The little blonde boy lay on the floor of the landing, peering over the edge to the floor below. It was beyond his bed time and he knew it would be dire if he was caught awake.
A man burst through the front doors, his clothes and hair a mess, stumbling and clutching a nearly empty bottle of mead. He slurred incoherently and looked around with wild eyes.
The boy named Egfor shrank back a little, not wanting to be seen. He glanced to the room he shared with his four sisters. He looked back, making eye contact with his father. The young boy gasped and crawled quickly back to his bed.
The drunken man bellowed something along the lines of, "Get back here, you little rat!"
He froze at the door of the room, watching his mother throw herself at the drunk man with a ferocious yell, protecting her children. Egfor winced, scurrying into bed, pulling the blankets over his head and covering his ears, not wanting to hear the fight downstairs.
The covers were ripped off. The boy leapt to his feet, standing on the bed and facing down the giant alcoholic that was his father. The boy quivered in fear but clenched his fists, shouting, "Leave my sisters alone! Hurt me instead!" A child of a meager five years of age shouldn't have to make such sacrifices.
Egfor woke up with a start, expecting his father's fist to make contact with his face. He lays on his back in the dark for several agonizing moments. He looks to the small table beside his bed to the bottle of brandy he had put there. In a rare fit of uncontrolled rage, he grabs the bottle and throws it into the fire, the bottle exploding and making the embers sizzle and smolder, glass shards littering the hearth now. He yells in Rohirric, "Damn you! Damn you and what you made me!"
He sat there, quivering in anger, fists clenched and mirroring that young child many years ago. He whispers to himself, "I hate what I become. Damn you to all hells and back. I am just like you, wretched man."
He flops back onto the pillow, giving in and just letting the tears flow down his face, not bothering to muffle his sobs, as no one should be awake at the Inn at this hour.
Dunwine jumps onto the bed, nudging his head under Egfor's good hand, whining softly. The man's hand moved of its own accord, working through the dog's fur. Eventually he calmed down, sniffling and sighing deeply every so often.
Dunwine wiggled up, leaning his weight on Egfor's chest, nudging his chin with his nose. Egfor's lips cracked into a gentle smile, "No, you're right. I love animals and nature, I take care of the earth and her inhabitants. I love freely and so damn much. I'm not my father. I'm better than that." He gripped either side of the dogs face and leaned down to kiss Dunwine's nose, giving him a lot of scratches and pets before resettling down for sleep.
