The knight with a strong jaw cleared their throat causing him to refocus from the worrisome thoughts occupying his mind. “Did you even listen to a single word I just said to you?” They held a perplexed look as they waited for an answer.
“Four ales you say?”
“That’s right. Try to listen a little better next time so you don’t waste our time.”
“My apologies.” He turned his back thankfully in time before that woman who wanted him dead had thought to even look at him. Crap. This isn’t good, is it?
The last thing he needed was for her to realize who he was. She hadn’t looked at him as far as he could tell which was good, but there were plenty of more opportunities for that to change if he kept serving them. She had made it clear that if they ever crossed paths again, she fully intended to slay him. Perhaps she would have a change of heart. Or perhaps not. Either way, he wasn’t going to take any chances.
When he reached the bar to grab a few drinks he saw Della walk by him.
“Hey,” he said quietly behind his shoulder.
“What?”
“You think you could take that table for me?”
“Uh, sure. I guess so. How come if I may ask?”
“It’s a long story.”
Della was a real good gal for taking the drinks for him and going ahead to tend to all of their needs. He had to avoid coming into further contact with them, especially that one curly brown-haired woman who certainly wanted to sink her flaming sword into his body.
While he tended to the other patrons, he thought staying busy would make everything go alright until someone stomped angrily over to him.
They dug their fingernail into his shoulder causing him to wince.
“What do you think you’re doing handing over your responsibilities to another?”
He decided that he had no choice but to make an attempt to convince the old man that he wasn’t trying to be lazy or bad-mannered in why he had them tended by someone else. He carefully gestured for the innkeeper to follow him where other nearby patrons couldn’t hear so long as he spoke softly.
“I’m a little embarrassed to admit this but I don’t want you to think of me to be a liar so you deserve to hear the truth.”
“You better have a good reason for this nonsense.”
He chose to speak softly before the skeptical innkeeper. “I don’t know who exactly those people are but what I do know of them is that at least one of them isn’t quite fond of me. It might get a little awkward if they were to recognize me you see.”
“What’d you do to them? Most good-natured folk know better than to get on the queen’s knights’ bad side. They’re a vicious bunch, there’s no denying that.”
The queen’s knights, eh? He thought it was quite a bad struck of luck to have gotten on the bad side of those so closely connected to the queen already. Heck, they were some of the first humans he had come across since leaving the jail and here at least one of them was again. He only recognized the woman among them. The others weren’t likely there when she had slain the giant. He figured so long as she alone never got a good look at his face, he ought to be fine.
Thankfully it looked as if the innkeeper was willing to believe his cause and not turn sour over it. “You know, I appreciate you willing to not make some made-up reason. Don’t go thinking it means you’re off the hook, however. I make it a policy of mine to not have anyone working here hand over their responsibilities to another worker. I’ll expect you to work a bit late tonight to make up for it and try to avoid having to do it again unless they come back in, which they are known for doing so every now and then.”
It was a bit of an unfair expectation. The work was getting done, and it wasn’t like he had abandoned the other patrons he continued to serve. But this man was testing him and he was testing him quite hard on his first day on the job. And honestly, he wanted to use any excuse to fire him. The fact that he hadn’t done so already was at least some positive sign of their character. They hated him but they weren’t to a certain degree completely unreasonable.
“You won’t be hearing any complaints from me sir,” he said and received a nod.
He felt immense relief while he could tend to other tables out of sight of that particular womanly knight. At least now I know who to avoid. Not just her but those knights wearing those green cloaks just in general. The last thing I need is to involve myself with this queen who rules over Liall or those close to her.
Thankfully there weren’t any further issues during those four knights’ brief stint at the inn. They had their drinks, ate their food, and left without issue.
He was forever fortunate that nothing bad happened. He just hoped it would stay that way.
Later that night, the inn was getting more people who were interested more about getting a room than eating a meal. Although many of them chose to eat meals, they were mainly at the inn for a room to sleep in for the night.
Even though the last remnants of humanity in this domain didn’t have all that much relatively speaking to explore, the city was still large enough that people would make trips to visit different areas of it. This part of Liall was apparently one of the more middle to upper-class parts of the city. Living out of the same place for a while would get boring for many he imagined. Coming to an inn every now and then in a different part of the city could very well be the thing to add a bit of change in one’s life and many chose to do just that.
Since he had been essentially ordered to work later after night, he was unable to go with Della to the secretive location that she wanted to show him. He spent time in the kitchen cleaning dishes and doing so in a manner that pleased the innkeeper’s wife whose name was Sera along with her two younger daughters Melia and Hally.
“Maybe I should convince Adam to keep you in the kitchen more.”
He wiped down the last few remaining cleaned plates to fully dry them and after he stocked them away, he put his hands to his hips. “Wherever you need me, I’ll be ready to help.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
One day of work at the inn had earned him already quite a positive reputation. The patrons seemed to like him. The innkeeper’s wife and his daughters appeared at least to like him as well. It was just the innkeeper himself who he had to get on his side and then it’d be smooth sailing from there on out. It’s going to happen eventually. We started at quite possibly the worst place a relationship could start, but we’re headed for an amicable one if I have anything to do with it. It was one challenge he was beset on accomplishing one way or another.
It became a newfound goal of his. Become liked by Adam the innkeeper who had thrown him on his rear end seconds after they first met. A worthy challenge for one such as him he thought. If Lar knew about this challenge to himself, he imagined they would not have favorable words towards it. His companion would have to get over it. He wanted to live his life the way he wanted, not how they wanted him to live it. If Lar wanted to go and do something, then she was free to do so. There was no sense, at least to him, for her to keep pestering him to follow more—so-called—important goals that may never manifest in any real meaningful sense.
The possibility did exist that no matter how long he sought after those questions pertaining to his lost memories and who or what exactly he was, he may never reach them. And it could simply be because there was no possible way to get those questions answered. But that was just it, wasn’t it? How could he know? At the end of the day, the only thing he could do was try and live life at his own pace.
The cool air outside felt nice on his face. It was cold but not annoyingly so. Della however wore a lovely white cloak that went halfway down her back while she chose to wear a differently colored dress in the color of a bright yellow.
She stood outside waiting for him to meet her and hadn’t noticed him yet. He wandered over towards her while a few people walked by on the cobbled street.
“Sorry I’m late.”
“It’s quite alright,” she said turning towards him. “Father should’ve just let you go earlier but now that you’re here, we can finally go to that place I wanted to show you.”
“I’ve been wondering all day what exactly you have in mind. Do you mind spoiling it for me?”
“Of course not!” She took his hand and grasped onto it tightly. “You’re not allowed to know until we’re there, you hear?”
He smiled. “If you say so.”
Unlike the previous night when he wandered through the city to explore it a little, he did not witness the pillar powering up. He thought that it likely occurred right around the time the night solely ruled the sky.
It was dark enough that he couldn’t even see the pillar when he looked towards the direction it was in. Or well, it was more fair to say that he couldn’t see beyond the lit base of it which did have some illumination just by the lights of the street down below it.
It hadn’t taken long for him to think they weren’t far from where she intended to take him. The street designs and decor that the more tightly connected buildings around them had made walking through this area a bit of a treat for the eye. Street lamps were being fueled he figured by some sort of arcane energy. A bright aura shined within the enclosure and there was even a person in a robe muttering something as they held up their hands towards one aura-infused street lamp. Its light had been dull but as they continued to mutter a spell, the aura grew in its intensity and the area around it became illuminated by its light even more so than before their arcane mutterings.
“It’s over here,” she said hinting that they were almost there.
They turned a corner and he was met with the wondrous sight of an enchanted garden. His eyes wandered taking great care to notice how well kept the land, plants, trees, and overall fauna were maintained. It was unlike the rest of Liall and differed significantly from the cultivated land which surrounded the city.
“It’s said that our entire world once looked like this. A world which was not one that couldn’t be enjoyed by all in its most natural and beautiful form. Since this city’s founding the queen has taken great care to ensure this large garden would retain the appearance of the old world and remain almost entirely in its original form.”
When he stepped on its deeply green grasses that were illuminated by carefully placed aura-infused street lamps, it was quite lush and soft on his feet.
“What do you think?”
“I feel like I can truly breathe here.”
“I know. It makes me sad that this is the last area that hasn’t been mostly modified. It used to be larger until they needed to encroach on it to accommodate for the city’s ever-expanding number of additional structures. And I get the argument that it’s more important to build more accommodating places for people to occupy but it’s still sad that this is all that’s left. It’s nice at least to still have this piece of the old world in existence.”
“This old world must’ve been nice if it all appeared as this.”
“It was said to be truly enchanting. Nature freely gave to everyone the fruit of its loins without expecting anything in return. I wish for a return to that world one day although I doubt I or anyone else shall ever bear witness to it.”
They weren’t the only ones strolling through this part of Liall that appeared unlike the rest of the city that had been engineered by man’s own manner of molding the earth into a new creation to accommodate humanity’s many needs.
“This may seem sudden,” she began to say, “but I feel it necessary to tell you. I’ve only really known you for a bit over a day and yet I…I feel strangely drawn to you. And I don’t know why.”
“It couldn’t possibly be because of my good looks now could it?”
“That certainly doesn’t hurt,” she said with a chuckle. “But no, it’s more than that. I just don’t know. I’m really bad with words sometimes so please forgive me. I guess what I’m basically trying to say is that I like you and I suppose, I’d like to get to know you better and be with you more. If of course, that’s something you might be interested in.” When he looked her directly in those big eyes of hers, he thought he could hear her pleading for him to take her up on her offer.
The truth was that Della had gone to such strides to show and give him kindness, charity, and treat him better than he ever had the right to be treated. He was just some unknown person wandering this particular domain aimlessly but she had gone out of her way to show him someone who was an exemplar of a truly wonderful person.
And yet, despite that willingness, he felt obliged to not get too close to her. Who was he to involve himself with someone like her? He was an anomaly. He could quite possibly be something better avoided.
“Della,” he said, “I truly appreciate what you’re saying to me. You’ve gone out of your way to be kind to me and I would like for us to know one another better as time goes on, but if we were to go further than a mere friendship, you should probably know a bit more of the truth about me I think.”
They sat down on a nearby wooden bench and he prepared to tell her his somewhat brief and mysterious story.
She eagerly listened to the tale he spoke; about a man who had awakened in a jail and seen an unusual world for the first time surrounded by a toxic fog that pained the lungs whenever a single breath of air was taken. She learned of his ability to tolerate such a fog, a fog of which no mortal man was known to tolerate before. It brought into question of his nature and whether he was even human at all. And then he told of the half-crow and half-human creature that attacked him along with the giant that he had fought. He told her the truth about that knight he had avoided earlier at the inn who swore to slay him all of those days ago. He even told her about his companion who he made a soul contract with. And yet despite all of those strange and unnerving things, she was not fearful of the one who had yet to properly possess his own name due to his memory loss. She had instead taken to the task to grasp onto his hand with both of hers and peer into his eyes longingly.
“I know not of who or what you are, but I believe you to be a good person. These things you have told me are, admittedly hard to believe. I shan’t deny your words, however, as far as I’m concerned, you deserve my trust as I yours.”
“So, I might not be human and I have a bond with a familiar which is one of the most intolerable things in this human society within Liall and you’re still wanting to pursue me beyond a mere friendship I take it?”
Without even blinking, she kissed him on the cheek and pulled away with a wide-eyed smile. “Does that give you my answer?”
“It does,” he said, “it most certainly does.”