The Boring Wait

Normally a crowded pub afforded Jenna Lightfoot a chance to kick back and enjoy herself; her way. Riker’s Pub & Inn was crowded, but Jenna was on a short leash, a leash that was figuratively held by Ghuss Fhairbotham. Jenna hated to think that Ghuss’ reasoning was right – it went against everything she was. Not just because she was a cutpurse by nature, as all halflings are, but also because she wasn’t the type of girl to admit it when a man was right, even if it was Ghuss.

So next to him at the bar she sat as he slowly finished his second mug of ale; she was still working on her first. Jenna loved her drink, but more than two drinks and she was a little less sturdy than she would have liked. What would put her under Ghuss would drink with his dinner. The bartender was nice, though, and cute even if he was a human. She almost felt bad short changing him two silver pieces, but in the end, he’d never know.

“He better show, Ghuss,” Jenna said looking up at her large friend. Ghuss was seemingly handsome – to muscular for her taste – with a square chin, cropped with a tuft blond hair. The blond hair spiked into the air on his head, and covered half his ears and almost all of his neck. Jenna hardly even noticed the deep scare that ran from the bottom of his right ear down his chin line. Bad wound, that one was. Good thing he was a mercenary, scares come in handy when you’re fighting for money. He never intimidated her though, she knew when it came down to it he wouldn’t kill a fly for landing in his stew.

Pointing his rough finger in the air to single the barkeep, Ghuss turned and looked down slightly at her and answered, “He better,” and winked before he turned to tell the bartender he wanted another drink. “He’ll pay us in full, too.”

“Full isn’t much these days, is it?” Jenna asked. Mercenary work paid, but picking pockets and hocking valuables paid more. Ghuss and Jenna made a great team. Ghuss would kill them, and Jenna would clean them, just like it was when she and her brother used to go fishing on the shores of Blackberry pond. “At least if we have to sit here and wait we could hear some music!”

“It’s just now dusk, Jenna, and besides, I’m not in the mood for pub music tonight. I just want to get our pay and lay down and sleep,” Ghuss replied lifting his new glass of ale to his lips.

“Are you always this boring, Ghuss? Oh wait, I forgot, you are always this boring! A little music. You letting me down…”

Jenna couldn’t finish before Ghuss turned to her on his barstool and spouted in a quiet yell through clenched teeth, “No! You are not going anywhere but right there, Jenna, you promised. The last time you where here you about got me killed! Why do you have to pick on the biggest guys in every tavern we come to?”

Pick meant more than it normally did, and in Jenna’s case it meant picking their pockets. “They always seem to let me get the closest. Besides, just because I sit on a guys lap and put my hands in his pockets doesn’t mean he can kiss me…” She couldn’t finish that last part without starting to laugh.

“Ha, ha, really funny. You flirt, I fight; we make a great team!” Ghuss joked as he slowly looked around the room. He didn’t expect that guy Jenna hit on to be there, unless there was a healer in this village, but you never know who his friends are. People always want a piece of a mercenary it seems. They think they are always up for a fight