When Reilyn woke, it was night once more. Rested, but still in pain, he continued his walk towards the nearest town. His undead companion, Felix, was perched on his shoulder, jittering around and observing their surroundings, all while snug in the warm cloak. 

The wound on Reilyn’s biceps was burning, making moving that arm uncomfortable and painful. He gritted his teeth a little as he kept walking. 

The necromancer reached a break in the trees. He slowly made his way through, seeing some soft town lights and a welcome sign; Welcome to Pembroke. “Lay’Embroke…” Reilyn mumbled, looking at the sign and the town just beyond. A grunt escaped him as he spoke to himself. He pulled his hood over his face, and wrapped his cloak tighter around his body to obscure his Eyll’Una features. With a pause and a sigh, Reilyn ventured into Pembroke. 

There were a few people about, some couples, the odd family. It was late and most Humans slept at night. Reilyn kept his distance from the Humans around him, minding his own business. 

The small town was a circle surrounded by a wooden palisade, livestock grazed along the edge of the barricade. Most small agricultural towns were like this, with round huts that had tall, thatched roofs. He glanced around, spotting larger buildings in the distance, likely a tavern, inn, or the Burgomaster’s home. 

Very few buildings had more than one floor, even the local businesses. Reilyn waded in between the huts and around the townsfolk until he found a two-story rectangular structure with a slightly more shallow roof. From the locals coming in and going out, the smell of mead wafted through the door and windows. Reilyn saw the sign above the door; Reaper’s Paradise. This must be the tavern. 

Reilyn’s stomach growled, and his arm ached. He sighed and entered Reaper’s Paradise. The place was almost full; laughter and boisterous conversation could be heard from every occupied table. Reilyn stayed quiet, and sneakily found an empty table in one of the back corners. He slipped into the somewhat secluded spot and sat down. 

The necromancer sighed with relief at finally being able to rest, mostly undisturbed. He caught a few curious and some judgemental glances his way from the Humans occupying the tavern. This was nothing new. He kept to himself and shrugged their rude glares off. Reilyn unclipped his cloak and let it fall onto the chair behind him. Felix hopped from Reilyn’s shoulder to his lap and curled up. 

Reilyn grimaced, being reminded of his wound by the painful ache. He looked at his biceps thoroughly, inspecting the swollen injury that was now coated with dry blood and a bit of dirt. While he was zoned out, a redheaded woman walked up to his table. She looked at him with some wonder in her teal eyes and a raised eyebrow. 

“I don’t usually see Elves around here.” The woman grinned. 

The Elf jumped. Embarrassed, he averted his eyes from her, “I get that a lot.” He muttered. 

“Can I get you a drink?” She said, rehearsed and politely. “I have a good selection of food as well.” She handed Reilyn a handmade menu. 

“Thank you.” Reilyn flipped through the pages. He glanced back up at her to see her furrowing her brow at him with a look of concern. 

She reached her hand for Reilyn’s injured arm, “Hey, what happened?” 

“Nothing!” Reilyn flinched, pulling back. In his reaction he grabbed the injury as an attempt to hide it, gripping it harder than he should have, he yelped. The woman crossed her arms and frowned at him. 

“I’ll get you something to drink. You stay right where you are until I can close up and get a doctor to look at that.” Her tone was firm. 

“Why would you?” 

“I can’t rightfully let you leave with a nasty injury.” She shook her head and motioned to the menu. “Let me know if you’d like something to eat.” 

“I’ll be ok.” Reilyn grumbled. His stomach growled audibly. The redhead raised an eyebrow and walked away, chuckling. Reilyn sighed and looked through his options. 

The woman walked back to Reilyn’s table with a tankard of mead. She set it gently in front of him. “See anything you like?” She asked with a touch of enthusiasm. 

“The connyng in grauey sounds good.” Reilyn handed the menu back to her, “Thanks.” 

She nodded, taking the menu, “That’s a popular one, nice.” She smiled, “I’ll get right on that.” 

While Reilyn waited, Felix made his presence known. He chirped up at Reilyn. Reilyn chuckled and stroked the squirrel’s fur. He had a couple sips of mead in between spoiling the undead rodent. 

Approximately half an hour later, the redhead came back to the table with the dish. “Thanks.” Reilyn said as she set it down. The meal was in a wide bowl. It was about the size of, with the edges and height of, a saucepan. Four hearty pieces of chicken sat bathed in a thick coat of gravy, riddled with various herbs and spices. The woman placed a knife and spoon beside the plate. 

She nodded and smiled at Reilyn’s reaction to seeing the food. “There’s about an hour ‘till close, so I’ll have your injury looked at soon.” Reilyn nodded in response to her, whilst gently pushing Felix away from the meal. The squirrel kept stubbornly trying to approach the chicken. The woman raised her eyebrow yet again. She then giggled and shrugged, “I’ve seen weirder. Enjoy your meal!” She grinned at Reilyn and walked off. 

As Reilyn ate, he tore off small pieces and handed them to Felix. Felix enthusiastically grabbed and nibbled on each piece of chicken. 

Time ticked slowly for that last business hour. Perhaps it was the ache from Reilyn’s injury, or the hearty meal, as it had been a while since he ate something so heavy. Most likely, it was a combination of both. As the hour neared its end, the redheaded woman began filing her patrons out and picking up their stray dishes. She approached Reilyn’s table, and as she walked over, Reilyn reached for his coin. 

“How much does that come to?” 

The woman waved her hand dismissively, “We’ll worry about that after we deal with your injury.” She collected his dishes. “Give me a moment to go get the doctor.” She winked. 

Reilyn sighed and began to untie and remove his tunic. Felix hopped onto the table from the Eylles lap and found a spot to curl up. Reilyn carefully pulled his tunic off, grunting as it tugged some of the dry blood off of the infected wound. He set it aside, looking over the tear from the knife, debating whether to fix it himself or go to a seamstress. 

The redhead sauntered back into the room, carrying a bottle of moonshine, a couple shot glasses, a bandage, a small sharp knife and a few cloths. She was a tall woman, standing at five foot eight inches. Her shoulders were somewhat broad and her figure curvy. Her red hair was curly, soft and pinkish, and, Reilyn figured, if it wasn’t tied back into a ponytail, it would go to about her shoulder blades. She had freckles smattered across her pale skin. Her face was smug, but there was a kindness to it. 

She chuckled, “The doctor’s here! But, you can call me Linda.” She made her way to the table and placed everything down in front of Reilyn. Linda gave him a coy look, “You may want a shot of this first.” 

A twinge of fear fled across Reilyn’s eyes. Linda laughed in response. She smiled, shook her head and helped him take his undershirt off. “This isn’t my first time doing this. But, seriously, take a shot.” 

She poured some moonshine into one of the shot glasses and slid it over to Reilyn. Reilyn reached out slowly, hesitantly. Linda watched, clearly amused. He rolled his eyes and grabbed the shot, gulping it back and slamming the glass down. The intense burn fired through his mouth, across his tongue and hit the back of his throat. He winced in response, tearing up slightly. 

While Reilyn recovered, Linda pulled a chair and sat beside him. She prepared the knife by pouring some of the moonshine onto one of the cloths and used it to wipe the knife. She placed it down and reached for one of the unsullied cloths, rolled it up, and handed it to Reilyn. “Bite this.” 

He groaned in response, but took it with his free hand and placed it in between his teeth. Linda gently grabbed the injured arm, and with her other hand she brought the knife over, poking it into the swollen wound. She pressed it in harder and dragged it down, re opening the slice. Reilyn grunted and bit into the cloth, keeping his eyes away from the operation. Linda grabbed the bottle of moonshine, pouring into the clean shot glass. She placed the bottle down and picked up the shot, aiming it, and pouring it onto the reopened wound. And for good measure, she poured and splashed a second shot onto the wound. Muffled cries came from Reilyn as he gritted his teeth into the cloth. 

Linda stood from her seat, grabbed the third cloth and went off to wet it. She came back and dabbed the cool cloth onto the freshly bleeding wound. She pressed it hard against the injury for a few minutes, removed it, went off to rinse it and came back, wiping the blood off once more. Placing the now bloodied cloth down, she bandaged up Reilyn’s arm. 

Reilyn pulled the rag from his mouth and wiped a couple stray tears away. He slowly turned to look at Linda, “How often do you do this?” 

“A couple times a week.” Linda shrugged, and grinned. “Tavern brawls and all.” 

“Well…Thank you.” Reilyn said softly. Felix hopped back onto his lap and lied down, Reilyn idly began to stroke the squirrel.