The end of the second year arrives. Friend again wins all the competitions in every subject. Soon, it is the day of the Emperor's visit, and the awarding of prizes. Friend prepares himself, with a long bath, and rubs into his body a musky and lightly perfumed unguent he had received as a gift. Unconsciously, he wants make a good impression, when he climbs the stand in front of the Emperor, to receive his new skirt and new headgear. A fine figure, not in front of the others, but for his Emperor.
The Emperor, after giving Friend the new insignias, smiles at him, and says:
"Ah, Last-Friend-Of-The-Moon, I see that you kept your promise. You didn't disappoint me. I congratulate you. Your masters say that they have never had such an accomplished student. I see that you have been adopted by the Eagle people. And you are growing up finely. I will continue to keep an eye on you. Don't disappoint me."
"Never!" Friend murmurs instinctively, breaking the ceremony, and at once, he looks at the Emperor, scared.
The Emperor, smiles at him and whispers: "Nobody heard you but me. You can leave, now."
Friend returns to his place, confused, moved. He felt a particular warmth in the Emperor's words, especially after his mistake. Nobody, can talk to the Emperor; if He did not expressly ask them to. But, not only did the Emperor, not became upset with him, He actually smiled. And He also remembered, that the previous year, he didn't wear the Eagle's collar. He really remembers him. He really keeps an eye on him. The god on earth, condescends, to lay His eye on him! Will he succeed, in not disappointing Him?
This time, after the ceremony, his school mates do not make fun of him. But, Friend notices, they treat him with a growing coldness and a formal kindness. They feel, he can become someone, important, so they don't want to make an enemy of him; but they don't like him. Friend, in part, suffers from that. He wants to have a good relationship with everybody, even if they are not really friends. When he complains, to his friends, Sky says:
"But why do you care? You belong to us, not to them. Don't worry. You only have to spend one more year with them. They are just envious, that's all."
"Yes, sure, but what did I do wrong to them?"
"Nothing. You have many talents, and you use them. They either have less talent than you, or they don't use it; so you make them feel guilty. They want to make as joyful a life as they can, and receive the prizes you get. They know that this is impossible. But you, with your presence, remind them, what can be done. Mediocrity basks on mediocrity, the excellence is annoying, it is a biting thorn." Gazelle says.
"But among my school fellow, there is no mediocrity, they all are very good." Friend protests.
"But they could be better, and they aren't; in that, is their mediocrity." Gazelle says.
One day, during the Spring holidays, Friend is relaxing in the student's bath. He is alone, as usual; the students remaining at school are very few. There isn't the liveliness of the days when school is in session. Friend enjoys the calm, in the wide room, and has the bath all to himself. He washed, and is now soaking and relaxing in the warm and slightly perfumed water. A boy shyly enters, with the white skirt of the postulants.
"May I bathe?" he asks, in the flowery language, but with the strong accent of the Tree people.
"Sure. First, you have to wash there, then you can come and relax, here in the bath."
"Thank you." the young boy says.
He pulls off the two squares of his skirt. He unties his white loincloth, carefully folds it, and starts to wash, in silence. Then, after rinsing, he enters the wide tub.
"My name is Friend. And yours?"
"Leveret... That is, my real name is Hare-By-The-Mantle-White-As-Snow."
"Then it will be better, that you say your name is Hare, or you risk remaining Leveret, when you are sixty years old." Friend says, with a kind smile.
"What year's are you?"
"I'm starting my third. But, remember, here the postulants, have no right to talk first to the elders."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"No, we are alone, and I don't really care. How old are you?"
"Fifteen."
"Ah, I'm eighteen. You are very young. Normally, someone who enters this school is sixteen or seventeen. You must really be skilled."
"I don't know... I'm here to learn."
"And, if you seriously commit yourself, you will learn many interesting things, and you can even see the Emperor."
"The Emperor? Up close?"
"Like you and I are now, if you win at least some of the competitions, at the end of year tests."
Hare asks other questions and Friend answers, feeling a liking for the boy. Then the boy leaves the bath, thanking him. He dries himself, puts on his clothes and leaves. I too, was like him, two years ago, Friend thinks, feeling he really likes the boy. He too leaves the water, dries himself, and wearing just his loincloth; with his skirt's squares over his shoulder, goes to his cell. As he enters, he sees Finedear sitting on his bed.
"What are you doing here? I told you, I didn't want to see you any more. Go away." he decidedly says.
"I wanted to meet with you. You know, during this period, it is easy to enter here, right?"
"Go out or I'll call the keeper!"
"I gave him enough piasters to make him deaf, blind and dumb. He knows that perhaps he will hear some noise, I warned him. He told me to take it easy. He is a wise, worldly man."
"Go away!"
"No, no." Finedear says, leaping, he grabs Friend, who is trying to get away. He drags the boy to the bed, untying his loincloth at the same time. "Come here, Friend... You know you like it..." he says, caressing him, arousing him. His body, even if the boy resists, betrays him. It immediately responds, to the skilled stimuli. "You see" the soldier, triumphantly says, rapidly undressing.
"I don't want..."
"And how! This one, doesn't lie." Finedear says, lightly squeezing the boy's swollen genitals.
Friend briefly struggles, but he feels his strength abandon him, as his excitement increases. When Finedear's powerful arm keeps him tight against his body, kisses him in the mouth and at the same time, start to finger fuck him; Friend suddenly surrenders. He embraces the soldier, kissing, licking, caressing, sucking his entire body, in a frenzy. He hates himself, but he cannot stop it. He wants unite again with that body, sweating animal eroticism. It's been too long since he had sex, and he feels the urgency of it.
Finedear puts the boy under him, taking his legs and puts them onto his shoulders. Longingly, Friend prepares himself for the final act, full of desire for intimate union of their bodies. Finedear's muscles swell and he and starts to penetrate the boy. He is finally slipping completely inside his eager channel, when from behind the door a voice calls:
"Friend, can I enter? I'm Hare..."
"No!" Friend says trying to escape from under the young man, but Finedear holds him fast.
"Who is he?" he asks in a whisper.
"A new boy."
"Tell him to enter."
"No!"
Finedear covers his mouth, with one hand and says aloud: "Come in!" and he penetrates Friend to the hilt, with a last powerful stroke.
Hare enters, smiling uncertain, sees the two on the bed and stops dumbfounded. He blushes: "I'm sorry, I misunderstood, I'm sorry..." he stammers confused.
"No no, it's all right. Come here, boy." Finedear says with an inviting smile, continuing to keep one hand on Friend's mouth, and slowly pumping up the student's ass. "Come closer. You know what we are doing, he and I, right?"
"Sure, that's why I think that..."
"You've never done it?"
"I?" the boy asks in confusion.
"Yes, you, Hare. Come closer."
Hare, in a trance, approaches them.
Finedear grasps his arm: "Undress now, join us on the bed. There is something for you too. You are a very handsome boy." the soldier says.
Friend closes his eyes. He wishes the ground would open up, under his body. Finedear caresses Hare with his hand. The boy is rapidly aroused, with the caresses he is receiving, and the scene he is watching.
"Undress, Hare, come on." the soldier insists, continuing to calmly piston inside Friend.
Hare obeys, and Finedear makes him climb into bed, while he continues to push his plunger in and out of Friend's channel. The soldier guides, and instructs the boy to suck Friend's cock. Hare complies, in an awkward way; but with evident pleasure. The boy, eagerly sucks the elder student's tool and with deep pleasure, caresses the strong young body. After a while, the soldier quits Friend and moves to Hare's back, to take him. For a while, he prepares the virgin hole, and finally he starts to enter it, opening it wide with his strong rod. The boy, grimaces in pain, but continues to briskly suck his school fellow; nor does he try to escape the soldier's tool. Friend start to suck the boy's hard and tense cock, who now is moaning in great pleasure. Friend understands that the soldier is trying to control himself; to not hurt too much, the young boy that he has just deflowered. Hare rocks between their bodies, prey to a growing pleasure. The two students, unload into each other's mouths. Hare, at first is surprised, but then drinks everything, with a pleased expression, just as Friend does with him. At the same time, the soldier unloads into the warm and tight depths of the young boy.
When at last, Finedear is sated, he dresses and leaves, without a word, leaving the two boys, naked on the bed. Then Friend frees himself from their embrace, and getting out of bed, says to Hare, with a sharp tone:
"Dress, now, come on!"
The boy put on his clothes: "Are you upset with me?"
"No."
"I should have left. I should not have interfered with you and your lover, right?"
"He is not my lover." Friend says, and on an impulse, he tells Hare the entire story of his relationship with Finedear.
At the end, the boy asks him: "But if you are so strongly attracted to him physically, why do you want to break off your relationship with him? I cannot understand. If I was at your place, one like him..."
"Because I am in love with another man, that's why."
"In love? Two men can fall in love with each other?"
"Sure they can."
"But... how?"
"As any other couple, no? The other one becomes so important to you, that you want to live just for him, that he is more important to you than your self."
"But this is just friendship."
"A friendship, at the nth degree, yes, and moreover, also a strong desire to physically unite: that's complete love."
"I've had such friends, but we never had sex."
"Love without sex and sex without love, eh?" Friend asks, with a sad smile.
"What?"
"Nothing. One day, you will find that love and sex can be experienced with the same person. Then, you will be an adult, Hare. I think I'm becoming one, that's why I don't want to have sex with Finedear any more."
"I would like to do it again, with that handsome soldier." the boy shyly says, and blushes.
"I think he likes you. If you want to meet him again, I can tell you how and where. And who knows, perhaps, at last, he will free me."
"No Shit! Really, you'll arrange for me meet him again?"
"Willingly."
"And... you are not upset with me?"
"Absolutely not."
"Anyway... it's been great, what we did, you and I." Hare shyly says.
"Forget me. Let's just be friends, all right?"
"Sure, Friend, thank you. You are my first friend, here in the Capital. I feel a lot less lonely, now."
So, Hare, meets the soldier again; and becomes Finedear's boyfriend. One day, the soldier, meets Friend on the street.
"Hey!" he calls him
"Hello, Finedear. I'm busy."
"I just want to talk to you."
"Just?"
"Just, word of honour. We can walk, side by side: on the street, you risk nothing, right?" he says the boy, with some sarcasm.
"Sure." Friend answers.
"You really cut me off, this time, eh?"
"I tried to made you understand, several times, before."
"I like Hare. He's not you, but he is full of warmth. But you... you are strange, let me say it."
"Strange? I?"
"Yes. You desire me, even now, I can feel it. But you think you are superior to me, just because I cannot read or write. I cannot speak in an elegant way, such as you do. You wanted from me things, I didn't know how to give you, even if I wanted to. Don't think me, so stupid, that I don't know."
"I never thought you were." Friend says, slightly astounded at the sensitivity the other was showing.
"No? In me, you always just saw a covering animal, a farm stud, I know that. And that wounded me. You are egotistical and merciless. I was a good fuck, when you felt like it. But then, you reproached me not to think about what you would desire. Ah, you know very well how to play with words. You know how to use others. You will go a long way."
"I never used you, I never wanted to use you."
"No? Are you convinced of that? Then I pity you, even more than before. Hare is a clean boy, he clearly says what he thinks, what he feels, what he experiences, I like him. I never could see that in you. Who knows, why I was so attracted by you? Who knows why I still am?"
Friend is troubled by Finedear's words; he doesn't know what to say. The soldier continues:
"You say you are in love with another man, but that you never made love with him, and yet you prefer him to me. What does he have? Money, nobility, fascination... He is your protector, right? He takes you in the beau-monde, he makes you feel important. But he doesn't give you what I gave you, right? You are shabby, Friend, you are just a social climber. You will go a long way, sure, like all the social climbers. But the day will come when you and I will reckon. When..."
"Do you hate me?"
"No, you don't deserve that. Good luck, Friend. I hope that you never have to repent for what you do, for what you are. And thank you for Hare, I have to thank you, for him. With him there is accord, he makes me feel like a human being, differently what it was with you. Ah, and then, I was forgetting. This is yours, anyway. If you are not interested in it, you can always throw it away; it doesn't mean anything to me anymore." he says thrusting into his hand a small parcel and leaving at once.
Friend remains there, on the street, still, the parcel in his hand. He knows what it contains: the small golden tile, that Finedear had had made just for him. He goes back to the school, to his cell. He puts down the small parcel, without opening it, and throws himself on his bed. He feels like crying, but he can't. Finedear words echo in his head, one after the other. He is deeply troubled. He is knows he probably deserved the young man's anger, but... what the soldier said about him, is it true?
He tries not to think about it, and immerses himself in his studies; but those accusations continue to turn inside his head, implacable, day after day. He is not able to forget them. Is he really just a selfish person, a social climber? Is he really attracted to Sky, just because he is of a superior class, and thanks to Sky, he has friends among the nobles, and he himself is now a noble? That's why, possibly, his fellows schoolmates don't like him? In fact, in two years, he has not made friends with people of the lower social classes, from which he himself came, except for Hare.
He starts to stroll into the town's lowest boroughs, but it is not possible to became friends with people that way. Also because, when they see he is a "noble student", they treat him with deference and detachment. Deference, that until now, never bothered him; but now it seems like a burden to him.
He is in the artisan's ward, when he sees the shop of a calendar carver. He is attracted by the beauty of some works and stops to look at them: wall calendars, huge, in coloured stones, semiprecious stone calendars made in marquetry or in mosaic, portable calendars in precious metals, made in embossed work or carved. The calendar maker is a man around thirty years old.
"Noble student, do you desire a calendar?"
"Sadly, I cannot afford one yet, but your calendars are really beautiful!"
"We work for the temples and for the aristocrats. My father also built a calendar for the late Emperor." the artisan, proudly says.
"Can I have a look, even if I cannot buy?"
"Sure, with my compliments!" the man answers with a smile.
In a corner of the shop, on a shelf, Friend sees some small metal calendars, different from all the others. They are made of concentric circles, pivoting on their centre, that could be rotated and reciprocally set in different ways. He takes one of them in his hand, studies it, and sees that he can put in one line the era, the year, the month and the day, so that he can form any date, of the past, of the future, and of today.
"It's fantastic, this calendar! I've never seen anything like this! It is very useful, for anyone who studies history and has to calculate the propitious and inauspicious days, it saves lot of calculations and time!" Friend exclaims in admiration.
The man smiles: "I'm pleased, you appreciate my work."
"Did you invent it?"
"Yes, about three years ago."
"It is really remarkable. And with those abridged symbols, it is small, handy like a pendant! I'm sure, you sell lot of them!"
"Unhappily, no. It is not made in the traditional way, priests don't appreciate it, won't approve it. They say this is not a real calendar. In three years, I have sold just five of them."
"But of course, it is a real calendar! And is a lot more useful and handy than the usual calendars."
"But, you know, people who know and can use calendars, buy the ones that repeat the schemes everybody sees in the temples. So, what seemed to me an intelligent idea, useful, doesn't have much success. People want the nice illustrated calendars. This one, where I used just some phonetic abridgments, is not appealing. And the few I sold, were bought more as toys or pendants than for calendars. You are the first one that really understands them and appreciates them. Do you want one of them?"
"I would like one very much, but, how much do you sell them for?" Friend asks.
"Their price is three piasters each, on the average. But you can have one for half a piaster, the value of the metal will be good enough for me. You can choose the one you like best. Anyway, nobody will buy them."
"Half a piaster? It is really cheap. Here it is..."
"Which one do you want? Choose one."
"This one, the smaller. So I can always have it with me. It will be really useful for my studies, and save lots of time. I'm really grateful to you."
"I'm grateful to you, it is good to see my work appreciated."
Friend hangs the small moving calendar on his skirt. He thanks again the artisan, and continues to wander among the shops. At a one point, he sees that a priest is observing him. He gestures a greeting. The priest then approaches him and, pointing at the calendar, says with a severe reproaching tone:
"I'm astounded, that a noble student, uses a calendar which is not approved! The sale must be forbidden!"
Friend sees that it is hopeless to discuss the matter, so he assumes a stupefied air and says: "What? This is a calendar? I thought this was just a funny and cheap pendant, honourable priest!"
"Ah, I thought... The calendar is a gift of the gods, and cannot be changed. The changes are dangerous."
"Sure."
"The right things are the immutable ones, always remember that, boy."
"Sure." Friend repeats, slightly annoyed by the priest's prosopopeia.
"Any change, any novelty, are a source of disorder."
"They are building a new temple, at the north boundary of The Beautiful, I've heard." Friend says, with a hint of malice.
"Oh, yes, the temple for the Rain God."
"Is it true that it will have just four terraces and no cell on top?" Friend asks, amusing himself.
"Yes, it is true. It will have no cell, so that there will be no part of it that does not get wet by the rains, and it will have four levels, to remember the four preceding creations: the fifth level is the earth of the present creation."
"Ah, very interesting. At my village, we have a Rain temple; but it has five levels, and a cell on the top."
"Ah, my young student, theology evolves."
"Evolves?" Friend says, with a slightly ironical smile, "Then, not all changes are bad, right?"
"Oh, but this is not a change. Don't you see the difference? Of course you can't, you are so young!" the priest says, a little hesitant, then hastens to bid farewell and leaves.
What a stupid, dull man! Friend thinks, amused. He resumes his wandering, when he meets Flower.
"Hey, East!" she greets him.
"Hello, North, what brings you to this part of the city?"
"I'm just going to my unguents provider. Do you feel like coming with me?"
"Willingly."
"You seem thoughtful, Friend."
"Yes, I have some thoughts."
"Which ones?"
"I came here to be distracted."
"Ah, they must be troublesome thoughts, if you abandon your studies and seek to amuse yourself. Do you want to talk about it, with your friend Flower?"
"Yes, possibly... but first, let's go to buy your unguents."
It's the first time, Friend enters the shop of an unguent producer. An agreeable mixture of indefinable perfumes, impregnates the air. Workmen are grinding different ingredients, sifting powders, mixing oils and creams, filtering compounds, with a muted cheerful chattering. An aged woman, in a corner of the shop, sniffs, tastes and tests the products; at times, she sends them back, in order to add an ingredient, or at times, gives them to other workers so they can fill tiny vases, boxes, amphorae that then they arrange in a neat order, on the shop's shelves.
Flower, unhesitatingly asks for what she needs. When she has made her choices, the shopkeeper takes an eight partitioned wooden box and puts the small containers chosen by Flower inside it.
"The noble student doesn't buy some unguents? We have some splendid products for men." the owner says.
"Yes, choose four you like, my gift." Flower cheerfully says.
Friend, for etiquette, refuses two, three times, then accepts.
"Noble student, if I can advise you..." the man says.
In the end, Friend chooses an unguent for the morning, fresh, with a lightly piercing perfume, one for the afternoon, suave, with a bitter-sweet perfume, one for the evening, musky and mysterious and then one for the moments of weariness, lightly piercing, but refreshing. For him, the man prepares a wooden box with four partitions. With their purchases, they leave the shop.
"So?" Flower asks.
"Thank you for the unguents."
"Yes, and then?" the woman insists.
"It's a long and complicated story... I don't know from where to start..."
"From the beginning, no?" Flower serene says.
So Friend tells her his story, about Finedear. From their first meeting at the waterfall, to their last meeting, a few days before. Flower listens, nodding. Then she says:
"My dear boy, in that, men and women are not so different, at times. The one who feels rejection, throws the guilt on the other one, so he can feel it is not his fault. You a profiteer? I never thought that, I don't think so. If that was true, don't you think that we would have noticed at once? You a selfish person? It's possible, but for sure, a lot less than most people I know. You never asked us for anything, not for yourself. You never gave us the impression of thinking only of yourself, or above all, for yourself. If this, Fine-how-is-it is not the right person for you, it is right you wanted to sever the relationship, I think."
"But, until I felt like that, I went looking for him. Only when I was fed up with him, did I sever our relationship."
"In my opinion, while you didn't have a clear mind, you were under his fascination. But then you matured, and realizing it was something else you needed, even if physically you liked him a lot, you rejected him. You see, everything can be seen from two different sides, right?"
"Flower, you tell me this just to appease me, because you are my friend."
"No, by now, you know me well enough. I say what I think, even if at times, I become a nuisance. And you know that I never had the gift of diplomacy. I would never give four wonderful unguents, to a profiteer and social climber. The fact that you are putting on yourself these problems, shows that you are not that way. Last, but not least, I don't think you would be so important to Sky, if you weren't really an exceptional boy. Sky is a difficult, demanding, exacting guy, you know that very well. No, really, in your place, I would shake my shoulders and let all these ridiculous accusations slip away from me."
Friend is once again serene, and renews his studies with great energy. Hare, with whom he is still good friends, helps to sweep the problem away:
"Finedear is a simple guy, he sees all just in two dimensions: right and wrong, good and bad, nice and ugly, with me or against me. He's not a bad man, but don't put too much, into the words he said just because he was upset."
"Do you feel okay with him?"
"Very much. We are growing affectionate. No, not falling in love yet, at least not for the moment. Possibly, right now, the fact that he lost you, he is very careful to see that I'm happy with him. That time that... well, that we did it as a threesome, was a lucky day for me, but now, he too, understands he did wrong."
"Even from a wrong, can come something good, then."
"Sure. Just because nothing is ever completely good or completely bad, no?"
"You are younger, but wiser than me." Friend says, with a smile.
"Bah, wise. I just try to understand things. Simply." the boy, modestly answers.
The third year examination is the most difficult of all, in fact, the questions are based on the full program of three years. Therefore, Friend prepares himself with particular care. All winter, crouching near the small hand-warmer, he rehearses, reads again, repeats, verifies, using also his small mobile calendar. When he feels too tired, he uses the unguents that Flower gave him, that really seems to give him more strength and resistance. His cell, is full of schemes, hanging from the walls, that Friend wrote in nice calligraphy, to train also in writing. Finally, he prepares his graduation speech. Trying to use the best the potentials of the flowery language, taking classical expressions from poems, from speeches, from chronicles, from myths and from hymns and blending them in a fluid prose. He writes and rewrites the speech again and again, until he is pleased also with its graphical aspect.
When the days of the final tests arrive, Friend is confident, and ready for the final tenson.
The first day, he is examined on the myths, by the priests of the Sun temple, who, at the end of a set of meticulous questions, declare him the winner.
The second day, the Court Analysts examine him on the Chronicles, asking him even absolutely secondary details, and Friend answers, with exhausting expositions, in fine style, so that he places first.
The third day, the head choristers of the five secondary temples of the Capital, ask him which songs, and with which accompaniments, are to be sung in the secondary festivals. Friend doesn't make the slightest mistake, so he is judged the best of all.
The fourth day, the Court poets examine him on the war songs, on the marriage poems, and those for births, on the flowers songs, on the objects songs, on the wine songs and on the love poems and Friend amazes them with the perfect mastery, the grace, and the fine voice with which he explains them, so that they unanimously, proclaim him the absolute winner.
The fifth day, the storytellers of the seven wards of the capital, examine him on the comical tales, on the famous speeches, on the fables and then they challenge him to create word plays and they are so amused, that they proclaim him the best of the best.
The sixth day, in front of the heads of all the families of the ancient Sun people, among them is Sky's father, he recites his speech, that he titled "Three years of study and the desire to start again". The father of his friend Sky is just, since Friend is now of the Eagle People, he doesn't vote. Still, Friend receives the highest marks for his speech.
The seventh day, he has to write dictation, calculate on the divinatory calendar, the propitious and inauspicious days for several activities, compose in writing, a ballad on a subject drawn by lot, and recognize twelve qualities of flowers, twelve kinds of perfumes and twelve birds feathers. In this test too, he receives the best marks, even if he made a few slight mistakes.
So, the day of the Imperial visit and awarding of the final prize comes. The Emperor, this time, calls him first. The Emperor personally pulls off the red skirt with the sun, with open eyes and mouth, and replaces it with the blue skirt, with the golden sun on the front square and the eagle on the back square. Then He puts on Friends head, the headgear with all the feathers of all the surpassed tests.
"Last-Friend-Of-The-Moon, I declare you the champion of this Imperial School, and the champion of these last thirteen years. I am proud of you: if this school had been founded just for you, it would have been a sufficient reason. I signal you to all the students, as a model and an example. And I give you, as a personal present, this arm band, which gives you the right to enter the Court for any official ceremony. Finally, because of your exceptional value, I am sending you to visit all the provinces and all the peoples of this Empire, and you will be guest of Governors and Nomes. Your journey will start after the next Festival of the Growing Day and you have to be back for the Festival of the Dawning Sun of next year. So I decide, so I order, so be it!"
Friend is deeply moved. Not only because of the exceptional prize, but for the proximity with the Emperor, and because He, while speaking, holds the boy's hand between His hands. He feels ready to do anything and everything for his Emperor and thinks that he never met a man with such a fascination, beauty, sensuality. Yes, he loves Him, he loves Him with his whole being.
Sky, after the ceremony, goes to take him to his house, after sending some slaves to fetch all Friend's belongings from the cell he has to leave. Friend give some of his things to Hare and, with a sense of nostalgia leaves the buildings, where he lived for three years and temporary settles in Sky home, waiting to start his journey. Sky, with their friends, organizes a great party downtown, and at last, Friend can drink beer at his will, so that at the end, he is completely drunk and his friends have to bodily bring him home and put him to bed.
Sky, after undressing him, carefully tucks the sheet on his shoulders.
"I am really deadru... death ru... dead drunk, yes?" Friend says, feeling somewhat ashamed.
"It was the right thing to do, right? Now sleep, you will see that tomorrow you will be okay."
"You go away? You leave me alone? I shink... srink... stink to much of beer?" Friend asks.
"No, it's just that I need to sleep too: even if I hold my beer better than you, I too drank a lot." Sky tells him, giving him a light kiss on his lips.
"Kissh me again..." Friend asks with a drawling voice, but before his friend can comply, he falls deeply asleep.
Sky, smiling, shakes his head, gives a second light kiss to the boy's lips, caresses his face, with tenderness, then leaves, withdrawing to his room.