Ball of Nothing

Zero quickly counted the third stable from the right and hid the stone beneath the water trough as the beggar child had told him to do. This would be the best method to find Dina and Zero couldn\'t wait to finalise his plans to introduce work for the children of the western district in the city.

"Finished?" Truen asked after Zero returned from the stable.

Zero nodded. "Can we stay here for a few nights? I like the environment here."

Truen didn\'t expose Zero\'s lie as the doctor forced a rigid smile with those words. It wasn\'t convincing at all but he nodded. It was his intention to book a few nights in this inn anyway after hearing about Old Gary. Mitchnew had lodging in the city but for the sake of finding Dina, Truen would spend the night with Zero. Bob could share their room or go with Mitchnew but it wasn\'t too important for now.

When they entered the inn, Zero wasn\'t expecting for Mitchnew to be the referee of an impromptu arm-wrestling match between Bob and an old man who appeared to match the description of a retired general from the army.

"Come on, young thing! You need to try harder than this!" the mocked Bob who frowned. The dragon couldn\'t believe he was getting overpowered by an old human in this rundown inn. It was an insult to his dragonkin!

"What\'s going on?" Zero whispered to Mitchnew who blinked.

"Old Gary said that he didn\'t have spare rooms and Bob didn\'t believe it so they decided to settle this argument with a man to man battle using arm strength. If Bob won, Old Gary would find a spare room for them but if he lost, we\'d have to get out. He doesn\'t like Bob for some reason, saying that Bob stank or something. I don\'t quite get it but you would be troubled if you couldn\'t get a room here so he has to win."

Zero looked at the stalemate. Bob wasn\'t budging and Old Gary didn\'t look like he was putting in much effort. Yet, there were already cracks forming beneath both their elbows on the wooden table. Mitchnew didn\'t know if she should be worrying about the table splitting or one of them hurting the other. So far, neither party was willing to go all out. Instead, they slowly increased strength and pressure on each other as observed by the increasing cracks on the table.

Truen looked at Bob and Old Gary with an unreadable expression and Zero didn\'t know if he should interfere. Mitchnew was still timing them. The arm-wrestling match was slightly different from others where the winner only needs to overpower the other party. In this match, Old Gary was specific. He didn\'t want his inn destroyed in the showdown and Bob had to last three minutes against him.

Unable to look on, Zero wanted to interfere but Truen stopped him.

"Bob has made his decision, watch him fight. Besides, did you really think he would lose to a human?"

Zero looked again and noticed that Truen was right. Bob didn\'t appear to have any troubles matching the old general in strength. In fact, it was hidden but there were veins popping underneath the sleeves of Old Gary\'s shirt, indicating his physical limitations. Their faces were calm but one was already starting to struggle.

As the wooden table emitted another loud cracking sound, Zero had to admit. Bob had this win in his bag.

One minute later, Mitchnew announced that the time was up and Old Gary promptly let go of his hand. Bob smirked arrogantly.

"It\'s my win," the dragon declared and the retired general growled in discontent. Zero looked at Old Gary whose hand was turning purple now that the match was over. He definitely burst a few blood vessels and strained his muscles. That wrist would have difficulties for a while.

Without a word, Zero slipped over to Old Gary and cast a minor healing spell for a few seconds to ease the pain and expedite the natural healing process. Needless to say, the innkeeper was startled.

"Sorry about my friend\'s recklessness. He should have held back. Please treat this as my apology. I\'m Zero, a doctor. This is Truen, an archer, and Bob is just Bob. We came to visit our friend Mitchnew in this city and were looking around for an inn to stay for a few nights that isn\'t too expensive or rowdy. Do you happen to have any vacant rooms?"

Bob swore that it was extremely unfair how Old Gary took a liking to his master instantly. While he didn\'t quite like Truen, he was still tolerant but he shot a nasty look at Bob.

"Bob can sleep in the stables if he wants, I have no rooms for monsters. And as for you," Old Gary turned to Truen. "I don\'t care if you have business and trouble elsewhere but I don\'t want any blood or bodies in this area. The western district detaches itself from the central and the southern parts of the city. Don\'t bring what I\'ve worked hard to thwart and you can stay."

Bob stuck his tongue out at Old Gary when the innkeeper turned his back to lead the two travellers upstairs to check out the rooms they wanted. Mitchnew sighed and dragged Bob along.

"Come on, let\'s go. We can meet them up again later or tomorrow. You can still talk to Zero, right? Party Call function?"

Bob nodded and decided to inform Zero of their departure while his master and Truen headed upstairs to look at rooms.

The rooms were cosy and Zero chose one with a window facing the stables just in case. Truen agreed with the choice and Old Gary told them breakfast was included in the price that Truen promptly paid before Zero could find his money. Then, Zero asked why the innkeeper wouldn\'t accept Bob as a guest even though there were clearly many empty rooms.

The retired general only raised a brow. "You don\'t know? He looks human but he\'s not. That monster is probably older than he looks and while he means no harm to you or your friend here, he\'s not against snacking on humans to kill his boredom. In ancient times, there were many such monsters but now, it\'s rare to see one outside Mystic Meadows. I don\'t know where you found him but I\'d caution you to watch your back."

Zero froze and thanked the old general who didn\'t say much more. Once Old Gary left and closed the door behind him, Zero gave Truen a panicked look.

"Did he find out?" Zero whispered and Truen frowned.

"I can\'t be sure. Maybe he mistook Bob as something else. It\'s not often you see a dragon even if the new heroes are dragon warriors. Either way, let\'s not make things difficult for him. Once we\'re done with what we came for, we should leave to avoid causing too much trouble for them. Also, there is still some time before dinner. Shall we discuss your idea? Cleaning and packaging herbs? Children?"

Zero grinned. This was exactly what he had in mind before the shocking arm-wrestling match earlier.