The Morning After
#40 of Dragon Hunter Saga
I sit the next morning at my outdoor table watching Ecthelon training the children, enjoying the odd quiet that blanketed the city. I had gone to bed at my normal hour and the 'funeral' was still going on, I was surprised Flower was awake and bright eyed. Seems her species isn't affected by alcohol as most humanoid species are. Probably why that bottle was gifted for the funeral to begin with.
Tammy and Samuel both had kindly elected to not attend the funeral, they had taken their people and informed them that half of them had to refrain from attending. This way they would have enough people to guard the city while the rest were laid up from the drinking. I knew once everyone was back to normal there would be a few people needing some administrative punishment. These were from some of the younger guards who had gotten the 'short end of the stick' and were suppose to not attend the funeral. They did anyway, and were going to get the lash once they were fully coherent.
Gilorndir is not available to assist them recover, as after he aided the unicorns who had been beaten and had their horns removed he used a great deal of energy restoring the Pegasus' wings. He is now in something akin to a coma as his body recovers from the use of so much power. The Pegasus says his name is Shiv, and has elected to remain with the city. He's actually taken by our hippogryph, and is currently flying with her as she gets her morning exercise before Gawain wakes up. I see potential for her to have a new mate provided he is willing to accept her position.
The horse's name is Chester and is currently being housed with Alberich as he does not wish the resident humans to think he is a 'dumb' horse. I think he might be considering offering to be Timothy's partner when he joins the guard. A intelligent horse would be the best steed for a guardsman with a bad leg, they seem to have hit it off as friends and was surprised to see Timothy being friends with Flower. Guess he hasn't had much experience with a human who likes the other species.
I spy Ariawyn and Tammy coming through the entrance to my compound, Ariawyn with another basket; most likely containing some kind of food. The two woman stop to watch the children for a moment, it was currently Lance in the ring. He was trying to block some blows from Ecthelon, the boy was not doing badly as of yet; granted Ecthelon was only going at half speed currently. Good for training a child Hunter, hard for an adult guard to counter though, if they're human. Timothy however is training at the same level as Lance though, which is why Tammy is watching the children a moment.
Samuel handles all of the training of the new recruits in the guard, and while Ecthelon does spar with the better trained guards he doesn't handle their training. He was brought here to train Hunters, he is willing to help train the children, as well as any person who shows more talent than most.
After asking Ecthelon a few questions the women head in my direction again, Ariawyn sets her basket on the table, "now I hope you haven't had a full meal as yet Hunter. I have some freshly roasted venison and a lovely cheese for you to try." I give her a look and indicate the children, "I don't tend to eat till they are done training as who'd want to do that to starving children first thing in the morning?" Ariawyn pauses before responding and smiles then turns her head to the ring. "Which ever of you does the best according to Ecthelon gets extra honey cakes as I have brought some for you." Ecthelon takes a deep breath and shakes his head as I snicker, this will have an interesting effect on the children's ability to focus. Which is why Ariawyn did it, while Ecthelon knows this; he will be on the receiving end of their not full attention.
I smile as she starts setting food out onto the table as Tammy sits and pours herself a cup of tea. "You know if you weren't the King's daughter he'd probably give you hell for that." She smiles after setting out a container of strawberries in cream, "one of the perks of being a princess then." We fill our plates and begin to eat and I incline my head to Tammy, "so I am guessing you are not hear just for a social visit?"
She shakes her head, "no but maybe me and Ariawyn should make this a regular morning event. We're both here to give you the damage reports from the funeral." I nod my head as I add some cheese to the flatbread sandwich I made for myself. I had expected this, with the possibility of a drink this strong there was bound to be some issues in the city.
Tammy takes a bite of venison, "I'd inform Jake instead; but as he is the one true 'official' of the city he did attend last night. His wife is very unhappy this morning," I would say so. Jake has a six month old at home, and with him out of commission for who knows how long his wife will be mildly annoyed. Tammy pulls out a stack of papers, "thankfully anyone who was at the funeral is sleeping off the drinks at this point." I look up at Starburst's sleeping form, "even he got knocked out by it. He'd normally be awake by now, so I am truly curious about how the minotaurs differ from the other species in that respect."
Ariawyn looks up there too, "that is a surprise; most likely why Hekkogar had to bring out more barrels of mead." She pulls out a rolled up large leaf and looks over what was written on it, "I have considerable less reports than Tammy does. So perhaps I should go first," she shakes her head looking at something.
"One of the half elves somehow managed to hang themselves by their pants from the center of the fountain in the market square, I asked around and some of the guards said that he had done it to himself. The guard was surprised by it as well, it seems the young man had climbed to the top of the sprayer and went to jump when he slipped and resulted in him hanging by his pants. Thankfully his head was above the spraying water." I rub my forehead as she tells me of this odd feat, {I have a feeling this will get worse}. I can hear Alberich chuckle in my head as Ariawyn blushes before reading the next one.
"It um, seems that; one of the full elf females later on wandered over to the farm fields. She then came face to face with Sir Iron, who was planning on nudging her back into the city. When she um, propositioned him. Seems she had been listening to some of the human women in my restaurant gossiping about men being 'hung like a horse'. So she wanted to, um; see what that meant. Thankfully he got her back inside the city without any issues." She shakes her head, "I think I'll have to institute a rule concerning proper topics of dialogue in the restaurant while dining." I nod my head trying to not chuckle, that explains Alberich's amusement.
The next item on her list had her shaking her head, "this one is probably on Tammy's list as well. A group of young folks of mixed species broke into my restaurant store room and attempted to drink from the bottle set aside to feed vampires with. It seems they wanted to see if it would turn them into vampires."
Tammy picks up the conversation, "there was two elves three dwarves and six humans in the mix Hunter. We have decided to put them through some guard training for a month instead of having them before the council." She grins, "one of their 'duties' will be to clean the regular horse stables. They made a right mess of Ariawyn's storeroom and some things will need replacing." I nod my head not wanting to imagine the mess in there as I was pretty sure they were all violently ill after making that attempt.
Tammy looks through her stack of papers, "most of these are minor destruction of public property; or defacement thereof. I do have the issue of the six young guards that will need administrative punishment for shirking their duty. I thankfully had extra volunteers than I needed for those wishing to attend the funeral." She shakes her head, "two of them are from merchant families. Who will probably raise a stink when we have them whipped in front of the rest of the guards." I sigh shaking my head, "then if they do; because their families wouldn't know unless told. They should be tossed out for dereliction of duty with a clause that due to this if they are assigned to the guard for punishment they will receive a public flogging instead. The point is to remind people that we are not here just to cater to their whims. We are a society that needs to be cohesive, and stupid behavior needs to be stopped before it becomes habit for people."
Tammy nods her head, "that is pretty much it. The stack of damage papers Jake can look over once he feels alive. Thankfully we've not had anything bad come from last night's 'event'." I nod my head glad for small favors, Then I see Fredrick the owner of the inn outside of the city slowly walking into the compound.
I stand up and walk over to the training ring and lean against the fencing, Tammy behind me with Ariawyn watching from the table. "Can I help you Fredrick?" He notices me after looking about the area with an odd look on his face, "I hope so. I wanted to lodge a complaint with Jake, but he is not in his office as yet and an angry woman told me to get the hells out when I demanded to see him." I shake my head and respond. "You are aware we had a funeral for the dead minotaurs last night, which had a great deal of drinking involved."
He shrugs his shoulders, "so? People drink all the time what does that matter in reference to today?" I sigh and point towards Starburst, "see him? He was drinking last night and he is still sleeping even with those children training right there." Fredrick looks up and blanches when he see's Starburst, "bad enough to make a Dragon need to sleep eh?" He shakes his head then as if clearing it, "that doesn't resolve my problem though." I cross my arms, "alright what is your problem then?"
He mimics me and crosses his arms, "I want to know who is going to fix the tank treads all over my garden. And... who is going to clean up the words 'Fredrick is a stinker' from the side of my building?" One of the children snickers and he turns to them ready to start yelling when a horn and a beak appear in front of him. Alberich nods at Strongheart who must have just returned from her morning flight. "Now innkeeper I suggest you rethink what ever it was you were going to say about those children. Everyone here would have laughed if we were children too," Alberich says as he slowly withdraws and Strongheart steps back as well.
The man blanches again, "they obviously must know who did it if they think it is so amusing." I turn to Flower, who was the one to laugh. "Did you see anyone write that on his wall?" She shakes her head, "no; but I know it was then when the service was over. So it happened during the service," I turn back to Fredric. "So it is very possible it was someone who had a beef with you that decided to use the public drunkenness as an excuse to 'stick it to you'. Considering not many people here like you very much you shouldn't expect this to become resolved. However if you decide to be foolish about it, write up your complaint and pass it on to Tammy. She'll give it to Jake to be filed," I then turn and walk back to table. Once I sit I notice Fredric had left quicker than he had entered.
I can for see the next court day being a very busy one as I mentally shuffle my schedule for that day around.