Roxane's guess was that Thatcher did not want to pry away Diana from the festivities. After they had danced at the city's square, Diana had exhausted everyone by going to each and every stall at the festival.
"She doesn't easily tire out does she?" Kian mused as the three of them hung back, letting Diana take the lead.
She shook her head, "this is nothing compared to when we were younger. You two are only getting a small taste of what Diana is really like."
"I'm beginning to suspect that she presented herself a lot differently when we were at the temple." Thatcher joined in as they walked side by side. He clasped his hands behind his back. Roxane noted he was more comfortable with her as he walked close to her, unlike the wizard who still kept a respectable distance between them.
"She was earnestly a Priestess." Roxane laughed quietly, "She knew not many people would take her seriously if they knew she was still quite childish."
They arrived at the inn when the sky was completely dark. When they entered they were met with a room full of people sitting down and chatting. A few of them had to be travelers as well, as they wore rugged expressions on their travel weary faces.
"Come in, please come in." The owner of the inn ushered them inside while he wiped down the bar. It appeared like the inn had a downstairs tavern.
"Will you be staying with us for the night or are you all here only for a pint? I'm afraid all the rooms are booked if you were hoping we had availability."
Thatcher was the one who first spoke up. He shook his head at the owner as he neared closer to him.
"We booked our rooms previously." He explained. "There should be two rooms booked under the name Rayford."
"Ah, perfect then!" The innkeeper looked relieved. "You were the patron we were waiting on then." He motioned at the group of scruffy looking men that sat at one of the tables. "Sorry fellas, the rooms are spoken for."
One of the men rose up from his seat as his companions voiced their displeasure with disgruntled noises. The man towered over Thatcher, his black-colored beard stretched down below his chin and his dark eyes regarded the much smaller Thatcher with contempt.
Despite the menacing atmosphere around, Thatcher still kept an air of peace about him. Although the man continued glaring down at him, Thatcher didn't rise to the challenge but still stared coolly back with his grey eyes. She found herself also glaring at the man, not liking how he was treating their traveling companion.
"Now, now you two. Let's not start anything here," said the innkeeper nervously. He looked continuously between the two men with dread as little beads of perspiration appeared on his wrinkled forehead.
"My men and I are very tired. We spent the whole day hacking and slashing up monsters all along the outskirts of town." The man's voice was dangerously low as his hard stare penetrated Thatcher, almost as if he wanted to intimidate the younger man into submission.
"That sounds rough," Thatcher replied without missing a beat. "I hope you and your men are able to find an inn at this time of night. If you leave now you might still be able to."
This visibly angered the leader of the band of mercenaries. He began to growl, a sound that came from somewhere deep inside his throat. The man's group reached for their weapons and at the same time, Kian moved his hand slightly but was stopped by a look Thatcher sent his way.
"Gentlemen, there's no reason to ruin this fine establishment with a fight. How about we decide who gets the rooms by doing this?" Thatcher offered the man an alternative with a smile, "one of your people versus one of ours in a battle of strength."
"An arm-wrestle?" The man scoffed at Thatcher's proposal. "You might as well hand over those rooms boy. Or do you honestly believe you are my match when it comes to raw strength?" The man's group laughed to back up their leader's words.
Thatcher shook his head.
"I wasn't implying that I would be the one facing off with you."
Roars of laughter could be heard coming from the mercenaries. The rest of the inn's patrons seemed concerned about what was occurring in front of them.
"The wizard has about the same amount of chance of winning as you do boy!" The leader laughed in Thatcher's face after glancing behind Roxane at Kian. His scarred face was shrouded in a twisted form of delight.
Thatcher shook his head once more at the man. He seemed deadly serious as he spoke once more.
"Not him either."
The man balked at Thatcher. Then he grabbed him by the front of his shirt.
"Don't fool around with me boy. You expect me to arm-wrestle with one of your women?"
Roxane took this chance to step forward. Her golden eyes stared at the leader of the mercenaries that had grabbed Thatcher.
"I should be the one to say that. You hardly look strong enough to go toe-to-toe with me." She sat down at one of the tables that had been full of people, but when she motioned with her hand they all abdicated their seats.
"Don't worry. I plan to not use all of my strength." She said with a smile as she got situated at her seat.
"If you're planning on using magic…" The man released his grip on Thatcher and came to her slowly. Roxane only shook her head.
"I'm not a wizard."
"It's not that I don't trust a beautiful broad as yourself, but to make sure this is a fair fight." He motioned over to one of his companions who nodded and grabbed a pair of handcuffs from his belt.
"They are magic canceling cuffs." Roxane accepted the handcuffs as his companion put one of the cuffs around her wrist while the other dangled in the air. She wasn't at all afraid of the magic cuffs as they wouldn't interfere with her strength. All dragons were born naturally much stronger than the average human.
The leader sat across from her, he looked utterly irked at the thought of being pitted against a woman such as Roxane.
"Why the long face? I said I wouldn't go all out didn't I?" Roxane badgered the man across from her. This prompted him to angrily lean in, placing his arm up on the table.
"Just so you know, if I win, we get the rooms and I get to spend the night with you." He said with a devious smile on top of his unruly beard.
At this, she saw Thatcher visibly tense up. She could only imagine how angry Diana was when she nodded her head back at the big oaf.
"You're not my type. Regardless, I accept since you have absolutely no chance of winning." Her own devilish smile spread across her red lips. "If I win, not only do we get to stay in our reserved rooms but we also get to take all of the loot you currently have." Being mercenaries, they for sure had to have many different kinds of supplies and valuables on them right? She had not failed to notice the bags of stuff they carried sitting beside the rest of the group of mercenaries when they had first stepped into the inn.
"Agreed." The man didn't lose his smile as Roxane lifted up her arm, clasping her small feminine hand with his gargantuan sweaty one.
"I'm looking forward to tonight," He said while licking his lips.
No longer smiling, she gripped his hand as she waited for one of the mercenaries to signal the start of their match.
It seemed as her heartbeats kept in time as the seconds dragged on and the two opponents stared into each other's faces. It was then that she realized the possibility that the man before her could also not be completely human as well, and she adjusted her plan. She would use more of her strength than what she previously thought would be sufficient. Just in case.
When the signal went down, she was not at all surprised by the lukewarm strength the man put behind his hand. He underestimated her, and he would soon come to realize what a mistake he had made.
The man winced as he watched his hand slowly move from being in the position of winning to losing. He struggled with all his might against her as the veins on his arm began to bulge out. Roxane reveled at his mystified expression when his hand was finally brought down on the table. The entire inn was in a state of disbelief as there was nothing but silence following Roxane's victory.
"Oh my, it seems that I've won." Roxane took her hand away. "Are you sure you weren't going easy on me?" It was impossible, as everyone in the inn would have been able to see how the man had struggled so earnestly against Roxane.
"Best two out of three?" She offered with a smile.
Roxane jumped up from the sudden thud as the man in front of her banged his clenched fist on the table. An expression of pure hatred distorted his face.
"What f*cking sorcery is this?" He yelled at Roxane. "I'll f*cking wring your neck you wh*re!" Then he lunged at Roxane, his enormous hands were all Roxane could see as they came barreling towards her with such speed.