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Message: <blockquote data-quote="muggie2" data-source="post: 5666430" data-attributes="member: 6681636">Roy looks taken aback."S-s-s-ser?"He stops, with an obvious effort to stop stuttering. Haken gestures at a table, and Roy sits heavily. Joff stands behind him.Haken repeats the question."W-well, sir, it's not like I r-really saw everything, and I d-d-don't want  t-to get anyone in trouble."Haken sighs, and sits straighter. Sometimes memory took a little encouraging, no matter what that did to his headache."You can tell me, lad. I can see you have no blood on you, so you didn't do it. But if we want to know what happened, we need you to tell us what you saw. Even if it wasn't everything. You're all we have. You have to tell us."Roy nods."W-well, ser, what I saw was this. A man came in and said something to the stableboy. The stableboy, he didn't seem to like it, an' said no. He grabbed the boy and hit him. Or maybe he grabbed him before he said something, I can't quite be sure, like. Anyway, the stableboy went down, and some other man came running over. Maybe he was going to help, I don't rightly know. Anyway the first man, he says "You don't know what you just saw!" and he smacks the new guy across the face. And the stableboy, his heads gone kinda soggy, I don't know how to say it, but like it's not the right shape anymore.""Then another man comes in, pulls his sword, an' the first man and the new one they start fighting with swords. Now, I can't remember which one had his sword out first, but I think it was the first man, and they start going for it."He shakes his head, and wipes the tears out of his eyes."The first man, he just seemed to play with him, Ser. The new man didn't seem to get a decent hit on him, and by the end, the first man had chopped him up. He slit his throat, Ser. And it was like it wasn't enough for him. He just stalks out of the barn, looking for the man he'd hit after the stableboy, like he was huntin' him down or something. And I can still hear the words he was sayin'. He was saying he weren't no Ser."He shook his head."Me cousin, well, me father's brother's son, anyway, he was a hunter, Ser, and he told me about weasels. Little vicious basta-, I mean, vicious wee sods, Ser, that's what he said. Never really understood him 'til I saw that man tonight."He raised his eyes from the table and looked Haken in the eyes."He was a like a human weasel, Ser. That's what he reminded me of. Not just what he did, but the way he did it, and the way he hissed his words, and went out to hunt the man he'd hurt earlier. And that's why I stayed in the hay, deep as I could. Compared to him, Ser, I'm a big fat rabbit. Maybe if he didn't have a sword, if it was like a bar-room brawl, maybe I'd have a chance, but even then..."He dropped his eyes to the table again."He killed a knight, Ser. Me, I'm a blacksmith. Was a miner. Him in armor, me in clothes? Even if I had me leathers on, it'd be just the same. Dead rabbit, Ser. So I stayed there, an' I didn't move, didn't want 'im to see me. And he just left that man on the floor, throat open, blood pooling all around him."He raised his eyes again, this time fiercely."Mebbe that makes me a coward, Ser. I don' know. Mebbe if I was in me leathers, with a mining hammer in me hand, mebbe then I woulda done something. But I wasn't dressed, an' I don' have me old hammer. My knuckledusters wouldn't have been much good against a sword. So I stayed quiet, an' a man died. What should I have done?"Haken sat there, and looked at the lad."I'm not a Ser either, lad."</blockquote>

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