REECE placed another large tankard on the polished wooden counter, sliding it towards the man seated at the far edge. A smile crept up his lips as he made yet another one of those mugs slide towards their designated customers without spilling a single drop. He used the napkin attached to his apron to wipe the non-existent sweat off his face, then gazed towards the nearly filled tavern and realized everyone had been served. He sighed, sitting on the wooden stool to give himself a breathing room.

  He rested his head against the wall as he watched everyone under the ambience of the candle lights. The bar was where he worked most of the time, since his guardian would never allow him to stay idle. He didn't mind the stress he had to go through at the bar, they were always enjoyable, especially at nights like this.

  Everyone in the city and probably the entire kingdom had been preparing for the upcoming celebration; The King's Table. So the population of the city had practically increased within the fortnight. The more people settle in, the more they would come to bars at night to discuss and have fun. It was like a time of the year where everyone rested and enjoyed themselves.

  The King's Table was a celebration that went on for two weeks and was usually marked at the end of the months of Gethsemane. The months of Gethsemane would begin tomorrow as calculated by the royal astrologists. Yet people have been gathering for the King’s table which would happen at the tail end of three moon cycles.

  For Reece though, this period usually marked the period he was found by his current guardian. It was always a moment for him to reflect on who he was and what he had accomplished so far. Since he couldn't remember his real birthday, his other-mother had decided that the day prior to the beginning of the King's Table would be celebrated in his name.

  “What's got you smiling, painter boy?” a voice pulled him from his thoughts. He glanced up to see Kalifa smiling at him as she placed her tray on the tankard table. He seemed to have been smiling unknowingly.

  “Nothing much, are you done with your rounds?” He demanded with a grin.

  Kalifa pouted her lips in an annoyed manner. “Were you raised by pigs?” she shook her head in disgust.

  Reece shook his head. “Your Verdance, I am sorry. I hope work wasn't too tedious?” he smiled genuinely. Kalifa was one to chastise him for lack of manners, or being too cold. In fact everything he learned about basic human courtesy was taught to him by this young girl. Both his other-parents were a bit unusual.

  “My my, Your Brilliance, the mugs are indeed guarding my beer well, I have had not but a spill today and Tychera favors me with kinder hands.” She winked at him.

  “I really hate this etiquette thing. It turns everything into a poem,” Reece shook his head.

  “That is exactly what a boy raised by Erous would say,” she grimaced in disgust. “Anyways, are you alright, saw you smiling earlier and I realized you don't do that very often…” she lowered her gaze. “...since you looked so cute while smiling,” she chuckled even before he reacted in an exasperated manner.

  “I was just thinking about ‘the king’s table,’” he slid off the stool and his gaze fell on the entrance door, a new customer was coming. “It is close and I don't think I have achieved anything that tangible.”

  Kalifa frowned. “I am going to address this…” she gestured to his entire body with her index finger. “...later.” she turned to the door and it creaked open.

  As Reece had sensed, five men walked into the bar wearing mean faces. Their presence alone ushered silence from the mouth of everyone else. The entire room glanced at them and most quickly averted their gaze. Even Reece tensed up as they chose a table to sit.

  Ring Hunters. They were one of the most ill mannered official groups that existed. They walked around with enough arrogance to fill the Gazing Deep. Their arrogance was due to the nature of their job and to some extent it is earned, considering it is one of the most dangerous jobs in the city.

  Ring Hunters are hunters who dared to brave the most treacherous part of the Great forest and hunt within it. Scholars have divided the forest into five parts, aside from the uncharted parts. Reece has explored two of them.

  He had the opportunity of exploring the Silenced when he went to Alkhamas with Erous, his Other-father. This part was relatively the safest section of the forest and it was serene and beautiful. Although the deeper parts of the forest were a little scary, it harbored no real danger, apart from wild snakes and those terrible monkeys.

  The part Reece was most familiar with however was the Harrowing. It surrounded the entire Capital and it is one of the reasons why the Capital is the most inaccessible city in all of Egrimorth. The only way to reach the Capital was through either River Tyris and River Ilvera or through the Harrowing.

  The mere thought of these woods made Reece flinch. Even though he had spent lots of time in this wood, honing his skills, he never got used to the nature of that forest. The forest had this awry presence about it, like it was alien in composition. Mere looking at it, it appeared rather safe, the trees were how they should be and it smelled right. However the creatures within it were wrong and these creatures can only be found there. Most of the creatures were mutated and twisted in unnatural ways. Their physiology shows that they were similar to other normal animals found everywhere else but the forest had twisted them into something else.

  Kalifa lifted a tray filled with beer and headed in the direction of the five Ring Hunters. They were the loudest in the bar, joking and speaking on top of their voices like they had no care in the world. Reece sighed and decided to refill some of the mixed drinks that were running low.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  He didn't like the atmosphere that the group created with their presence but he couldn't say much about it, they weren't doing anything wrong, yet.

  A voice spoke behind Reece as soon as he started working. “Say you give me three copper minads and I give you a bit of my earnings when I win…” Just as the voice started speaking, Reece was already shaking his head.

  “No. I would rather stub my toe all year round than give you money. In fact, I would rather be hanged on Alaroc's testicles,” he said, turning to the person who was speaking.

  The dim light in the bar expressed the man's brown skin in a lighter tone but his teeth remained as brown and crooked as usual. He ran his hand along his bald head, sniffing at the air like a wolf cub. “You know, Reece. When I actually turn my rags into riches, I will make sure you feel the overbearing weight of my success,” he sniffled.

  Reece shook his head. “You already have, twice and somehow you always manage to turn the riches into rags. Argaz, you are cursed, admit it.”

  Argaz shook his head. “Alright, I will make my money today from a new story I learned from one of the courtyard ladies, no one else knows this story, except for the royalies,” he grinned and Reece turned away, tired of looking at his crooked teeth.

  “Argaz, you shouldn't be using our bar as a place to plunder money from customers by fabricating fiction. Why don't you try and be a writer? Write a book, and maybe it will get accepted in the Queen's library.”

  “Ah, dragon's sake, will you just let me tell a go…” he paused as the sharp crack of shattering glass drew his attention.

  Reece swung his head to see Kalifa stepping backwards from the group of ring hunters, telling them to stop. “I demand you stop this, I do not provide such services…” she was saying but she got cut short when one of the men stepped towards her and she reeled backwards.

  “You are a serving girl, you understand that?” the man said, his thick moustache seemed to be getting in the way of his speech because he sounded like a coughing horse. Yet his voice was quite audible. “You serve, and we require your service, except you don't think my men and I do enough work for you ungrateful lots to deserve what we ask for.”

  Kalifa shook her head. “This is a bar, not a whorehouse. I serve wine to my customers. I just told you that your first five mugs would be on the house.” Her voice was tense, and anyone with sense would know she was trying not to go crazy, so she picked her words one after the other. Although Reece couldn't see her face from his angle, he could tell that she was gritting her teeth while speaking. “So, you either take that, and I will lead you to the next brothel, or you leave!”

  “And if we don't leave, you will do what?” he countered and she didn't reply. “You are coming with us whether you like it or not.”

  Reece scanned the five men as she spoke. Three of them were scrawny and were wearing normal brown tunics. They seemed like they were the lackeys of the group. They were laughing at each other as the man with the thick moustache spoke to Kalifa.

  The coughing horse was indeed peculiar. He wore a large leather coat and a sailor's hat. He had a very bulky frame and it made Reece wonder how he fit in through the tavern door. He had multiple tattoos and scars on his face and no one could tell which was which. On his belt were a series of small throwing knives and as he moved, his coat revealed the hint of a longsword.

  The most peculiar man however was the one who was seated with the three lackeys just staring at the scene with a snicker on his face and a pipe in his mouth. He wasn't from these parts obviously. The shape of his face made Reece guess that he was originally from Isithill. His hair was plaited and he had multiple rings on his fingers. He was wearing an armless cloth that revealed his fine muscles, chiseled and scarred. He watched the scene with a confident snicker in his face as he puffed smoke into the air.

  Reece understood the hierarchy in the group already, so he crossed the tankard table, deciding to put an end to the unrest. “Don't steal a mug for yourself," he told Argaz as he left.

  “Can't make promises,” Argaz retorted with a cheeky smile.

  The entire tavern was focused on the scene but the moment Reece reached the scene the entire bar went dead silent. He glanced at Kalifa with a straight gaze. “You shouldn't speak to a customer with such a tone,” he commented as he bent down to pick the broken glass and ceramics.

  Normally, most of the mugs they used were wooden, but there were guests that they felt should drink from glass cups or ceramic mugs. Obviously, ring hunters were highly respected in the city. He picked up the shards one after the other, handing it to Kalifa who collected them into her tray.

  The five men were bewildered, and it made them silent for a while but soon enough their arrogance took over once more. “ Who is the kid?”

  Reece got up with relaxed eyes. “Reece White, I am the barkeep,” he bowed curtly and then glanced at Kalifa. “Your Verdance, you can leave now, allow me to help our guests settle in.”

  “Verdance?” The moustache man chuckled. “Her? Verdance?” He chuckled loudly and the other three men joined in. Reece however noticed that their boss had stopped puffing from his pipe and was staring directly at him.

  “I fail to see what is funny,” he replied without a single facial expression. “However, I guess the bar is meant to be filled with laughter.”

  Kalifa shook her head, clearly annoyed. She turned around and started to walk away but the moustache man had something to say. “The boss is still talking to you, so I suggest you stay where you are.”

  Reece smiled this time. “Oh, no, don't worry, she will bring you another round of drinks, right away.”

  “Boy get out of my way,” he brought his arm forward to shove Reece aside, but the boy caught his hand and pushed it back.

  “I am the barkeep once again and as much as we respect our customers, they are required to do the same. So please, sit down and enjoy your wine.”

  The bulky man glanced at him with an insignificant gaze. “Do you want to die boy?” He pulled out a knife from his belt and in an instant, more than a dozen men got up from their seats all around the bar. They were all holding various kinds of makeshift weapons.

  Behind them, even Argaz was standing with his stool in his hand, held like it could be thrown at any moment and a wooden mug of beer in the other hand. He winked, grinning as he took a sip to mock Reece. The boy shook his head then turned back to the ring hunters.

  “Do you really think a couple of barmen can stand against us?”

  “I most certainly do. However, we don't enjoy fighting our own customers and it is obvious you fine men are not from around here. So I will give you a chance, step out of the bar and check the name on our signboard, it will put things to perspective.”

  The bulky ringman wanted to speak, but his boss stopped him with a single raise of his hand. He then signaled to one of the three lackeys to go check the sign. Reece nodded in respect, realizing he wasn't wrong about the leader of the group. He, more than his subordinates, was a true hunter.

  A good hunter is a human that hunts an animal, however the best hunters develop instincts like the things they hunt. The man had been wary of Reece the moment he stepped into the commotion and he probably had made a preliminary assumption that even though he was a kid, he shouldn't be messed with. That instinct was the difference between life and death.

  His lackey came in after a while and whispered something into his ear and he froze for a while before clearing his throat to speak. “I apologize for the unruliness of my men. Kolar, sit down!” he ordered.

  The bulky man sat down immediately and Reece bowed to him. “First seven rounds’ on the house. If you need to release your stress, I have a place that offers a good discount and if you say you are from me, you will get the best treatment." He knew the situation would deescalate the moment they realized the name of the bar. It was an infamous one, across the entire kingdom. That was because it was owned by his other-father who was in fact a popular man but also because of the bar’s name.

  Devil's Rising.

  The leader scoffed. “I will take you up on that offer, or another one.”

  Reece nodded and then walked back to his tankard table shaking his head. He had spent the entire time keeping his emotions in control. Kalifa stared him in the eyes when he reached the table and Argaz was gulping down his stolen beer.

  “Your Verdance, I am sorry they did that, you don't need to serve them anymore if you don't want to.”

  She snickered. “This is my work and I will do it and I am impressed at the way you handled the situation, maybe there is some hope for you after all,” she winked at him and walked away.

  Reece shook his head as Argaz cleared his throat and announced. “Oi, eveyone!” He yelled and the barkeep rolled his eyes already knowing what was coming. “I am sure your wines do taste good. The king’s table is in three months, I hope you all are preparing for it,” he gulped down from his mug again, the people listening attentively to him. He was famous for his daring tales and most people at the bar loved to enjoy a good story while having a good time.

  “It is because of this celebration that I bring Devil's Rising, this beautiful story about the true reason we celebrate this grand feast called the King's Table!”