7/5/337

Vasuki

  Vasuki’s smile turned into a face of exhaustion, not only had his shield been on the business end of Cabana’s broadsword, now he had to do physical labor for the duo that had just showed up from nowhere. He wouldn’t complain about making more money for the inn but he would appreciate a nice long bath first.

  After unhitching the horses and pulling them to the water trough, Vasuki slowly and painfully pumped water letting it freely flow into the trough. He knelt to his knee and placed his hand into the water, knowing it’d be a bit warmer thanks to the weather. He let his magic release and felt the temperature begin to drop. Only until the water was nice and cool did he leave it be.

  Vasuki wrapped two of the bags around his arm and another onto his back, he grabbed the chest and was surprised at how light it was. Curiosity gripped him, so he sat the chest back down. He knew of the dangers of the world, as did everyone in Nevenal, it wasn’t odd that people would hunt Dragon Variants down for their scales. Just as dragonic as an actual dragon’s but without the near guarantee of death someone would face against a full-fledged dragon. For some reason part of him wanted to confirm what Audra had said. He popped the brass clasps that held the chest closed and was sickened to his core when he opened it. Scales of a variety of different colors filled the inside of the chest, he knew that so many of his own kind had to die for such a large stock of scales. He clenched his jaw and mindlessly began to grind his teeth together, as he closed the lid and locked it back. He wasn't sure he could believe that it wasn't theirs, he had to know for sure.

  Walking into the inn, Vasuki, lifted the chest onto the counter and glared at the man with the green scarf, he barely took notice as he took a sip of water. Mai stood on the other side of the bar, looking between the two of them. She was a young woman in her late 20’s with short blonde hair, blue eyes and red scales that spotted both of her arms randomly. A result that could only come from being skinned for scales. She was short, around 5’3, and still had trouble keeping food down from when she was held hostage by Raiders, leaving her a tad bit underweight. She wrapped her arms around herself.

“How much for her to stay for a week?” He asked.

“175 gold, and if you let us have the scales I’ll pay for her to stay another three days.” Vasuki claimed, Mai looked at him in confusion and shivered from the cold air that emanated from him.

“If you want them you can have them, don’t worry about revenge I already killed the people who did this.” He claimed, pointing at the chest. Vasuki breathed in deep and exhaled slowly.

“Sorry if I came off aggressive just now, I’m trying to get my anger issues under control.”

“I don’t blame you. You just saw a chest full of scales from your own kind and I’m the one that’s carrying them around. You don’t know me nor my intentions. I’d do the same if I was in your shoes.” He said. “Felix Zephyr, Royal Knight.” He claimed holding his hand out. Vasuki was slightly taken aback then mentally berated himself for not immediately recognizing the symbol on his shirt.

“Vasuki Odol, I’m afraid I don’t have a title as renown as yours.” He replied, shaking his hand before taking the bags off of him and putting them on a bar stool. Felix immediately got to work scavenging through the bags for gold.

“The one time I forget my coin purse in Trinity and it just so happens to be the same day I’m paying for a high end tavern.” He said finding a coin purse with a few nights worth of gold. He swore then handed the gold over.

“Looks like Audra will only have a couple days to get acquainted with everyone. Not including the three days your paying for.” He said looking back at the girl sitting at one of the many tables.

“Mai can you hand me the key for room 23?” Vasuki asked, giving a happy smile.

“Someone will be mad if they find out their favorite room is taken.” Mai commented with a smile, handing him the key anyways.

“Hey Audra, we managed to get you a great room.” He said sitting across from the table and showing her the key, the only thing telling anyone what room it was was the 23 engraved into the body of it.

“Thanks, I really appreciate the help from Felix.”

“He could only pay for two days, another three are coming from my paycheck. It’s the least I can do for you guys getting those scales.” Vasuki commented.

"Thank you as well. I hate depending on people around me but that seems to be what's happening right now." She complained.

"Just a bad string of luck, I'm sure it'll change eventually." Vasuki replied.

“I’m leaving, I’ll come back in a while to check up on everyone.” Felix claimed as he walked towards the exit of the inn.

“When will you be back?” Audra asked, looking back at him.

“Don’t know, don’t care. Sometime within the month I guess. Try not to piss too many people off while you’re here.” He ordered, sarcastically, before walking out of the door.

“What’s up with him?” Mai asked walking to the table. Audra shrugged her shoulders.

"He's a bit emotionally defecient." Audra commented. They heard the door open only for him to come right back through the door.

“I heard that.” Felix claimed dropping one of the bags on the table in front of them. “That was the one with the puzzle you liked so much, along with that man’s journal. Do with it what you will.” He said before turning to leave once again.

“Thank you!” Audra called out to him, there was no response from the man leaving the building.

“Let’s just get on with the day. I’ll show you to your room, I’m going to bathe and then I’ll take over, okay Mai?” Vasuki claimed, standing from the seat he took.

“Thank you and the Maker, oh can you actually work tonight too?” Mai asked. “A man asked me on a surprise date tonight, he seems so nice, please don’t make me stand him up!” Mai begged. Vasuki smiled and shook his head.

“Fine, as long as you warn Cabana about it, she’ll be expecting me and I don’t want to keep her waiting for nothing. And talk to my dad about me taking over, you know how he can be!” Vasuki called out heading up the stairs to the guest rooms. He turned to the right and began walking down the hallway of doors.

“Such a nice work environment.” Audra commented. Vasuki couldn’t help but smile, he’s heard it before but he couldn’t help but be thankful for how lucky he was.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Yeah, we’re all a big family here. My dad’s the boss, Mai’s like an adopted sister. She was rescued a few years back, she hasn’t gotten over it yet. I’m glad you didn’t have to go through something similar. Other than us three we have a few fill-in’s I’m sure you’ll meet soon enough.” He commented as he continued to lead her down the hall.

“What about your mom? Where is she?” Vasuki’s pace slowed slightly and his smile vanished he began to mentally check off some control techniques.

'Breathe in, breathe out, don’t clench your jaw, she doesn’t know, no one assumes the worst, calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Breathe. Speak normally.'

“She was killed by goblins 9 years ago.” He said before continuing his original pace.

“I-I’m really sorry, I had no idea. I know what it’s like. My dad vanished when I was a little girl. I barely remember him at all.” Audra apologized and thankfully didn’t press the subject like some of the other customers had before.

“Did it get a bit chilly in here?” She asked. Vasuki berated himself and calmed himself as much as he mentally could.

“It doesn’t feel any different to me." It was true, he didn't feel the cold that came from him. "Maybe you just need a nice view and a warm wind coming through an open window?” He turned to the left and guided her to the end of the hallway until they reached a door with the numbers 23 on a plaque nailed to the door. “I got you a nice room, these are usually gone to the higher bidders but you’ve been through enough to earn it for at least a night or so. If you need anything, just go downstairs or ring the bell on your desk, we’re all dragon variants so we’ll most likely hear it.” He claimed before opening the door and holding the key out for her. She gently took the keys silently thanked him and closed the door in front of him. He heard a sigh on the other side of the door before he began to head to his own room, after grabbing the chest of scales and taking them to his own room.

  Vasuki lay in the metal tub, his mind kept wandering to that day. Over and over again he kept replaying the scene of his mother laying and dying in front of him, he had felt so powerless. His mind came back to the real world, instead of memories, and he noticed that the water had gotten much colder, singular droplets on the side of the tub had frozen solid. He sighed and decided he should dry off and head to work. He wrapped a towel around his waist and walked to his bedroom to pick out a pair of work clothes. He threw the clothes on the edge of his bed, when his head began to ring. A firework of pain exploded through him, he fell to his knees while muffling his cries of agony. Tears, tinged with crimson, welled in his eyes, he screamed through gritted teeth as a voice infiltrated his thoughts.

“Allow me to help you. I will first begin by putting your idle rage into something a bit more...productive.” The voice was faint and sounded cynical, almost like a psychotic old man. But just as quickly as it arrived, it had vanished once again. He looked around the room, feeling exposed he quickly shut the door to the rest of his room.

  Vasuki breathed for a bit before opening it once again and heading to the bathroom. Upon looking in the mirror he was met with a face streaked with bloodstained tear trails, he gulped down the nervous knot in his throat before washing his face off. He then cleaned up the bloody tears that had fallen onto the floor in his bedroom before getting dressed.

  Vasuki walked down the steps, dressed in black breeches and a white dress shirt.

“Vasuki! Just in time, Mai’s heading out for the day. Chereno’s coming in, really soon. He got away from his parent’s anvil just in time for his shift today. Make sure he doesn’t slip and drop any ale today, we can't keep affording his mishaps.” Igon said from the kitchen as he began cooking. It smelled like he was cooking some kind of fish from the lake today, though his lack of fish knowledge couldn’t tell him what the name of it was.

“Someone important coming in today?” Vasuki asked as he walked around the bar and began wiping down the counter.

“Besides the normal crowd of vacationers and retirees? No.” He said before giving a small chuckle.

“One ove’ here!” A man ordered. Vasuki quickly filled a mug of ale before sliding it down to his waiting hand.

“Let’s hope we can hold all of them. Did Mai tell you about the girl that came in today?” Vasuki asked.

“Yeah she did, she got off the hook easy with the Raiders. And I’m glad you gave her a nice room key. A lot of people would kill for that view.” Igon commented.

“She needed it, could practically smell the despair coming off of her.”

“So that’s what that smell was! Mighty kind of you to take Mai’s shift tonight. What about Cabana’s lesson? Wasn’t she going to go over Daosr’s today?”

“Iluia’a but we can’t control work all the time can we?” Vasuki asked, giving his dad a knowing smile.

“I’m glad you took to reading that book.” Igon said looking back at him, he was a little shocked but pleased overall. “You could study a bit more on your pronunciation though.” Vasuki sighed, but couldn’t help but smile.

“Don’t push your luck dad, it might come back to sting you in the ass.” Vasuki mentioned. Igon chuckled as he began to chop vegetables.

“Your birthday’s coming up soon, anything in particular you looking forward to?” Igon asked.

“Not to fall on my ass in the middle of Cabana’s combat lesson.” Vasuki commented.

“Did you say combat lesson?” Vasuki looked towards the stairs to see Audra just descending from the bottom step.

  Audra's hair was damp, Vasuki would really need to control his emotions around her or else her hair would end up freezing before it dried out.

“Yeah I did, Cabana decided to teach me some things she learned as a Royal Knight. Sound like something you might be interested in?” Vasuki asked as he began cleaning a glass.

“Maybe. I think you offered me a meal earlier. Is that offer still up or am I going to starve?” Audra teased, Vasuki’s eyes went wide.

“Shit! I am so sorry, here’s a menu, the meal is still on me.” Vasuki quickly grabbed a menu and handed it to her. Audra gave a wide smile and began to look through the menu. In the meantime he prepared a small glass of ice water for her, and then became disappointed when someone dropped a mug of ale on the floor.

“Dammit, Joe, I have to clean up everytime you come in here you drunken bastard!” He joked, handing Audra the ice water.

“Mayb’ if yah ale din’t make us so drunk we wouln’t be makin a mess!”

“You need a nap!” Vasuki commented, forcing a small laugh to emit from the kitchen. He left from behind the counter to clean up the mess next to the drunken men and women. 'Overall just another uneventful day at home.'