Page 31 - SagaOfBarak1

For just a brief moment in time Aulric wondered to himself if it was not he
but Barak who had finally gone stone mad. Had the giant at last gone insane?
Aye perhaps it was the great slayer who had finally taken leave of his senses?
True it was he himself had almost drowned himself in drink with his grief and
his sorrow over these last few days. Aye, but surely though to this bitter
indulgence he was most entitled given the present grim circumstances. But still
for what he had drank in his Great Hall was out of his sadness and madness, this
as well as his sheer heartbreak. Why these few goblets of ale he had drank down
these past days would scarce cause the giant to be even unsteady upon his great
flat booted feet. Barak, why the great slayer drank that and perhaps even three
times that amount just as an everyday social event, aye this just to quench his
great never ending thirst. Oh and this not to mention all of the strong brain
destroying black weed the slayer puffed relentlessly upon almost every single
moment of every day. No, no surely it was Barak who had finally gone totally
insane, aye Barak it was who had gone stone mad. After a moment or two of
slow pondering and careful deliberation Aulric at length spoke up even if it was
a little shakily.
‘But my own physicians have examined my son Kye, saying he was no more
alive than the table he lies upon,’ Aulric explained somewhat gloomily. ‘So please
believe me my big friend the young prince is now nothing more than but a dead
thing lying there before you. Aye, alas he is now nothing but a corpse Barak, no
more than that.’ Aulric said these words very sadly. ‘Please believe me big Barak
my friend I would only wish it was otherwise,’ Aulric protested sadly.
But big Barak, well he would have none of it. Instead the ogre shook his big
bucket sized head in a most dismissive fashion.
‘No,’ the giant then answered both simply and bluntly. ‘No, no you are wrong,
Kye is not a dead thing Aulric, nor will he die, well at least not for another fifty
years or so. Well that is of course providing the boy does not fall off his horse
and he leaves the heavy drink and the black weed alone.’ Barak said this with a
sort of lop sided smile, then once again the ogre went on to explain things as they
were to his very baffled friend. ‘Now hear me out, and you must listen to every
word I have to say to you without any sort of interruption, do you understand
me? Aulric gave a slight nod, the king at this particular time had not the strength
or the will to argue with Barak. ‘It has been four full days now since the full
moon Aulric, not two or three as you had thought it to be. Aulric feeling
somewhat dizzy and groggy of course let the giant say on without any sort of
argument. ‘So, tell me my friend, and answer me this, why then has the young
Prince not the death stiffness about him?’ Barak asked bluntly.
Aulric was much taken aback by the giants well put question, also on top of
that Barak was of course most correct in what he had just asked. As the young
prince by now, well, he should be laying there upon the marble slab just as stiff
as a broad sword. Yet, here the lad was now laid before them still soft to the
touch, why the Prince was even a little warm.

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