**
Scaf was walking between the tents, or at least he was trying.
His state of mind-absolutely drunk at 7 am, but that's because he's been drinking since 7 pm- and his size did not facilitate this task.
His days had been pretty much the same for the last couple of months.
Living in a camp for disabled soldiers didn't sound like much fun anyway.
But hopefully for him, being an alcoholic was considered a disability, so he had the right for free food and shelter.
As he found his way to the only passage that was big enough for him to not hit someone's leg or head as he stumbled, he caught part of a conversation.
And as he looked in the direction from where the voices came from he saw it.
The face everyone make when they get hit by the hard reality that people are assholes and they don't deserve to be trusted.
The conversation was between a man, probably a soldier, who had apparently lost an arm, and a woman, that Scaf thought was pretty as he saw her.
And then he heard something along the line of "But you said you loved me whole", and as the woman looked at his arm stump, with a look of mixed disgust and pitty, Scaf heard her say something along the line of "But you're not whole anymore"
Scaf didn't find her that pretty anymore, and as he chuckled, he ddn't find himself that pretty either.
So he simply kept walking until he reached what he liked to call 'the gates of misery', not because everything inside was full of misery, but because what was outside sorely missed it.
There was a fair going on in the town for a week maybe, Scaf didn't know anymore, time don't make any sense when today is like yesterday and tomorrow will be like today.
But he had some fun destroying the ego of men that thought they were so strong no one could face them.
Little did he know today he was gonna be on the other end of the table.
There was one context he particularly liked to go too, it was the arm wrestling context.
Most men there were big and strong, and even the biggest of them seemed thin in comparison with Scaf.
And today's champion, or until now at least thought Scaf, was thinner as usual.
Actually, *she* looked thinner than everyone.
And yet there she was, with her beautiful short dark hair, her sharp yellow eyes, her small frame, destroying men that were at least twice her size.
Scaf thought they were simply trying to get her favors by acting like gentlemen, but he knew those men, the principle of gallantry and flirting were as strange to them as basic hygiene.
If they want something from someone, they either directly ask for it, or take it by force.
So Scaf pushed threw the crowd, his bottle still half full on his left hand, he sat down at the table in front of the woman.
He heard someone mumble something behind him about breaking lines, but he spent enough time around here to make himself a reputation.
They stared at each other for sometime, he was feeling something he didn't feel in a long time,and thought he would never feel again.
He needed to dull this felling.
So he took a sip of his drink, that was now a quarter full, and offered some to the woman.
After she refused they put both their right arms on the table, their hands entangled in each other, his hand totally hiding hers.
It took him a moment to realize what he was feeling was pain.
The match lasted an instant, and for the first time in his life, Scaf lost a strength contest.
And the pain he was feeling came from his broken arm.
The lady then smiled at him, and she left.
"YOU FUCKING BITCH, YOU BROKE MY TABLE WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING".
It was probably the person in charge who was screaming.
Scaf didn't care much, not because of the pain he was feeling, the sisters at the camp would help him with that, and he was still drunk enough so that it was bearable.
No, he didn't care about the world around him because for the first time in a while, he felt alive, and he had a goal.
Find this woman.
**
Rosa went to the office of Mister Butterbury as soon as she got the call.
She was gasping for air, or at least she acted like she was.
A maid with good physical abilities was suspicious, especially if she could cross a distance like the one separating the garden from the main house in such a short amount of time.
The only way would be running, and usually when people run they start having trouble breathing normally.
As soon as she got in the office whatever, she cut out the act and started breathing normally.
You can't pant in front of the boss afterall.
She instinctively looked around in the room.
They were three only in there, which was unusual since the master always had a couple of people around him.
But today it was only him, her and Scaf.
They didn't see each other since they came here, six months ago, they would pass by each other of course, or see a familiar figure from afar, but they couldn't make any reaction to not bust their cover.
She wanted to jump on him and hold him and feel safe between his big arms.
But she couldn't, so it had to wait.
"You may wonder why I called you two in here, today, alone", Francis Butterbury broke the silence as soon as Rosa closed the door behind her and stepped in the office.
But he wasn't looking at her, he was staring through the window, looking at the horizon.
"Well I'm gonna tell you that right now", he continued as he turned around to look at each of them in turn, "But before I'm gonna tell you a story, it's a story about an absolutely horrible man, he was the worse of what mankind could give, and so one day, in his anger or madness or whatever I don't remember exactly the details", he started walking around the room, "he decided he was gonna kill a witch, and so he did, but right before that the witch cursed him, of course, or else there would be no plot", he went back to his office and sat down on his armchair, putting his fingers together under his chin," anyway, she cursed him with a most devious curse, his true nature would be seen by everyone, as if his reputation hadn't already done that but that's another story, and so he would look like a horrible animal all the time, and the only way for him to break it would be to obtain something someone like him could never gain, true love".
Francis sighed as he said that before adding, "Of course, like every fucking fairy tale on this world"
"Well the witch died", he continued after a moment of silence, where he seemed like he was trying to remember the rest of the story, "She apparently wasn't that good with magic because her curse only worked in daylight, at night time it would stop.So do you think it made him think about his life choices and he decided to change and bla bla bla ? well, hopefully, no, he decided to find a woman, flirt with her, make her fall for him, and voila, he obtained true love from someone, and the curse was lifted.He didn't even do it because what he looked like bothered him, he did it simply to show the witch the she died for nothing, and that she was just a useless bitch..."
His voice raised a little as he said his last sentence, he realized it and decided to stop for a second, "Now what's the moral of the story ? lot of people would tell you that it's a story that praise evil doing and other boring bullshit, but I think the moral of this story is that rules can always be wrapped, and we can always find a loophole somewhere, and when we do, we should exploit it to the bone, in other words, creativity is way better than moral."
"That was a nice story", Scaf said after he understood his boss was done speaking," but that doesn't tell us why we're here"
Francis got up in a dramatic way, as if he was playing in a theater.
"You're here because today I decided I was going to be creative, so I decided I was gonna send you two to abduct someone"
Rosa stepped back, not because she wanted to fly away, but she wanted to be ready in case of attack.
If he asked her to abduct someone then he must know about her past.
"But why us specifically ? don't you have a team specifically for that"
Francis Dramatically turned toward Scaf," Haven't you listened to my beautiful story ?"
"All right, but, like, who are we supposed to abduct?", Rosa said right after to change the subject of conversation.
She didn't need him to ask more questions than necessary.
"Now that's a pertinent question, it's a spy, that's undercover as a builder, his name is Jakov Bordoulki, I need you to pick him up and bring him to a small household not far from his favorite tavern, so you are gonna need to find a way to get him from the tavern to the house, the taverns name is the Old Bear"
Scaf reacted to the name of the tavern, he used to go there often, and that fact made things easier.
Because that tavern had one very special rule.
"Now go, I need him tonight" Francis then went back to his office and started reading a book while sitting on his chair and having his feet on the desk, and as soon as he did that, as if by magic, servant started coming from the different doors.
***
Scaf and Rosa waited to be sure to be deep enough in town, and that they were not followed, and went into a small alley, just large enough for both of them to pass.
And there they kissed, deeply.
None of them wanted to let go, it had been so long.
But they had to.
Rosa was the first one to let go, It took Scaf all of his strength to do the same.
"Okey so how we doing this ?", Scaf said as he was looking away, toward the tavern in front of them.
"Like the old days", Rosa winked as she said that.
Scaf hated that plan, because it was so effective.
Scaf sighed.
"I guess we don't really have much choice, given the time we have".
They then went into the tavern, Rosa went to the bar, and Scaf joined a table where sailors seemed to play a card game.
They were already pretty drunk, so they didn't give much thought to the massive figure that came playing with them.
That's what he loved about this place, everyone was so drunk no one would notice even a dragon passing by the front door.
And he needed exactly that right now.
He then spent the couple of hours getting drinks, but not actually drinking them, and just letting his drunk compagnions drink them thinking it's theirs.
The fact that this place was full of drunk people meant that it was full of fights.
Or so everyone would think.
But the impressive figure of the owner would dissuade from starting a brawl.
Except for extremely stupid people.
And for them there was The Rule.
Rosa on the other side, was still at the bar, looking around, getting offered drinks, by boys mostly, and sometimes by men.
Until the target crossed the front door, and so the plan got into it's first part.
Jakov went directly to the bar,"A beer, thank ya Alfie", he said as he received his first drink, he then looked to his left and raised his cup toward Rosa.
She answered him in the same way, and drank.
A few drinks later, his cheeks were already red and he looked as if he could stumble from his stool at any moment.
He can't hold alcohol, thought Rosa, perfect.
She smiled and looked toward Scaf.
It was the signal.
Scaf got up, acting as if he was drunk, and walked toward Rosa, making sure he would hit a few tables on his way.
"Hello pretty flower, can I offe ya a drink", he said as he put his hand to keep him from falling over the bar.
"No, thank you", Rosa answered with a smile.
"Com' on, jus' a lil drink, and then we can go outside you and me, if ya see wha' a mean"
All the men that had been trying to get Rosa's interest turned around, but none of them spoke.
They were very few man who would face Scaf, without knowing about his reputation.
And even fewer that knew about it.
And no one in that tavern was drunk or lustfull enough to overcome that fear.
Except for one very stupid builder.
Jakov got up as well as he could, stumbled and almost fell to the ground, only to be saved by a table he clapped his hand on to keep himself upright.
"Who d'ya think you are huh? big lad m talkin to ya, look at me!", he managed to stand by his own without the help of any table.
"Keep yo nose to yoself, or I'll stick it up you' ass", Scaf was looking at him with half an eye.
"What did ya just say ? Am gonna show you you fucker", and Jakov charged toward Scaf.
And fell right into his trap.
The plan was almost complete.
As Jakov got close to Scaf, he turned around to hit him with the back of his fast.
He hit him so hard his head slammed against the counter.
"For fuck sake Scaf, again ?"
"Sorry mate, this time it's important"
Alfie sighed, " fine, but you know The Rule"
"Thank you Alfie, I promise I'll pay you back one day"
"Ye sure, pay your drinks first then we'll see about that"
Alfie was one of the few men that would stand against Scaf, despite knowing about his reputation.
After all, the name of his tavern has been given after him, because he was big like a bear and getting old.
The Rule was simple, If you fight inside the tavern, and you end up knocking out the other person, you get out, but before that you gotta clean your mess.
And that includes disposing of the unconscious body of whoever you fought with.
And that was perfect when you wanted to abduct them.
So Scaf lifted Jakov's body on his shoulder and took him to meeting point.
Mister Butterbury was the one to open to them
"Very well done! both of you", he was clapping in an exaggerated manner, and had a very amused tone of voice.
He then lead them to a room with very little lighting, but they could discern figures.
All armed.
"Put him on this chair", his tone had radically changed, it was now dry, cold and menacing.
Scaf did as he was told, and then they waited in the dark, for Jakov to wake up.
Francis spent the whole time sitting on a chair in front of him, with the back of the chair to his chest, staring at his face.
Scaf must've hit him harder than he thought, because it took him a good five hours to wake up, and he had the right side of his face all swell.
"Good morning beautiful", Mister Butterbury said as soon as he woke up.
Jarkov tried to get up but two hands that appeared from the darkness behind him dissuaded him from even trying.
"Let's get directly to business, I know you are a spy, you know who I'm, I just want to know who sent you"
"I'll NEVER betray my masters, you can torture me all you want, I'll never betray the cause"
"Oh so y'all have a cause, huh ? well that's interesting",His tone was warmer, a little amused.
Jarkov realised he already gave them too much information.
"I see, so you ain't gonna talk from here on huh ?", his tone changed again, this time he sounded annoyed, a bit bored.
"You know they say history is written by winners", he stood up and walked behind him, "but this also gives something, for history to be written you existence needs to be known, and so what do you think is the cruellest of all punishments ? death by hanging ? quartering maybe ? torture even ? no no, those are for animals, for humans, with causes, the cruellest thing is to forget them, so they never appear even with the winning", he said his last sentence with his mouth close to Jarkov's ear.
His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak but it was as if something was blocking air from going out of his throat.
"I'm not done yet", Said Mister Butterbury after a second of silence, "Do you know what that mean ? it means deleting you, and everyone that know you from history, even little Sara and her mother"
Francis then walked back to his chair, and looked right at him.
His eyes were empty, and his gaze seemed to see right through his soul.
"So, now, are you willing to help"
Jarkov still couldn't make any sound, but he could nod.
And so he did, he nodded with such vigour it was surprising his head didn't fly off.
"Perfect, now tell me what you know"
"I'm not the only spy here", he was speaking and gasping for air, as if he was being choked and almost suffocated.
"That guy there, he's one too!".
He was pointing to Scaf.
Scaf's face didn't move, he didn't flinch, didn't show surprise or shock.
He simply walked, slowly, regularly, toward him.
"There's also a woman, or two I don't remember, maybe even three"
Scaf then lifted him from his neck.
Now he was really chocking, his leg were trying to find something to stand on, but there was only air.
And then it stopped.
Scaf had snapped his neck, and he let go of his body.
It fell heavily on the chair he was sitting on.
Dead.
Scaf's facial expression still didn't change.
It was emotionless, cold, neutral.
And so was Mister Butterbury's face, as he looked at the dead body of the spy," Why did you do that?".
Scaf turned around to look at him, "Because he was saying bullshit, he just chose me at random and then started saying whatever came to his mind to win some time, he was of no value"
Francis then raised his head and looked at him right in the eye.
He was one of the very rare person that Scaf feared.
After a moment of silence he exploded in laughter, "Farewell I guess, but I'm going to apply The Rule here too, so you know what to do"
And just like that Mister Butterbury left, followed by his shadows, hidden in the darkness.
And soon it was only Scaf and the body in the house.
And so Scaf did what he had to do, he disposed of the body.