Chapter 5

I just want to thank Bachgen his hard work in editing my stories, he's a good editor.

Dregor watched as the unknown man with the magical sword turned to face him, and for some odd reason he did not get the feeling that he was a threat, as he and his men realized that the fight that had been reported to them by a concerned citizen was truly over with, and thankfully no one had been killed, or so it seemed.

"Hello, who are you?" Grayson asked as he kept his hands away from his body as well as open to show the men, who he correctly guessed to be the city guard, that he was not a threat to them or anyone else.

"I am Sergeant Dregor of the City Guard, who are you, sir?" the head the leader of the city guard said to him in a cool but relaxed tone of voice.

"I am Grayson Bloodstone, a hunter by trade." Dregor heard the unknown man say to him, and he took a moment to look Grayson over as he tried to understand what kind of a man he and his men were dealing with.

"I see, what do you hunt, Grayson?" he asked, as he got the feeling that Grayson was a bounty hunter, which did not thrill him all that much, since most of the bounty hunters he had to deal with were violent, murdering and thieving scum.

"I hunt two legged animals, namely elven bitches." he heard Grayson say with an amused and knowing smile that put a grin on his face and the faces of his men, and he was pretty much sure that not only was Grayson telling the truth, but that he was not some violent murdering scumbag, and put his long sword back into its scabbard.

"So, do you mind telling me what happened here?" Grayson heard Dregor ask him, and he could see that as far as being men of the city guard, Dregor and his men were by the book, but not assholes like some of the other city guard types he had dealt with in the past.

"Well, Sergeant, I had just come into the city to do some shopping and visit a friend of mine, when I felt hungry and I came here to grab a bite to eat and something to drink." he said to Dregor as the drunken boys slept soundly and unaware of what was going on around them.

"I see." Dregor said to Grayson, and he took note of the strange accent in Grayson's voice that marked him as a foreigner as he continued to listen to Grayson's explanation of what had taken place in The Dancing Troll before he and his men had shown up.

"I had an ale, smoked a joint, and was working on my second ale while I was waiting for my dinner to be cooked when these ... foolish young boys started to hassle me over my seat." Grayson said without a hint of malice, anger or disgust in his voice, and he realized that he was never in any kind of danger from the stupid drunken boys.

"It's true, Sergeant, I heard and saw everything." Jakinson said, for he was clearly imprested with not only the level of restraint that Grayson had shown in dealing with the wet behind the ears boys, but also he respected him for not tearing up his restaurant as most sword slingers were prone to do in a fight, and even more so when they were drunk.

"I see, what happened next." Dregor asked, as he was also impressed with the level of restraint that Grayson had shown while the fight had taken place, and he could clearly see that Grayson was not like the run of the mill rough and tumble slavers that made their home in Grivis City.

"I warned these young pups that it would be a ... sad error in judgment to pick a fight with me." Grayson said, and he felt himself relax as he knew he had nothing to fear from the city guards. "I see, who drew steel first?" Dregor asked, as he had a feeling that the boys had been the one to draw their weapons first.

"After warning them twice, these foolish drunken boys drew their weapons." he heard Grayson say to him, and looked over to Jakinson and asked him if what Grayson had said was true or not.

When Jakinson told him that the boys had been the ones to draw steel first, he considered the case closed.

"Well, Grayson, I have to thank you for the restraint you have shown in this situation." Grayson heard Dregor say to him, and he could not help but to give the sergeant a friendly smile.

"No problem, Sergeant, I was in no danger, so there was no need to slaughter these foolish young boys, although one of them is going to have a little reminder of his stupidity for the rest of his life." he said with a chuckle, and watched as Dregor gave him a questioning look.

"You look the boys over and see if they are injured." Dregor said to his men, and watched as they walked over to the sleeping boys and began to look them over for any kind of wounds.

"Sergeant, this boy is missing the tip of his right baby finger." he heard one of his men say to him, and he walked over to the boy in question. He looked at the boy's right baby finger and saw that three millimeters of his baby finger have been severed, and that the wound had been cauterized by Grayson's magical sword.

Then he noticed that the boy's sword had been cut in two. "Well, Grayson, I have to say I'm not only impressed with your skill with the sword, but also your incredible restraint in dealing with these boys, most men would have done far worse than this in a fight." he said to Grayson, who let out an amused chuckle.

"That is true, Sergeant, but these boys were so drunk that an old female slave in a coma would be more of a danger to me then these stupid boys, so there was no need to slaughter them like hogs." Grayson said as he could clearly see that he had earned the respect of Dregor and his men by not acting like a bloodthirsty asshole.

"So what will happened to the boys?" he asked Dregor as his men went about binding the sleeping boys' wrists with thick coarse rope at the order of Dregor. "Well, there is a heavy fine for unprovoked fighting in the city, for now they will sleep it off in the drunk tank. If they cannot pay the fine they will be put on a work detail until the fine is paid." he heard Dregor say to him, and he found that agreeable to his sense of fairness when it came to the price paid for the foolish indiscretions of youthful boys.

"That sounds fair to me." Dregor heard Grayson say to him as his men went about trying to rouse the drunken boys out of their stupor, but were unable to do so thanks to the psionic sleep command that he had used on them, as well as the vast amount of cheap ale that the boys had drunk before they met up with him.

Once a wagon had been called to haul the sleeping boys off to the drunk tank and they were loaded onto the wagon, Dregor turned his attention back to Grayson, who had stepped outside to watch the boys being dumped onto the wagon like sacks of grain.

"Grayson, I have to truly thank you for the restraint you have shown today, Grivis city is a rough and tumble city, but it does not mean we are completely lawless. I hope this incident will not make our city look bad in your eyes." Dregor said. As he watched, Grayson took out a metal tin of some kind from his pants pocket.

"Heh, don't worry about it, I have been to worse places then this city. I have been coming here for many years from my home out in the woods far to the north from here, so I have a fairly good understanding of what this city is like." Grayson said as he took out another joint from the copper cigarette case.

He had considered offering one to Dregor, but he held off as he got the feeling that Dregor was not into the recreational use of drugs because of his position in the city guard, and he had no desire to inadvertently offend Dregor.

"Well, Grayson, I have to go now. Thank you for your good behavior, you enjoy the rest of the day and may the Gods watch over you." Dregor said as he held out his right hand. "No problem, Dregor, and I have to say for a city guardsmen you are a good down to earth man, may the Gods watch over you." Grayson said as he shook Dregor's offered hand.

Once the wagon was gone and Dregor and his men went about their patrol route in the city, Grayson's stomach let out a cry for food and he walked back into The Dancing Troll to get something to eat.

When he walked back into The Dancing Troll, Grayson saw a fair number of the men inside raise up their tankards in a salute to him for his restraint in dealing with the foolish drunken boys, and he walked over to were he had left his refilled tankard and returned their salute.

After he sat down to enjoy his ale he saw Jakinson looking at him with an impressed look.

"Thank you for not only not turning my restaurant into a slaughterhouse, but also for not tearing up the place, consider your meal on me." he heard Jakinson say to him, and he gracefully accepted Jakinson's offer of a free meal, not because he was a cheap ass bastard, far from it, he had learned that in the culture of the Zamorian Empire that it was considered to be a grave insult to refuse a gift that was given out of respect, so much so that it was considered an insult that can only be usually settled by a duel to the death.

As he was smoking his join, Grayson felt himself becoming so relaxed that he felt like a brain dead slug on valium, but in a good way, and he decided to have a small party because he was in such a good mood.

After filling out another order of ales for one of his slaves, Jakinson turned his attention back to Grayson as he found that the strange foreigner was an interesting person, and when he looked at Grayson he saw him rummaging around in his backpack.

"Hey, Jakinson, come here." he heard Grayson call out to him, and he saw Grayson pull out a fair sized black silk bag from his backpack. "Did you want more ale?" he asked Grayson, who had a friendly and easy going smile on his face.

"No, I'm ok for now." Grayson said to his new found friend, as he untied the draw string around the mouth of the black silk bag he could see the he had peaked Jakinson's interest by pulling out the bag from his backpack.

"Drinks and food are on me." he said as he pulled out a gemstone twice the size of a large crabapple, and watched as Jakinson's jaw hit the floor in shocked surprise.

"HEAVENS ABOVE, HELLS BELOW!" Jakinson gasped in shocked wonder, as he saw that the gemstone in Grayson's hand was a Devil's Eye gemstone. A Devil's Eye gemstone is an extremely rare gemstone that had a clear dark blood red outer shell, and in the middle of the gemstone was a dark green sphere with a small dark black slit in the middle of it which reminded people of an eye of a devil.

So rare were they, that it was said that some God or another had created them when he created the world, depending on who you listened to and what you believe, so much so, that the Devil's Eye in Grayson's had was enough to buy six thousand slaves from the far off kingdom some hundred thousand miles from Grivis City far to the east, across The Blood Sea.