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The Watchful Pour

Originally written on June 19, 2024

Panoramic vista of a rugged, rolling countryside under a slightly overcast sky, perhaps during late afternoon with long shadows beginning to stretch. In the middle distance, nestled against the slope of a hill or in a shallow valley, lies a small, rustic medieval village – a cluster of simple timber-frame buildings with thatched or worn wooden shingle roofs. Faint wisps of smoke curl from a few chimneys, suggesting habitation but no people are visible.

A prominent, winding dirt road, showing signs of frequent wagon travel (perhaps ruts or worn patches), snakes through the landscape, leading towards or past the village. One particular hillside bordering the road, maybe slightly further away, looks steeper and perhaps more eroded or sparsely vegetated than the others, subtly hinting at the treacherous nature of the "Wagon Sides" without being overly dramatic.

The surrounding terrain is a mix of grassy fields, some possibly looking a bit unkempt, interspersed with patches of dense, slightly dark-looking woodland. The overall atmosphere is quiet, a bit isolated, and tinged with a subtle wildness or melancholy, hinting at a place where civilization meets untamed nature and potential hardship.

Style: Painterly landscape, highly detailed with realistic textures (grass, dirt, wood, stone), atmospheric perspective (distant elements slightly softer/muted). Natural, slightly desaturated color palette.

Technical: Aspect ratio 16:9. Strictly no human figures or distinct animals.

A tavern bartender recently saw some wolves on the countryside where he lived. But he pretended not to know much when people asked about it. In fact, he wanted them to ask about it, because then he would count them off from the list of people he suspected. Furthermore, he wish he could just kill off the bandits already, but he was well-aware that things did not always work smoothly. He had to work fast, because time did not let anyone imagine for themselves an easy world. But he believed in consistent morals throughout—moral absolutism. It took a gentle giant like him to think about heavy subjects like these, and he attributed that to the culture around him, which had had men going around flirting with the use of bone clubs shaped so as to be favorable for the women. It impacted yohim, but it is only one of his many memories. He did not forget what he just thought. This was his life now.

"Why don't I take an adventure?" said a male traveler at the counter. 

The bartender replied in good faith.

The traveler said: "I see. What then should I expect from this town? I've heard stories of people crashing down at the wagon hillsides, where the wagons frequently travel. Oh, they're called the Wagon Sides, a fairly good name I would say, but not one that I seek to diverge into at the moment. What is your profession, besides the typical bartender? I know you are not one to judge a person by their headwear so easily, but what do you think about my clothes or my hair? I know not how people like you have suited yourself and fitted neatly into this little fabric of a village. But I dare proclaim a little express need for a tanned hide, three of pieces of them, that I might finish off the little clothing issues in my clothes. If I may so say, where do you get your 'little bottles' (a term that refers to bandits)? I have little to converse here as regards the weather, for I am not so easily done-in and done-out by a little discussion." In other words, he implicitly said here that he was fine with small talk, which was denoted by the word "weather," if it means he could get around in a discussion. "What say you about the little bottles currently roaming around town? It seems your men and soldiers have not swept them off just yet. It sounds like a racket, don't you think?"

The bartender agreed and expanded upon his words with little contention, only obliged to humor or entertain the traveler without a demanding push from his side. Furthermore, he did make sure to handle to him the foregoing three pieces of hide,

Upon taking the three pieces, the traveler said: "Definitely, with a few short time, there be people that walk around these parts with little to do with their own loins." He meant to say that they did nothing but laze around and possibly engage in delinquent or boorish behavior. "So it is said. Anyway, the course of these issues remains unabated. I am not one to consider the world so well so as to halt you in your matters. Let me be off!" He waved staunchly, and he was off.

After a long time passed, the traveler came again and said: "I return again, after my long travels, I hope this bothereth you not, I have little concern over the welfare of those around me, keeping to myself. I know that this opening statement does little to assuage any contempt toward me or apply a sense of justification upon the All Who Knows High. It is a contemptible thing to consider me a lonesome man that I might commit such boorish acts. In any event, there be people that remain assuaged anyway, such that I come to them in good faith and with a hope that they remain to me a person of gifts and lovely tulips, as I would say back in Tulac. In the world today, one is expected to march onto the road, expecting nothing but his boots to lift him off the ground, for all who doth come cometh with a necessary thing, such as a word or a camel. It is wise, don't you think? I may be a noble, but I have much in the way of caressing this little pit of a town. Sensibly, I am of a maintained apparatus of selves, that denoted by my little fingers all of which proclaim a justice-message. Ha, I've been influenced by the scribes. It has been a long month or a year or two. I have little care for time, but with passing time, I recognize well what I wrought and by what manner I am supposed in all things. There, by people who expecteth a lot, I see now the visages of all things before, heavy swords at the ready, with axes carefully crafted, that it might birth life ever-lasting. I have long-forgotten the old strangeness of the world, and by whose hand I am to depart and fall into that I may lie down in green pasture. It is with great grief to announce the dissolution of this guild, by which the bar has remained in great fullness. What say you about my decisions? I am not that traveler which you knew before, and I have come with a vengeance, for all of the bandits have slain the wives which I have gained and the concubines whom I adored. There are a many method of slaughter, if by the hand of God, I am ready to be cut off, so discretely, and with little perusal of the elements by which all remain connected. In the end, let me wage war upon this house of evil. It has been with a sorrowful gaze I have come here therewith."

The bartender recognized his sorrows and knew that he was not speaking of this tavern in which he was currently posted, but more so expressing a great grief about another one which the bartender had only the traveler to expound that he might gain a tiny bit in the way of knowledge. He expressed this with great patience, believing the man to be speaking in tales and myths, where the words say much but refer to an idea similar in appearance and character but as with the horses' feet and the clouds in the sky, there is no connection.

The traveler said: "I say this not in regards to your tavern; though I do recognize a need to address it. Your tavern or bar perhaps has remained in a wanting state for so long, and I have expressed myself in front of you, that I might consider myself fallen only to rise up again, like a frail sheep placed at the altar that I might evolve again to grace upon grace, shielded by the weapons, the armors, and shields of God. Leave me today, but here is your fine gold, which I have already prepared before arriving. If with great sorrow I return, I come then again with a pouch of gold, if not to please the wife and your wife, if she finds it to be of necessity."

In many words, the bartender thanked him and wished him well.

Later, after a great long year, the traveler returned, and with him, another man, who looked to be twice as tall, but actually only an inch taller, but by the character of his stride, produced much margin of reference, that he might be considered of a great regality. 

The companion, who was the taller traveler, then said to the first traveler: "Then what of the world? By an undying nature, it is then concluded. Questions speak of a man so indistinct that his labors therewith are moved. If to humor him, sure. But to relegate him to a post notwithstanding? He is but removed, and his soul raptured away; that by a necessary want, he is thus divested of his power. By a might' hand only he can be saved, just for him merely to bark at a cloud or a far-bygone another one, that if by choice of luck, he might consider himself of candid pleasure, for barking pleasure, at least, to a relative degree, provideth a sense of pleasurable taste. Little can be said about it, but it, as with many things, by itself is already sensible, that if any sought to explain it, it would like explaining the wind by which all things are already animate."

The bartender was quick to be silent more often than his attempts to detach himself from his proverbial interpretations of the great multitude of many who came here to be seen and to be heard. He knew that it was with great pleasure that they expressed themselves today, as like a female dancer who had recognized her talent, they seek too to be seen and to be recognized by their pleasantries and by their virtuous, plenteous words, if by a great miracle of talent, they are to be boasted about. He was obliged to disturb them. So he shared his greetings and with his words, pointing implicitly at the people around him, if by the character of their faces, they might feign to be obliged to be perfomative. This was done with a great manifold work, and with great timing, because he readied not his own words to speak, but through his sign, prepared the men and women present apart from the two travelers to heed these two that they might be disturbed, which the two wanted, but that the two might act rather as if they were forced to speak, if in so doing, they might be performers. 

The companion and the first traveler were quick to declaim their finest of speeches.

The bartender, after waiting, knew to let the two men finish, if by the character of their conversation, they might be considered rash or properly surprised of themselves, when they, even without a direct response or even a sure glance, were convinced of their great charm:—through the bartender's meddling.