"Oh, music and stories a'plenty!" Bert agreed, nodding enthusiastically. He bit into his popkin and rolled his eyes, sounds of muffled pleasure working their way around mouthfuls of food. He'd almost forgotten what beef tasted like. By the Beams, this was delicious!
"Mmmph! That's good!" he exclaimed, brushing crumbs away from his mouth. "Well, my favorite story's probably the one about the Guardians. There's twelve portals at the edge of the world, doors outside of ka that lead to other worlds. Each one was at the end of the magic road, and the roads cut the world into different lands, and along each road there's a Guardian. Once upon a time, ken, in the days of Arthur Eld, there was a wizard named Maerlyn. He had a magic mirror that could show anything in the world. And when Arthur died, they say the mirror shattered and the shards were lost through the doors at the end of Gan's roads and the wreaked havoc in other worlds. To make sure it never happened again, Gan placed his most loyal servants to guard the doors. And o'course the Dark Tower at the middle of it all. He gave them a special extra brain, too, to make sure they were smarter than any man or woman." And he still knew each and every Guardian that Gan had placed. Roland didn't believe they were real, thought it was all legend and silliness. But Bert believed with all of his heart that the Guardians were out there.
"It's probably one of the best known stories from back home. The Guardians are all over - there's statues of'em everywhere from Gilead to the outer baronies. And poems and other stories and things like that. There's the Bear, the Horse, the Eagle, the Rat, the Eliophant, the Bat, the Dog, the Wolf, the Fish, the Hare, the Lion and the Great Turtle."
He wolfed down his popkin between bites, all traces of the thoughts that had darkened his mind gone now.
"Oh, 'n my favorite song's 'Hey Jude'. S'just a tavern song, but s'a good one."