Despite its humorous name and silly sign posted right outside the inn, the inside was kept to a high standard along with the presentation of its working people who too wore nice attire. The young boys and men who tended to their patrons wore fancy black pants with a black vest over a white shirt. As for the girls and women, they wore well-rounded homely dresses in subtle yet different colorful hues.
He realized that he was quite the contrast to how well-attired and groomed everyone else was inside this inn. The difference between them and him was worlds apart.
At one corner of the inn, a pair of pointy hat-wearing folk with dark robes smoked from long smooth brown pipes. On the opposite end a pair of ladies drinking and dining with their potential mates found joy in the company they all kept by laughing regularly. A worker who walked by him avoided even looking him in the eye even though he had smiled at them.
The longer he stood at the entrance taking a gander at the inside, the more he felt a bit of animosity growing towards him. Out of the corners of their eyes, they looked at him and most likely did not like what they saw. One fellow, in particular, had quite a dire look on his face as they began sniffing their nose.
He however was willing to brace against their discrimination. He had a belly he needed to fill so he was eager to make an attempt at accomplishing such a feat no matter what it took.
How long have I gone without food? It has been far too long. So long in fact, that I don’t have a single memory of eating a thing since awakening in that jail all those months ago.
A man wearing black pants and a white shirt with suspenders running over their shoulders held onto a drinking glass as they rubbed it clean.
He approached the man who stood behind the bar. They had the same antagonistic glare the other patrons and workers had against him.
“What a wonderful inn this is,” he said truthfully. He noticed it grew quieter as he began talking to the man behind the bar who was undergoing the process of balding. “What would it take for me to get something to eat? I won’t lie to you, I am without coin, but I’m a hard worker.” He slammed a balled fist into his other palm. “I’ll work hard and do whatever it is you need to be done to earn my keep all just to receive a nice warm meal.”
The man sat the drinking glass down, came walking around the bar, and put his hairy hands and knuckles around his shoulders twisting him right around.
“You have the audacity to come into my inn smelling as if you have been sitting in a pile of crap for weeks on end. All you’re doing is stinking my whole place up!” He began pushing him out the door. “No good rotten scoundrel. Think twice before ever coming back in here. Out with ya you smelly ol’ lout!”
He had gotten so fired up that by the time he had taken one step out the door, the man pushed him hard enough that he began to trip and fall over onto the ground. The man pointed a finger directly at him as he sat there with a bunch of passersby observing their interaction.
“If you ever think of coming back in here, I’ll have the city guard lash you a hundred times!”
Well, that was not what I was expecting. He got up from the ground and whenever he looked at someone walking by, they avoided his gaze. Do I really smell that bad? He couldn’t rightfully tell but considering the reaction to the innkeeper who forced him out of their establishment, it must’ve been out of this world. Or domain rather.
Just as he was prepared to leave to find another way to get something to fill his belly, he stopped as a woman came running out of the inn and stood up to him unwaveringly.
“Are you alright sir? My father didn’t hurt you too badly did he?” Unlike the man, the young red-headed woman who wore a lightly colored green dress with white flourishes on it chose to regard him kindly.
He briefly looked down at his body to see whether he sustained any cuts or bruises but he didn’t notice any and there wasn’t any real pain to speak of even though he had hit the ground somewhat harshly. “I feel quite fine actually.”
“I am so relieved,” she said happily.
“What in the world are you doing talking to someone like him?” the innkeeper said from beside the inn’s entrance. “Get away from him right now!”
She looked over her shoulder as the rest of her body kept facing him. “You could try being a bit kinder you know and not stoop to harming someone just because they walked in.” Her words carried some intensity with them. This woman was earning the ire of that man by choosing to be kind to him.
“I won’t have beggars coming into my establishment who do nothing but scare off all of our patrons. Had I let him stay we’d be losing lots and lots of money! We’d be living off the streets if that were the case. Would you have that for us all?”
She looked away and her kind eyes met his. “Ignore him. He can be quite the mean old fool sometimes. I would however sir, like to rectify this injustice he inflicted upon you. No one deserves to be thrown out like that, let alone at our establishment. Will you come with me? I’d like to help you in some manner to apologize for my father’s actions.”
“So that’s your father?”
She nodded her head. “He is a good man but he can often be overly protective of our establishment.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to cause any problems for you so it’s probably better I go.” As he began to walk away, she grabbed his wrist. He could feel the warmth from her fingers and she had shown an eagerness to help him for one reason or another.
“It’s fine. Really. Let me at least have you bathed and given something that you can eat. I’d not have you go hungry just because my father will be angry at me for a day or two.”
“You’d have us go broke by giving to every beggar off the streets!” he yelled out to her while giving him a deathly glare.
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She looked over her shoulder towards her father once more. “We can afford to be charitable from time to time.” She urged him to come with her with a gentle pull of his wrist. “You’ll be fine. And if I have to, I’ll protect you from him. I’ve never lost a battle with him so you have no reason to be afraid.”
How could he not go with her? If she was willing to face the consequences of helping him in some way, well, he would be an outright fool to deny her services so he obliged by following her around to the back of the inn.
“I’ll grant the courtesy to him by having you come in through an alternative way. And I must admit sir, you really do reek but we’re going to solve that momentarily.” She opened the back door and gestured for him to go inside. “Go in down the hall and make a left up here. I’m going to have a bath prepared for you so that we can make things right.”
Even the back of the inn was quite nice. He moved down a hall made up of dark panes of wood on the walls and the floors. Candles kept it lit enough to see as he navigated on through. He made his way up the wooden staircase as she followed behind.
Another hall lay ahead as he reached the top. She walked by him and opened a room towards their left. “You may stay in here. I will have a warm bath prepared shortly and then you can properly clean yourself."
“I thank you kindly miss,” he said in such a way to hint towards a desire to know her name.
“Della.”
“A lovely name,” he said and went inside the small enclosed room. There weren’t any windows inside. Just four dark wood walls and a nice bath at the center of the room that was ready to be filled. As he stood off in a corner, a couple of younger girls came in and filled the bath for him. Steam rose off the surface and he was feeling quite eager to plunge his body into it.
Once the bath was full and the other staff left, he tore off that pathetic garb that he had been wearing since he awakened in that jail and took a step into the hot water. It was just on the cusp of being too hot. The hot steam went into his nostrils as he put his back up against the wood tub and most of his body became submerged in hot steamy water.
Ah, this is just what I needed. I came to the right place after all.
Not long after he began to fully relax, someone began to knock on the door.
“May I come in?” Della said kindly.
“Sure,” he said.
She carefully opened the door and came inside with a tray full of bathing utensils. She brought a brush along with several differently shaped soaps.
“If you’d like I could assist in bathing you.”
“That’s a service you offer here?”
“Yes. We offer a more thorough and luxurious experience than most other inns around here.”
“I see. No wonder your father was eager to get me out of here. Honestly, I might be willing to side with him.” It made a lot of sense. Everything about this place was kept to very high standards. They also employed a lot of people who all wore nice clothing too. Having someone like him in it simply didn’t fit with this sort of place.
It was a sad fact to realize, but he was a bum. He looked like one. Smelled like one. What other conclusion could he or any other person make but to accept this truly tragic fact about himself? He also had no money or anything besides his own bare body.
She began to wash his hair and unfurl the strands that had gotten thick with dirt. “He’s normally quite kind but he’s very protective of the reputation of this place. And admittedly, it is quite unusual for, well, someone as filthy as you to just come in.”
“I take it bums, beggars and scoundrels know better than to merely walk in a place like this?”
“Or rather any place near here.”
“I see.”
“But with the way I see it,” she replied, “it’s just not right. We can afford to treat the less fortunate near here better and not be worse off ourselves. It would however require an immense change in how the well-off here think unfortunately and I don’t think that will happen anytime soon.”
Everyone had their own priorities ultimately. Most had their priorities directly towards the betterment of themselves and those closest to them. And then there were others who wanted the betterment of others over themselves. The former were undoubtedly more common than the latter but to say whether one or the other was superior, well, he was not one to make such a judgment.
As for her, she showcased a charitable spirit. And he was not necessarily deserving of it or undeserving either. He did find himself growing to like her during the short time they interacted together so far.
“Where do you normally live in Liall if I may ask?”
He lifted his arms to rest them against both sides of the bath. The hot water rolled down his arms and he could feel the steam from below hitting up against the underside of his lifted arms. “Uh,” he said trying to come up with an answer. “It’s actually my first time being in the city itself. I’ve been living out in the outskirts for all this time.” He hadn’t told her that he had been living in the land filled with that green fog, but he knew better than to suggest that. He didn’t want to lie or be dishonest but being too honest could get him in trouble so he walked a careful line between truth and untruth.
“Really? I know the farmers and some guard patrols will stay outside of the city, but almost every human alive stays inside here. Even I haven’t ever wandered through those great white walls that surround the city.”
“I wouldn’t blame you,” he said. “It’s quite dangerous out there.”
“I can only imagine,” she said with a sigh. “But enough about such scary thoughts. How are you feeling now?”
“Cleaner. Much cleaner.”
She laughed at his bluntness. “That’s the goal. Soon enough you’ll be as good as new.”
As she assisted him not in just cleaning his hair but also brushing his arms and shoulders, he could tell that his skin felt far better than it did before. He had gotten so used to being dirty and lacked the right memories to recall how it felt to be clean, that it was in many ways his first time experiencing what cleanliness felt like.
After a longer period of bathing, she eventually stood up with the intent to leave the rest to him. “When you’re ready to get out, there’s a dry towel over there and, now that I think about it, let me get you some clothes that you can have.”
“That’s not necessary. You’ve given me enough already.”
“You think I’d just let you put back on that dirty garb? I wouldn’t even think to do that to you. Don’t worry, there are some of my old father’s clothes that he never wears anymore that will serve you well. Although I’ll warn you, they’re—let’s say—not going to fit as well as you might like. My father used to be a much larger man and when he shrunk down he had no choice but to get a whole new wardrobe.”
“You won’t see me complaining.” Anything's better than wearing what’s practically a burlap sack.
She smiled and left to get him some clothes. He remained in the tub and heard her return and drop them off on a nearby table.
Not long after she left again, he pulled his clean naked body out of the water and prepared to dry himself off. As he did so, he ran it through his wet black hair real good to try to soak up all the excess water from it. When he could see ahead of himself again after the towel obscured his sight for a moment, a white cat strode along the wooden floor towards him.