Short Story: Relative Truths

All I wanted was a distraction. Things hadn't been going overly well for me, and I needed any kind of excuse to forget. Sure, it was a weeknight. And yeah, most of us had to be up the next day. But why say no to a late night at a pub? Alright, they didn't say no so much as they just bailed earlier than I had been hoping for. Why they felt sleep was so important, I couldn't understand.

It wasn't a thing I would usually ever do, but as my friends filed out, I ended up hanging out alone in the bar. I still had most of my beer left, I had to at least finish it before I could go. So, I sat there, drinking. Alone. There were still a few hours before last call, but the room was becoming pretty empty.

"Mind if I sit down?"

I was startled. I hadn’t expected anyone to come over. He was an older man, compared to me at least. He had a short-trimmed beard on a face that gave the impression of a kind of ease or lightness.

"Uh," I started, unsure what to think but not wanting to be rude. "Yeah, go ahead."

"You look like a man in dire need of a story,” the man said as he took a seat across from me.

"What makes you say that?" It was a weird way to approach a person, but I had to admit, a story could make for a good distraction.

"Seems like a better option than most that get made when a man sits alone in a bar starring down at his beer." He said it with a smile. I got the impression he had been in my place before.

"What kind of story do you have in mind?”

"Only the truth. I find that the most interesting tales are the ones that you have a personal stake in. And you can't get much more personal than talking about yourself."

A stranger coming up and offering his life story? It sounded like a set up ask for money, but I had come too far to refuse him now.

"Lived an interesting life?" My mind flooded with possible sob stories, bracing myself for whatever was to come.

"I don't know a man or woman who hasn't. It all comes down to knowing how to tell it." With that, he took a big swig of his beer, and began his tale.

"Long ago, in a year where you would have been no higher than my knee, if you had been born yet at all, there was this bandit. He was brought up by a family filled with thieves, taught to pick pockets and burgle homes before he learned to read. They lived just outside a walled off kingdom where royalty and knights and the like would make their home. The young bandit wanted to leave this life behind, to enter the kingdom, but the walls stood so high, he believed he could never scale them."

"One day, the young bandit came across a beautiful woman riding a steed across the countryside. He found himself unable to do anything more than stare, for he had never seen such elegance before. Even the long cloak, that glided behind her as she traveled, appeared too clean and new for the world he was apart of. To his horror, she turned her head and he was caught. He averted his gaze, acting suddenly fascinated by the dirt path.”

"The hoof beats grew louder until they stopped entirely. When he looked back up, he found his face mere inches from the horse’s long mouth. He fell backward in shock.”

“The sight sent her into a fit of full bellied laughter before she gave her most sincere apologies. She had approached him to ask for assistance. She wished to see the Glimmering Lake for legends say the most dangerous creature in all the lands resides within it. It is foretold that the one who beheads the creature shall go on to rule the kingdom. It was a concept that seem to leave her in awe. Then, she became sullen, admitting she was lost on her way to find it."

"The bandit knew this entire countryside quite well; it was where he has spent his entire life. He told her that he had been to the Glimmering Lake plenty of times and would do his best to help her. Try as he might, it quickly became apparent to the both of them that he was not overly gifted in the act of giving directions."

"The woman came up with a course of action without even needing a moment of thought. He would come with her and show her the way himself. If he wasn't too busy, of course. She suggested there must have been plenty of horses around the area, he could surely acquire one for the journey."

"It was true. There were plenty of horses. But there was another problem. The bandit had never learned to ride. His family could not afford a horse, nor were they very easy to steal, and so he was never given an opportunity. To the woman's ears, this did not appear to be much of a problem at all. She decided that he should ride with her and reached down to hoist him up behind her."

"It wasn't until the bandit was sat upon the horse that he noticed the sheathed sword attached to the woman's side. As their journey began, the woman explained that if the legend were to turn out true, she planned to be the one to defeat the creature. She questioned the bandit about if he had ever seen it; He hadn't. This didn't dissuade her, for the legend tells that the creature would only reveal itself to those with royal blood pumping within their heart.”

“It was in this moment that the bandit realized that he was riding with the princess of the kingdom."

"There was plenty of time to talk throughout their journey to the lake, for to reach the destination would mean a three-day ride. The princess explained to the bandit about her brother. How he was next in line for the crown, but he had plans for war after war to tear nations apart. So much bloodshed, just to give himself more than a single person could ever need or even use."

"As thanks for the bandit’s help, the princess began to teach him how to ride. Hours would pass in which he took the reins himself. He wasn't very good. In the end, it added quite a bit of time to their journey, but she was patient, and he was thrilled to learn."

"On occasion, the bandit's family would come to his mind. He imagined what they would think if they knew whose company he shared. How upset they would be if he didn't bring himself steal a single jewel. Even as the thoughts filled his mind, he knew there was no chance he could do it. That wasn't the person he wanted to be."

"They arrived at the Glimmering Lake. The name came from the effect the sun created on the water that made it appear to shimmer like diamonds. It was beautiful to behold. Together, they dropped down off the horse and stepped closer to the water. Minutes passed and nothing happened. The princess's face dropped.”

“The bandit thought it best they leave; The legend didn’t appear to hold any truth. But the princess refused to go. She needed it to be real.”

"Ripples disrupted the water. From their centre, an evil looking thing began to emerge. It looked to be a giant serpent up to the waist, transitioning into a four-armed man with a ghoulish looking face. The bandit held his ground, not wanting to look fearful in front of the princess, but inside he wanted nothing more than to run.”

“The princess stared down the creature; a tiny smirk crossing her face. She grabbed the hilt of her sword and pulled it from its sheath."

"The bandit, having no weapon, could do nothing except watch. The fight was not long, but it was brutal. The scaly hide of the serpent half was too thick to be pierced by the princess’s blade, but she didn't stop.”

“As the creature began to swing a clawed hand toward her, the she swung her sword at its throat.”

“She was the faster of the two."

"The ride back was not nearly as pleasant for the bandit, for they needed to bring back evidence, and he was asked to hold the satchel that contained the creature’s severed head.”

“As they neared the walled off kingdom, the Princess gave the Bandit a choice. For all his bravery and assistance, he could travel with her, to within the walls. There was no decision to be made. He accepted and entered into a world that he had never known but always wished to be a part of.”

“The princess was crowned the queen and bestowed the bandit with his new title of knight. He was to be accepted in this place for as long as he wished to remain."

I sat there, dumbstruck. Was he making some kind of joke? He had said he would tell a true story, but that couldn’t be the case. Maybe he was insane.

I decided I would play along. "So, the bandit was you when you were young?"

"I’m not nearly regal enough to have been the princess," he answered with a smile.

"You must have eventually married her and become the king than, right?"

"No, no. Nothing like that." The man seemed thrilled to have more details be asked of him. "She helped me discover I could be more than my surroundings made me believe. We both eventually knew we were better suited for a friendship. My life took a completely different turn, and she found herself a king that made more sense for her soon after."

"Why, what happened?" I couldn't help but wonder what the man would say next. True or not, curiosity was getting the better of me.

The man took a moment, either to invent or to remember. The story soon came to him and he started on another tale.

"My home world was known as Terra Beta X. As a child, my companions and I would often wonder what the X had stood for, but in the end had decided it was probably just some extra bit of flavour tacked onto the name.”

“The planet's atmosphere was very different from that of most. Calling it an impenetrable shell wouldn't be much of an exaggeration. There was no way to reach the planet from space, and only one way to leave: the gateway."

"The gateway was built long ago when it seemed that no other way of space travel could be possible for my people, but it had its own setbacks. For one thing, the gateway was only useable when another planet's orbit put it within a certain range of ours. For another, it seemed only a certain kind of human physiology could travel through the gateway. For some reason the gateway would only work while a person was within their eighteenth year. It worked out that at least one planet would get close enough each year, so it gave everyone an equal shot at leaving."

"There were many who chose to stay. They would have their own reasons for this, such as not wanting to leave their families, or the need of a more definite future. There was a higher level of security in staying than leaving, since there was no way to communicate with those who left. Though many remained content with their choice, there was a vocal portion grew jealous of the ones who decided to leave."

"For my entire young life, I knew I would leave when my chance arrived. I didn't think there was enough for me on Terra Beta X and I wanted nothing more than the ability to explore and learn. I held on to this belief right up until I reached my eighteenth year."

"The period in which the gateway would work this year was only a short time after the anniversary of my birth. It all became real, and fear settled within me.”

“The companions that I had grown close to had all decided to stay. For as long as I could remember they had been by my side. The thought of leaving and not having that any more was all too terrible. What if there was nothing out there for me? What if I were to wind up on a desolate planet, entirely alone?"

"The day of the gateway's opening came, and my companions decided to go out and spend some time in the metal plains playing blasters. It’s a difficult game to explain, I couldn't quite get a grasp on it myself until I played it. It was sort of like basketball, but with jet packs and holograms. My fear of the unknown caused me to agree to going with them, though I couldn’t bring myself to participate. Instead, I sat there, watching from the sidelines."

"After a while, one of them left the game to come and sit with me. She questioned what I was doing there at all when I should be making my way through the gateway like I had always wanted. As hard as it was, I had to admit what I was feeling. If there was anyone I knew wouldn't judge me, it was her. She listened intently to all I had to say, and then said exactly what I needed to hear. She told me I was being a coward, that I was about to miss my only chance, and I would regret it instantly if I didn’t go.”

“She was right. There was only one hour left to make it to the gateway before it would be closed, and I’d be trapped forever."

"I ran. I ran like never before or ever since. Many lived very happy lives without ever leaving Terra Beta X, but I knew that wouldn't be me. I needed to see what else there was. That gateway was the key to my entire future, and I couldn't have it close before I reached the other side."

"With the gateway being nearly closed everyone who had wanted to travel through had already left. Security was beginning to close the doors, but I threw all my weight into them before they fully shut. The woman working the door told me that the gate only had a minute left at most."

"I was exhausted. I couldn't run anymore. But I'd made it so close; I couldn't give up. I could see the damn thing! I forced myself to keep moving."

"Slowly, the opening began to shrink. I had to muster everything I had left in me. Just a few more strides and I would be there. The gateway diminished in size as the distance to reach it did the same. I reached out; almost in reach. My legs could hardly hold me, each breath was like fire in my lungs.”

“There was only one thing left I could do. I dived."

That was it. He just stopped. That couldn't have been the end.

"Well," I started, "what happened? Where did you turn up?"

"Here, of course," he replied, nonchalantly.  “And I never left. This place is big, takes a while to explore.”

That was it, he had me hooked.  I looked down at my watch; we still had a while before last call. "How about I order us up another round and you can tell another?"

His excited expression was enough to make words unnecessary. I waved over the waitress and got us some new pints.

"Hmm, let's see," he spoke with uncertainty now. He looked deep in thought as he worked out which tale he would weave next. "Oh yes, I know exactly what to tell." And just like that, all the uncertainty left him, and he began to speak with all the authority he had with the prior stories.

"One of the earlier jobs I held was in a mine. There are some who enjoy working in mines; I was never one of them. But if you're going to work in a place you don't like, where better than a place that a shiny bit of rock can brighten up an otherwise dull day. There was one thing though that I did truly love while working in the mine, and that was the company. Those I worked with were some of the best people I had ever met."

"The days were long and hard. Sometimes it felt like I hadn't felt the sun on my skin for months at a time, but as long as I had my friends around me, it was never quite so bad. Even when the time came to leave work, we would keep in each other's company.”

“Management though, that was another thing all together."

"I should explain. I mean 'another thing' quite literally. The mine's boss was not a person at all, but a huge, hideous ogre. Not overly tall, as many ogres tend to be, but also far rounder than any other I had ever seen. Whether this ogre was male or female was impossible to tell, but each of us had our own guesses."

"It wasn't just that the ogre would drive us hard, they didn't seem to understand what working in a mine actually entailed. They would come up with crazy rules of how we should mine, which usually just ended up causing many of the minerals to be missed entirely. On the occasion we would strike a rich vein, the ogre would order that we leave most of it, in order to keep the tunnels looking nicer. They didn't seem to understand that the mine's income came from how much we remove, not how nice the tunnels looked."

"One day we were all down in the furthest point of the tunnel, chipping away the stone chunk by chunk, bit by bit. That was until my pickaxe went right through the stone, creating an opening into a hollow space."

"We all peered through the hole in the wall, wondering what we could have struck. Maybe it was a natural cave within the world, we thought. But no, that couldn't be the case, for it was already lit, and built up with wood beams keeping the structure sound. We realized we had struck another operation’s mine."

"Usually in this case it is considered good manners to just begin digging in another direction, but the ogre refused to listen to reason. It demanded we continue. Maybe there would be veins within this other mine that we could remove before they ever notice. There was some sense to it, in a way that stemmed entirely from greed."

"Without much choice, we enlarged the hole, making our way into this new mine. The ceiling in this tunnel was much lower than ours had been, and the marks on the walls seemed to have been made with much more precise tools. No question about it, this was a goblin's mine. It was weird, it didn't look like anyone had been down there for a while, and we knew from our own mining that there must be much more to be found there. Why would the goblins choose to leave the place before finishing?"

"As we walked further in, it seemed the mine was boarded off. Signs written onto the wood warned off any who had come this far. The signs expressed the price to continue would be far too high to be worth paying. Still, the ogre couldn't be convinced. They believed that the signs were just a ruse, to keep us away from valuables inside. Again, we were forced to do as ordered and tore down the boards."

"It wasn't much further before it seemed the ogre was proven right. We found a gigantic cavern, filled from end to end with more gold and jewels than any person could count in a lifetime. And not as veins to be mined, there were coins and all kinds of gems and artifacts. What we found was a stockpile that must have been collected by someone."

"The ogre ordered us to start laying down rails to get a mine cart down there. We tried to argue. We knew the riches must have all belonged to someone, and it was only reasonable to assume they wouldn't be too happy to know we were in the midst of pilfering it. Against our better judgement, with our jobs, our livelihoods on the line, we did as we were told. There were some in our party gifted in magic, they took out their wands and the rails were laid in no time."

"We were at the point of no return. Try as we might to talk the ogre into changing their mind, we remained unsuccessful in all but angering them. The ogre threatened to fire the lot of us. None of us could risk calling the possible bluff. If losing the job was at all an option, we surely would have all quit ages ago.”

"Still, we couldn't bring ourselves to begin loading the mine cart with all the treasure ourselves; it felt far too wrong. The ogre, furious with us, pulled the cart to the edge of the track and began to pile in handfuls at a time. Their greedy hands were so large that each scoop would have been shovelfuls for any of the rest of us."

"A low, quiet, rumbling rose within the cavern. It was hard to make out at first as the ogre continued to fill the cart. Pile after pile, the various metal clanged together, echoes carrying out into the far-off tunnels.”

“The rumbling grew louder. And louder. Soon, the sea of riches began to ripple. Mountains of jewels fell to the floor. It could have been an earthquake, and many of us thought it was. That is, until enough of the treasure moved that we could make out the scales hidden beneath."

"The reason the goblins had boarded up the mine was not to hide the riches for themselves, but for the safety of anyone unlucky enough to stumble across it. For within the cavern laid the home of a dragon. And dragons don't like to be stolen from."

"Most of us began to run. The ogre, however, could not step away from the gold. Just one more handful. Its thirst for riches couldn't be quenched."

"From a distance, I turned to look. Little could be made out; we had run too far. There was a sudden roar, and the tunnel was filled with light as a blast of fire came hurtling toward us. All the wood that reinforced the walls of the tunnel turned to ash, coupled with how the dragon's movements shook the ground, the tunnel began to collapse."

"We never did see the ogre again.”

“We were all left jobless. Luckily, thanks the ogre's crazy need to keep us from mining entire veins, there was enough left within the still standing portion of the tunnel that we would all be okay until new work could be found."

And with that, another of the man's stories came to a close.

It was all too unreal for any of it to be true, but I couldn't help but feel delight in the life this man was claiming to have lived. It was exactly the type of distraction I had been looking for.

"It looks to me like the night is about over," said the man, as he finished the last sip of his pint.

"Are you sure you can't tell one more?" I asked.

"Sure. Ask anything you would like, and I'll tell you all about it."

What question could I possibly ask to bring out a story that could top all the rest. There was a moment of complete silence as I searched for the best one. Without any better ideas, I decided to just be open ended. "It sounds like you have lived an amazing life. What is the most fantastic thing to ever happen to you?"

"An easy answer. There was this one time, that no matter what happens, I will always remember."  

"Picture the most beautiful brown eyes you've ever seen. Beauty so profound that it appears as if it could only be dreamt and not witnessed in the waking world. They were what I was staring into that night. And her eyes weren't even her best feature. Her smile… Oh, that smile. It could melt the coldest of hearts with just a glance. She had very long brown hair, reaching most the way down her back. Add a tower and a few more inches and she was well on her way to becoming Rapunzel."

"It was a dark night. Well, as dark as a night in a city can get. Too much light emanating from the streets to truly get a good look at all the stars above us. We could see a few, but there was a better than decent chance the majority were just satellites.”

“We stood on a roof high enough that looking down would have people below to looking like toys. The view of the city from up there helped to make up for the lack of stars."

"It was New Years Eve, nearly midnight. We had come up to see the fireworks. Not any particular fireworks, but the building was near the centre of the city and we knew that when midnight struck, we would see them from all directions. It was a romantic setting, I don't think anyone could argue that, and that was entirely its purpose."

"We had been seeing each other for most of a year at that point. A grand plan formed in my head, days, maybe even weeks, earlier. As the new year came in and the fireworks lit up the sky, it would be the perfect moment to finally tell her I love her. A little weird to come up with in advance, I'll admit, but I was always one for planning things. And more so, I thought this woman deserved the kind of grand romantic gesture you only really see in movies."

"Time crept forward as we waited for the fireworks to start. It was cold up there, but we both persevered. With my plan in mind, there is no doubt that I had more cause to keep us from leaving than she did. We talked, probably about nothing important, maybe made some jokes. I can hardly remember now. All the while, the plan to confess my love wouldn't relinquished itself from on my mind."

"I checked my watch, there was less than a minute left. It was going to happen. Midnight would come, I’d tell her I love her, we’d kiss, the fireworks would explode. It would be perfect. And it was almost time."

"The seconds passed, and soon only ten remained. We turned to each other as our own little countdown had begun."

"’Ten.’  This was it..."

"’Nine.’ I was going to do it..."

"’Eight.’ I would make her so happy..."

"’Seven.’ I stare into her eyes..."

"’Six.’ Those beautiful eyes. .."

"’Five.’ I could look at her forever..."

"’Four.’ Not long now..."

"’Three.’ Nearly there..."

"’Two.’ My only chance..."

"’One.’ It was time..."

"…And I didn't say a word.”

“We kissed, and then looked over the edge of the building. The fireworks go off. Every direction of the sky was filled with them. She smiles as she takes in the sight, but I can only look at her."

"I couldn't do it. Fear struck my heart and held back my tongue. I couldn't tell her I loved her that night. I wanted to so badly. I had it all worked out. But I couldn't do it. Because in those moments, just looking at her, admiring her, I realized something. I realized just how true it was. And it scared me."

"That night held within it the moment that I knew without a doubt that I loved her, more than I had ever loved anyone before. No grand romantic gesture could mean a thing compared to the feelings I had inside me."

"I didn't tell her I loved her that night, but I did tell her soon after. There was no big show about it. Nothing that would ever be put on a movie screen. But the words were meant with every beat of my heart.”

“That feeling was, and remains to be, the most fantastic thing to ever happen to me."

And that was it. His story ended, the bar closed, and we left. Outside, we shook hands and mentioned how great it was to meet one another. Finally, we went our separate ways.

There was no doubt in my mind that the man did consider each of the stories he told me that night completely true. The way he told them was the way he perceived his past, maybe with a little embellishment here and there.  But that last story... There was nothing questionable about it at all. If ever there was an absolute truth in this world, it was that story, and his feelings for her.

Everything else is relative.