The warm and joyous sun, shining through the room's curtain. Ale turned on his bed left and right. Snorting like a wild animal. The smell of the room was like a small, but colorful meadow, with the most unique flowers. So smelly and fresh, that it changed Ale's smell, from sweaty to a princess. The sun got higher and higher, till it's rays reached his eyes, he kept covering his face with his blanket, turning his back to the sun. "Morning already?" He grunted loudly.
As soon as he started to fall back asleep, a group of children ran inside, laughing, "Go away, please. . ." Two of the kids behind the rest of the group, were holding a bucket full of cold water, walking slowly and carefully. The children covered their mouths trying not to alert Ale, but it was impossible for them to keep to themselves. Ale got suspicious of their unusual silence, he remained still, listening to the tiny footsteps hit the floor, as they approached like a predator hunting it's prey. Then it stopped. Ale looked through his blanket, he saw the two had stopped rising the bucket slowly, slowly. He jump from his bed, grabbed his staff, the kids threw the bucket towards him, with the cold water jumping from inside it, ready to hit his face when he raised his staff just in time to stop the water mid air.
He wore a cocky smile. "What's the matter kids? Had other plans?" The kids started laughing, they didn't even try to explain themselves to him, the just attempted to fly out of the door. Ale closed the door to his room, shaking his hand with his second finger alongside it. The kids started laughing again. "We are sorry Ale," the children pleaded between laughter. "I know what you want, so. . . Here we GO" He yelled as he started moving the water up and down in the room. The children thought that he would smash it to them as punishment, but he didn't. Instead, he danced with it, he glanced to the kids' direction with a warm smile. The water exploded inside the room, forming lots of small bubbles floating in rhythm, and he slowly pushed them towards the sun's rays. As soon as the bubbles came to contact with them, they started throwing rainbows all over the room, lighting every corner of the room. The children were mesmerized by those gorgeous colors, their smiles were warmer than the sun, and cuter than anything that could be thought. They started jumping around, "you are the best uncle Ale," the said as they lay on the floor to admire the view. He smiled, told them they could stay as much as they wanted, grabbed his clothes, stepped into the privy to change, and went down the stairs into the inn's common room.
"Good morning darling!" The manager, who was just five years younger than Ale, said waving her hand. "Good morning to you too, boss." He said, laying his left arm on the table, "Any new jobs for me?" She nodded, "the governor came in here like he had seen a dragon," Ale slightly raised his left eyebrow, "that serious?" She laughed, "you could say that, he even came inside your room, he attempted to wake you up in multiple ways, such as taking bells and shaking them violently on top of your ear." She started to lose her breath, "he ordered a group of orchestra march inside your room!" They laughed, slamming their hands on the counter. "The best part, your snoring, was louder than them." He blushed, "What can I say, I am a growing boy." She could barely breath by now, Ale couldn't help but follow her steps. "But, the next time he'll need you, if you are still here, I'll tell him to bring a group of kids, that will do it." "Actually the sun woke me up, and thank god. You really let them get a bucket full of cold water in my room? You are dangerous." "Ohh, I'm so sorry, you poor baby." She said in a mocking voice. "Hey! Only because I can take it out, doesn't mean I want to go through it." She just shrugged. "Anyways, did he tell you what he requested of me?" She shrugged again. "I'm sorry but I don't, he told me that you should go to the big farm. Ale put a sad face, "can it wait?" "I suppose you didn't hear what I just said." He groaned heavily. "Fine... can I get something to eat first?" "Goodness me, of course. Go ahead." "Thank you, remind me to pay you back later." Ale said as he jumped towards the exit, with the manager rolling her eyes and moving her hand in a calm manner. He jumped back inside. "Oh, and don't forget to look after the children." "ALE!" "Right." He left again, she just smiled to herself, and started to move towards Ale's chamber.
As he walked through the town, he waved at the people, who waved back at him. He bought an apple and a loaf of fresh bread at the small market of the town. The kids playing around, jumping and trying to pull up pranks, the adults watching them and laughing at their actions, as they went through their day to buy groceries or just taking a walk in this wonderful and sunny day. "I miss it when I was a kid," he let out a sigh, "then again, I didn't really enjoy it, did I?" He took a bite from the apple with it's liquid running down his face, which he cleaned up with his right sleeve. He looked to his left and saw the people getting inside the church, children, young people, middle aged and the elderly. All where entering the church one by one, making their cross as they walked. Ale stood there watching as he continued to enjoy his simplistic meal, "such a shame, going there to pay the church money. What for? An afterlife that may or may not exist?" He groaned. "I never understood it's appeal . . . well, expect it's fine wine of course." He laughed to himself, as he turned around he saw father Marty standing there. "Oh, eh . . . morning father." He bowed his head with a smile, "good morning to you too, my child. How did this fine morning find you?" He scratched his beard, "I don't know, busy. I think." Marty nodded, "don't have spare time to join our service?" He shook his head, "unfortunately, no father. The governor is expecting me in the farm near the river." His eyes widened wide, "that explains why I haven't seen him yet." Ale laughed awkwardly, "you know how it is." He nodded, "you better keep going, I apologize for the inconvenience, my child." Ale shook his hands on the air, "no, no father. I am glad to speak to you, it's just . . ." Father Marty laughed, "don't worry Ale, god's door is open for anyone with a kind heart like yourself." "Thank you, father. I will take notice of it." They waved goodbye to one another and left for their destinations. "Right, like I'd waste my time in insignificant matters such as this," he took the final bite from his apple and threw it on the road, "then again, father Marty is one of the few kind hearted priests I have had the pleasure of meeting." He shrugged, "that's something, should be the bare minimum, but whatever. It's none of my business."
Ale had finished his bread, with it's crumbs sticking themselves to his beard, he didn't feel it so he didn't bother waving them off. He saw the governor and some men waiting in front of the farm. The governor's eyes widened wide, he rushed to Ale, "oh my Ale, thank god you came, I couldn't imagine how much longer till it was found out." He pulled Ale in for a hug, the latter gently slapped his back, "easy there boss, what's the matter?" The governor had an angry expression on his face, "you know about the elections coming up?" Ale nodded. "My rival has made a disgusting act, I tell you." "You are worrying me boss, what did he do?" "Come and see." He lead him to the farms door where he spotted one of the men puking on the other side of the river. He opened the barn door and almost threw up himself, "HOLY SHIT!" He blurted out in shock, "literally." The entirety of the barn was full of shit scattered all over the walls, it's smell was terrific and one couldn't breath for more than a couple moments. He continued to observe it all around, not a single cow, pig or sheep. "That bastard," Ale muttered between his breath, "he wants to put the blame to you, huh?" "You got it right, Ale! As soon as the service in the church ends he'll lead the people here, through this he will make them think I am incapable of managing a simple farm, THE farm that we, my people have and have worked hard for. It's unacceptable, I tell you."
He turned to face him, "how do you know that? Or that he was the one responsible?" The governor and the men behind him stood silent, not even raising their heads. "Is he dead?" Ale asked in a steady tone.
"We . . . don't know!" Ale felt disgusted by this situation, "do you know where the animals are?"
He shook his head, "I'm afraid no!" He looked at the ground, "you know, the boy is full of life, he is the farm's guard, and if he is . . ." "worry not, we'll find him and fix whatever needs fixing. The governor looked up, to face Ale, with a river of tears floating his face, "thank you Ale." He paused for a moment, "I know him, he can't control his emotions, if he sees that his plan failed, he'll blurt something out! Then, I'll arrest him!"
Ale nodded. "Got it, boss. I'll take it from here." He hugged him, "thank you, thank you so much!" Ale gave him a bitter smile, "It's the least I could do!" His eyes sharpened again as he and the governor went back, "why would he do it now? Especially since I am here? It's a certain lose for him."
They arrived there the men were still standing there, waiting. "Are those men trust worthy?" He nodded, "of course, they informed me about it. Plus the fact they are the farmers that are keeping things together." Ale nodded, "very well, I'll only need to raise the water high enough to clean it up, of course there will be some damages, but I believe the men can fix it in time." "Great, do it! Don't worry about anything else."
Ale stood between the barn and the river, he raised his staff up in the air, then he hit the ground with it, whispered a cast in Latin, he had ordered the men to open all the barn, it was very good for them since the barn had two big doors. The water started to fly up in the air, but it wasn't high enough, Ale started shaking as sweat covered his face. He let it go the first try, he started to breath heavily, some of the men rushed to his side to check if he was ok. He got up again, he requested a cup of water from the river, one of the men did as fast as possible and ran to give it to him. Ale drank it, and tried again, but to no avail. "What's going on? I never had this kind of problem before!" He tried once more, the same thing happened. The governor started to worry.
"Is, everything alright?" Ale shook his head as he grasped for air, panic erupted between the men. Ale thought to himself, "that bastard! Where did he find such a spell. If only this could wait until tomorrow, I need to figure another way, fast!" He went to the river and washed his hands very well, the men observed him carefully, they tried not to lose control but it was quite difficult to keep their cool. Ale got an angry look on his face, he dried his hands with his clothes, got up, "it appears that I've been poisoned and can't use no spell that requires a lot of mana!"
The men were shocked, as Ale bit his upper lip with his lower teeth. "How could that happen?" The governor said with his voice trembling. "Probably last night, at the bar." Some of the men got angry at him, blaming him for the situation, but the governor came to his rescue. After a couple of moments of silence, Ale tried to see if he could track the animals, since it required way less mana to function, and thankfully he could. Then he looked around, many trees, the river had a lot of water, back at the man, fourteen including himself and the governor, and they looked strong enough for what he had in mind. He ordered them to gather up around him so they could begin.
He started to explain that since the river has, both a lot of water but also flows very fast. They can build a wall around it, then the water will clean it all up. Then two of the man should follow him to recover the animals, and if they begin now, they will have finished before the service ends.
"How will we bult this 'wall'?" One of the farmers asked, Ale smiled, "look around you, what do you see?" They saw the trees around them, tons of them. "If you don't have axes, I would suggest to go and grab some, fast!" He jumped up, pointed at two men and signaled them to follow him. Before he left he told them: "To make it more effective, grab some shovels." Though they were confused, they didn't ask. The governor got up and encouraged his people, two ran quick to grab some axes and shovels. Ale and the two farmers followed the footsteps left by the animals. However, time stops for no one. They started rushing the process of the building, whereas the others sprinted as fast as they could, to catch the animals in time.
The first group was chopping off trees left and right. They were counting the amount, whether it was enough, they had chopped off about twelve trees. They decided that it was enough, they threw ropes and tied them to the trees, since the governors rival had caught the horses as well so they couldn't put the trees' log in a cart.
They had reached the peak of the nearest mountain. They hid high up the trees, from there they spotted the animals and group of five armed men circling around the animals. They cracked jokes aloud between one another. "Look!" one of the farmers whispered. Pointing at a young boy tied up and his face covered so he couldn't scream for help. "He is the guard for the animals that the governor told you about," Ale nodded. "They must have caught him off guard, that's why he didn't manage to alert us." The other one said. "We should have taken a weapon as well Ale, we have made a mistake." He shook his head, "don't worry my friends, this battle will be fought with brains, they have no arrows and crossbows. This will be great!" Ale smiled.
The other group managed to pull the trees there but they wouldn't fit inside the river. The cut the top of each tree, a man swam till the bottom, he counted that four would be enough, the men complained that they cut so many trees for nothing, but the knew better, "no time for complains, let's begin!" He said in a steady voice. He ordered them to tie the four logs and throw them on the river.
"Quick question, are you fast but also exact in your footsteps when you dance?" The two looked confused, "you want us . . . to dance?" One said just as the other kept looking at Ale dumbfounded. "You'll understand." "Why have we not killed the boy?" One of the guards asked. "You seriously want to kill a good man just like that?" "Besides," another guard said, "everybody has a price to be bought!" He jumped from the tree, and he drew the attention from the guards, he called out to them, "OHH BOYS!" He yelled, they looked at them, winked at them and started to dance. He shove his staff to the ground, held one hand on top of it, and started to dance around. The guards were far away for them to hear one another, "is . . . that the wizard?" One of them asked, whereas the others shrugged. "Apparently . . ." "I didn't knew that wizards go insane if you cut their mana flow" The rest turned their heads slowly, each with dead looks on their faces, the one who said this was the youngest, he turned red when he realized what he said, they looked back at Ale, who was still dancing. Not that it would matter, after all he knew what happened.
They had stopped the river's flow, however it didn't help, in fact in a more difficult position as the water flooded around. "Sir what will we do?" He turned to the farmer, looked at the sky, it seemed as it wouldn't take more than fifty minutes for the service to end, he looked at the shovels and the rest of the logs. "Start digging!" He said in high tone, for the rest to hear. He pointed at the back entrance of the barn, start digging, "before you reach the river put wood in the dirt before continuing, one of you should go to take a couple of hammers and nails. Don't stop now! We got lots of work to do," he paused for a moment to think, "three or four of you should go to take some more logs."
The guards couldn't take their eyes away from Ale, not because they were 'intrigued' but rather, weirded out. One of the farmers saw a golden opportunity, he showed it to the other, if they jumped carefully from tree to tree they could end up behind the guards, whom had let two swords and a shield close to the animals, they looked at Ale one more time, who was dancing that way, started from the left, jumped to the right, jumped to the front, and walked back slowly, in tiny and careful steps. The farmers looked for courage from one another, and started wondering the trees.
The fist group had opened a large hole, which they filled with some logs, which they also did inside the river to increase the force that it would feel the barn. They also formed a ladder to push the water up and down, by pulling one of the logs down with the force of 5 men. The water was strong enough to clean all the shit, since the farmers and governor kept throwing water and rubbed some of the shit off, they continued more and more, after a while they stopped to check if it had worked, and it had indeed. The barn has been cleaned, the farmers and governor relax, all they got to do, is put faith on Ale and his team, that they would recover the animals just in time.
They climbed off the tree, slowly and carefully. The guards, however had enough, they were approaching Ale with their swords, "quick, before they get him!" The one farmer informed the other, they rushed to get the weapons to save Ale, but it turned out, it was worthless. He started to act as if he couldn't breath, "just kidding," he winked at the guards one more time, he grabbed a glass with water in it, he drank it all, put it behind his cheeks and spit all over on the air, he grabbed his staff, pulled down his cone hat enough to cover his face, and made the water explode into the colors of the rainbow, the guards were blinded and couldn't move. Ale rushed to help the farmers and the barn guards, he took the lead for the horses and the other animals and flew down the mountain, as fast as they could while keeping the animals in a sustainable formation. The farmers praised Ale as if he was god, he just wore his usual charismatic voice, "please, gentlemen, the game hasn't finished yet."
Just as the governor and the rest of the farmers started to lose hope, they saw them ride in the horizon, approaching them faster and faster. Turned out Ale had tied up the guards as well. They could here the church's bell ring, signaling the end of the service, "right on time Ale!" He laughed charmingly. "What can I say? All in a good days work." "No, I mean it, you saved an important person for our town and our animals. You are a true hero, Ale!" He said patting him on the shoulders, before leaning for a hug. "Hero, huh?"
As the governor predicted, his rival rushed in with a devilish grin on his face, which faded away with the air as soon as he looked at the animals eating grass like normal. He tried to explain himself but his guards, whom Ale had bought off during their way here, spilled everything, the town's folks were furious, the governor remained on his position, while his rival was imprisoned for fraud, theft, poisoning and kidnapping. The things took off normally at the end of the day, with Ale scamming the guards by giving two golden coins to each instead of ten. They were furious about it, till Ale remained them he could put them in prison.
The day after tomorrow, in the morning, the governor some of the farmers, a lot of the children and the inn's manager where there to wave him off. "Ale, we would be happy if you stayed here longer, you have only been here for two weeks after all." He bowed his head, "thank you boss, and all of you, however I don't fancy getting into . . . whatever went on here!" He laughed gently, while the rest nodded along. "Of course," he gave him a basket with fresh fruits, some vegetables, glasses of water, two loafs of bread and some money. He stared at it and was starting to lose it. "This is-" He was cut off by the inn's manager, "don't be so modest, but if you don't want it, you can give it to me." Everybody laughed along, they hugged one another, the barn guard whispered: "thank you so much for saving me." Ale just smiled bitterly, "it was the least I could do."
He waved them one more time, got up to the cart that the town's folks gave him, and off he went. To another place, replaying the same two scenes on his head, when the governor called him a hero and when the barn's guard thanked him for saving him. "Don't be so happy, you still are worthless!" He pulled down his hat, to cover his eyes from the morning sun, and started to talk and laugh with the driver till they reached their destination.