Once out of the barracks, Drazdan closes the door behind him and notices his party members arm wrestling at a nearby bench surrounded by off duty guards cheering for their respective competitor.
Of course Marcus is winning in sheer strength, but Xandarr seems to have a few tricks up his sleeve too as he is obviously somehow holding his own.
Upon closer look, he notices something… Why are their roots growing up the table?
…
Xandarr is cheating with the help of mother nature… Nobody seems to have noticed yet… The wooden bench has little tiny branches that crawled up his shirt's sleeve and are supporting his arm…
Then Marcus suddenly start screaming as he tries his hardest to win against his opponent. To no avail of course, all it achieved was tiring him out.
Slowly Xandarr starts pushing back until it reaches the 45-degree angle in Marcus’s disadvantage, from there it barely took 5 seconds before Marcus’s arm was slammed into the table and Xandarr winning the match.
Marcus is left sitting there dazed at his unbelievable loss while Xandarr collects all his winnings from the table, which is still surrounded by the guards, who have varying expressions on their faces depending on whether they lost their bets or not.
Drazdan can’t help but chuckle at this situation, that is, until Xandarr jumps up on the table and cries out : “OI, EVERYONE! DRINKS ARE ON ME AT THE TAVERN! WE’LL DRINK TILL MORNING LIGHT AND NO SOONER!”
He is answered by a unanimous and loud cheer from all surrounding guards, civilians and adventurers. Before, he leads a massive conga line to the tavern doors, of course Marcus and Drazdan follow along as well, one can’t miss a free drink.
During the loud march many civilians stared at the group of cheering people from their windows, some joined, some didn’t, some wanted to, but couldn’t since their wives were shooting daggers at them, even the dogs joined in to follow the mass.
Once they had arrived at the tavern doors, Xandarr kicked open the door and exclaimed at the new bartender: “ALL ON DRINKS ARE ON ME TONIGHT! BARTENDER KEEP MY TAB OPEN AND KEEP THE TAPS FLOWING, WE AIN’T STOPPIN’ TILL WE DROPPIN’!”
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The bartender was left speechless, and the waitresses were left stunned, one recovered faster than the others once she recognized the iconic trio who have done nothing but raise hell in the last few days and quickly running over to Drazdan.
“Care to explain to me what's happening, sweetie?” she asked in a hushed tone with a slightly threatening grin on her face.
“Well…” Drazdan responds slightly, backing off with his hands up. “We successfully finished our mission and well things got heated before, during and after said mission so they...” he says pointing at Xandarr and Marcus. “Had a little arm wrestling competition… Annnd Xandarr won. ” he answers.
The surprised maid took a second to process the information before looking at Xandarr and then back to Drazdan. “That skinny druid won an arm wrestling match with Marcus? Do you honestly think I’d believe that?” she asks with a hint of disbelief.
“Wellll…” Drazdan hesitates. “I didn’t say this, but he may have cheated a little.” he stammers out.
The waitresses eyes widen, “A little? Did he turn into a bear again?” she asks now curious.
“No, he uhm used nature to grow roots up the table's leg and support his arm, and it assisted him during the match. Also, what do you mean again?.” he asks.
“HAH!” she exclaims, drawing everyone's attention.
“Go back to your drinks, ya buffoons! Having a private conversation here!” she shouts out to the crowd, prompting them to return to nursing their drinks.
“Now honey, I wouldn’t call that a little and as for how I know about your little trip to the Mayors, it's a small town darling. Word spreads rapidly, especially when a group of individuals as loud as you guys do something outrageous… again. Everybody in town knows about the axe in the previous owner's face, the terrified Merchant and his mimics, the bear attempting to shit on the Mayor's carpet, and now they also know of both the family you all managed to rescue and the mess y’all are making in my tavern.” she answers.
If Drazdan could sweat, his forehead would be drenched right now, but instead his ear is now alarmingly drooping to the side of his head. “Oh… Uhm, could ya keep the cheating a secret then? Don’t really want to deal with the aftermath of that, considering how much money was on the line… And that most of them were members of the guard…” he sheepishly asks.
The waitresses' eyes once again before cracking into a devilish smile, “Alright, H O N E Y.” she says spelling it out slowly as she approaches the rabbit pushing him into a corner. “Remember dear, you owe me.” she says menacingly, passing a single finger around the right cheek of Drazdan.
An audible gulp is heard from Drazdan and the waitress backs off with a chuckle. Before turning a round and beginning to walk towards the counter. After a few steps, she looks back. “Aren’t you gonna grab a drink, Hun? It is all on your buddies tab, after all.”
Drazdan quickly loosens up and answers with a flurry of nods before walking up to the waitress. “By the way, I never caught your name.” he says to her.
“Took ya long enough, name’s Brenda. Don’t forget it.” she says.
“Wouldn’t dare to.” Drazdan answers.