[The Rearing Stallion] A less pleasant meeting [A, H & C]

[Aldrich]

Secret : Due to the title getting a bit long I had to shorten it into the initials of our names. It's supposed to say Aldrich, Hunwald and Croatoan. 90th of Spring, 511 AV Aldrich swung the door open and stepped inside the tavern. It was filled with the smell of cooked meat, but also the smell of sweat and alcohol; the sign of any good tavern. He looked around, most tables were filled with at least one person, and he wasn't interested in a conversation right now - at least not until he had drunk some ale. There was one lone table, and that was his target. He walked up to the table and sat down. A woman dressed in a dress and an apron approached him. -"Hello, is there anything I can help you with?" -"Ale, one." He placed a silver miza on the table, paying in advance in order to avoid further conversation. The woman walked up to him, took the coin then disappeared to the bar shelf to fill a glass. She quickly came back with the glass, placed it in front of him, then disappeared once again to serve another thirsty costumer. He looked around the tavern. There was only drunkards, a few travellers and a few merchants. He knew no-one, and for some reason he wanted it to remain that way.

[Croatoan Vederoin]

90th of Spring, 511 AV Croatoan first opens the door carefully, just enough to peer through a thin opening, that only reveals his right eye, and glare around in the tavern. There wasn't any suspicious or extraordinarily looking persons there, though there was a man clad in a black robe with his face obscured by a hood. Just your ordinary Mr. Mystic, eh, he thought to himself, I should see if I can strike up a conversation with him. "Hey, you there," he heard behind him, and he abruptly turned to look behind him. There a middle-aged looking man stood and brooded at him with a weary expression on his shaven face. "Would you mind moving so that I can get in?" Croatoan then swiftly bowed and abruptly went inside, the middle-aged man following with his eyes rolling like wagon wheels across a smooth surface. He then went directly to the hooded man, and sat himself at the table. After that he turned and got the attention to the waitress. "My good lass," he said with smile on his face, "Can I get a round of dark beer? I have been wandering around for a good tavern to drink and sing in, and I hope this one will be fitting!" "I hope so too, we always appreciate good customers," she smiled, "But I don't think it is that much of a festive mood here today." Then she went off to get a dark beer and returned to him with it. "Two silver mizas, please." He handed her them, and turned to the hooded man. "So, my good sir," he said while raising the beer to his mouth, "You are giving off the character of a wizard all over you. I don't presume you to be one?"

[Aldrich]

Aldrich took a chug from the glass of ale. His face wrinkled itself together as he felt the bitter taste. He didn't like the taste of it, not the taste of anything else that had with alcohol to do, but it made him feel alive, a feeling that every human wants to feel. He looked around the tavern for any points of interest, drunkards, merchants, and a couple of children trying to haggle their coins into a loaf of bread, none of these were of interest to him, nor was anything else that couldn't deepen his understanding of magic. His eyes were drawn to the entrance as a chubby, yet muscular man entered. The man looked around for an empty space, and to Aldrich's' disgrace, his eyes were set on a chair next to his. The man sat down, ordered his drink, then turned to Aldrich. -"Wizard? That depends on who is asking. If it'd be a drunkard, I'd take a coin and make it disappear by sliding it down my sleeve. If it's someone else, I'd go with a straight no." he took another chug from his glass, emptying it then ordering in another one. -"You do not look like a mere citizen yourself, as long as the citizens hasn't started walking around with bucklers tied to their backs." He pulled down the hood concealing his face, revealing his hair which is tied up into tail, then turning his head to the chubby man.

[Hunwald Bachiler]

90:th of Spring, 511 AV. The corridor seemed rather passive and silent. The few people that were passing by seemed to be in a slight rush. Business, perhaps? The silence would soon be over as a quite tall man clad in a green cloak with a longbow tied to his back entered the corridor. Unlike the people around him, he seemed like a jolly type as he were singing lowly to himself. The few people who would hear him singing would probably not appreciate it, but he did not care. "Another busy day in Syliras", the man thought to himself as he sang. The mans name was Hunwald Bachiler. He suddenly stopped to check on a door to his right. Above the door, a red sign with a black rearing stallion could be seen. His eyes glanced down at the sign, to read the single word beneath it: Tavern "How perculiar", he thought to himself. "I haven't yet visited this tavern. This needs to change! After all, it's been a while since I had a mug of ale." The man opened the wooden door and entered the inn. As he took his first step into the cozy room, the smell of alcohol struck his senses. Hunwald smiled to himself as he closed the door behind him and walked straight to the bar. "Can I help you?", a smooth female voice asked him. Hunwald's smile went wider as he thought to himself: "Splendid! A fine, beautiful waitress! This will be fun-... However, his smile would soon fade. For the woman who had talked to him was not a beauty. In fact, the best way to compare her looks would be that she looked like a cow on two legs. The odor of sweat that she emitted made Hunwald ready to turn on his heels and flee, but he decided it would be best not to do so. "Ah, yes... Hello.", he said, "I want to order a mug of ale." The woman nodded shortly and put out her hand. "One silver rimmed Miza", she muttered. Hunwald paid the cranky waitress one silver rimmed Miza. She then walked to the other side of the desk to get a mug of ale for him. As he took the mug, he thought it would be best to find a place to sit down. However, the tavern seemed to be quite busy this day. Around every table, drunkards could be found. Hunwald frowned as he continued to eye his sorroundings. His gaze soon fell on a table where only two men were seated. One shady man with a pony-tail and one man with a muscular build and a buckler on his back. Hunwald shrugged to himself as he walked to the two men. They were discussing something, but Hunwald could not figure out what it was. As he approached the two, he would surely attract their attention. "Gentlemen", Hunwald said, "Can I have a seat"? Without waiting for them to reply, he took a seat next to the savage-looking man with the buckler, leaning his bow towards the table. He looked from the man with the pony-tail to the man with the buckler shield and sighed lightly to himself. "Quite busy, this place. Don't you agree?", he said followed by a heartly chuckle.

[Croatoan Vederoin]

Croatoan looked at Hunwald with one eye bulging and another one between half-closed eyelids. He then licked the buck between his fore-teeth, smiled and said: "Busy? Yes, indeed! I have seen busier, though, such as when people use the first o'spring to flock to the taverns for gobbling down brandy." After he said that, he placed the mug to his mouth and took a hearty swig from the dark beer, and then slammed it down on the table. "My good men, I find this atmosphere so dreary and tedious. Do anyone here know a song we can sing?" Croatoan had his eyes gleaming with boisterousness.

[Hunwald Bachiler]

Hunwald peered at the two men around him. He then raised one of his eyebrow as he hears the suggestion of singing. "Singing you said?", he then asked. "Lovely! But perhaps we should take this outside?" Hunwald suddenly lowered his voice as he continued: "The way that barmaid over there looks at me gives me a bad feeling. I think she might attempt to eat me." Hunwald then bursted out in loud laughter. This surely attracted many weird looks from the workers as well as the guests. "No, but in all seriousness", he then continued when he had calmed down a little, "Let's go outside?"

[Aldrich]

Aldrich stared at the man with a buckler who ignored his question. A secretive one one he thought, or a deaf one, the latter one being less likely. He turned his eyes to the door as a middle-aged man entered, dressed in leather with a bow across his back; probably a ranger. The ranger looked around, looking for a seat, and once again to Aldrich's dismay, his eyes focused themselves on his table. Before Aldrich knew it, the two men had started talking and even laughing with each other. He hadn't expected this, nor was he happy with it. Turning his head to the two men who now started talking about how they should sing a song, he hid his face in his palm. The ranger suddenly suggested that they should walk outside, which wasn't a bad idea at all. He wasn't interested in the song, nor in the company of those two, but the chance to escape, away from them and back to his dark room in the inn, the place where he belonged. -"I agree." he stood up. -"I wouldn't like to become more friendly with these drunkards than I already am, and I can guarantee that I am not friendly at all towards them." He made gesture towards the door. -"Tag along, men."

[Croatoan Vederoin]

"Well, if you insist," Croatoan looked at them with his face retracted into a grimace of confusedness. He had his eyes boring into the back of the hooded man, and thought: Who goes with a hood indoors?, and Both of them seem like sly guys, better keep an eye on what they intend to do. He rose himself from the desk, let the grimace shift smoothly into a blithe and cheerful expression and followed the hooded man out while keeping a suspicious glance in his eyes.

[Hunwald Bachiler]

Hunwald was barely done speaking when he noticed that the man with the pony-tail was standing up, ready to leave, as did the man next to him. As Hunwald looked at the man with the buckler shield, he noticed a quite confused expression on the mans face. "Hey, I am not surprised.", he thought to himself, nodding slightly. "I do suppose I was a little rushy with my proposal?" He was just about to apologize when he realized that he was the only one still sitting down. He quickly stood up, flipping his chair over in the process. He gave the two men a half-hearted smile, trying to make it look like it was his intention to flip the chair over, as he placed the chair back to it's original position. "Very well, then! Let us go." he then said, followed by a thumbs up and a short laugh. He then made his way towards the door, preparing to leave the inn. As he aproached the door, he turned around and threw a sly wink towards the chubby waitress; mainly as a joke. Perhaps his eyes decieved him, but he could have sworn that she winked back.