章節 158: Chapter 158 Fighting Words
"Ugh, what happened?" muttered Voluris, rubbing his head as he blinked in the dim light of the lantern next to his bed.
"What?" moaned Daefina, rolling over and cracking an eye open.
"Who?" groaned Voluris struggling to sit up and failing.
"You should both be still," said Bob, moving between their beds as he touched their cheeks and stepped back.
"What? Why?" asked Daefina, also attempting to sit and not getting very far.
"You shouldn't have drunk that last drink from Aella," sighed Bob. "It's been all I could do to keep the two of you alive."
"Hey, I had no idea it would kill the two of them!" grumbled Aella, standing in a corner with her arms crossed.
"You didn't ask either. I knew I should have taken that glass when you left, but I was pretty busy with two thousand dwarves."
Both the dwarven king and the elven princess went still in their beds as their minds seemed to wake at the same time, and they both lifted their blankets to see what they were wearing.
"I didn't undress you," said Bob, rolling his eyes as he turned to leave the room. "Aella, keep them from leaving their beds until I return. I'll be right back."
"Why am I not in my own room?" demanded the king, managing to struggle into an upright position and darting glances over at the princess.
"Do you not know how embarrassing it is to know that I was sleeping in a room with a man??" cried Daefina, also managing to sit up.
"Wait! What happened last night," cried the dwarf in horror.
"Nothing, nothing happened," said Aella, struggling not to laugh. For some reason they were both overreacting in horror, shooting glances at each other and around the room.
"Where are we?" demanded Voluris. "Have you been here the entire time? How long has it been?"
"Aella, my brother entrusted my safety to you. That includes my chastity!" cried Daefina.
"Now hold on just a minute!" cried the dwarf. "I wouldn't have gone for an elf, no matter how drunk I was!"
"Are you so sure?" asked Aella quietly, stopping the dwarf and the elf in mid argument, as they both shot looks at Aella then groaned and grabbed their heads at the quick movement.
"Aella, don't be messing with them," chided Bob, stepping back into the room with a small glass vial. "The medicine I had to give them has made them both incredibly paranoid. Here you two, I need you to drink this, so that you can leave today."
"What is it?" they both asked at the same time, then glancing at each other, they gritted their teeth and started arguing over who got to take it first.
Bob just sighed and held out a second vial, pouring the medicine into their mouths at the same time. Aella was impressed, because she wasn't sure they would have taken it otherwise.
"What was that?" groaned Voluris, holding his hands over his mouth.
"That was awful!" gagged Daefina, looking to be about to throw up.
"If you throw it up, it will make your headache ten times worse," warned Bob, stepping back just in case.
"I'm not going to throw up!" growled Voluris, glaring at Bob, then glancing at Daefina, as if she were.
"I'm not going to either!" she snapped, making an audible swallowing noise that made everyone in the room wince.
"Well, you should both be free to go in about ten minutes then," said Bob cheerfully, turning to leave. His cheerful smile disappeared the moment his back was to them, and he shot Aella another cold look.
She just sighed and watched the two royals try to turn and sit on the sides of their beds, keeping their backs to each other. It had been pretty entertaining to watch Bob shove medicine down their throats as they twisted and turned in pain a few moments ago, but for some reason she didn't think her bill was going to be any lighter for the mistake she had made. What in the world had she been thinking, to offer them that drink?
"So, who won the competition?" asked Voluris, shoving his hairy feet into his boots.
"That's what you're worried about?" asked Daefina, shoving her dainty feet into her boots.
Aella was horribly amused, because the way they shoved their boots on was mirror perfect.
"Of course! How are we to face the others if we don't even know that!" argued Voluris.
"I suppose that's true. All I remember was taking that last shot and trying to stand up," Daefina admitted, pausing to think about what had happened.
"I think I remember that," muttered Voluri, looking around after getting his boots on.
"You two both passed out about the same time," said Aella, moving over to help him stand, if he needed it, but the stubborn dwarf ignored her offered hand and clung to the side of the bed while his vision cleared. She turned to see Daefina doing the same and sighed. Why did they both have to be so stubborn?
"So it was a tie?" gasped Daefina, moving slowly over towards them. Each step she took was more sure than the last.
"Must have been," grumbled Voluri. "I can't believe I tied with an elf."
"We're just going to have to have another competition," said Daefina with a shrug. "It's the only way to be sure who's better."
"I agree," nodded Voluri.
"Wait, wait, wait," cried Aella, holding up her hands. "Let me get this straight. You two want to hold another drinking competition to see who's better at drinking after both of you almost died from the last one?"
"Only because you tried to poison us!" exclaimed Voluri, pointing a finger at her.
"I didn't know it would kill you!" cried Aella, throwing her arms into the air.
"I suppose not, you were drinking it yourself," conceded Daefina. "I can't imagine how you could pull it off, if it almost killed us."
"But we had a lot more than she did before we drank that stuff," said Voluri.
"So, when do you want to hold the next competition?" asked Daefina.
"Not soon, my people need time to recover. How's next week?" asked Voluri.
"I don't care to hang around that long," said Aella. "I need to eventually get back to my own kingdom. Besides, I never agreed to pay for a second competition."
"Ah, party pooper. Don't worry Princess Daefina, I'll cover the next competition. But if it ends in a tie, then you'll have to cover the next," said Voluri as they left the room and began to make their ways down the stairs.
By the time they reached the bottom of the stairs, no one would have ever known that they had been unable to say a word several minutes before. Guards were waiting on King Voluri, and Frederik and Alfred were waiting on Aella. Several other dwarves were waiting too, still wanting to know if it was truly a tie.
"Agh, unfortunately for now, but don't you worry. We're planning on having another competition next week to determine the true winner. And if we need to, we'll have a competition every week until one is found!" exclaimed King Voluri, raising a fist into the air as if he was encouraging troops before a war.
The few dwarves in the room gave a cheer and trooped out of the bar to share the word. The other room was still there, though it was dark now that all of the dwarves had left. Alfred and Frederik shared a look and Daefina rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Do you need to make it such a big deal? It's not like we're at war," she said, shaking her head.
"Don't mistake the importance of holding your liquor! It can tell a lot about someone," said Voluri.
"Oh? And what did it tell you about me?" asked Daefina.
"That he wanted to marry you," said Aella, stepping past both of them and heading for the bar.
Everyone watched her speechless as she settled onto a barstool and started pulling out gold coins and stacking them on the bar. Bob moved over to count them as she did.
"What do you mean by that?" sputtered Voluri.
"Those sound like fighting words!" cried Daefina.
Aella laughed. "If I remember correctly, you agreed as long as he let you see the sky occasionally."
"What?!!" they both cried together, glancing at each other in horror.
"There's no way!" gasped Daefina. "My brother would declare a war! He wouldn't stand for me to marry a dwarf!"
"It wouldn't matter if he knew you had already slept with one," said Aella, starting another stack of gold.
"But we were in different beds!" cried Voluri, rushing up to Aella's side and grabbing her arm. "Tell me you're making this all up!"
"You were worried about what had happened when you first woke up, and both of you immediately checked to see if you were wearing clothes," said Aella, raising an eyebrow at him.
King Voluri dropped his hands, and turned to look back at Daefina in horror.
"Say it's not true," whispered Daefina, a hand going to her throat.
"Would it be such a bad thing?" asked Aella.
"No, I suppose it wouldn't be," said Voluri after a moment of contemplation.
"We could figure out how to make it work, I suppose," agreed Daefina softly.
"That's good because neither of you actually touched the other. It was interesting to see your reactions though," laughed Aella, turning back to see the smirk on Bob's face.
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Sdrawkcab
Sdrawkcab Well, my husband is officially in surgery, and they've started his anesthesia, so I guess I'll be writing to fill the time. Let's see how much I get done in the two hours it's supposed to take. Eek!
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