《Journey of the Cursed》Chapter 5
Advertisement
Once out of the barracks, Drazdan closes the door behind him and notices his party members arm wrestling at a nearby bench surrounded by off duty guards cheering for their respective competitor.
Of course Marcus is winning in sheer strength, but Xandarr seems to have a few tricks up his sleeve too as he is obviously somehow holding his own.
Upon closer look, he notices something… Why are their roots growing up the table?
…
Xandarr is cheating with the help of mother nature… Nobody seems to have noticed yet… The wooden bench has little tiny branches that crawled up his shirt's sleeve and are supporting his arm…
Then Marcus suddenly start screaming as he tries his hardest to win against his opponent. To no avail of course, all it achieved was tiring him out.
Slowly Xandarr starts pushing back until it reaches the 45-degree angle in Marcus’s disadvantage, from there it barely took 5 seconds before Marcus’s arm was slammed into the table and Xandarr winning the match.
Marcus is left sitting there dazed at his unbelievable loss while Xandarr collects all his winnings from the table, which is still surrounded by the guards, who have varying expressions on their faces depending on whether they lost their bets or not.
Drazdan can’t help but chuckle at this situation, that is, until Xandarr jumps up on the table and cries out : “OI, EVERYONE! DRINKS ARE ON ME AT THE TAVERN! WE’LL DRINK TILL MORNING LIGHT AND NO SOONER!”
He is answered by a unanimous and loud cheer from all surrounding guards, civilians and adventurers. Before, he leads a massive conga line to the tavern doors, of course Marcus and Drazdan follow along as well, one can’t miss a free drink.
During the loud march many civilians stared at the group of cheering people from their windows, some joined, some didn’t, some wanted to, but couldn’t since their wives were shooting daggers at them, even the dogs joined in to follow the mass.
Advertisement
Once they had arrived at the tavern doors, Xandarr kicked open the door and exclaimed at the new bartender: “ALL ON DRINKS ARE ON ME TONIGHT! BARTENDER KEEP MY TAB OPEN AND KEEP THE TAPS FLOWING, WE AIN’T STOPPIN’ TILL WE DROPPIN’!”
The bartender was left speechless, and the waitresses were left stunned, one recovered faster than the others once she recognized the iconic trio who have done nothing but raise hell in the last few days and quickly running over to Drazdan.
“Care to explain to me what's happening, sweetie?” she asked in a hushed tone with a slightly threatening grin on her face.
“Well…” Drazdan responds slightly, backing off with his hands up. “We successfully finished our mission and well things got heated before, during and after said mission so they...” he says pointing at Xandarr and Marcus. “Had a little arm wrestling competition… Annnd Xandarr won. ” he answers.
The surprised maid took a second to process the information before looking at Xandarr and then back to Drazdan. “That skinny druid won an arm wrestling match with Marcus? Do you honestly think I’d believe that?” she asks with a hint of disbelief.
“Wellll…” Drazdan hesitates. “I didn’t say this, but he may have cheated a little.” he stammers out.
The waitresses eyes widen, “A little? Did he turn into a bear again?” she asks now curious.
“No, he uhm used nature to grow roots up the table's leg and support his arm, and it assisted him during the match. Also, what do you mean again?.” he asks.
“HAH!” she exclaims, drawing everyone's attention.
“Go back to your drinks, ya buffoons! Having a private conversation here!” she shouts out to the crowd, prompting them to return to nursing their drinks.
Advertisement
“Now honey, I wouldn’t call that a little and as for how I know about your little trip to the Mayors, it's a small town darling. Word spreads rapidly, especially when a group of individuals as loud as you guys do something outrageous… again. Everybody in town knows about the axe in the previous owner's face, the terrified Merchant and his mimics, the bear attempting to shit on the Mayor's carpet, and now they also know of both the family you all managed to rescue and the mess y’all are making in my tavern.” she answers.
If Drazdan could sweat, his forehead would be drenched right now, but instead his ear is now alarmingly drooping to the side of his head. “Oh… Uhm, could ya keep the cheating a secret then? Don’t really want to deal with the aftermath of that, considering how much money was on the line… And that most of them were members of the guard…” he sheepishly asks.
The waitresses' eyes once again before cracking into a devilish smile, “Alright, H O N E Y.” she says spelling it out slowly as she approaches the rabbit pushing him into a corner. “Remember dear, you owe me.” she says menacingly, passing a single finger around the right cheek of Drazdan.
An audible gulp is heard from Drazdan and the waitress backs off with a chuckle. Before turning a round and beginning to walk towards the counter. After a few steps, she looks back. “Aren’t you gonna grab a drink, Hun? It is all on your buddies tab, after all.”
Drazdan quickly loosens up and answers with a flurry of nods before walking up to the waitress. “By the way, I never caught your name.” he says to her.
“Took ya long enough, name’s Brenda. Don’t forget it.” she says.
“Wouldn’t dare to.” Drazdan answers.
Advertisement
- In Serial9 Chapters
Mistakes Were Made: Short Stories That Shouldn't Be
Plot yourself a collision course with time travel, hypotheticals and subtle™ satire in this collection of experimental standalone shorts. It's not as if anything could go wrong.
8 147 - In Serial7 Chapters
Newton's Cradle
Tristan Jameson has a couple of missions: to make sense of how quantum forces are changing Newtonian laws; to help his sister, Ricky, who’s targeted by the force that set these changes in motion; to foil Ricky’s nemesis, a psychopath who wants to be Jesus—Oh, and to come back from the dead in order to do all this. As Tristan searches the worldlines of those he cared about in life, he learns that reality is far different than can be seen with physical eyes and how easily it may all slip away…..
8 122 - In Serial14 Chapters
Fallen Kingdom
An experiment. Alone. Will this continue? maybe? This can end if I want. In the ruins of an fallen empire, someone awakes.
8 174 - In Serial29 Chapters
Mana Wall: Book One
Have you ever wondered what goes through the minds of your RPG characters? Billington, the dwarf gadgeteer, loots a legendary item, though he doesn’t' know it at the time. It isn't until he meets the human bard Hendrix that he learns of its importance. The Dark Lady Kaloriann has constricted the world in a deadly ring of energy. The Mana Wall, as it is called, has entrapped the capital city and the royal family with it. Countless guilds have searched for answers on how to save them to no avail. The answers, however, seem to be hidden in Billington's new item… in the hands of a noob. These characters don't know they're in a game. To them, it is a matter of life and death, and the probable end of their world. Hey everyone! Hope you all enjoy my story. It's still in beta form so any feedback would be very much appreciated. New chapter every second day. Thanks for reading :)
8 178 - In Serial21 Chapters
Aytelia
A magical world embracing chaos as powerful entities and worlds fight for survival or power, observed by the "universals", a sentient species no one can fathom or reason with. Their knowledge, comparable to the vast amounts of years they have existed for and their power feared by even some Gods, capable of destroying and creating entire universes, Aytelia being their proudest creation. Amongst all these the name of one of them is profound even amongst them, both feared and respected - Righteousness. As a lone girl wakes up in a large strange fountain, filled with other individuals in the same position such as herself, she lifts her drowsy head to find her surreal surroundings. The civilians walking around said fountain are all weird creatures that could only come out of a fantasy - orcs, elves, dwarfs, dragonewts, all wearing all different kinds of medieval armor, weaponry and artifacts. What will happen to her in this world? Will she be able to find a place in it and will the mysteries behind her current circumstances be revealed? Why is she so different than those around her? Warning: Character is extremelly OP and the lore behind it doesn't get covered till chapter 14. Updates once a week. First time posting my writing on the internet so feedback would be appreciated.
8 197 - In Serial103 Chapters
Moonblood
Five moons rise over Evanir, each in her own cycle, and each moon is also a god, one of five sisters. Many gods create spirit attendants and companions, brought forth fully-formed. Long ago, the moons worked together to create a lineage that are, instead, humans transformed by the mingling of blood. They intended them to be long-lived and to draw their strength directly from the light of the moon who chose each individual. The five sisters had different goals in mind – one wanted it to be a blessing for scholars and artists, to give them more time and fewer physical distractions; another wanted them to have an animal form, different for each, to keep them more in tune with nature so they could serve as guardians of the wilderness. There are drawbacks to their children having human lives and personalities before being chosen: not all share the goals of their divine mothers, and some choose to put their gifts to darker uses. Those carrying the blood of one woman, fleeing the corruption in search of a quiet life, take a different path. -=-=-=-=- Moonblood isn't so much a novel as a series of adventures of varying length. They involve a core group of people, which does grow over time. They take place in a fairly low-magic world, but despite that, our core cast are directly connected to the moons and have various abilities, including limited shapeshifting to a single individual animal form. As with all my work, unless gender, orientation, or other aspects of sexuality are explicitly stated, I suggest not making assumptions. Probably most significant, I think, is a major trans character who appears about 80K words in - no spoilers, just a note for those who care about that one way or the other.
8 133

