Chapter Two

  Part Two

  Ali had taken Line to an inn by the name of The White Deer, they were both currently sitting in a booth across the wall. The smell of stale booze and slightly rotten wood, made Line miss the comforting smell of books. While Ali was happily sipping on some kind of alcoholic beverage through a straw.

  “Do you not want one?” Ali asked

  “no” Line didn’t drink or eat anything someone else had prepared, she was very paranoid about those things “why are we here?”

  “waiting”

  “for?”

  Ali smiled “someone” Ali began humming a tune to herself

  Line stared.

  *

  They sat here for two hours, all the while Ali engorged herself with drinking every type of alcohol at this inn, and yet Ali wasn’t drunk in the slightest. Line did her upmost best to ignore Ali as much as possible, but found the task nearly impossible as Ali wouldn’t stop talking and humming. Also every once in a while, Ali's legs would kick out unconsciously. It seemed like Ali couldn’t stay still for long.

  “... we have a few inns like this, you know, like hide outs we can use. My favourite one is on the other side of the river, it’s much bigger, and the alcohol is also much better. When I was younger...”

  Line grew even more annoyed, but stayed quiet

  “... and then, the donkey ran sooo fast, it was hard to catch it again...”

  Line remained quiet

  “... but she didn’t want to go, right, so what I did was...”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Ali? Could you please be quiet?” Line couldn’t take it anymore

  “but the chicken story is my favourite”

  “I sincerely do not care”

  “but-“

  “Ali”

  Ali huffed and drank from one of her many glasses of alcohol, a small moment later “Line! Line”

  “Be quiet”

  “But there here. My guys are here”

  Line looked up at who Ali was looking at, two people came through the door. One of them was a big burly man, he had thick curly hair, and was wearing similar armour to Ali. The other one was a short woman, she had extremely long hair tied into an extremely messy bun. Both wore long cloaks with hoods, and mud caked boots that had dried and permanently stuck itself to them.

  Ali raised her hand “oi, you two. Come here”

  They both looked over at her, made eye contact, but continued on like they hadn’t noticed her.

  “Hey, over here”

  “Ali” Line started.

  “it’s fine they mustn’t have noticed me yet”

  Line glanced around the room. Literally everyone in the room was staring directly at Ali, while Ali seemed oblivious to the fact.

  “Hold on one second Line” Ali stood and walked on over to the bar where the pair was sitting.

  Line closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had never felt so ashamed to know someone. When she opened her eyes, Ali had an arm wrapped round the shoulders of the burly man, pointing straight Line. Line thought about her life for a moment. Ali patted the short woman on the shoulder and laughed, the pair did not, but that didn’t dissuade Ali into continuing to talk to these poor people. After a short while of this display, Ali reunited with Line.

  “Ali? Who are your friends?”

  Ali beamed “they’re the best”

  “...”

  Ali continued to smile.

  “Ali?”

  “yes?”

  Line stared “do you remember why we came here?”

  Ali’s smile slowly started to drop.

  Line stood.

  “Wait, Line. Where are you going!?”

  Line walked over to the pair sitting at the bar “I’m sorry-“

  “see? This is my new friend” Ali had followed her “listen, do either of you know where Kidd is?”

  The woman’s eyebrow raised “why are you looking for Kidd?”

  Ali shrugged “no reason”

  The man eyed Ali “have you looked in The Station? He did say he was leaving today”

  Ali’s eyes widened “what time?”

  The man shrugged “sometime this afternoon”

  Ali grabbed Line’s arm.

  Line gave a nod “thank you two” Line placed some gold coins on the bar in front of them, and was swiftly led out of the inn by Ali.