THE GUT OF TERRAPORUM
Doceo could feel the evening air beginning to drop colder and colder as his horse pumped its legs beneath him. He took the path along the river North towards the center of the city. The wind cut through the skin of his face as the horse kept its course. His curly dark hair pulled behind him by the wind. The air slowly changed the further he galloped away from the garden. It grew heavy and thick. The darkening night sky suddenly began to ignite the closer he drew towards the city. The lights of the buildings pressed their will against nature. Conversations and commotion also entered the quiet night. Doceo thought how strange his friend is. It's almost like he lives in another land. As Doceo drew closer to the boarders of the Gut district he slowed his horse's pace to a pleasant trot.
Doceo preferred the noise of downtown. He preferred the lights too. It made him feel like he was apart of something alive. It made him feel like he was someplace important and thus he was also. He rounded the familiar corner to his favorite pub in the gut of the city. He leap off of his horse and felt the solid wet stones of the street beneath his boot. He lead his stead over to a post outside of the building and wrapped the leather reign around it. The leather flexed and cracked as he pulled the knot tight. Doceo pulled his shoulders back took in a deep breath of the crowded city air and began to walk towards the creaky wooden pub door. He pulled the door towards him and suddenly the atmosphere of the room engulfed him. He felt at home. Holding that door open and looking inside he could feel the party, the energy of the people in that place. Being in a crowded place like this takes a mind many places. And when pulled in so many directions the mind finds rest. It's strange like that. The mind seems to work opposite of everything else in life. It seems the more our bodies are put to work the more they are stressed and tired. But the mind is something different. When the mind is filled with many things it feels at rest. It is only when the mind has nothing to occupy it that it truly begins to betray it's master. Doceo was a slave to his mind, as long as it was busy he was content.
He stepped past the kind greeting of the patrons of the room and made his way to the bar. He ordered his usual glass of mead and spun around leaning against the wooden slab bar. He scanned the room at a table his eyes found Attentess and he remembered what Lutum had said. He scoffed to himself, "I'm not going home with her tonight. Lutum is wrong about me." He looked to his left towards the back of the room where the bar curved into an L shape. There she was again sitting next to Vasilias. Her eyes wide and brown listening to every word he said. The man was slamming his fists to the bar and fully extending them out and in. "I can only imagine what tale he is filling that poor woman's mind with now," Doceo thought to himself.
He took a slow long sip of his drink. He let the liquid rest on his tongue. It had been a long day and tomorrow would be no different. But now, this moment, he was in his element. He set his glass down with a relaxed ease. After convincing himself he wouldn't prove Lutum correct tonight he decided to see what exactly Vasilias was selling this stranger. So he started towards the two of them.