Gloomy Morning

Rick encounters a stranger seeking information about the Guild.

7.

Gloomy Morning

 

 

The sound of rain rattling on the roof caused Jevon to awaken and it took him a moment to remember the events of the previous evening.   Jumping out of bed, he hurried to the door, trying to think of what he should say to the Changeling woman, Ant.

Grabbing the door handle, he was surprised to find the door locked fast.    But he had not set the bolt.   

“What the heck?”  He mumbled, shaking the door in case it was just hung, but it would not budge.

“Hey?   Ant?   Hello?   Did you barricade the door or something?”   He cocked his head to listen for a reply, but there was silence.

Unsure of what had happened, he decided to try a Dispel Magic spell - it was one of the first spells Muld had taught them, as it was necessary if they messed up an incantation on a practical magic object.

As soon as he touched the door following the completion of the spell, it swung open, verifying to him that it had been Wizard Locked.

“Ant?   Hello?”   Jevon called out, glancing around for the Changeling woman.    On the couch was the blanket, neatly folded, with the pillow placed on top of it.

The girl had left.

“You’re welcome,” Jevon mumbled, shaking his head in irritation.

 

***

“Rain… wonderful,” Rick sighed as he exited his apartment.   Throwing his hood over him, he lowered his head and began trudging down the street in the summer downpour.

His mood was as dark as the skies, for he had spent the night thinking about everything and he felt miserable and confused.

Why couldn’t he shake the depression?    The streets were mostly empty; those few that ventured out into the rain were hurrying along splashing water as they passed.    

He was completely drenched after walking half of a block.    The rain began to increase in tempo and intensity.    He walked with his head bowed, looking up only periodically to see where he was going.   

Rick had almost forgotten about the invitation to try the breakfast restaurant until he happened to see the sign reading ‘Flapjacks’ ahead of him.     It didn’t take him long to decide to go inside, this time through the public entrance.

It was a moderately large building, with many tables and booths, and he was very surprised to find them almost entirely filled with patrons at an hour past sunrise on a very rainy morning.

His clothing dripped as if he’d swam rather than walked across town and Rick tried not to spill water on the other customers as he weaved around the tables to one of the few remaining booths.

When he plopped down on the chair, his clothing made a sloshing sound and he knew he would feel miserable all day due to the wet clothes.

But the smell of breakfast that filled the air in the restaurant lightened his mood slightly.    Glancing around, he could see that he was far from the only soaked patron, though most of them seemed in surprisingly better moods than he was as they eagerly ate their meals.

“You made it!”  The lovely voice of the Orc lady, Shelyah, brought him out of his daydreaming observation of everyone.    Rick turned and looked up to find the Orc girl standing there smiling.     She seemed pleased to see him and he was again amazed at how pretty she was.

“I’m probably ruining your hardwood floors with the hundred or so gallons of rainwater dripping off of me,” He said to her, unconsciously returning her smile.

“It’s really coming down, isn’t it?    I’ll bet some hot coffee would help.”

“Yes, ma’am, that would be wonderful.”

She nodded and hurried off to fetch some for him.

 

As he was trying his best to dry off to some degree, a shadow over his table made him look up.

"Excuse me, sir, but I was wondering if you would mind sharing your table with me; they are almost full."    It was the voice of a lovely elven woman with shoulder length brown hair and large, soft brown eyes.   Rick was reminded immediately of Jain, and that did nothing but annoy him.

"Uh... no, I'm... um... expecting someone to join me.    Sorry."

"Oh," the girl seemed surprised and slightly humiliated, "Sorry to bother you."

She turned and slowly walked off, probably expecting him to feel ashamed of his rudeness and ask her to return.   But he was sick of elven girls and certainly didn't want the company of one now.

"Who's that?" Shel asked as she brought him some coffee, "She looks lost."

"She wanted to sit here, but I didn't want any company -- she's probably looking for some place else to sit."

"I don't see why -- we have four tables open by the front door -- they're small, but for one person they should do fine."

Rick shrugged, "I don't know then -- perhaps she was a test."

"A test?"  The Orc girl asked curiously.

"Testing my resolve, I guess.    I've formally sworn off dating elven women."

Shel arched her eyebrows in amusement, "Ah!   That explains your distaste toward that wizard yesterday."

Rick shrugged, "It's been a rough couple of days."

"I take it that you had a relationship with an elven... companion... that did not end well?"

"They never do with elves.   Sorry, ma'am, you must think I'm the world's grumpiest person."

"You seem more hurt than angry... and it's not 'ma'am', Rick, remember?   My name is Shel."

Her smile was beautiful and he saw the two dainty Orc 'tusks' when she grinned.    She had the most perfectly white set of teeth that he'd ever seen.    He once again subconsciously smiled.

"Sorry, Shel, I remember.    Our guild had business in the Losasidhe kingdom and there was an elven girl up there who acted as if she liked me, but I just received a 'dear john' letter yesterday from her."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!"  To Rick's surprise, she slipped into the chair across from him, sitting the coffee pitcher down.    "Do you want to talk about it?"

He was so taken back at her question that he just stared at her stupidly for a few seconds.

"Um... aren't you busy?"  He finally said.

Shel shrugged, "I'm overdue for a break, and it will be about five minutes before the next batch of flapjacks are up, so until then I'm all ears."

"Well... okay... uh.. are you sure?"

"My philosophy is that by developing a friendship with customers is the surest way of maintaining their patronage.    Think of it as a business practice rather than me just being a nosy Orc woman."

Her charming personality was so disarming that he heard himself telling her his troubles.

"I guess I'm just feeling frustrated.    I like living in Westmark, but everyone seems to have circles of friends and family that they spend their free time with, and I don't really have anyone.   Oh, I have some of my co-workers who are my friends, I guess, but recently they all have entered into relationships.    Mutt and Tadd have girlfriends, Syndi and Muld are engaged to each other and Jevon just enjoys living carefree and moving from girl to girl, so he doesn't even understand.   Especially after what he told me yesterday evening."

"What did he tell you?"   Shel asked, her chin in the palm of her hand and her yellow eyes sparkling as she listened.

"I promised him that I wouldn't tell anyone."  

Shel smiled slightly, "I'll bet I know -- he's part elf."

Rick's shock at her guess betrayed his friend's secret.   "Shel, how in the world did you guess that?"

She laughed, wrinkling her nose, "I'm an Orc, honey, and this big honker on my face is for more than just looks.    Elves have a certain smell to them.    It isn't a bad odor; in fact it is quite nice; sort of a leafy, woody smell, but an Orc can smell them close up."

"So you've met Jevon?"

"About two weeks before we finally bought the cooling chest, the managers here visited your guild's showroom and Jevon showed us the cooling chests.   I detected a hint of the elven scent upon him, though he doesn't have pointed ears.    I'd guess that he was a half elf; sometimes a second or third generation half elf is born without elven features.    Then it takes one of us Orcs to root 'em out."

 

"Do all types of elves smell the same?"  Rick asked, fascinated at this new knowledge.

"They are slightly different, but almost the same.   Of course you have to go around smelling elves a lot to be a master of the smell.   I've worked around elves for a while now and so I can tell them apart.   For example; that brown-eyed elven girl who wanted to sit with you -- she wasn't what she seemed."

"What?   What do you mean?"

"Her smell was wrong.    She was partially elven, but it wasn't Faesidhe, Sylvan or any surface race."

"Then what was she?"

"Well, that was what was odd.    I worked in the palace kitchen, remember, and I am completely certain that girl was partly Drow."

"Drow?   Are you sure?   She didn't look at all like a Drow, or even half-Drow.    They tend to have grey skin, white hair and red eyes."

Shel nodded, "Yeah, I know, hon, but I tell you, she has dark elven blood in her, or else a boyfriend that was a Drow rolled around on top of her naked just before she came through the door, because she sure smelled like she had Drow blood in her veins."

“That is certainly strange.    Have you seen her before?   Has she come in here to eat before today?”

“I haven’t seen her, but that is not to say that I see everyone.”

“She had to be in some sort of disguise, Shel.”

“But why?”

“That’s a good question.”

 

Before they could ponder this further, Shel was called back to the kitchen to deal with a problem, but she quickly took his breakfast order before she hurried off.

A minute later Mutt and Tadd came into the restaurant and of course he had to ask them to sit with him.   He had to listen to a dozen ideas both of them had for arcane ways to keep dry when walking in the rain.     Rick debated telling them about the conversation he had just had with Shel, but thought better of it as it was probably nothing and he didn’t want to make them paranoid.

If someone was spying on them, it wouldn’t be difficult to figure out who it was; Hobnail’s pirates certainly had a grudge against them.    Or maybe it was a group of enterprising young wizards that wanted to start their own practical magic guild and run the competition out of business.

Since he had no proof of either theory, he felt it was foolish to say anything.    The mysterious girl could have simply been a royal spy, placed there by King Eleazar to monitor criminal activity around the city.    Shel had said that the girl was part Drow; she was probably some kin to the royal family, using magic to alter her appearance.

 

Shel returned ten minutes later with his order and happily took Tadd and Mutt’s breakfast order and hurried off again.

Rick felt a bit frustrated that he couldn’t continue his conversation with the Orc lady, but it was getting close to time to go to work anyway, so he had to focus on breakfast.

The hotcakes and bacon were the best he had ever tasted, which explained the busyness of the place.     Fortunately, Tadd and Mutt got their orders quickly and they all finished at about the same time.

“What did you think?”   Tadd asked, wiping syrup off his chin.

“You were right, Tadd; it’s the best in town.    I should have known to trust the stomach of a Halfling.”

Tadd smiled proudly, “That is a wise maxim to live by, Rick.”

 

Shel reappeared at their table, asking if there was anything else.

“I think we’re all satisfied,” Rick told her.

“I told him you had the best flapjacks in town,” Tadd proudly explained to the Orc waitress.

Shel smiled at the Halfling, “Why thank you, hon; word of mouth is our only means of advertising.”

“Well, I’ve told everyone I know about this place.”

“And we appreciate it, hon, we really do.”    Shel turned back to Rick, “If there’s nothing else you need, then I’ll just say thank you for coming in and I’m glad you liked it.”

“We need our bills,” Rick replied with a laugh.    Shel just arched her eyebrows and shook her head.

“There’s no bill today, they’re on the house to thank you for your assistance yesterday getting our cooling chest confusion straightened out.”

“You don’t have to do that, Shel!”

“Hon, if you saw how pitiful you looked when you came in here drenched from head to foot, you’d done the same thing.”   She flashed him her fantastic smile.    Unbelievable, Rick thought as he looked up at the smiling lady, She’s actually quite attractive!   Good Lord, what in heaven’s name is wrong with me!

But as he was thinking this, he once again was returning her effective smile.

“You are very kind, Shel, thank you for making this morning much better.”

“That’s my job " making better days for everyone.   Hopefully your day will improve as you dry out.    Just stay away from the elves, okay?”   She winked and swooped up their plates, hurrying back to the kitchen with a quick glance over her shoulder.

“Isn’t she great?”   Mutt said as the three of them watched her go, “She’s not like any Orc I’ve ever known.”

Rick just nodded, still analyzing his fascination with the waitress.

“Whoa, look at the time, guys!   We’ve got to get moving.    Jevon and Muld will wonder where we are if we don’t hustle,”   The Halfling bounded out of his chair, glancing back as if expecting his friends to share in his enthusiasm of going to work.

Mutt and Rick joined him at a much slower pace.

As they were leaving the restaurant, Rick looked back and found Shel watching them from across the room.   She waved at him and he waved back, the ghost of a smile crossing his face until he exited into the rain again.