a fool and his sword

Kevin stood in the ankle deep mud of the road and cursed.

"Son of a bitch, I hate the mud."

Kevin lifted his head and squinted into the rain; surveying the slate grey sky.  He ran a hand over his short cropped hair and turned on his heels to face a tall wirey youth.

"Ah, but the mud doesn't bother you much does it?," said Kevin to the youth, walking over to stare up at the young man, "Nor, does the rain, or the cold, or a lovely girl toying with your manhood.  A proper machine you are Rhodri."

Kevin looks Rhodri up and down, as if analyzing the angles of a door frame.  If Rhodri was in fact a door frame his dimensions would have been perfect.  Standing at 6 foot 6 inches tall, with the shoulders of a blacksmith and the waist of a school girl (as Kevin tended to put it), and corded with enough lean muscle and sinew to make a horse jealous, Rhodri was a specimen of physical prowess.  Yet the eyes staring down upon Kevin were empty of even the slightest bit of natural human intelligence.  Rhodri's eyes stared out on the world with the utter indifference of an idiot savant.

Kevin smiled and slapped Rhodri on the back.

"Aye, a proper machine."  Kevin tightens his travel stained cloak about his shoulders and adjusts the straps of his pack.  "Now, let's make some money."

With a dramtic flourishing of his limbs and a spray of water and mud, Kevin turned upon his heels once again and walked with a purpose down the muddy road.

-----

The large stone archway of Dun Harbor stood before Kevin and Rhodri.  The mud of the common traveling road stopped abruptly before the archway and was replaced by a cobblestone street, worn flat from age and use, which lead into the city.  The way was blocked by four of the flaboyantly dressed Harbor Guard.  

Kevin chuckled as he approached the men and muttered to himself, "Silly jumped up swashbucklers."

The men glanced briefly at Kevin, but when their eyes fell upon Rhodri they took notice and moved to intercept.

"'Old it there you two," said a guardsmen with a prominently pointed chin beard and a meticulously groomed mustache, "what pray tell is your business 'ere abouts."

Kevin moved to the forefront and bowed lavishly, "Hello hello gentlemen, may the sun shine upon you...when all of this clears up of course," Kevin motioned towards the sky and the gloomy weather.  "Our buisiness is of the crooked sort I am afraid, we come at the call of Gorgeous Jack, perhaps you know the name."

The man's previous confidence seemed to dim at the mention of Jack's honorific.  "That's not a name you want to be dropping 'ere mate, using that name without proper cause..."

"Invites certain brutal, yet artisticically tasteful death," Kevin interupts as he quickly reaches into his inner-jacket pocket and reveals a large coin with the faded impression of a laughing skull upon its face.

The guard glances quickly and squiemishly at the coin and the moves aside, motioning Kevin and Rhodri past.