The 'afterparty'

We are awoken early in the morning to the sound of our locked room door being opened, we both jolt upright to see the tavern owner barge in crossbow pointing at Quinara in the bed. Behind him I see Jasper, my blood boils and the only thing keeping me from charging at him is the knowledge that if I made any sudden movements the tavern keeper would fire. "Pack your shit you have ten minutes" the tavern keeper commands, I didn't know what exactly Jasper had told him but I could tell he wouldn't hesitate so it was clearly serious.

Quinara sitting up had caused the covers to slip exposing her boobs, I can see Jasper grin in the background, Quinaras face was one of pure dejection. She covers herself quickly shaking off the surprise but he had already seen, "ok I understand" she says in a soft voice, "can we get some privacy to get dressed?" She requests, the tavern keeper makes no effort to move keeping his crossbow trained on her "can't take the risk" he says flatly, "can't take the risk? We had already spent a few nights here surely we had earned the right to ten minutes of privacy" I think to myself seething at the situation we were in. "Fine but can he leave?" I say pointing at Jasper, the tone of my request a lot more firmer than Quinara's, "Huck" Quinara says softly, the message clear "don't provoke them". Thankfully I didn't need to provoke as the tavern keeper agrees to the request "wait downstairs" he commands Jasper not taking his eyes off Quinara for a second. While not ideal it was a small comfort to know at least Quinara wouldn't suffer the indignity of being ogled by someone who hates her, the tavern keeper clearly hated orcs too but at least he wouldn't get some perverted enjoyment from watching her dress... Or at least he wouldn't be so obvious in displaying it.

Once Jasper has left we get up and get dressed, the crossbow follows Quinaras every move ready to fire at a moments notice. To say it was a stressful atmosphere would be an understatement, I found myself dressing with the utmost care not wanting to make a sudden movement for him to see from the corner of his eye lest he get trigger happy. Dressed and ready we grab our weapons and gear and the tavern keeper steps into the room standing aside so we can leave "ok now go" he commands again. We head out and he follows behind never once letting Quinara out of his sight, it was tiring we were no threat to him he could lower the crossbow and we would leave peacefully, it was just unnecessary.

As we are walked through the tavern we face plenty of stern looks from the patrons, Jasper and Flint are grinning enjoying this humiliation ritual we were being put through. I could feel the anger radiating off my wife, I felt exactly the same but there was nothing we could do; at least not without a lot of bloodshed.

Once outside we head to the stables to get Gail. "Hey I just wanted to say I'm sorry I tried to talk them out of it" a voice in the dark of the stable startles me, Quinara barely reacts, "Lucian?" I say making out the shape of him in the corner "y-yeah, I just wanted to tell you before you left" he states still keeping his distance. Despite it all I somewhat admired his bravery, assuming he wasn't lying he stood up to them and when things didn't pan out he approached what he knew would be an incredibly angry orc to apologise. Not bad for the nervous kid he was, "what do you want a reward? A prize? A golden plaque to hang up?" Quinara snorts back at him, his shadowy figure immediately crumples, his confidence shot as he shrinks down. "She's just frustrated" I explain "we appreciate you for trying" Quinara scoffs and continues putting the saddle and gear on Gail "even if it doesn't seem that way."

Once Gail is saddled up Quinara hoists me onto the horse and climbs on afterwards, I lean back into her feeling her warmth as we leave. Heading south once more, heading closer to the elven kingdoms hopefully to a place where we could be safe.