Bob The Innkeeper

With a cry of rage, it spotted Leo climbing to his feet and swung its mace. Bob sighed as he blocked it with his sword, but another one charged into the room. His shop was going to get trashed, and he only just got it fixed up!

Slashing one of the orcs on the leg closest to him, Leo quickly turned to the other, blocked its axe, and then turned back to the first to slash it across the belly. He jumped out of the way just as the axe wielding orc swung, and the first one hunched forward to cover its cut stomach, causing the axe to bury itself in the skull of the injured one. Leo then quickly dispatched the confused and horrified orc.

"Do you know how hard it is to get blood out of the wood?" complained Bob, glad that Leo was alright.

Leo glanced back up at him for a moment, with a "what?!" look, then laughed and shook his head.

"Would you like for me to get them out of your store?"

"Yes, please," answered Bob with a smile.

With an incredulous look, Leo grabbed the orc he had just killed, and hauled it out of the store. Once he was outside, he ducked as a couple of arrows flew past, but then Bob saw a ball of bright light go whizzing back towards the gate. Leo glanced in the direction of the spellcaster, then ducked back into the store.

"It"s pretty crazy out there," he said, with a shake to his head. Grabbing the other orc, he didn"t bother going out this time, he only shoved the orc out the door, then tried to push it shut. One of the hinges was busted, and wouldn"t let the door shut completely.

Bob watched as several more fireb.a.l.l.s went flying past, and he could only cringe as the sounds of them exploding filled the street outside. He hated to think how many people had just been killed.

"That orc was from an advanced hunting party," commented Zach.

"Then why are they attacking the city if they"re hunting?" asked Martha confused.

"They weren"t hunting animals," said Leo, clenching his fist and then tightening a strap on his bracer, before hefting his sword again.

A knock on the partially busted door, startled all of them.

"Are you open?" asked a gruff voice.

"Sure," said Bob, "come on in!"

The door was pushed open and a short man wearing a robe stepped inside, over the dead carca.s.s of the orc Leo had just pushed outside.

"You wouldn"t happen to have any mage ink? Would you? I need some before I return with my party to the dungeon. I stopped by the other store that was supposed to have some, but he was closed for some reason," he said, glancing at the blood that was starting to stain the floors.

"Actually, we just got some in," said Vivian softly. She pointed at a box that had been shoved onto one of the shelves, and Bob moved to get it.

"Stay there, Bob," warned Zach. "Have the girl come fetch it. I"m not risking you to anything right now."

Vivian gaped at him for a moment, unsure of what to do. It was obvious she wasn"t interested in getting down off the stairs, and the mage merely raised an eyebrow in interest at the situation.

"Zach, I have a customer," said Bob stiffly, standing up and stepping down the stairs.

Zach grudgingly allowing him to move over to the shelf, but stayed right next to him the entire time.

"There appears to be several containers in here, how many were you wanting?" asked Bob, turning to peer around Zach at the mage.

"Two please. I just acquired a new spell that I want to transcribe into my book this evening."

Bob pulled out two jars of ink, noting the thick dark color of it, before setting them down on the counter.

Outside the sounds of someone laughing maniacally could be heard, along with the distant sounds of fighting. As the mage reached for his coin pouch, the faint sounds of someone singing could be heard.

"We shall defeat these brutes; we shall get all their loot! They"ll all run as we shoot; holes into their birthday suits!"

"That would be Royce. He"s always rhyming all his lyrics. He"s not bad most of the time," said the mage, handing over the coins for the ink.
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Bob took them with a thanks and the mage made his way back outside, again stepping over the orc"s body. They all watched as the mage jumped back, and a large sword hit the wood of Bob"s front porch. All he could do was sigh, as he watched the wood splinter as the sword was jerked free.

The mage ran off, but the orc had spied them with its beady little pig eyes. Before Bob could blink, Zach had grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and jerked him back towards the stairs. He didn"t complain, jumping up them as quickly as he could. The kids and women rushed all the way upstairs, but Bob rested on the steps to watch.

Leo rolled out of the way as the orc swung its sword at him, then jumped back as it swung again. He managed to get a swipe of his own sword in, and cut the orc across the cheek. As it stepped back, he followed, swinging his sword at it again, but it raised its sword and was able to block his swing.

Zach was itching to get some hits of his own in, and Leo was starting to get tired. As the orc stepped back with a shake of its hand, Leo and Zach traded places, with Zach jumping over the counter to deliver an overhead strike. The orc became enraged as his sword buried itself deep into its shoulder, and it grabbed him and they both fell outside into the street. Leo was trying to see them as they continued their fight in the street, but all view was cut off for Bob. He was tempted to come down the steps a bit, but then decided better of it.

b.a.l.l.s of red goo were flying past his door, from the gates, but none of them hit the store, thankfully. b.a.l.l.s of blue flame were sent back in return, and obviously found their marks as the cries of the orcs could be heard. Bob spied Alistair walking calmly down the middle of the road, forming the blue fire spheres and tossing them towards the gate. Every time she tossed one, it zoomed away at high speed, and an orc cried out. It didn"t take long once she arrived, for the sounds of fighting to cease.

Zach stumbled back into the building, holding his side, which was gushing blood. Leo dropped his sword and rushed over to him, pushing on the wound.

"You idiot! Don"t you know that you"re supposed to dodge the weapons, not jump in front of them!"

"Brother, stop chastising me, and get that cleric that"s out there," gasped Zach.

Leo didn"t even pause to nod, dashing out the door with a shout.

"I hope you don"t dock my pay for bleeding all over your floor," gasped Zach as Bob rushed over to him. He had grabbed one of the blankets from off the shelf, and shoved it against the wound, to try and stop the blood from spilling out all over the place.

"No, but you really should teach your blood to stay inside your body, where it belongs," groaned Bob, trying to stay focused as he kneeled in the growing pool of blood.

Leo arrived, dragging a woman behind him.

"Heal my brother! Please!" he begged, shoving her towards Zach.

She didn"t hesitate to place her hands over Bob"s and that same warmth he remembered when the last cleric cast a healing spell, washed over his hands and into Zach.

Bob pulled out of the way, to let her do her thing, and leaned back against his counter. Trudy could be seen across the street, going around to all of the orc bodies and stabbing them, to ensure they were dead. As he glanced out the side door, towards the soup kitchen, the sight of Liam wielding a large metal spoon startled him.

He seemed to feel his eyes on him, and turned to glance at him. Waving the spoon in h.e.l.lo, he turned back to brandish it as a weapon at the entrance of the kitchen area. The feet of at least two orcs could be seen near the soup pot. Bob just hope they didn"t taint the soup. He had a feeling there would be a lot of hungry mouths to feed today.