Chapter 3

Sleight of hand

...The night before the events of 'chapter 1, rude awakening'... 

I just stood there. Looking out over the… Fine establishment.... Staring at them, the place. Or maybe I just stared out into nothing. It’s usually my first bar I go to for blacking out a week with alcohol when I visit this part of the world.

There’s a lot of chatter filling the air as usual on a weekend evening at the bar. Dimmed lights. A few burnt out candles that haven't been swapped out yet. Lots of smaller tables for a company of four or five along the wall. It’s a circular structure, so the bar is actually round. Well, both the bar and the building. I took a step in and kept looking.

The bartender, a triple-snout, is cleaning glasses while mumbling something. Swears and curses. A company is being louder than the rest and doing something that has trouble written all over it. 

One of the guys grabs the hand of a passerby who bumped into him. He yells something.
The guy who grabbed the passerby’s hand looks like a pale-orc who’s visibly well trained and easily has forty kilos on the guy. The other one is a tubby blueskin who seems to be shitting his pants. Not literally thank fuck… But I couldn’t help but to get a better view of this.

The blueskin says something I can’t hear. The guy who’s holding his hand, or hand ain’t the right word. Wrist! The guy holding his wrist slams the blueskins hand down onto the table while the other two in his company by the table hold the guy who’s hand is being held down to the table surface down as they laugh or chuckle or whatever. 

“You should’ve paid up, you scum!” I hear him yell as I close the distance quickly when I see a glimmer by his waist. Suddenly I had a front row seat. 

Everyone in the bar gasped as the guy swung down with a big cleaver-looking sword. 

His wrist slammed the table and everyone was stunned. Blood poured out of the guy's wrist, which had been cut clean off. I acted quickly and jumped in.

I held his hand with my left, it still grasped his cleaver-sword. 

The guys holding down the blueskin let go and stumbled backwards slowly before taking off. 

“Looking for this?” I held it over to the pale-orc. He was yelling and cursing, grasping his wrist and trying to stop the fountain of blood pumping out all over the place. 

He fell backwards and fainted with a loud thump as he hit the wooden floor. Everyone applauded a brief moment, then chatter filled the air as if nothing had happened. 

The bartender, a normal human, had watched the whole scene from start to finish, he had a smile on his face for a moment. Then he sighed and looked relieved as the situation was taken care of. He snapped his fingers, then pointed at the pale-orc with a chuckle. 

Two humans came out from a door in the back. They both had pigs in leashes and cleaning equipment. 

Ooh, I don't want to watch that. I threw the cut off hand onto the body which it belonged to and went over to the bardisk. 

The blueskin still stood shocked looking at the corpse. Like he had no idea what had happened. Or maybe he just was in shock… Who cares I suppose… 

I sat down on a barstool. Waving at the bartender who met my gaze. 

"Your strongest stuff please! And keep 'em coming." I said and rested my elbows on the bar. 

The bartender nodded at me and reached below the bar. He took out and placed a bottle of rom before me and a glass. 

“On the house, for finishing up the mess so quickly.” I blushed. “I didn’t do any-” He interrupted me with a chuckle, like he knew I was lying. 

“I saw you. You’re one of them. It was too long ago. A long long time ago.” He sighed. He took away the small Rom glass and put out a pint and filled it to the brim with Rom for me. 

“Just be careful no one else sees” he smiled. 

Suddenly the blueskin came up beside me. 

“Thank you mam, thank you!” The blueskin grabbed my hand and shook it as he thanked me.

“Don’t mention it, I just reacted.” I said, blushing a bit while nervously scratching my neck. 

"Let me at least pay, here!" the blueskin handed over some credits to the bartender, he just nodded and took out another bottle for me. I started drinking, straight out of the bottle. 

“That such a beautiful rabbit-girl would best one of the orcish races. Are you sent by the gods perhaps? Haha” the blueskin said a tad flirty. 

"Thanks, No time to chat unfortunately he..he...” I said and put down the bottle, lowering my hood, revealing my bunny ears.

“Well, can I ask the name of my savior at least?” He asked politely.

“Umh. Sure. It's Yuna.” I replied with a smile. He smiled, nodded. Put his hands together with one of mine in between and mumbled thanks in orcish.

I look human in every aspect except the bunny-ears on my head and the fluffy tail I have. It’s both a curse and a blessing sometimes, being half bunny-people. No one takes a bunny-girl seriously, they all underestimate me. Which is an advantage in a fight and annoying as hell when looking for work. 

I yanked back my hand and I grabbed the bottle again. Waved at the bartender and pointed at it.

“I don’t want to be rude, but I need to drink enough before closing time ehe…” I said and smiled at him with a slight tilt to my head. He just started to laugh at my comment. 

“You paid for my drink, so let's call it even and not make a big deal out of it!" I said and made a thumbs up at the blueskin. 

“Fair enough mylady, have a lovely evening and thanks again!” He bowed before me, then stood up again. 

“If you ever need assistance, look up Roger Bluebelly!” He waved and went on his way. But he seemed to hand the bartender money for a few bottles on his way out.

Jackpot! I saved one with cash for once! I giggled for myself.

Then I started chugging. I have not been drinking for a, way too long measurement of time right now. Almost got sober there for a moment. Phew.

 “Aaah, that’s the stuff!” I yelled out and slammed the bottle back onto the bardisk. Vision getting foggy. Mmm. I put the bottle upside down against my mouth and just chugged the last, then licked the last few drops. Peaked up into the bottle with one eye. Then threw it, hitting the glass recycle can and smashing it to pieces. I heard… I mean… Chugging a bottle with your head on the bardisk is an art I tell you!
“Mmm.” I felt my vision getting more blurry and my brain being overflowed with serotonin. “Phoke me.. *Hickup* if-if. troublhess.”

I hear a familiar voice yelling at me. “No, c’mon, don’t get wasted and fall asl-”

My vision went black.

(Story teller: And she is fast asleep, not even an Ogre roar would wake her. The presence of it would, but, if the sound was made in the room, she’d not wake up by the sound…
Anyway… )