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Chapter 10 - Chapter 3 (Pages 44-48)

"That's ok I think me and Tharon will just get something to eat and then head to the temple from her." Zarath looked to his friend for a little help.

 "I will go tell her dad what we want to order you two have fun chatting." Tharon stood up excusing himself from the awkward conversation Zarath was clearly trapped in. All Zarath could do was mouth the words you suck as his friend walked away. To which Tharon just smiled and left.

 "Oh, you mean the temple of the sacred waters right my mom told me about that place." Lyra's face suddenly turned into a small pout as she crossed her arms.

 "Well sadly you can't get in today, you see they are doing some big ceremony thing about remembrance or something I don't know." Lyra continued on still oblivious to how uncomfortable she was making Zarath. But he knew what she was talking about the ceremony of the ancestral remembrance it was a ceremony preformed on the anniversary of someone's death as the religious believe of the Wolfkin was that they joined their ancestors in the afterlife and that it was the spirits of their long-deceased kin that watched over the land and the people of their tribes. Zarath remembered having to take part in all the ceremonies of ancestral remembrance last year for the Iron Claw tribe as part of his Grak'Shrak training with Koto the tribes Tharakar. So, he knew there was no way that he and Tharon were getting into that temple today. The ceremony lasted from dawn until dusk.

 "Hey if you want, we have spare rooms to rent out here." Lyra slammed her hands down onto the table popping up out of the chair as she did. Her tail wagging a million miles a second. Here eyes sparkling like stars as she looked at Zarath.

 "What do you mean I don't see any rooms." Zarath was caught off guard by her sudden outburst of energy.

 "Oh, not down here up in the canopy." Lyra points up through the hollowed tree that made up The Barking Dog tavern. Up a few stories in the air, a carved-out balcony with a staircase that was built into the outer layer of the tree's inner trunk.

 "That's just the family section of the house we have a few rooms built on the outer branches as well as a storage area, my parents rent out the spare room every now and then." Lyra tail kept wagging behind her.

 This time the one to interrupt them was Lyra's older brother. Toren. He grabbed his sister and forced her to sit back down in the chair she was now standing on.

 "Lyra can you clam down your making the boy uncomfortable, and besides did you even talk to Va'tar(father) and Va'mir(mother)? About any of this." Toren looked at Zarath as if he was saying I feel sorry that you caught my sister's attention.

 "No, but you and dad are always saying we need more business. I was just trying to help." Lyra burst up from the chair pouting at her brother Toren.

 "Why do you not use Sariik, it is the native tongue of our people." Toren looked at his sister as she sprang up and pouted, he was so used to her hyperactive personality he didn't even flinch except for his ear twitching from how loud she was.

 "So is Urrak, but other than the language our parents speak, we both speak common and even speak Sylvanian and the only elf we know is dads' friend, on top of that we both speak a little bit of Felari and I've never once seen a Felinar in all the thirteen years I've been alive have you Toren. Or should I say Boren." Lyra put her hands on her hips daring her brother to do something with Zarath a paying customer sitting at the table both siblings were about to start again when suddenly all you heard over all the noise and commotion of the tavern was a single person with a distinct femmine voice.

 "Toren! Lyra! stop causing a scene in the tavern, Lyra either sit down or get out of that chair do not stand on my furniture do you hear me little lady." Zarath turned to see the wolfkin chef that was working in the taverns open kitchen standing there untying the apron from her waist as she started to walk over to the table. At the same time Tharon reappeared at the table.

 "Ugh what did I miss Zarath?" Tharon asked his friend just as confused as he was.

 The wolfkin chef approached the table. Her fur was a dense thick mess of gray with dark streaks down her sides and back, despite the slight amount of baby fat on her arms one look and you could tell she would crush you if you crossed her. As she approached the table her fiery amber eyes bore into her two children. As she grew closer you could hear and feel the weight of her steps, the table Zarath and Tharon were sitting at shook a little. She stood an imposing almost seven feet tall, just slightly shorter than the guards at the gate the boys seen earlier now up close you could tell that despite being a mother and the head cook of this tavern Lyra and Toren's mother was the real muscle of this place, as she had the body of a warrior and the marks along her forearms to prove she had seen her fair share of fighting.

 "Both of you dishes now!" She pointed towards the open kitchen where their father the Fennec Raan'Tor was keeping his head down clearly knowing not to angry his wife.

 "Yes Mother." Lyra said.

 "Yes Va'mir." Toren said. Both heading off towards the kitchen. The woman turned to both Zarath and Tharon and with the sweetest voice.

 "Now I do hope you two boys weren't put off by that my name is Kaela and as you can guess from that display, I am those two's mother, my husband and I run this place now let's get you boys and your friend something hot to eat." Kaela sauntered back to the kitchen yelling something at one of the kitchen aids. Zarath turned and looked at his friend Tharon, both boys trying to hold in a laugh.

 "Is it just me or was that just the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us." Tharon asked his belly, jiggling slightly as he tried to keep calm.

 "I don't know I think that we fell into that old hunting net was weirder remember how long it took old man Thren to get us down." Zarath covered his mouth.

 "Yeah, that was weird, I wonder if Thren is still leaving in that hut out in the northern plains our tribe hasn't gone that way in a while." Tharon thought about that time both he and Zarath where only seven winters old when that happened and old Thren was one of the few wolfkin they knew that lived in a permanent location.

 

 

 "So., are we going to stay the night a decent bed would be a nice change compared to the last four days." Tharon eyed Zarath with that I know you want to look.

 "Alright, fine that girl just makes me on edge I mean it seriously like how she just snuck up on me." Zarath stood from the table grabbing the coin pouch his father gave them from one of his bags and began to walk towards the bar Hura following right behind him as he left Tharon at the table.

 "Sure, on edge." Tharon muttered under his breath as Zarath walked away.

Zarath approached the bar where Raan'Tor was working the Fennec turned his head to acknowledge the boy as he approached. Setting down the tankard he was washing out at the time.

 "I take it you're going to ask me about those rooms for rent." Raan'Tor turned to Zarath as he asked the question, seeing the small coin bag the boy was carrying. He sat the glass he was cleaning down and picked up a bottle from behind the counter the liquid inside of it a pure amber color.

 "Well, I was not sure if I should, but we don't have anywhere else to sleep and it's probably safer to sleep indoors even if this is a Wolfkin settlement." Zarath sat down at the bar looking at Raan'Tor for some sign of apprehension at his request.

 "Look my daughter has clearly taken an interest in you." Raan'Tor poured the amber like liquid into the glass he had just cleaned. "So, I will be nice and let you stay the night on the house, but I don't want any funny business do you understand me young man." Raan'Tor stared dead at Zarath. Zarath clearly caught of guard by the response, his fur stood on end and his face visible changed red.

 "I have no intention…or I mean that…Your daughter is." Zarath was trying to think of what to say for once in his life he was caught completely unprepared unlike life back with the Iron Claw tribe none of the girls had every really took an interest in him or openly showed it and then the fact that Lyra wasn't a personality he was use to dealing with her hyperactive nature or the fact she just did as she pleased, Zarath had no idea how to react with her and the fact her father was now giving him a hard time about it as well.

 "I'm only teasing you boy you remind me of a younger clan member I had back when I was apart of my people always so awkward when he didn't know what to say." Raan'Tor took a drink from the glass he had poured letting out a deep satisfied sigh as he tasted the alcohol.

 "What do you mean part of your people? Doesn't your family own this place." Zarath managed to ask as he regained his composure over being teased.

 "Well as you guessed I'm a Fennce my people originally come from the Whispering Sands it's a land on the continent of Da'rath south of the Howling Sea I don't remember when the first of my people came to this continent, but I made the journey oh I'd say twenty or thirty years ago back when I was your age. I left my clan in search of adventure and traveled between all the kingdoms on this land before I meet my wife here in Vaerthruin." Raan'Tor seemed to lose himself in thought as he spoke, thinking back to how many adventures he had perhaps.

 "Any way my Kaela will kill me if I throw two young boys out on their first adventure out onto the streets so for now enjoy some of my wife's food and after we close, I will have Toren show you to your rooms."

 

 

 

 After a few hours of waiting Zarath and Tharon enjoyed sitting in the Barking Dog Tavern, they watched as patrons and guests from all the different Wolfkin Tribes in Vaerthuin came and went some stopping for a quick drink, others staying for hours and being dragged out by their friends. A few of the Krellar of each tribe taking note of Zarath and Hura others asking Thoren where he got his wyvern bone spear. Neither boy had ever dealt with this many people at once let alone seen this many people at once, their Tribe's camp maybe had a little over a hundred people, maybe at most a hundred and fifty people. As the sky outside darkened and the crowds slowly dispersed for the night Toren led the boys up to the upper levels of the hollowed-out tree that made up the taverns upper levels all be it in an unhappy fashion while doing it. 

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