Tide Soul

Snakebitten

Ellie frowned, softly. The tavern had been quiet the last couple days, since Britton and his crew had returned to their bi-weekly quixotic expedition. Sure, Katty and Marie livened the place up every time Katty spoke and Marie yelled at her for... well, speaking but the atmosphere was simply different, since the storm. 

With the 'pirates' around, the place was lively. Granted, it was a somewhat contentious situation to live in, but it wasn't awful. She still had an inn to run, after all. She gazed over at the woman sitting a couple feet in front of her, doing admissions. Tessa was a sweet person, but she could be temperamental. She was excellent at the customer-relations stuff, but poorly equipped to run an inn. Even a small one like Boomer's.

The door swung open, and the dark-haired girl settled her permanently doe-eyed gaze on the potential customers. The woman in the center of the trio was fairly tall, and gangly with sandy-brown hair and pale green eyes. 

One companion was shorter, but equally stringy. His own hair was curly, and jet black with light brown eyes. He wore a seemingly permanent smirk on his thin lips as though he knew of a joke nobody else present did.

The third companion was the tallest of the bunch, but no less lanky or awkward-looking. Frankly, they looked like a collection of skeletons with skin haphazardly stretched across the bones, to Ellie. The woman approached the desk, gesturing for her companions to stay back.

"Hello," she greeted, her voice flat and disengaged "My name is Forrest. My companions and I were wondering if you had rooms available for rent?"

Ellie, out of reflex, began to voice that no, they did not have rooms for rent, but Tessa spoke up first.

"Well, we have some people with rooms reserved for about four days from now, but the rooms are free until then if it's any help" Tessa replied, cheerfully "We offer wonderful rates, really. Only two heos per night."

Forrest's thin eyebrow raised, and she frowned slightly. "Two?" she asked, looking around "The place smells like an ocean, it's clearly very untidy and appears nearly uninhabited. I simply wouldn't be getting my money's worth."

Ellie gritted her teeth, but said nothing.

"Well, I suppose we could reduce the--" Tessa began, casting a worried glance at Ellie before trailing off.

"We've just been struck by a bad storm, which we're just recovering from," Ellie replied, faux-cheerfully "Though we regret that you came by now, we don't offer reduced rates because of your own poor timing."

Tessa sighed, and nodded in confirmation. "She's right," she replied, regretfully "Unfortunately, we can't offer you a reduced rate, but we can offer complementary breakfast every morning you stay courtesy of the best chef in the area."

Forrest thought about that for a moment. "That suits us just fine" she conceded, tonelessly "That should amount to..."

She paused, momentarily to calculate.

"twenty-four heos, yes?"

Ellie blinked in surprise. She wasn't anything approaching dim, yet even she couldn't crunch numbers in her head that quickly or efficiently. She nodded, noticing Tessa's confused glance in her direction.

"Yes, twenty-four" Tessa confirmed, cheerfully.

"Of course it was twenty-four" Forrest replied, with a barely-detectable smirk "I'm hardly someone who makes mistakes, dear."

Ellie frowned. She knew she could be a little impatient at times, but she liked to think she treated people fairly well. This... Forrest, however, didn't even disguise the condescension in her voice. Every word she spoke sounded as though she were explaining a simple concept to a small child.