Bob The Innkeeper

Bob raised an eyebrow as the dragon woman came back into the bar and looked over at Royce in surprise. Walking over to him, she leaned against the wall. Placing his drink down, he turned to start back and nearly choked, barely managing to keep his grip on the lyre.

"Do continue, I love to hear a bard sing about me."

"Uhh," he managed, to laughter from the drunken adventurers.

"Bob, I need a room for the night," she called out.

"They don"t all have beds yet, and none have sheets or mattresses," he called back.

She flicked him a coin and he caught it. "I don"t need a bed; I just hope Alastair finished the sound proofing!"
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Shouts and cheers rang out as she dragged him upstairs. Bob chuckled and shoved the gold coin into his purse. The rest of the evening flew by as the adventurers started singing their own songs.

"A dragon and a bard!" they sang until they were too far gone into their cups. No one seemed to think it was odd anymore, that she claimed to be a dragon, and none even tried to go investigate when there was a b.u.mp from upstairs.

Bob decided to see just how long he could go, before feeling tired, and found, to his surprise, that he never did start feeling sleepy. Pretending to wipe a gla.s.s down, he watched over the adventurers who were pa.s.sed out, scattered all over the room. Taking care not to wake anyone, he gathered the dishes up and took them to the kitchen to wash. It was amazing how he was able to hear everything that was going on.

Wiping his hands on a towel, and leaving a sink full of dirty dishes, Bob left the kitchen and crossed his arms as he watched a figure rummage under the counter of his bar.

"Tina, I don"t think I can have someone working for me, that"s going to steal my stuff," he said quietly, as the figure raised up with a bottle of elven wine in her hand.

She stiffened at his words and turned to look at him.

"I want you to put back everything you just took, and I won"t call the guards on you. But I would recommend you not show up in the morning expecting a job."

Her cloak hood fell back, exposing her surprised and annoyed look. "Why should I do as you say? You"re nothing but a boy."

He smiled at that and began to chuckle. "I"m only going to ask once more, than you"ll wish you had done as I asked."

She smiled nastily, and purposefully placed the wine bottle in her bag. She turned her back on him and made her way towards the door, as if taunting him to stop her.

"Stop," he said loudly, with force. The smile was gone and a frown was starting to form. He could feel energy flowing around her, making her movements halt. She fought against the magic, barely able to even make grunting noises.

Drawing on the divinity he had been given, Bob allowed his instincts to kick in and used it. Waving his hands gently, he raised her into the air and brought her back to the bar. Setting her down into a chair, he walked up and began emptying her pockets. There were coin purses she had stolen from the adventurers, bottles of his finest wine, jewels and other small items. Bob placed them all onto the counter before her.

"You will stare at all of them until people start to wake up. You will then give back everything you have stolen, and beg them to forgive you. Then you will go to the nearest guard, and explain all of your actions. All of them."

He watched as the pure terror she was feeling, started to show on her face. The commands were sinking into her soul, and she couldn"t fight against them. Her eyes danced over the things he had placed onto the counter, blinking occasionally, before running over them all again.

As Bob stepped back to return the bottles to their places, he started to feel uncomfortable with what he had just done. This woman only wanted to make some money, so she didn"t feel like trash in the eyes of everyone around her. The more he thought about it, the worse he felt. Turning to her, he watched her eyes dancing over the many coin purses and various things laid out on the counter. Was this an abuse of his power? She deserved to be punished, he knew that, because she had stolen, but did she deserve to be tortured and forced to do such demeaning things as he had demanded? Was this how a G.o.d felt when he made rash decisions?

Sighing, he moved back over to her and turned her face away from the counter.

"Tina, I want you to return the things you stole. Then you will never steal again, do you understand?"

Her eyes filled with tears as she nodded.

"I"m sorry Bob, I didn"t mean to steal from you. I just wanted something to sell, so I could get my boyfriend out of jail. They"re talking about hanging him, because he"s a repeat offender."

"Tina, maybe you should think about what you"re doing. If he"s in jail because he steals, and he knew that he would be hung if he didn"t stop, then why are you stealing now? Do you want to go to jail and be hung, too?"

"No, but…"

He shook his head at her. "I don"t want to hear how you"ve convinced yourself that it"s a good idea. I don"t want to hear how he didn"t have a choice. You have a choice. I"m giving you a chance to make a good choice this time. Can you do that?"

"How can you sound so grownup? Aren"t you only 12?"

He looked at her and sighed. She wasn"t listening to him. There was probably nothing he could say, so why bother? Waving his hand, he pulled back on the magic that compelled her to do what he had told her earlier.

"Return what you stole. I won"t be this nice next time."

She nodded, and began slipping the purses into bags and placing them inside shirts. The strings had been cut, so she couldn"t reattach them to the belts they had hung on. Once she was done, she paused to look at him one last time, then slipped out the door. She only stepped a couple of steps, before a scream rang out in the early pre-dawn light.

Bob rushed to the door and saw her standing unhurt in the center of the street. As people began to stir behind him, Bob stepped outside and stared in wonder at the building just west of his.

A temple stretching 40 or 50 feet into the air, was standing on his side of the street, next to the western gate. A figure was standing before it, and turned to look in his direction.

Bob couldn"t believe the detail. The only way it could have gotten there, was through magic.

"Happy birthday, Bob," said the figure as he drew closer.

Tina swallowed whatever she was going to say and fled in panic.

"Thank you," said Bob, shielding his eyes from the intense glow of the man"s aura.

"Oh, sorry. I forget people here can see that."

Bob sighed in relief and looked up at Joe"s face. "Would you like a drink? I can make you a honey mead?"

"That sounds wonderful. Are you enjoying the extra power I gave you this morning?"

"I"m not sure I like the ability to control people like that. Though I"m sure it will come in handy when someone is doing something that I need them to stop, it just seems, evil."

Joe laughed and they went back into the inn. The cleric Dianna had stumbled out into the street to see what had happened, along with a group of adventurers who hadn"t drunk themselves stupid, and was kneeling in the street praying. She seemed oblivious to the fact that her prayers were going straight to the man who had just walked past her. His hand had trailed over her head, and left a sparkle in the air that only Bob could see.

"It"s always neat when I run across one of my own. Believe it or not, I was friends with her great-grandfather."

"He was a pretty heavy drinker," said Bob with a nod as they arrived at the bar.

"I"m going to take the kids home for a day, but don"t tell them. It"s a surprise for their mother, and for them," said Joe sitting down with a smile.

The dragon swept down the stairs, making a beeline for the door, when she noticed Joe at the bar.

"Joe? Or Joseph? I always get the two of you confused. How"s mother?"

"She"s fine. I believe she"s expecting another clutch soon. I hope you haven"t been giving Bob too much trouble?"

"No, he"s a right doll! I hope he sticks around! It"s been a delight coming to his bar."

Bob couldn"t help but blush at the compliments. He"d had women compliment him before, but this was the first time it hadn"t been to get something out of him.

She laughed and bowed to Joe before hurrying and leaving. Bob gave him his honey mead and watched as more and more of the adventurers slowly woke up.

"I best be moving on, is there anything you would like for your birthday?" asked Joe, setting a silver coin down on the counter.

"Actually, I was trying to figure out how to put in a bathhouse across the street, but I don"t know enough magic to attempt it."

"That"s probably a good thing, since your magic doesn"t work outside of the bar. I"ll see what I can do on my way out."

No sooner had he stepped outside, then Trudy appeared with an armful of clean mugs and gla.s.ses.

"It must have been some party last night! I"m glad you got these soaking so they were easy to clean," she said, helping him put them up. "Liam said he was going to make you something special for your birthday today, but needed to wait until the kids were up to fetch the ingredients. He meant to get to it yesterday, but it got pretty crazy."