The Ring

005

"How much's it to cross the bridge to head down north?" Michael asked the rough-looking man on the other side of the bar.

Chrissa stood beside him and rested her lips into a straight line. She wore an ugly brown dress that had puffed sleeves, and came down in the center exposing her chest. Her pointed ears were bare of jewelry, and so was her neck, and wrists. It was all placed in her cloak along with the dress she'd worn earlier.

She despised it. She felt naked, and incomplete without her jewelry and glamor. Her dark hair had rested on her shoulders. Devoid of any ribbons.

"North's where them royals stay. Whaddya' need out there, Stone?" Asked the man to Michael, as he handed him a brown bottle full of liquid. For a second he met eyes with Chrissa, and flashed his dirty golden teeth. "Why, would you fancy a drink little lady?"

She paled in the face, "oh," she responded, "i-i'm afraid that wouldn't be the most becoming. No thank you, sir."

Michael mentally rolled his eyes at her vocabulary as the other man widened his eyes, "well i'd be damned. You're one educated woman!" he slurred, "maybe yous' could teach me a thang' or two. Say, you free tonight, doll?" He bargained, as he wiped the grime from his forehead with the dirty towel he threw over his shoulder. Chrissa cringed, as her forced smile began to falter.

"Look. Are you gonna give me the information or not, Hawk?" Michael chimed in, with an irritated voice. "We don't got all day."

The two of them had ended up in a village and were under disguise. They needed information on how to get to the North so that Chrissa would get to safety and back underneath the palace's protection. The northern bridge would get them on the right path, but the bartender was being difficult. He wanted to make friends with both of them, and get them to laugh.

Michael hated building up to the information he was trying to receive. He despised people who would take forever to do things. "C'mon Hawk. I know you know about the North. Your family used to serve there."

The man behind the bar laughed in jolly, his cheeks flowing a fleshy red as he messily took another shot from a silver cup. "Oh no, did we upset the wittle baby?" He said to Michael drunkenly and with ease. Hawk had burst out laughing again, and a few others around them had joined in with him. "Mikey stone, always stiff as a bone!" He sang merrily.

Chrissa let out a giggle, but quickly swallowed it as he shot her an annoying glare. Her laughter then faded into a slight smile, and she rolled her eyes.

"Sorry," she spoke in a light tone. She then looked at the bartender who had now been cracking jokes with someone else fully immersed in laughter, and then she met eyes with Michael. Chrissa sighed, "perhaps we should find another way. He's obviously drunken out of his mind."

"No. Hawk's just joking now but he'll crack eventually."

She rolled her eyes, "I'm familiar with the forests." The princess argued, and looked back at the drunk man with crossed arms, "and we simply mustn't take such foolish directions from this...Hawk," Chrissa commented, "he could be involved with Underworlders for all we know.

"He's harmless." Michael rolled his eyes, "and I've been riding through these woods and visiting this place since I was a young boy. I know what I'm talking about. Hawk's family used to serve in the North."

"And that helps us, how?" She questioned. She couldn't possibly understand how a person who'd come from a line of poverty could help her.

"Obviously because of the connections," he pointed out. "C'mon Chriss, I know you've got a brain up there. I'd be a shame if it were to go to waste," he mocked, with narrowed eyes.