Marduk’s Mark [3]
Of Men and Waitresses
“I’ll get back at that stupid whore,” said a tall, well-built man with shoulder-length hair as he removed his right hand from an empty pocket in his pants. The man next to him, a shorter and slimmer patron was laughing and pointing at him.
“You fool,” the slim man said as he took a swig from a bottle in his right hand. He put the bottle down on the dark wooden table with enough force to send the shot glasses and other bottles shaking. “That’s what them Deelz do. The best time of yer life for all the coin in yer purse.” He lifted the bottle and took another swig of the dark, thick liquid, then looked to his left and grinned at the third man on the table, a dark-skinned brute that was almost too tall to fit inside the tavern. The big man smiled.
“Liara. That was the night I learned to live.” Both men took swigs from their bottles and laughed. The tall, strong man couldn’t muster a smile though.
“Would you loan me the coin for a hoof?”
The slim man motioned towards the waitress with his right hand. “Get a hoof of that green juice for Thomas here,” he yelled as soon as he noticed the short, dark-haired waitress looking in their direction. “See, that there beauty is the kind of bird you should be looking to get into. Them yellow-eyed Deelz are easy on the eyes but too much trouble.” Thomas looked at the waitress and shrugged.
“Not my type,” Thomas said.
The dark man looked at her, his eyes moving up and down as he sized her up.
“Nice chest, but short legs.”
Thomas took another look in her direction and squinted his eyes in the dim light of the tavern.
“Hadn’t noticed those attributes the first time I looked.” The slim one leaned towards Thomas.
“So, looks like there’s something up there that you like!” Thomas laughed.
“I think it’s just the booze talking,” he said. The man with the dark skin shrugged.
“Deelamn women can’t bear our children. That makes them much more convenient.”
The slim man pointed at the man with the shoulder-length hair and exploded in laughter.
“We all know the price of that convenience, right Thomas?”
Thomas slumped into the table in defeat as he became the target of quite a few rowdy jokes for the next few minutes until the dark-haired waitress brought a bottle that was wrapped inside the leg of a calf. “There’s your hoof and your bird, Thomas!”
She looked at them defensively as she uncorked the bottle. It made a satisfying pop and the smell from the spirits immediately hit their nostrils. The dark-skinned man licked his lips as he caught the scent from the contents.
“Ghosts of trouble past! Drink some of that to exorcise them!”
Thomas looked at the girl as he reached for the bottle, particularly at the deep vertical line formed by the way the bustier she wore brought her chest into her body. She gave him a playful look as he took the furry bottle in his hands and brought it to his mouth. She left the table, looking for other orders to fill.
“Well, well, well! Looks like our boy got himself another warm lay for the night.”
Thomas looked at the slim man and brought his hoof to the table and replied at him.
“Please Benjamin! I’ve already been taken for a fool by a Deelz. Why should this girl be any kinder to me?”
Benjamin kept his gaze fixed on her as she kept taking orders and filling them.
“Look at that bird Thomas!” Shortly after exclaiming this, he wrapped his arm around Thomas’ neck and pulled him close to him, yet angled in a position so they could both look at her.
“She has whites in her eyes! She’s not a Deelz!” He paused to take another swig from his bottle, but nothing poured into his mouth.
“Damn, it’s empty,” he complained. Thomas pulled free from his grasp, but Benjamin didn’t seem to notice that.
“Besides,” he continued while looking into the bottle, making sure it was truly empty, “she didn’t mind you drooling all over her big tits.” The dark-skinned man laughed.
“I did notice that too. You kids can’t control your lust.” Thomas glanced at him after his remark.
“Come on Gregor! You’re gone making fun of me too?”
Gregor grinned. He was missing his top left incisor.
“Have some fun on us.” He put a small purse of coins on the table. “Come on Benjamin. Let’s leave Thomas and his girlfriend alone. It will do him some good to explore some new trenches tonight.” Benjamin was licking the inside of the bottle, extending his tongue through the opening, and trying to get every last drop of the malty beverage into his body. Gregor sighed and picked him up by his armpits as if he were a child. Benjamin was too busy with the bottle to notice. Thomas looked at the purse.
“Gregor, this is a lot more than we owe them,” he protested.
“Indeed,” said Gregor as he walked away, Benjamin in tow.
Thomas took another swig from his hoof and noticed the waitress heading in his direction. He took the time to analyze her features as she picked up the empty bottles on the table. Slightly shorter than he liked, that’s for sure, but her facial features were certainly interesting. She had lovely almond-shaped eyes with long lashes and fairly thick lips. He had some trouble making out the shape of her nose. This was probably a good time to redefine what his type of woman was.
“Those are beautiful eyes,” he told her. She laughed softly and got close to him, whispering.
“I have a set of twin features you’ve been staring at all right,” she told him. “But it’s not my eyes!” Thomas blushed somewhat. He had indeed meant her eyes were beautiful; that’s not a lie, he thought to himself. But he thought to himself that he hadn’t really noticed them until just a few moments ago, long after he noticed her chest.
She was feeling a little playful so she made sure to bow a little deeper as she placed the empty bottles and glasses on her tray. Thomas caught another eyeful of enticing flesh. She continued cleaning up the table while bowing towards him. She used the motion to get really close to him, whispering in his left ear.
“How about you stay ’til we close? I’d like to have someone to escort me home.”
Thomas took most of the coins from the purse and gave them to her. He was enthralled by her, yet had enough sense left to realize he may need the last few coins in that purse as that’s everything he had left right now.
“That’s for the drinks,” he said, his face somewhat flustered after her offer.
“Well of course,” she replied without hesitation. Thomas nodded. She left the table and walked slowly towards the door into the kitchen. His eyes followed the slow swaying motions of her hips side to side. The bow from her apron rocked continuously during the short trip. Thomas found his mind wandering to all kinds of places.
So easy, he thought to himself. Show a little skin, sway your hips, and I just lose my mind. Again. At least Benjamin was right. This girl has whites in her eyes, he told himself. He took another swig from the hoof and set it down on the table. He was sitting with his legs crossed at their ankles, extended on top of the chair where Benjamin had been sitting, and enjoying that he was the only patron left. The waitress came back towards him.
“Are you done with that, sir?” He nodded.
“About that escort,” he said, without finishing the sentence.
“You’ll do it,” she replied. She went about her business, tidying up the tables and throwing a knowing glance and a wink in his direction from time to time. He just watched her do her work and tried to make sense of the way she swayed her hips whenever she was out of the kitchen, within his sight.
Time was a cruel mistress, Thomas thought to himself. He laughed for a second as he just realized that he considered time to be a she. What sorry manner of a man he must be to consider inconveniences to be female, but there he was, intrigued by a lady that wasn’t quite done with her work yet. He was beginning to think that maybe this whole affair wasn’t really such a good idea, but the thought disappeared as soon as he caught another glimpse of her heading his way. She stood next to him, then bent at her hips to place her lips by Thomas’ right ear and whispered to him.
“Almost done.”
Thomas tried to appear a little disinterested and shrugged his shoulders.
“No hurries, take your time.” She cocked her head to the side and then grinned at him.
“Just making sure you don’t lose any interest.”
She extended her left hand at his face, her index finger lightly caressing under his chin as she retracted it from him. He unconsciously followed her hand for a moment then went back to his spot. She laughed at him and went back to her chores, now tidying up the bar.
What a fox, he thought to himself. After a few really long minutes, the waitress went back to his seat. She was carrying a big leather bag that caught Thomas’ attention.
“Just a few tools I use on my other job,” she told him. He nodded at her and tried to take the bag from her. She pulled it towards her. “That’s fine. I can carry my bag,” she replied immediately.
“As you wish,” he replied. He left a pause after saying that, his way of leaving a hint that it was her chance to introduce herself. He wasn’t sure if she missed it or didn’t care to do so. She waved at another waitress and the bartender, who seemed to be having a hard time keeping his hands off yet another waitress, and opened the main door to the establishment. Thomas followed her without missing a beat.
The first minutes were rather boring, with neither one of them stirring up much of a conversation. Thomas noticed that the streets were rather free of the kind of people he expected to see in a big city such as Incantirl. They had passed what he thought could be two big markets already and he only noticed one beggar sleeping underneath a wooden bench and no muggers at all. That made him a little paranoid and he began looking over his shoulder and scanning for odd shadows at every turn. Finally, the waitress broke the silence.
“You can relax,” she told him. “We’re past the markets; it should be no problem to my home from this area now.”
“Why is everything so quiet,” he asked her.
“It’s the Judicators. Their ways of dealing with the criminals seem to be working.” Thomas went a few steps in front of her, then turned around and stopped her.
“What’s a Judicator?” She groaned at him. “Come on! They’ve made the streets safer, but I don’t want to tempt fate here you know!” Thomas got the hint and let her continue and then he followed her. She crossed the gate between the main square of the city and into the Deelamn district. He could tell because of the signs; it seems the Incantirl city planning agencies really felt the need to announce that this was the way into the other side of town, what with the big signs which had written words such as ‘Deelamn housing ahead’ into them. Great, he thought to himself. She may not be a Deelz but he sure was walking into their territory. He simply drew a big breath and expelled. She ignored him and just kept walking.
He was quite surprised with what he saw though. Unlike any other Deelamn district he had seen before, this one seemed quite clean and orderly. There were no funny smells save for a pungent aroma that he thought were rotten eggs at first. She noticed his expression and quickly corrected his thoughts.
“It’s the sea; we’re close to the piers now, and it just stinks like this sometimes.”
“The piers? Seriously? In the Deelamn side of town?” She nodded at him.
“It may be under human control now, but Incantirl was originally a Deelamn city. A big group of Deelamn was tired of wandering and settled here. That’s how Incantirl was born.” Thomas looked at her and shook his head.
“And here I thought you were just a waitress; you seem to know your history!” he exclaimed, producing a chuckle out of her.
“We’re finally home,” she said. It was in a building some 100 meters or so from the entrance to the pier. He noticed it was also close to another gate that seemed to lead into the main city; however that gate was heavily fortified. It seemed to be a defensive installation, which would make sense since it’s right by a point of entry by the sea.
She took out a key from the front pocket in her apron and opened the door, then motioned for Thomas to enter. He went inside and she quickly followed, locking the door and undoing the laces on her bustier. Thomas turned around and saw her while she undid the laces. His eyes opened wide.
“Wait, I didn’t expect — ” she stopped his sentence by pressing her chest against his face as she pushed him into a nearby couch, straddling him.
“We both know what we’re here for,” she said as she took the bustier off, leaving her upper body exposed. Thomas didn’t say another intelligible word that night; he just followed her lead.
