#1: The Duel
The sun was hanging bright over the city Redstork. It was noon and the heat made most living creatures stay indoors. In fact the great plaza in front of the Magical Consortium of Redstork was deserted. Only a cat lay beside the great fountain devoted to the Love Goddess Venisra. And all over the city not a living thing was to be seen. But in a narrow street in the wharf district two people were staring with mortal contempt at each other.
One of them was the Half-orc warrior Brokktooth, also known a the Butcher of Ain-Haag. He swept the sweat from his face while untying the waraxe on his back. He was a bright skinned hairy man, with on broken fang protruding form his grinning mouth. He was clad a chain mail shirt with a breast plate of leather and metal leggings covering his muscle toned chest and thighs. He had no helm but wore a red scarf around his head. His left eyed squinted as he viewed the opposition. And he gave a slight roar under his breath as he swung the large heavy axe through the air and got ready...
The other fighter in this lonely contest was Irenia Lytol a raven haired, dark tanned woman with a deadly reputation. She stood in a statuesque stance with a bright shining rapier lowered in front of her. She had no armor only a tight fitting pair of red-leather trousers and high black boots with a sliver circle around the knee. She also had a vest of red-suede that was tightly laced up over her stomach and pushing up her full breasts. Under it she had a white blouse that was open on the top to show just enough cleavage to distract most male opponents. Suddenly she saw the gleam in his eyes as he rushed towards her with a lifted axe...
The duel was fast moving with the strong- orc warrior attacking with a violent fury and the raven haired woman dodging and parrying his blows with ease. But suddenly Broktooth changed his tactic and took the defensive against the woman. With a furious thrust Irenia opened a series of attacks forcing her opponent towards the wall. Then suddenly the orc dodged and swung his axe at her. Only her nimbleness and sheer speed saved her life. Now there was a fire in her eyes as she feinted an injury from the axe blow. When the orc raised his axe for the final kill she thrust her rapier precisely into his shoulder. The orc gave a shout as she dodged with good margin his terrible axe blow and gave him another cut straight across his face. Hurt and with fright in is eyes the orc went into a frenzy cutting and slashing as the woman dodged his blows neatly. Then as he hesitated for one hundred of a second between two furious blows, she struck her blade deep into his chest penetrating both ribcage and heart. The mighty orc warrior gulped blood. Then fell on his back, with a dull noise and was dead. The enemy was killed and Irenia was left standing as she had so many times before. She sheathed her rapier and walked with long strides towards the nearby inn called the "Silver Mug".
#2 The Inn
The "Silver Mug" was a small inn with a dark reputation for housing the worst scum of all Redstork. It was owned by a short fat man called Brigon the One Eyed, a man hated by most of Redstork because of his seedy inn. He was the only one that worked permanently at the inn but every once and a while he was able to trick some young girl to work as a waitress for him. Birgon was good with tricks and he quite often had a girl or two working for him. But they often left as soon as it became obvious that he wanted them to perform other services than merely waiting tables. If the young girl was, or became, unwilling he would get rid of them fast, in any way he could. Irenia despised the man and only lived at his inn for sentimental reasons.
This day as she walked through the dark and smelly taproom she saw only three other guests. Two people sitting in dark robes in a dark corner whispering softly to each other. Irenia hardly gave them a glance, they were probably wizards or rouges discussing dark matters and then she saw no reason to intrude on their business as they did not intrude on hers. And if they were something else she would not even want to know it. The last guest was a neatly dressed dwarf lying in a pool of his own puke on a table in the middle of the room. The stench from him was horrible and the table was filled with empty tankards and small goblets. Irenia looked over him to see if he had any valuables on him, but it seemed someone had beaten her to it. Then Brigon got up behind counter and smiled a toothless smile at her...
She walked over to the bar feeling how the hot day had made her sweaty and feeling how the dust was crawling under her clothes.
"What are you grinning at, one eye?" the words lashed at Brigon. His lips straightened up and he looked at her with wide eyes.
"Did we kill someone this afternoon ,luv?" he look dead serious for a while then he gave her another grin.
"Well, I don't think that half-orc weasel will be able to settle his account" she knew she got him. Brigon just squinted his eyes and spat across the counter just missing Irenia, the half-orc must have been a good customer.
"Damn you murdering bitch!" he barked at her, "I should make you settle what he owed me". His face was getting red and the black holes between his teeth seemed bigger.
"I'm not paying for his whores, one eye" Irenia was dead calm as she spoke the words but the look on her face gave Brigon a shiver down his neck.
"But your costing me more than..." he started, "and now I want a bath!" she interrupted him. Brigon looked dumbstruck then he gave her a hard look again.
" Can you get that little slut you call a waitress to carry some water to my room?" the question sounded more like an order. Brigon just turned around and headed for the door.
"And would like a Brigth Ale and a stiff one too, one eye?, her voice suddenly became conspicuously more friendly. Brigon turned aroud and tapped the ale and got the drink ready. He put the drinks in front of her with a bang. Then he disappeared into the kitchen. Irena sat down at table as she heard Brigon yelling at someone in the back. She then took a sip of the ale and lay back putting her boots on the table.