The Tinderbox was a rather lovely public house where you could pay in coin to have a meal and drinks served to you while listening to performances, local gossip, and whatever drunken idiot wanted to boast the loudest about their stupidity.

Not that I understood the concepts before we walked in the door. You received what you needed when you needed it at the monastery, provided you helped out and didn’t cause trouble for others. We certainly had music and dance, and even drunken idiots, but lived so closely to one another that the idea of someone not knowing about everyone else’s affairs was a foreign concept.

But towns were a lot bigger, and apparently these sorts of things kept things relatively organized.

The music wasn’t bad, and I tried the stout ale at Mistress’s suggestion. It went well with the darker bread we were served, and a bit of fermented cabbage. Would’ve preferred fresh, but apparently there was an issue with the cabbage merchants selling very poor quality merchandise. Which also tended to get wrecked by the children in the area. A tragic waste really, but I couldn’t do much about it.

Kaoru got something called mead, and several skewers of grilled meat. The smell put me off a little, but I don’t begrudge her for her diet. I’m glad the monastery has that deep-fried tofu she likes so much, though.

I honestly didn’t need much of the alcohol, as it was warm and filling and paired well with the bread and cabbage. Kaoru was overindulging a bit, but Mistress was keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn’t forget about looking human. Then one of the idiot drunks put his arm down on a table and declared himself the strongest man in the room.

Well. I couldn’t let him get away with that. To my surprise though, Kaoru beat me to the other end of the table and holds her hand up. The other men in the pub laugh at the sight of a tiny woman challenging a burly muscular sort who clearly liked losing fights by all his scars, and started bets on who would win.

I stole the money pouch Mistress brought, but she stopped me before I could make a bet. Something about inside information and unethical gambling. So I just sat there and watched while the two were set to arm wrestle.

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It really wasn’t a contest. Kaoru was too drunk to fully control her strength, and the idiot wasn’t a cultivator. She buried his hand into the table the moment the signal was given.

The whole room went wild while Kaoru held her hand up in victory, and everyone who’d just won by betting on her started buying her drinks.

Oh… wait. That’s not a good thing.

Kaoru demurred, giggled, then settled on flirting with one of the more attractive human males for a while. Mistress relaxed, and told me to do the same.

“She’s blackout drunk and completely in control of her shape. I’ll keep an eye on that, but I don’t think she’ll do anything stupid tonight… wait. Where is she going with that boy?”

I watched her leave, clinging to the man she’d been flirting with like he was the only thing holding her up at this point… and realized what she was up to.

“Off to mate. Should be fine.”

“Should be… Xiang…” Oh. Looks like Mistress was drinking a bit hard too. In getting up to try and chase after Kaoru, she tripped over the bench and landed on the ground. Hard.

I shrugged, and finished my ale.

“Seems your friends need to watch their cups a bit more carefully.”

Hm. Tall, swarthy, lean. Not unattractive for a human, though he’d look a lot better as a rabbit.

“Mistress usually isn’t this bad, but we don’t do a lot of drinking at home.”

“Ladies such as yourselves could use a solid escort or two back to your lodgings. Never know when some rough types might come along and try something stupid.”

“And then I’d have to kill them, which would leave Mistress rather cross come morning. Know anyone else who might wish to join us?”

The male laughed, but shook his head.

“Sadly, I think your boss will be left sleeping her evening off. But I don’t suppose you’d mind a bit of fun after we dropped her off someplace safe?”

I smiled. “I look forward to it. Haven’t had that kind of fun in far too long.”

So I picked up Mistress Song, carried her over to our room at the inn to sleep, and the male and I went off to mate for a bit.

All in all, a pleasant night out.