Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 119158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
“Why are you so eager to travel with me?” he inquired.
“Maybe I like you,” I said, and we both gave a snort of laughter. Yeah, neither of us believed that. “Okay, how about I feel indebted to you?” I dropped my spoon into my empty bowl and pushed it aside. I picked up the wine bottle, refilled Nylian’s cup, and splashed more into my own. “You could have left me for dead in the forest, but you didn’t. Instead, you brought me to Misty Pass, took me to a healer. You even got me a room at an inn and a meal. I know you could have disappeared the moment I turned my head, leaving me alone, but you didn’t. You stayed.” I lifted my cup to him and grinned. “I’ve gotta repay that generosity.”
Lifting his cup to his lips, Nylian took a slow, deep drink without ever moving his eyes from my face. I smiled at him, waiting for him to declare bullshit. “There’s nothing to repay,” he announced when he lowered his cup to the table.
I snatched up the wine bottle again and replenished his supply. Maybe if I could get him tipsy, he’d be more agreeable. Not that I was counting on that course of action. It would be my luck that he could drink even the stoutest, most hardcore alcoholic under the table.
“There is. My conscience won’t allow me to let it be forgotten. And let’s not overlook that you need help. I know that I’m not your first choice, but I don’t see anyone else lining up to give you a hand.”
Nylian’s full lips pressed into a hard line, and he appeared as if he were about to smash that wine bottle over my head. “So, my only assistance in the world is a man who doesn’t know where he came from, how he got here, or where he was going. You can’t ride a horse, and I seriously doubt you can use a sword.” He huffed a bitter, almost soundless laugh. “You’re useless and destined to hold me back. Yeah, that sounds like my luck.”
My big mouth was not helping my cause, but I had to keep pushing forward. “I might be useless in the typical ways, but I think I can prove helpful in unexpected ways. You never know.”
“Do you even listen to the nonsense that’s coming out of your mouth?”
I grinned at my companion. “Not generally. It slows me down.” I took a deep drink of my wine. Between the scalding stew and the bitter wine, my tastebuds were dead now. I refilled my glass and shook the empty bottle at the elf. “My first useful task is to get us another bottle of wine. You sit here and think about how nice it would be to have an amusing, useful friend along on this journey rather than endless days of unrelenting silence and boredom.”
With a hop, I was out of my seat and winding my way through the tavern, between the crowded tables. Most of the customers were crusty and rough men in coarse clothes or leather armor, drinking and cursing. However, there were a good number of women among them in leathers, with swords and knives at their sides. Jack would have been at home here, cursing, drinking, and laughing loudly. Georgie wouldn’t have cared for it, but she would have braved it for her girlfriend.
A pang of longing echoed through my chest for them. I wasn’t as close to Jack as I was to Georgie, but they were both my friends. Did they think I was dead? Were they hurting right now for me? Or was Georgie cursing my name because I flaked on our lunch date? If I had to choose, I would prefer to think she was angry at me. As soon as I found my way home, I’d spend the rest of my life making it up to her and Jack. I’d become an outdoor human who socialized and walked in the sunlight.
Thankfully, I had no other family to worry over me since my mom had died. My dad had disappeared from my life before I was even born, and I had no siblings to speak of.
Did my readers even care that I was missing? Well, probably not so much about me, but more about the lack of daily updates to my story. It was likely I’d been fricasseed online for my extended absence. They were going to hate me even more when I returned and changed my story completely. Things were not at all working out the way I’d originally plotted them.
But for now, I was stuck here, and I needed to make the best of it.
At the bar, I ordered another bottle of wine and paid, being careful not to use the cursed coin.
Turning back, I started toward the table I shared with Nylian, but I didn’t get more than a few steps. The elf had disappeared. Not from the room. From sight. He was lost somewhere behind a crowd of eight gigantic men who were surrounding our table.