Chapter Text
The bartender wasn’t happy. He wasn’t often in the best of moods, but today was worse than usual. It could have been because of the Lithe in the back that was cheating a dwarf out of all his money, or the Moon Elf sitting at a table by himself looking creepy as hell in his black cloak, or the fact that apart from them there was no one in the building, but it didn’t really matter. Whatever the reason was for his foul temper, he was taking it out on me. Now, I won’t say I didn’t deserve it, but really, did he have to be this upset over a little thing like my running tab in the tavern?
“C’mon,” I pressed with a grin even as I tried to slip around him to get to the tap myself. “Since when does a pub refuse service? I thought anyone was welcome here!”
“And you are welcome,” he nodded, cutting me off in a surprisingly deft movement for such a short and portly man. “Once you start paying for your drinks!”
The door creaked open as he said this, and I glanced around out of old habit, expecting to see another drunkard staggering in, only to feel my breath catch in my throat. The person entering wasn’t an already-drunk dwarf, nor was it a cheating Lithe, and it definitely wasn’t a sulky Elf. The person that stepped across the threshold was easily the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen—that I could remember from sober nights, at least. She was a bit taller than an average human, but had a slight and slender frame that was flattered quite nicely by a sleeveless black top and a corset so deep red it was almost brown. Her slender forearms were covered by long, fingerless black gloves, and she wore a pair of sturdy black pants with buckles around her thighs that just begged to draw attention to her ass, which I could admire for a moment because she turned to make sure the door closed behind her, shutting out the stiff wind that was picking up outside.
There was one thing that was even better than her back, though, and that was her front. She wasn’t overly curvy, but she made that look good. It was probably just that gorgeous face, which was as slender as the rest of her, with high cheekbones and large, electric green eyes. The only part of her appearance that was a little off was her hair, which was wavy, albeit a bit windswept, and shining silver. You didn’t often see a young woman with hair like that—hell, you didn’t see grandmas with such perfect silver hair.
“Oh, come on, Devlin,” I said, a plan forming in my head. “I thought we were friends!”
“We are not,” he answered bluntly.
“So you’re really going to throw me out? Even though I have such great news?!”
“What news?” He didn’t sound very enthused.
“I’m going to be a father!” I said, reaching out to catch the woman’s elbow as she walked in our direction. “Look, my lady just walked in!”
Devlin looked insulting shocked that any woman would have allowed me to get her pregnant, but the woman was surprisingly passive, not showing any hint that I had startled her. She had a single raised eyebrow, but didn’t even try to pull her arm away from me. I leaned down like I was going to kiss her cheek so that Devlin wouldn’t hear what I said.
“Mind if you help me here, sweet cheeks?” I whispered.
“Sweet cheeks?” she echoed, voice low.
I grinned to myself, sure that she’d help a strapping man like me. After all, there hadn’t been a girl yet that could say no to a tall, muscular man with shaggy blonde hair and big blue eyes. Basically I was every girl’s type, so I got pretty much anything I wanted.
Well…apparently not every girl’s type.
“Ah!” she said, her voice now cracking out like a whip. “There you are, you useless bum!”
“Ye—what?!” I sputtered, whipping around to stare at her.
“It’s time you start acting like a responsible adult!” she said, putting her hands on her hips and looking very much like an angry housewife.
“I…Uh—wh—?” I mumbled, grinning in the hopes that I could play it off.
“I’m not letting you see the baby if you keep drinking in taverns and gamble away all our money!” the woman continued, now crossing her arms.
Devlin looked between the two of us, eyebrows raised. I could tell from the way his lips were twitching that he was trying very hard not to laugh at the predicament I’d gotten myself into. Whether he bought the story or not was anyone’s guess, but he sure didn’t look like he was going to interrupt my “wife” anytime soon.
“Whaa…I don’t ev—” I tried to argue, but her voice cut across me. I was rapidly finding her less and less attractive.
“I’m selling flowers all day long street by street while you sit and get drunk on ale!” she exclaimed, sounding appropriately outraged and upset.
Devlin finally cut in, giving me such a disgusted look that I actually flinched just a little. “I knew you were trouble,” he said angrily. “But I never realized you were this low…Get out of my tavern!”
He punctuated this with a shove toward the door. I threw a blazing look at the woman, who looked quite pleased with herself behind the innkeeper.
“You are in big trouble princess!” I hissed. “Watch your back!”
“I’ll watch yours instead,” she answered, voice soft. Then she winked at me, and a second later, I was out on the cobblestone street with the door slamming shut behind me.
No one else was outside save a couple of rats rooting around in the garbage, so at least the embarrassment of getting thrown out of a pub of all places wasn’t witnessed by many. That silver-haired girl was really going to pay for that if I ever saw her again. I cracked my knuckles, then sighed and began walking. There was another inn a farther in town. The ale tasted like piss, but at least it was something.
As I walked for The Fragile Falcon’s, I couldn’t help but admire that girl’s spunk. She certainly had guts, talking down to a man that towered over her and was nearly three times as broad as she was. Her attitude was clearly way too big for that little body of hers. And that silver hair…There was something very different about that girl. I was kind of curious.
I walked right past a young girl sitting beneath a tree. Her knees were pulled to her chest, her face hidden in them. Probably another Eagles victim. I closed my eyes and kept walking, knowing that I wasn’t the person that she needed to speak with. Nobody wanted a half-drunk has-been to make them feel better about their own miserable lives, and besides, I was hardly in any position to offer advice when my own life was a mess.
Those damned Eagles. If I ever got a hold of their leader…
A small voice at my back made me stiffen. It was undoubtedly the little girl, but there was no way she could be talking to me. I was outside the inn already, but something kept me from just walking in. As unobtrusively as possible, I moved to lean against a building and looked around, curious. The child was indeed talking to someone, and who should it be but the very same girl that had ruined my day of drinking, now hiding her hair beneath a black cloak? She looked different now, though. She didn’t have the exasperated expression she’d worn when dealing with me. No, now she looked like a different person altogether; her face was softened in compassion as she crouched down beside the girl. They weren’t talking loudly enough for me to hear, but I saw as something white poked out of the woman’s bag, pink nose twitching hopefully. The girl squealed happily, and the woman, smiling, carefully pulled the rabbit out of her bag and sat it in the child’s arms. She said something else that I couldn’t hear, then ruffled the kid’s already messy hair and rose to her feet.
That piercing green gaze scanned the square, and her eyes locked on the old sign above the tavern, creaking as it swung in the wind. She strode for it quickly, the cloak billowing out behind her. Taking this as my opportunity, I moved to intercept her.
“Look who’s here,” I greeted her, smirking.
“You again?!” she exclaimed. I could see in her eyes that she thought I’d just been kicked out of another inn.
“Because of yo—” I started, but another voice cut me off, and it wasn’t hers.
“Boss wants the girl alive!” It was man’s voice, and three thugs dressed all in black seemed to pop out of the shadows, their faces hidden beneath overlarge hoods. “You can kill the other one!”
“Hey!” I protested. “I’m not even…oh, forget it.”
Reasoning with Eagles thugs was really just a waste of time for everyone.
Without even really noticing, I fell into a fighter’s stance, and I felt the girl’s back fall against mine. I glanced over, expecting her to be scared and wanting to hide behind me. What I saw instead really caught me off-guard. She was in her own fighter’s stance, and held in her little hands were two wickedly sharp daggers about as long as her forearms. What the hell kind of woman carried around deadly weapons? Did she even know how to fight with those?
“Do you have anything we can use?” I asked as the thugs closed in.
“I have a potato…” she offered, smirking.
I snorted before I could stop myself. “Aw, that’s cute honey, but I don’t think inviting them over for dinner will help calm these guys down.”
She shrugged, and her face adopted a hard, vicious snarl as she turned back to the advancing men. “Take the one on the right,” she said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Do me a favor gorgeous, and don’t die,” I told her with a grin. “I’ll kill you myself later.”
“No promises,” she answered. Then the men attacked.
“GET DOWN YOU IDIOT!!” she roared as she aimed a slash at the man in the center.
“IT’S NOT EASY GETTING DOWN WHEN I HAVE SOMEONE’S FOOT ON MY ASS!!” I snapped, referring to the fact that she’d used me to push off into the second man.
“WHERE DID YOU LEARN TO FIGHT?!” she demanded, swiping at one of their faces. Blood spattered onto the cobblestone. “THE ZOO?!”
“NO! THEY WOULDN’T TAKE ME!!” I answered, throwing my guy over my shoulder and watching him slam into the road and lie, unmoving, on the grey stone.
“Ok…” she said, a bit of laughter entering her voice as one guy scrambled back to regroup, a line of blood showing through a cut in his shirt. “That was funny.”
“Drinks?” I offered, kicking the guy on the ground off-handedly.
“Maybe…” she mused, dodging an attack from the third guy. He managed to catch her wrist as she slid by, though.
“TIE HER UP!” the other conscious one snarled. I paused, my lips twitching.
“Maybe I should let the—”
“I’ll kill you…” she growled.
Grinning, I caught the man holding her in a wrist lock, and led him into the wall of the tavern. When I let go, he staggered hastily back, blood pouring from his broken nose. The second guy looked between the two of us, then knelt to pick up the man I’d knocked out, and ran for the hills. His colleague followed, sprinting away for all it was worth.
“That was easy,” said the girl, grinning even as she sheathed her blades at her hips. No, she was definitely not normal.
“The name is Jace,” I grinned, holding out a hand. “Nice to mee—”
At that precise moment, the door next to us was flung open, and three people came barreling out. At the head of the group was a short female dwarf dressed in—were those alchemy clothes?—and her rust-colored hair tied in a knot on the top of her head.
“Aida!!” she exclaimed, going straight to the girl. “Are you okay?!”
The girl right beside the dwarf, human like Gorgeous, hugged Aida fiercely. Her pale brown hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, and her blue eyes were scanning over her companion like she was searching for any minor scratch she might have recieved.
“We came as soon as we heard there was a fight!” said the human girl.
Next to her stood a tall Moon Elf, dressed in black robes with his raven hair tied back at the base of his neck. His icy eyes were fixed on the girl—the dwarf had called her Aida, right?—with a look of concern that I would never have imagined a Moonie capable of. That look immediately set me on possessive mode, even though I wasn’t necessarily interested in a relationship with the young woman.
“Are you alright?” the Elf—whom I now dubbed Skirts—said, looking over her thoroughly. “Are you hurt?! Do you need healing?!”
She brushed his hands off and smiled at her weird collection of friends.
“I’m alright,” she informed them. “They weren’t that tough. Plus, I had help.”
She gestured with one small hand in my general direction, then gave a languid stretch, appearing rather catlike in that instance.
“Hey,” I greeted them, eyes flicking for just a moment away from her. The gaze I met was the Elf’s, who didn’t look very happy that I was quite so close to the girl. Just to antagonize him, I leaned in a little closer to her, but just as I started to put my arm around her shoulders, her dwarf friend said the only thing that could have stopped me in my tracks.
“Aida,” she said, staring at me with wide eyes. “Where did you get yourself a knight?!”