"When did Berics crew come back into town?" the bartender asked, as he wiped away another spill of ale from the bar. "I thought they were going up north somewhere for the season.".
Gwena shrugged him an answer. "You should ask them yourself. It's quite the story." she laughed, mostly to herself.
"That I will then" he said. "Beric, you old sot! What brings you back from the woods so soon? Not like you to return before the spring."
One of the gnarled woodsman looked up from his table by the wall, the murmurings of the group around him falling silent. The color draining from his face as he looked around, he motioned the barkeep over.
"Damn you Kevin, don't speak so loudly of my name."
"What gives? You look like you've seen a ghost."
The rest of the hard men around him simply looked deeper into their cup not responding.
"Aye, perhaps we did. Or something even worse."
Laughing, the bartender now sat down across from him in the last remaining empty chair.
"It was two nights ago, Kevin. At almost this very hour, wasn't it Lars?"
The tallest man of the group just nodded and said nothing more.
"We were done for the night, settled down around the fire. Bellies full and a full days work behind us. Just us and the woods. Or so we thought."
Cocking an eyebrow, the barkeep encouraged him to go on.
"I asked the boy to go get more wood for the fire. And then a voice spoke out. Deep and dark it was, eh?"
The others just nodded.
"From a man. A man none of us knew. Just sitting next to our fire. Like it was his, not ours."
"That burns bright enough, I think. That's what he said, right boys?"
"Aye" a few of them mumbled, letting Beric tell their tale for them.
"And who are you? And what say do you think you have stranger? That's what I asked him, I did."
"Who I am and why I am here will be revealed soon enough was what he said. All in due time."
"All in due time, he said. Just like that. Ten of us and just one of him. And he said it just as matter of fact as that."
"So, who was he?" Kevin asked, drawn deeper into the tale.
"I'll be getting to that" Beric snorted. "It's me story and I'll tell it like I like. I don't need to hear it. I was there, ya know" He looked to the rest of them gathered around the table and banged his fist on the table.
Humbled, Kevin nodded and let him continue without interruption.
Recomposing himself, he took a long drink from his mug. Wiping the foam from his beard with the back of his hand, the old woodsman began talking again.
"Then he looked deep into the fire and asked me ever so politely if I would produce my contract. My contract, I asked? Contract for what? We don't need no stinking contracts, do we boys?"
With those words the others looked away. At the table. At the ceiling. At anything but their leader.
"What does it matter to you stranger if I have a contract or not?" Beric thundered on, now talking past Kevin and the rest of the room. Talking as if he were back in the woods at this very moment. "Once we cut it down it becomes ours. And who are you to tell us differently?"
"And do you know what he did next?" Looking hard into Kevin's eyes he leaned forward across the wooden table.
"He pulled the hood slowly back from his head. And he looked at me with eyes as black and hot as the coals of that fire. And do you know what he said to me?"
