VERGLAS: In The City Of Winds

Chapter 5: Drinks and Business

Loud voices, laughter and singing surrounded Add as he entered the building, he looked around, a bunch of men and women, young and old holding each other in their arms and cheering and dancing with each other, all red in the face as if they had eaten or drunk something burning. They were all dancing to the music that a lady in blond was playing on a strange thing, she was wearing a brown coat, black gloves and seemed to be the only one in her right mind, but Add quickly moved his field of vision away from her as he crashed into something, he fell to the ground and saw, what he had hit, there stood a huge fat man, he had long red hair that reached his shoulders and a very unpleasant looking and unkempt beard, he received a wooden jug in his right hand and looked down at Add before taking another sip from the jug.Yellow, frothy liquid dripped to the floor. "Disgusting" Add thought as he looked at how little manners this pig had."Watch-you-step, dwarf."Murmured the fat man as Add got back to his feet, sounding like he was having trouble standing upright at all, his massive hiccup clearly audible as he spoke. Add only gave an annoyed grunt and wanted to follow Alia again who seemed to be waiting for him with her arms crossed. But he was held back."N-n-naaaa! Wh-what's up. Won't-you-apologize?"Murmured the man as he had definitely crossed Add's personal boundaries, barely a hairsbreadth from his face as he spoke. His breath smelled of old fish and unwashed clothes, a smell that was unfortunately very common in Baalor, he had never gotten used to it. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, this fat guy just burped in his face. Add had enough and clenched his right hand into a fist and punched the fat guy in the stomach, you could see the ripples on the guy's flabby belly through his clothes.The fat guy paused and then flipped over towards Add, but he trotted to the side and just crossed his arms and watched him fall down, a loud crack echoed through the room and everyone paused. Everyone looked towards the young demon and then at the knocked-out man. Suddenly, a voice called out.
 "Nobody liked him anyway."As if on command, the mood returned to cheers and joyful laughter. He turned back to the direction where he had last seen Alia, and there she stood with a wide grin, surely making some comment now."Wow, I didn't think you'd lose your patience so quickly, never mind you're showing strength, a lot of women around here keep an eye on that."She teased him again with another giggle. Add barely knew her and was already not surprised, he just gave a long sigh."I followed you, now what?"He asked with a grim tone, he didn't like it here, but it seemed Alia had a different opinion. How could anyone enjoy something like this? A much too loud atmosphere and the guy from just now had really spoiled his already bad mood. Alia, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying it all."Well we're in a tavern, what else do you do here?"Alia asked him, but Add had no idea. Tavern, that was the very first time he heard that. Alia only gave a sigh, but she was not annoyed, she seemed to smile and covered her face with her hand."People come here to party or get drunk on alcohol."She explained. Add continued to look at her confused."And alcohol is what?..."He inquired, this surprised Alia a bit, she just looked at him stupidly. Partly because this question just seemed stupid and partly because she herself didn't know exactly how to explain it, she just turned around and waved to someone behind a counter, she seemed to know him. He returned to the two as Alia took a seat at the counter. Add didn't know what to do so he just sat down next to her.The man had a broad smile and a brown beard and short brown hair. He wore a black apron and appeared to have a dark green shirt with longer sleeves that reached his wrists. There was something written on his apron, but he could not read it."Good day to you two. My name is Gorgon."Introduced himself to the stranger. "Alia, I see you have a colleague with you here."He spoke with quite a funny emphasis on "colleague" and gave Alia a funny look. Add realized that they had some kind of password, he returned his gaze to Alia and gave her a wry look."What?"She asked as if nothing was wrong, but her grin contradicted her tone. Add said nothing and just continued to look at her.Alia gave a sigh and put her left leg on her right."Either you like looking at me or you want to know something."Noticing his provocative look, she crossed her arms."Okay, what is it now?"She was getting a little impatient and leaned her head a little to the side."You know it well..."At that, Alia placed her right hand to her cheek and got a little red in the face."Ohooo, you're flattering me~""DON'T DO THAT! You know I mean the other!"He immediately yelled out as he let his right hand clenched into a fist crash onto the counter. Gorgon, who was watching this, laughed and placed his hands on the shoulders of both of them. "Hahaha... Let's calm down a bit. I still need my counter."Laughed. Add just gave a sigh and nodded."I asked if you were another criminal who owed Alia."He explained with a deep breath to keep himself calm. Add realized he should probably behave a little better."No-""Yes you do."She interrupted him, he turned to her and just gave her a quizzical look."I got you out of captivity, and I'm going to help you get your trinket back."Add was surprised."How do you know...""About your trinket? Simple, I saw everything."She interrupted him again. Then Add came to mind what all had happened, and remembering the injuries he had taken during his arrival in Alharih, he without further thought pulled up his black sweater and looked at his stomach. He seemed quite scrawny, so scrawny that even his few muscles had good definition, but there were no injuries, only small somewhat open scratches were left."They took you to the cathedral, someone had healed you. I had to wait until I could free you, otherwise, you would have bled out on me and that would be a shame now~"Looking up at Alia he noticed her watching him with a wide grin. He rolled his sweater back down and stared into her eyes, annoyed."What now?!""Nothing... Nothing..."She replied, Alia looked at Gorgon with an even wider grin and beckoned him to come closer. This Gorgon did as she whispered something to him. Add was even more annoyed. Why did the two of them have to make everything so extra mysterious?
Then Gorgon came and gave Add a good slap on the back with a friendly laugh. Add almost toppled forward."How about a meal and my best drinks? On the house, of course. That should settle our debt, wasn't Alia."Alia just gave a small smile and nodded. Then she leaned her head on her right hand. Her right arm propped up from the counter's table as she smiled at Add."You asked what alcohol was, right?"She reminded him. That grin. That grin formed on her face. A devilish expression. This did not please him at all. "I don't sense anything good..."Alia just giggled. Then Gorgon put a bottle of red liquid on the table and gave the boy a wooden jug. Add just watched dumbly as the red liquid was poured into the pitcher. Alia and Gorgon just both smiled at him. Add hesitated. "Go on... Try it. Unless you need my information to get your trinket, not~"Add gave an angry growl. He moved the jug to his nose and smelled the drink. Fruity. He looked at it and recognized his own face. His disgusting different-colored eyes and his pointed ears. For a moment, he just sank into emptiness with his thoughts, but Alia snapped her fingers in front of his face. Add jerked and was back, just looking at her. Alia made a gesture with her hand to the jug Add was holding."Go ahead, take a sip."She encouraged him. Add took a deep breath and took a sip, praying he wouldn't be poisoned. IMMEDIATELY! But spit it back into the jug."Gah!- THAT BURNS!"He screamed as his throat began to burn, feeling the pain all the way to his ears. Alia roared with laughter, holding her stomach as she did so."Hahahaha! You really have never had alcohol before, let alone wine."Add gave her a hateful look. "Someone is angry~. Don't worry, it'll get better with time, have another."She assured him. Add growled something unintelligible, but took another. It was still burning, but it was getting less. The third sip was already starting to taste more like fruit than burning garbage. No sooner had anyone made a mistake than the boy had drunk the entire pitcher. Add let his jug crash on the wooden table and gave Gorgon a big grin, that tasted good. He wants more.Gorgon just laughed and poured him more, and more, and more.After a while, Add had extreme redness on his face and the world started spinning wildly and his vision blurred."W-what to..."But he didn't know this condition, he didn't even know what alcohol was. Suddenly, a huge feeling of self-consciousness came over him. But before Add could do anything, he was overcome with a sense of fatigue, falling backward from the bar stool onto the floor, toppling a bunch of other chairs in the process. Like dominoes, he created chaos in the tavern. But Add was sound asleep. Alia roared with laughter.