Snippet #2459378

The night air was crisp to say the least, uneventful to elaborate. Though the isles at the best of times seemed temperate, the nightly curse of cold winds and dreadful feet on your doorstep cut through the comfort of the strongest flames. The unlucky, damned, or otherwise stupid tended to get the night watch; Bulfor fit the first two exceptionally well. Tonight though he was far from the idiot taking a night watch without reason. He'd coined out of two men enough that he would buy a feast come morning, and no encroaching monsters could hold back the satisfaction of a full meal for the bear of a man. Hunger seemed a constant problem with him, what with the bastard inn keeper being so stingy about tabs.

The whistling fire of the magical torches seemed to stay strong throughout the night, but finally one by one they began to be extinguished as the night watch had ended. Bulfor heaved out a great stretch and yawn to welcome in the rising sun and bid ado to his post like an old friend. As every inch of him vaulted from the center rung of the ladder to the ground his bulk shook the earth beneath his feet, startling the two that came to replace him. New ones again today. Bulfor hummed in his mind wondering why less and less of the veterans went to the walls. It wasn't as though the nights job was particularly hard, nor was the days; however to leave the lives of the settlement, no matter how grizzled its inhabitants were to some fresh blood looking to make a coin or two was in Bulfors mind dangerous.

"Uh, Sir, where's the other watchmen with you?" The taller of the two men asked. His face was freshly shaven and he couldn't have been much older than twenty. The other with him, though shorter seemed to have a better grasp of the situation as his eyes were already looking atop the wall for any signs of a battle that went unwarned in the night.

"Gone."

The two 'boys' as Bulfor would consider them seemed bothered by this, so he elaborated.

"H'int dead, I jus' got some coin fer bein' up all night."

A slow nod from the taller of the two had the veteran rolling his eyes and stepping past the two of them as they clambered up the shoddy ladders to the top of the even shabbier wall. As it tapered off in the distance Bulfor made his way with heavy coin purse in tow to the inn for a well deserved breakfast. Breaching the crest of the hill in time to see the nightly drunks being ushered out he sighed feeling that this morning would be a tedious one filled with missing food, annoyed servers and a disgruntled owner.

The heavy doors opened wide as Bulfor stepped into the room. One of the first from the night watch save for a few who'd likely left duties early he found himself a large chair and took a seat in the corner. The inside of the inn was warm and welcoming, even after a cool night. The light pooled in the center of the room and long shadows hung in every corner for the weary to sleep beneath. Awaiting a server to come and take his order Bulfor began to nod of, his head aggressively jerking up and down as he fell in and out of his stupor.