Page 8 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons

‘Hand on your weapon,’ I remind Orin, and he nods.

I side-eye the female. ‘Stay out of the way if there’s a problem, or you’re like to get skewered...or burned to a crisp.’

She nods and shudders in fear, or maybe it’s just the cold. Her lips do look a little blue.

Orin opens the door, and I follow him through, pushing the female in front of me and keeping my eyes moving. The inside is dark, but our vision doesn’t take long to adjust, so it’s barely a second or two before I know that there are five men drinking, two by the fire, and three more playing on a dilapidated pool or snooker table that was clearly liberated from a ruin well after the human world went to shit.

‘What can I do you gentlemen for?’ a barman I haven’t seen here before asks. ‘Oh! You have a woman!’

All eyes are on us, but I don’t look.

‘MY woman,’ I say. ‘But if any man here would like her to be YOUR woman, you’re welcome to try and take her from me.’

No one moves. I can see them assessing, watching her, taking in her lack of clothes. But after a few moments, those covetous eyes begin to slide away again.

‘Need a bed for the night.’

‘Just one?’ The short, balding man behind the bar asks with a smirk.

I chuckle. ‘The boy can sleep on the floor.’

The barman grins, showing his crooked yellowed teeth. ‘Price is metal. Copper, silver, gold. Hell, I’ll even take lead if you got it.’

I take out a handful of iron pellets. They rattle as I put them in the metal bowl on the bar.

The innkeeper nods. ‘Another one of those’ll do it, or,’ he glances at the female, ‘if you’re willing to sell her for an hour...’

I hold his gaze as I take out another handful and add it to the bowl. He shrugs, but I see his eyes flit to her one last time.

‘Rooms are upstairs. First two are taken. You want dinner? Got elk stew. There’s a button by the door. Cost more though.’

I snort and put another half handful of pellets in the bowl.

The innkeeper regards me for a moment more. ‘There’s a bath service. Water’ll be cold, but the girl there will warm you up after.’ He guffaws at his own joke.

‘Let me guess. It’ll cost more,’ I grate out.

He gives a single nod, and I part with another quarter handful of pellets. ‘That’s all I got so that better be enough.’

The man nods. ‘Yeah, I reckon that’s enough for some bacon and eggs in the morn too.’

I grunt my assent, and I urge the female in front of me after Orin.

The third room has a bed and a bathroom. They’ve seen better days, but they’re clean enough.

‘Start the bath,’ I tell Orin. ‘I can’t stand this stench any longer.’

He nods and disappears into the next room while I look around the room, making sure there’s no one waiting to jump out and slit our throats as soon as we fall asleep. It wouldn’t be the first time.

The female wanders around, looking at things like she’s never seen an inn before. Maybe she hasn’t. They don’t travel like they used to these days. Once in a while we see a small plane or a helicopter, but we usually make sure it crashes. The sky is ours again now. The humans aren’t getting them back.

‘Water’s not working,’ Orin says from the other room, and I sigh. I forget this one wasn’t around when bathrooms were a thing everywhere.

Youngsters.

I go in and help him, showing him how to turn the water on at the wall and how to heat it with his fire gently so it doesn’t crack the porcelain tub.

I hear a noise outside the window and sigh.