"Don't let me see you near this tavern again old Garth, not until you pay up the debt you owe."
The tavern doors slammed shut with a loud bam, leaving the old man groaning on the ground.
Freddy slowly exhaled and stepped toward him.
"Are you alright, old man?"
Garth rolled over onto his back, wheezing dramatically before one sharp eye cracked open. "Aye… I'm fine—hiccup. Just a little disagreement about my tab."
He wobbled up to his feet, but staggered heavily almost kissing the floor again if not for Freddy's timely intervention.
Freddy now supporting the old guy finally decided to ask. "You are old Garth, right?"
Old Garth who was rubbing his bruised ribs, suddenly narrowed his gaze at Freddy. "Do I owe you money?"
"Uhm....no" Freddy answered, visibly taken aback by the change in subject.
"Then yes, I'm Garth. Nice to—hiccup—meet you lad." Hearing the reply from Garth, Freddy couldn't stop his eye from twitching.
"That's great, there's something I would like to ask you about—"
"Hooold it right there —hiccup. I don't have any obligations to answer you." Old Garth started with a slur. "If you want my time, lad—hiccup… You gonna have to pay for it."
Freddy clenched his jaw in frustration, however for the sake of the quest he still asked, "How much?"
Hearing the boys inquiry grinned, revealing a set of yellow teeth "Not much —hiccup. Just one teeny-tiny gold coin."
Freddy finally had it. Turning around abruptly he directly ignored old Garth and headed into the tavern
The abrupt movement of his support caught Old Garth off-guard sending him face first back to the ground.
"Hold on lad, the price is up for discussion. How about I give you a discount —hiccup." Old Garth called out from the floor.
BAM!
However, the only reply he received was the slamming sound of the tavern door. Sighing he muttered to himself, "Maybe I should have lowered the price a bit."
As he walked into the tavern, Freddy could hear Garth grumbling behind him, but he didn't slow down.
Stepping into the tavern, Freddy almost reeled at the sight before him. The boisterous voices, clinking mugs, and the thick smell of ale. Everything inside was loud and rowdy.
At the same time he was cursing old Garth furiously in his mind 'F*ucking old bag of bones. One gold coin to speak to you, might as well take up a gun and start robbing people.'
Thinking about this he arrived at the counter where the man who threw old Garth out the door earlier was currently cleaning some mugs with his back to the entrance—apparently he was the bartender.
"One mug of beer please." Freddy spoke and placed five copper coins on the counter.
"Alright coming up." The bartender, not even turning to look at the customer picked up a clean mug and dipped it into a barrel containing one of the different brands of ale.
When the bartender turned around to hand him the beer, his eyes widened at the sight of the customer.
"You're that lad," he said, leaning closer. "The one who took down the Hog King."
Freddy blinked. "Uh… yeah."
A grin suddenly split the man's face. "Well damn, boy! Should've said that earlier." He placed the beer before Freddy, then reached under the counter, pulling out a frothing mug, then added it beside it with a satisfying thunk. "One mug as you ordered… and one mug of our finest barley ale, for the young Beast Slayer. It's on the house."
"Thanks" Freddy accepted both with a nod and sat down on a table.
'How do I get old Garth to talk? He's clearly bent on scamming me. And the annoying part is that I have to fall for it even if I know he's scamming me.' Freddy thought as he took a sip from the mug of barley ale.
The cool refreshing taste of the beer seemed to rejuvenate him and he couldn't help but look at the mug again.
'Wow, do they have refrigerators here or something? How can this ale be so cold.' As he glanced at the table, his eyes caught the sight of the two mugs of beer and an idea immediately rang in his head.
Smirking, Freddy picked up both mugs and exited the tavern, his eyes scanned for his target and he began approaching as soon as he found the old man.
Garth was already sitting up against the wall, as if he hadn't been thrown out moments ago. Freddy quietly walked over and sat beside him with both mugs in hand.
The scent of fresh, chill ale suddenly startled the old man who had his head drooping. Raising his head he saw the kid from earlier sitting beside him with his eyes looking forward and two mug of ale in hand.
GULP!
Freddy who was directly ignoring old Garth heard a loud gulping sound from beside him yet he kept ignoring quietly sipping the ale in one mug.
"Hey lad, you wanted to ask me about something earlier right?" Garth's voice came softly from the side.
"You said it takes one gold coin to talk to you and I don't have that so forget it." Freddy replied and took another swig from the mug.
Sighing in satisfaction, Freddy continued, "How nice it'll be to share my drink with someone."
Freddy didn't look at him, but he could feel Garth's gaze glued to the mugs.
"Alright what do you want to ask? I'll do the gods a favor and tell you for free since you're a realm-hoppers." Old Garth replied, much to Freddy's surprise.
'That was a lot easier than I thought.' Freddy thought, but still asked his questions.
"What do you know about this shirt?" Freddy asked touching the shirt under his armor.
"You wouldn't let an old man answer your questions with a dry throat. Would you?"
Hearing Old Garth reply, Freddy rolled his eyes inwardly and handed one mug over to him.
Garth grabbed the mug, tipped it back and chugged half of it in one go. Not a single drop spilled.
Garth lowered the mug slowly, and exhaled in satisfaction. "What was your question again?"
Freddy, sitting beside him, asked again, "I asked what you knew about this shirt?"
"Uhm—it's a shirt meant to be worn, what else am I suppose to know?" Old Garth replied with a clueless expression.
"Let me rephrase that, what do you know about the embroidery on this shirt. The embroidery of a blade wrapped in ivy?"
As soon as Freddy asked that question, Old Garth's eyes suddenly narrowed—dangerously, his tone ice-cold as he asked, "Who are you, and how do you know about the embroidery?"