Prelude - Fucked Up Friendship

[ - content warning: violence, forced transformation, battery - ]

The swinging doors to Nightshade Tavern burst inwards, shattering the peaceful evening being had by the handful of patrons scattered around the first floor tables. 

A towering mountain of a man ducked inside, hauling a small struggling waif of a woman by her hair after him. The man had olive colored skin, thick shaggy black hair, and a crisscross of jagged scars on his right cheek. He held the woman by her long, tangled mat of brown hair, his fist raised just enough that she was standing on her tip toes.

“Please! Please Orbec! It’s really me! I’m Rick! She’ll do it to you too!” the young woman yelled, her face red from crying. Her white skin was battered with bruises and covered in cuts and scratches. 

“Shut up!” the man, Orbec the Omen, roared at her, wrenching her hair forwards for emphasis. 

The tavern was silent aside from them. The patrons were watching the newcomers warily, many hands edging towards swords or bows. The bartender tonight was an elderly woman with amethyst colored eyes, greying hair swept into a bun, and a perpetually stern frown on her face. She continued to polish the glass in her hands, eyeing the intruders with mild disdain.

Orbec’s beady eyes scanned the room. Seemingly satisfied that he had everyone’s undivided attention, he bodily lifted his prisoner off her feet and threw her forward. She landed roughly, tumbling into the foot of the wooden bar counter heavily. She gasped for breath, tears once more streaming down her face.

The bartender kept her eyes fixed firmly on the intruding bandit, but those close to the scene could see her lean slightly forward and whisper, “I did tell you what would happen,” to the sobbing girl on the floor. This only caused the battered woman to sob louder.

“Someone ‘ere better fucking tell me where my partner is,” Orbec announced gruffly, “before I start asking with my blades.”

The bartender sighed, and put the glass down on the waxed countertop. Then she drew herself up to her full five feet nine inches of height, her face an irritated scowl, and said calmly, “She’s right here, you oaf. Your idiot friend assaulted my girls, and she paid the price. Don’t do something you’re going to regret.”

Apparently, this was not what the giant bandit had wanted to hear. Orbec’s eyes lit up with rage. “Bitch!” he spat at her, stomping towards the bar. He loomed over the crying mess of a girl on the floor and stared daggers at the old hag who dared defy him, drawing his wickedly curved sword with practiced ease.

“That wench knows things Rick ne’er told anyone,” he growled, “but I’d sooner believe the king’s a toad, than a hag like you has enough magic to turn a hardened warrior into this.” 

His battered victim crawled out of the way as he stomped forward and slashed his sword in a lightning-fast arc over the bar counter: shattering the freshly cleaned mug into an explosion of deadly shards. He didn't seem to care that the bartender didn't so much as flinch at his display of rage.

"Tell me where he is and I might not fillet you and everyone else in this damned town alive,” Orbec roared.

The barkeep sighed, absent mindedly wiping the glass and the brute’s spittle off the counter with her rag. 

The air of the tavern was thick with tension, some of the patrons already out of their seats with weapons drawn. But it seemed none dared to interfere in the tavern owner’s business without permission.

"I have given you ample warning Mr. Omen, you have no one but yourself to blame for this."

Violet light blazed out from the woman's eyes and formed a bright aura around her body. Her hands flew through a complex series of signs with practiced ease. Orbec had made to slice her as soon as the magic started, but he now stood frozen mid-swing. Violet light erupted from beneath his skin, bright enough to blind everyone present for a moment.

When sight returned, there was no more violet light. The barkeep stood polishing a new glass behind the counter. A young woman with long black hair stood in Orbec’s place, her arm raised to strike. Though she was short enough now that the only thing she’d hit would be the side of the bar. 

The black haired woman began to scream. The bartender raised a hand and made a quick gesture towards the two women before her. Several beautiful barmaids rushed out the door beside the bar and over to the two panicking women, helping the victim off the floor and dragging both her and the newly minted girl back towards the deeper recesses of Nightshade Tavern.

As Orbec was led out of sight of the bar the screams turned into grunts of frustration and struggle, but soon even those faded.

Everyone went back to their own business, and eventually the normal bustle and din of the tavern returned.