He wondered how many times he had felt this. The cold numbness over his body after getting hit real hard. The kind of hit that makes you forget your name, as well as how to breath. It feels awkward, the numbness, but it's better then the pain that soon follows. Oh. There it is. Great.

         "Up and at 'em Ericson," he muttered to himself. Grimacing, he pulled himself back onto his elbows, then his hands and knees, and soon back on his feet, finding himself among broken glass and wood. He picked a splinter of wood from his cheek, and ran his hands through his long blonde hair to get out any pieces of glass and wood, and managed to get a light cut in his finger, which stung. 

Where am I, He thought. C'mon, get your bearings. I'm in Gweath Haven, went down to the tavern, and got a bite to eat and ask some questions. He walked himself through this process in his mind while brushing off mud, and wiping some blood off his lip, taking a moment to ponder its origins. 

"So wait," he questioned, "If I'm eating, why am I out here?" It was at about this time that he saw a barrel flying towards him.

Oh yeah, that's why.

Quickly rolling out of the way, he looks up to see a monster of a man on his way towards him. Easily 6'8, 250 lbs of pure muscle, walking closer while cracking his knuckles. Seeing as he himself was 5'9, 150-ish pounds of lean limbs, this was trouble. 

"C'mon man, can't we talk this through?" He said, jesting, "Let's recall where we went wrong with our conversation, mainly because I think you punched that bit of my brain out of me."

The brute only responded with a roar, and a metal tankard thrown to the side of the Ericson's head, rattling his mind even more.

"Oh boy, really?" Asked Eric, annoyed, "pretty please? For my sake?" 

"I'll kill you!" Roared the brute,

"Well, that took a turn." Said Eric who then readied himself, and took notes of his situation. 

He knew the brute would break him, and he felt a wrestling match would not end in his favor. However, the mountain of muscle did reveal two clear weaknesses already; a rather obvious limp in the left leg, and from what he can assume, quite the temper. He figured he could make do with this information 

Pacing to the left, the man prodded the mental fortitude of the bear-like barbarian facing him down. 

"So... you come around here often? Cause I feel like if would recognize your smell if that was the case. Or at the very least hear the steps of your blubbery legs." 

He couldn't tell what set him off, insulting his odor or lying about how unbelievably toned his legs were, but either way a bipedal bull was charging him. Great.

Quickly sidestepping to his right, Ericson delivered a quick kick to the mans left leg, only to shift to his backside to kick at it again. 

With a quick yell of pain, the foe turned quicker than expected and hit Ericson square in the jaw. 

"Ack?! What did I do to you! Kill your brother?" He said, massaging his jaw. "Do you just hate handsome blondes?"

After responding with one more yell, Ericson was getting annoyed, 

"is that all you say? Like, in any social encounter?" Eric asked, mocking the brute,

Hopping from voice to voice, Eric began to act out a scene,"'Would you like a refill sir?'

'RRRRRAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH'

'Sir please, you are scaring the children!'

'RRRRRRAAAAARRRRGGGHH.' Mocked Eric all while making exaggerated gestures and faces.

"ILL RIP YOUR SPINE OUT." Screamed the feral man.

"Oh no, but I need that." Said Eric with fake panic in his voice, slyly reaching a hand into his jacket and grasping onto a piece of quartz close to the size of a knife, while bringing the other hand over his mouth in an exaggerated manner.

His impressions seemed to send the brute into a frenzy, charging with everything he had. 

Let's hope this works. 

Swinging the piece of quartz, eric slashed the open air while a brilliant blue glare emanated from it. Eric yelled, "MOVE," suddenly, and to the side of the charging man, a blue line appeared moving towards the brute, who was soon pushed violently to his left. 

With the weakened leg, the brute tumbled into a nearby wagon, and Erickson took off running, yelling,

"hey if you wanna catch up sometime just let me know! I feel like we really had a connection there!" 

Running away snickering to himself, Eric was left to think about what led him to his situation, passing by many interesting and equally uninteresting individuals. He recalled making it down to the tavern as he passed a dwarf women, then remembered talking to the bartender about library locations as he passed an extremely skinny man. By the time he passed some farmers he remembered the brute coming inside and making quite the ruckus. One of the more interesting individuals he passed looked to be a man, also running through the roads, with a very shiny white and gold robe on-

The shiny man.

Oh gods the shiny man! He was there!

"Wait wait! Shiny man, wait!" He yelled, turning quickly to pursue. 

While following behind, he had time to examine shiny man. He first noted how peculiar his clothing was, like a mixture between a trench coat and a robe. It flowed behind him while he ran, and what made it weirder was the coloring. Sparkly white, which transitions to gold near the bottom, and then finally becoming purple at the bottom. Maybe even weirder, it was sleeveless and had a hood which the shiny man was currently wearing. 

The next thing that struck Eric was the alien-looking tattoos all along the arms of the weird man. Wait, not man, Thought Eric. He had seen his ears earlier. An Elf. Is the writing in elvish? That would make sense, however, he's seen elvish before and those characters are not elvish, he doesn't need to know how to read it to understand that. However they did look familiar. 

All of a sudden, while Eric is lost in thought, the shiny Elf man turned down an alley sharply. Eric stumbles slightly but quickly follows.

"Look shiny elf boy, I just have a couple questions! About what happened in the tavern?" Shouted Eric

The elf man turned their head slightly as they ran and yelled back, "Excuse me, what did you call me?" With offense in his voice. His voice was warm, but had a rich tone.

To the elf man's dismay, turning his eyes away was all it took for him to not notice a crate in the alley as he tumbles over it with a loud bang and an audible 'Ope!' of surprise. 

Welp, thought Eric, at least he's stopped now. 

"You okay?" 

The elf man shot up quickly and Eric tensed for an attack, only to be surprised as the elf man started frantically wiping his clothes which were now covered in mud. At least, he hopes it's mud. 

The elf eventually looked up and studied Eric with his pale eyes. There was a bandana covering the lower half of his face, but Eric could see the recognition in his eyes.

"Oh," exclaimed the elf, "Your the guy who was flirting with the bartender." 

"Woah woah, I wasn't flirting with the bartender," said Eric, defensively, "I was asking her some questions of the town."

"Well it sure looked like flirting."

"Wha- no- I-," stuttered Eric, annoyed, "Look it doesn't matter, I just want to know what I did to piss that guy off!"

"Oh. That." Said the elf, with a tinge of embarrassment in his voice.

"Well I saw you flirting-" 

"I wasn't flirting." Interrupted Eric, 

"With the bartender, and I could also tell the big man was into her. So I kinda sorta sent him a little message that you were 'taking her away..'" he said with air quotes.

"Wha-? Why!", asked Eric, getting more than a little pissed.

"A distraction." Said the elf, bluntly.

"For!?"

"Well, I was low on coin and he looked like he had much more than he deserved." Upon saying this, the elf raised a bulging leather bag that clinked and jangled as he lifted it. 

Eric was astonished by the idea of how much money was in it. The elf noticed this

"Don't get your hopes up, its just silver."

"You say that like that's nothing at all!" Said Eric, excitedly and a little confused. 

The elf's ears perked slightly, "Ope, I gotta go." 

"What, why?" Questioned Eric, looking around worriedly.

It was at this time Eric heard the stomps of the town guards metal boots. Panic rushed into Eric, as he realized he was an accomplice to a mugging. He turned to see the elf taking off, turning at the end of the alley.

"Hey wait!" Yelled Eric, "If I'm an unwilling accomplice, you gonna at least give me a cut!" After saying this, Eric began to give chase.