The dwarf made his way to his room to retire for the night, since drinking wasn't for him and we had a lot to complete tomorrow, but Ari and I stayed down in the bar with Irene, in the company of a lot of jovial people of different tongues and nations.
Irene was happy to see us alive and jolly again, which was soon ceased by the fury of an orc who stood up with a savage grin on his face as he exclaims, "Where's the free rooms and drinks for me, huh? I saw you giving me stares human!"
Of course, Aunty 'Rene wasn't too happy with this rambunctious and obnoxious orc trying to 'flirt' with her before then she shouts
"Don't start with me you big green bastard, you're some random patron I served because you're a stranger and I barely know you!"
"Hah, don't delude yourself you stupid human, I saw you giving me eyes." He slurred with a grin and a raised voice as the patrons looked at him, either in disgust or annoyance.
"You believe you are someone invincible, don't you?" Irene says, staring at the orc with a burning and protective rage in her eyes, her voice falling into that bitter tone as her hand slipped into her duster, grasping her old combat knife.
The locals who knew Irene were sitting there, indifferent and some trying to warn the orc with different mutterings either in the Isle Kingdoms' speak or in the Elderenian tongue, hoping to make the orc stand down as it was going to end poorly for him but he didn't care as he hissed to the locals "Shut up, weaklings, she's mine!"
"Run that past me again, orc... just so I heard that clearly..." She whispered indignantly.
"You. Are. Mine. You deaf, ignorant human woman." The orc hastily replied with that dumb, ugly, disdainful grin on his face.
Irene nodded as she murmured idly to us, "I hate pricks like these," as she opened the bar's half-door and strolled towards the orc who still was standing in the middle of the bar.
"Leave," Irene said bluntly, with a maniacal-looking smirk, her piercing sapphire eye looking into the eyes of the titanic brute
The orc laughed and said, with that firm grimace of his, likely salivating from his perverted and primal desire, "Not without you on my lap, human. Such a pretty face and body would make amazing children for my clan, no?"
"You can either leave or I'm sending you to a hospital or a morgue and then have the gods decide your fate, you dense fool." The blonde war veteran warned as her face turned into an infuriated growl.
"Fine, I'll sit down but I want that pretty elf woman as my mate for compensation..." He said pompously, pointing at Ari, which led to me standing up with Ari and sharing an expression of anger before Irene motioned us to sit down with a free hand, which we complied, but we were more than ready to hop at the chance if Aunty Irene went down.
It was then that her maternal fury came out with the singing of her knife; the blood grooved blue steel blade nicked the chin of the lust-driven orc which turned that silly grin into an irritated look and then the orc swung punches at the former soldier, some landing on her stomach and chest and one of them landing on her face, cutting the side of her lip and bloodying but not breaking her nose.
The former captain to go into a fury as she strikes in a flurry of slashes and most landing before she jumped and booted the orc with a hard kick to the centre mass making him lose his balance and stumble through the thick wooden door and into the cold snow as she walked through, wiping the blood from her face onto the leather sleeve of her duster, staining the unwaxed and scratched sections with blotches of crimson.
Roughly a minute passed before she walked back through the door sniffling blood coming out her nose and her duster spattered with orc blood which she took off and hung up, exposing her thick, olive green wool shirt and leather suspenders and her black slacks and brown leather boots as she motioned to one of the local men and explained something to him about what to do with the corpse she made outside the inn before returning to us as we were astounded to see Irene untouched after the heavy blows she took.
The adrenaline and alcohol pumped through her still, probably the reason she is still walking and talking as she said to us
"Sorry about that, kids, sometimes you have to take out the trash even if it means sending them off with a first-class ticket to see Asadara herself in the underworld." She gently patted us and cuddled us both to her body once she threw her leather gloves into a washing basin behind the bar which she headed to herself and washed the mixture of blood from her face.
It troubled me, and Ari before I said to Irene, "Shit, Aunty, you look dreadful!"
"Of course I do! I just stabbed some loudmouth green dumbarse to death after he beat the stuffing out of me and used his loins to decide his words! I'll be fine, Joseph... you haven't changed one bit with Ari. Both of you used to cry when I was home with a few bandages on me." She says with a pause.
"The strongest part of you two was your concern for your friends and family." She looked at her watch, and we looked at the clock. It was about half five in the morning "Near closing time, put your stuff in your rooms and get some rest, alright?" She said.
We nodded, following what she said and then grabbed our things even if we couldn't walk straight and staggered up the stairs to the far right corner of the inn, leaning hard against the railing as my stomach was lurching and my head was spinning.
I questioned how I even climbed the steep stairs leading to our rooms. It wasn't long before I got into my room, slammed the door shut with my shoulder and then flopped into the embrace of the bed face first and then fell asleep.