[SleepingDragon]: 268.The Staff of Illidon.Chapter One- Brawl at the Wild Boar

The Staff of Illidon

Chapter One – Brawl at the Wild Boar

Chad Melrow had a roving eye and a broad, dashing smile over his broad cleft chin. He was well aware of his own prowess with the ladies, and had been working his charms on at least one of the scantily clad tavern wenches of The Wild Boar for the past hour or more. Across the table, his unlikely traveling companion, the fully elven Marillian Thistledown, nursed a tankard of mead and tried to ignore his advances on the flirtatious serving girls. Many there wondered what in the world she was doing, traveling with the egotistical mercenary who seemed content to overlook her ravishing good looks as if she were a mere drinking pal. While the story of how they came to be in the company of one another is a tale for another time, suffice to say that Chad had helped her out of a jam. Mari, as he called her, was somewhat in his debt.

“You have inquired of lodging.” Mari said. A wench dropped off another round of drinks for them, making a small show of swinging her derriere near Chad’s face. “What is the price?”

“It’s taken care of.” Chad smiled broadly, tipping the serving girl more than she deserved and earning himself a smile and a wink. He slid a small brass key to Mari and pocketed its twin. “You can have the room in front, overlooking the door. I might have company if all goes well. Don’t wait up.”

Mari snorted in her mead. “You’ll save enough for tomorrow night’s lodging as well, I hope?”

“Don’t worry.”

“So, you’ve been eyein’ me gal ave ya?” Spoke a raucous voice from behind Chad, a large hand spun him around in his seat. “Thinkin’ you’ll be takin’ her up to the back room do ya?” The stranger’s grimy face was inches from Chad’s own.

“That’s for her to decide, I reckon.” Chad told him flippantly, standing to face the irate townsman. He probably should have taken a more mannerly approach to the situation, but he found the stranger’s assuming attitude to be ingratiating. Not that the accusation was errant at all. It was a matter of principle to Chad. He knew as well, by the look in the man’s eye, he wasn’t getting out of this without a fight. “You require a little compensation? How’s two pence sound, fella?”

Chad had stood just in time to set himself and block the man’s swing, countering with one of his own that sent the local sprawling over a nearby table. That caused four rough looking men who were otherwise paying no attention to the exchange to become immediately furious at having their drinks spilled in their laps. Chad was soon backing away from a throng of angry townsmen, Mari at his side.

“You’ve not heard ‘discretion is the better part of valor’?” She asked, assuming a fighting stance. While true this was probably not her fight, she was traveling with Chad and would likely be dragged into the mess eventually. And, she was somewhat in the mercenary’s debt.

Mari quickly ducked a flying chair before hitting the first approaching opponent with a barrage of quick punches. She then grabbed him by the arm and gracefully flipped him over one shoulder onto the table where she had just been sitting. Quickly jumping, she kicked a second man in the face, knocking him backward into a third.

A bell began chiming behind the bar of the tavern as Chad laid out a second attacker. It was then that the whole room full of people came at the pair of them, evidently just on the principle that they had upset the norm. As the gaggle of locals surrounded them, Chad and Mari stood back to back, waiting for the maelstrom to roll in upon them. Weapons may have been handy at that point but they could at least take comfort in knowing the other patrons had been stripped of their own as well before entering the establishment.

The main thing that worked to their advantage was that there was very little space to move in the area with the broken tables. Their adversaries were forced to come at them one at a time. A burly man lunged at Chad to start the melee and found himself tossed aside, face first into Mari’s right knee. Turning, she kneed another man in the groin. Chad sidestepped another attacker and then smashed his face into a nearby pole. Blocking a series of punches from yet another assailant, Chad then lifted him bodily and slammed him onto the bar.

So it went for several moments. Men would attack and find themselves on their faces, on their backs or on their backsides. Tankards were spilled. Chairs and tables were splintered. Ale barrels were broken open. Chad and Mari took their share of punches but dished out many more. Soon the would-be assailants became weary enough of the pair that none were in any hurry to be abused further. Instead of attacking, they began methodically backing them into a corner of the establishment away from the entranceway.

It was at that very moment that a throng of armed men rushed in through the open doorway, swords drawn, arrows cocked in bows.

“Stand down fools!” the one in front shouted as several of his men trained arrows on Chad and Mari. “You are both under arrest!”

“On what charge?” Chad asked with a grin. “Defending ourselves?”

“Quiet!” The soldier reprimanded him. “The charge is disturbing the peace; by ordinance of the vale of Glendale, territory of Halidon! Fall out!”

Mari shot Chad a sardonic look. "I see tomorrow night's lodging won't be a problem now."

Chad and Mari were forced by point of sword and arrow then, out of The Wild Boar and down the road, into the night.