บท 4: The Drink, the Best Medicine
Jimmy went into town again, he needed some of that Gilvenheim air breezing through his nostrils and into his lungs. This nation was built on a ton of nature, the woods of the forest, and the food that originated from animals including fish, chicken and beef.
Brimstone beef was really the hearty meat the nation really favored. Ragbull beef wasn't as of high quality as the Brimstone, but it was more than enough to make any man, woman and even child obtain a full stomach.
Jimmy took Fayre with him again on this occasion, he went straight back toward the tavern. Horses were neighing as many were carrying burlap bags and wooden crates just on the wagon connected to the horses.
"Busy day." Jimmy thought about the Marketplace by the time he began to pass through it again. Bartering and trading was the oldest part of Gilvenheim, giving one's goods to another in exchange for someone much more of higher quality...or low quality if you really couldn't strategize your stuff, if you really didn't know your trading.
More people will trade for anything these days, Jimmy thought about his initial trading days, he remembered bartering 3 giant blocks of cheese toward a farmer for a cow. It was a big cow, with an equally big utter. That cow was still resting at a farm Jimmy and his father bought a couple of years ago.
That was one of the few times Jimmy spoke to his father again. Since then, not even a letter has been exchanged between the father and son.
Protecting me for the greater good, he thought deeply about his birth. The cries he had when he was born echoed in his head. He stopped midway, sitting on a bench. Fayre was still on his shoulder, Jimmy didn't notice that the snake's eyes were staring at him in a rather confused gaze.
"Need a drink." Jimmy spoke as he stood up from the bench and began to fasten his walking pace. "Don't worry Fayre I'll be fine." as he was on the move, gently pushing people wearing cowls, smocks and surcoats.
Fayre continued to tilt its head in concern, even as Jimmy finally made his way toward the Drinker's Shack, the same bar he visited not very long ago.
He got a massive greeting from some of the patrons.
"Jimmy!"
"How ya doing bud?"
"Oi! Mate! How's it goin, eh?"
He greeted them back with a simple series of hand gestures, raising his hand in a friendly manner.
I don't even know half of these people, Jimmy thought. Maybe it was how often he was in town for the most part.
Many of the patrons had their ragged and dirty clothes on, some of them had funny caps that were hanging backwards on their heads. Most of the colors on their clothes began to fade away, the only real thing that was clean to some degree was the mugs they had in their hands.
Well, the tables were starting to get wet from the beer that was spilt on them, even dripping toward the wooden floor.
"Hello sir." the bartender spoke. "Heard the others here call you Jimmy."
"Yeah."
"What will it be then?"
"Anything new to the place?" Jimmy asked with a raised eyebrow, his hands resting on the counter.
"Hmm." The bartender hummed in thought, before he saw Fayre on Jimmy's shoulder, he frowned.
"That snake ain't full of venom right?"
"Fayre? Nah, she's fine. I can vouch for her."
The bartender rolled his eyes in amusement. "If you say so."
"So anything else you got other than beer? If there is?"
"Well, now that you mentioned it, there's been a shipment from Wyndham. Thought I might have it a go at it to tell you the truth."
"What kind?" Jimmy asked in interest.
"Something related to Wyndham based cherries, sugar, and some rum in between." the bartender explained. Jimmy looked at him in confusion. "Just wait here, the things in the back because I'm still trying to find more space for the counter here. I also haven't exactly filled up a fountain for this new range of a drink."
Jimmy chuckled. "Got a name for this thing?"
"People over there in Wyndham called it the Cherry Popper."
Laughing, Jimmy replied. "One glass of it, good sir." He took out some coins from his pocket and slammed it onto the counter. He snickered and his eyes twitched.
"Oi, you okay there?" The bartender asked in concern.
"Never been better."
"You sure?"
A blast of lightning rang into Jimmy's brain, he paused and took a deep breath, before bringing himself to face the bartender again. He gave a small smile and a nod.
"You seem stressed." the bartender raised his eyebrow. "Tell you what, pay a tiny bit higher and I'll be sure to give you an even bigger mug. Gotta release all that tension from your brain, friend, ain't that right everyone!?" he shouted towards the patrons. They all cheered and shouted in enthusiastic unison.
"Yeah!"
"Screw the pain!"
"To hell with the stress! It ain't killing us anytime soon!"
As the bartender went toward the back of the room, Jimmy sat on a wooden stool. Looking back and forth, he noticed the amount of men drinking at their prime, as in the amount of energy they had to chug down gallons of beer or whatever drink that released the stress that previously resided in them.
I hate magic, he thought. It had its perks, but the one he had within him was a thorn in his side.
He didn't know how to really get the hang of it, it would just be there.
Click.
Just like that.
His ears buzzed, perking up at the sound of slithering. A snake slithering around the floorboards? His mind pondered as he looked down toward the floor. There were gaps in between the wood. Something flashed by his eyes.
He blinked.
It was no longer there. He turned his head to the left, trying to see if there were any other gaps.
"Oi, mate!" Jimmy heard a voice call out to him, he turned to a larger patron. One of the patron's arms was quite bigger than the other, said arm revealed the man's arms, and had a shark attacking downward with its mouth open.
"Yeah?" Jimmy spoke.
"The hell you looking for?" the patron chuckled. He had a bald head as well as a strong jawline, and his face was decorated with a five o'clock shave. "Rats in the floors?"
"I swore I saw a snake." Jimmy replied, as he said this, Fayre slithered from his arm and onto the counter, before turning its head toward him again. The bald man looked at the snake's reaction, and laughed.
"What are you? Some sort of snake charmer? Snake whisperer?"
"I admire snakes to some degree." Jimmy admitted.
"Admire? I don't know about that. Word got to me around town that there's a man living alone with snakes in another building, far from town. Said man even fought an adventurer not long ago just for fun, and was swift about it as well."
Jimmy turned his head around, facing the bottles in front of him. "Who's askin?"
"Dimebag Drummond." the bald man extended his large right arm.
"Jimmy Stark." replied Jimmy with a strong handshake. "You an adventurer?"
"Yes, but actually no." Dimebag replied. "I go on adventures, but I'm not into that heroic stuff or fetching items from dungeons or caves. Last thing I need is being raided by crawlers, or worse, dirt beetles. My job is to hunt."
Seconds of silence passed, Jimmy raising an eyebrow. "People?"
"The ones that were asking for trouble and being hunted in the first place, of course the reward for catching them is more better than getting them dead." Dimebag took out a flyer, revealing an inky drawing of a grumbled youth. The flyer was made out of soft light brown paper, the color slightly fading away.
"That kid there's been causing trouble." Dimebag spoke about the person in the flyer, named Kaylan. "Stealing from people's pockets left and right, from everyone."
"Seems a lot for a thief." Jimmy commentated, looking at the reward.
"As long as you're above Level 5, you should be fine. He's a good thief, but from what I heard fighting ain't his forte."
"You want me to hunt this guy?" Jimmy asked.
"Nobody said that." Dimebag corrected. "I got a flyer of him myself. Just giving you options Jimmy, maybe something for you to do, and get coin at the same time." he chugged down the remaining parts of his beer. "But if you do get him first, my system will inform me and other guys hunting him."
"I'll consider it."
"I'll be off then." As Dimebag left the scene, Jimmy heard something fall down, a barrel hitting the floor.
"Damn snakes!" Jimmy saw the bartender come out from the back room of the bar, yelling and chasing two yellow snakes slithering toward the front entrance. In the bartender's right hand was a large mug with red liquid spilling out slightly onto the floor.
Jimmy turned to see the two snakes slithering toward his chair, before he extended his right arm. THe first yellow snake slithered up to his arm, followed by the second. Soon the two yellow snakes pushed their heads towards Jimmy, in a friendly manner.
"Well I'll be." The bartender placed JImmy's drink, a Cherry Popper. "You're a snake man."
"Can't help it." Jimmy smiled as the two yellow snakes slithered onto the counter, a few inches away from Fayre.
Jimmy then saw the large mug in front of him, filled with cherry red beer "Sorry Fayre, but the drink here's huge. Think you can slither back home?" Ashe said that, Fayre nodded her head, before slithering away through the floorboards.
"You trained that green one well did you?" the bartender asked as Jimmy gave additional coins for the drink. Jimmy's hand was on the handle of the mug.
"Yeah." he said before he started to chug the giant Cherry Popper. The cherry colored beer went down his throat, but a few parts of the drink started to spill onto the floorboards. Everyone around the bar cheered on.
"Drink that thing!" they said.
Jimmy continued to gulp down the drink, down to the last drop, and slamming the empty mug onto the counter.
"Damn that's good!"
"Drink can be the best medicine sometimes." the bartender spoke before he spotted one of the yellow snakes slithering away. "Welp."
"Hey hold up!" Jimmy spoke as he began to chase after the first yellow snake, leaving the second one behind. The patrons were too occupied with their enthusiasm and drunkenness to notice. The snake went through the gap of the back door leading to outside, and Jimmy followed it there.
It was an empty area here, it seemed like the perfect place to linger, with the only exit back to the main streets were to the left.
"You're a fast one." Jimmy said of the yellow snake, yellow as cheese with a small dash of orange spots. He began to see yellow light emerge from the snake. It became brighter the more Jimmy stared.
"What the hell?" he spoke, raising his eyebrow. The light soon caused him to cover his eyes with his hands, before he saw a blond haired woman. Her curvy posture and thighs, combined with what seemed to be boots on her feet, made his eyes widen.
She looked at him with piercing blue eyes.
"Very good sister." Jimmy heard another female voice. He turned to see another woman wearing the same yellow get up, the boots and the short trousers revealing the thighs. But unlike the first woman, this second woman had a much rounder face, her lips were thinner and less red than the first.
Jimmy turned back to see the first woman approach him. She was near his face.
"A man who keeps, tends and cares for snakes…" she said in a seductive tone. "Very interesting."
Oh boy, here we go, Jimmy's mind spoke louder than he would speak with his mouth. He raised his hand, and he moved it across the first woman's face.
A large transparent blue screen hovered to her right.
[SILLIS. LEVEL 18. SUCCUBUS]
Heck, Jimmy thought as she felt the presence of the second woman behind him, and the door leading into the bar closed on its own.
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