by Pirateaba
“We can do that later. After the inn closes. Relax!”
“The inn doesn’t close until Erin sleeps, and that’s after midnight!”
Lyon argued with Maran as the other woman sat with a drink. Maran looked slightly off put, and then shrugged.
“We’ll do it when more dishes pile up. There’s barely more than a few cups and plates.”
“But—”
Lyonette tried to think of how to insist without forcing the issue, but Ishkr beat her to a reply.
“I will do it, yes? I have time.”
He headed into the kitchen, rolling the sleeves of the uniform he was wearing up. Maran gave Lyon a smile as if to say, ‘you see, there’s no problem.’ By her side, Safry watched Ishkr go in and leaned towards the other two Humans and whispered conspiratorially.
“I hope he doesn’t get fur all over the dishes. How does a Gnoll wash plates anyways? With his tongue?”
Maran giggled, but Lyon gave Safry a look that wiped the smile off the other woman’s face.
“With his paws, I imagine.”
That was the issue. Not Ishkr. The Gnoll had been hesitant at first, but when he was told what to do, he did it without complaints. He wasn’t talkative, but he seemed to enjoy idle work, the kind he could get engrossed in without talking to anyone for good periods of time. Better yet, he didn’t have a problem with Mrsha’s white fur.
“I was born and raised in Liscor, yes? I do not know many of my tribe’s superstitions. Honored Krshia says the child is alright, so I will not mind.”
That put him in Lyon’s good books. No, Ishkr and Drassi weren’t the problems. The problem pair were Maran and Safry, by a long shot.
It wasn’t that they didn’t work as hard. Well, it was partly that. But Lyonette just didn’t like them as much. For a while, the girl had wondered if she felt threatened, but she realized it was because of how Maran and Safry seemed to regard Lyonette’s advice as suggestions and thought of themselves in charge.
Even when they didn’t have a clue of what to do. In the mid-lunch rush as adventurers came to eat magical food, normal food, or just drink, Lyonette saw Safry delivering one of Erin’s Corusdeer scrambles to a waiting Drake. She called out, but Safry didn’t pay attention until she was on her way back to the kitchen.
“What’s the problem Lyonette? I served him his food.”
“No, no! That’s the wrong Drake! He’s eating the wrong food!”
Lyonette hurried over to the Drake. When she came back, after apologizing profusely, Safry made a face.
“How can you tell the difference? That looks like the same Drake to me!”
“He’s not! Look at his scales!”
“They’re green. All of those Drakes have green scales too!”
“No!”
How could they not tell? Lyonette looked at the green-scaled Drakes that Safry had pointed out as proof, and saw an elderly Drake male with patches of grey scales, a Drake warrior with a speckled pattern across his far lighter green scales, and a Drake with darker green scales and some distinctively long spines along the back of his head. When she pointed this all out to Safry, the woman just looked confused.
“Where are you seeing all that? They still look sort of the same. Okay, the old guy I can see, but Drakes aren’t distinctive like us Humans.”
Lyonette bit her lip. She’d heard Drakes and Gnolls say the exact same thing. And to be fair, most of the people on this continent had light skin, whereas Drakes and Gnolls had all kinds of variation among their fur.
“How about this. Next time, why don’t you ask if this is his order? If you know his name, you can check to make sure. It’ll just take a second and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind—”
Safry’s eyebrows crossed, and she raised a hand to cut Lyonette off.
“Look Lyon, I appreciate the advice, but Maran and I know what to do. You just point out the right Drakes and Gnolls and we’ll do our job.”
Lyonette stared at Safry, but the woman turned away too quickly for her to respond.
That was the first big issue Lyon had. The second came when she noticed they were running low on water. They were always running low on water to cook with, boil for drinking, wash with, use for cleaning, and so on.
“Maran, can you go get some more water?”
Lyon was busy serving a group of Gnolls that the two Human [Barmaids] couldn’t tell apart. Maran stared at Lyon, then her eyes flicked to the Gnoll [Server].
“Why not Ishkr? He’s free, and he’s stronger than me.”
Lyonette paused feeling angry. It was true Ishkr was free for the moment, he had just worked his entire shift and Safry and Maran had just had lunch! Moreover, why was Maran’s first response to ask someone else to do the work?
“Ishkr needs to have his lunch break. You just finished yours.”
“But we still have some water left.”
“Some, but we’ll be out soon!”
The Gnolls sitting at the table eyed Lyonette as she went over to argue with Maran. They flicked their eyes at Ishkr, who made some motion behind Lyon’s back she couldn’t see. Maran clearly didn’t want to go.
“It’s cold out there. This isn’t a [Barmaid]’s job, you know.”
“Erin told you you’d be working here, right? This is what we do.”
“I want to talk to Erin about this. This isn’t what I was hired for.”
Lyonette’s patience was at an end. She felt like she was dealing with a child, not an adult.
“You can do it when she comes back. Just go now, please. And take two buckets!”
She thrust another one into the affronted woman’s hand and practically pushed her out the door. Lyonette got back to serving, apologizing to the Gnolls. She waited for Maran to come back. And waited. And waited…
Maran returned after twenty minutes, twice as long as it should have taken, just when Lyonette was about to go look for her. She was irate at having to have carried the buckets up the hill in the snow. And they weren’t fully filled!
Lyonette bit back her words when she saw Maran’s face and instead thanked her. Twelve minutes later, she wished she could have taken back the thanks when Safry began to complain about Mrsha.
“Hey, can you do something about her?”
She was pointing at Mrsha as the Gnoll tried to sneak up on the group of Gnolls. They were letting her do it, and one would turn to stare at her when Mrsha got ready to pounce on a tail. Thereafter Mrsha would run about excitedly. Lyonette saw nothing but pure fun in Mrsha’s game, but Safry was clearly displeased at having to watch to avoid Mrsha being underfoot.
“The kid’s cute, but we’re trying to work. Can’t you make her go upstairs or play outside?”
“Just ask her to move. It’s no problem.”
“She’s in the way every two seconds. Why not let her run outside if she’s so excited?”
Lyonette stared at Safry.
“There are monsters outside. She’s not causing that much trouble and she needs the room.”
Maran spoke up as she swabbed a table. She made a face as she held up a rag full of white hairs.
“She’s getting fur all over the tables and chairs we already cleaned.”
“So? Just clean them again? It’s only a few wipes of the rag.”
The two [Barmaids] looked at each other, clearly displeased. Lyonette had to turn away so they wouldn’t see the look on her face.
Small things. Small things that would go away. That was what she told herself, but then Bird came by and things got…awkward.
He wanted a drink, and he had some birds for Erin. Simple, right? Only Maran and Safry left him sitting until Drassi got a drink, and although Maran had a pitcher of refills, she kept seeming to miss Bird.
“Just fill his cup! What’s the problem?”
“He’s—don’t you think it’s weird? He’s one of them! One of the Antinium!”
It was only then that Lyon realized how clearly uncomfortable Maran and Safry were around Bird. T
hey walked wide of the Antinium, not going near him if they could serve other customers. Drassi and Ishkr were far more relaxed around the Antinium, having seen them before, but Safry and Maran weren’t happy with him around.
“That Antinium in the Horns of Hammerad was one thing, but is he going to be here allthe time? He just stares and talks about birds!”
Lyonette crossed her arms as Maran complained.
“Erin’s going to hire him permanently. He’ll stay here all the time as a guard.”
The woman looked dismayed. Safry shook her head.
“Maybe he’ll stay upstairs where we don’t see him. I’d hate to turn around and just see him there. Staring.”
Not once had Lyonette ever felt uncomfortable from Bird’s stare. He was just curious, and she never felt uneasy around him. She opened her mouth, and turned away.
When Erin came back, a few hours before dinner, Lyon had never been more relieved. She would have loved to chat with Erin, but dinner had to be made ready, and Erin was far too busy laughing with Maran and Safry for Lyon to pull her aside to talk about…Maran and Safry.
Indeed, while Erin was around, things suddenly began to work smooth as butter. Neither Maran nor Safry had a problem with the Gold-rank teams, the Horns of Hammerad and Zel in the crowd, mainly because everyone was distinctively, and largely, Human. Lyon rushed about until Erin pulled her aside. She was sitting with Ryoka, eating rather than cooking or serving for once and looking pleased as a cat about it.
“Isn’t this cool, Lyonette? I can take a break!”
“Um. Yes.”
Lyonette bit back the words she wanted to say. Erin smiled up at her.
“So how was everyone? Did Drassi talk a lot? Selys says she does that, but she swears Drassi’s a hard worker. Oh, and did Ishkr do okay with Mrsha? I was worried about that but he seems cool!”
“They both did great, Erin.”
“Awesome! So there were no problems?”
Safry and Maran were walking around, serving the tables and talking with the adventurers. Too near. And it was only day one, right? Lyonette felt she couldn’t say anything. So in the end she didn’t. She only mentioned Maran’s reluctance to get water.
Erin groaned aloud when Lyon brought that up, but she was already nodding cheerfully when Lyon was finished explaining.
“Oh, the water? I guess I didn’t mention that to them. I’ll talk with Safry and Maran about it, okay?”
And that was that. Erin had a word and then came back to assure Lyon that water wouldn’t be a problem. Lyon tried to take Erin at her word, but she really couldn’t. She just felt like something was wrong.
Then in the middle of the night, Lyonette woke up and realized what was wrong. Safry and Maran thought they were in charge. Because they were higher level. But Lyon was. Right? She’d been working here longer, so she should know what to do. Right?
But it occurred to her as Mrsha rolled over and Ryoka snored loudly from her corner of the room that Erin had never mentioned who was in charge while she was gone. Maybe Erin hadn’t thought about it. But it mattered. It mattered…quite a lot.
—-
The second day was no better than the first. It started out promising, with Safry and Maran turning up exactly when they were supposed to and cleaning last night’s dishes and the room cheerfully while talking with Erin.
The trouble started the moment Erin left to hang out with Ryoka in Celum. Lyonette missed her chance to ask Erin who’d be in charge while she left. She felt awkward just bringing it up—it felt as though Lyon was trying to get Erin to give her more authority, when it was really an important matter.
Either way, it meant there was no leader, and so the duo of Safry and Maran butted heads with Lyon over countless issues as the day wore on. It began with tips, and came to a head with buckets of water.
This time Erin had left the inn before breakfast had ended. She’d already cooked up days of food in advance, a handy suggestion of Ryoka’s that was convenient all around. But it meant that the Gold-rank adventurers and the Horns of Hammerad were eating at the same time as Zel. And wouldn’t you know it, but Safry and Maran seemed to serve food first to the Gold-rank adventurers and leave Zel for last.
“Hey, you’re not serving Zel first. Bring the sausages to his table—he’s been waiting the longest!”
Lyonette caught Safry’s arm as she went out holding a steaming plate of reheated sausage. The [Barmaid] frowned at Lyon.
“Why? He’ll get some in a minute. But the Gold-rank adventurers are sitting over there, Lyonette!”
“So?”
Safry rolled her eyes.
“So, they might tip us!”
Lyonette paused. She looked accusingly at Safry.
“I thought you told Erin you didn’t get any tips!”
“Well, obviously not from normal folk. But Gold-rank adventurers throw their money around like water, especially for good service! If you smile the right way at some of the men, they’ll give you a gold coin just for serving their table!”
She moved away from Lyonette and to her outrage, served Griffon Hunt first. And indeed, both Safry and Maran flirted with Halrac, Ulrien, and Typhenous, who might have been twice as old as they were! Lyonette nearly swallowed her tongue when she saw that, but according to Safry and Maran, that too was customary.
“You don’t understand how being a [Barmaid] works, Lyonette. You need to pay attention to the most important customer.”
Safry’s arch tone made Lyon want to kick her. She pointed towards Zel, who was eating sausage with Mrsha, oblivious to the drama.
“Oh yeah? Well he’s a Drake [General]. Why don’t you shake your hips for him?”
Both Safry and Maran’s jaws dropped. They exchanged a speculative glance, and then Maran shook her head.
“Eh, I don’t want to flirt with him. What if he took it seriously?”
Safry nodded. Lyon ground her teeth together. It wasn’t the idea of Zel and Maran together that was upsetting her—that was pretty much impossible—it was how Maran had phrased her words.
“What’s wrong with him? What if one of Griffon Hunt took things seriously?”
“Well, that’s different. Obviously.”
Maran looked surprised Lyon had to ask.
“Ulrien and Halrac are fine, and so is the old [Mage], I guess.”
Safry made a face, but nodded reluctantly. Maran cast her eyes over to the other adventurers in the room and shook her head.
“But the half-Giant’s obviously no good, and neither is the fish man. Ugh. No way. And the others are all female…at least there’s that handsome [Mage] sitting with the Horns of Hammerad.”
She pointed to Pisces appreciatively. Lyon stared at Maran, and her dislike of her and Safry grew four times larger in that moment. She smiled bitterly at both of them.
“Who? Pisces? Go ahead if you want. He’s a [Necromancer], you know.”
She left the two horrified women and stomped away.
—-
Midway through the day, Lyonette paused to check how much water they had left. There was a good amount, but a fit of pique made her go and ask Maran to get more water. She expected the other woman to resist, but she wasn’t expecting an outright refusal. But that was what she got.
“There is no way I’m going out there. Neither is Safry.”
“Why not?”
Maran’s face was set.
“There are fish with teeth in the water. That’s what Erin said! And Rock Crabs? Shield Spiders? I’m not doing it.”
Lyonette stared at her, and realized Maran hadn’t been told of Liscor’s natural hazards before now. Drassi and Ishkr accepted the slight danger as a matter of course, but Maran’s face was white at just the thought of running into one of the monsters.
“Look, Maran, it will be fine. Just take a seed core and—”
“No!”
It was customary now for Lyonette to use some of the wizened, dried-up seed cores that Erin had stored from the blu
e fruits just in case a Rock Crab showed up. She’d scared one away twice by now, and knew they weren’t a threat if you had your eyes halfway open. But Maran was insistent.
“I’ll get some water from Celum instead.”
“What, from a well there? Fine. But if you’re going—”
“No! I’ll do it like civilized folk do and have it delivered! You can pay to have water barrels sent to your inn or home each day. It’s just a few silver coins—a few more for a fast delivery, but it’s safe.”
Silver coins for water? Lyonette gaped at Maran and then shook her head.
“You can’t do that. Just go and get some water!”
“I won’t. If you need them, get it yourself or get the other two to do it. But Safry and I won’t get water from now on. You can melt snow in the buckets if you want.”
That was it. Lyonette crossed her arms, too frustrated to let this go. She glared at Maran, who was staring hard at Lyon, mouth a firm line.
“We need water, and Erin told you this was part of her job. No one else is getting water, so until you go—”
“I’ll just pay for some water to be delivered here! Erin’s got enough money.”
Maran went over to the bar’s counter and to Lyonette’s horror, opened the lid of the money jar where Erin collected the day’s earnings. She went to stop Maran, but Safry got in her way.
“Erin’s not going to pay for barrels of water when she can just get it from the stream.”
“Well that’s too bad, because I’m not going to get some and risk my life.”
Maran marched over to the door leading to Celum. Before Lyon could stop her, she’d disappeared through with a handful of coins from Erin’s money jar. She came back thirty minutes later, and Lyonette watched six huge barrels of water come through the doorway with butterflies of panic and anger fluttering about in her stomach. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and walked right past Maran’s smug face.
Lyonette was furious Maran had wasted Erin’s money. But deep down she was also pleased. It meant that there would be trouble, and that both [Barmaids] would get what was coming to them. At least, Lyonette hoped that was the case.
