Today was a great day... Somewhat. Sunny, beautiful, slight breeze kept it just cool enough. I had just been visiting the forests around Oppatuniti, and it was a wonderful place. Lots of fun twisting routes with narrow scrapes.
But after that exhaustion, I was surely looking forward to a quiet evening at the next town. However, oddly enough, come late afternoon (and the breeze getting a bit stronger), I found a tavern situated in the middle of nowhere between the two. It must be a secret hideout for shady organisations! So curious, I headed down. Got to keep it cool though, can't let them know I suspect.
But that quickly turned irrelevant, when a chain of strange things began happening. Firstly, I was almost collected by a strange man. Came flying out of the outhouse at a speed I can barely match, that I dodged by a mere feather's width.
I decided not to eat what he ate.
But I'd only just scratched the surface of his strangeness. He spoke a language I couldn't even identify, letalone understand (and I've heard a lot of languages!), and acted in a manner as though he'd never seen an avion before. Possibly from a sheltered human tribe with an obscure dialect? Though I'd think I'd at least understand some words, then.
Still, a foreigner's a foreigner. I somehow managed to invite him into the inn (getting knocked over by a drunk rakashan), intending to at least buy him a meal (having concluded he probably hadn't yet eaten, afterall). I'm not wealthy, but I'm no beggar either.
And then, all of a sudden, who came running in, but Lilly! I wondered what became of her after we parted ways. It's great to see her again!
There was a rather large man there, wandering around with enough food for three people. It felt a bit strange ordering three meals myself, wondering if the barkeep would think I would eat it all like him.
Shortly after ordering, he started fiddling about under our table. I don't want to know what he was doing down there, but when he came up, he came up solidly, and took the whole damn table with him. I managed to keep Lilly out of harm's way, at least, and our foreign guest seemed to cope alright. We moved to another table and the fat man thankfully left us mostly alone thereafter.
Then we got our food, and the strange man tried to take a weapon to his; I tried to stop him, and show him how to eat the stew, but I'm not sure he understood. I think we managed to exchange names, at least. If I'm correct, he should be called Stein. Not a name I've heard, at a guess it would mean... 'displaced', perhaps? Fitting.
But our dinner was interrupted, abruptly, when some guards hurled open the door - cleaning the rakashan clear away in the process. They demanded we come with them peacefully. Must've run out of slaves. A complete stranger from the bar dove for cover under our table. (... Are my legs that good?)
The fat man intervened, intending to... Give them the table? But Lilly climbed on it and rode it to face them, and the man underneath vanished. I later learned he'd somehow clung on the whole time.
The guards grabbed for Lilly, though it took me a moment to realise what that meant. I tried to keep things from getting out of hand, but nobody was listening. Swords were drawn and blows were exchanged. Before I knew it, several of the guards were down, possibly dead. I had to know what was going on, and with the maniacs here I wouldn't get a chance to stop and ask. I bolted for the only guy still standing, and tried to get him up, out of reach of the mess.
Now, I knew rakashan were a bit obsessive with their hunting, but this one must have been on a dry spell, 'cause he came flying up the building and latched straight on to my captive. With that much weight, I had to take a chance. I dropped the pair, and went back to see who else was alive. Thankfully, the drunkard from under the table was able to patch up the one I found a bit, got him awake again, but still dazed. The barkeep offered to handle the interrogation for me, and even give us rooms anonymously, just in case those guards come again. But I'm worried for Lilly, even keeping her close to me. I doubt I'll sleep tonight.