Dagen entered the dimly lit tavern. His brow was creased with furrows of worry as he took a seat beside Sorren.
"No signs of Lorstern I take it?"
'None' Dagen mumbled as he washed the dust from his throat with beer.
'We will find him, my friend, have no fear." Lorstern signaled for another round.
"It is he who has cause to fear, when I get my hands on him and I have no plans of giving up the chase!" The determination in his voice made every word cut like steel.
"And I’ll be by your side; how could I pass up an adventure like this. The woman; they do make them more appealing the farther south
we go. Don’t you think?"
"I have no eyes for them, my heart is already taken, you know that."
"Aye, I know as is hers by you."
"Do you really think so?" Dagen searched Sorren eyes looking for the truth behind his words.
"I can see it in her eyes every time she gazes upon you. No worries my friend it belongs to you."
"Sorren, your talk is cheaper than the cheapest wine and twice as sweet."
"’Tis true Dagen the healers mended her body but it was you who mended her soul."
"I did nothing I wouldn’t do for another."
"True but this time you did it with your heart and that made all the difference."
Dagen squirmed in his seat, uncomfortable with the truth of his friends words. I did give her my heart, he thought, but I’d gladly do it again.
"We hit the road again at dawn," he grumbled trying to regain his composure.
"Then let's drink while we can," Sorren quipped as he clanked his mug against Dagen’s sloping beer down the side. "Here’s to catching
up to Lorstern," emptying the mug he called for another.
"And, when we catch him, he will pay dearly for what he did to Catrina."
"Aye my friend, we will make him pay."
"His life belongs to me Sorren, don’t you be forgetting that!"
"The last thing I’m thinking of doing is getting between your sword and Lostern."
"Smart thinking my friend, I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself when I see him."
"Here’s to the Fates, may they be on our side."
"With or without the Fates, he’s mine!" Dagen swore, downing his mead he called for another round.
Dagen had the horses saddled and ready to go. He was waiting impatiently for Sorren to show. "Bout time you showed your ugly mug!" he shouted when he noticed Sorren dragging himself out of the inn. "We haven’t got all day to mosey around!"
"Not so loud, you’ll split my head in two with that yelling." Sorren whimpered as he slowly made his way up into the saddle.
"Serves you right for staying out all night," Dagen chuckled. "The stable boy swears he saw Lornstern last week heading West, can you believe it? The one person we never thought to ask was the only one to see him."
"To the west we go then," Sorren said as turned his horse and started down the road. "Lets get this over with, the breeze might help clear my head."
"We’ll catch him soon my friend, then we’ll have our old boring lives back."
"I never thought I’d say this, but I can’t wait, I will miss the women."
"You’ll never settle down will you?"
"If I’m ever lucky enough to meet someone like Catrina, I will, but until then I might as well have fun looking."
"True enough, but don’t have so much fun that you can’t crawl out of bed in the morning, you might find yourself alone. I want to catch this guy and get back home."
"I’ll keep that in mind, you’d be lost without me."
"Hardly" Dagen mumbled even though he knew it was true.
"Good try, but you didn’t think it would be that easy did you?" Sorren asked. "Besides, even if he did know something you’ll not getting me back in that saddle tonight! Let go grab a beer and something to eat, I promise that I’ll behave myself."
"I’ll believe that when I see it, but your right we’ve done enough traveling for one day."
"Glad to hear it." Soren stated as he led the way into the inn.
"These inns all look the same to me now, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear we keep coming to the same town." Dagen remarked as they searched for an empty table.
"At least, there’s a good crowd out tonight, we might get lucky."
"I hope so, if we have to stay here, it will only make the trail colder then it already is. I’ll take care of the room, grab a table and a couple beers. I’ll be right back, and behave yourself while I’m gone"
"Your starting to sound like my father Dagen."
"Somebody has to."
Leaving Sorren to take care of the food and drink, Dagen went to the other side of the inn to make arrangements for their room.
"Howdy traveller," the jovial innkeeper stated when Dagen approached the counter. "What will you be needing this evening?"
"I’ll need a room with two cots and we have two horses in the stable."
"That‘ll be 2 coppers for the horses and 3 for the room."
As Dagen was counting the copper bits he caught a familiar face out of the corner of his eye. As he turned he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, Lorstern’s servant Angor was just walking out the door. Dagen quickly paid and rushed over to the table to tell Sorren the good news: their search was over.
