The Sword Of A Princess

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

Lionel

The sun was hot, the air warmer than it had been over the last few days. People wore shorter clothes and thinner material, I wore the same thing I'd left Verona in. It covered all of me and I didn't want that to change.

I smiled seeing Athena's face laughing in front of me, a pint shared between us. She was so beautiful. Then her body begun to fade and she wasn't sitting across from me anymore, I was alone again.

"Ere lads, look at this sight for sore eyes." A mans slurred voice called out moving beside me, suddenly I felt the material of my hood being pulled from my face. Four men lingered staring at me, sickened smiled across their face- similar ones I've experienced in the past.

"What happened to you?" The shorter man asked, his arms crossed over his chest puffing it out to look larger than he was. All four of these men gave off a bad first impression and all seemed slightly drunk on cheap ale.

I glanced around at the rest of the quiet tavern and saw a few others turn their heads away not wanting any trouble. I didn't want to deal with drunken fools right now, I just wanted to drink and forget.

"Bet you can't get any lookin' like that." The third man laughed, his beard hanging down to his round stomach.

"Strange, I was with your mother last night." The alcohol muttered out. All four of the men tensed and angry frowns crossed their faces. Something I shouldn't have said came from my mouth. I was too drunk to have any control.

"Got a little confidence about yer, do ya?" The first man smirked down at me, sitting on the edge of my table. He pulled a dagger from his leg and placed the tip on the wooden table, spinning it until the wood underneath eroded away.

"I don't got much money left on me if that's what you're after." I said trying to make my voice sound hard and less drunk.

"Ah what a shame. Actually, I'm here on orders you see, my dear sister had a run in with you the other night and you scared her, she didn't like that." The man sitting on the table lowered his dagger on the table then swept up my pint, swirling the contents, he sculled the rest of my ale. I tried thinking back, but I didn't remember meeting his sister or any woman.

"Sounds like your sister needs to get out more." I muttered and slid out from my table.
The man didn't like that. All of them straightened up and the tavern became even more tense.

"What's goin on here?" The bar keep had finally noticed the still commotion and glared at all five of us.

"Shut it old man if you know what's good for yer." The bearded man shot back and the tavern went silent. Everyone had stopped to watch the show, all eyes on the metal covering my jaw and the patch over my eye. I was the odd one out here, not them. I was the stranger who looked different.

"It seems like not do you need to learn to keep your business to yourself, you need to learn some manners." The first guy stepped towards me, standing only an inch shorter than I was.

I had been drinking most of the day but taken it slow so I could eat dinner- I was sobering up rather quickly.

The man in front of me flinched, his body moving to land a hit. I snatched his fist and dealt a blow to his nose punching upwards. Immediately pain radiated through my knuckles shooting throughout my hand. The man clutched his bleeding nose, glaring daggers back at me. He was too predicting and I had a feeling the rest of them would be too. Looking back at the other three men I saw they were all ready to attack. The man I hit first pulled out his dagger swinging it at me. I shifted on my feet moving towards his side and grabbed his wrist and shoulder slamming him down to the ground, I kicked the dagger away behind me where none of them could easily get to it. The man let out a groan and held his chest, I knocked the air from him. The others didn't waste a second to attack, they shuffled on their feet then moved one by one.