Adventures of the last Wild Dragon-Chapter 178: Drunken Roc
Upon exiting out of the compound controlled by the Wild Order the group of 4 continued to walk with no true direction for several minutes. Eventually stopping in a mostly empty street, save for a few pedestrians wandering back and forth.
Violet turned around to face her friends, a complicated look on her face. "Sorry for whatever that was. I thought things would be fine, then that mess happened. Umm I don’t really know what to do from here."
It was Susan who spoke up, her voice surprisingly calm. "Well I think you just experienced your first case of dealing with politics. Clearly their was some internal conflicts taking place with the Order, then we come along and become the spark that sets off the building fire."
The rest of the girls look at Susan strangely, tilting their heads as they try to understand what she meant by that. Seeing the group inquisitive gazes she flushed slightly before speaking up once more. "You are all too young or have not been involved in situations like this. I, unfortunately have been. Conflicts between people that supposedly have the same goal, but have different opinions on how to achieve said goals."
"It would seem like Ivy had her ideas on how the Order should be run, where as the other elders had a different opinion. The only difference is that Ivy had the strength to force her ideals into fruition. We just got caught up in that power struggle, at least I think that’s what happened." She further explained.
"Hu... yeah that does make sense, I remember some of the clan elders having arguments about how a certain thing should be done. It never resorted to violence, but they would argue loud enoigh to wake up the whole village." Luna stated, giggling slightly towards the end.
"Well regardless I don’t really want to be involved with them right now. Unless any of you think differently?" Violet asked.
Seeing everyone shake their heads in the negative relieved the Void Dragon, glad that she didn’t annoy her friends with her decision.
"Okay well we can debate what happened there as much as we like, but for now we should focus on finding a place to sleep for the night. It is getting late... I think." Luna proposed whilst looking up at the perpetually glowing golden blue crystals and fungi covering the distant ceiling.
"Do we just sleep anywhere?" Asked Violet, unsure of what would be expected in such an unfamiliar place as a city.
Thankfully they had Susan, who, whilst not having extensive experience in city’s due to being a slave for most of her life. Knew enough about how they worked to be able to suggest a solution to their apparent problem. "We should find an inn or tavern, or ask someone on the street, they should be able to direct us towards a suitable place."
Saying so she approached a passing woman, flagging her down and asking a couple of quick questions. A few moments later she waved goodbye to the beastkin woman and returned to the group. "Okay, follow me I think I know where to go. We need to look out for a place with a sign showing a Roc flying over a mug. It’s called the drunken Roc apparently, and it should have rooms for us to sleep in."
Seeing no reason not to trust her they merrily followed behind Susan as she began to lead the girls down the street in search of lodgings for the night.
Several minutes later, and after asking for further directions from at least 4 separate people the group eventually arrived outside of the Drunken Roc. It was a fairly large building, at least 3 stories tall, with large stained glass windows on the front showcasing a lively tavern within.
Entering the door the girls are immediately assaulted with a barrage of noise and smells, from the lively chatter of drunken patrons to the smells of spilt booze and cooking food.
It was quite the sensory overload for the 3 Beasts and their enhanced senses, taking them several moments to reel in their senses and get accustomed to this new environment.
Soon they could properly take in the building they found themselves in. It was a large open space, filled with numerous tables and benches. Most filled with patrons in various states of drunkenness. On the back wall stood a long bar counter, behind which a couple of people hurriedly worked, serving customers and cleaning the counter as they went.
Susan once more took the lead, pulling her friends forwards towards the bar. They received several looks from the patrons, some simply curious at the new arrivals, some holding a more lascivious edge as they looked at the attractive women walking through the bar.
Arriving at the counter they were soon greeted by a wizened dwarf man, with silver hair and a well groomed silver beard with colourful beads interwoven into it. "Welcome ladies, what can I do ye for?" He asked in a tone that was both tired and almost happy.
"We are looking for a place to spend the night, do you have any room available for us?" Susan asked the man.
He took a moment to think before replying. "Aye we have a couple rooms open, how many are ye wanting?"
"Just two will be fine thanks." Then she looked back at her friends and noticed both Violet’s and Rhyana’s gaze focused on the plates of food scattered around the bar and let out a sigh. "Can we also order som food please?"
The man smiled behind his beard. "Aye that can be arranged lassy. It’ll be 1 silver for the two rooms and food. Anything to drink?"
"Umm they are too young for alcohol so whatever you have apart from that please. Oh... also please make it a double order of food." Then looking back at Violet she spoke again. "Please pay the man Violet."
Smiling Violet walked forward and summoned forth a gold coin and proceeded to place it in the suddenly stunned barkeeps outstretched hand. His eyes opened wide at both the fact that she decided to spend an entire gold coin, and that she apparently had a storage item to be able to summon it.
It is worth noting that the generally accepted currency of this world is mainly split into 4 denominations: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. A silver is worth 100 bronze coins, a gold is then worth 100 silver coins, a platinum is then worth a whole 1000 gold coins. So for Violet to pay with a gold coin is massively overkill, something that not a single one of the food stall owners felt the need to inform Violet when she was clearing them out of said food.
The dwarf meanwhile looked up at Violet and spoke in a carefully neutral voice. "Do you not have any silver coins to pay with? I don’t know if we have enough coins to give you change."
Violet concentrated for a minute, carefully going over everything within her storage item. This was not an easy task as their was literal small mountains worth of treasure and random items contained within. Eventually she did come across a chest tucked away which was actually full of a silvery coin!
Smiling down at the man Violet exclaimed. "Ohh yes I do have some of those coins! Here you go." She then proceeded to place one of the large silvery blue coins into the dwarfs hand. When he saw what she had placed into it he staggered, almost falling over in pure shock. For she had not given him a silver coin, but a platinum coin.
An amount of money that could quite literally buy every building on this entire street. And Violet had an entire chest worth of these coins.
"T-thi this is a platinum coin." The dwarf half hissed in both shock and utter confusion.
"Oh... did I do something wrong?" Violet asked, sounding slightly sad at making an apparent mistake.
The dwarf took a calming breath, passed back over the shiny platinum coin and took the gold one back. He then walked over to chest behind the bar and dug through it for a little while. Soon he came back and plopped a small bad on the counter.
"This is most of the spare change I have, it not enough but I’ll let you eat, drink and sleep here as long as you want as repayment." This perked Violet right back up, she looked into the dwarves eyes with renewed excitement.
"Then I want food! Lots of food!"
The dwarf chuckled good naturedly at her rapid shift in emotions, thinking that this strange young woman seemed to act more like a kid than the adult she looked like physically. It warmed his heart seeing such an innocent girl and he couldn’t help but smile at her.
"Go on find yourself a table, I’ll bring out some food and drink shortly. Oh before I forget, here these are your room keys, second floor room 202 and 203." He said, handing over two room keys and then gesturing back at the room behind them.
Little did he know that when Violet said she wanted a lot of food, he was entirely unprepared for exactly how much food 2 dragons could actually put away.
