Completed Freezing Up (Ohirin)

[Leila]

Timestamp: Spring 42, 513 AV Leila was disappointed. Her latest concoction was a total failure, although she should've thought it through. But she hadn't thought it would make two customers physically ill. But that's apparently what happens when you combine ale, pickle juice, and cocoa powder... So she sat there in her pouting mood, as she wiped down the bar. There were a few customers scattered around the lounge, a very slow night for the auburn bartender. She saw the door open as a small, robed man enter the premises. Leila could tell instantly that he was not much of a talker, and seemed to be the serious, dangerous type. He sat down at the barstool nearest the door, and knocked once on the bar. Leila knew that was an old signal for a single beer. She poured him an ale, and set it in front of the man, smiling at herself for being right about him not being a talker. And those types, you just let them keep their silence, no point in trying to coax a conversation out of them. A half bell went by, the man ordering two more beers, and nothing else of significance happening. Then finally the man spoke, "Bartender, could you call the cook out here, he's an old friend of mine." "Sure thing hun," she turned around, and poked her head into the kitchen, "Hey Cedr--- eek!" There was a taut arm wrapped around her neck, and a knife being waved out in front of her. The silent man was whispering in her ear, "Now tell me, where is lock box where you keep all the money? If you don't tell me where it is, I'll give you a pretty crimson smile from ear to ear." Leila clawed at his arm, but he tightened his hold on her neck, and brought the knife closer, forcing her to stop struggling. "Now where is it, bartender?" She pointed to a loose floorboard behind the bar, "Now bend down, and pull it out. Try anything and you won't even feel your death." He let her go, Leila looked around the bar, everyone watching, and no one acting. She stooped down, pulled the board out, followed by the lock box. Her captor took it, and quickly disappeared out the door. The man working the front desk saw him, and ran out in the street, yelling for city guards. Leila, on the other hand, slumped down to her knees, and started to cry.

[Ohirin]

Ohirin was tired, he had been working earlier that day and decided to stop by the World’s End Grotto for a drink. The bar was very empty on that night. He was sitting, at a table in the corner of the room, for no more than 15 minutes when he saw a small man in a large hooded cloak walk in. Ohirin didn’t find it that odd for people in the cities to want to keep to themselves. After the bartender had brought the hooded man his third beer, she turned around to call something to one of the people in the back.

The hooded man slid over the bar with ease after the women stuck her head through the doorway and he brought out a knife and grabbed the bartender from behind waiving a knife around. In a normal situation like this Ohirin would typically try to help, however he had drank 6 beers on his own and had eaten quite a bit of food, a loaf of bread, a hunk of cheese and some meat. He was full and drunk and didn’t like the odds of him drunk against a man with a knife so he put stepped back and turned to walk out of the bar. However as he was halfway to the door he was bumped into by the man that he had seen before robbing the bar and decided to go back, to both see what happened and he had forgotten to pay.

He reached the bar pretty quickly to see the bartender on the ground, crying. He put the money he owed on the counter, 6 silver Mizas and 6 copper ones, and went to see if the bartender was ok. He crouched down next to her, clearly huge compared to her, and asked,

“Are you hurt? The man didn’t cut you, did he?”

[Leila]

Down on her spotlessly cleaned floor, Leila sat crying quietly to herself, cursing herself inwardly for being so dumb to work at a bar, for not being able to defend herself, for being such a crybaby. A shadow loomed over her, and out of instinct, and response from what had just happened, she flinched hard, her elbow flinging out and catching on something. She wasn't sure if it was the bar, or the man who robbed her. She quickly realized it was another man, one she'd seen in the bar area earlier, the man with the big appetite. He was asking if she was okay, and she wasn't honestly sure if she was or not. She looked over at him, her eyes still stinging with tears. He had a look of genuine concern, which she appreciated, but all she did was through her arms around his neck, buried her face in his shoulder, and bawled. A while went by, Leila wasn't sure if it was ticks or chimes or bells, but eventually the tears stopped coming. Using the man's powerful body as a crutch, she pulled herself up. She wiped away the tears with a nearby rag, and turned to the man. "Thank you for checking on me, can I get you anything else? Maybe an ale to pay you back?" Her boss, who'd tried chasing down the robber came back in, nose bloodied, looking like he'd just gotten beats, had returned, "No, no free drinks Leila. You've lost me enough money you lazy little child. I knew I never should've hired you. You didn't even put up a struggle, or chase him down! Finish your shift, and don't come back. And I'll expect you to pay back every single miza, plus extra for the chest and his meal. NOW GET BACK TO WORK!" The man stormed off into the back, probably to his private room. Leila stood there stunned, and now embarrassed in front of all of her customers, many of whom she developed a familial bond with. "I'm sorry, I can't give you a free drink, but I can buy one for you, the least I can do, but please get back on the customer side of the bar, I don't want to get you in trouble too."

[Ohirin]

Ohirin was hit hard in the gut by the woman's elbow, but didn't react to it as best he could. When she looked up at him he could see her face and how much emotional pain she was in. It did, however, take him by surprise when she threw her arms around his neck and sat there crying. All he could think to do was sit there and wit for her to stop crying. He was quite uncomfortable in the situation, but he decided to stick it out as this woman clearly needed support. After about five minutes of crying Ohirin put his hand on the woman’s back hoping it might help to make her feel safer. It was another five minutes before she pulled herself by Ohirin’s neck and stopped crying. Ohirin stood up as well; his shoulder was a bit damp.

"Thank you for checking on me, can I get you anything else? Maybe an ale to pay you back?" The lady asked. Ohirin was about to reply when an angry and clearly beaten man came in and started screaming at the bartender. This man, who was probably the owner or at least a manager at the bar, was yelling as loudly as he could, clearly embarrassing the woman. When the man left, the bartender offered Ohirin another drink, and she would buy it for him. She also suggested that he get back to the customer side of the bar which he did as quickly as he could. Ohirin was tempted by the free drink, but knew the lady would need all the money she could get.

“No thank you for the drink, I’ve had enough. But I will pay for the man’s meal, and I don’t know your name yet.” Ohirin replied, putting his hand on his money pouch to get ready to take it and pay.

[Leila]

Leila wiped away the last of her tears from her eyes, leaning on the bar now with her other hand. She heard the man offer to pay for the man's three ales, which came to a miniscule one silver and two coppers. That was pittance really, "I'm sorry, but I can't accept that, it was my fault that the money was lost, not yours. Thank you for helping me, but unless you know the robber or could magically me make strong like the Wave Guard, I'm afraid there's not much you can do." Leila pulled up her private stool that she kept behind the bar, quickly scanning the bar through her now tired eyes. None of the customers seemed to need anything, and in fact most seemed to be leaving after the ordeal. She sat down, emotionally exhausted, and continued to steal the man's ear. "God's know Papa tried last season, when I decided to leave home and go out on my own instead of marrying any of Mother's suitors. But I hate the thought of violence, I sort of just shut down. I mean, I'm not a guard, or a bouncer, or a rough and rowdy sailor, I'm just a weak and worthless barmaid with illusions of success and happiness." She looked around, didn't see her boss, and quickly poor two flagons of ale, passing one to her partner, "Take a seat. Tell me a tale about yourself so I don't have to listen to my own self pity. Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do? What brings you to my bar? Former bar I suppose now."

[Ohirin]

Ohirin sat down opposite the barmaid, who was refusing his paying for the thief's drinks. He was kind of disappointed that he couldn't pay for them. It really wasn't much, and he wouldn't have minded paying. he looked around at the bar and saw that most of the people in the bar were leaving, no doubt due to what had happened. he was still kind of shocked that anyone would do something like this in the middle of a bar. Ohirin felt bad for the woman, she would probably be shaken up from the incident and had probably lost her job. It was sad that this would happen, it wasn't really her fault that she had been robbed. He was leaning on the bar, still drunk, when the barmaid poured two flagons of ale. when she asked him about who he was he took a few seconds to think about what to say.

"Well, first off my name is Ohirin Vader. I was born and, um, raised around Endrykas, nothing really special there. I only stayed 'til I got my windmarks, that was just two or three years ago. Since then I have been travelling around 'ere in Silyra. Usually between here in Zeltiva an' Sunberth. I've never really been north of Sunberth. I do labor for money, just uh, just little jobs and I don't tend to make a lot of money." Ohirin stopped talking for a few seconds to drink from the ale that he had. "And I ,uh, I am 'ere because after working I needed a drink and decided to get some food. I am a wrestler tho', if you did need some simple training. It wouldn't be great, but it would be enough to 'elp in the situation." Ohirin had noticed that his speech was slurred from drinking, but continued drinking the ale.

[Leila]

"Oh, um, I don't really know if I could wrestle or anything like that. I really don't like to hurt people, and I'd probably just hurt myself if I tried." She was always self conscious when any other than her father tried to teach her anything that could be considered violent. So she deflected, "I've only heard terribly dark things about Sunberth. I've heard of Endrykas in passing, but I know nothing about it. What are windmarks? What's it like there?" Her own drink simply sat in front of her, and she'd begun to fidget. She needed to do something productive. So while speaking to this Ohirin Vader, she grabbed a rag and the large bowl of water she kept by the bar. She grabbed a used flagon as the tables were bussed, dipped it in the water, and began to clean it. She slowly wiped down the inside, feeling the grain of the wood she scoured the remains of the sticky drink from it. She could hear his speech starting to suffer from the alcohol, and thought that his offer was only fueled by the drink. She couldn't imagine herself wrestling someone like those burly men down at the docks.

[Ohirin]

When the woman across from him denied being taught how to fight, Ohirin could tell that she was nervous and decided to drop it for now. Ohirin continued to sip his drink while Leila questioned him further about his life. What the places he had lived in were like and other things about his life. He thought it odd when she started to clean dishes at a job she probably wouldn't have after tonight. He thought about her questions before he answered, taking a short pause."Sunberth is fine as long as you avoid the gangs, and gambling debt. So 'alf of the city. If you ge' caught up in that you can 'ave an awful time. I was jus' there for work, so I avoided mos' of that. It can be 'ard avoiding those things bu' you can get good pay."

Ohirin stopped talking to take a drink, he looked at his mug and noticed that he had drank about half of it, but he didn't really care and kept drinking. "Endrykas is a nice place, a bit 'ard to find sometimes. But jus' a won'erfull place to live. 'indmarks are tattoos the Drykas get. The 'indmarks are a big thing there, you get 'em when a 'orse chooses you as a rider, they show that you are a full member of the clans."

[Leila]

Leila half listened to the man's story, the stress of the day finally starting to catch up to her. She sipped at her beer, then began taking larger and larger swigs, the honey mead going down smoothly. She managed to finish her beer, her stomach feeling warmer now. "I never really liked horses... I had a bad experience once as a little girl. I get really skittish around them, and they don't really care for that sort of behavior, or so I'm told." The cook, Cedrik, came out from the kitchen and joined Leila at the bar. He sidled up to her, hugging her gently, "Don't worry, I'll talk to the boss, he just needs to calm down. You'll be okay, I promise. Besides, you have your shop being built, so you won't be here for long." He gripped her hand firmly, "There's food in the kitchen for your customers if they want it. Help yourself too." He wandered out of the bar, and Leila poured herself another glass. "Well there's a little good news I suppose. How's the beer? I've always wondered how the drinks here compare to those in other cities."

[Ohirin]

Ohirin watched the woman, whose name Ohirin couldn't remember if he had heard or not, start to drink. She seemed to be relaxing from what Ohirin could tell. He sat at the bar and chugged down the last quarter of his beer, and slammed the mug down on the counter much harder than he had intended. Ohirin looked at the mug to make sure it wasn't broken while half listening to Leila talk about how she didn't get along well with horses and immediately thought to the one that he had in the stables, his personal Cyphrus Strider he had brought with him from Endrykas. He was about to say something when A man came from the back of the bar, probably the cook. There was a short conversation, and all Ohirin really heard was that she had a store opening. She poured herself another drink and continued to talk, asking about the beer in Zeltiva and how it compared to other places.

" So, 'ould you like to go out to the stables? Maybe you 'ould like to try to get over your problem with 'orses. I have a nice Strider out there if you want to meet 'im" Ohirin ignored the second question and decided to ask Leila if she wanted to try to meet his horse, however he was not quite sure how to ask the question and it probably would have come across as an odd question.