“Oh. So your morals have a price tag?” Jason retorted sarcastically.

The beast, with lightning speed, was flying at Jason from over the counter. Before he knew it Jason was in its arms having his life crushed from him. He struggled to free himself using pure strength, but found no give. He began to lose consciousness and took a shot at kicking the monster’s crotch. There was no give. It didn’t even flinch as it increased the pressure it was exerting on Jason. The creature was alien and there was no telling where its soft bits were nor how sensitive they were to being struck, but, like with every animal he knew, Jason believed that this monster had to have one. He kicked it in the side with as much force as he could muster and found himself dropping to the floor.

Jason would usually land on his feet, but he wasn’t ready to drop and his energy had been sapped from the bear hug. His knees hit the ground before he fell to his side gasping for air with his arms crossed over his chest in pain. Meanwhile, the creature stumbled backwards against the counter, snorting from the pain in his side. Rina was wide-eyed as the scene played out in front of her, not knowing what to do.

Recovering, the gorilla-esque alien picked Jason up and threw him against the door of the inn. It broke. Jason fell through the splintering door and rolled out onto the open street of the town. The alien innkeeper followed Jason’s body out the door slowly, approaching the fallen body of Jason. Suddenly a thunderous roar escaped the monsters throat as lights appeared around the two and the inhabitants of the buildings began appearing in their doorways.

“Ye nae insinuate I can be bought off!”

“Ye nae question me morality!”

“Ye nae bring yer reprehensible activities into me establishment!”

“And ye certainly nae leave here alive this night!” the alien roared.

He raised his arms above his head, his fist clenched, and ready to come down on Jason’s skull to smash it into a bloody pulp. This is when Rina dashed in front of the alien dashed in front of Jason and held out her arms. She put herself in harm’s way to protect Jason, hoping to stop it from coming. It, however, was too late. The beast’s fists were coming down and the beast was to lost in rage to stop himself.

Jason’s arm shot out and wrapped around Rina, pulling her along with him as he rolled out of the way, protecting her with his body. They felt the ground beneath them shake from the impact of the alien’s fists. Jason took a deep breath staggered from bruised ribs. In the next moment he rose to his feet holding his ribs with his left arm. Rina stood behind him. He glared at the innkeeper, preparing himself for the fight to come. He activated the dagger and held it out to keep the innkeeper back.

“Heal me and prepare to run when I attack him,” Jason said to Rina, glancing at her.

Rina took hold of the cross that was hanging off her hip, raising it up in front of her chest and grasping it with both of her hands. Rina concentrated on the cross and aimed it at Jason. Holding it tightly, she raised the cross above her head.

“Mystic Powers, grant me a miracle!” Rina shouted.

The jewel embedded in the front of the cross lit up, sparkling in the moonlight. As she brought her arm down, the jewel left a light trail behind. The audience that the ruckus brought out of their homes laughed and talking about how cute Rina was being. A faint glow began emanating from Jason. He felt the pain in his chest go away as he launched himself at the innkeeper, his dagger at the ready. Suddenly, a loud clang resounded in the night which seemed to come from behind the innkeeper.

“Would ye knock it off already. Ye be shaking the tree,” a feminine voice from behind the innkeeper said.

Jason skidded to a stop. The innkeeper seemed to calm down as he turned to look at the person behind him. Behind him stood a 5 foot tall alien from the same species as the innkeeper. This one, however, had less muscle mass, wore a nightgown, and had, what appeared to be, a sizeable bosom hidden beneath it. Where the bigger one had facial and head hair this smaller one lacked all of it. In its hand was a skillet that surely was the source of the clang earlier. It’s arms were folded under her chest and her stance gave the impression of a wife scolding her husband despite the proportions being different from that of a human’s.

“Do ye have to fight with everyone that challenges yer pride?” the female alien said.

“Not everyone. Just filth,” the innkeeper grunted back.

“Oh! Is that the case? Then why do I have t’clean up after ye all the time?” the female shot back her fingers tapping against her arm.

“Ye ken what I mean, woman!” he said in desperation to win the argument.

Before the conversation couldn’t continue, Jason interrupted them. “Whatever the case may be. We’re sorry to have disturbed you. We can’t afford to stay at your place. We’ll be going now,” he said and turned to take hold of Rina’s hand and take off. The faster they get away from this place the safer they would be, he thought.

“Hold up! Who’s goin’ t’pay for me door?” the innkeeper bellowed

“How would I know? If you’re implying I should, then perhaps you forget that you broke it. Yes, you did it with my body, but you’re still the one that broke it,” Jason said over his shoulder.

The female alien was still glaring at the innkeeper, “What do they mean… they cannae afford to stay here? We’re the cheapest inn in town! Any hair hanger should able t’afford us if they nae be dumb an’ they nae look dumb.”

“Well, err… “ the innkeeper sputtered, trying to explain the situation.

The female alien swiftly caught up to Jason and Rina. She walked in a way that was slightly hunched over and used her hands. While humans have long believed that walking in such a way was inferior this way of walking allowed the alien to move her mass at a far quicker pace than most humans jog. She moved to block their way, “Wait. I apologize for me husband. He obviously has the wrong impression of what be going on with ye two. Will ye please reconsider staying with us? It’s only 20 credits per room.”

Jason looked down to Rina, then back to the female alien, “I’m not so sure your place is safe. I’m not trying to get us killed.”

“Oh, don’t worry about him. He was just being protective. He nae like the wee ones being abused. We don’t want that in our business. It makes it hard to attract other customers. But if a patron pays our price and keeps that out of our business we nae mind anyone staying with us. That be why we keep our price so low. Anyone welcome, even those from cultures we nae agree with.”

“Perhaps if you are going to stay out of the affairs of your patrons you might want to also not accuse them of impropriety unless you have proof as well. Rina and I met here and it is you aliens,” he pointed to the onlookers, “that brought us here against our will. It is you who attacked us. Because one of us looks out for another you make accusations of us? And then you have the nerve to say that you stay out of others’ affairs. What do you take me for?”

Overhearing what Jason was saying, the innkeeper made his way over to the group of 3 without them noticing. He placed his hand on Jason’s shoulder. It could be said to cover his entire shoulder easily due to the innkeepers hands were several time larger than even a large human hand. “Yer right. I should nae have accused ye,” the innkeeper said crushing, Jason’s shoulder in a slightly threatening way.

Rina huddled closer to Jason, feeling threatened by the towering aliens. Jason’s left hand rest on her back in an attempt to give her security. “Look, I don’t know where another inn is and we need to get settled in. I understand how it could look and people prone to making mistakes. How ‘bout we call it even and we’ll stay at your place? at least for the night,” Jason said to the two aliens.

“Great! Let’s get ye up to your rooms,” the female alien said as she turned the two around and issued them back towards the inn, pushing the male out of the way.

The 3 of them returned to the counter, ignoring the shattered door. The alien woman went to the display on the clerk’s side and started punching in a few things, “Will ye be in separate rooms or same room?”

Jason wanted to keep Rina near him to keep her safe and keep from spending more money than they needed to, but realized that only taking one room would only cause more misunderstandings and more suspicions. If nothing else it seemed that the innkeeper was adamant about keeping Rina safe from him. That was a good thing, minus the ‘from him’ part. It was likely safest to take two rooms, but he still felt uncomfortable about it. “We’ll take 2 rooms. We can afford it. Just barely,” he said, hoping that she’d offer him a discount or something to make up for being attacked by her husband.

The innkeeper’s wife gave a toothy smile and a laugh, “Of course, what with all it looks like ye bought from the market, but better to be prepared than not, right?” She reached for the keys to two rooms and pressed them against the screen on her side. “Just accept the charges and ye’ll be all set.”

The screen in front of Jason changed to display the room numbers, their locations, the room sizes, the price of the rooms per night, and the number of night they were paying for. Each of the rooms had its own individual acceptance button. It was a good thing too, because Jason didn’t want all of credits to be taken from his account. He still didn’t know much about Rina and her habits. For all he knew she could be a spoiled rich brat who had the ability to buy everything to her heart’s content without a second thought to money. If he use his credits for everything and this was the case, he could end up in dire straights very easily. Jason confirmed booking the room closest to the stairs, then, instructed Rina to confirm booking the other room.

The innkeeper’s wife handed Jason and Rina the keys, “The rooms be upstairs. Normally, check out be 24 hours from now. It be it fairer this way. 3 meals be served daily per night stays. One in the morning, 1 at noon, and 1 in the evening. We hope ye have a good night’s rest.” The two took the keys and made their way up the stairs to go to sleep.

In the doorway, the innkeeper finally made his way back in after apologizing to his neighbors for causing a ruckus. He looked down at the door and groaned. He didn’t want to have to fix the door. His wife looked at him with the glare from before returning, “Ye know, it costs 3 days of them both staying here t’pay for those damages. I wish ye’d think ‘fore climbing down.” She was none too thrilled with the mess he’d made, nor the coldness that would permeate the inn till the door was fixed.

“The door will be fine. I’ll just have to make sure yer nice an’ warm,” the innkeeper gave a toothy grin to his wife.