Music was coming from the inn as Ethan approached. When he opened the door a mouth water smell wafted in from the direction of the kitchen. Unlike earlier, the common room was packed. Every table was full, Ethan knew most of them were NPCs, this was simply too many people for players to be in his instance. He thought about storing his axe so he wouldn’t attract any stares from jealous players as he made his way to the only open seat at the bar. Let them be jealous. This axe is amazing. For all I know, I may be the only player here at the moment.

Alera’s shift wasn’t apparently wasn’t over as she was still behind the bar. She blushed slightly but still walked over to him.

“I was starting to think I’d scared you off.” She smiled, trying to break the tension she must still have been feeling. “Listen, I am so sorry about earlier, I can’t apologize enough.”

“Hey, it was an accident, no harm no foul.” Ethan cut her off. He may only be in town for another night, but he was staying at this inn and didn’t want every encounter to be awkward.

“Fair enough.” She slid him a tankard of ale. “This ones on me though.”

Ethan picked up the cup and tipped it at her as a thank you before taking a sip. As soon as he swallowed he started coughing, spilling a little of the ale on his borrowed shirt.

“Holy shit that’s strong.” He gasped as he tried to catch his breath.

Alera laughed at him.

“Yeah, Jerry makes it. He says he only brews what will put hair on his chest.” She handed him a rag to wipe himself off with. “So, where did you spend that last few hours?”

“Shopping, I had to get some new gear.” He sipped much more carefully this time and was able to suppress the small cough he felt.

“Did you go meet Linda?” Alera had an evil look on her face as she mentioned the armorsmith.

“Oh yes, she was wonderful.” Ethan rolled his eyes at the memory of earlier.

“You don’t have to sugar coat, she’s a right bitch. Everyone knows it.” This time Ethan couldn’t hold back his cough as he laughed in his ale. “She’s also Jerry’s sister. That’s probably why he sent you to her.”

Ethan looked at her questioningly, had he been mistaken about the innkeeper being friendly?

“Nah, Jerry knows she’s rotten.” It was like Alera had read his mind. “He just likes to send unsuspecting people to her. It’s less about harassing them as it is that he likes to annoy her.”

Ethan just nodded and took another sip, this one going down easier.

“You get anything good? You’re still wearing what you left in.” The pretty barmaid was clearly trying to make conversation with him, probably to make up for the awkwardness of their earlier encounter.

He obliged her by nonchalantly reaching back and unhooking his axe. Mist rolled off the frosty axe head as he placed it on the wooden bar top. Alera’s eyes widened as her mouth fell open. Ethan smiled, that was exactly the effect he was going for.

“By the gods! That is amazing!” She began to reach for his axe but stopped. “May I?” She asked hesitantly.

Ethan nodded, as he watched her gingerly pick up his axe.

“Caldwell made this, didn’t he?” She looked at him, strangely appearing deadly with his axe gently held aloft as she studied the weapon.

“How’d you know?”

“Other than the fact he’s the only master weaponsmith in town, he put his mark on it.” She pointed at a small mark Ethan hadn’t noticed in the axe head. Alera continued to marvel at the beautiful weapon, waving her hand through the mist and finally touching the metal. “Oh it’s so cold!”

Ethan laughed wholeheartedly at her surprise.

“The frost and the mist didn’t give that away?” He was having fun with the barmaid, their embarrassing afternoon meeting forgotten.

“Alright smartass.” Alera handed his axe back to him. Before rehooking it he studied the maker’s mark she had indicated. It looked like a triangle that was missing a side with a star in the middle. When he turned it he realized the “triangle” was meant to be a ‘C’, but he didn’t know what the star signified.

“You used it yet?”

“Not yet, I’m planning to first thing in the morning. I got a full set of armor too. But I didn’t want to get all fancy dressed up just for dinner.” Probably from being an old school pen and paper role player, but unlike most players Ethan rarely wore full armor just to walk around town. It just didn’t feel natural.

They continued chatting about life in the town and the best hunting spots in the area were when a plate of food was delivered to him by another of Jerry’s staff members. Alera excused herself to attend to other customers while he ate, refilling his tankard before walking around the bar with a very large pitcher and a tray.

Dinner was braised chicken thighs, roasted root vegetables and some multicolored marble potatoes. Ethan dug in voraciously, he hadn’t realized he’d been so hungry but when he thought about it he remembered his last meal had been in the dungeon that morning.

Back home in the real world, Ethan was a Sous chef at an upscale restaurant. He’d followed in his father’s footsteps, which he knew pissed his old man off to no end. His dad had tried to discourage him, told him horrible stories about life on the line, how the pay was below most other careers and the hours longer, showed him his own scars from burns and knives that never went away, he’d even threatened not to help with culinary school. But Ethan hadn’t been dissuaded, his entire life his dad had done amazing things with food and he had fallen in love with cooking.

Their arguments hadn’t been serious, he talked regularly with his dad about plating trends and how vegans were just horrible people. Truthfully, they had never been closer. Ethan knew his dad was beyond proud of him when he saw how hard he worked at stages and internships, before finally getting his first sous chef position. He even threw Ethan a small party, catering it himself. At the end of the night, he had presented him with a long flat box. Ethan knew it was a knife, the shape of the package gave it away. But when he opened it he realized just how much his dad loved him. He had given Ethan his own well worn knife. It was the same knife Ethan had learned basic knife cuts with as a kid.

Thinking about the memory reminded him again of his family and how much he missed them. Tears formed again in his eyes.

His self reflection was interrupted by a clap on the back that made him spit out a half chewed parsnip.

“I see you made it back!” Jerry, the proprietor of the inn was standing behind him when he turned to see who had assaulted him. “Shirt looks good on you.”

The friendly, large man was standing with another man who had a familiar looking mustache. It took Ethan a second to realize Mihal was off duty and out of uniform. He still looked like he was standing at attention but was also slightly relaxed. He still had a daffodil in his collar and Ethan noticed Jerry was wearing several horrible tooth necklaces.

“Thanks, it’s a little big though.” Ethan pulled at his stomach, showing how the extra fabric hung off of him.

Jerry laughed uproariously and Mihal chuckled.

“Well, at least your nipples are covered! Although they’re still poking out of your shirt I see.” Mihal laughed again behind his mustache.

“Dude, what is your deal about nipples?” Ethan was laughing along with the pair at this point, but he couldn’t help give the off duty guard a little shit. “Everyone has them.”

Mihal looked down at his feet and Jerry roared with uncontrollable laughter again. He had to use the bar top to keep himself from falling over as his husband glared at him. Ethan was clearly missing the joke.

When Jerry finally calmed down enough he spoke up as he wiped a tear from his eye with a single giant finger.

“Mihal here, does not have nipples. He was born without them.” The innkeeper delivered this piece of information with all the formality of making a royal proclamation.

Ethan looked back and forth between the two men.

“You’re joking right?” He asked not believing what he’d just been told. Mihal huffed and walked away as a response. Jerry swigged back his ale and watched his husband leave.

“He’s really sensitive about it.” He told Ethan in mock seriousness. “That’s why he doesn’t like to see anyone’s. I actually have to wear these little sticky covers when we’re being ‘intimate’”

The air quote gesture he made didn’t actually help make Ethan not want to throw up in his mouth, but he choked it down and smiled as Jerry walked away still laughing.

Shaking his head to try to forget the horrible mental image he’d just been introduced to, Ethan returned to the half eaten plate in front of him.

Alera returned just seconds later, her tray filled with empty steins and her pitcher. She walked behind the bar, leaned down and began washing the cups at the sink. It may have been from the ale, but Ethan couldn’t help but stare at her while she worked.

“Jerry tell you about Mihal’s nipples?” She hadn’t stopped washing or even looked at him when she asked the question. He coughed and again choked on his food.

“Yeah, don’t know why, but he definitely over shared.” Ethan began to wonder if she could actually read his mind.

“I saw Mihal walking out. He looked pissed. Jerry was right behind him. Which is usually what happens when he tells someone Mihal’s secret.” Alera smiled at her boss’ current romantic plight.

“Why would he even tell people that? I mean, other than me blatantly asking, is it something that comes up often?” Ethan asked, incredulous at the topic of conversation.

“Dunno why, but he does.” Alera put down the flagon she’d been scrubbing. “Mihal gets mad for a couple of days, but then he gets over it and it’s like nothing happened.”

Ethan let out a very large yawn which surprised him. The combination of good food and strong drinks began to take its toll on him. He suddenly found himself unable to keep his eyes open, his exhaustion hit him harder than the dragon had earlier that morning.

“I didn’t realize how tired I was. This has been a very long day.” He pushed his plate back from him and began to stand up. “Do I owe anything for the night?”

“Your first drink came with the dinner.” Alera responded as she shook her head. “And the second was on me, a further apology for earlier today.”

He nodded in appreciation as he stood and pushed his bar stool back under the counter.

“Tomorrow,” Ethan paused to yawn again, “I don’t want to hear anymore about you walking in on me. It’s all good now.”

He waved at her as he made his way through the crowd to the stairs. Music was still playing and people were obviously going to continue having a good time for a while, and any other night he’d be down with them, but they hadn’t died already that day. Now all he wanted to do was rest.

By the time he got to his room, all he wanted to do was crash on the bed. He was genuinely surprised he didn't have an “Exhaustion” debuff at this point he was so tired. But he took the time to unequip his harness, sandals and kilt. He wouldn’t be putting them back on so he stowed them in his inventory. The overly large shirt came off too. He never could sleep in a shirt. Before crashing, he reminded himself that he needed to check on his guild. Not wanting to waste time with individual messages, he sent one mass message to everyone.

To: David, Miguel, Sam, Leah, Tae-Won, Daniel

Hey everyone, hopefully you’re all getting your quests done. Let’s push back the meeting time to 1800 day after tomorrow. That should give everyone more than enough time to get to level 10. Everyone hit me up at some point before then with what class you are and what subclass you’re going to be. We may have to do some recruiting soon and I want to know early what to be on the lookout for.

I’m literally falling asleep as I write this.

Ethan sent the message and rolled over. He was asleep and snoring within seconds of his head hitting the pillow.