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The blizzard was fading, the winds dying down; the city of Coltestor was asleep except for the few people and travelers in the tavern. The group off to themselves, with the large wooden chest they would not leave outside. They had come in shortly after the blizzard had reached its worst. They were all shivering, but they sat at the table farthest from the fireplace.
The tired owner didn't care; he would serve them all night if they kept paying. The waitress would be leaving shortly, and she had worked most of the day, lunch and dinner crowds. She was middle aged human, that had spent too much time in taverns, gravelly voice, leathery skin, and a tired appearance even when she first awoken in the morning.
The people would have to come to the bar to get their drinks after that.
He looks out of the corner of his eye, so the group wouldn't notice him looking them over. The shortest in the group was a scruffy bearded dwarf, in armor, an ax on his back. Beside him sits his metal Spartan style helmet, spiked bracers on his forearms, he wears a fur neck lined cloak, his spaulders visible at times when his cloak slipped to the side.
Next to the dwarf, a human male stands in a gold colored fabric religious style robe, a spiked mace hangs from his leather belt at his waist. The silver hammer necklace hangs from the man's neck, a symbol of the man's belief in Thor.
The one female, an elf, sits next to the human, she leans on the wooden chest, and the bartender thought she would speak to the chest or its contents occasionally. She wears a fur lined hooded light brown cloak, an earthen toned tunic underneath the cloak. On her back is a quiver of elven made arrows, fletched in red and gold barred feathers, each arrow ornately decorated and colorful, and each one a work of art in itself. The bow leaning against the table is clearly elven made of the finest wood, and tipped with unusual horns of some animal he did not recognize from this distance. She has black hair and emerald green eyes, beautiful as most elves were. She could keep up with the others in drinking spirits. She had a tattoo on her right forearm; the bartender had noticed just a glimpse of it when she bought her first drink from him, a giant mug of lager, and the strongest he sold. He was not able to see what it was, though.
The quiet one, dressed all in plain dull black, with little flair or style to it. The man was quiet and nervous, even a little jumpy. He drank little and many times this night he had noticed the little man was gone. He never noticed him leave or come back, just was there one time, and gone the next, and the same for when he showed up again. The little man was nothing to look at, and a scar on his right cheek made him look even worse. The man was nothing to be intimidated by, but was downright ugly, diametrically opposed in looks to the elf maiden next to him currently.
Last one in the group is a tall thin man, on his head a simple coned hat in dark blue, matching his robes. He was sickly looking and even though the bartender was getting old, he was pretty sure he could break this man in two if they got into a fist fight. He had an ornate rod hanging from his belt, and a small kris on his left side, on his back a small pack, which he never parted from.
Suddenly the elf leaps forward, pulling a sword the bartender had not noticed, and had it leveled at the serving woman's throat.
"Begging your pardon ma'am, I was only trying to clean up your table."She says slowly backing away.
"Clean it from the other side."She demands, "no one gets close to this chest."She warns scanning the room, before she gets to him the bartender looks away like nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
"Don't know why you don't get a table nearer to the fire, its freezing over here, and that chest seems to radiate cold."She shivers as she walks around the table.
"That is our concern, wench."The dwarf snaps.
The bartender notices the wall next to the chest had frost on it. None of the other walls did. He frowns as he considers what could be in this chest. He would stoke up the fire; it was a little cold in the bar, but nowhere near as cold as it was outside with the howling wind. He walks over to the wood pile near the hearth.
"When you get a chance wench, get the mouse and mage another beer, and the holy man another bottle of wine, the best you have of course."The dwarf orders as he and the elf walk to the door. "Then bring me and this elf a lager, we'll be right back."
The bartender frowns, an elf and a dwarf? They tolerated one another, but to be slipping out together? It nauseated him to think of such beauty and the ugly dwarf being together, intimately. Even the rat-like man the dwarf had called the mouse, would be more acceptable, he thinks to himself as the dwarf lights a lantern.
The dwarf and the elf woman open the door and push out into the blast of cold wind. The wind blows through the whole tavern, drawing some complaints from the few regulars that were still here.
Outside the Dwarf walks in the deep snow the elf follows, they walk past the corner and turn into a small alley. They hear a thud behind them. The dwarf turns to see a dark silver dragon looking around, taking in all that it could see.
"You two!"She demands looking directly at the dwarf and the elf, "I want what you have taken from me!"
"We are lowly travelers "
"Do not lie!"She screams in her cavernous voice."You stole it, I am a dragon, and I have excellent eyes. You took it away in a large wooden chest. Had it not been for this storm, I would have caught up to you long ago. But I lost you in the blizzard."
"Perhaps you are mistaken."The elf offers, the dragon notices the bow slide down her back. The dwarf's axe was no longer on his back.
"Return what you have stolen and no one will have to die."She demands, she sees the door open and the bartended looks out.
"I do not want anyone else harmed, please stay inside."The dragon warns the man.
"The chest you seek "The bartender begins but tenses flinging the door back staggers into the snow, the one they called mouse stands a bloody knife in hand.
The assassin was not quick enough, the bartender had pointed as he spoke, and she deduced the chest was in the bar.
The dwarf lunges forward, as the elf brings her bow up arrow in place.
The dragon opens her mouth and releases a freezing blast of energy, the elf dodges the worst of the blast but the dwarf charged into it, the thief dodged into the tavern but was hit with some of the blast too. The dwarf's body collapsed into the snow frozen solid.
The dragon charges forward, quicker than the elf was, and pins the elf to the ground with a fore claw. The elf looks up at the dragon, her bow useless as it was pinned up against her body.
"Surrender! and no one else need be hurt." She offers, "I want my baby!" She hisses.
The flash from the door was the only warning she got, she lunges to the side as a huge ball of fire shoots past her, and explodes nearby, the fore claw that had pinned the elf was burned, and the elf was burned, silent and not moving. She spins and spews another blast of cold energy at the mage whom was standing in the doorway. He dodges into the snow, but his legs are hit with the freezing energy, he screams in pain. The dragon sees the mouse shoot down the alley away from the fight. The dragon charges towards the door, the mage scrambling to get out of her way, but his legs were not moving. She knew his legs were frozen solid, he would never walk again. She did not like killing, or maiming anyone or anything, but they took her egg, her baby, she could not leave it in the hands of these cutthroats.
She grabs the door frames and yanks ripping the door frame away from the stone wall, dropping the remains of the door, she looks inside. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the remains of the door fall on the bartender's body.
Inside, a drunken man was complaining to a hooded man facing the other direction. The two other men in the room were against the far wall cowering in fear. The head of a human woman peeks over the bar. She sees the chest near the outer wall, above it is a boarded up window.
She looks at the serving woman, "They will not need their drink order anymore."
Dragons had good eyes, and good hearing.
She knows there were five thieves that took her egg. She had three lying outside, and one fled. One of these men was the last of the group. The drunk was so blindly intoxicated he did not know what was going on. The men cowering against the wall were typical peasant types; the woman cowering behind the bar, was obviously a waitress. Which left the man looking away from her, the commotion outside and her ripping the door away from the building was enough for any normal person to look around. The man was either deaf or hiding from her. The person wore a cloak that she did not recognize, but the drunken man was complaining to the cloaked figure that he wanted his cloak back.
"Holy man, "She hisses," The servant of a God should not steal a man's cloak in this cold weather."
The man slowly stands and peels away the cloak, revealing the golden religious robe underneath.
"One of your friends is out here suffering; you have the means to ease his pain."The dragon informs him.
"Suffering is a part of life."He replies without concern.
The drunken man finally sees the dragon and staggers backwards stumbling over a bar stool, and knocks a table over as he lands on the floor with a thud.
"What happens to you thieving humanoids, I care not."She growls, "I have come for my egg."
"I have no idea what you are talking about."He shrugs.
"The wooden chest over there, it is covered in frost, even though nothing else is frosted in the tavern?"She nods her horned head towards the chest.
"That is not mine." he says looking over at the chest.
She steps out of the tavern, instantly she feels a blade penetrate her scales, severe pain in her back. She spins quickly the blade in her back is yanked out as she does. The rat faced man stands there in shock, holding the sword darkened with her blood.
Her head snaps forward and snatches the man's head off his shoulders, blood spurts from the neck, the body tumbles to the ground. She tosses her head releasing the man's head, it hits the mage as he squirmed trying to get to the road only a few yards from where he fell, and then rolls off. The mage screams in terror as he sees what hit him.
The dragon lunges into the bar, the cowering people had fled, to another room, or maybe a back door. The man in the robes was also gone. The waitress was nervously standing behind the bar. The dragon crouches moving forward pushing the tables aside as she pushed towards the chest.
"I ain't got no other job."She woman calls to her.
"I do not have another egg."She replies as she finally reaches the chest.
"I need this job to buy food."She pushes.
The Dragon carefully lifts the lid on the chest, and inside the icy chest is a silver blue egg, undamaged. She leans near it, hearing the woman saying something but she ignored her. She hears the baby inside. She relaxes and slowly turns to look at the woman.
"I didn't take your baby."She says quickly.
"I know you did not."She replies.
The dragon grabs the handle of the chest and begins dragging it towards the door.
"I need money to survive."The waitress moves slowly forward towards the area that use to have a door.
The dragon gets to the door as the woman draws near. The dragon stares at her to see if she was challenging her. The woman was desperate, but not crazy.
The dragon turns and pulls the chest outside. The woman begins to push the chest outside. The dragon looks back in surprise.
The woman looks sadly at the dragon.
She releases the chest and steps over, carefully grabbing the leather bag on the side of the frozen dwarf. She steps over to the burnt corpse of the elf, and grabs her pouch too.
She tosses the bags to the waitress.
"This should be enough to get the door fixed, if you want to repair the tavern, or it could get you a new home if you want that.
"This tavern isn't mine."She shrugs.
"Really?" She asks,"Did the owner have any family?"
"Ah, no he didn't."
"I am pretty sure his dying words were "The dragon hesitates, "I might have it wrong, what is your name?"
"Gwendyle?"(Gwen-Dial)The waitress replies.
"Yes, that was the name; He said "Gwendyle was the owner of the tavern for her loyal service to him. Congratulations."The dragon says and stomps over and snatches the leather bag of the mage that had just made it to the road.
"I only worked for him for a year, this was the first winter."She explains.
"You must have really impressed him then."The dragon says without hesitation.
"Here is another, he wanted you to have it because of all the damages they did."
After saying that, she turns and carefully latches the chest, and lifts it between her fore claws and begins to walk away.
"What if someone says I am lying about owning the tavern?"She asks.
"Tell them to come see me, Icelana. I will tell them what I tell you."
The waitress watches as the dragon disappears in the blizzard.
She turns to look at the door, or the opening to the tavern, where the door use to be.
She would need to board up the hole, and use the backdoor until they could get it fixed.
"The few that challenged the waitress's story never went to find the dragon known as Icelana, no one with any legitimate claim never came forward. So she had the front door fixed actually had two doors put in, because the hole was so large. She also had a new sign with the new name on it.
"Icelana's tavern, no pets
But dragon's are always welcome."
--- ---- ----- ------
Photo inspiration: by ~dolphinboy2000; Trespassers; Trespassers by ~dolphinboy2000 on deviantART
The tired owner didn't care; he would serve them all night if they kept paying. The waitress would be leaving shortly, and she had worked most of the day, lunch and dinner crowds. She was middle aged human, that had spent too much time in taverns, gravelly voice, leathery skin, and a tired appearance even when she first awoken in the morning.
The people would have to come to the bar to get their drinks after that.
He looks out of the corner of his eye, so the group wouldn't notice him looking them over. The shortest in the group was a scruffy bearded dwarf, in armor, an ax on his back. Beside him sits his metal Spartan style helmet, spiked bracers on his forearms, he wears a fur neck lined cloak, his spaulders visible at times when his cloak slipped to the side.
Next to the dwarf, a human male stands in a gold colored fabric religious style robe, a spiked mace hangs from his leather belt at his waist. The silver hammer necklace hangs from the man's neck, a symbol of the man's belief in Thor.
The one female, an elf, sits next to the human, she leans on the wooden chest, and the bartender thought she would speak to the chest or its contents occasionally. She wears a fur lined hooded light brown cloak, an earthen toned tunic underneath the cloak. On her back is a quiver of elven made arrows, fletched in red and gold barred feathers, each arrow ornately decorated and colorful, and each one a work of art in itself. The bow leaning against the table is clearly elven made of the finest wood, and tipped with unusual horns of some animal he did not recognize from this distance. She has black hair and emerald green eyes, beautiful as most elves were. She could keep up with the others in drinking spirits. She had a tattoo on her right forearm; the bartender had noticed just a glimpse of it when she bought her first drink from him, a giant mug of lager, and the strongest he sold. He was not able to see what it was, though.
The quiet one, dressed all in plain dull black, with little flair or style to it. The man was quiet and nervous, even a little jumpy. He drank little and many times this night he had noticed the little man was gone. He never noticed him leave or come back, just was there one time, and gone the next, and the same for when he showed up again. The little man was nothing to look at, and a scar on his right cheek made him look even worse. The man was nothing to be intimidated by, but was downright ugly, diametrically opposed in looks to the elf maiden next to him currently.
Last one in the group is a tall thin man, on his head a simple coned hat in dark blue, matching his robes. He was sickly looking and even though the bartender was getting old, he was pretty sure he could break this man in two if they got into a fist fight. He had an ornate rod hanging from his belt, and a small kris on his left side, on his back a small pack, which he never parted from.
Suddenly the elf leaps forward, pulling a sword the bartender had not noticed, and had it leveled at the serving woman's throat.
"Begging your pardon ma'am, I was only trying to clean up your table."She says slowly backing away.
"Clean it from the other side."She demands, "no one gets close to this chest."She warns scanning the room, before she gets to him the bartender looks away like nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
"Don't know why you don't get a table nearer to the fire, its freezing over here, and that chest seems to radiate cold."She shivers as she walks around the table.
"That is our concern, wench."The dwarf snaps.
The bartender notices the wall next to the chest had frost on it. None of the other walls did. He frowns as he considers what could be in this chest. He would stoke up the fire; it was a little cold in the bar, but nowhere near as cold as it was outside with the howling wind. He walks over to the wood pile near the hearth.
"When you get a chance wench, get the mouse and mage another beer, and the holy man another bottle of wine, the best you have of course."The dwarf orders as he and the elf walk to the door. "Then bring me and this elf a lager, we'll be right back."
The bartender frowns, an elf and a dwarf? They tolerated one another, but to be slipping out together? It nauseated him to think of such beauty and the ugly dwarf being together, intimately. Even the rat-like man the dwarf had called the mouse, would be more acceptable, he thinks to himself as the dwarf lights a lantern.
The dwarf and the elf woman open the door and push out into the blast of cold wind. The wind blows through the whole tavern, drawing some complaints from the few regulars that were still here.
Outside the Dwarf walks in the deep snow the elf follows, they walk past the corner and turn into a small alley. They hear a thud behind them. The dwarf turns to see a dark silver dragon looking around, taking in all that it could see.
"You two!"She demands looking directly at the dwarf and the elf, "I want what you have taken from me!"
"We are lowly travelers "
"Do not lie!"She screams in her cavernous voice."You stole it, I am a dragon, and I have excellent eyes. You took it away in a large wooden chest. Had it not been for this storm, I would have caught up to you long ago. But I lost you in the blizzard."
"Perhaps you are mistaken."The elf offers, the dragon notices the bow slide down her back. The dwarf's axe was no longer on his back.
"Return what you have stolen and no one will have to die."She demands, she sees the door open and the bartended looks out.
"I do not want anyone else harmed, please stay inside."The dragon warns the man.
"The chest you seek "The bartender begins but tenses flinging the door back staggers into the snow, the one they called mouse stands a bloody knife in hand.
The assassin was not quick enough, the bartender had pointed as he spoke, and she deduced the chest was in the bar.
The dwarf lunges forward, as the elf brings her bow up arrow in place.
The dragon opens her mouth and releases a freezing blast of energy, the elf dodges the worst of the blast but the dwarf charged into it, the thief dodged into the tavern but was hit with some of the blast too. The dwarf's body collapsed into the snow frozen solid.
The dragon charges forward, quicker than the elf was, and pins the elf to the ground with a fore claw. The elf looks up at the dragon, her bow useless as it was pinned up against her body.
"Surrender! and no one else need be hurt." She offers, "I want my baby!" She hisses.
The flash from the door was the only warning she got, she lunges to the side as a huge ball of fire shoots past her, and explodes nearby, the fore claw that had pinned the elf was burned, and the elf was burned, silent and not moving. She spins and spews another blast of cold energy at the mage whom was standing in the doorway. He dodges into the snow, but his legs are hit with the freezing energy, he screams in pain. The dragon sees the mouse shoot down the alley away from the fight. The dragon charges towards the door, the mage scrambling to get out of her way, but his legs were not moving. She knew his legs were frozen solid, he would never walk again. She did not like killing, or maiming anyone or anything, but they took her egg, her baby, she could not leave it in the hands of these cutthroats.
She grabs the door frames and yanks ripping the door frame away from the stone wall, dropping the remains of the door, she looks inside. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the remains of the door fall on the bartender's body.
Inside, a drunken man was complaining to a hooded man facing the other direction. The two other men in the room were against the far wall cowering in fear. The head of a human woman peeks over the bar. She sees the chest near the outer wall, above it is a boarded up window.
She looks at the serving woman, "They will not need their drink order anymore."
Dragons had good eyes, and good hearing.
She knows there were five thieves that took her egg. She had three lying outside, and one fled. One of these men was the last of the group. The drunk was so blindly intoxicated he did not know what was going on. The men cowering against the wall were typical peasant types; the woman cowering behind the bar, was obviously a waitress. Which left the man looking away from her, the commotion outside and her ripping the door away from the building was enough for any normal person to look around. The man was either deaf or hiding from her. The person wore a cloak that she did not recognize, but the drunken man was complaining to the cloaked figure that he wanted his cloak back.
"Holy man, "She hisses," The servant of a God should not steal a man's cloak in this cold weather."
The man slowly stands and peels away the cloak, revealing the golden religious robe underneath.
"One of your friends is out here suffering; you have the means to ease his pain."The dragon informs him.
"Suffering is a part of life."He replies without concern.
The drunken man finally sees the dragon and staggers backwards stumbling over a bar stool, and knocks a table over as he lands on the floor with a thud.
"What happens to you thieving humanoids, I care not."She growls, "I have come for my egg."
"I have no idea what you are talking about."He shrugs.
"The wooden chest over there, it is covered in frost, even though nothing else is frosted in the tavern?"She nods her horned head towards the chest.
"That is not mine." he says looking over at the chest.
She steps out of the tavern, instantly she feels a blade penetrate her scales, severe pain in her back. She spins quickly the blade in her back is yanked out as she does. The rat faced man stands there in shock, holding the sword darkened with her blood.
Her head snaps forward and snatches the man's head off his shoulders, blood spurts from the neck, the body tumbles to the ground. She tosses her head releasing the man's head, it hits the mage as he squirmed trying to get to the road only a few yards from where he fell, and then rolls off. The mage screams in terror as he sees what hit him.
The dragon lunges into the bar, the cowering people had fled, to another room, or maybe a back door. The man in the robes was also gone. The waitress was nervously standing behind the bar. The dragon crouches moving forward pushing the tables aside as she pushed towards the chest.
"I ain't got no other job."She woman calls to her.
"I do not have another egg."She replies as she finally reaches the chest.
"I need this job to buy food."She pushes.
The Dragon carefully lifts the lid on the chest, and inside the icy chest is a silver blue egg, undamaged. She leans near it, hearing the woman saying something but she ignored her. She hears the baby inside. She relaxes and slowly turns to look at the woman.
"I didn't take your baby."She says quickly.
"I know you did not."She replies.
The dragon grabs the handle of the chest and begins dragging it towards the door.
"I need money to survive."The waitress moves slowly forward towards the area that use to have a door.
The dragon gets to the door as the woman draws near. The dragon stares at her to see if she was challenging her. The woman was desperate, but not crazy.
The dragon turns and pulls the chest outside. The woman begins to push the chest outside. The dragon looks back in surprise.
The woman looks sadly at the dragon.
She releases the chest and steps over, carefully grabbing the leather bag on the side of the frozen dwarf. She steps over to the burnt corpse of the elf, and grabs her pouch too.
She tosses the bags to the waitress.
"This should be enough to get the door fixed, if you want to repair the tavern, or it could get you a new home if you want that.
"This tavern isn't mine."She shrugs.
"Really?" She asks,"Did the owner have any family?"
"Ah, no he didn't."
"I am pretty sure his dying words were "The dragon hesitates, "I might have it wrong, what is your name?"
"Gwendyle?"(Gwen-Dial)The waitress replies.
"Yes, that was the name; He said "Gwendyle was the owner of the tavern for her loyal service to him. Congratulations."The dragon says and stomps over and snatches the leather bag of the mage that had just made it to the road.
"I only worked for him for a year, this was the first winter."She explains.
"You must have really impressed him then."The dragon says without hesitation.
"Here is another, he wanted you to have it because of all the damages they did."
After saying that, she turns and carefully latches the chest, and lifts it between her fore claws and begins to walk away.
"What if someone says I am lying about owning the tavern?"She asks.
"Tell them to come see me, Icelana. I will tell them what I tell you."
The waitress watches as the dragon disappears in the blizzard.
She turns to look at the door, or the opening to the tavern, where the door use to be.
She would need to board up the hole, and use the backdoor until they could get it fixed.
"The few that challenged the waitress's story never went to find the dragon known as Icelana, no one with any legitimate claim never came forward. So she had the front door fixed actually had two doors put in, because the hole was so large. She also had a new sign with the new name on it.
"Icelana's tavern, no pets
But dragon's are always welcome."
--- ---- ----- ------
Photo inspiration: by ~dolphinboy2000; Trespassers; Trespassers by ~dolphinboy2000 on deviantART
