LogFAQs > #904092263

The Night Before (4)

Darico greeted Rhona at the entrance to the tavern, gesturing to a stool at the bar as he said, "Guess the rumors are true, Rhona. I thought you'd retired." He reassumed his seat. "That's the thing about you half-Elves. You were already pretty seasoned the first time we worked together half a century ago, but you don't really look any older." He laughed as P.O. refilled his tankard. "To be honest, I'm a little surprised you're still alive. I didn't think you made it out of the Thirty-Nine Gods Pyramid. Only reason I survived it is because I had the good sense to run after breaking all the traps on that first door."

"And you forfeited your share," Rhona reminded him, "except that you got the head of the company to pay you ahead of time." She shook her head. "The mummies got him. Not the big ones, mind. The animals. Cats, most of them. I think the Immortal Pharaoh liked his pets so much that he couldn't bear to be parted from them in death. ... Thank you, P.O." She raised her tankard, and Darico clanked his against hers. "Thirty of us went in there. One of the best-funded expeditions to any dungeon in the world, and ... surprise, it was a total failure. The last seven of us had to get out and just forget about the treasure." She had a deep drink. "Yeah, I should've retired after that, you're right."

"At least you're alive." He glanced through the front door, noticing that the sun had yet to set. "And you're still punctual. You're one of the first adventurers I've seen here." He looked down at the bar. "Hey. Gonna be ... busy later? I'm not planning to spend my entire night drinking here. I'll see what I can learn, and then I'll head upstairs."

"Transparent as always," Rhona laughed. "Don't tell me you've been hard up for the past fifty years." A sly wink. "That's what I thought. Well, all right, then. We'll drink a bit, and then we'll ... compare notes." She shook her head again. "You're incorrigible, but that's probably why you're still alive. Trust me, that's at least as surprising to me as me being alive is for you. I mean, you had to go back through all those leagues of hostile desert alone, right? I was sure you'd been eaten alive by one of those giant scorpions."

Darico removed the glove from his left hand and showed the back of it to Rhona, revealing several long, jagged scars. "I almost was. They'd've gotten me if I hadn't managed to get 'em fighting each other instead of trying to kill me." He grinned. "If anyone ever tells you that skipping stones is a waste of time, tell 'em how it saved my life out there. Skipped one right into one bug's face, and that got 'em all started."

"I'm sure you're oversimplifying it," Rhona demurred, "but you were always one of the better storytellers in our group, so I'll let you have it. You earned it by surviving." And they drank together in comfortable silence for a little while after that, Rhona thinking to herself, as she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, And you survived by knifing the guy we left behind to watch you. You know I know that, you're just acting dumb. She sighed as he looked away from her to wave at a freshly-arrived Koga. I'm sure you'll show me a good time later on tonight, but I'll be keeping an eye on you.

As Darico bought a full tankard for Koga, Rhona added, as the hustle and bustle of the tavern started to pick up, Yeah, I should've retired, but debts don't care if you're not in the life any more. They still wait to be paid. This ... is probably my last chance. Just because I live longer than a human doesn't mean I'm free of human problems. She drained her tankard. Maybe I've got one more job left in me here. If not, then --
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-- I Abibde / Samuraiter
Laughing at Game FAQs since 2002.