Chapter IX
At The Mountain Base Inn
Whilst Dmitri rejected Dave’s request to go out and explore and told Charlie of his illness, Jack was already halfway towards the large inn he had seen, when he had first arrived at this town. Under normal circumstances it would have been foolish to venture out this late, but the town was well lit with fires every few meters to repel both the winter cold and to keep the ground from becoming so clogged with snow that it would be impassable. However even though he followed the instructions he had been given, to keep his eye out for trouble, as usual, trouble was already looking for him as unbeknownst to Jack the fire light masked both the five men following him as he made his way to the inn and made it easy for them to follow the newcomer to their town.
As he reached the door he looked up at the sign at the entrance of the inn, it was a simple design of a crude mountain with the words The Mountain Base Inn in peeling letters below it. Jack was then distracted from his sign gazing by a snowflake landing on his one good eye. Wiping it off so that he could fully see again, he sighed, winter was well and truly here, he thought to himself before heading into the crowed inn.
Jack walks through the doors into the crowded inn, it was his first time inside a place like this, compared to the cold outside, it was practically stifling inside, due both to the several fires that had been lit, and the heat coming off the dozens of crowded bodies that surrounded the teen. As he walked towards the far end, away from the noise, so that he wouldn’t be noticed. However, in his attempt to reach a less crowded part of the inn, he had failed to notice the five men following behind him. In fact, it was only when one of them, the man who Codsworth had noticed glowering at the group when they had first arrived, who was obviously the leader of this little group; Edvin Grimm calls out from behind.
“You there, Cripple!” Edvin shouts in an almost mocking tone of voice. however much to the man’s horror and rising anger, Jack simply ignores him, he was used to it, and found the insult frankly, well unimaginative, as he had heard much worse being shouted at him back in the imperial city. Thinking about this he goes down to sit at a table towards the back of the room, hoping that the people heckling him would get bored and just walk off, it was however, not to be so easy, as the Five men follow him.
As the five thugs walked up to him, alone at one of the tables, the front doors to the inn once again open and unnoticed by neither Jack and the five men, Barca walks into the inn right behind them and goes to lean up at the bar watching the scene unfold, he would intervene if necessary, but he thought it would have been better if the kid learned the hard way about being careful. Edvin walks up to the table where Jack is leaning back in his chair.
“Are you deaf as well as crippled, boy?” Edvin said leering down at the boy in front of him.
Jack rocks back in his chair for a moment before putting the chair right, putting his hand deafly onto his gun and looking straight into Edvin eyes.
“Nope, but right now, I'm wishing I didn't have my good eye either. So, I wouldn't have to look into that ugly face.” Jack said smirking at the thug in front of him. This certainly did the trick, as at this remark Edvin rages like a wounded animal and hauls Jack out of the chair by the throat and pins him up against the back wall of the inn. The sound of the argument had also had the desired effect of getting the inn at large turns around to observe the conflict, it had been years since they had had a good brawl and they look over eagerly.
“Would you like to say that again cripple. Before I have my men rip you apart.” Edvin snarled at Jack who said nothing in return.
It was at this point that Barca, having seen enough, leaves from his position by the bar side and walks up to Edvin still pinning Jack up against the wall. He was all for the kid learning the hard way, but that only worked when something stupid wasn’t about to happen, and he could clearly see that the situation was about to get firmly out of hand if Jack didn’t rethink what he was about to do.
“Is there a problem here?” Barca said observing the scene. At this latest sound Edvin turns around to look at Barca, not that it improved the thug’s mood, on the contrary, it seemed to only enrage him more that there were now two imperials in this inn.
“This cripple insulted me.” Edvin said as if the fact that he was effectively strangling a lad half his age and weight was of no immediate concern to him. As Edvin shouts to Barca, Jack continues to silently pull out his gun with only Barca noticing his move. This was the exact move that had caused the lieutenant to intervene, and he hoped to the gods that he could finish the situation before Jack decided to act on his impulse.
“Well, I'm so sorry to hear that my companion ran his mouth again, but I would suggest you release him.” Barca said gesturing up at Jack. Edvin smiles at this, turning to his companions and laughing whilst still failing to notice the fact that the teen had moved the gun into position, before turning back to Barca.
“And why would I do that?” Edvin said in the same mocking tone. Causing Barca to wonder about the intelligence of the thugs in front of him. Even as a fairly low-ranking soldier himself, he still would have noticed, or had the foresight to think ahead and make sure that everything was going according to plan. The lieutenant sighed, before deciding to just give the game up to this half ape.
“Well... The answer to that... Is about to inches from your testicles right now.” Barca said looking down at that said area with a smug grin on his face. Edvin chuckles for a moment before getting a confused look on his face. He then begins to follow Barca’s gaze until his eyes look see Jack’s gun aimed right at his balls. Edvin looks up at Jack's grinning face, knowing that he had won this round felt good for the teen. Finally seeing what Barca was talking about, Edvin drops Jack like a rock before takes a few steps back as Jack crash lands on the stone floor of the inn, before quickly getting up and checking for injuries, whilst keeping his gun trained on Edvin, who seemed to be the biggest threat right now. Fortunately, he didn’t immediately find any signs off broken bones, although he suspected that the arm, he had landed on was going to hurt like hell for the next few days. As he did this, Barca address' Edvin and his group of thugs. “Go, before my companion decides to pull that trigger and repaint the ceiling with the remnants of your head.” Barca finishes with no trace of a grin on his face anymore. Edvin looks around the room as he follows his companions out of the inn, as Jack gets back onto his feet and keeping his eye on the retreating thugs, sits down at the table where Barca joins him.
“How long were you just watching?” Jack asked indignantly, he had not noticed the lieutenant enter, but he suspected that this was some kind of weird lesson that he had tried to impress onto him without his prior knowledge.
“Long enough kid.” Barca said grimly taking his seat opposite to Jack. Silently wondering how the kid had made it so far in life, whilst also being so reckless. In some of the lower inns in the imperial city, the stunt that Jack had tried to have performed would have resulted in his death.
“I had it under control.” Jack said still as stubborn as ever. But even Barca could tell that the stubbornness was hiding an air of uncertainty in his voice.
“Yes, it certainly looked like you did.” Barca said mockingly, as what he had just witnessed was perhaps the most out of control series of events that he had ever seen. “You've got to think ahead Jack.” Barca finished, checking his rear, he had a suspicion that those thugs weren’t done with them just yet.
“I was.” Jack replied, but the lieutenant obviously disagreed, as he shook his head in exasperation.
“Not far enough ahead it would seem, what was your plan after you shot that man. Do you think his friends were likely to take that lying down?” Barca said shaking his head. “No, they would have ripped you apart” Barca said, before gesturing around at the rest of the inn and continuing on. “And that doesn't even that into count the others in this inn.” Barca said, however just as the soldier was finishing his lecture Erika walks up to the two of them with drinks.
“I've got your drinks for you.” Erika said looking at the two newcomers, a shy grin on her face when she looked at Jack, which did nothing to help his nerves.
“We didn't order any.” Barca said briskly.
“I know, but they're on the house. Nobody’s ever stood up to those men before.” Erika responded before she smiles at Jack who manages a faint smile in return before looking down at his feet quickly, his face glowing practically scarlet. As Erika leaves and Barca stares at Jack a look of horror on his face, finally realising what this was all about, not that it did anything to improve his temper.
“You almost got yourself killed... For a girl.” Barca stammered he had heard from Dave that Jack had fallen for someone in this town. But to almost get himself killed was beyond his reasoning.
“So, what if I did. You wouldn't understand.” Jack said angrily, the fact that nobody seemed to get it was starting to infuriate him. At which Barca looked slightly ashamed of his previous outburst.
“Don’t sweat it kid. I was your age once.” Barca said in a more understanding tone of voice, he had after all, knew what it was like at the kids age. It hadn’t been that long since he was weeks away from sixteen, but Jack cut him off, shaking his head.
“I'm not talking about that. She's the first girl to acutely look at me without flinching or turning away.” Jack said his face going even redder as he spoke. Barca leans back in his chair looking around at the room before turning back to Jack as he continued. “You don’t know what it’s like, to have this.” Jack said gesturing at his bandage around his destroyed right eye. “Most people don’t even want to look at me. Heck I would sometimes catch a glimpse in the mirror and could see why. But she didn’t.” Jack finished, leaning back in his chair, as a tear came out of his remaining eye.
“Drink kid.” Barca said moving the mug towards the boy. Jack looked up at this slightly shocked at the change of subject.
“What?” Jack responded almost stupidly.
“Where I come from, it's the height of rudeness to leave a drink that has been given freely.” Barca said grinning slightly. “Plus, the fact if you don’t, I’m going to have to drink it. And I’m not a good drunk.” Barca continued as he nodded at the mug, which was full of some kind of strange looking liquid. He guessed that it was something that was too strong to be served in the imperial city, at least in the amount that there was in the mug.
“But...” Jack started but it was Barca’s turn to cut across.
“You’re telling me you aren't afraid of five blokes, all of whom out weight you by at least a hundred pounds. But you're afraid of a drink.” Barca said almost laughing, taking a gulp of his own drink, for its strange colour it was surprisingly good.
“What if it makes me throw up?” Jack asked, leaning forward slightly, he had seen that happen as a child when his father and uncle would open the storage room in the basement of the manor.
“Then I will owe you an apology in the morning, now drink kid.” Barca said and gulped down the mug as Jack begins to drink and Barca watches from across the table, wondering whether or not if it was the right decision.
An hour and a half later, the door to the house opened as Barca hauls a very drunk Jack through the entry door and into the living area where Vernon and Codsworth had decided to stay up waiting for the pair to return from their adventures. Whilst both looked intoxicated, jack was certainly the worse for wear, there was a small puddle of sick outside the front door and judging from the vomit on Jack’s jacket it was obvious who it belonged to.
“What happened to him?” Vernon said, although judging by the way that jack was moving about, even whilst being carried, he could take a reasonable guess.
“Too much to drink, I guess.” Barca said, whilst he felt fine, he should have probably guessed that drinking three whole mugs of that stuff as a first timer, would have produced this result.
“And you let him?” Vernon asked, although he had not thought the decision earlier on in the evening, he had expected that Barca would have kept the lad in check. The lieutenant nodded as he hauled Jack over to the empty couch.
“Yep, the kid earned it.” Barca said as he deposits Jack on a couch and sits down on one of the empty chairs, mopping his brow, he had had to take a longer route back to the house as he had been warned, by no less than half the inn, that the thugs were waiting for them outside the establishment. He had been thankfully let out of a back door by Karl Mo, the inn’s elderly owner and been given a route to get back to the house without going by the town square.
“What happened?” Codsworth asked, wondering what the kid had done to earn so much drink that it had knocked him out.
“Couple of thugs got a hold of him, my guess is they saw him earlier and followed him inside. Jack ran his mouth. Luckily it all turned out alright. So much so, all the drinks were on the house.” Barca said, as he leaned back in the wooden chair, but stopped after he heard it creak ominously.
“Why was he even in the inn in the first place? I know he said he was going to find a place to drink. But why that inn?” Vernon asked, he was uncertain about the layout of the town, but a place like this was almost certainly more than one place to get wasted. At this Barca smiles, wondering how the old butler had missed that piece of the puzzle.
“Chasing a girl. That's why he was in there.” Barca replied, at which Codsworth chuckles for a moment before leaving, wondering how much trouble the lad was going to go to, in order to impress this girl that he had only just met. Vernon however, seemed less impressed by this and looks over at Barca.
“You should turn in lieutenant, I'll stay up.” Vernon said, he was already thinking about exactly what he was going to say the fifteen-year-old when he finally gained consciousness again. The lieutenant sighed, as he got up.
“If you say so.” Barca said as he heads out of the living room and leaving the unconscious Jack alone with Vernon, trying not to think about the thugs who seemed hell bent in trying to kill them.
