SGE His Guarded Heart (Prequel to His Darkened Heart)

Chapter 13 Homewards

The waitress shrieked in outrage and shoved Krushem away, and he stumbled backwards, landing hard on his buttocks. The sack of gold in his pocket fell out and gold coins spilled all over the floor. He clumsily attempted to pick them up and stuff them back into his pocket.

But the bartender had come out from behind the bar and he had armed himself with a broom. As Krushem occupied himself with picking up his spilt gold, the bartender flung the end of the broom at him.

The wood smacked against Krushem's back and the bartender hollered; "Go! Get out of here, you drunken fool!"

As the bartender threatened to hit Krushem again, Krushem scrambled to his feet and darted for the door, tripping as he went and leaving gold behind. When Krushem past the threshold of the building, he turned and threw up his middle finger at the bartender. "A—ass—asshole," he mumbled under his breath.

In response, the bartender slammed the door shut in Krushem's face, leaving Krushem standing outside the bar all alone.

Krushem stood there, swaying on his feet for a long moment. But he couldn't just stand there glaring with his unfocused gaze at the building and plotting his revenge on the bartender. So Krushem stumbled to his horse tied outside the bar.

He tried to get onto the saddle, but he kept sliding off it. It took him ten tries before he finally managed to get his foot secure on the stirrup and he hauled himself onto the horse's back. But just when he righted himself, his horse reared back and his body pivoted to the side before he slid off for the eleventh time.

Krushem's cheek became smeared with dirt as he dropped to the ground. His foot had become caught on the stirrup. He yanked and yanked, but he couldn't free himself so he just dangled there like a useless lump of potatoes.

Without being asked, Krushem's horse started forward, and Krushem was dragged along with him, coughing on the dust being kicked up and getting his whole body smeared with dirt.

The horse knew where to go and it slowed down when the camp came into view. Krushem hacked, struggling to clear his throat from all the dust he'd inhaled. He reached up and grabbed ahold of his ankle, pulling on his leg with all his might.

Finally, his foot slipped free from the stirrup and Krushem's leg fell to the ground. Krushem had no energy and no proper coordination to get up, so he resorted to crawling forward to the place he'd made his bed, if he could even call it a "bed." It was just a small linen cloth that barely covered his whole body he used as a blanket and he would rest his head on a stone he'd found on the ground.

Krushem rolled onto his back and accidentally banged his head on the stone he called a pillow. Pain radiated through his skull and Krushem released a frustrated groan as he flung the stone away.

The stone flew through the air and landed behind a tree and the sound of its descent was suddenly accompanied by a cry.

"Ow!" A voice cried. "Watch it!"

Krushem struggled to focus his gaze forward as a body slipped out from behind the tree and walked up. The body looked fuzzy to Krushem and he couldn't make out any clear features.

"F—fuck—fuck you, Elaine," Krushem stuttered, thinking it must be Elaine and too drunk to be rational and consider the fact that it was very unlikely Elaine would let herself be hit by a rock. "Lea—leave me a—alone!"

But when the person drew closer, it wasn't Elaine at all. It took a minute or two for Krushem to realize it was Armeq.

"Who's Elaine?" Armeq asked, crouching down. He jabbed a hand into Krushem's side in a playful manner. "Ooh, does Krushem got a girlfriend?"