After the fall

Chapter 13

When Lapisa awoke, the sky outside her window was painted in yellows and oranges with a few lights coming from the surrounding buildings. Feeling energized, Lapisa lifted herself off the bed and ventured out of her room. Sitting by the table, completely knocked out was Lan, wrapped over one of the chairs. Lapisa walked over to the table and glanced down at Lan's sleeping face. His face was clear of creases and wrinkles caused by stress, fully smooth to the eye. Well, except for his scar of course. A bit of droll was seeping out of the corner of his mouth as he sat there slightly snoring. A weak chuckle escaped her as she stared at Lan's fully relaxed posture in amusement. Lapisa stretched out her hand and poked Lan lightly on the cheek and was met with no response. Giving it another try, Lapisa gave a harsher poke. This time Lan jerked and sat upright at lightning speed. "I wasn't sleeping on the job!" Lan burst out as he stood up just as fast. Hand still hanging in the air, Lapisa stood frozen in her place while she gawked at Lan. Lapisa burst into a fit of giggles while she covered her mouth lightly. Lan, still a bit drowsy from sleep, turned to the source of the giggle and saw Lapisa standing there having the time of her life.

Lapisa collected herself and tried to get control over her breathing. "What?!" Lan said displeases as he tried to smooth out his clothes. "Sorry sorry, didn't mean to scare you like that" Lapisa said as she waved her hands dismissively trying to lighten the mood. With a grunt, Lan rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck from side to side and gave Lapisa what looked like an offended look. "Scared? You didn't scare me. I'm not a weakling." Lan said as his ears grew red and he ruffled his hair a bit. "You've got a bit..." Lapisa said sheepishly as she pointed at the corner of her mouth to show that there still were traces of drool on his face. "What...?" Lan said as he wiped his mouth, and when he took notice of the drool quickly began rubbing at his lips to get rid of the evidence. With a cough, Lan tried to shift the topic at hand and casually sat back down, only stumbling once. "How about you go down and help Matilda, you seem quite energized" Lan suggested. Lapisa nodded and turned towards the door and waved her hand slightly in the air to show her departure.

Lapisa ventured outside into the humid air and went down the stairs. On the porch at the front of the building sat a few occupants enjoying the evening breeze. Lapisa gave a slight greeting to them and went into the inn. When inside, Lapisa gave her surroundings a quick scan. There were a few people occupying some of the tables chatting and eating. Lapisa walked towards the counter where Matilda stood preparing beverages. "You're awake! Perfect timing, I need some help." When Lapisa reached the counter, a tray of pints were shoved into her hands and she choked down a surprised shout. "Could you please hand these out to the guest, each cup has a number on it indicating which table it belongs to." Being given a task, Lapisa immediately got to work going from table to table handing out pint after pint. Throughout the evening, Lapisa went back and forth between the tables and the counter picking up meals and pints for the guests. When wandering back and forth between the tables she could hear some of the occupants talking quite loudly about the other kingdom. Curiously, Lapisa inched closer to the table holding the loud bunch and listened in as best as she could without seeming suspicious.

"Did ya hear? Apparently a royal from the other kingdom was found ded in their bed, they say it was quite the scene as well. Blood all over da walls and stuff. Real messed up." A gruff bearded man said as he slammed down his pint. "I heard dat da killer even painted on da walls, like an artist, drew a horse with da victim's blood and everything. Prob' thinks he is something by pulling dat shit." A clean faced man said sluggishly, obviously affected by the alcohol. "There was even a similar murder not that long ago, like a few months back. But that time the body was found in one of the dungeon halls, all messed up, could barely recognize the face they say." The gruff man said as he continued on a rant about murder back and forth. "A sick fucker he is." Mumbled a man who had his head laying on the table. "That he is, ol' pall." "But you gotta admit, he deserved it." Sensing that she was standing still for too long, Lapisa wandered away from the intoxicated table and continued on with her job.

While continuously working, Lapisa's mind kept wandering towards the Luminescence Kingdom. From what she's heard, the royal family from the Luminescence kingdom was quite big, considering a few have died and people act like it's nothing abnormal.

Walking up to the counter with an empty plate, Lapisa leaned her elbows on the counter top and gazed at Matilda. "Matilda, do you mind me asking, how come the Luminescence Kingdom is such a popular topic? That's all I've heard anyone talk about." Matilda, who was cleaning a mug with a rag, stopped the motion and put down the mug and rag on the counter. "Well, there's just always something going on with them, they're more entertaining than our royalty that's for sure." Matilda said with a shrug. "I also heard that there's some kind of killer going around. Do you recon they kill anyone or...?" Lapisa asked, tracing her finger along the wooden top of the counter, the rough texture of the counter dancing along her fingertips.

"What a strange question. Well, from what I know they seem to target royalty only." Matilda said as she took the empty tray that Lapisa had placed on the counter top and started stacking more pints on it then handed it back to Lapisa who was leaning against the counter, seemingly lost in thought. "Now now, enough about the unsettling stuff. Get your butt off to work, can't keep the guests waiting." Matilda said cheerfully while she playfully swatted Lapisa with her cleaning rag.

After that, the day seemed to pass in seconds and the inn was empty of occupants that had either left or went to their rooms for the night. Lapisa was helping wrap up the place by cleaning the tables while Matilda worked behind the counter as usual. During the evening Lan had joined them downstairs and was sweeping the floor of any debris that had made its way inside. While cleaning away at one of the tables, Lapisa felt a bump on her legs and when she turned to look behind her she found Lan with his back turned to her as he continued sweeping the floor. While sweeping he kept going backwards and bumping into Lapisa until he was practically leaning against the table that Lapisa was cleaning. Lan was at this point sweeping at Lapisa's feet and she tried to step away but each time she tried Lan got even closer than before. When they were practically touching shoulders, Lapisa lost her patience and took a big step to the side to create some space between them. "What is your problem?!" Lapisa whispered angrily at Lan who was staring at her through the fringe of his hair that was falling over his eyes "I heard you asked Matilda about the Luminescence kingdom earlier. My advice, don't bring up the Luminescence Kingdom with her, she doesn't like the topic."

Lan said lowly as he leaned against the edge of the table, lazily sweeping the floor beneath him. "If you want information about the Luminescence Kingdom you can come to me, your trusty partner." Lan said, wiggling his eyebrows while sprouting the smallest of smiles. The moment was suddenly disturbed by a cough and they both looked towards the source of the sound and saw Matilda standing next to the counter, arms folded and a displeased look on her face. "I don't see no tables being cleaned and no floor being sweeped. Now, chop chop." Matilda said unamused with a raised eyebrow. Lan gave a small chuckle and Lapisa's face turned red in shame. Lan stood upright and gave a small salute, "Right to it ma'am!" Matilda clicked her tongue and turned to limp into the kitchen. After the coast was clear, Lan leaned down and whispered in Lapisa's ear, "Meet me under the staff stairs and you can ask All the questions you've got buzzing around in that cute head of yours." Lan gave Lapisa's head a small poke before he began sweeping at the floor again whistling a quiet melody.