Love In The Time Of Dragons - A Fantastical Journey

Chapter 1 - Mossy Tavern Mead

Jack the barkeeper looked down into the ale stains of the dirty mug like it held the world's secrets. He wiped at them stubbornly and grimaced as they refused to leave the wood grain, until setting it down in frustration. He turned his solemn gaze upon the room he found himself in. Jack wasn't a rich man, and the money from his adventuring days only managed to buy him a little broom closet of a bar in dragon's keep.

The patrons weren't picky and they had nowhere else to go except to drink Jack's swill for a handful of coppers and a place to lay their weary head after a day's hard work. It was during these quiet moments that Jack couldn't help but reflect on his younger years, sword in hand, shield raised to deflect the blows of his enemies, and never without company in his bed. In a way adventuring was just as much about companionship as it was about conquest, gold, and the lamenting of his adversaries.

Jack looked at his hands, balling them into fist with futility, where had his strength gone? His trusty sword and shield hung decoratively on the wall above the fireplace like a coat of arms. The patrons had no idea how much blood it had shed animals who walked on both four legs and two it mattered not, steel was steel and he found without a head that even the most mythical of creatures had trouble remaining on their feet.

It was in that moment of reflection that a loud pounding at the door signaled the entrance of a cloaked shadow of a man, full of menace and walking with the posture of one who had taken life as easily as breathing. Striding up to the bar Jack got a better look at the individual and it took all of his composure to stop himself from grinning, under that hood Jack saw much to his surprise, a woman of great beauty.

She must have been about six hands tall, athletic, with a supple neck, and eyes like sapphires in the cold blue sea. Jack's gaze must have caught the woman's attention, for in one quick movement she drew her dagger and slammed it so hard into the bar that the wood splintered, and under her breath the dangerous woman said only this..."mead now!" Jack fumbled at the bar until retrieving a mug of sparkling yellow ale which the adventurer downed in one never ending gulp.

The air between Jack and this new patron grew thick with tension, drunks seemed to wake from their stupor to watch what happened next, yanking the dagger out of the wood the woman jumped on her stool and thrusted for Jack's jugular in an acrobatic flourish of her wrist. Jack saw his life flash before his very eyes as cold steel sang towards his flesh, but something awakened in him in that moment that had long slumbered, forgotten reflexes forged in battle.

Grabbing his towel, Jack nimble dipped out of reach of the adventurer's slash, and wrapping the blade and the woman's wrist in ale soaked fabric threw her to the ground in a crash that must have knocked the wind straight out of her lungs. The drunks stared at Jack the barkeeps face in utter shock for the first time in many years, Jack was smiling. "You almost got me there, but you shouldn't telegraph your lunges; it's easy to see a mile away!" The woman choking on air sputtered only these words that would change Jack's life forever.

"So I've finally found you Jack The Dragon Slayer!"