You have fine entertainment here as I've seen so far." Garc said as he nodded to the gleeman on stage. "And I trust the food will be as fine." Garc said with a satisfactory nod. Flusk tried to compile a list of what he knew about the men so far: Dan was the older rabid animal of the two, and Garc was the younger outgoing civil one. That's very good. Light what did I get myself into by sitting here?

"So what brings you two to my father's inn?" Flusk said politely. Where was Bartim anyway? Dan sneered at Flusk and turned to watch the gleeman. Garc said that they were gathering supplies for Dan's mother to bring back tomorrow. A serving girl brought them their dinners; and a smile for Flusk like usual, and Garc ate and spoke while Dan simply ate with an occasional glare at Flusk. Garc proceeded to tell Flusk that he was Dan's cousin and had lived with him and his family for 8 years. Him and Dan had practiced the sword for many years and were always fine tuning their skills. Flusk couldn't help but wonder why Garc was being so straight forward and honest with him. Not that honesty was a bad thing, but speaking the truth to the wrong people might end u up with a knife in your back. Garc went back to his dinner and occasionally glanced at the gleeman on stage.

It was then that Flusk saw his father through the window, talking to someone outside dressed in black from the looks of it. Business as usual. Flusk thought with a grin. The Blight would overflow the land before Bartim ever stopped business. When Garc finished his dinner, he commented on Flusk's medallion. Flusk told Garc all about how he had been found as a child with only that medallion. Dan had finished his dinner a while back and now sat watching Flusk intently. He appeared to be studying him. Many cups of wine were refilled before they finally sat back and were silent. Flusk noticed that Dan never once touched his wine.

"Is something wrong with your wine Dan? I can assure you it's quite safe to drink." Flusk said with a chuckle.

"I don't drink alcohol." Dan said flatly. There was no humor in his voice, but at least he talked now.

"Ohhhhh, Light Dan why didn't you say so? You must want to wash down that dinner." Flusk said hurriedly as he slapped his forehead with his palm. He called over a smiling serving girl and said, "Have a pitcher of fresh cold water and cups brought immediately, I think we've had enough alcohol for tonight." Water was brought straight away and Dan drank eagerly.

Some time during the night, Dan seemed to gain a normal civil attitude towards Flusk as if he was finally beginning to trust him. They talked for several more hours, into the late of night with the Common Room slowly beginning to have less and less people in it as the patrons went up to their rooms.

"Well, I don't know about you Flusk, but I'm spent." Garc said as he stood up stretching.

"Same goes for me." Dan said, imitating Garc with a yawn. A serving girl came over and showed them upstairs to their rooms. Flusk was about to turn in for the night himself, when Bartim came in the door and slowly shut it. He then sagged against it slowly. He looked pale. Flusk walked over to his father and asked, "What was that all about?" Bartim just looked at Flusk and swallowed before saying anything.

"Flusk, my boy, if anyone asks about their 'friends' say you haven't heard of them or seen them, even if you have." Bartim said slowly, forcing each word out.

"You and I both could use some sleep it seems." Flusk said as he guided his father to his private room. He said good night to his father and left toward his own room. He climbed into his bed and laid there staring at the ceiling. Who was that man in black, and why was my father so deathly afraid of him? How could Jasin Natael possibly know about my increased senses? Why was Garc being so honest with him? And why in the Light do all the serving girls want me? Flusk's thoughts dulled as sleep took him.