Dawn- An age of Darkness

"I'm his disciple. I was sent to you by him."

It felt really weird to say that. Then again, could I have really counted myself a disciple?

Didn't matter now, cause I already said it anyway.

"Say, what? That geezer? A disciple? Hmm?" He looked over me, examined me, and a second later. "I guess appearances could be deceiving-" He closed his eyes and a second later I felt bloodlust. A sword flew straight for my eye in an instant as he slowly but surely got up. It seemed slow as adrenaline pumped but I knew for a fact he wasn't slow. 

I was always carrying a second sword on my hip and it didn't take much effort to bring it up and block him- but just barely. I was really, really glad I practiced with Joanne- otherwise, I could have never been able to block that.

And he wasn't even serious about that attack and yet, he could almost severe through my defenses. "Not bad. Geezer taught you well." He admired me and sheathed his sword, and again sat nicely. "So, what brings you here?"

The tension in the air vanished and so did his bloodlust. The guy did not even attempt to hide his bloodlust when he was going to attack. I guess he was giving me a head start to make sure, I didn't get seriously wounded? Then what if I couldn't block? What if-

I was already sweating. 

That was a lot more stressful than I'd imagined. But I'd blocked and worrying about the otherwise, wasn't going to get me anywhere.

"Well, the geezer told me to give you a greeting and ask for your help with a bit of training."

At this point though, was there any point? I already got my hand back and I didn't need one-handed swordsmanship.

"Well, have a seat."

The man ordered some drinks. Though I said I didn't drink, he wasn't listening. If push came to shove, I'd just ask Ve to drink everything anyway.

"Why do you want to learn the sword? From I can tell, you're already pretty strong- maybe even stronger than me."

Oh, so he was the modest type?

No, I had a feeling he was the boasting kind. He looked ready to boast.

"I need to fight an impossible foe- that's all I can tell you." But I didn't have time for all that I got straight to business.

He closed his eyes and snorted. "Fair enough I suppose. So, what's the payment?"

Well, the geezer never talked about payments. Nothing was free and I should have known that.

I had enough money but wait!

I distinctly remember the old man giving me gems…

I pulled a bag out of my ring. The man looked slightly confused for a second but he understood what this was in a matter of seconds. 

Items like this were rare in this world but it wasn't impossible to find. So, even if people were shocked at first, they generally assumed either I was super-rich or just a super-strong adventurer. I was neither though and just got lucky.

The bag contained some gemstones, I never got to use them and as things stood, I never really needed them.

But I was a miser so- I took out one gem and put it on the table. "One week." If he was good, then I could always just increase the payment.

It was a red gem- a bit crude but a ruby regardless. I had no frigging idea how expensive this was. But since Alisa wasn't freaking out, I guess there wasn't any need to panic just yet. 

'Why the hell didn't look into these things some more?'

Seriously, something was wrong with me. I had all this time but I never bothered to actually get knowledgeable about things. 

"Sorry, but I believe in live cash."

Well, that went nowhere. And his grin sure was annoying. 

"Would one dwarven gold do?" Alisa said.

"Make it five and we have a deal." The man grinned.

He sure wasn't in the mood to negotiate that was for sure. He was deliberately trying to piss us off. It was almost like he didn't want to teach me and this was just an excuse. 

"Ninety silvers." Alisa also grinned. 

"Hey, you should be going up not down!" He was slightly agitated. And definitely pissed. I guess he was also drunk.

"And you should negotiate reasonably, not try to rob one of your friend's disciples."

He clicked his tongue. "Some friend he is. Haven't seen the geezer in over fifteen years and suddenly he sends over some random guy and asks me to teach him? He didn't even bother sending a note! Why shouldn't I rob you?"

Wow, he was actually admitting that he was robbing us.

But wait these two were friends? I could see maybe an age gap of maybe twenty to twenty-five years?

Then again, I did consider the old man my friend- or maybe even my fath- never mind.

"Well, the geezer was in a snake's stomach for who knows how long, so can you really blame him?"

He was totally free now though.

"Really? Can't kill that geezer can ya?" the man laughed. "Fine, I'll settle for one gold and 90 silvers but no less."

I had a feeling he was kind of desperate for money- just a feeling though.

"Very well." Alisa crossed her arms and looked proud. "The gemstone was probably worth about five or six gold though- so."

So, the guy was about to jump at the stone but-

She giggled, took the stone, and put exactly one gold and ninety silvers on the table. 

She handed me the stone with a toothy grin.

'Where the hell did you get the money from?'

Travador looked kind of dead on the inside as he crashed onto the table with his face- poor guy. Actually, even I didn't know how expensive these gems were. Oh well.

"Meet me by the back alley tomorrow morning before sunrise." The guy sniffed slightly as he examined his wound on the left side of his forehead and sulked. Talk about a drama queen.

And with that said, he got up and left. He didn't even give us a chance to talk about anything else. 

Where the hell was the back alley? What was the back alley? Why the back-

Ahem!

And a moment later the waiter came and asked for money- apparently, the guy hadn't even paid. 

So much for first impressions. 

I paid for everything as Ve gulped down the drinks.

Sigh.

***

We got back at the inn slightly after midnight. The reception was mostly empty. 

Customers were probably in their rooms and most of the staff went home or maybe sleeping.

Our rooms were on the first floor, so we just took a left and arrived. We'd booked two rooms this time. One for Ve and Alisa and one for me and Biteria. 

"Alright, see you tomorrow." Alisa waved as she carried Ve into the room.

Ve wasn't quite drunk but she couldn't really stand on her feet. She even threw up outside- okay maybe, she was drunk.

I was definitely not going to let her near a drink again. Then again, she did drink roughly four bottles worth of ale- so… yeah.

Anyway, I went in and found a pouting bunny on the bed. It was a white fluffy bunny which had half of its head looking sideways, pouting divinely. 

Ah, Biteria had gone back to normal. My lovely bunny.

All the troubles of this world were meaningless! My bunny!

My sweet, sweet- AHHHHH!

The damn thing friggin bit my hand like it was its chew toy. "Let go, let go you damn bunny!"

It almost made a clicking sound and let go and went to the corner.

I guess the little thing was too mad. 

"Sorry, okay. I didn't want you to go to a place like that."

She did not look at me, no.

Anyway, it was late, so I turned off the lights, locked the door, and lied down on the bed. Removing my armor was too much of a drag anyway.

It didn't even take a minute for me to fall asleep.

And I was back- to the hugging spirit. 

Was it me or had its chest grown?