"Wha- she's not-!"
Before Lyrika could get even angrier at the man over what he said, Olivia broke out of her stupor and quickly placed her hand on her shoulder before she blew up at him.
"Lyrika. It's-it's fine." she quickly said before bringing her closer to whisper in her ear. "Look, as much of an ass as this guy is, causing a scene will not end well for us right now. All the people in this Inn will come to his aid, not ours. Leave it for now, and I'm sure he will get what he deserves in time." she said being the voice of reason.
Obviously, Lyrika wasn't too happy with it, but she understood, as when she looked around the room, everyone was staring at them. Who knows what would happen if she kicked off?
But while they had to keep cool in this situation, that didn't mean Olivia would just leave it so that the man felt he had won.
"Barman, I'm not some tamed beast. I am my own person. And I think the fact that I'm here talking to you, rather than attacking people, means I'm not like the Orcs you know of. Plus, I'm a half-Orc anyway. Now, if you have a problem with us and aren't willing to accept our coin, letting us stay here, then I would ask that you talk to Chief Teagan about that." Olivia replied, staring the man down as she did.
It felt like a bit of a cop-out, but until the people in this town actually got used to her, she wasn't going to be intentionally starting any fights.
Before long the man grumbled and headed towards the back of the bar. When he returned, he held two large, rusted iron keys in his hand.
"It will be ten silver coins for the night and dinner."
Handing the coins over, which he was a little reluctant to be taking out of Olivia's hand, he passed the keys towards them.
"It's the last two rooms through that door and up the stairs. We will continue to serve dinner for the next hour. Thank…thank you for your patronage," the man said, the last part being mumbled reluctantly.
At that, they headed out of the room and towards the door that he mentioned. They then came to a hallway, and after heading up the stairs stood before two rooms. As they went to unlock and head in, Olivia realised something.
'Wait, Lyrika only said two rooms. Who's bunking with whom then?'
But as if they had already determined it at some point, Philly headed to the other room, leaving Lyrika with her. While she did feel a little bad leaving Philly on her own, when she asked if she was fine, her response was that she needed some quiet to work on some things.
All three headed into their rooms and dropped off their gear. As they had a look around at the rather simplistic room, they noticed a couple of things with it. First, was that there were two beds. Both grumbled a little about that, especially when they realised they were nailed to the floor. Second was that there was a door on the wall, that looked to connect to the room Philly was in.
'Adjoining rooms. I didn't expect that.'
The fact they were adjoining was odd but figured these were likely used for families. Getting back to storing their gear, they placed it all towards the corner but made sure to keep a few things with them. They decided to keep with them their daggers and knives, not wanting to be completely unarmed in this place, and they also kept the Zentora, not wanting to just leave it in the room. Besides they would probably be feeding it as they ate.
Locking up, they headed back down to the dining room, where they then grabbed one of the few places that were free. The room had become a little more empty since they had gone to their rooms. Whether it was just because people had finished their meals, or it was because of the Orc that was present she didn't know.
Whichever it was, it didn't matter, as it meant they had more space available, so they were able to sit at a sizeable table, quite comfortably, where they then waited.
…
As she observed when first arriving, the wait staff attended the tables, so all they could do was wait for someone to arrive. The problem though, was that as they looked over at the bar, she could see a waitress standing there who seemed to be looking everywhere but at them.
"I guess that's our waitress," Olivia said gesturing at her so Lyrika and Philly could see.
They waited for a little while longer, and thankfully, before any of them decided to head over to get her attention, the barman spoke to the girl, and she then reluctantly walked over.
"He-hello. My name is As-Asteria. What would you like to eat?" the girl managed to squeak out.
As Olivia looked at her, she just knew the girl was reciting a mantra of 'don't say me, don't say me' in her head, thinking the big bad Orc would gobble her up.
The girl went through the food they had, but it really boiled down to two dishes. One mainly consisted of meat, Gootra meat specifically, as well as a few local vegetables. While the other was just a simple vegetable stew.
Olivia very quickly asked for the meat dish and paid a little extra for an extra serving of Gootra, the deer-like creature from before. This wasn't her being gluttonous. She just ordered it, so she had extra to feed the Zentora.
Lyrika also opted for the Meat dish, which made sense given the ravenous carnivore that she was, Olivia having taken the brunt of her craving during their trip.
Philly however took the vegetable stew. It seems that growing up in elven society, their diet consisted heavily of vegetables. Since that was all, she really ate, Gootra just didn't sound appealing to her.
Lastly, they also decided to order a round of drinks, namely the only ale that was being served in the bar, and then waited for their meal to arrive.
They spoke about the day, and what would be happening in the future. Philly asked more questions about both Lyrika and Olivia, namely how they met, what they had done together, the adventures not the naughty stuff, and their lives.
They also got to know a little more about Philly, where she spoke about her life in the elven kingdom. It would seem that her ancestors fled to the elven kingdom during the human war against beast-kin. They were something close to scientific advisors, and all of their children had followed suit in some way or another.
Her parents were still alive and living happily in the elven kingdom, along with several brothers and sisters. When she was in the institute and her now ex-boyfriend suggested her trip, she had told them about it and it being for scientific pursuit, they were all for it.
The one thing Olivia was a little unsure about as she spoke about her family, was how she had already written a letter about her journey so far…which included meeting and deciding to study Olivia…which she sent off to her parents when she arrived in this village. It would be some time before she received a response, but Philly was sure they would only be positive about her new pursuit.
Olivia wasn't quite sure that would be the case.
…
As they were talking and waiting for their food, they all of a sudden saw Teagan walk into the Inn, who then quickly headed for the bar. Leaning over the bar, he spoke to the barman for a few minutes. Olivia would like to say it was on a completely random issue, but the occasional glances and the pointed finger at herself from the barman told her otherwise.
It took some time, but eventually, Teagan left the bar and headed over to them.
"Don't worry, you should have no problems with the staff of the Inn. Just…watch out for any drunkards, and please keep in sight of the guards." was what Tegan said before pointing just past her.
Turning to look, she saw two guards standing there in full armour at the ready. It gave her quite the fright, having just tuned them out and forgotten about them the whole time.
'Are they like ninjas or something?'
"A few more days with them at your side, then I think most people would have gotten used to your presence. At that point, we can relax the guard detail a little. Now I have to head off. Hope you have a nice meal."
A quick wave and he was off, leaving the girls to their own devices again. Thankfully, it wasn't too long before the waitress came over with the meal. She still looked a little scared, but it seemed like, once again Teagan's words held weight.
Depositing their plates on the table, Olivia and the girls got to eating, and boy was it a treat.
Compared to camp food that is. It still had nothing on eating at a restaurant on Earth.
"This is so good." Lyrika said praising the meal, "Much better than what you cook," she said looking over at Olivia.
"Hey… this is an Inn, of course it's going to be better than what I can do in the woods using just Effler meat and hard tack. I'm quite a decent cook I'll have you know. I just need the ingredients to truly show it off."
"Sure." was the only response she got from her. It was clear she didn't believe her.
"It is ok. Food in the institute is way better than this. But for a meal in a small village, this tastes alright."
Olivia was sure there was some sort of veiled insult or displeasure in the way Philly had said that. She did, however, think it was entirely unintentional, Philly being the pragmatic person that she was.
…
As they continued to eat and pass small bites of Gootra meat to the Zentora who cutely nibbled away at it, the merriment and revelry in the Inn began to start up again. Since they had come down from their rooms, it had been quiet, people only talking among themselves. But as the night dragged on, a lot of people just ended up putting Olivia at the back of their minds. Now they were talking loudly and heartily drinking ale.
While great that things were getting back to normal, moving away from the tense atmosphere from before, it did bring its own problems.
One of which came in the form of a very drunk man who figured himself a ladies man and a saviour.
"Hey, err miss, *hick* stand back. I'll-ill *hick* take that monster d-down." he barely managed to say to Lyrika.
The disgusted look on her face she gave in response just said it all.
"I'm fine. Just leave me alone," she replied waving her hand to go away.
Olivia was a little tipsy by now, so the sight made her a little angry, but the laughter bubbling up at how stupid the man was ended up taking over.
"Don't *hick* don't be like that. Once I *hick* take it down, you can show me how much you ap-app-appreciate *hick* my saviournessness." The bumbling buffoon managed to say.
This though was followed by him slowly reaching down to touch Lyrika's leg.
A good deal of people around saw this, a few even moving to stand to stop the man knowing he was in the wrong, or afraid that the Orc would do something.
Olivia also ended up seeing the move he made, which sobered her up instantly. Standing tall with her imposing figure, she called out to the man.
"Hey, get your hand off-"
Only to be interrupted by a screech of pain.
The next thing she saw was the man hunched over, and his face on the table, as Lyrika now stood holding his wrist having twisted it behind his back.
"I said to leave. Me. Alone."
The man just whimpered as he tried not to cry from the pain. Happy that she got through to him, she let him go, sending him off the table and onto the floor.
There were many shocked faces looking at them, but thankfully none held any anger. They could see it was the man's drunken idiocy that got him in that state, so no one said anything.
Lyrika just quickly sat back down and got back to her meal.
A part of Olivia was surprised, but given how they met, and the confrontation soon after they did, it wasn't too surprising to see her like that.
…
Before long they had finished dinner. It was a lovely meal and felt good to be eating among other people rather than just in the middle of nowhere in some forest.
With the meal over, the only thing left to do was get some sleep. It had been a long day and they still had more things to deal with tomorrow, so an early night would be good for all of them. Heading up to their rooms, they said goodnight to each other as Philly headed to her room while Olivia and Lyrika headed to theirs. Once inside and the door was locked, they changed out of their clothes and plonked down on their own beds to get a good night's sleep.