Bran's Odyssey to Redemption

The sun rose in the east and the wind blew from the west.

It was the kind of morning that made a man feel like eating his own belt, or at least throwing up on it.

"There's a dead body over there."

"Really?" I asked. "I didn't notice."

The man looked at me with a furrowed brow. "You're a knight, aren't you?" he asked.

"Well, no," I said, "I'm actually a bard. You see this lute? I play it sometimes when I'm bored."

He rubbed his chin. "A minstrel, then?" He sounded hopeful.

"Not quite that either," I said, "but if you ever need someone to sing at your wedding, I'll do my best."

He sighed. "Look," he said, "if you're not going to help with this dead body, then why don't you just go back to wherever it is that you came from and let us handle it? Like we always have." He glanced at the other men around him and they all nodded in agreement. They were all good men who were used to handling unpleasant things like dead bodies without any help from outsiders. So I gave them what they wanted and walked away. After about twenty yards I stopped, turned around and yelled: "Hey!" They all looked at me expectantly. I held up a finger and waited for the wind to die down so they could hear me better. When it did, I shouted: "What are you going to do with the body?" They all thought about it for a moment before one of them raised his hand and said: "We'll burn it?" The others grunted their assent and went back to their work of carrying the body into town for cremation or burial or whatever people do with dead bodies thereabouts. It seemed like an odd thing to do with a dead cat but maybe there was some reason behind it that only people from that part of the world understood. Who knows? We all have our ways of doing things and who am I to say otherwise? As long as they left me out of it I really didn't care how they handled their dead bodies; or cats for that matter. But just as I was about to leave again a voice called out: "Hey bard!" The voice belonged to a young girl who was running towards me as fast as her legs would carry her. Her face was streaked with dirt and tears ran down her cheeks but she smiled nonetheless when she reached me and said: "Wait! Are you Bran? The bard Bran who's supposed to save us?" Before I had time to reply she grabbed my hand and pulled me into town where her mother stood waiting for us outside the inn where she worked as a maid. She looked worried but angry too, although probably more angry than worried since she immediately started yelling at her daughter: "What do you think you're doing dragging strangers into town?! Do you want everyone in town talking about us again? Get out of here!" The girl started crying again - partly from being scolded by her mother but also because she knew she was right - but instead of running away she stuck close by my side and refused to leave until her mother finally gave in and tearfully hugged her daughter close before sending her off on an errand down by the riverbank where she worked most mornings collecting water for washing clothes by hand. This only left me alone with the mother but luckily for me there was another person who had been watching us from inside the inn - an old woman who took one look at me before saying: "Don't mind them," as she pushed open the door of the inn so we could step inside together, "they've both been upset lately." And then she sat down next to me on one side of the hearth while her granddaughter sat down next to me on the other side before reaching under my cloak and pulling out my lute which she handed back to me before saying: "So are you him? Are you Bran?" Shrugging off my cloak now that its purpose had been served (keeping my lute warm) I told them both that yes indeed I was Bran - well not exactly Bran himself but a distant relative who had been sent here by King Arthur himself on a quest which he hoped would end both their problems once and for all (the king's problem anyway). So anyway after saying this much - admittedly neglecting to mention King Arthur's involvement even though both women looked puzzled - I started playing my lute hoping that music might soften their hearts enough so that they would tell me everything they knew about the troubles plaguing their village which had brought them so low; hoping especially too that there was something useful that only women knew since despite being half-man myself apparently there were still some things only women could tell men about themselves . . . .