Not Well

Amrea took a deep breath as she began to feel power course through her body. As she felt static begin to buzz at the tips of her fingers, one of the dwarves stepped forward.

The world seemed to slow down as he raised a large meaty hand and reached for her. She took one step back, raised a hand, and whispered an incantation. The dwarf had no time to react as the stun spell caught him fully unprepared. She watched as his eyes rolled up in his head and he fell backwards.

"Watch out lads," one of the dwarves yelled, "she's a mage."

Another dwarf stepped out from the crowd, moving much more surely than the first one. But she was ready for this as well. In the few seconds between the time she had cast the first spell and the other dwarves reacting, she had cast mage hand on a nearby bar stool. With a flick of her wrist, the small piece of furniture went flying across the room. It slammed directly into the side of the head of the second dwarf, sending him sprawling.

By now, the group of dwarves seemed a little rattled. Some of them dispersed to help their two fellows get up while a few others looked at each other uncertainly. This only lasted for a moment before a third dwarf, bigger and bulkier than the first two, lunged at her.

His speed surprised her. She was almost too slow as she stepped aside, feeling his fingers graze her chin. As he quickly pivoted to lunge at her once more, she moved a hand right in front of his face and cast a simple light spell. She closed her eyes as she felt the spell ignite in her hand. She heard several of the dwarves moan in surprise as the dim tavern was suddenly lit up. The dwarf that had tried to grab her, however, made a much different sound.

As he cried out loudly in shock and pain, she opened her eyes to see him stumbling backward, his hands covering his face.

"I'm blind," he cried. "She's blinded me boys!"

She took a moment to grin. 'If I can do enough minor damage, I can convince them this isn't worth it without actually having to hurt any of them,' she thought. Unfortunately, that tiny bit of hope that had sprung up inside of her was quickly dashed as she turned around just in time to see the dwarf who had addressed her earlier, the one with the salt and pepper beard, swing his arm towards her.

She had a moment to think that he wasn't nearly close enough to hit her before she registered that he had a large pint glass in his hand. She realized what was happening a moment too late as nearly a full pint of the tavern's ale splashed directly in her face.

Both her eyes and mouth were open so the effect was immediate. Her eyes began to sting and burn and she gagged as she took in a breath to scream but sucked ale down her throat. She took a few halting steps back, her hand moving to her face to wipe it clean, coughing as she did so. This was all the time that the dwarf, whom she now assumed was probably their leader, needed.

He stepped forward, and once again swung the arm holding the pint glass, only this time he struck her in the stomach with it. As she suddenly felt all the wind leave her body and the world around her begin to spin, a small part of her mind considered that he probably could have hit her much harder, but he was probably only trying to incapacitate her. These thoughts flooded through her mind as she felt a large hand grab her by the nape of her neck and begin to drag her forward.

She felt her feet leave the ground as she was tossed up and landed on something hard. She groaned and rolled onto her back, finally able to take in a few shallow gasps of air. As her vision started to clear, she heard a commotion. She suddenly realized that she was lying on the table that the dwarves had been drinking at. She raised her head to see that two of the dwarves were now behind the bar and were manhandling the barkeep. She saw one of them open a door to some back room and the other one shove him inside. She heard the click of a lock before a voice got her attention.

"The barkeep didn't really appreciate the situation. He started prattling on about going to get the guards from the town, so we decided to put him in a timeout."

This comment was followed by a series of chuckles. She blinked a few times and realized the voice was coming from the dwarf that had thrown the ale in her face and hit her in the stomach. He was looming over her now. She began to push herself up off the table before several dwarves rushed forward. Her arms were grabbed and pinned above her head. Before she could think of kicking out, two pairs of strong arms gripped her legs and held them firm. She was about to say something when another hand shot out, grabbed her beneath her chin and a piece of cloth was roughly shoved into her mouth.

"Can't have you casting anymore of those pesky spells," the dwarf leader said, a big shit eating grin on his face. "You really did a number on my lads." Still looking at her, he called over his shoulder, "Speaking of which, are they going to be okay?" She heard someone answer.

"Yeah, Darry is starting to come back around, Magrin says he can see a few blurry shapes now, and Leo's going to have a bad lump on his head for a day or two, but he should be okay."

The dwarf turned back to look at her. "Well," he said, "looks like you didn't do any permanent damage. If you had really hurt any of my mates here, I would have already put your head through this table with my hammer. The most you managed to do was hurt our pride. Which I would argue is somehow worse than if you'd actually drawn blood. We dwarves take that very seriously." He then spoke louder. "I don't think we can leave this slight unanswered!" he called out, addressing all the other dwarves. "I think our friend here needs to be taught a lesson about respect, don't you agree lads?" The response was a bunch of affirmative cheers and huzzahs.

Amrea finally took in the full scope of her predicament. Her arms and legs were pinned, and her mouth was gagged. There was no way she could cast any of her spells. She was surrounded by at least a dozen drunk dwarves that she had managed to piss off and was now completely at their mercy.