Rogue: No Great Adventurer has a Paved Path to Roam

Chapter 1

I was sitting at my usual place at the bar, drinking, what must've been my fifth or sixth draught of beer, and smoking another of my endless pipes of tobacco. The pub was filled with dim yellowish light, heavy foul smelling smoke, and raucous customers.
A burly thug elbowed his way through the croud, heading towards me.
"Get outta my seat, girl." He spat. "Dis be a men's only pub."
I took a sip of my beer, and yawned. "Tough."
"Git out!" He roared.
I chose to ignore him. He grabbed me my shirt.
"I said, git out!"
"Why don't we settle this...shall we say, diplomatically?" I said, slipping easily out of his grasp.
***
I sat back down at the bar as two men dragged the remainder of the 'unfortunate loser' out. I was about to take a drink, when a gruff voice interrupted me.
" Eh, scuse me miss?"
I turned around to glare at this new interruption. He was short, stout, and rather fat. His large, bushy brown beard was matted and dirty, and he wore the garb of a mountain dwarf.
"Yeah?"
"I couldn't help noticing dat you're a purty good fighter, and we needs your 'elp."
I stared bemusedly at him.
"Uh...huh? What do you mean by 'we'?"
He gestured behind him at two people, lurking in the shadows. One was tall, and slim, with long, straight, golden hair, and eyes the same color. Obviously, a sun elf.
The other was distinctly shorter, with large brown eyes, thick, curly black hair, and dark skin. She wore the dress of the Turami's, a human tribe.
"So, d'you wanna mebbe help us?"
I turned back to the dwarf.
"How much will you pay?"
"What?"
"One gold coin a day, plus expenses, is my usual fee. And, no, I don't waste time. I will also expect a small 'reward', so to speak, upon the completion of my task, maybe ten-fifteen gold?"
"Wait, who said anything about payment?"
The Elf had finally deigned to talk. I laughed.
"And you call yourself an Elf? What do you take me for, a Halfling? Of course I want to be paid, good service isn't free."
"D'you even know what we want to you to do?" asked the human girl.
"Nope. I'm guessing that it involves killing somebody?"
"In a sense."
"Great. Who?"
"We do not want you to kill someone. We need you to help us in our quest." Said the elf, wearily.
"What quest?"
"To rid the world of evil."
I gave a low whistle.
"The higher you aim, the farther you fall."
"But will ye help us?"
"If that's what you want, the price is now doubled."
"You're insane." said the Elf.
"No, I'm an assassin for hire, emphasis on Hire." I countered.
"She is insane." said the human, incredulously. She turned to the sun elf. "And I thought you were exaggerating when you said that Moon Elves were wild and unpredictable, Immarel, I thought they'd be more like other elves."
"Unfortunately, not." Sighed the sun elf, Immarel. "And, Luisa, you shouldn't have given my name to this rogue."
"She won't help, so why're we still here?" grumbled the dwarf. "C'mon."
They left me alone at the table and I let out a sigh of relief. Peace at last.
"Hey, Missy."
I gritted my teeth as I turned, glowering, at this latest disturbance.
It was, ah, of course, a human.
He had filthy, straw colored hair, and eyes that seemed glazed over. He grinned at me, lopsidedly, showing off his crooked yellow teeth.
"Yer sure purty." He said, drunkenly.
"What do you want?"
"C'mon, baby, wanna party?"
"No."
"Yer gonna party." His voice had turned harsh, and commanding.
"No, I'm not."
"I didn't ask!" He bellowed.
"I don't care."
"Don't talk back, girl!" He grabbed me.
"Let go."
"Yer gonna party!"
"I said, let go."
"An' I says yer gonna party!"
"No."
"Yes!"
He pulled me out of my chair. That did it. Quick as a flash, I unsheathed my daggers, and poked them into his eyes. "See you around, or not!"
Howling like a wounded dog, he released me. I pulled my knives away, and he lunged blindly at me, shrieking in pain.
I dodged him easily, and forced the my blades deep into his back, severing his spinal cord.
He writhed in agony, before falling limply into a puddle of his own blood.
"Here." I shoved a small bag of gold at the bartender. "This should cover all the costs." I picked up my daggers, and wiped them clean on the dead man's clothes. As I was making to leave the bar, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the three people who had approached me earlier, standing up to go. I laughed inwardly. Typical.