Chapter 1
The inn was just off the main road. The innkeeper, Stanley, ran a bar downstairs and the rooms he rented out were on the second floor which he made a silver a night for. Every once in a while, he made a couple more off of allowing Malstra to whore herself out in his establishment. He didn’t see her tonight. He only had one room rented out for the night and the bar wasn’t doing much business either.
A man walks in. Tall, rugged, bruised, dirty or tanned, long black hair, wearing nothing but a small loin cloth and a sword in a scabbard strapped to his back. Stanley didn’t like the looks of him, but far be it from him to reject a customer. Although, he had a hard time imagining where on that massive body the man was keeping any kind of currency.
He spotted Stanley and headed straight for him. He had a confident walk. Not rushed. Stanley finished drying the glass he was working on and put it in front of the man on the bar.
“What can I get you, sir?” Stanley said. He always treated guests like, well, guests. Appearances didn’t matter to him. He treated everyone like he would want to be treated.
“Bath. Meal. Room for the night,” the hulk said.
“Sure thing, my friend,” Stanley said. “That will be three silver. Unless, of course, you need assistance with the bath, then that’ll be one extra.”
The giant just stared at him. No emotion.
“Four total,” Stanley said, in case the man was having trouble calculating three plus one.
The dirty mass of man reached behind his back and laid a gold coin on the bar next to the glass. Stanley could only imagine where he had been keeping it.
Stanley’s eyes got wide. But only for a second. He didn’t want to seem greedy.
“Sir, that’s very generous of you,” Stanley said. “But I can’t accept this, I don’t have enough silver to give back to you in exchange for just one night in a room, a meal, and a bath.”
“More than one night,” the man said. “I’ll leave when it runs out.”
Stanley smiled and said, “Well, welcome, my friend. What may I call you? My name’s Stanley.”
“Savidge.”
