Closed An Unexpected Fight (Yuri Lehrer)

[Shall]

69th Winter 513 AV It was around noon. The sun had reached its highest, hovering above everyone's head with a shiny armor. There was not a single cloud on the sky, and the wind seemed to roam somewhere far away. The heat melted the snow and left puddles of water here and there on the road. Shall could hear the sound of someone slipped and fell down, cursing his luck with an annoyed voice. With her hood raised, Shall walked through the street with small strike. She was wearing a comfortable sleeveless top which fit her perfectly. A black pants came along, completed her look. The clothes looked plain but it adorned her beauty all the same. Gaudy clothes had never been her favorite, and although she admired shapphire and the like, she didn't wear any additional jewelry. She was heading to an inn. She hadn't had a meal since yesterday. Her stomach growled with hunger, nagging her to no end. Eating was quite a trouble for her, but it's still needed in her earthbound form. It used to bother her a lot for having to stop for meal abruptly. Although being able to eat added pleasure and the experience was interesting, Shall didn't enjoyed eating very much. Since she deemed it as a waste of time and money, Shall tried to cut down her meal as much as possible. She had usually had a meal every two day before. It had left her with little energy so she had been changing her eating habit since she arrived in Zeltiva. A meal a day was enough. The city's living condition was good and she had already had a job as a doctor so her life had been worry-free. Shall had been thinking for a while if she should settle down here and start living without more traveling. Reaching out to the door of World End's Grotto, she carefully stepped in. The atmosphere inside was warm. The fire was burning in the hearth. It shrieked at the iron pot, amber sparks playfully nudging the hearth's stone. Its heat reached her throat in no time, warming her inside out. Her hood was still raised, keeping her scales out of sight. Zeltiva was not hostile to other races like her so she didn't need to hide her identity at all, yet it had been her habit and she didn't intend to change it. However, her webbed finger gave her away since she didn't wear gloves. People wouldn't notice if they didn't examined closely. There were many people in the inn at that moment. They were eating, drinking and chatting noisily. A pair of lover smiled sweetly at each other at a near table, unawared of the fact that a sneaky hand was slipping into the girl's bag. The boy proudly puffed up his small chest, his thumb on his heart. The girl giggled at the boy's jokes and waved her hand shyly at him. A fat women sat alone at a corner, drinking kelp beer while crying quietly to herself. Sometimes, she looked up to the ceiling and signed. There's an old man with a pipe continuously laughed so hard at his companion for no reason that his head seemed to be able to fall off and roll on the ground at any moment. He had his beard dipped in a cup of beer, his hands flailing from left to right. The noise coming from all direction was buzzing in her ears, drowning her in a pool of helplessness. Not that she could do anything about it. How she cherished the time when she was alone. Out of the corner of her eyes, Shall noticed two man looking her way. Before she walked in, they were merrily drinking and shouting at everyone. They fell into silence when their gaze met her hand. Noticing two stranger's silence, some of the people at the inn followed their gaze to look curiously at her. Shall found many pairs of eyes on her. Some of them talked too loud so their talking entered her ears. A konti was not rare in Zeltiva, so she wondered if it was because of her hood that made her look suspicous. Having noticed how she looked back at those two, they turned their head and continued on talking loudly and drinking noisily. Shall ignored the people's eyes, walked to a empty dark corner and ordered a dish. The inn returned to its original state. Five minutes later, a dish was served in front of her. It comprised of a fish and some vegetable. After she had finished the dish, she ordered a mug of water. With the mug hold in her hand, she quietly observed the inn. The two men from before was walking towards her. One of them accidently bumped into her causing her mug to fall to the ground, its water plashed on the man's clothes. He cursed. The other man yelled at her: "Hey! Apologise for it..." The man she had plashed water at grumbled under his breath. He drew his sword and glared at her. "You will have to pay for it..." Shall could pratically smell the alcohol from him. It made her wince inward. The men was very fast. Shall didn't have to time to think but stepped backwards to dodge his sword. She didn't know what to do beside dodging, having no sword and couldn't perform any kind of magic in public. Shall had to calm him somehow. He was drunk. Would he even listen to reason? The man swung it the second time. Shall's back reached the counter behind and the sword dugged deep into her flesh. Sharp pain swisted her vision, punched her in the face with its powerful blow. She panted. Crimson red blood dripped from her shoulder, tainted her white blouse. The ceiling spinned and spinned and spinned with great speed...