The Tavern Part 3

Sophie entered the tavern, with Pierce close behind. The first thing that caught her attention was the smell of cheap alcohol and sweat. Then came the sound of the music playing in the background of the loud men and women speaking to one another.

"This reminds me of Christmas in the city with my family," Pierce said, looking around the tavern as he lowered the hood from his head.

"The smell is familiar. I've never encountered this many people talking all at once or that kind of music," Sophie says. She then broke into a short coughing fit from the smoke that was starting to fill the room.

"Definitely like Christmas."

Pierce and Sophie looked around the tavern, curious.

"It reminds me of the prancing pony from Lord of the rings. Except all of the patrons are human," Pierce said.

Sophie silently nodded her head as she took in the tavern's interior. The tavern gave a rustic feel to Sophie.

The furniture was made entirely out of wood, and the cups were made of metal. The painting that hung up on the walls were mere landscapes, ones that she swore she had seen before.

"Let's go to the bar. Maybe the barkeep can tell us something," Pierce suggested. He then took Sophie's wrist and led her a few feet to the bar.

The bar was shaped like a square placed near the entrance. The barkeep was an older man, serving drinks to the men who stood there now.

When Sophie and Pierce approached, the group of young men who had been ordering walked away with their drinks in hand, letting Pierce and Sophie approach.

The moment that the barkeep saw Sophie he jumped a little.

"Sorry, lassie. I'm not used to seeing young girls in our establishment. Your father knows you're here?" the barkeep questioned, his eyes on Sophie.

"Nevermind that she's here. I'm wondering if you could tell us about the incident that happened earlier today. The Cyclops? My cousin and I have been asking but neither her parents nor mine would tell us," Pierce lied smoothly.

The Barkeep looked at Sophie and Pierce, his eyes sparkling with worry. "I don' know kids... yee parents not telling yeh what happened is just their way of trying to protect yeh from the brutes," the barkeep told them.

Pierce looked at Sophie who was looking at him expectantly, then he turned his attention back to the barkeep. "Truth is sir, I don't have a mind like my cousin here. She's going to be something. Curious about the way monsters work. But I... I'm only going to be good at one thing and that's being a soldier. It's my only shot to be something my parents can be proud of," Pierce explained to the barkeep. "My cousin warned me that if I go into the field not knowing anything I could be looked at as a mum. I don't want to be looked at as a mum but my parents still won't tell me. This is the one place we could go."

The Barkeep looked at Pierce and Sophie, a small smile on his lips. "You two are good kids. Smart girl if you're wanting to be a monstologist," his eyes shined with admiration as he looked at Sophie who gave him a small smile in return.

He looked back at Pierce, leaning closer to the boy, he said, "From what I've been hearing since the early hours after the event. Some said that the cyclops came, destroyed a building with a boulder, then just dropped it and walked off."

Pierce and Sophie both looked at the barkeep with confused expressions.

Sophie stepped up beside Pierce and whispered, "it just dropped the boulder? And left?"

The barkeep nodded, pouring water from the jug into two glasses. "That's what I heard. But ask around. I bet you'll hear similar stories from the patrons here," he said and slid the glasses to the two.

Sophie took the glasses and nodded at Pierce while she walked away from the bar.

"Thank you, sir," Pierce thanked the barkeep before he followed after Sophie.

Pierce walked quickly to catch up to Sophie, walking alongside her in the tavern. They both could feel the stares from the other patrons of the establishment as they walked by.

This had the effect of Sophie handing the drinks over to Pierce and grip the cloak pulling it closer to her body.

"So whoever he heard that from clearly wasn't there to see the boulder come flying across the sky," Sophie whispered to Pierce, eyes on the floor and not the men who were staring at them.

"Were any of these people there?" Pierce asked her, looking around the room at the patrons who were staring at them, meeting their gazes head-on.

"No... Now that I think about it all those I saw were in armour," Sophie says, looking up at the clothes of the men that surrounded them.

"They evacuated the citizens from the scene..." Pierce whispered, his eyes widening.

Pierce pulled Sophie to a stop, handing her one of the cups while he drowned his water down his throat and placed it loudly on one of the small tables that were nearest to them.

"We need to ask these people about what they heard happened today. If I'm right there is a chance every one of them has been lied to about today's events, Sophie," Pierce told her.

Sophie looked around the room. Her mind had been thinking about all the strange men who were staring at her, used to the looks she would get from those in River Springs and she felt uncomfortable with these strange people looking at her the way they all would. But now her mind was filled with the thought of this world truly not being that different from their own; the government of this world keeps important information from their citizens too.

Sophie gulped down the remaining liquid in her cup, placing it beside Pierce's.

"I'll go talk to people. You stand behind and use your notebook to take note of what they say, okay?" Pierce asked just as Sophie removed the notebook and pen from her dress pocket.

"You are so lucky I packed this," she whispered to him while she followed a few steps behind him.

Pierce walked to the table closest to where he and Sophie had been standing, coming to a table where three men sat playing a game of what looked to be a card game. 

"So sorry," Pierce said, coming in between two of the three men at the table. "I just wanted to ask you if you knew what happened today? The monster attack?"

Pierce watched as the three men looked at each other, each holding looks of uncertainty.

"Come here kid," one of the men, a middle-aged man with a long beard spoke. He gestured with his finger for Pierce to come over to him.

Pierce slowly walked from where he stood to stand beside the bearded man, leaning down so the man could whisper to him, "a cyclops breached our wall. Broke it down with a boulder. It could have done a lot more if our good soldiers didn't stop it. Ran away the cowardly monster," the man said.

Pierce pulled away and smiled kindly at the man. "Thank you for telling me, sir. I will be sure to tell my cousin just that," Pierce said, thanked the three gentlemen then went back to stand alongside Sophie.

"I have a feeling that all these stories are going to make it seem like the cyclops were scared off by the military and place them in a limelight," Pierce told Sophie after he told her what the man had told him.

"Isn't that what the American government does? Or any government really?" Sophie questioned him, giving him a, 'duh' look.

Pierce glared at Sophie before he pointed to a larger group near the bar.

"I'm going to go talk to them. Wait here," Pierce says, taking her notebook and pen.

He walked away from Sophie, leaving her alone in the middle of the tavern.

Sophie watched Pierce walk away, her notebook and pen in his hand. "Sexist universe," Sophie growled, hoping to find at least one woman in this place. But nothing. Instead what she found was a strange man sitting alone in the corner of the tavern.

Her eyes focused on him.

He wore clothes similar to the other men in the establishment; leather pants, a cheap fabric shirt with a fur cloak. Only his cloak didn't look to be of cheap stitchings like theirs, it was more like hers, with time being put into the stitching and attaching of the furr. The cloak hood was raised to cover his whole face so all she could see was the shadow.

It was making her curious.

Glancing over at Pierce and seeing him immersed in his conversation, Sophie walked from where she stood and to the man in the corner, only to be stopped by the barkeep standing in her way.

"I would not go over there lassie," he spoke, his voice dangerously low. "That man not friendly. He would sooner stab one of these drunks than speak to a good girl like you."

Sophie looked behind the barkeep's body, her eyes focused on the hooded man who sat drinking his cup of beer.

"He doesn't look much different to your other patrons. What makes him so dangerous, sir?" Sophie questioned, looking up at the barkeep.

"Not sure, lassie. What I do know, is he makes everyone here uneasy. Something about him," he said quietly.

Sophie took another look at the cloaked man.

Then it hit her. A pounding headache that had her grip the sides of her head.

She wants to take you, use you.

Your teachers know of you. One knows you are here. He will find you, teach you and lead you to me and your fellow teachers.

Find him!

Sophie let out a struggled breath as the headache left. She opened her eyes to find herself on the floor, the barkeep beside her looking down at her with concern and Pierce behind her, hands on her shoulders.

"We should get you home, cousin," Pierce spoke, looking down at her with worry but his gaze stern.

Sophie slowly nodded her head, letting him help her to her feet.

"Sorry, sir. I hope to see you again, in better circumstances," Sophie whispered to the barkeep before she left the tavern with Pierce, feeling a piercing gaze on the back of her head.

She turned just as Pierce was pushing her out the door and came to stare into the red eyes of the cloaked man.