Capítulo 51: - The Stationary
By the time Lukali had woken up, clearly exhausted from what had transpired last night, Rian had already woken up, heading downstairs after eating his breakfast.
Following suit, Lukali rushed to finish the eggs and grits that had been delivered to his room early in the morning, though he was far too tired to eat any of it when it was delivered.
The eggs were warm and coated in butter. The grits were delicious, the chief taking the time to add cheese to the dish. Lukali couldn't help but savor the taste, though he needed to eat fast, his mind often drifting to last night, keeping him from getting out the door.
When he did join Rian, who was sipping a black and tough drink, vapor and steam floating form the cup.
"You're up?"
Said Rian, lifting his head up to meet Lukai's eyes.
"Yeah, sorry I slept in."
"You don't need to apologize. Sometimes I need some extra sleep too."
He glanced over at Lukali, taking another sip of his drink.
"Rough night?"
Solemnly nodding his head, Lukali took the second drink Rian offered him, its water a dark and murky brownish black.
"Yeah, I had a few nightmares here and there."
"Anything I should know about?"
Lukali thought for a moment before shaking his head.
"No, everything's alright. Just some old memories I would rather forget."
Rian hesitated, thinking back to the four men, he thought to pry into this a bit more.
"Was it about those four?"
Lukali grew silent, his mind working behind the seams.
"No. About someone else…"
After several seconds, Lukali spoke, his voice firm with confidence, leaving no room for the possibilities of lies.
Seeing that Lukali didn't want to talk about it, Rian stopped pushing for answers, already having been given the answers he needed.
'At least he's still not hung up on those four.'
Thought Rian, as he sipped his morning drink, was careful to not spill the hot liquid on himself.
However, he soon failed in doing so, as a loud thump jolted him from his seat, along with the shaking of the building.
The table vibrated, the shelves shook, and what little wasn't tied down, fell from their spots, stopped only by the innkeeper who caught them effortlessly.
"There they go again."
The innkeeper commented, sighing as he whipped away a smudge on one of the cups.
"What in the world was that?"
The innkeeper looked to Rian, sighed once again, and nodded off towards the back door.
"Those two have been training all morning since she came down earlier."
"She?"
"The woman you stopped by with. The one who ordered your breakfast."
Rian turned to Lukali, a question running across his face. But before he could ask further, the small subtle sounds of feet pattering on the wooden steps grew louder, as the sounds of mumbling grew with it.
Soon, a beautiful, tall woman with golden hair and fair skinned, came running down the steps, not missing a single one.
"What was that?"
She looked from Rian to the innkeeper, searching for an explanation.
'Weird. I thought we were the only ones here.'
Rian knew for a fact that when they came in last night, the inn was empty, not a single person in sight.
Even the innkeeper said they could have any room in the house, given that no one was presently occupying them.
Which meant that this woman had to have either come late into the night, or early in the morning, as Rian knew nothing of her to begin with.
Seeing that Rian was not going to answer, the woman looked back to the innkeeper, who silently placed a glass cup down before answering.
"Two guests are currently sparring in the backyard."
"Why the hell are they sparing? What do they think this is a guard station?"
Rian and Lukali shared a glance, each thinking the same thing.
'Why board up in an inn, right next to a guards station if you were going to complain.'
Seeing the faces of both Rian and Lukali, the woman waved them off, dismissing them.
"Don't answer that."
She sighed and moved to the bar.
"Give me something strong. I have a really bad hangover, and I don't feel like going through all this right now."
The innkeeper didn't argue with the woman, and instantly brought out a small wooden cup, pouring in a hot black liquid that Rian had been drinking earlier.
"Here you are ma'am. Hope your stay here will be pleasant."
As if to quote the irony in that sentence, the room shook again, causing small drops of hot liquid to spill out of the cup.
"Hard to believe that, I would say."
She took a long, deep sip of the drink, clearly not bothered by the piping hot liquid that had just been freshly brewed.
Turning to Rian, Lukali motioned for the both of them to leave, as they gathered what little things they had brought down from their rooms, and left out the back door.
The heavy wooden door opened with a creaking swing, whatever lies behind it stopping rian and Lukali in their tracks.
"Whoa…"
Muttered Rian as he watched the glints of silver and sunlight flash across the empty backyard, dust spilling out into the air.
A man stood in the center of the empty plot, his body shifting directions from one side to the other, twisting his body this way and that.
Around him a person's - no, a blur was speeding around, kicking up dust everywhere they went. A flash of the sun's light gave Rian the distinct impression that the blur was holding a sword, though he could not see it.
With each blinding flash of sunlight striking against the man, the blur circled even faster around the man.
However, no matter how many flashes of that sword the blur threw, the man in the center always deflected them, returning back to his normal pose with each parry of the sword.
"Well this was not what I had expected."
Rian walked out into the open plot, unafraid of the blur that was currently circulating around the man. A sense of danger or death suffocating anyone who had any thoughts of walking into its path, torn to shreds at their speed.
"Ah, Rian, Lukali, you're up."
Taking a glance at the two oncoming individuals, Cain smiled, bowling his head, welcoming them.
The blur flew at him, thanking the moment of his hesitation and distraction to land a killing blow on top of him.
However, the blur was stopped the moment Cain raised his hand, the sword clashing against it with a loud metal clang!
"A fair attempt I will say."
The blur faded from its speed, returning to normal, taking the form of a young woman, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat.
Lia.
"I think you still need to work on your skill usage. You're getting too tired in too short of time."
Through labored breaths, Lia let the sword fall down to her side, too exhausted from their bout to continue.
"It's still a new skill, it will take time."
"Yes, but time is not always on your side. Work with time, yet prepare to go against it when you need to."
Taking heed to his words, Lia nodded her head, finally taking notice of Rian and Lukali.
"Hey, you guys are up. Sorry if I woke you."
She smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.
Rian shook his head, gesturing back towards the inn.
"Nah, it's the woman you should be worried about."
"Woman?"
Lia frowned, thoughts similar to Rian's flooding her mind.
"What woman?"
After getting a run down of what had transpired between them and the woman, Lia nodded her head, turning to Cain with an apologetic look on her face.
"It's probably best if you aren't seen. Sorry."
Cain shook his head.
"Don't worry about it. I needed some rest anyways, and besides…"
He grew silent for a moment, his mind shifting to far away thoughts. When he finally did speak, his voice was somewhat quiet, distant.
"...I can't really stand women."
Lia, though confused, shrugged and called Cain back, his body disappearing in a flash, similar to that of flames bursting in a split second moment.
Tuning to Rian and Lukali, Lia headed off back towards the inn, talking to them along the way.
"I think we should look for a Hunters post in the town, since we might be here for a while."
Rian, who was closest, voiced his opinion on the matter, somewhat hesitant in doing so.
"I don't know…wouldn't visiting a Hunters post make us more known. Besides, if those four are lurking around the place, that would be the first place I would go to."
Lukali caught up to Rian, knowing these people well, he refuted his words.
"I don't think so. Those four will probably be scouring the city through the allies and the backstreets. They're not the type of people to run around out in the open like that."
"Right. We saw that yesterday in the Tavern when they were acting all arrogant, but what would be the reason for visiting a Hunter's post? We have plenty of gold."
Lia shook her head, opening the back door to the inn and heading inside.
"If we are going to run into them eventually, it would be best to get the outpost on our side. If we can amass a certain number of allies while here, we might be able to expand our connections, and provide ourselves with protection in case we need it."
Hearing Lia's reasoning, Rian was somewhat baffled.
'Since when did she start acting like a general.'
After thinking back to the memories he had of Lia, and her actions while in the midst of turmoil, he quickly shook his head.
'No, she's always been like that. Whenever there is danger, she will always view it as war.'
Coming into the main hall of the inn, Lia's eyes landed on a tall, slender woman with golden hair, sipping a freshly brewed morning coffee.
"Good morning."
Lia raised a hand to greet the woman, who - unsurprisingly - did not raise a hand to greet her, and instead, slowly put her cup down on the table and turned to her.
"What do you think is the big idea being so loud in the morning? Well?"
Lia was somewhat flabbergasted at the questions and accusations flung in her direction.
"Uh…well, I apologize about that. Truly I do, but I'm afraid that I was unaware anyone else was here. Besides my party members and the innkeeper of course."
Rather than deter her, the explanation, with perfectly good reasoning to back it up, merely sounded like an excuse to her.
"Hmp!"
She made a sound of annoyance as she flipped her head back to the innkeeper.
"I can't believe you would allow someone like them into this inn."
The innkeeper turned to Lia and her group, casting his eyes between Lia and the woman, he sighed before responding to her.
"They have gold. I take any who have gold."
"Oh! You would take gold over punctuality!"
"That's business."
The woman, seemingly done with this conversation, got up from the bar and walked back up the stairs, casting a dirty look to Lia and her group.
From the back of her mind, Lia could hear a little voice, quiet, but clear.
'I wanna kill her now.'
'No, Cain. She's just a person who woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. That doesn't mean to kill her!'
'In my book it is.'
Sighing, Lia approached the innkeeper, who was cleaning up the cups and plates left behind by the woman.
"Excuse me sir, but do you know of a Hunters post in this town? We're Hunters and -"
Before she could even finish the innkeeper spoke, clearly having heard this question before.
"Near the center of town. You'll see it when you get there. It's a big building that reaches high with a large spire on the top of it. The place is always packed with people."
Turning back to his work, the innkeeper mumbled to himself.
Lia was just barely able to hear it because of her increased hearing, but his words were clear when she did.
"Those damned goblins and their horde. Making everyone feel antsy these days."
Hearing this, Lia's heart jumped at the idea of monsters, especially hordes of ones as small and light weight as goblins.
'This should help me get stronger. What better way to increase my strength than taking on goblins!?'
However, as she tried to contain her excitement, Cain crushed it easily.
'Goblins are no small feat. Alone they're easy to deal with. In a horde, they're some of the ost annoying bugs out there.'
'Then what should I do?'
'Nothing. Keep Hunting like all the others.'
Cain's words disappointed Lia, as the thought of Hunting several dozens of goblins seemed somewhat fun.
Sensing this change in Lia, Cain couldn't help but think back to his youth when he first ran into goblins.
'Those were some frightening times, being stuck in that cave for days. What little she knows about their true nature.'
He shrugged when he thought about Lia fighting them off one by one.
'Well, it would serve as good practice. After all, she isn't wrong to say they're good starter creatures. Much less than those spiders.'
Unlike the Silver Tailed Spiders, who were C ranked in difficulty and danger, goblins - even a horde of them - were only F ranked at best, some being so weak they weren't even ranked at all.
They were perfect.
'Don't get discouraged Lia. Even though you shouldn't be standing out that much by taking down too many of them, it's good to get some practice in.'
'Are you sure?'
'It won't be that bad, just don't try standing out too much, do you understand?'
Thinking about it for a moment, Lia secretly nodded her head.
'Yes, I understand.'
'Good.'
After getting directions from the innkeeper, Lia set off with Rian and Lukali closely following in tow, their weapons and armor strapped against their skin and sides.
However, what they failed to notice in their rush to get out the door, was the woman who watched them from the top of the banister, her eyes tracing over their weapons and armor.
Seeming to come to some type of conclusion, she turned her feet, and walked away, mumbling to herself words that would set Lia and her group on edge.
"I think this will do quite nicely."
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