Why is the ale gone?

Teresa’s golden hair swayed gently in the rhythm as she walked across the street. Her metal boots made a soft noise as they hit the pavement. Her silver eyes were not locked on the road though. Instead they were focused on a distortion in the air that seemingly swallowed her arm. It was a neat trick spatial magic, it meant she never had to carry a bag, but it was still a bit worrying to see her arm just vanish. She could feel though what was around and in a way the magic purse worked on thought. Whatever you are thinking about, usually materializes first. At least that was how her teacher had explained it to her.

Sadly nothing much was forming around her fingers this time. Grumbling she began moving her hands around, searching for the keys she wanted to return. For some reason she could not find them though and it began to slightly aggravate her. She was already hungry and thirsty and not in the mood for this. With a grumble a second hand was raised and thrust into the nothingness.

She was so busy rummaging that she almost walked head first into the massive wooden sign post. At the very last moment she sensed something and dug her left foot into the ground, allowing her to pivot at the last moment. She noticed her hair barely brushing the post and annoyed she looked up. “Who the frick puts a sign in the midd- oohhh drinxies!” It was just what she needed. She could find those stupid keys another time and in any case it was not her responsibility. All she did was stumble across them and in a moment of boredom had decided to return them. Now however she seemed to have found something else to quell her boredom.

With a smile on her face she shifted her body in the right direction and made her way to the inn. Three tables were already occupied and Teresa considered taking a seat, but at the moment she was more interested in a drink, so she made her way for the bar. Aside from the barista there was only one other customer at the bar.

At first Teresa ignored her, until she realized it was actually a female knight. Or rather she noticed the big glass of gold. Even from a distance she could smell it’s delicious fragrance and heard the loud call of gold. As in a trance she walked towards the bar, hopped on one of the bar chairs with a vigor uncommon in millenia old witches. In her enthusiasm she forgot to watch out and accidentally knocked over the glass of gold from the knight.

“Ahhhhhhh my bad” She exclaimed loudly as she grabbed a stack of napkins and desperately tried to keep the gold liquid to spill of the bar. “Let me get you another one.” Teresa said a bit flustered, a bit of pink coloring her cheeks. Without waiting for the answer, she turned towards the barista. [color=blue=“Can I please get two of the biggest Golds you have, along with two B52’s… and keep them coming until I… uhm… just keep them coming.”[/color] She said with a big grin as she reached into the purse and placed her remaining currency on the bar.

“My apologies miss. My name is Theresa.” She said as she turned back to the knight with a smile and an extended hand. With a flicker of her hand the soaked tissues vanished into her bag. “Oh my… that is some fancy equipment you got.” She said with a slight excitement in her voice as he eyes wandered over the fancy armor and finally resting upon the rapier. [color=“Seriously nice.”[/color] She said with a whistle, as she forced her gaze up again.

WC: 650/650
@Amalia

Teresa blinked a few times as Amalia suddenly requiped and the beautiful armor vanished. She softly clicked with her tongue as a sign of disappointment. She could always appreciate a good weapon. The requip was extremely well done though. The silver eyed witch was a practicer of the same magic, but not nearly as well as that. “Oh that was well done.” She said with a little whistle in her voice as she tried to move a bit more forward to attain a more preferable position to sit upon the barstool.

A slight wiff annoyance shot through her as she tried, but nothing seemed to move. With a surprised soft grunt she tried again and again, trying to reach her drink that was just out of reach. Yet every-time something seemed to be pulling her back again and she was just about to snap her head back to see what it was when she realized. “Ahhh… hehe.” She said as the little bit of pink returned to her cheeks and she quickly snapped her fingers. This time she requiped and the offending greatsword that had been stuck. It vanished in a white puff of smoke and a plain silver bracelet appeared on her arm.

“Ah well that is actually just my happy tactic to get to know people. Especially if they seem to be drinking all alone.” She replied with a sly grin as she finally was able to slide forward and grab her drink. The gold ale sliding down her throat more eager then a whole infestation of Jehovah witnesses. “Actually I am rather new here. Arrived just a few days ago, so I am still getting my bearings.” She replied jovially as she was done staring at the menu and snapped her fingers loudly. “I will have the meat platter, a bowl of bread and for dessert the cheese.” She told the barman just as he was bringing the B52 shots. “Just use the straw and drink fast enough for it not to burn.” Teresa said with a friendly wink as she pointed at the flaming shots. Without hesitating she plunged the straw deep in the shot glass and sucked as if her life depended on it. Instantly warmth spread through her chest. “Anyway do you know where I can find the best food, drink and company around here?” She asked bluntly as she released the straw from between her lips and set up straight again.

Just at the moment a large group of rowdy men entered the establishment. Some of them already seemed to have trouble walking straight and Teresa could hear singing. A moment later a familiar sour smell began to make it’s way to the bar and in response she held her glass of ale a bit closer to her nose. “Just what I needed.” She said with a sarcastic chuckle as she shook her head.

WC: 495
TWC: 650 + 495 = 1,145
@Amalia

If it had not been so true, Teresa might actually have gotten slightly upset about the dagger joke. Instead she burst out into laughter, as she realized Amalalia was so much closer to the truth than she could ever imagine. A bit of an inside joke, but it did crack her up. “You have no idea!” She said as she wiped a few tears from her eyes and sat down again.

“Ehhh I dunno…” She replied to Amalia as she shrugged her shoulders. Teresa used to make the drinks herself and this was the first time she was actually asked why they were on fire. They just happened to be. That was just the kind of drink they were. Of course it did help to burn off the Stroh Rum 80, otherwise the drink would kick like a mule. She could however just have made it with normal rum and not burn it. However this particular drink just happened to be on fire. “I could also ask you why they bother serving me mugs of ale, instead of laying me directly under the bar and give me direct access.” She replied with a grin as she pushed the drink in front of Amalia. “It just is what it is. It is delicious though, Baileys is the dominant flavor. You could of course wait about twenty seconds for the flame to go out if you prefer that.” She said with a shrug as she turned back to her ale.

“Wait I am in Crocus?” She suddenly exclaimed as she finally conciously digested the information Amalia had given her. It had not been her intention to cross in a different country, let alone the capital city, but such things happened to her all the time. She usually did not do a lot of planning ahead and just allowed the currents of life to draw her forwards. “Oh this guild thing sounds nice. Do they also have lot of nice food and drink at this Silver… Wolves?!? Guild?” She asked genuinely interested, just before she ducked sideways, allowing an empty tankard to fly past her head.

“I need them as much as I need a tooth-ache.” She said to clarify as she glanced over to the group of man who had taken their places around a group of tables and where already getting rowdy.

She had already clenched her fist and a bit of magic began to sparkle around it, when luckily her attention was drawn by a delicious looking meat platter. “Oh you should try this.” She said moments later to Amalia, delight shining in her eyes, as she swallowed some kind of red meat. “I mean, after all I might just be stealing a bit of pie.” She said with a devious grin as she grabbed her knife and cut of another piece of meat.

If all the food and drink were as good as they were here, it might be worth sticking around her a bit longer. “Say… do you think I could join your guild?” She asked completely out of the blue, before putting a new piece of meat in her mouth.

WC: 508
TWC: 2,413 + 508 = 2,921

A small part of Teresa was inclined to give a lecture about how ‘decency’ was a human construct, a fabrication and one that changes all the time, even from country to country. Even in this day and age there were countries were it was normal for a rich man to have several wifes, even if by other standards that was called indecent. She probably could hold an entire lecture, but as she noticed Amalia had simply waited and drank it anyway, she decided it was not worth it. “Okay fair enough. Though I swear I miss the times of good old fashioned bacchanals.” She simply replied with a grin, as she could not help but think back a bit.

Teresa decided to ignore the remark about how she got here as it would be difficult to explain. Basically she had just been wandering, searching. Perhaps she was in the wrong place though. At least the food was good.

Oddly enough Teresa did believe in luck or predestination. One might expect that the older one would get, the least one would get to believe in those. She however might be considered proof of the opposite, that only the young and ignorant would quickly dismiss it. From her calculations and experiences there was simply no other explanation for some of the events that took place all the time, all over the world. In this case it might just be a coincidence she ran into a guild mage who had barely been into a guild at all. Just long enough to sign-up and meet her here. Now it might just be… but she believed in a grander scheme of things. At least she hoped that was the case, otherwise the universe was kind of ridiculous. “All right, I think I will check them out.” She said wit a smile.

It had been a while since she had been part of anything. Might be fun to do that again for a couple of decades.

Albeit Teresa heard Amalia say no, her brain did not really process it. Especially when the delicious looking lime pie was served. A bit of drool was already starting to form when something flew past her. She felt the wind, heard the clatter and all of a sudden she found her meat platter was hosting the pie. It was not what she had wanted… ruining two perfectly good dishes.

To her surprise Amalia was even quicker on the uptake and for a moment it looked as if she was emitting a cloud of pure anger and evil, causing Teresa to shiver for a moment.

This was truly odd. Normally she was the first on the barricades to preserve the right of all food to be digested normally and not spoiled by a group of smelly brutes. The problem was that now it should have been her job to stop Amalia. At least normally people tried to stop her, so she probably should.

“Okay, let’s go say hi.” She said however with a huge grin as she turned around to the offensive table and cracked her knuckles loudly. “Gentleman, I am afraid you disturbed our dinner and we would like a word about that.” She said with a honey sweet voice, still cracking her knuckles, as she slowly began to close he distance.

WC: 541
TWC: 3,341 + 541 = 3,882
@Amalia

It was not rare for Teresa’s words to go uncommented, however to be completely ignored or not even heard was a different matter. As she had turned around and commented them on disturbing their dinner, she did not even register on their radar. They were simply being too busy shouting at each other and drawing weapons to even notice her. Teresa crossed her arms and began tapping the floor impatiently with her foot as she was trying to decide which was worse. Being completely ignored or not heard at all. In the end she decided it was pretty much a draw.

An annoying draw nonetheless!

Her eyebrow twitched slightly as she watched the -what she assumed were them- the leaders of two cults. No wait, probably gangs, judging from their language. From what she gathered there was some kind of dispute between the two gangs, ‘Isn’t there always!’, and this was probably going to be a battlefield.

“Ma’am, Ma’am,” the Bulldog nodded to both of the women, “I advise you to keep out of this, and go somewhere else for a drink; perhaps even stay home, it’s going to be a volatile night.” Suddenly a male voice spoke from besides them. Now to be honest, Teresa was not overly defensive about the fact that woman were still mistreated. In all fairness woman were the weaker and more fragile sex, plus the male idiocy for thinking they were there to protect woman was hard coded in their genes. She could ignore a few remarks quite easily.

However she did not like being told not to fight! Had Amalia not struck the bloke at exactly the moment she did, Teresa would have.

Just at the moment the guy fell, a shot was fired and suddenly things went from fun to serious. A tavern fight was simply a nice way to pass the time and allow a girl to sweat out some of the alcohol. Build up a new appetite so to speak. However a fight with weapons was much more serious and people could get hurt. So she wondered what she should do. She was neither law enforcement, nor an inhabitant of this nation, so should she get involved?

Before she could figure it out though she noticed the knight Amalia had already moved into action.

She frowned slightly as she followed suit. Raising up her fists a bit and mumbling a few quick defensive spells, she dove straight into the action. Since this was probably not a sanctioned fight, she dared not to used her weapons. The moment she walked into the middle of the action though, she somehow immediately managed to get surrounded by a group of man and woman fighting each other. Or probably two groups, judging by the different signs they were adorned with. “H-hokay… and you are?” She asked, trying to distract them for a moment, hoping she could use it to escape them.

Sadly lady luck was not on her side and for some reason the two groups now seemed to have a mutual understanding to focus on her first. Letting out something that resembled a grunt, she hastily took a step back to avoid a metal bar being swung towards her head. “To me!” She yelled with a grin as she grabbed the bar just as it swung past her face and tugged real hard, drawing the man who swung it closer to her. Like a tango. As he was unvoluntarily approaching her she suddenly exchanged forces and pushed the bar off as hard as she could. “To You!” She yelled as the bar that was moving away and the chin of the man that was approaching her collided in the middle.

As science teaches us, the unstoppable force and the unmovable object cancel each other out. Which in this case would seem irrelevant as both objects are moving, but cancel each other out they sure did.

With a muffled yell the man staggered a few moments, before dropping to the floor. Canceled out indeed.

Without giving the others a moment she swung the metal pipe so ferociously that most of them seemed to back off and look for other targets they could assault. All but the biggest and meanest looking of the bunch. I mean pig meets orc kind of big and ugly, definitely leaning more to orc considering his looks. Or hers? -for one very disturbing moment Teresa was unsure-. To be safe she simply dubbed the being an ‘it’, presuming that asking for the gender could not help it’s mood.

With a terrifying swing that exceeded both power and speed, it leapt towards her and to make a long story short, a minute later Teresa approached Amalia. The creatures head firmly locked between her arm and her body, dragging the unconscious body with her. “Soooo…. Quick question.” She said as her back touched the knights back, allowing her to watch the entire establishment. “Are we fighting out of hate, duty or simply fun?” She asked curiously as she raised her left leg and kicked an approaching female in the shins, who cursed loudly and hopped backwards as Teresa’s metal boots nearly cracked the bone.

WC: 851
TWC: 4,382 + 851 = 5,233
@Amalia

Teresa could not help but crack a smile as she heard Amalia’s answer. She could not help but like people who prioritized pie like that. “Alright, I can work with that.” She said with a nod and a grin as she punched the thing, still locked under her arm, straight in the face and then dropped it. For a moment the grey eyes in the center of the face trembled, then went cross eyes and lifeless. By the time its four chins hit the wooden floor -and bounced several times due to the elasticity of fat- it was out could. “I might be inclined to join you though, you made that Pie sound good.” She quickly added before dashing off.

It had been a while since she had fought for duty. Teresa had no clue what kind of duty that was, but she figured it would have something to do with those Rune Knights Amalia just mentioned. More then likely they were some kind of law enforcement.

As she was thinking, she was weaving through the crowd, relying on centuries of combat experiences and muscle memory. She was not even looking at the people as she walked, bobbed, side-stepped and weaved. Her thumb and index finger pinching her chin, she wondered if she could turn this somehow to her advantage. Maybe she could make a bit of the local money, allowing her to sleep in a bed for a change. However she doubted the owner of the bar would pay her if there was law enforcement coming anyway. It was a pity though… a bed would have been nice. Letting out a sound that could best be described as annoyed air leaking out of her mouth, she grabbed the first guy she encountered. He was not very big and maybe she would have preferred a bigger guy. Still he would have to do. Ducking underneath his swing, she took and step forward. Her lowered head barely missed the swinging forearms. She grabbed the man’s shirt with both hands, slid one leg between his and then used her entire strength and momentum to throw the man.

Now had the man been a bit heavier, stronger, skilled or maybe even lucky, the outcome would have been different. Or if Teresa had not been annoyed for a moment and needed to unwind. In any case the throw had enough force to send the man flying again and then through the outer door. With a croaking sound that made Teresa feel sorry for the innocent wood, the door was split in half and almost wrung from its hinges.

She shook her head in pity for the door and the owner of the bar, who could see the damages doubling all the time.

Suddenly the half broken door swung open and a single young man entered, dressed in some official and very heavy looking armor. “Everyone stand down! In the name of the Rune Knights!” The man bellowed as loudly as he could, putting extra emphasis on the words Rune Knight to strengthen his position of power. Had the boy been a bit heavier, stronger, or skilled looking, it might even have worked. Now both groups simply stopped for a moment and looked at the boy in amazement. Mostly for having the balls to interrupt the fight, while none was sure that he was old enough for them to have dropped yet. Of course if you are neither strong, heavy, big or skilled looking, usually it would have been a good idea to use guile and brains. Sadly the young knight seemed to have neither, confirmed by his following words. “I warn you! Once my colleagues are done quelling fights all over the city, they will come and arrest you all. So I would advice you to break it up and leave now on your own accord. It is your last chance.” He said loudly, trying to look confident and convincing, placing his hands in his side.

In fairness a good and honorable deal. Sadly all that everyone else in the bar heard was; [color]“Hello everyone, I am all alone and it will be sometime before back-up arrives.”[/color] For a moment the members of the Golden Circle and the Bulldogs looked at each other and instantly agreed upon a temporary truce. After all the one thing they hated more then each other was the law.

Without a word being said, several mages of both groups turned towards the young Rune Knight and unleashed a barrage of quite deadly magics upon the boy. It quickly became apparent though why the boy had been able to become the law at such a young age. He didn’t even blink. Instead he quickly moved his hands, forming a solid shield of ice on which all the different magics hit. In all probability it would probably have been quite a fair fight, if not suddenly three things had happened. First there was the breaking of glass, followed by a heavy concrete tankard flying through the half broken door against the back of the head of the rune knight, followed by the sound of more breaking glass.

For a moment everyone just looked as if they had been bit with a stupidity spell. The boys eyes went all white and his body collapsed as his powerless legs could not longer carry him. Then they shrugged and they turned back to each other. “Well that was unexpected.” Teresa said with a faint smile, standing near the bar. She was casually throwing a pebble in the air, catching it and repeating the process.

WC: 919
TWC: 5,993 + 919 = 6,908
@Amalia