The Wisdom of Enigmas.

19 Tria, 81382

The pier creaked beneath Drakens feet, the sound reminding of his own time at sea, however brief and tedious it was. He remembered the salt-sweet air, the pitching of the ship, the slow creaking of the planks, even though those were days of difficulty he looked back at them fondly. Today he stood at the edge of the pier, looking out over the sea that was his birthplace, if not literally then symbolically.
Today was a beautiful day at the East Coast Fishing Piers, the sun was shining and people appeared to be happy, it didnÂ’t look like Draken would need to do any work here this day.

He turned around and approached the boardwalk, looking for some refreshment. Draken saw a big, fancy looking stall with many people standing at the bar; Draken looked at this for a second, then licked his paw and stroked his ear for a moment while he pondered to get something from here. The bartender saw him sitting in the road and mindspoke to him,

*Why donÂ’t you sit over here and have a drink stranger, you look thirsty.* said the bartender through mindspeak.

Draken considered it, then looked down further and saw a small kiosk with no one standing at the bar, the bartender stood cleaning a glass that had probably been clean for some time now.

*Thank you, but no,* said Draken, *I believe I will try my luck at that stand over there.*

*That stand? But it is so small and unadorned. DonÂ’t you see how magnificent my stand is?*

Draken smiled, *That is exactly why I am going over there.*

Draken turned and approached the smaller stand, when the bartender saw him approaching he made no move to greet him, as if he expected Draken to simply walk by once he had seen what the kiosk really was. But when Draken sat on his haunches in front of the bar the bartender quickly put the glass down and asked what he wanted.

*Just water, thank you.* Draken mindspoke.

*Water? Ha, you can get plenty of free water over in the ocean.* said the bartender.

*Ah yes, receiving nourishment for free certainly is a great pleasure, but no amount of costless pleasure equals that of a good conversation.*

The bartender smiled, *Well ain´t that the truth. But why didn’t you go to the fancy place down the walk? It’s much nicer then my place and has better drink.*

*Yet another conundrum. How does one decide whether or not to pursue higher quality or go with the average? One must first consider what makes the afore mentioned higher quality better then the average. Is it the fact that it is simply better? Or is it more the mental aspect? Does a drink from a fancier establishment actual taste better to someone because it is better, or is it because of the fact that because it is coming from a fancier establishment one simply thinks it is better? Plus you must add in the fact that all I wanted was water, and to put it simply, how does one improve on water?*

The bartender stared blankly at Draken, *ThatÂ’s some pretty deep stuff.*

*I am simply stating the facts.*

The bartender laughed and set a bowl of water on the table, Draken bent over and lapped up the water. Afterwards he licked the sides of his mouth clean of any residual moisture.

He then said, *I for one believe in the mental aspect, but in a different way.*

*How´s that?* the bartender responded.

*When an establishment like the one up the walk is approached, I can tell that the place is rife with corruption and greed. Things come easily to men like the one up there. But when I come to a place like this, I can feel that a man like you truly enjoys what he does, therefore the drinks taste better because the man that gave the drink to me didnÂ’t give me the drink because he knew he would be getting paid for, the man that gave me this drink gave it to me because he saw a thirsty traveler and wanted to make his day at least a little better. Because you see, when someone really does care about another being, that means that they are kind, and kindness, well,* Draken used Telekinesis to remove some money from the bag he had around his neck, lifting in the air in front of the bartender, *Is the only true Magic.* Then he set the money on the counter in front of him.

The bartender looked at it, *So that was a pretty good serving of water then?* he said sarcastically.

*The best IÂ’ve ever had.* said Draken simply, then he turned and walked away.



OOC: I realize that it might be hard to come up with anything to add to this, but if you can youÂ’re free to join in.

 

OOC: Welcome to the thread ang. :) Sorry it took me so long to reply, I was without a computer for a while.

Draken was confused only for a moment, then ran with all of his might out of the orb of shadow. He burst into the daylight and ran blindly for a moment, running more surely once he had regained his bearings. He looked back, fire arrows were shooting out of the orb at every angle, he had to hand it to the Anubi for the clever trick. Draken ran as fast as his weak legs could manage, then ducked into an alleyway.

Draken spread his wings and launched himself into the air, but only enough to get him even with the edge of the roof of a building. He dug in his claws and pulled as hard as he could, finaly toppling over the edge. He panted hard as he lay on the cold roof, wondering what that was all about. His thoughts drifted to the Anubi, Cazian was his name, Cazian Loth. He devoted the name to memory, along with his face, there was something about that Anubi that Draken couldn't quite place.

Draken layed on the roof for a few minutes to catch his breath, then got up and continued down the line of buildings, keeping low to the roofs, he wasn't yet convinced that the excitement of the day was over just yet.