The Wanderer Part One
It was a late summer afternoon as the tiger was approaching the inn. He was on the run for several days now, knewing his prey would be close now. Behind the Inn was the Alandi Forest, where it was rumored his prey was hiding. Looking at the sun, he supposed that it would set in about two or three hours. He would reach the inn in approximately one hour, so he decided that there was no time left for the hunt today. Well, no problem. He would use the Inn as his base camp and start his hunt tomorrow.
The job as bounty hunter came naturally to him, he was fast, agile and could move very silently on every terrain. Yet he was strong and more importantly clever enough to to win fights if necessary. He was doing this job for over 2 years now, and had found out also very quickly that the unofficial jobs paid much more, then official jobs. He realized of course that the prey of unofficial jobs would not get a fair trial, but as far as it seemed to him, most of them had it coming anyway. And besided, he didn't have a fair trial either, so why should he care. Because of that he had gotten a reputation as a good bounty hunter very fast. It was said, he had never turned down a job, and, what added more to his reputation, he never failed. He was able to capture targets bigger and stronger then him, but no one knows how he did it.
This was his 15th hunt. He wanted to capture the prey in less then a week, just before his 24th birthday. All he knew about the target was, that is was a thief, a sneaky fox, who had stolen a valuable gem from a rich merchant in the city. It was said he was hiding in the Alandi Forest, a dark and dangerous forest, about which several stories were told, of living trees and other perils striding through the dark. He didn't know how much was true, but since he had been grown up in a jungle of which outsiders told similar stories he supposed, that it couldn't be much.
As walked towards him, the sun was warming him. Although it was a quite hot day, he did not sweat, as he was already used to heat. He was wearing short brown leather pants and an open leather vest without arms, on his back he carried a backpack and a large staff. His muscular chest and arms showing well defined muscles to eventually passing people. Most people he met, were more impressed though of the fact, that he was a white tiger. His white fur with black stripes seemed to glow in the moonlight and to shine in sunlight. In his face several black and white stripes seemed to meet at his black nose and female watchers often got lost in his dark blue eyes. This always made him smile. In contrast to other tigers the tip of his tail was completely white, making him unique in a way.
He started to move faster, since he got hungry and wanted a meal at the inn. As he arrived he looked around. The Inn was a larger one, three levels for guest rooms, a stable for horses and coaches, and a side-building, where most likely the innkeeper lived. Both were solidly build stone houses, with lots of windows and heavy wooden doors, strengthened with iron. It was a small fortress, which could be well defended against raiders and bandits. Though the tiger doubted, that this would be necessary, since it would be easier for the raiders to attack travellers just a bit south of the inn, where they had good hideouts, and were hard to spot.
The inn laid on a main road on the route between Tiarnar in the north and Saldia in the south. Also other east to west routes could be planned crossing this Inn. It was about half day's ride away from the next smaller villages, so it was good place either for meal, or for resting overnight on peoples traves. In the northwest, not far away was the Alandi Forest, which every road carefully circumvented.
From looks of it, it seemed, that the inn was not very full now. The was a big fair in the north, which would keep most of the traveling folk away for the next few days. From the sounds in the stables, not too many horses would be in it, and the normal coach, would stop here only for a break and had already passed. From the sounds of the inside he supposed, that about 20 to 25 people would be in the bar. He breathed deeply and entered the bar.
As his eyes accostumed to the darker area he noticed 22 people on the tables plus the barman and a young girl carrying a tablet with drinks and food. All kinds of races where present here. The barman and girl, probably his daughter, where wolves, on the tables some felines and canines but also one bear and a boar were sitting around. He looked and then went to the bar. The Wolf inkeeper examined him critically and then asked, “Welcome to the Kings Way Inn, what can I get you?” the tiger felt, that he was monitored from almost all tables and answered: “A room and a warm meal please, how much that?”, he could hear whispering on some of the tables, while other tables already went back to normal business and chatter. “The meal will be half a silver piece and the room 3 silver pieces per night. I assume you want to stay just over night?” The tiger pulled a gold coin out of his pocket and said, “I'll take the room for four days, and a pitcher of fresh water to my meal.” The Innkeeper looked at him, took the coin reached under the table, and got a key. “2nd floor, third room to the left.” he said. As he turned around to go to the kitchen, he said “I hope stew is okay for you, everything else will take a moment, and will cost an extra two copper.” “Stew is fine” the tiger said, as he picks up the key, and went to a table to sit down.
As he put his backpack and staff down he looked around again and noticed more. The bear and the boar where whispering together at their table, and he noticed, that no guards where here. On the other hand he thought, coaches and rich merchants would bring their own guards, and poor people would not be able to afford a stay. Most of the other guest were already again busy with themselves, only the bear and boar were watching him, trying to be inconspicuous.
As the young girl brought him a pot of stew and a pitcher of water, he thanked her and gave her two copper pieces. She thanked him and went to serve other guests. He tasted the stew, it could have used a bit more of pepper, he thougt. He drank a bit of the water, as he heard some movement behind him. As he guessed the direction of the movement he supposed that either the bear or boar had stand up, but only one of them. The approaching footsteps sounded heavy, which also suggested one of them coming closer to him. His senses sharpened, he listened carefully, while eating. The figure came closer to him, he did not hear the sound of weapons drawn, good sign. The smell of the kitchen and the inn in general made it hard to smell anything about the person coming closer. “It must be the boar” he thought, “the steps hit harder, sound more like hooves then paws.” He waited for what happened. The steps came closer, no one else in the bar seemed to move, some seemed to have stopped breathing. His with his sharpened senses, he heard the approaching figure stopping and breathing. The tiger kept eating, listening closely to his environment. It seemed to get more silent with every passing second, only breathing and the fire in the kitchen could be heard. Seconds passed and nothing happened, the tiger ate another bite as the figure took another step forward. “He must be close to me, I can feel it,” the tiger thought, “but what will he do?” Still no weapon was drawn, but he sensed danger.”Okay, no Guards, ho help. No one of the other guests here can help me, the only one, who might has a weapon is the innkeeper, but he is behind the counter. Unless it is a crossbow, he won't be able to help me. So I'm on my own. The person behind me is big and most likely strong, and he will know that and possibly try to intimidate the other people here with his attack”
The figure came closer, the tiger could feel her standing behind him. Another second passed, he could feel the breath of the figure, all his senses tingling. Time seemed to run much slower, almost to stand still. Now he heard him pull out something, it sounded like metal scraping on leather, possibly a knife. As he felt the movement behind him rise up, he let himself fall on the side, just as figure behind him tried to grab him. It missed him, as he fell on the ground and rolled over. He grabbed his staff, and saw, that it was indeed the boar. He was surprised on the quickness of the tiger, but he adapted quickly. The tiger realized that the bear was at the stage of getting up, so he had to act quickly. Both of them were stronger then he was, but he was more agile. The room to move was limited to all, because of the tables. Most of them were empty, so his agility would be an advantage. As the boar came towards him, he jumped on a table next to him. The boar who had tried to charge him now, run into empty space, and got hit with the staff on the back of his head. This didn't knock him out, but made him angry, he turned and tried to catch the tiger. The bear had gotten up and had pulled out a sword. The tiger made a step back and jumped on the table, where he had been eating. He took a look, aimed, and gave his half eaten bowl of stew a good kick. The Bear saw the bowl flying at him, but was too slow to react, so the bowl hit him on the eyes, the hot stew spilling over his head. That made him drop the sword, giving the tiger the time to react on the boar, who was now again trying to charge him, he made a jump towards the surprised looking charging boar and hit him with his staff in the stomach. The boar ran into the staff, his speed pushing tiger and staff back, before he fell on the ground, wriggling from pain. As the tiger hit the ground, he rolled backwards, and stood up again. The bear had come to senses again and as he tried to pick up his sword again a sharp voice called “Stop It”. As looked around the Innkeeper aimed at him with a crossbow. “Get out here now, and take your friend with you. And drop that sword”. The bear dropped the sword, and moved slowly towards the boar, and helped him up. “If I see you again here, I'll shoot you on sight” the Innkeeper said. Both of them slowly moved toward the door and left the inn. Turning to the tiger he said: “It has been a long time, since I saw someone move so fast. Please tell me: Who are you?”
The tiger took a deep breath and responded: “I am the wanderer. I have no name, for my name was taken from me...”
