Dave

Dark Elf Village

55th of Cycle 2, 1015

The brick roads of the village were bustling with dark elves, and there were stands selling goods all across the sidewalk.

Jason tossed a pouch of coins to me, “Here's some money, buy what you want with it. Consider it a thank you for saving my life."

“Maybe I should save your life more often,” I said as I looked into the pouch and found a handful of gold and silver coins. “Where we going?”

“We’re heading to The Drunken Hunter, the premier tavern in this village.”

“I thought you said we had work to do.”

“We’re not heading there to get hammered, you fool, we’re going there to meet an acquaintance and gather some information.”

“Getting information from a bar... I like it. Sounds like something straight out of a spy movie.”

Jason gave me a questioning glance, “What’s a movie?”

“Nevermind.”

So they don’t have movies in this world then, how unfortunate, I thought to myself as we reached the tavern.

There was a big sign above the doorway that said ‘The Drunken Hunter’, and doors looked like the entrance to a saloon in an old Wild West movie. “It’s already looking better than last time,” I said, remembering the worn-down bar I had died in during my last life.

“You’ve been here before?” Jason asked, surprised.

“No.”

Jason gave me a confused look, “You’re acting weird today, Dave, did the poison get to your head?”

I rolled my eyes at him, “And who’s fault would it be if I had any permanent damage?”

“Yours, for jumping in front of a snake.” He deadpanned.

“Ungrateful bastard,” I said with a laugh and pushed the doors open forcefully like a cowboy who was looking for trouble.

The doors made a loud slamming noise as they swung open, causing everyone in the tavern to stare daggers at me. On second thought, I probably should’ve opened the door like a normal person, but there’s no going back now. I might as well make our entrance as ridiculous as possible.

I made every step towards the bar counter with purpose, glancing towards the people staring at me with a smug half-grin on my face. What the fuck am I doing right now?

A burly dark-skinned elf stood up out of his chair and stopped in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest. Flashbacks of a gigantic white man slamming his fist into my jaw popped into my head, and for a moment I wanted to just run away, but I steeled my nerves and walked up to him.

“What’re you twerps doing here?” He said in a scarily deep voice.

“Nice to meet you too, I’m Dave,” I said, giving him an elven salute.

The gesture seemed to have flipped some kind of switch, as veins were bulging on the man’s forehead, and the rest of the elves in the tavern started whispering among themselves.

Huh? Had I done something wrong? Wasn’t that a friendly gesture among elves?

“You son of a bitch, you think you’re real funny don’t you?” The man said angrily.

“I think I’m hilarious, but honestly I can’t even hold a candle to you. I mean, look at those ridiculous muscles, you're practically a walking circus!” I pointed at his comically large arm muscles.

“You’re gonna die,” He said as he pulled his arm back for a punch.

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

I activated my vision skill, slowing down my perception of time as I ducked under his swing. Just before I could make a counterattack, a dark elf woman appeared in between us with a dagger at each of our throats.

“You two either take this outside, or I take your corpses outside. Your choice.” She said.

The man clicked his tongue and walked towards the door, “This ain’t worth the trouble, but you better watch your back, human.” The doors made a loud slamming noise as he exited.

The dark elf woman still had a dagger at my neck. “What about you?” She asked.

“He’s with me, Matilda,” Jason said.

Matilda looked over at Jason and her eyes seemed to sparkle. “Jason? Is that really you? I thought I’d never see you again!”

“Haha, me neither,” Jason scratched the back of his head nervously.

“Matilda! Take your flirting to the back, you’re disturbing the customers,” Came a deep voice from the large woman behind the counter.

Matilda looked around at the customers near her and blushed a little before taking Jason’s hand and leading him to the back. I felt a little awkward but decided to follow them when I noticed that the rest of the bar was still staring daggers at me.

The back room was nicely furnished with a glass table and comfortable looking chairs. “So… what brings you to our village, Jason?” Matilda asked.

“I wanted to see you again so badly that I ran away from home,” Jason responded with a smile.

“Oh how romantic, my knight in shining armor has come to save me from my day job and take me on an adventure,” she said. “So, what are you really here for?”

“We need some training,” I answered before Jason could say something stupid again.

“Training? Why’re you asking me to help you with training? Do I look like a teacher to you? And why didn’t you just get training back at your village Jason? I’m sure there were more than enough people willing to help you.”

“Well the part about running away from home is kind of true, so I can’t ask anyone back there for help,” Jason said with a nervous laugh.

“Explain,” Matilda said seriously.

Jason told her about how he faked his death to escape a political marriage, and I couldn’t help but notice a smile slowly creeping its way onto her face.

“So a royal family member wasn’t enough to satisfy you," Matilda laughed.

“It wasn’t about satisfaction,” Jason said. “I just didn’t love her.”

That seemed to make Matilda smile a little more.

Now I’m not the greatest at reading the mood, but the sexual tension between these two was suffocating, so I decided to give them some time alone.

“I’m going to head out and check out some of the shops nearby. I’ll be back here in an hour or two,” I said.

“What? Why? We’re not done with the discuss-.”

“You should leave through the back,” Matilda cut Jason off and pointed towards a door behind her. “I don’t want the people up front causing you any trouble.”

“It was nice meeting you, Matilda."

“The pleasure was all mine, Dave, I hope we can have a longer chat one day.”

I opened the door and glanced back one last time before leaving. Matilda mouthed the words ‘thank you’ and gave me a wink.

You better not fuck that up Jason.