The guffawing, laughter, stein, and glasses clink or thud firmly on the wooden tables, and the chatter is the usual sound in the Rowdy Raven. The smell of various liqueurs, some seasoned stew, old wood, burnt wax and a hint of leather, unique tobacco and sweat cannot be missed, but without it, it wouldn't be the Rowdy Raven.
"There we were, backed up against the wall, surrounded by sharp blades of cutlasses, and all I had to defend my love and myself was a simple fork." Julian held up a fork in a defensive poise, re-enacting the moment of our latest adventure at sea, which was supposed to have been a detour to avoid trouble. His eye flickered with excitement, but a smirk curved its way upon his lips.
Asra and his new assistant sat across the table and listened. There was a twitch of a sly smirk on Asra's lips, knowing Julian's version would be a bit off the truth. The new assistant stared wide-eyed, fully taken in by Julian's tale and began to open its mouth in awe.
"And then Helen covered my back with her mystical, magical spells, and I fended our way out of the sea of cutlasses with the fork which astoundingly worked well to my own surprise, but there was no time. We were only halfway through."
I smiled up at Julian; he was happy and entirely in his element, although the adventure went differently. Don't know if I should join along and make the story a bit livelier with a spell or be the killjoy by telling the truth with a tease?
Soon I've decided to join along; Julian looks too irresistible, and since I've always liked theatre myself, why not? Quickly I grabbed Julian's hand and pulled him out of the booth. "Come on, let's show them how it was done." I smiled.
For a moment, he looked at me surprised but quickly gave an admiring smile and squeezed my hand before smirking and recollecting his thoughts where he left off. Rapidly turned his back to me, and we leaned on each other with the fork in his right hand, standing nearly in the middle of the tavern. "We were like this, back-to-back and faced danger right in the eyes as we fought our way out." I nearly tripped over due to Julian's high stature, but he quickly corrected by lowering himself. How could I have missed that detail? But thanks to Julian's quick-witted adjustment, he went on. Many people began to look in our direction, some with questioning gazes and others laughed as they noticed Julian. I conjured up ghost-like glowing, floating cutlasses with a few whispers and gestures of my hands and fingers.
"Aha! En garde!" Cried Julian triumphantly as he began to fence off a couple of cutlasses at his side. At the same time, I motioned my arms and hands, creating further illusions of chains that slithered rapidly many bunches of sabres together. Then grabbed one into my control and fought a couple off from what I've learnt from Julian. We moved slowly around with our backs pressed together and fought off the cutlasses, but suddenly my foot gave way as it slipped on something wet and landed flat on my back. I was expecting Julian to fall on me. Still, he managed to manoeuvre his fall across my legs, and a hand clapped the wooding floor as a reflex to hold himself up. Julian looked at me, worried and opened his mouth to speak. The loud roar of laughter and cheer cut him off, but he noticed I was okay and laughed along with others. Once he had the strength to stand up, he helped me up, and we returned to our booth, his arm resting over my shoulders. "We did give them the slip but a different one." Beamed Julian before breaking out in laughter. Even a few men at the far back of the tavern guffawed to his note.
My stomach ached from laughter, and I was pretty out of breath. It's been a while since I laughed so hard. Julian gave a contented sigh as he rested his temple against mine.
"And what happened then?" Wondered the assistant eagerly, leaning over the table.
"They crawled all the way here for a drink or two and to tell the tale," Asra smirked. "The salty seawater was not enough, hence drinking salty bitters."
I scoffed and held up my half-full pint of spiced ale before taking a sip. "Oh, very obvious indeed." I smiled at the assistant.
His excitement slipped from his face, and his mouth dropped to a frown as he began to realize. "What?"
"Asra should have warned you when it comes to Julian's tales." I winked at him.
Suddenly Julian gave out a coarse gasp and clasped a hand to his chest with a dramatic air. "You dare to accuse! My heart is wounded by thy words."
I smirked at him, knowing it was all show and whispered into his ear. "But if I stole your heart, how can it be wounded within your chest?" My lips merely brushed his ear.
Julian shuddered for a second and blushed from head to neck. The hand resting on my shoulder slowly slid up to the nape of my neck, fingers trailing through my hair while the other slid around my waist. "Then you must ensure me that my heart is in good hands." He whispered with heavy eyelids and his lips nearly brushing mine, reflecting my smile.
I leaned in to kiss him, and his arms tugged me closer to him, filling the bits of space between us. My heart fluttered as a light feeling bloomed from my chest. I can see where Julian wants to go with this, but the place isn't right. I hated it but had to as I stopped kissing and embracing him. Had to place a finger to his lips to halt him from attempting to continue. He looked at me owlishly for a moment. "I love where this is going, Julian, but we have company." I smiled and gestured with my glance to Asra and the assistant. Asra pretended to be distracted, as did the assistant, but his red tomato face from the ears to the neck gave it away.
Julian smirked at me. "If you say so, my dear."
An idea popped in my head to ease the bashfulness from the assistant and the night is still young... "You know, not only Julian and I are the adventurers here. I can recall too well a big one where Asra was involved too."
"The one about the dead count? Everyone knows that and still talk about it." Wondered Asra.
"I mean the one after that, the drought as they call it." I reminded and began to smile as I read on the assistant's face curiosity.
"That one was special, and some of it I still can't wrap my head around to this day." Asra smiled.
Julian chuckled. "Without a doubt! Especially the different names and history we had in that strange dimension or whatever you call it." He finished his stein of beer. "The food and drink were different too, but I do miss the so-called fish and chips."
I leaned over the table to the assistant. "Well, that's where I'll start the story of our adventure, in that strange dream dimension. All our minds were fogged and embedded with false and different memories and other knowledge. Asra, Julian, Portia, the Countess and me found ourselves in a large city and port called Dublin that sat on a large green island called Ireland. People there knew nothing of magic like here and had all kinds of things I still don't know how to explain them."
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