Chapter 1: Another Bad Day

With a sigh, a woman with long red hair pushed the tavern door open and walked over to the bar. She sat on one of the bar stools and put a small brown sack on the bar with a small jingling sound. The young man working at the bar saw her and walked over with a welcoming smile. 

"Hello, Kate. How did the job go?"

Kate looked at him with a small smile on her face. 

"Well Tate, it went okay. I got rid of the small bandit camp that was blocking one of the roads so that's all good but now... When I went to collect the bounty I met with the kings' squire who told me that the king couldn't give me the full payment since he needs the gold for the army so he paid me... 15 gold."

Tate looked at Kate with a slight look of shock, he put his hand through his somewhat scruffy blonde hair. He sighed as he spoke to her. 

"15 gold?! How much was the bounty?"

She whispered 

"100 gold."

He shook his head slightly and looked at her once again. He looked around to see if any customers were around and luckily, they were all at the top of the bar, drinking, laughing and belching. He looked at Kate with a smile and he began to speak. 

"You know that my ale is usually 5 gold? Well today only,  just for you, the first 4 ales are free and the rest are 1 gold. "

Kate shook her head in disagreement. 

"You can't do that Tate, I thought your tavern wasn't doing so well. "

He slightly pointed to the drunk people at the top of the tavern then smiled. 

"Jacob and his goons have given the tavern enough money for the next 2 or 3 taxes. "  

Kate rolled her eyes as she laughed slightly. 

"Thanks dude, don't let your dad know your doing this for me, he'd kill both of us"

She laughed again as Tate made her an ale and handed it to her. 

"He would be fine with it since it's you I'm giving our ale to. "

She took a small sip of the ale and let out a satisfied sigh however something was different about the taste. 

"You changed the taste or something, Tate?"

He looked at the ale then back at Kate. 

"I added some lemon or some sugar, I thought it would taste better. What's wrong? Does it taste like shit or something?"

Kate laughed at his statement. 

"By the gods, no. It tastes amazing Tate. Keep doing what you're doing."

She soon finished her first ale and Tate made her another one. The noise was getting louder but Kate didn't mind as long as no one was bothering her but her piece and quiet would soon be interrupted by the few people she hated in this part of the kingdom. With a few big heavy steps, the light covering Kate went dark. She smiled as she turned to a big man with a white beard covered head to toe in heavy armour. 

"Well well lads, look at what we got here. We got ourselves a lost beast."

He laughed along with his 4 other friends, they were all clearly really drunk. Tate was about to say something when Kate smiled and turned to the 5 drunk men. 

"Jacob... Dude..."

She said pushing him over with one of her fingers, he landed with a big thud. His friends tried to help him but his armour was too heavy so she moved his friends out of the way and crouched next to him and spoke. 

"I've told you this multiple times, if you come over and interrupt my alone time... I will happily beat you down like last time.

She picked him up by the collar of his clothing underneath and put him back on his feet, his friends looked at her with amusement and horror but she wasn't surprised. They were like that every time they were drunk. She looked at the massive man and spoke once again. 

"Now... Leave me alone and go back to your binge drinking fellas."

She smiled as she sat down but Jacob didn't move then spoke again. 

"You damn creatures... Thinking you own the place..."

Tate spoke up

"Jacob, we have spoken about this. This is a human and magical bar, it's not just for humans"

He looked at Tate with anger in his eyes. 

"You should change it boy. Creatures like her are dangerous around humans."

She stands up and looks at Jacob right in the eyes. Her eyes now turned into slits, they looked like cat eyes. Everyone was looking at the argument now. 

"I'm only dangerous when people like you piss me off and guess what? You've pissed me off... How about YOU get out of here instead since you're the one who started this."

Everyone started to mumble and look at Jacob, he began to get nervous. He was known as a hero around this place but was he going to talk back to this young woman and lose it? Yes, he was. He went to swing at her and missed her terribly, she growled as she kicked him right in the stomach causing him to fly out of the tavern door and hit a wall. He was slightly twitching but still alive. His friends looked at her then ran to Jacob, she sighed as people started to cheer her, whistle and clap. Tate looked at her with a smile. 

"Sorry about the door Tate. I'll pay for the door repairs."

"No you won't. I wi-"  

Before he finished the sentence, she put her small pouch of gold on the bar and pushed it to him. 

"I'm not taking no for an answer."

She quickly drank her last ale and smiled. 

"I'll see you later Tate, have a good night."

He smiled

"You too Kate."