Another tankard hit the table and he reached for it eagerly. The barmaid pulled it away from him with a wry smile playing about her features. "Oh no you don't.", she sneered, wagging a finger in his face, "You're not getting another one 'till you pay..." Her words trailed off as she spent a few minutes counting the many empty rum bottles and tankards littered a mile-thick across the table. When she was finished she looked more then a little angry and leaned forward until she was inches from his face. "Pay up!"

More out of habit then necessity she brushed her red hair behind her ear and proceeded to rudely thrust her hand into his face. He looked down with a bemused expression at the man on the floor (who was still out cold by the way and completely oblivious to the scrutiny he was receiving) and poked him with his foot. Hearing the clinking of coins he flashed another smile at the barmaid, happy that from where she was standing she couldn't see the man sprawled on the floor, half under the table.

"A moment..." He reached down and lifted up a heavy purse of coins. He then made a great show of pouring out the coins and slowly dropping them back into the purse one by one until only four remained in his hand.

"For your trouble..." He said and flipped the coins to the barmaid. She snorted, took the coins and left.

Chuckling he reached for the new tankard of rum... and after looking inside of it he snarled... It was empty. Not a drop. He looked around the crowded tavern for the red-head who had cheated him... and as fate would have it she was nowhere in sight.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid... Should've seen that coming... I've been gone too long..." He muttered under his breath malevolently eyeing his silver pocket watch on the table and muttering of sea monsters, death, betrayel, and the wonders of indoor plumbing.

After he had fully exhausted the afore mentioned subjects he heaved a sigh and cast a quick glance to the man at the table next to him who was currently (I say currently because about five minutes ago he was the loon hopping up and down on the table yodeling loudly, A Pirate's Life For Me.), like I said, was currently slumped over in sleep and looking dead (and that is putting it nicely. Trust me.).

Of course, one sees things like this all of the time so it shouldn't come as much of a shock that it wasn't the inebriated man who caught his attention but the three full bottles of rum surrounding him that did. He picked up a mug and chucked it at the other man's head. No reaction. He threw another... and two more in quick succession for good measure. Eventually the drunkard realized his head was hurting and opened a lazy eye.

For a few seconds he stared blankly, until his gaze locked onto a man who was strutting past him with a platter of empty mugs. He attacked the innocent bystander (and what an extremely unfortunate bystander it was. For the man was large and very strong) and in minutes everyone in the tavern was fighting. Everyone fought, that is, except for the one man who had started it all. Who was now happened to be working on his second newly acquired bottle of rum... While keeping a wary eye out for that thieving red-head...

A block away the barmaid (by the name of Sheri) was now deep in conversation with a scrawny blond girl named Meredith.

"...Only four pieces..." Meredith repeated dazedly, eyes wide. "Only four?"

"But, but... that's the most you've ever gotten with that trick!"

"Do you think I don't know that!?" Sheri retorted.

Meredith's eyes widened. "Well then... What're you so upset about?"

"Humph" Sheri methodically smoothed the wrinkles out of her skirt before replying.

"Because... He was obviously wealthy... Clean-shaven, neat clothing--the likes of which I've never seen... At least... Not around here. Stupid good for nothing-"

"Did he have a nice smile?" Meredith piped up. Sheri blushed slightly and turned away.

"I suppose so... He was... certainly eccentric," She paused, reflecting on the man's behavior

"Alright...very eccentric... and cheap!" She shouted, startling a few ravens.

Meredith simply shook her head and allowed her friend to mutter on into the night. If anything, it was Sheri who was the cheep one, not the man.

"Four coins... That's all... And for all the rum he drank... Humph. The audacity!"

Meredith ran a thin and pallid hand through her stringy locks. "Four pieces-of-eight are a lot Sheri... A lot!" Meredith gave Sheri a dismissive wave--

"You're ill in the head..." Meredith muttered as she gradually faded away into the night leaving a fuming Sheri behind to glare at all of the helpless bystanders. After a while Sheri leaned against the wall of the alleyway and nonchalantly watched those who continued to swagger by. Mostly drunkards, and the occasional chicken with a gnarled beak or leg.

Long before the moon had begun to tower high above the buildings... Boredom had settled in... So when the oddest woman Sheri had ever seen walked past with layered foreign skirts, tattooed face, cinnamon skin, fire in her eyes, and carrying all sorts of objects, frightening and diverse... Sheri felt compelled to follow, even into the very tavern that the extremely cheap man had been in...

The woman was also carrying what had appeared to be a sad corpse of a monkey in a cage but had in fact woken up and cackled inimically at Sheri when she came too close. The monkey and many other oddly shaped objects the eerie woman left outside of the tavern. Even so, Sheri wasn't tempted to snoop but trailed the woman into the tavern and lurked behind a wooden beam when the woman sat across from the gentleman she had scammed earlier.

Hello! Please review. This is NOT JxOC. I promise! I know that it comes across that way, but I assure you it is not!