The past

Artem was quite impressed by how fast she were drinking her mead, though he shouldn't be the one talking. He himself had already emptied half of his glass, almost without thinking and certainly without caring about the fact that they were both drinking on an empty stomach.

Having hoped that she would somehow have forgotten about his stupid promise, though of course she hadn't, Artem let out a tired sigh. "Why do you even want to hear about my boring childhood?" he asked, before gulping down his remaining half of the ale. He then looked at her with a hint of a smile "If you really want to hear it, then you have to buy me something stronger than ale.". Not that he had to be drunk to be able to talk about his past, but it would at least make him feel a little better about it. It certainly wasn't something to be proud of, though when confronted with it by the few that truly new him, he'd never tried to denie it.