1453: Revival of Byzantium

Although the seasons have now officially entered spring, but it seems like the time has not, as the night came unusually early too for today, signifying the fact that this night must be a rather long night with Yuri joking to his Varangians that it must be pretty hard to overcome without a lass by their side. Many of them laughed, but some did not, as they have been confined in the foreign army for too long and some of them did not even have a chance to sail north wards back to their home towns, and some even have wives back there. But what can they do? This is army life, it is a life style inhumane since its birth, serving the only two purposes called 'deterrence' and 'war'.

Since the night is so damn long, Antonius decided to have a little game with his men as he climbed down his bed and went down stairs, but unsurprisingly he found that these Varangians, mixed with the two bold teenagers Mikhail and Nikolas, are already appreciating their time by having a mini game of dice, a thing that is being invented one or two years back with the uprise of the ball games in the docks and fields of Thessaloniki. Though this thing strictly banned by Antonius himself from the army and fleet after discovering his men using it as a tool for gambling.

None of these big headed Varangians, including their leader Yuri did not think of a possibility of their leader still not asleep in this hours. The whole lot of them stood upright from their seats nervously, still holding the dices in their hands, waiting to get whacked and punished by their lord as what Antonius have done to them before. However instead of tip toeing to give each of them a whack on the head, Antonius sat down with them on the bench, and grabbed hold of a dice, lifting his eye brows up taking a look at these burly Varangian men.

"Why are you all standing? Seat down, teach me how to play this game!"

Yuri thought that he has heard the wrong thing and looked back at his boss with a blur face, after reconfirming the sentence he quickly switched his seat to beside Antonius and shoved the two kids aside, saying that this is an adult game which is not for the kids. Then started teaching Antonius from the basics on how to roll the dice, how to calculate the numbers, under what criteria is one considered victorious, and the idea that the winner with the biggest number can make the loser with the smallest number do what ever or say what ever he wants.

The game commenced and of course, the Varangians had to be extraordinarily cautious in this game as they are playing it with their boss. Most of them are already master minds in the art of cheating, and so this time instead of cheating to make the number on the dice as big as possible, they are all trying to make the number as small as possible fearing that Antonius might become the one with the smallest number. After a few round of games Antonius felt this game being extremely interesting to him, and finally understood why is it so addictive amongst the soldiers, but totally not realising that he has spoilt the fun of the mass.

Antonius won another round, doubtlessly, he felt the moustache beneath his chins and grinned. "I have not realised that my luck for this evening is shooting towards the sky! This must be a thing that is worth commemorating, Yuri! Are you the one with the smallest number?"

"Aye admiral." Yuri felt betrayed as the other Varangians purposely cheated to roll a number bigger than his but smaller than Antonius, to see him being targeted and punished by the admiral.

"Great! I know that you have a bottle of top notch Kuban Azov grape wine gifted to you by the Genoese, and you must have brought it with you…" Upon hearing this, the facial expression of Yuri has already changed from desperate to hopeless, but an order is an order, and despite all the sadness within him Yuri still took out the bottle of supposed top notch wine and shared it with every one here. Mikhail and Nikolas also wanted to get a sip of it but got flatly denied by the Varangians, saying that kids should not drink such stuff.

Yuri showed an upset face throughout while the others are drinking his drink, seeing his emotions Antonius grinned ever merrier, and kept on praising Yuri for managing to find such a great wine, describing it as being balanced in its taste, filled with Aroma or bouquet that would instantly tell people that this wine must be brewed using the best possible grapes, in the most suitable season of the year under the feet of the fairest maidens. These words made Yuri feel even more upset as he buried his head low, knowing what Antonius is doing the rest of the Varangians too started repeating the words of amusements towards the wine with the limited vocabulary they have. And finally, after some time, Antonius decided to be a good person as he poured what is remaining in the bottle in to a tiny mug, and pushed it to Yuri.

Then the best moment came, Yuri still got to thank Antonius for offering him this cup of his own wine, and finished it with tears.

The gang of men continued throwing their party trying to mix various alcohols together in making a brand new form of alcohol, telling all sorts of adult jokes and singing all kinds of matured songs. Mikhail and Nikolas had to evacuate from this area feeling unable to blend in with the environment. The rowdy party continued all the way until mid night, with the bunch of people drinking to the point where by they have totally forgotten who they are and what they are doing here.

Two Varangians started stripping off their sheets and started wrestling with one another, which soon turned in to a brawl; Yuri continued shedding tears from the deep pain in his heart for losing his precious grape wine; Another Varangian soon joined him telling people that he has not seen his wife for more than five years, the touching words and sorrow tears of this Varangian soon brought the emotions of other folks with him, including our Antonius over here who too have not seen his wife ever since he marched on to the Ottoman borders half a year ago.

The group of drunkards with an average age of thirty plus years old, with some either half or fully naked, huddled together and started singing love songs with various languages but keeping the same melody. In just one song one can here Latin, English, Greek, Swedish and Irish. But still they managed to form a choir and finished one after another song. Their singing shook the room that the two kids could not sleep at all and had to lay down on the ceiling to sleep while trying to brave the chilling wind, and the owner of this house too had to evacuate from this place, knowing that it would be best not to offend the bunch of tenants who are carrying axes and knives.

Antonius entered a complete coma eventually after being filled with wine falling asleep on a bunch of haystack, while the Varangians obviously had a much higher tolerance in alcohol and continued drinking, but they soon found out that they have drank all the mead they have brought with them on this trip. This is the second major crisis the bunch of northlanders have encountered in the night, but they thought that it is still okay, as they know that there is a place where they can get some more wine, that is the cellar of the land lord who owns the place.

Since the land lord has already left this place, the group of sturdy drunkards thought that it should be fine if they are just to 'take' some of the mead from the cellar and pay them back later. The admiral shall not be there to object them since he is already in his deep sleep and is probably not going to wake up before noon the next day, the two annoying kids shall not be there to stop them too, and most importantly the land lords of this hostel is also no where to be seen…

The group of drunk bear like creatures rolled in to action, Yuri went head on to the cellar and of course, it is locked. The group of burly men tried unlocking the lock with their clumsy hands, shaking foot steps and drowsy brain. And they gave it up after a few tries arguing that this kind of jobs is for the thieves roaming the streets of Thessaloniki, not for the hands of the warriors. Thus, they reached out for another tool to assist their operation…