Tales of the Pearly City (Pearly Tales Vol.1) [Completed]

82. Cal meets the Prince

"Dammit, this is what I'm given to work with and I wonder why everything is such a mess." He mumbled.

"What was that?" Elenora asked.

"It seems suspicious to me that the demonkin and beastkin have come all the way here with only four people. Royalty, right?"

The girl next to Elenora flinched.

He knows! Elenora reached for her dagger.

"You want to meet with the princess in the dead of night, and you're looking for a powerful guildmaster who may or may not be the god of death himself. All for pure altruism. I'm not buying it." Cal chugged his drink. "I've heard enough."

Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap.

Elenora and the girl next to her jumped from the bar as the doors opened.

The two others companions walked in to see the current situation.

Cal slammed his drink on the table. "I've been waiting for you, Prince."

'Why did I have to open my big fat mouth?' Elenora panicked.

"Gods, Elenora, what did you do this time? I wanted to at least eat this time before you stirred up trouble." The prince sighed.

"I tried to stop her." The other girl held her staff close to her chest.

The Eyepatched elf was definitely more dangerous than he seemed. He only had a cleaver strapped to his back but she could tell that he didn't have any openings. He stood up and held the room with his gaze.

"Take a chill pill, player two. If I wanted you dead you'd know." Eyepatch looked at her with a half-hooded gaze of power that made her legs wobble.

"What did you just say?" Elenora tried to muster her courage.

"Does the name, Kami, mean anything to you? Blonde, flighty, legs that stretch on for days?"

Elenora gasped. "How do you know Kami?"

The prince spoke up, "Elenora what is he talking about?"

Eyepatch walked passed Elenora and patted her shoulder, "at ease soldier, I'm just going to have a word with your bosses, and then we'll have a nice long chat."

His easy walk said he wasn't scared of them and the aura emanating from him now, roared that he had unmatched power.

"Prince Killian and imposing beastkin guard A, I presume." Eyepatch stood in front of the prince with his hand outstretched in greeting. "I'm going to go on a limb and say lil'twig behind me is princess Julianne Strongpaw? I heard you were looking for me."

"And you are?" Prince Killian didn't move to take it.

"I'm the Guildmaster of the Verdant Oathkeepers. Cal O'heira Van Dravenkin sworn blood brother of Ten'lo O'heira Van Dravenkin. Your adventurer guide is very hot headed and arrogant."

Prince Killian sighed. "Don't I know it." He finally took Cal's hand.

Elenora stood there with her mouth open, "bu-bu-but. This entire time?"

"Look, this isn't a conversation to have out in the open. Please join me in my office. Wendy, four specials and some ale."

Cal took them to his office.

"Sorry for the deception, Elenora." Cal sat behind his desk while the others sat on the couches and comfy chairs that had been added with the remodel. "It may not look like it on the outside but this place isn't exactly safe. There are forces going on behind the scenes that has a dark intent for my city."

"That's not a good thing to hear." Prince Killian pulled off his hood revealing his black skin and horns. His eyes were red and whenever he spoke his pearly white fangs shined against his ash black skin.

The rest took their hoods off hoods. Elenora had red skin and a pretty face. The Princess looked like a human but her whiskers and rounded cat ears were a plain sign of her lion descent. Guard A was named Lepin and was a tiger beastkin with the face of a tiger and striped fur covering his massive frame.

"Let's forget my problems and talk about yours. Elenora mentioned that something big was coming and that you'd like to form an alliance with the city? I want to help you, but I need more details." Cal put on his best business serious face.

"First, I'd like to know if you're the real thing, stories said you conquered the Dravenkin. How did you do it?"

"Easy, the Dravenkin only respect strength. I proved my strength and was challenged to a one-on-one with their leader and won." Cal pointed his thumb at the wooden mask behind him covered in a handprint of dried blood. "I even got Steinman's blood as a trophy."

"Very well, we had an oracle give us a prophecy not too long ago about a darkness coming from the south. We're confident we could hold up against their forces, but that isn't what has us concerned."

"You mean that they're demons. The full blooded, summoned from the fiery depths of hell kind."

"We just got a report that confirms this."

Cal wiped his face with his hand. "We received a similar prophecy. So we've been preparing. Unfortunately, not everyone in the city is on the same page so we've had to hide most of our movements. Tell me, this oracle... old lady in a temple?"

"How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," Cal sighed.