A Barstool Fairytale

Chapter 6 - Like a Sundial

Taako left the bar pretty quickly, feeling a little bad about it. Hadn't he been there hoping to see Havran anyway? That's why he'd been there every other night so far. Why was he even waiting for the guy? It didn't mean anything that this was the first person to really listen to him talk about his sister since he got here. That's just- That's just decent, isn't it, to listen to a guy freak out about a missing person? Isn't it? Maybe it wasn't. Maybe it meant something. It shouldn't mean anything, though. He wasn't looking for anything with meaning. He was looking for Lup. Where could she be? He shook his head as he headed back to the inn he was staying at. He'd thought staying at The Sanguine Raven would be too obvious, although why he cared about being obvious about what didn't matter was beyond him. Still, he'd avoided going back to the inn where he owed money and instead found one nearby close enough to The Raven that he could walk there after a few drinks. It was cheaper than his first one, but it was good enough for his purposes. He didn't stay there any longer than he had to, anyway, getting back from the bar and crashing in bed until sunrise the next morning when he went out looking for Lup and ways to make some quick money. That was his plan tonight, too, but when he got to his room he sat on the bed instead of just falling into it.

He had to make a plan for looking for Lup, because what he was doing now clearly wasn't working. Havran had said the city was a circle, right? Weird layout, but he could do something with that. He grabbed his quill and his spellbook (a copy of Uncle John's Elven Bathroom Reader), and turned to the last page, which had just enough space for him to draw a circle he could write in. Okay, cool. Havran had said it worked kinda like a clock, so Taako wrote numbers on the outside of the circle, 1 through 12, about where they'd be on a clock face. The Sanguine Raven was between 3 and 4, so he drew a little bird in between the two. The placement probably wasn't perfect, but it'd work for his purposes. If The Raven was there, then the inn he was staying at was probably closer to 3. He drew another symbol so he'd know. From there, he worked out the landmarks he'd seen so far in his time in Ravenshearth, marking them where he figured they probably were on the "clock." Maybe he'd run it by Havran if he saw him again. Or he could go buy a map to use as a reference.

The idea of seeing Havran again was more appealing. He couldn't be sure it would happen, though. Seeing him tonight had been a fluke. He was busy, he'd been coming in while Taako was leaving, he probably wouldn't go back to the bar for a while, and Taako couldn't afford to wait anymore. The drinks there were good, but he had to be more careful with his money. He didn't have a job here, after all, and he didn't want to get one. He was going to find Lup and they were going to go home. He just... he just had to find her first. And now he had a map, so he'd know where he looked already. He'd have to start moving tomorrow. He'd only paid for the room through tonight, anyway. Not a problem, though.

Havran had suggested moving left, right? Which meant if Taako did that, going around the circle like it was a clock, searching a portion or two every day, maybe he'd be able to run into him again without going to The Raven. Not that he needed to run into him again. There wasn't- it wasn't necessary. Sure, the guy was probably the only person in the whole city to care about his little quest, but that didn't mean talking to him was, like, something Taako needed.

Taako did need to make some more money tomorrow, though. If he was going to be travelling around the city, he'd need to have the money to stay places. Sure, he'd only have to stay for a night, but inns had different pricing and if he wanted to eat he'd need some money anyway. He'd tried running some cons at The Raven, but he wasn't good at them on his own. Bar cons needed two people, and with Lup gone- missing- he was on his own.

He groaned and flopped backwards on the bed. He hated being alone. At least at the bar there were people around. Even if they ignored him. And sometimes Havran was at the bar, and he'd get to talk to someone. Probably wasn't safe to be talking to him so much about his missing sister, but what was he gonna do about it? It wasn't illegal to go missing, and it wasn't illegal to go looking, either.