"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.
Word Count: 1726
I'm trying my best to not make light of mental illnesses. If any part of my work comes across as callous or misinformed, please leave a comment and I'll address the issue immediately. As you guys should know by now, if ever I am discussing any such themes in this book, I prefer to go about it realistically.
For instance, I know that a lot of novels would simply wave a wand and "cure" Kano's dyslexia, boosting the MC's prestige in the process (this one romance novel even cured Autism XD). It's all well and good to read about it in fiction, but life doesn't work that way.
Please REVIEW, ADD TO COLLECTIONS, and VOTE WITH POWER STONES :)