บท 78: Putting in a Good Word

"What brings you here today, old friend?" A heavy-set man with well-defined musculature approached Al while spreading his arms out for a friendly hug. He had a rugged face with a squared jaw and an aggressive gaze that could cause a child hiding behind a metre-thick wall to burst into tears, metaphorically.

Al reciprocated with a smile, while once again contemplating how such a brutish looking fellow could find employment as a healer. Funnily, Al fit snugly within the man's massive embrace. He didn't mind one bit how the man's undulating biceps, exposed to the environments through a coat truncated at the shoulders, crushed him at his upper back. Because Al knew that underneath the scary exterior lay a gentleness unlike any other.

"Do I need an excuse to meet a friend?" Al joked.

"Of course YOU do. There has to be a particular reason for your decision to venture out of your little hiding hole in the library, apart from your many 'cultivation walkabouts'," Goran chided jokingly.