Sloppy

"Sloppy"  

That's what Aras had called the terrible deed he had helped finish just the other night.  Not tragic, unnecessary, nor even unavoidable.  He had simply said that it had been sloppy.  Garradin shook his head to clear the thoughts away and went back to serving drinks at the Rusty Dragon Inn.  

Garradin had been serving these rough and tumbled farmers and fishermen for the better part of the night.  They were simple folks living their normal lives and trying their best to forget a terrible past and move on with their lives.  Garradin could relate to that very well.  

Having been sold into slavery with his parents at a young age Garradin grasped the need and desperation at which the people of Sandpoint tried to forget the past and advance quickly beyond it.  Garradin shook his head again and smiled to himself as he thought of what his teacher, Gortek, would be saying to him right now.  

" People don't need to forget.  Forgettin' is tellin' the loved ones ye lost they don't mean a damn! And setting yurself up to meet the same vicious events later in life.  Learn from yur past but don't let it control ye or you'll be consumed."    

Garradin had been consumed by his past when he had fled into the cathedral of Cayden and begged for sanctuary.  Having been forced to murder to survive, watch his parents die in front of him, and live the life of a slave for so many years Garradin counted himself lucky to have survived at all.  Gortek the dwarven priest of Cayden who had taken him in had told him he was still in need of saving.  

Gortek had told him "Ye carry so much hate and anger and resentment ye can hardly call that living.  This life was thrown upon ye and I'll help lift it off yur shoulders if ye have the heart to let it go."  

It had taken several years and many a harsh lesson before Garradin had finally accepted Gortek's help and finally accepted his past as a foundation for his future.    During that time Garradin had also began to worship Cayden and even became a cleric of the Drunken Lord.  

Garradin felt himself slip and quickly caught himself before spilling too much of the customer's ale but still heard a customer reply "Careful - don't get sloppy!"  

A brief second is all it took to relive the previous nights terrible events once more.  First the plotting of the events to come, the inevitable deviation from the plans and then the fight to survive which lasted seconds and felt like years.  Then blood was running from the corpse and quickly finding cracks in the floor looking so much like rivers.  The four of them stood around the corpse - beaten, bloody, defiant, and triumphant.  The run from the tower guards, the escape into the sewers, the frantic packing of prized possessions and the nervous trip to Sandpoint their place of quiet, safety, and anonymity.  

It was going to take a long time before Garradin could hear that word again and not feel a cold chill across his spine.