Wildflower Inn

[Mara the Wolf]

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Up in the Northlands, some miles north of the caves Martin the Warrior originally lived in, there exists a two-story inn. But this ain't any regular inn. No, this inn is a place for adventurers, of all species, to come and take jobs, or, as they're called here, quests. In a way, Wildflower Inn is practically a guild.

And running the Inn is the otter Masika, and her wolf friend, Mara. Unfortunately, the Inn's mostly empty right now. The only ones here are a regular, Maut, a silver fox mercenary and spy who lives for the next big adventure, and his pal Veach, a...curious stoat who is Maut's partner, sitting at a corner table and finishing their meal of fish stew.

"Slow day today, eh Mara?" Masika said as she idly wiped down the counter.

The wolf nodded. "Ya said it. Hope someone comes in soon. We can't keep livin' offa Mattie & Nyika."

[The Grey Coincidence]

The door swung open barely a moment later, and almost as if he had been waiting for his que, a dimunitive mouse swaggered in. "Ladies and gentlebeasts I-" he stopped abruptly, the smile falling clean off his face at the sight of the empty inn. His eyes darted from the wolf at the bar and the otter besides her, to the silver fox seated besides a wide-eyed stoat. His disapointment became visible as a frown spread across his features. "Was expecting a bigger audience." He finished. Shrugging, he shut the door behind him.

[Mara the Wolf]

The silver fox and stoat turned to this boisterous newcomer. It was quite clear to the fox that this kid thought that he was the next Martin the Warrior. He quietly turned back to his meal.

"Hey there, welcome to the Wildflower Inn!" Masika called out with a wave. "The name's Masika. I run the inn-"

"We run et together," Mara grumbled.

The otter frowned and put her paws on hips. "If you'd 'ave jus' waited a moment, I was going to say, 'along with Mara here.'"

"Oh." The wolf was silent a moment, before addressing the mouse. "Anythin' ya'd like...? Wait a minute. Kid, we don't serve little kids here. Go back home to yer mommy an' daddy."

[The Grey Coincidence]

Harlapple's frown deepened. Who did this she-wolf think she was? "You'll have to make an exception, I'm afraid, I travelled quite far to get here and I don't intend to leave so soon." His frown twisted into a grim smile. "Don't worry I know how to look after myself." He sauntered over to the bar and stood on tip-paw to dump a few copper coins on the counter. "I'm not here to drink if that's what you're worried about. A room will suffice... for now. To be blunt with you I'm a little bit more interested in these 'quests' I hear you're reputed to provide!"

[Mara the Wolf]

Masika raised a brow at the mouse. "Firstly, kid, ya ain't gonna talk t' my partner like that if'n you's wants any service 'round 'ere. Second, the quests 're the main reason we don't serve little kids. Ya c'n easily lose life 'n' limb on 'em. Now, you can stay the night, but tomorrow after breakfast, our delivery girl, Nyika, if she's here, will take ya home, or Maut there will," she nodded towards the silver fox, "'kay sweetie?"

[The Grey Coincidence]

Harlapple bit back on the overwhelming urge to behead the otter then and there. His paws made no motion to reach for his axe, however. One did not walk into a seedy old bar just to fight after all. So he merely smiled in response and said 'of course' despite the sting being refered to as a 'sweetie' left on his chest. And his ego. Mostly his ego.

Turning away from the pair he made his way over to the silver fox's table and plopped himself down a respectful distance away.

[Mara the Wolf]

Maut raised a brow at the mouse. "Well well, Veach. Look what we have here! Cluny the Scamp!"

Veach almost seemed to be snickering.

"Where's yer parents, kid? It's a long walk from any town. Are you lost?"

[The Grey Coincidence]

Cluny the Scamp? Oh I'll remember that one, fox. They'll be the last words you ever hear, mark my words...

"I'm exactly where I need to be," Harlapple said, his voice perfectly level with no trace of his innermost thoughts to them. He eyed the fox disdainfully. "And I think you'll find yourself not richly dressed enough to refer to anybeast as a scamp."

[Mara the Wolf]

"Scamp, kid, not tramp. It's another word fer 'kid'." The fox gave him a quick once-over. "Not like you're richly dressed either. Jus' pretendin' to be Cluny."

Mara came over then. "Whatcha expect? He's a kid. I'd say he's no older 'an eight. Anyway, anythin' ya like t' eat, kid?"

[The Grey Coincidence]

"As flattering as knowing that I look half my age is, I'm actually sixteen. I'll have a soup or something. I'm not picky." Harlapple replied curtly. Turning back to Maut he shrugged and leaned forwards conversationally. "Apologies for the confusion. It seems I'll have to re-read a dictionary at some point. The name's Olaf, Olaf the Cleaver." He offered his tail to shake.

[Mara the Wolf]

"Yeah, an' I'm eagle," Mara said before she turned and headed for the kitchen.

Maut raised a brow. "Expect me to shake your barbed tail?"

[The Grey Coincidence]

Wordlessly, the mouse withdrew his tail and offered a paw.

[Mara the Wolf]

The fox shook his paw. "The name's Maut. The stoat's Veach."

[The Grey Coincidence]

"A pleasure to make your aquaintance." Harl smiled and added both names to his death list.

[Mara the Wolf]

As Mara returned with some fish stew & honey bread, the door to the Inn swung open once again. This time, there was a brown wildcat with black stripes.

"Ah, Nyika!" Masika called out. "Lovely t' see you again! Making another delivery run?"

"Not this time." The cat shut the door and headed over to the counter. "I was hoping you had some quests."

Masika raised a brow. "Does Dorian know about this?"

The cat nodded. "Yup. I'm on indefinite leave till I decide t' return t' bein' his 'prentice... Tho' really, I don't think I'm going back t' that life anytime soon."

"Well, the only jobs we have right now is that you need to escort that mousechild home tomorrow." The otter nodded to Harlapple.