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Basiest now sat slumped in the corner of the Green Dragon. Despite the pub practically overflowing with customers, a sort of ring of space had formed around him, and he sat in silence, concentrating on his bitter pint, still practically full.
The long fingers of his hand reached up and delicately fingered the ring through the top of his left ear. The fresh piercing was still sore, marking him out as his father's son, as one of the family.
"You're a man now," his father had growled to him. "You must go into the world and make your living like a man. When you're thirty, and you return, you'll have a wife and three strapping boys." Basiest was the youngest of five children, and thought his older sister Jean had more chance of getting a wife and three children than he did. Every day that brought him closer to his thirtyeth, he became more and more worried about the expectations his father had. His eldest brother Lional had already returned with a wife and children, his second brother Markan would be back in two weeks, Jean didn't even have to go and Arbon...Arbon had been excused, being lame in one leg and blind in one eye. Which left himself, Basiest, to fufil the family tradition.
It wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't so...so...socially stunted. A severe bout of illness had stopped him going to school until he was 13, and being weak with a lazy eye did nothing for his friendship making skills. A daily dose of bullying didn't help, and when his father decided to send him to an all-boys school for some 'toughening up', it had been the last straw. Basiest had been left with insecurities galore and a shy streak a mile wide.
The bubbles gently rose and settled in his drink and Basiest tore his eyes away from the soothing hazel liquid to flick a timid gaze over the crowd. Someone was just getting up to sing, two people were having an intense conversation by the bar and several delicate elf maidens sat round a table laughing, their even white teeth sparkling in the lamplight. The shy boy slumped furthur into his seat. It was hopeless. Unless there was a way of marrying and having children with someone without getting within five square miles of them, he had better just go and find the nearest cliff and throw himself off it, because he hated to think what his father would do if he returned, single, childless and even more...
His thoughts snapped suddenly, as a woman caught his eye. Immediatley, he gazed down at the table, flushing a deep scarlet. A moment later, he dared lift his gaze, and there she was, twinkling at him over her drink. Should he go up to her? Dare he approach her?
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