The Bird and the Garden 3: The Final Adventure

Chapter 7: The Beast of the Mountain

Sasha was the first to wake up. Yawning and stretching her muscular arms, she made her way down the stairs. "Morni-"

The tall tomboy stopped. Salem and Oswald were still staring at each other, neither having moved a muscle out of sheer distrust for one another. Salem looked exhausted, dark circles appearing under her eyes. Oswald... He was wearing a helmet. His eyes weren't visible. In fact, Sasha was ninety percent sure he had fallen asleep and no one noticed. "... Am I... Interrupting something?"

Salem shrieked in surprise, snapping her head in Sasha's direction. "O-oh... You startled me..."

"Did you not sleep?" Sasha inquired. Salem didn't respond - she had started staring off into space, a distant look in her blue eyes. Sasha brought her hand close to the princess's face and snapped her fingers, bringing Salem back to reality.

"Wha...?"

Sasha shook her head. "Nevermind. I'm gonna step outside for a sec, get some fresh air."

Sasha stepped outside the door, taking a deep breath as she watched the early-rising dwarves chat as they worked. Sasha hummed thoughtfully. The dwarves really were hard-working people. She kind of admired it, in a way. Her attention, however, was ensnared when a trash can tipped over in the alley.

"U-unyu... Everything h-hurts..."

Vao stumbled out, holding his bruised head painfully. He looked up at Sasha, nodding his head towards her. "Morning, m-mate..."

Sasha sucked air through her teeth. "They fucked you up, huh?"

Vao nodded. "They threw rocks at me... It reminded me of my eleventh birthday."

Sasha blinked. "... Huh?"

Vao leaned against the wall of the tavern, taking a painful sip from his flask and clearing his throat. "Yeah... On my eleventh birthday, I did something naughty and my mum threw a bunch of rocks at me."

Sasha chuckled. She could use one of Vao's funny stories right now. "Naughty? What did you do?"

"I burned down half of my school."

Not funny.

"W-what!?"

Vao scoffed. "Oh relax. It was an accident. And it was only half. That's like, two classrooms."

Sasha really didn't know how to react to this. "How do you 'accidentally' burn down a school!?"

"It was only half! Open your ears!" Vao snapped. "And it's easy to burn things down on accident. Wot I was doing that day was showing Ruby a cool trick my dad taught me. I was juggling torches. Only I kind of forgot to learn how to juggle. I still don't know how."

Sasha took a few deep breaths, turned on her heel, and walked back inside. Vao decided to loiter about outside, drinking as he chatted with the occasional passing dwarf.

Sasha leaned against the bar counter, watching as Yin came down the stairs. "Elf," he hissed.

"Bitch."

Yin's face shifted between a mix of rage and trying to make a comeback. "Go to hell!" He eventually screamed.

Before Sasha could insult him again, they both looked back at the stairs when they heard a yawn. Verde emerged from the darkness, a sleepy look in her eyes. "Good morning, everyo-"

"Shut up! You're worse than the elf, you common whore!" Yin screamed at her. Almost immediately after he finished his sentence, a glass bottle shattered against the side of his skull. Vao stood in the doorway, dusting his hands off.