บท 157: Chapter 157 The Winner of the Competition is…

Stepping up to the door, leading into the dwarven stronghold, Aella took a breath. She wanted to teleport in front of Bob's bar, but there were too many people there, and none of the routes between the door and the bar were empty of people to allow her to teleport Alfred and Frederik with her. Checking herself, she saw with some amusement that she had stretched her neckline all the way to her bellybutton. With a quick flip of her thumb, it corrected itself to her collarbones.

"Are you going to teleport us?" asked Alfred, stepping up next to her as she went to reach for the door.

"No, there's too many dwarves out and about," she said, throwing the door open and stepping onto the landing leading to the long-exposed walkway that lead across the open space of the interior of the hollowed mountain.

"Really?" asked Frederik, scrunching his brow in surprise. "I would have thought they were all too drunk to be wandering around."

"Don't ever mistake a dwarf for being drunk," piped up a dwarven guard, stepping into sight with a grin. "We're capable of amazing feats while under the effects of our cups."

"Do you know who won the competition?" asked Aella.

"Last I heard, it was a close tie between the king and that elven princess you brought over. I think the king even accused her of using magic to cheat but that barkeep, Bob, claims she isn't. If you hurry, you might be able to catch the end of it."

"Thanks," said Aella, giving him a nod and making her way along the walkway.

"I wonder what the guards think when you keep coming in, but they never see you leave," chuckled Alfred.

"They probably all know that she can teleport by now," said Frederik. "I'm surprised they're taking the information so lightly. I figured they would be a lot more upset about the whole thing."

"What's your problem?" asked Aella, spinning on her heel and stepping up into Frederik before he could stop himself.

"She doesn't remember what she said," said Alfred with a chuckle.

"What did I say?" she asked, turning back to look at Alfred.

"Something that is better left unsaid twice," muttered Frederik moodily, stepping back away from her and looking out over the open expanse of the dwarven city.

She studied him for a moment, trying to remember what she could have possibly said to put him in such a mood, then decided it didn't matter, and turned to continue their walk. It would either come up later, or it wouldn't.

As they got closer to the bar, they started encountering groups of dwarves who were trying to make it home, or were too busy singing to continue. Some of the groups had really good lungs on them, but she didn't know their language to be able to figure out what the verses were. Judging from some of the laughing after each strain, she figured they were probably great.

"Whew! I'm glad Bridgette isn't here," laughed Alfred softly. "Some of that is pretty wild!"

"You know dwarven?" asked Aella with a start. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I told you I knew a little a long time ago," Alfred said giving her a look. "And honestly, none of them have spoken it in front of us for me to mention it again."

She sniffed and nodded. He had a point.

Just before they stepped into the doorway to enter Bob's bar, a glass bottle came flying at her, crashing against the floor and shattering into a shower of glass shards and some pungent liquid that burst into bright blue flames.

Thinking quickly, Aella whipped off her cloak and threw it over the fire, and went to use her fire to snuff it out. But she paused in mid-throw. The fire was burning so hot, she knew it would crack the rock. The fuel that it was using was some alchemical concoction that made it burn brighter and hotter than she had ever seen occur before. The fire that flowed in her veins wanted that fuel. It wanted to be brighter and hotter, to flow in her veins as a heat that could power her through any obstacle.

As her eyes dilated and her breathing sped up, she reached down and felt the flames flickering against her skin. With a cry from someone beside her, she plunged her entire fist into the flames and soaked up the alchemical liquid, taking that heat and fire within her somehow. Closing her eyes, Aella could feel it speeding through her veins,

"Your Majesty!" a cry rang out, and someone grabbed her by her arm, dragging her away from the melted glass mess that was left.

Opening her eyes, as she rested against the rock wall that she was pushed up against, she was surprised to see Frederik's face pressed up against her.

"Are you alright?" he breathed, looking deep into her eyes. "Your eyes have changed again. They have a blue heat to them that wasn't there before."

A passion overtook her and she reached out and kissed him. He jerked back, holding his mouth where her lips had touched his.

"OW! You're burning up!" he exclaimed, not complaining about the kiss itself, only the heat of her. She was pleased with that.

"What do you expect?" she laughed, stepping away from the much warmer stone, and glancing over at the dwarves who were busy trying to clean up the mess.

"I hope the next time you try to jump me, you aren't on fire," he grumbled, licking his obviously swollen lips.

"I'm going to have to find you a way to survive my flames," she laughed again.

"Poor guys back home are going to be jealous, Frederik," said Alfred, shaking his head.

"I won't tell them, if you don't," he said quickly, and they all laughed.

"Who threw that?" asked one of the dwarves, stepping up to them.

"I didn't see," said Aella, shaking her head. "It came flying from that direction though."

The dwarf nodded and headed down the hall at a jog, waving for several others to follow.

Stepping into the bar, she nodded at Bob who waved back, and headed into the next room where hundreds of dwarves were still drinking, sleeping, singing, or passed out cold on the floor and tables. Up on the raised platform, the king and princess were still working on seeing who could outdrink the other.

"I'm surprised neither of you has had to run to the bathroom yet," Aella laughed, sitting back down at her seat and pushing her cup from the night before away carefully. There was no way she was going to touch that stuff again!

"They've both gone seventeen times," said one of the people in charge of keeping track of their counts. "We've had people going with them each time to make sure they didn't try to throw up or take any magic potions."

"That's impressive," Aella said, turning to watch them as they each threw back another shot and then reached for their next glasses. "You know, we could call it a tie and let the both of you win?"

"Na, a chance!" growled Voluri, barely managing to slur out the words.

"Yea, we gotta' know," huffed Daefina, taking a deep breath and clutching the edge of the table fiercely.

Aella watched them as they both threw back another drink, before she glanced back at her own glass. Taking two empty shot glasses, she poured half a shot in either out of her cup and with a grin, set the two shot glasses down in front of them.

"This will determine which of you is the winner," she declared. "If you both pass out after this, I'm declaring it a tie!"

Gritting their teeth, they both glared at each other and grabbed up their respective glass. With a drunken nod, they both threw back the shot, and Aella watched in amusement as they both stared at their glasses in shock.

"My god that's good!" cried the dwarven king, rising to his feet.

"Oh, please," said Aella quickly. "Your god had nothing to do with that drink."

The elven princess hiccupped and went to stand up as well. The king turned towards her, as if to hear what she had to say, but the two of them both collapsed at the same time.

"I declare it a tie!" cried Aella, waking several dwarves from their sleep, and a halfhearted cheer filled the room from the ones still capable.

"I'll see to them," said Bob quickly, noting that Aella had given them both Stu's Brew. "Assuming you want them both to live, that is."

"What do you mean?" demanded one of the dwarven guards that had been standing by the king during the entire event, and was now trying to pick him up from the ground.

"That brew can be deadly without having drunk as much as the two of them have. I'm going to need to remove poison on them, to keep them from dying of alcohol poisoning."

"Are you saying that Aella poisoned our king?" asked the guard, glaring at her.

"I'm sure it was completely unintentional, as it was the drink I gave her, and she had no idea it could be so dangerous," said Bob quickly, hefting both of them over a shoulder as if they were light as pillows and rushing from the room with the guard right on his heel.

Aella was tempted to follow, but decided Bob could handle it. If anyone was capable of keeping someone from dying of drinking too much, it would be Bob.