Jessica's celebration (that turns into trouble)

Jessica was riding high after her victory in the arena.  She finally had a place to stay, and a little money.  She knew she could make a great deal more next time she entered the arena, so she allowed herself to celebrate.  Particularly she celebrated in the tavern.  This was new to her--her school hadn't allowed the girls to drink, or do much other than practice magic, really.  She occasionally entered such places when she was homeless after running away from the school, but she never had any money to try the mead.   As the tavern maid brought her a third mug of mead, the girl kissed her playfully on the cheek as she tossed her a tip.  "A drink for you..." she said, handing the server more money.  "A drink for everybody!  I won!  Did you hear what the Empress said to me?" she swaggered, "I can stay here.  Like an Enferia citizen!  Drink up, people, this is a homecoming!" she said, holding up her mug,  "To the home I never had!""

While many in the tavern accepted the free drinks happily enough to put up with her self-aggrandizing swagger, not all eyes looked pleasantly on her.  Two figures buried under large brown overcloaks considered her from a corner behind her, and gestured to each other in a way that could only be called conspiratorial.

As Jessica finished up her third cup and was duly inhibited by the drink, the figures stood before her and threw off their cloaks, revealing red robes very similar to Jessica's.  Each had managed to conceal a staff under their bulky overcloaks as well.  One was very close to Jessica's age.  Her face seemed to be accustomed to cruel and judgemental expressions, but was somehow still pretty.  It was framed by straight auburn hair that fell a bit below her chin.  The heavier-set one must have been a decade or two older.  She was not unattractive, but seemed not to share any of Jessica's concern for her appearance, wearing no makeup, and her hair tied up in a messy bun at the back.  In spite of this, she wore a complexly-designed necklace with a red crystal at the center.

Jessica was so tipsy she barely noticed the significance of their dramatic gesture of decloaking until they spoke.  "Ahhh, here you are, disgracing yourself again, as usual, Jess." said the younger of the two.  The older merely glared in disapproval.  Jessica looked up at them, and squinted her eyes into focus.  "Abigail?  Heady?  What are you doing here?"

"We're bringing you back.  And you're lucky if that's all we do to you after the way you destroyed the commencement proceedings.  My family saw me naked.  Naked!  And everyone was covered in mud.  But I graduated, I'm a journeyman pyromancer now." She gestured to her staff, as if to emphasize its use as a mark of achievement. "And my first task on my way to master is to bring you back to the school...apprentice."

Jessica smiled, and tipped her head, drunk enough to believe her objections would influence their actions.  "Nnnnoo.  You can't do that.  I'm stayin here, and the Emp-eror-essa...Queen...shaid sho."

"We saw that...performance..,of yours in the arena.  It made it very easy to find you in this vast city.  No pyromancer, apprentice or otherwise, should lower herself to that kind of..."  the Headmistress couldn't find the word, "...spectacle.  That's why we need to take you back.  You might have made a joke of our graduation ceremonies, but we'll be damned if we let you besmirch the name of our school in a public spectacle like that.  That's why you're going to come quietly."

Jessica straightened her posture defiantly, "And if I don't?"  The question was not rhetorical, and you could see the headmistress becoming agitated.  Abigail's staff began to glow, but with a wave of her hand, the headmistress doused its power.  "Not here, Abigail.  Remember, the outside world doesn't have wards against fire.  You'd burn this place to cinders."  Before those words were even uttered, the majority of bystanders had noticed the impending use of magic and retreated to the front room of the premises, closer to the door.  Many left the building altogether, but a few remained to see the ensuing struggle.

"We're going to drag you back and discipline you properly," said Abigail,  "By your hair if need be, kicking and screaming, stripped to your knickers, however hard you make it on yourself.  But come quietly and spare yourself the trouble."

"I'd sooner shove that staff somewhere the sun fails to shine," responded Jessica, "but there's no room because you already have a huge stick up--"

Her sentence was interrupted as Abigail slapped her.

(I'm going to leave this up for a while, and see if anyone nearby intervenes.  But I may just continue at any time.  It's going to develop quickly--I just thought it would be cool to do some character development and do something that happens kind of quickly--if no one minds, I may suspend regular initiative and turn speed rules here--but not against anyone who enters the fray--it can't be used to attack them out of turn, or to the disadvantage of anyone but Jessica and the two NPC's, who may fight each other kind of quickly.  I clarify what I'm planning in a long post on the rules forum.)

Jessica instinctively rose from her seat, ready to fight.

"Now, now," interjected the headmistress, "she's less likely to resist if you don't provoke her."

"But I _want_ her to resist!" Abigail replied, talking intimidatingly in the mage's face. "Hey, Jessie! Remember that time when the girls and I stripped you to your pink panties then tied you to a column in the auditorium and tickled you until you wet yourself right before the afternoon assembly gathered? We'll bring you back to the school and it will be just like that again. You certainly deserve whatever the girls do to you, after that prank you pulled at graduation."

With three pyromancers in the room, it was unusual that the only fire burning was in Jessica's eyes as she considered Abigail. The girl was only one year older than her, but had bullied her almost every year she spent at the academy. Jessica wanted to cry, but she found a new emotion--rage.

"Hey, Jessie-wessie, aren't you listening?" Abigail continued. She raised her hand to slap Jessica again, but this time, Jessica's hand flew up and caught her wrist. Abigail looked shocked at the speed she had moved, but still felt confident she'd drag Jessica back to the far-away school with very little difficulty. After all, it was two on one, and her backup was the headmistress herself. How could she fail? After all, she was the school's favorite graduate.

"Give me that!" Jessica shouted, grabbing Abigail's staff with her free hand.  The two struggled, until Jessica finally released Abigail's hand and grabbed the staff with both hands.  Abigail responded by using her free hand to pull Jessica's hair.






Headmistress Lawson watched quietly, almost unemotionally, as the scene unfolded.  Jessica had control of the staff now, and swung it hard in an upward fashion.  As intended, it caught Abigail between the legs, and Jessica's assailant bent over in pain and shock.



Jessica took the staff and threw it back behind the bar, grabbing her dazed opponent by the robes.  "I see you want to do this the hard way," Abigail growled, intercepting the brunettes hands.  Abigail pulled Jessica into her knee, then took advantage of her opponent's pain by stepping on the hem of her robes and pushing her away sharply. Jessica's robes tore, and the bottom half was hanging loose. Jessica didn't even bother to look before grabbing the bottom of Abigail's robes and pulling. Abigail heard the fabric tear, and dove right into Jessica, grabbing the top of her robes and tearing them, swatting away Jessica's arms as she tried to stop her.

"Yes, get her," Headmistress Lawson chimed in calmly.

Jessica's attempt to grab at Abigail's robe failed miserably, and she ended up on the ground with Abigail on top of her.  Abigail caught her foot in the bottom of Jessica's dress.  With her hands on Jessica's arm and shoulder, she kicked the air violently, her foot taking the bottom part of Jessica's dress with it.  Jessica got her hands free and ripped off the top of Abigail's robe, leaving her in just a dress.  As both mages climbed to their feet, they assessed each other anew and faced off.

"Bunnies?!" Abigail taunted.  Pink bunnies?  Where do you even find such undergarments?"

The headmistress clapped calmly, yet appreciatively.

Jessica's face was reddening visibly.  A close observer could see something building up inside her.  The situation was becoming untenable.  Abigail reached for the top of her dress, but she was able to sidestep her.  Unluckily for Abigail, Jessica's foot managed to pin the hem of her dress to the floor, and as Abigail moved forward, the bottom of the dress tore.  She groaned audibly as her plain white panties came into view.  Cursing, she charged Jessica, and tore into the top of her dress.



Jessica responded by grabbing her wrists, and kneeing her between the legs...but pressure was building up...Jessica's palms felt wet...was she sweating?  As Abigail's arms broke free from her slippery palms, she was confronted with a spray of mud.  It didn't take long for Jessica to remember that she could direct the flow, and soon, Abigail was covered head to toe--her face, her body, her hair, her shoes, the remains of her dress, and her panties were dripping mud.


"I always knew someone so foul as you was only meant to channel the baser elements," the Headmistress scolded.  Chancing an attack from Abigail once she was able to recover, Jessica turned her wrath on the older woman who was taunting her.  "Nooooo!!!   Mmmmmph!" was all Headmistress Lawson was able to get out, as the mud started to get into her mouth as she spoke.  She dropped her staff to the ground and charged at Jessica angrily.

The elder mage slipped on the mud on the floor and landed face down before getting to Jessica, but Abigail was luckier.  Grabbing hold of Jessica's pink bra, she was able to remove it entirely.  Jessica was desperate at this point.  At first she covered her exposed nipples with one hand, but, realizing the peril she was in, she reached out with both hands and removed what remained of Abigail's dress.  The headmistress was still on the ground, sliding around in the mud, but Jessica didn't imagine that she'd remain that way for long.  

As Abigail charged at her, Jessica thought fast, dodging to the side, she found her opponent off-balance.  Grabbing at her opponent's full-cut white panties, she pulled up hard.  Abigail shrieked, "You bitch," as Jessica pulled so hard the panties tore away, leaving Abigail tumbling to the ground.  Fortunately for Jessica, the Headmistress found herself breaking her star student's fall, sending her back to the ground.  It was Jessica's turn to finish Abigail.  Picking up her opponent and holding her from behind in a humiliating bearhug, she removed her bra.  The few spectators who remained commented on the view of her muddy body and her full, hairy bush.  Abigail whined unintelligibly.  She was nude now, except for her shoes.  Jessica breathed a sigh of relief.  


"You are both so disappointing to me." came a voice from behind her.  "Jessica, you're so disobedient.  You should be more...pliable, like Abigail here.  And _you_ Abigail, if you were as smart as Jessica, you would have earned your place as my star student.  You're lucky that Jessica has that rebellious streak, or you'd still be a nobody."  Jessica started to release Abigail, but it was too late.  She felt her pink bunny panties wedging into her behind, cutting into her both in the front and back.  As Abigail stepped away from her and covered herself, spectators could see dark public hair on either side of the now-thong-like pink panties.  As she continued to pull upward, Jessica's panties tore right off.



Abigail, free of the bearhug, tried to cover herself.



"You, my dear, are finished." said the Headmistress.  "We're going back to the school, but before we do, I think I need to teach both of you a lesson."



Jessica's attention was on trying (and failing) to cover her newly-exposed public hair.  The older woman had other plans, though.  Grabbing a chair, she sat and pulled Jessica onto her lap.  The young mage was so dumbfounded by having lost and been stripped entirely that she barely fought back.




"Now tell me why this is happening." the headmistress said, smacking the soft, pale rear in front of her.  "Mmmmmm...ahhh!" shrieked Jessica.  The question and the smack were repeated.  "Why?" **SMACK!**  "Say it!"  "Nooooo"  **SMACK** "Why?"  "Because I'm a bad girl."  The scene was ridiculous playing out with the 21-year old mage on the headmistress' lap.  But a viewer would suspect that this had happened before.  Jessica seemed to know exactly what to do--and for some reason, her usual rebelliousness was dormant now.  After a dozen or so more smacks to her reddened behind, Jessica was dropped to the floor.  "Tie her up," ordered the headmistress, gesturing to strips of cloth on the floor.  "Tie her hands good, and gag her...we don't want her casting, as you well know."  When Abigail had done as the headmistress ordered, she started to look for any pieces of clothing big enough to tie around her body.





"No, no." said the headmistress.  "Come here."
Abigail put her head down, and reluctantly, yet under her own power, bent over the headmistress's lap in the same way.  As Jessica struggled against her bonds, she witnessed Abigail getting almost as severe a spanking as she had--but while the headmistress had been fairly quiet after Jessica admitted that she was a bad girl, Abigail got a lecture as well: "You'll have to do better than you did today if you ever want to reach master status.  And, perhaps serve me a little better."  After a few minutes, Abigail was allowed to get up.  

"Bring me your staff," ordered the headmistress.  Abigail nodded and complied.  "Now prop her up."  She propped Jessica as her teacher ordered, with her exposed, red, backside sticking up.  "Now," said the headmistress, wielding Abigail's staff.  "You said something about shoving this where the sun doesn't shine.  I think it would be a nice lesson for you before we set off for home to learn not to threaten something you wouldn't want to experience yourself."

"Who is this filthy mage, and what are you doing to that scrumptious morsel!?" shouted a high, but commanding voice from the far end of the room, closer to the entrance to the tavern.  Headmistress Lawson looked up and saw a statuesque redhead in a lavender dress with a provocative slit, from her navel to her neck.  


Jessica, for her part, didn't like being referred to as a "scrumptious morsel," but few things seemed worse right now than what the headmistress and planned for her.  "Please Mi'lady, these women wish me violence."

"Well, that's obvious enough...and I can't say it isn't some deliciously decadent violence that I'd like to see.  But two on one seems a bit unfair...let's...even the odds a bit, shall we?"

"I'm warning you, this is none of your business.  This little hussy here is the property of the Pyromancer's Academy of..."  Before she could finish her sentence, the statuesque woman aimed her slender, elegant wand at her, and an unseen force threw her backward, the staff falling to the ground behind her yet again.



"Just who do you think you are?" spat the winded pyromancer.

"They call me Irlana the Magnificent...well, full disclosure, I call me that.  Irlana, Sorceress-Errant, At your service."

"You could serve me best by leaving us to our business uninterrupted."  

"Well, old lady, I'm sorry I can't do that.  Or, I could, but I don't wish to."

Standing up, the headmistress bristled, "I am NOT old.  I am 39."  

"Keep dreaming.  Here, let me help."  With another flick of her wand, a bowl flew off the table behind Headmistress Lawson and smacked her in the back of the head.

The headmistress rubbed her sore head with one hand, while a ball of fire was sizzling to life in her other.  

"Headmistress, no!" Abigail shouted.

(Irlana rolls a critical defense!  I've been rolling this out, but not posting the rolls to keep the story continuity going.  I don't know exactly how this will play out--I expected Jessica to do a little better than she did--but she didn't, and ended up paying the consequences--let's see if this mysterious new protagonist meets the same fate.)

The pyromancer launched her spell at Irlana, ignoring her own earlier advice about not starting fires indoors.  Luckily for the Ripped Bodice Tavern, Irlana was a quick thinker.  A bucket of water that was resting on the bar suddenly bounced off the back wall and flew through the air, hitting a column and emptying its contents on the fireball in flight, dousing its magic.  No one who witnessed it could believe their eyes, but Irlana played it off as a typical show of her skill.

"Damn, I'm good.  Now I recommend you leave this place."  She looked at Abigail, then gestured to Jessica.  "First, you untie this girl.  And _you_ old woman...get out of here before I change my mind--and leave her here."

"Fat chance of that," said Headmistress Lawson, "she destroyed our most sacred rite of passage, humiliated our students and faculty, not to mention some of their family members, and took absence from the school without permission.  She's coming back to face her punishment."

"Then what was this?" Irlana asked, pointing to Jessica, who, not untied was climbing to her feet, looking grateful, but shellshocked.  "I think she's paid more than enough for whatever you think she's done.  If you touch her again, you'll regret it."

"What is she to you?" asked the headmistress.  Abigail just covered herself in the corner, eyes wide with fear at the powers the stranger had showed.  "Come, Jessica," said the headmistress, grabbing Jessica's arm roughly.  

Irlana charged forward, grabbing at the top of the headmistress robe, "I told you to leave her alone!"  The robe was partially torn.  Much to her surprise the headmistress, in turn, grabbed her assailant's wrist, and twisted, tearing at the open upper section of the dress with her other hand.  





The attack was successful, and, as the outfit didn't allow for a bra, Irlana's large breasts bounced into full view.  Irlana feigned a desire to cover her breasts, pulled her hands free, and then grabbed at the bottom of the headmistress' robe.  With a rip, it came free, leaving her in a dress and the very damaged remains of the upper part of her robe.

"You presumptuous bitch, I'll teach you to interrupt my official duties to punish wayward students!"  spat the older of the two women, as she tore at the skirt of Irlana's dress.  It was heavily damaged, but still holding on by a thread.

The strange foreign mage replied by getting a strong grip on what was left of her robe, and hitting her with a punch hard enough to knock her back, leaving the remains of the robe hanging from her other hand.  "This woman is an adult--she can leave if she wishes!"

"Get her!" was the first thing Abigail had uttered in some time.  Jessica, on the other hand, was still quiet, traumatized, and, being careful to steer clear of the combat in front of her, slowly making for the exit, keeping her eyes peeled for any cloth she could use to cover herself.  "Oh, no you don't," said Abigail, who promptly tackled her to the ground, rolled her over, and pinned her by sitting on her chest, holding her leg locked to keep her from squirming out.  Jessica slapped and pushed at the rear sitting in front of her breasts, but to now avail.  For now, anyway, she was pinned.






Meanwhile, Ms. Lawson had grabbed for Irlana's skirt, but the mage was too wily to be caught this time.  Stepping aside, she grabbed at the pyromancer's dress as she passed, kicking her in the rear to maintain her momentum, or perhaps just to add insult to injury.  (critical hit!)  The headmistress screamed indignantly as she climbed back to her feet.  Her plain white bra and panties were exposed.  The onlookers in the other room applauded at seeing this unpleasant authority figure looking so uncomfortable in her large, plain underwear.  This gesture also exposed a lot of clean, pale skin, that contrasted with the mud-covered areas like her forearm and face.

She looked down on her body as if to consider covering herself, but a look of rage came over her.  She hurled herself at Irlana with such ferocity that she not only tore off the remaining bottom of the dress, but knocked her down.

Climbing to her feet, Irlana in turn made a grab for the pyromancer's panties.  She was not only successful in removing the oversized white panties from the older woman, exposing a veritable forest of pubic hair, but she fended off a counterattack that would have stripped her of her equally large, but rather fancy, pink panties.  




With a punch to the abdomen and a grab for the bra, Irlana finished the job of stripping her opponent.  Large, hanging breasts with huge areolas swung free.  "You little bitch...I....I..."  The headmistress had no room for words when she realized she had lost her last vestige of dignity.  The crowd in the other room had grown during the fight, with new people those who retreated due to the concern over fire magic.




Irlana knew her job wasn't done.  Irlana knocked the mage to the floor and pinned her until she relented, too weak to fight more.  Then, she rolled her over, and gave her as hard a spanking as she had given the two younger women.  With the older mage fully subdued, she walked over to Jessica and Abigail, who were still struggling with one another on the ground.  The mere sight of the mage who had beaten her principal caused Abigail to back off.  





"Oh, Abigail?" Jessica called out.  The girl turned and was met with a punch powerful enough to knock her to the floor.  She was conscious, but didn't want to get up...she was out of fight.

Jessica regarded the strange mage in the pink panties.  "So, I assume I'm supposed to thank you now?"

"I could finish the job with the staff..."

"Uh, no; that's quite alright.  Thank you, um."

"Irlana."  "I'm Jessica."  "I'd like to get to know you better, Jessica, I think you owe me that much."

"Sure, but let's get out of here before--"

"There they are!" called a nearly comically high voice.  "Them mages wot were fighting.  Those two beat the others up.  They were using magic, I tell you, almost burned the place down." The emaciated woman who the voice belonged to was surrounded by the city guard, and pointing directly at Jessica and Irlana.  

"We'll take them all in," the guard said, assuringly, "and find out what happened here.  Maybe they know each other, belong to rival gangs or something."  "Well, three of them did have the same red robes on."  "Thank you, ma'am, you've done your part for Enferia today."  "Don't I get no reward?  For reporting it?"  The guards ignored her and made their way over to Irlana and Jessica.  

"I suppose it's too much to ask for a fair trial?" Irlana quipped, only half jokingly.  Jessica answered with her eyes.  Enferia wasn't known for its fair trials.  

"Hey, said one of the guards excitedly, I remember this one from the arena.  She ushered Jessica forward with a small slap on her already very red backside.  Jessica shot her a glance of disapproval, but the guard's expression told her not to press the issue.  "She beat that cat-girl, you know, the one with the bow, quite handily."  "Didn't have as much luck keeping your clothes on today, did you, little mage?"  "The luckier for us, the other guard laughed, taking a moment to fondle Jessica's left nipple.  

"These other three I've never seen before.  Let's question the one who's awake."  "What's your name?"  "Irlana the Magnificent."  The guards howled and laughed in response.  "That's quite a name...sounds like a name ripe for  the arena. Or we could let the girls in our jail decide just how magnificent you are...they'd like you."

Irlana looked annoyed, "Of course they would. I'm not a coarse, ugly city guard."  "Shhhhhh" Jessica warned, but it was too late, the guard walked up to Ilrana.  "What did you say?"  This time, she was silent.  "Maybe we need to have some fun with you before turning you over to the girls down at booking."  Irlana slapped the guard hard enough that her helmet flew off and clattered to the ground.  "OK, that's it.  Let's send these four right to the arena...perhaps our friends there get set up a match for them, all four together.  Against terrible odds."  With that, they picked the two mages off of the floor and led the four women out of the tavern, into a waiting cage wagon outside; they loaded into the cage silently and without any more resistance,  They were en route to the arena.

(I have no idea what they should face in the arena. A team, a monster, no idea. Do you have any? Should we actually do it on an arena thread as a regular bout, or should I continue it here? And why not do tag team or group melee battles in the arena.?)

((After giving this story a full read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I like the characters you've added, here, and their ongoing fight in the tag team arena match...! I'd like to set up a fight between one of these characters and maybe Christie sometime soon.))

(Thanks!  That works for me!  After Jessica, I actually wrote up Irlana, the others were thought of as more passing...their stats so far are slightly weaker (but just ever so) than most PC's.  Maybe if one of the other two continues, she's have to "evolve"...at least in terms of outfits.  Maybe a very silly outfit dictated by the arena or something.)

(For anyone who is new around here, this continued in the Arena forum under a title like "Giant group battle.")

A few days later, Jessica walked back into the tavern, Irlana on her arm. "I guess I never thanked you properly for saving me. I really do appreciate it; it's just that I usually can fight my own battles."

"It was two on one, don't be so hard on yourself--and you stripped that bitch from your school and covered them both in mud before I got there," The mocha-skinned mage responded. "You know, if you want to pay me back, I'll take more of what you started to give me at the end of the arena show. Much, much, more."

Jessica smiled and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, "Maybe later. That--mud stuff, it isn't intentional."

"No? that would explain why you got it all over your own face in front of the whole arena."

"Don't rub it in....in fact...let's never talk about yesterday again."

"But that was the first time I kissed you."

Jessica nodded, "Naked, in front of thousands of people...with our red, spanked bottoms on view for all to see."

"Yes, that doesn't happen everyday." "Thank the goddesses!"

A young tavern maid approached. She happened to be the same tavern maid Jessica had kissed, bought a drink for, and gave a huge tip to just before the events that got her arrested. "Oh, my," said the short, curly-blond-haired server, "It's the big tipper again...should we call the fire brigade, or just get you a seat?"

Jessica frowned and rubbed her backside through her robes. "No need," she said, looking at Irlana, "we're going to stand tonight."

The server giggled as she walked off, because she had been at the games and knew why the pair wouldn't be making use of the barstools.

Irlana pulled Jessica close, and kissed her, deeply. "Ahhh!" came a small and comical male voice, "you should warn me before squishing me between your boob-ies like that!" Irlana looked agitated, reached into her a dress, and removed her wand. "Wand?" she said. "Yes?" "Shut up." With that, she dropped it on the floor, to sounds of the voice shrieking.

"Um," said Jessica, pulling away, "is that going to happen often? And what's the deal with the wand." "An old friend," Irlana replied, seemingly intentionally ambiguous. "I'll try to come up with a way to deal with it. I believe you were just telling me about your problems with magic, before we were interrupted."

"What's to tell? I'm trained to cast fire, fire, and more fire, but once in a while, I get water, mud, rocks, slime...when I'm still trying for fire." "Are there times or circumstances where it happens?" "Well, I think it might be when I get embarrassed. I mean, not a little--just really, really, embarrassed. And it sure doesn't help things."

"Could be worse," Irlana responded. "How?" "Uh, I don't know...but it could be." She threw her arm around Jessica and tried to console her.

It was at that point that a very large, very drunk man in armor stumbled over to the pair. "Cun I git in on this ac-shun? Maybe the two of youse and myself can find a--" "Stop right there," said Irlana, "We don't want any." "I wasn't talking to you, ya foreign dog...I was talking to robes over here..." He reached a hand out and took a hold of Jessica's breasts.

Anyone watching Irlana close might have noticed a shimmering blue aura around her for a second, and a moment later she punched the armored, hulking man so hard, he slammed against the wall four feet away, then sunk to the floor. When he got up, he was dazed, and his armor was cracked and dented. There was also a damaged patch of wall where he had hit it. "That bitch is a witch! I'm-a-getting outta here!" And with that, her scurried off, as much as someone six and a half feet tall and three hundred pounds can be said to scurry.

"That was unpleasant," Jessica responded, "but I could have handled it." "I'm not sure the tavern wanted to see a giant hunk of burning idiot," Irlana replied. "I'm not sure how much they like having a dent in their wall, either." "Touche."

The tavern maid came over and handed each of them an ale. "On the house. Normally, we'd need to charge you for the damage, but that guy has been in here harassing anyone with a pair of tits since the girl who used to take care of us disappeared. Good riddance to his rubbish, I say."

"Do you think the two are connected? Her disappearance and said idiot?" "I doubt it...she's probably off fighting for some crazy cause or something. She would have relished watching you deal with that scumbag--if she hadn't already made him leave first."

"Sounds like a girl I'd like to get to know," Irlana said, smiling. "Don't you get any ideas," Jessica responded, playfully slapping her on the face. When the barmaid had left, she continued, "So, I sensed magic, but I've never seen anything like that. How does your magic work?"

"Beats me," said Irlana. "When I need to be strong, I seem to get strong." "I sense there's something you're not telling me." "Stick around, Jessica, and maybe you'll find out."

Finishing their ales, Irlana found the innkeeper, and arranged for a room. The two went upstairs and weren't heard from again until their late breakfast the next day. Well, that's not entirely accurate; Patrons in the tavern heard a repetitive slamming noise over the music and din of many drunk conversations. It went on for a few hours before it went quiet. The more astute among them would have recognized it as a bed on the upper floor, getting the workout of its life.