to take me. If I thought about it logically, soon I would need to hop a boat to the mainland, and I would not want to attempt that with a dragon in tow.
“So, I guess this is where I say ‘good-bye’,” I said simply. The air was getting cooler now, a grey cloud casting a shadow over the city. A storm was approaching, by the looks of it, and I desired nothing more than a warm room in which I could participate in my favorite pastimes: reading and drinking. Levent nodded, his face unreadable.
This person was incredibly difficult to be around, but some part of me liked him a lot. It could have just been the quiet, though I reminded myself that even that got annoying at times, or the fact that he was a curiosity. Something about him, I supposed, told me he was a good person despite being a bit odd.
At that moment I remembered the first day I saw him, the way he had showed his back to me. I still had not found out why he was wingless, or why he said nothing afterward. Nor had I found out what the item was that he obtained from the cave. What had that all been about? I shook my head slightly. It was not my concern anymore.
In what I hoped was a friendly gesture, I put my hand forth. Levent stared at it for a moment before wrapping one of his huge hands around mine. It was warm in comparison: my hands had gone clammy. I gave his hand a gentle shake.
“May your travels be blessed,” I said.
“Farewell,” he answered quietly before releasing my hand and trudging down the road without a backward glance.
I watched him for a while until a raindrop fell against my cheek. That warm room was sounding better and better. Hitching my bag up my shoulder, I went off in the opposite direction in search of a pub.
The rain quickly grew into a heavy storm, and I managed to find a warm-looking place about three blocks from where the wagon left me. All the buildings here had been made of dark-stained wood, and the roads were completely of grey stone. With the addition of the rain, it made for a very gloomy scene. I shut all that away as I entered the lamp-lit tavern.
A hairy barkeep just nodded at me as I walked to the bar. He was obviously not unfamiliar with serving non-human customers, but I did not sit down. Too many of the other drinkers in the room were giving me suspicious stares, and the majority of