Chapter 144: Things heat up

Chapter 144: Things heat up

As Ozzy pulled ham after ham out of his bag and piled them near the pit, Makken tried not to stare. By his estimate the large leather duffle bag could a hold at most a half dozen of the fifty-pound hog legs that were being taken from the bag. Ozzy made a pile of 20 of them, then stacked 10 massive pork bellies next to them. Makken hadn't had enough to drink for that to make sense at all and he smelled a good story about that bag.

For now, he wanted the story about the pigs! "Where the hell did you run into a herd of wild pigs this size? Be prepared to smoke the hell out of it. When they get that old, the meat gets pretty gamey. Still, that's one hell of a lot of ham and bacon."

Ozzy tied up his bag and casually set it down between his chair and Makken's. He reached for a shot glass with whatever hellish liquid the dwarf was drinking today, and threw a shot into the back of his throat. As usual it burned like all the fires in hell were eating their way down to his stomach. He endured it the best he could, with only one small tear leaking out of his eye, "Oh god, what was in that one?"

The dwarf laughed at him, "A little hot was it? I roasted some of my Dragonbelly Poppers and then distilled the oils out of them. Added that to some 190 proof grain alcohol with just a hint of cinnamon and cloves - then a secret ingredient your pal Joe gave me. Whatever it was, it added a nice kick to the bottle. You keep working at it, we'll get you in shape for some of the really hot stuff."

Ozzy took a few deep breaths as he got himself under control. Wisps of smoke leaked out of his mouth as he exhaled. Joe noticed and poured out a larger shot. He stirred it with his finger, forcing a huge amount of magic into the liquid, turning it dark grey. "You're starting to get it. Let's do one more before we start talking about that pile of meat. He handed the full glass to Ozzy. As Ozzy held it up, he could see the grey liquid swirling in the glass, small sparks flaring up. Before he could think about it, he drank it down.

He immediately felt the heat, and something more. It was like there was a spot in his gut where all the heat was going - pooling and condensing. Then it burst. Smoke expanded inside him, filling his lungs, pouring out of his ears and nose as he struggled not to cough. He held it for a few seconds and then it all rushed out. Hot smoke erupted from his mouth and a cloud sat in the air in front of him.

Joe's voice seemed like it was inside of him, "Good, we got a little smoke out of you. That's your smoke. Next you have to grab ahold of it. Think about that cloud, look at it, remember how it felt inside of you, then send it over to that stack of pig parts and force it into the meat."

Ozzy reached with some part of him, expending his mana as he did so, grabbing hold of the cloud and forcing it to do as he willed.

A small wisp of smoke slowly moved over to a pork belly and spread across the surface. The rest of the smoke dissipated. Ozzy felt out of breath and exhausted. He sat down in one of the chairs, drawing in huge breaths of air.

Joe looked at the little spot of smoke and nodded, "Well, it's a start."

Suzette walked with Titania back into the tavern, "All's good folks. Today's entertainment is over. How about we put the tables back where they belong, toss the broken ones to the woodpile, and Miss Titania here will buy a round for the house?"

Titania scowled at the room, "Why am I buying beer?"

Suzette turned to her, "The long answer has to do with making amends, social dynamics, beer making people forget traumatic experiences, and being a symbol for forgiveness and getting on with our lives."

"The short answer is because I said you would."

Titania nodded, "I like the short answer better. Easier to understand." She went to the bar, paid a slightly stunned Aliester for a round of beer and looked over at Zephyr, "You did good kid. Stood up to me longer than I thought possible, called for help, backed up your Dad, and held the fort until reinforcements arrived."

Zephyr scowled at first, then nodded at her, "Does that mean you aren't going to skin me for a purse or turn me into a newt?"

Titania smiled at her. A horrible sight with her huge, swollen red eye, "Not today at least. And not tomorrow if you'll be kind enough to bring me a clean cloth and some vinegar."

Doing as the witch asked, Zephyr returned from the kitchen with a bowl of strong-smelling vinegar and a clean, white cloth.

Titania horrified anyone within sight as she used a thumb to dig her large eye out of the socket and let it drop into the vinegar, "Damned thing was acting up and giving me feedback in that fight. Haven't cleaned it well in years. Let that be a lesson to you, dearie." She picked up the eye and vigorously rubbed it with the cloth, swished it around in the vinegar again, and then pushed the eye back into its socket. The vinegar had shrunk it down to normal size and the only difference in her eyes now was the color.

"Ok, Miss Tavern Keeper, I'm ready to go look at some rooms."

Suzette led her upstairs and showed her each room. The first two were nice, with large beds, wardrobes and wash basins. They'd be fine in any good inn. The third and fourth doors on the left side were actually a double room. Other than a small table with four stools, the space was taken up with narrow bunk beds. The room could sleep up to sixteen people, as long as they didn't mind the noise of snoring. Suzette had plans to rent beds cheap to adventurers who didn't need more than a place to nod off for a bit.

Johannes had the room at the end of the hall. Titania stared at it, "Damn, I got into a fight over this? I swear my temper gets me in trouble as much as my pride."

Rufus tossed his pack to the side and started carving a wooden hilt for one the six swords they would finish up today. It was a long, long day. Rory never seemed to tire. Long after dark the work was done, and Rory was happy with it. They wandered down to the bar beneath the little keep and started drinking beer and discussing techniques used by the Celts a couple of millennia ago to turn bog iron into steel.

"So, what are we talking about?" Suzette was curious. The small woman had gone from drunken berserker to quiet customer in no time at all. Now she looked just a bit embarrassed.

"This stays between you and I, and if you weren't a fellow witch, I'd not be making this offer. I'm just a wee bit short of cash right now, but I do have something I can offer you - just for the first month's tab, mind you. I'll be paying after that. You have to promise that you won't sell or gift the item except to another witch."

Suzette was curious now, and let the 'witch' comment sit for later, "I barter from time to time. What do you have?"

Titania opened one bag and took out a package wrapped in cloth. Inside was a taxidermized Raven. It's glass eyes seemed quite real and the work was perfect, "There you go. One of the finest thief catchers I've ever made. Algernon there will protect a building even as large as this inn, basement included."

Suzette wondered if it included the dungeons, but didn't feel like passing on that info just yet."Well, I'm curious, but what does your bird actually do?" Suzette didn't mind something like this sitting on the hearth, but wasn't giving away a month’s rent for something that 'brought luck'.

"Oh, he's the real thing. Pat him on the head, and tell him to guard, and he'll warn you of threats to your tavern, especially of the roguish kind." Titania nodded at her, "Go ahead, give him a pat."

Suzette did so, and the raven surprised them both by blurting out, "THIEF! McTeeth is in the house, on the fourth floor, and looking for your gold!"

Raven under one arm, Suzette started out the door, "It's a deal, and if you help me catch the thief, I'll throw in free food and beer the first week."

Titania raced up the stairs after her, "Ooh, I'd have done it for free. I love the look when I take off their hands. But beer is always a bonus."

"Not that I mind you sitting around helping Joe burn out my insides, but I'm kind of curious about your plans. You seem to be putting down roots." Ozzy had asked Makken before about his extended stay, but the dwarf had been cagey. At first, he just said he was delivering the peppers they had agreed upon. Later he talked about dwarven vacations and how he was just trading some recipes with Joe. All of that might be true, but he was also taking long walks around town and surveying the area, taking notes in a large journal.

"Okay, okay, I put you off enough. The truth of it is, I'm looking for a new place to put down some roots and do some pepper farming. This place seems as good as any. There's some nice land between the town and the forest that's sort of flat. And the ground seems to have a powerful amount of magic in it. Good pepper soil."

Ozzy pressed on, "That was a nice set up you had though. What's wrong with it?"

Makken leaned back and thought for a second, "I suppose it's somewhat your fault, and somewhat mine."

"My fault? What did I do?" Ozzy was puzzled now.

"Well, other than grind a horseradish elemental to bits and send it downstream, not much. That was the start of it. You ground that sucker into a million pieces, and they started growing into a million little monsters that kept heading back to my area. At first, they couldn't get past the ring of peppers around the house. But then one thing led to another, and they cross-bred with some of the hot ones. I'd hear them rubbing leaves together all night long. Disturbing it was."

"A couple of days later the cross-breeds were running around - part horseradish, part pepper, and all bad attitude. They spit fire and acid at me every chance they got and I was running out of protective gear. That was when I decided to pack up and leave. I opened up a big can of "Instant Frost" that my cousin had left lying around, and got the hell out of there while they were frozen - just in time, too. That was when the wyverns showed up."

"Wyverns?"

"Yep, big dragon sort of beasties. Or is that little dragon sort of beastie? Dragons a mighty big, these are smaller, but bigger than you. About the size of a horse. Plus wings and more teeth. Anyway, they have a taste for hot things. They can be the bane of a pepper field. A flock of wyverns can stip acres a day.

There must have been a bunch of them down in the swamp, and when the bits of ROOT! got washed down and started growing, the wyverns started eating them and looking for more. They followed the radish up stream, found the pepper fields, and the cross-breeds, and suddenly they were all over. I left while I could."

Ozzy sat a bit and absorbed the story, "So now you need land here in Sedgewick? I guess I can help with that seeing as it's partly my fault. Let's go talk to Suzette and let me get some things out of my bag. We'll see what kind of fields we can get for you."

Makken took out a bottle of whiskey and took a sip, before passing it ot Ozzy. Unlike his usualy concoctions this vintage was smooth with a slightly woody flavor. "I appreciate that. Me, or someone from my family will reclaim the other farm someday when the wyverns have moved on, but I was due for a change anyway. This looks like an interesting spot to settle down for a couple of decades."