"You're that kid who bought the grey rat, right? Stupid little thing."
Jorg took another sip of his beer, motioning with the glass at Alice.
"You killed that rat yet? I hear it's fun to watch them fight. Not for me though. Much more fun to skin 'em myself."
Alice wanted to hit the man in front of her. How much of a psycho was he? Ash was a cute, friendly puppy, not some rat to be skinned!
"Now, where were we? Right, back to the Dep woods. We cleaned out that whole place. A bunch of wolves tried to make trouble with us at the start, but they all wimped out after we killed one of 'em. After that, the damn rats just hid from us the whole time."
"Those wolves really are annoying. And good at hiding. It took them a few days to -hic- mess up. Dragged a deer all the way back to their den, leaving behind a blood trail."
Jorg sat back in his chair, reminiscing about the joyful hunt.
"Sure, those wolves are strong, but if you get the jump on them, they are pretty useless. One magic stone, and they are all down for the count. Pretty big profit, if you ask me! Those pelts are worth a ton."
Alice covered her mouth, trying to stop the returning vomit. Ash's family… were killed and skinned. Did he know this? What would happen if he didn't, and he only learned about it now…
"So anyways, we killed all the rats. Counting the one we killed earlier, we had eight adults. Karl got six Ron for all those pelts! There were a few pups too, but the damn things were too small to be of any use. I tried to make a hat out of one of 'em, but it didn't work."
Jorg sat forwards, a smile creeping onto his face as he continued.
"One of the little rats tried to fight back. Took a chunk out of poor Ted's shoulder! The ugly little critters ain't worth much anyways, so Karl let me play with that one. Ha! That was fun. The little bitch broke quick! Stupid thing went from fighting back to trying to run after only a few broken bones! That's why I hate em. Cowards."
Alex was enraged too. He wanted nothing other than to stab this bastard in front of him. Ash was family now too. Yet, he didn't move. He came here to help Alice learn what happened, and killing Jorg now would prevent that.
"A few weeks later, and three more mini rats show up! Ugly things looked half starved, we found em trying to hunt a little pig. Two of the cowards gave up right away. The black one and the ugly grey one. At least the little bitch that was with them had some fighting spirit! Damn thing almost got me!"
Jorg smiled as he vividly described Fern's death. He seemed to take pleasure in the horrified look on Alice's face.
"After that, we came home and cashed out. I think Karl sold the black rat at some auction."
Jorg put his now empty beer mug down, glaring at Alice's pale face.
"I answered your question. Buy me another beer, or leave."
Alice's shoes stomped against the dirt covered wooden floor as she ran out of the pub, followed quickly by Alex.
As soon as Alice made it out of the bar, she couldn't hold it any more. The stench, the disgusting looks, and Jorg's story worked together to force the girl's lunch onto the ground.
Weeping and puking at the same time. A bystander might think that the girl had too much to drink, given that she just came out of a pub.
"Alice… this is why I said I would go here alone. The Red Falcons aren't exactly known for being kind to the environment. I knew that his story wouldn't be good… but I wasn't expecting that. I wish I could go back in there and stab that bastard."
Alex crouched down next to the girl, patting her on the back and trying to calm her down. Alex had been with the Graves family for years, and it hurt to see someone he looked at as a little sister like this.
"Alex… Is this what the world is like?"
"When the bandits attacked our hunting party… I thought it was just a fluke. Something that rarely happens. But it wasn't, was it. This is what the world is like."
Alex didn't answer for a moment. He wanted to lie, to say that the world is a nice, peaceful place. That she didn't have to worry. Alice would be taking over the family business eventually. She would learn what the world was like no matter what. It was better for her to learn now than be too trusting and learn her lesson too late.
"Yea. The world isn't a great place. Rapists, murderers, bandits. The law enforcement in our country is too flimsy to catch any of them. Even so, it isn't like everything is bad. We live in a time of peace, and technology is developing fast. Maybe, sometime in the future, order will be commonplace, and everyone will be able to live without fear."
Alice stood up, turning to face Alex. Tears were still streaming down her face.
"Then I guess… we'll just have to play it safe until things change."
Alice looked up at Alex before pulling him into a hug.
"Thank you for coming with me here."
*
A few minutes later, the two returned to the Graves manor. Leaving Alice to talk to Ash alone, Alex returning to his regular work.
Alice walked over and sat next to Ash, who was still sunbathing in the garden.
"Ash… I just talked to Jorg… about what happened before you came here. I-"
Ash pressed his nose against Alice's arm, halting her words.
Using his paw, he roughly scratched at the ground. In poorly drawn, barely legible characters, a single sentence brought Alice back to tears.
"Okay. New family."