Jen swung the mug hard, it let out an almighty crack and Roran fell to his knees, “Roran you spend all your spare time here chasing my skirt when you should be working to earn a bit of money for your wife and child of only one year! My parents tolerate you because they fear your father but I won’t If you're going to start terrorising customers.”

Roran got to his feet shaking on wobbling legs. His friends stood stunned by Jen’s outburst of anger but Danen recognised that Roran was shaking at least partially with rage and reached towards the bag with his axe and shield inside. “Corruption take you!” Roran cursed as he steadied himself and grabbed Jen’s arm shoving her back into the bar. “I’ll take you right here and be done with you!” Danen heard calls from the kitchen, but whoever made them would never make it in time, he pulled back his arm and let fly. His shield went flying across the room, the throw wasn’t perfect but his shield was large so despite being a little to the left its rim still caught Roran in the back of the head. The shield was also heavy so this blow did far more damage than Jen’s wooden mug. The giant man slumped to the floor. Jen moved away clutching her chest looking up at Danen in surprise.

This time Roran's friends didn't remain still and were already starting to walk towards him through the tables. Danen was ready however reaching down and taking out his heavy war axe placing it on the table with a heavy clunk. “I believe the lady told you not to terrorise guests?” The sight of the axe stopped them in their tracks but it still looked like they might continue towards him. Come on, Do it! A part of Dannen hoped they would attack him, give him a reason to bloody his axe. He quickly banished the thought with a shake of his head before watching the men as they stood there weighing their chances of winning.

The pause in the men’s advance also gave Jen a chance to get her breath back. She straightened her back and coldly looked at Roran’s friends. “Don’t you three start as well!” Hearing her speak they turned to look at her faces twisted as if they were about to retort but what Jen did next made them forget any words before they reached their tongues. After shouting at the men she rolled over Roran with her foot and then stomped the same foot into Roran's face. Roran’s nose made an awful cracking sound and blood sprayed over his face, dripping onto the floor. Looking up at the men again she spat a command at them. “Get him out of here now!”

Jen’s mix of violence and menacing tone worked and Danen watched as the men scurried over to their fallen friend, they lifted him by the arms dragging him away evidently worried by all the blood that splashed onto the floor as they went. He himself had been surprised by the stomp, Jen had not held back and he swore a broken nose didn’t normally bleed that much. Jen slowly calmed her breathing and turned his way but just as she was about to speak the kitchen door swung open and two people came hurrying out.

The first was a man, his clothes were simple but well made, Danen noticing the fine cotton and metal buttons of his shirt. His forehead was beaded with sweat and a kitchen rag was thrown over one shoulder. His eyes looked over the room before him and the sight of blood and scattered teeth set his gaunt hands shaking with worry. “J-Jen-n-ny…” he started to ask the obvious question but the shaking of his hands seemed to influence his words.

A stutter and a bad one at that, The thought crossed Danen’s mind but before the man got to ask his question a second person came out the kitchen and asked it for him. “Jenny, What was all that racket? Sounded like there was a fight was going on.” The second newcomer in as many seconds was a middle-aged woman the spitting image of Jenny if a little aged. The only real difference being that this woman's eyes were a deep brown whereas Jenny’s were a dazzling shade of green. Danen’s eyes flicked back to the man seeing his green eyes, Her father., the realisation surprised him because apart from her eyes Jenny bore no resemblance to the man. The woman who was obviously Jenny’s mother walked up to her daughter, which was when she saw the blood.

To Danen’s surprise, the woman did not scream, shout or jump back from the scene. Far from it, the first thing the woman did was rush the remaining steps to her daughter using her hands to brush the hair out of her face checking her skin for cuts or bruises. Jenny was quickly hit with a barrage of questions by her mother. “Jenny are you okay? Are you hurt? Who did this? Was it Roran or...?” Her eyes flashed to Danen and it was only then that he realised his axe was still resting on the table. Danen embarrassedly knelt to stow the axe back into the back and was about to make a plea of not guilty before the woman’s Judicial stare.

Jenny, however, beat him to it. “No mum. He didn’t do anything, in fact, he saved me from Roran.” Danen thought that the state of Roran’s face was proof enough that Jenny hadn’t needed saving but decided that this wasn’t the time to voice that particular thought.

After hearing what Jenny had said the woman’s glare softened considerably and she gave him a quick nod before turning back to her daughter. Danen didn’t quite know what to make of the gesture pondering if it was an apology for the false accusation or thanks for helping her daughter. He hoped it was both and so decided to take it as such walking across the messy tap room towards his shield. Righting the tipped over tables and chairs as he went and stepping around the droplets of blood on the floor. He caught sight of something next to the smear of blood leading from the door to where Jenny and her concerned parents were standing. Corruption! is that a tooth? She really didn’t hold back anything, did she? Danen shivered moving pointedly around the tooth before continuing onwards.

“Oh mum, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have. If his father gets involved…”

“Nonsense Jenny, Roran might be able to use his father’s name to make us ignore a bit of rowdiness and drunken mischief but that doesn't mean he can start a fight.”

Jenny’s father who had been eyeing the blood spoke up. “Jen-n-ny, t-the bl-blood?”

Jenny looked at her parents and then down at the floor replying in a small voice. “I stomped on his nose.” A short silence followed this statement and Danen stood still not wanting his footsteps to break it.

“You… stomped.”

“Hi-is f-fa-face”

Danen wondered why they were so surprised but then he remembered that they had walked into the room and seen their harried looking daughter standing in a bloody and messy taproom and a stranger sitting with an axe on his table. They probably assumed he had been the one to spill the blood, which was, in Danen’s opinion very unfair, after all his axe hadn’t even been bloodied.

“Oh no” Jenny’s mother had gone pale and although her father didn’t speak his hands trembled more violently than before.

Seeing the look on her parents faces tears started to well at the corners of her eyes “His father’s not gonna let this go is he?”

That made them snap out of the daze they had been in since hearing their daughter's admission. They shared a quick look and her mother stepped forward pulling Jenny into her arms. “It’s okay dear, you can go stay with my family in the dynasty until the mayor and his son calm down. If anything it’s about time you meet my side of the family.” She used the most reassuring tone she could but upon hearing that Roran’s father was the mayor’s son Danen understood just how bad this situation was about to get for the family. He had passed through many small villages like this one on his way south a seen many mayors, they had no bloodline but were just as tyrannical as many of the nobles back in Ker-ja. They represented the law in their village and to offend them was to offend the law.

“Your father will take you. I can look after the inn for a couple of weeks by myself.” Hearing this Jenny’s father nodded but Jenny herself looked aghast at the suggestion.

“No father can’t leave you alone to deal with the mayor. I can travel by myself. ” The comment made the man in question stop his nodding and look at his wife. Danen saw the fear in his eyes, not fear of his wife but fear he may be abandoning her when she needed him. The look sparked a memory in Danen, he had often seen his father wearing that same look during their infrequent meetings. Although his father had many children he always tried to find time to spend with them and Danen even felt like he had been given more time than many of his other siblings. Oddly enough his father had been one of only two family members who hadn’t tried to coax him back to society, the other had been his mother but she had died giving birth to him so perhaps she didn’t really count. He remembered how the same look had often been on his father’s face as he left his small courtyard in the palace, wondering if it was right to leave his reclusive son, wondering if there was more he could do. Despite how often that look crossed his face his father never tried to drag him out into the world instead he brought the world to Danen telling stories describing the wonders of the last land. Danen had loved his father for that. That love for his father had been the biggest reason to stay without it, he would have left Ker-ja months ago. He had spent that time pondering if he should step out the shadows and try to continue his father's legacy but his father was a great man, a man who could use words to move the wonders of the world to a lonely courtyard in the royal palace. In the end, he had left because he couldn’t be the successor to such a great man. Two days before he left he had visited his sickly father and sat by his side for hours while he slept, in the end, he had never woken him and simply left a note on his bedside before leaving.

Danen sighed quietly to himself bringing himself back to the real world. The three other people in the room were still stood by the bar. Jenny was debating with her mother over what her father should do and her father was looking from one to the other the same guilty look in his green eyes as he tried to make an impossible choice. Perhaps it was because of that guilty look, maybe it was because he was at least partly responsible for this whole mess or it might even be the odd reaction Jenny had had to his eyes but he knew he couldn’t leave this family without at least offering help.

He reached down picking up his shield and turned clearing his throat. “Ahem, forgive me for interrupting.” All three of them turned to look at him. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on a private conversation but I feel I am also responsible and might be able to help. I am currently heading south to the Rul-en dynasty myself and might offer an escort.” Both Jenny’s parents narrowed their eyes at him suspicious as any parent should be when a strange boy offered to safeguard their daughter. Danen had expected this and turned his head meeting her father’s stare as he spoke again. “I would hope to keep you from making an impossible decision.” The words made her father’s eyes widen as he realised that Danen had seen his dilemma. Next, his gaze softened considerably as he understood that Danen was earnestly trying to help them.

Jenny’s mother seemed about to speak but her father put a hand on her arm to stop her. She looked surprise but when she looked questioningly at her husband he simply nodded. In the way only a wife can she understood her husband's meaning and it was a mark of the trust and love between them that she didn’t object to his decision. “Thank you, that would be most kind of you.” She bowed to Danen and then turned to Jenny. “Come on, let's go pack you some things for the journey. Your father will get some food from the cellar for you.” Before Jenny could speak her mother had grabbed her hand and dragged her away. Before leaving her father nodded once in thanks to Danen. Danen nodded back before gathering his bags and going to saddle his horse.

Not even an hour later Danen and Jenny were riding from the village, They rode as fast as they could but Jenny was not the greatest rider and their family's only horse was an old mare that couldn’t compete with Danen’s royal mustang. Eventually, her horse grew tired and they had to slow the horses until they were walking side by side. Danen noticed that Jenny, who hadn’t spoken since her tearful goodbye with her parents, was fidgeting in the saddle and glancing his way.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

She started, clearly, she hadn’t thought he had noticed her. “Well… I just wanted to… ask for your name?” at the last word she blushed again looking away and Danen had to stifle a laugh at the girl but it was true that he had never given his name.

He decided it was best to simply do a formal introduction. He bowed as low as he could in a saddle and said “My name is simply Danen, It is my pleasure to escort you to the Dynasty.”

She actually did laugh when she saw him bow but she returned the introduction with a wide smile. “Jenny Green, but just call me Jen.”