The Owl's Arrival

  A fist slammed against the table demanding attention of not only the two men at the table, but every criminal in the room. "We must raise the prices, Leern! For the last time, we aren't making enough!" Kurn shouted loud enough for everyone in the inn's eating hall to hear.

"You need to relax; we are making enough as is." Leern, the younger brother of Kurn, yelled as he attempted to match the sound level of his brother. "Anymore and you will end up like father." The entirety of the inn's guests, mostly criminals and hired swords, cheered in favor of Leern's suggestion of keeping the nightly costs the same. Leern's brown eyes looked at the roaring crowd, and then to his brother with a sly look. Kurn rubbed his long chin moving it back and forth in anger. He brought his elbow down to the table, leaned in, and pointed at his brother, "You will listen to me. I am your older brother thus I am your superior." He moved his finger towards himself, "And I say that we must raise the price."

Before Leern could say anything, an inn guest came to the table the brothers argued at. Everyone in the inn held their breath as the mountain of a man approached. He towered over the two, easily a foot taller than the brothers who themselves were relatively tall. While his strength was as clear as his height. "What would these prices be, boy?" The brute leaned towards Kurn, letting him endure the full of his horrid breath. Kurn only shook in fear while Leern looked on smugly, raising his thin eyebrows. "You see, kid, times are tough." The brute lifted Kurn by his lavish brown vest with a single arm. "There are these new hires that have iron weapons. We can't compete with that. However, our bronze is still good for something. It is useful for teaching lessons."

Leern could sense what the brute was to do next with Kurn. He had seen it done many times before to guests of the inn. "Alright, I think he learned his lesson." Leern insisted, struggling against the brute with thin arms to save his brother. He was met by the unforgiving stare of the giant man. "Don't get in the way or you will join him." The brother fled from the scuffle as he watched on fearfully. Kurn was hurled towards a waiting crowd of crooks who held him still for the brute. "Place his hand on a table." They did as he said. "Now you see, you greedy kids, you rub our gold between your fingers." He demonstrated the action by rubbing his thumb with two other fingers. With a speed unimaginable, a dagger flew from the man's side to his hand as he cut off three of Kurn's fingers as if they were vegetables for a stew. "Let's see you try and do that now ay?" Attempting to appear somewhat manly, Kurn, instead of yelling, made a seething noise through his clenched teeth.

"I would kill you and let your wiser brother take possession of the inn if I was not a man of second chances." The brute signaled the other inn guests to let Kurn free. He was dropped on the alcohol laced floor, face first. A rise to his feet was denied by the brute's hand on his shoulder. "You will stay on your knees; so you remember who's really in charge here." He then removed his hand from Kurn's shoulder allowing him to stumble to his feet once more. Once on his feet, he was lifted by the brute. He was dropped onto the table where the whole confrontation began. The brute faded into the crowd of other criminals.

Leern examined his brother's right hand as he struggled to hang on to consciousness after his lesson. "So what did we learn, Kurn?"

"Shut up." He wheezed. He was covered in a verity of alcohol and his perfume couldn't hide it any longer. Leern picked a piece of cloth off of the ground and used it to stop the bleeding from stubs of the thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. Kurn groaned in agony, "Whatever you just did, made the pain worse. As if it wasn't bad enough that I'm here for all to see!"

Leern scoffed, "The cloth is covered in rum. I guess it helps to hammer in the point of your lesson." Kurn punched him weakly.

"What am I supposed to say now? Cuts and bruises I can explain, but the lack of three fingers, that's a stretch." Kurn asked himself aloud. "For now, I suppose you could say you were mugged. It isn't entirely wrong. More long term, we do live in a dwarven city. I've heard that some dwarves, even here in Nani, have been able to regenerate people's entire arms!" Kurn erupted in laughter as he remained unmoving on the table, too ashamed to move. "Those are rumors, my brother, at most they could give me some stiff wooden replica." Leern shook his head, "The dwarves can do magical things if you give them a chance. As a matter of fact, I saw one the other day that made it seem as if he had the head of a rabbit." Kurn grabbed his brother's arm with his left, unblemished, hand. His grip was loose as he barely hung on to consciousness. "Where was he?" His eyes were as wide as a child's. Leern dawned a face of confusion and worry. Before he could answer, Kurn lost consciousness.