Solo The women of Zeltiva

[Flaren Ferno]

1 Fall 514 AV
A cloud passed over the sun. A silver lining held in place by the stillness of the wind. A woman walked past Flaren, her beauty eclipsed only by her busy schedule.

Flaren would have talked to her, but a fresh slap across the face had been his welcoming present to the city not too long ago. It was a dark skinned woman whose body was kissed by restless sun. Her golden hand did grace Flaren's face after an onslaught of flawless pickup lines that had yet to fail him surprisingly did fail him. He assumed she was a sailor, but after a hit like that he assumed all women were sailors at that point.

"I suppose there's no point in asking how your day went?" an old man in a bowler hat wearing a wool sweater and tan pants sat down to smoke his pipe right next to Flaren.

"I..." Flaren was too shocked to respond, there weren't friendly people like this in Syliras.

"Maybe i'm just a nuisance, or maybe It's the goddess telling me to respect my time here cause the end is getting close, but I've made a habit out of myself to share wisdom to down on their luck kids."

"I'm not down on my luck."

"Says the boy with the red palms across his cheek. Now the way I see it is you always have two options, give up everything, become a monk, and pray to the goddess for salvation in the next life, or straighten up your back gra what wit you have left, and try your hand again." The man took a long drag from his pipe and stared out at the sea as if he were tasting the words that still lingered in his thoughts.

"you seem like a smart man."

"I used to be a professor at the university! I taught sailing, loved every minute of it."

"And now you teach kids how to pick up women?"

"No no no no, I teach children how to succeed."

Flaren stared out at the sea and thought about the words the old man had to say. About an eternity had passed. The old man packed his pipe a few more times as he sat. A full hour of silence was shared between the two men, one wiser than the other, but the one with the youth had the thing which the wise man envied most of all, time. As the sun was about to set that Flaren spoke.

"How are you supposed to know if you're doing the right thing?"

The old man was pretending to sleep with his pipe hanging out of his mouth still dragging slowly on the tobacco. A whistle blew through the end of the pipe. The old man was out of tobacco. A finger pointed to his coat pocket where a rolled up bag of ground tobacco leaves were placed. Flaren grabbed the bag and placed a pinch of tobacco in the old man's pipe.

He lit a match, burned the leafs, and began dragging on his favorite corncob pipe. "If i beat you in the head with the rock," he said while not looking in Flaren's direction "and i killed you," Flaren was a bit confused "then it would be your fault for reaching towards my belongings. I'd tell the local law that you were a thief, I'd have witnesses who would back me up, and it would be a cut and closed case, after all who would peg an innocent old man like myself as a blood thirsty murderer. In regards to your question, no man knows for sure if hes ever doing the right thing. That's one of the beauties of life isn't it? not knowing what's about to happen before it happens, a random potluck with death. It's exciting if you ask me, but sadly..." The man took a drag from his pipe "The odds can be tipped." The old man stared out at the water again, he seemed to be muling over what he wanted to say next. his jaw moved left and right awkwardly a his head would nod or shake as if he were trying to brush off a terrible thought, brushing off one more final thought and taking a drag from his pipe he concluded. "If every man in Zeltiva besides me were to become a monk the next day I wouldn't be treated any differently now than i had been the rest of my life. now if every man in zeltiva became a crook and a thief besides me, it would be the same thing. You see the whole purpose isn't what we do here, it's about how we do it and why we do it. Do you understand?"

Flaren was taken aback by the man's ability to explain such an beautiful concept, but was still unable to follow all the details that the man tried to explain. "so what you're saying is there's no telling whether you were a monk or a murderer or just a common man when you asked me to grab the tobacco for you, but as long as i was doing the right thing it shouldn't matter."

"That's right, and when it's your time to go, it's your time to go." The old man shook his head like he was shaking off a bad thought again took another drag on his pipe and stood up to leave without saying another word to Flaren.

[Flaren Ferno]

How about another go at it?

Flaren walked down the brisk cool streets of Zeltiva with a confident smile on his face. While the old man had a bit of wisdom he could not help but get the feelling that he may be a bit of a pervert.

'Who encourages people to go out and flirt with random girls'

Perheaps his elders seemed a bit to young or maybe it was the fact that he was getting old but while Flaren respected the man like an elder the old man treaded him like an equal. Flaren's head would wander as he walked past many busy people most of which seemed busy with their own troubles.

It was at the horses stables that Flaren noticed a petit girl in a pink dress holding a single red rose and petting a horse on the head and speaking to it, as Flaren got closer he could make out some of the word the girl was saying.

"...will be back soon enough. I'll take you on any trip you want to go on as soon as I'm back."

Flaren while never revealing this to anyone had a weakne for short girls. Every time he'd meet one he'd spill his heart out, lose all his money, and do just about anything he could just to steal a kiss.

It was without fear that Flaren walked up from behind the girl and simply asked the horses name.

"Montkeballo!" The little girl with the rose in her hand gave a big wide smile. she seemed to have this indescribable unbreakable air of confidence about her. She wouldn't even open her eyes she was smiling so big. The tidal pony trotted over to the end of the stable and began to greet his new mates.

Flaren easily filled in the opening in conversation "And why would such a lovely girl be leaving such a lovely horse all alone by itself?"

"This lovely girl may have a few things not worth telling a stranger."

Playing hard to get, The seducer of many beautiful women knew just the words to melt a girls heart, his mouth was a hair trigger love maker and he wasn't afraid to use it. "Well then maybe this stranger should leave you and your precious horse alone."

He knew that if the girl was interested, then she would call to hi not to leave, bbut if his plan failed he would be leaving a girl for no apparent reason. It was the classic all or nothing bluff. Flaren turned to walk away but as he took a step from the stable he heard the girl begin, "I'm..." Perfect, all he needed was this girl to make the first move towards any type of relationship resembling friendship "getting married!"

Faren's heart and head did seem to sink simultaneously. He turned his head to see the girl in the pink dress dancing and clapping her hands with that big smile still on her face.

"I can't take my horse because my husband- er... fiancee will be picking me up tomorrow!"

Flaren turned around and sadly rubbed the back of his head. "yeah i figured given that you... had a flower and all." Honestly, Flaren hadn't noticed the flower, all he saw was a cute girl all alone. His instincts took over at that point and the rest was just unfortuate happenstance. "Where's the wedding?"

"Syliras! ooohh I'm so happy!" The girl spun around on the balls of her feet flapping her hands spastically. "I haven't seen my darling in ages oh it will be great to see him again!"

"What is it that kept you two apart?"

"Well..." the girl regained her composure "my fiancee Blaine was going to visit his mother in Alvadas who got news from his father in Endrykas saying 'his mother has grown deftly ill in Syliras'. Blaine lived with his grandmother in syliras before he met me in mura, and he couldn't afford to move out on his own so whenwe fell in love he made a promise to buy us an apartment together in Zeltiva, I would be paying half the rent of course. We were together for only two months before he returned to his grandmother in syliras where he stayed for five months. Now that his mother has passed he is using his inheritance to pay for a wedding and we're moving into the cottage where he was nursing his grandmother back to health!"

Despite the macabre details the girl continued to dance and smile after telling the story. It was as if all the small minute details didn't mean anything to her. She was the happiest person he had seen since he'd gotten to Zeltiva. He wished to inquire further.

"So how did you guys maintain a relationship after these long years?"

"Well," the girl choked down her happiness again to speak "it's true that i haven't seen him in a really long time but he'd write to me whenever he could, and living off of just memories was enough for me. I think that's what love is all about, just being happy with the one you love even when you're not with them. don't you agree mister giant man?"

Flaren couldn't respond, confusing love with infatuation his whole life was a tried and true habit of his little id he know people were perfectly content with just letters. Flaren turned without a word and continued to walk down the streets.

'Maybe the grotto has some answers for me.' Flaren thought as he scratched what hair had grown on his chin.