Chapter XXVII: Pain
Kai stood in front of the small building, ready for anything such as danger or help. He didn't know what to expect once he opened the door, nor did he know who to expect. All he knew was that there were people in the building. Lots of people using the amount of voices inside as evidence. From the outside, he couldn't make out what they were saying, so he couldn't necessarily judge if the people inside were hostile or not. By the average size of the many footprints that led into the building, it was safe to say that the majority or all of the people inside were men. The voices inside did sound masculine to Kai, so that confirmed the genders of them.
Anna and Rapunzel both stood behind Kai, all three were focusing on the wooden door that led into the building. Rapunzel suspected that the place was a pub! comparing it to the Snuggly Duckling she had visited so long ago. Kai leaned in closer to the door and pressed his right ear against it to see if he could hear anything else. The sounds of glass tapping and wood creaking came into Kai's ears. A pub is a common place for those sounds.
"What do you hear?" Anna asked.
"I think Rapunzel was right." Kai said. "This sounds and looks like a pub."
"How can we be sure?" Anna asked. "Can we look through those windows?" Anna pointed to the stained glass windows that lined the outside of the building, to the right of the door. The door was located on the far left side of the front of the building, and the windows were all over the right side of it.
"Those are stained glass windows, Anna." Kai said.
"Yeah, no way we can see through those colors." Rapunzel finished.
There was only one option for them left. They had to go in and see for themselves. Hopefully, whoever was inside would be willing to help them. Kai doubted it though. If this was a pub, Kai doubted that there would be helpful people in there. He knew the type of people who hung out at pubs. Mostly thugs and criminals or the occasional drinker who is trying to get away from his or her problems. Now that he thought about it, he knew too much about pub people.
Kai put his hand on the wooden door handle. He then turned his head to look back at the girls. "Be ready for anything." Kai told them. Anna nodded, and Rapunzel took out her frying pan, hoping she wouldn't have to use it.
Kai pulled the door to the building, and silence immediately followed. Not a sound came from the inside as he opened the door. Kai looked in to see if he could verify his suspicions. It was indeed a pub. There was a long counter a few feet in front of the opposite end of the room where Kai was. It started from the left side of the pub to about three-fourths to the right side. A large shelf filled with dozens of beverages was on the opposite end of the wall as well. A muscular man stood behind the counter and in front of the shelf of drinks. Kai assumed that he was the bartender.
Kai scanned the room to find many round tables scattered around. About there was about seven tables in all, which had four chairs around it. About four chairs were in front of the counter, two of which were occupied. The occupied chairs were the ones on the far left and right. Every single chair around the round tables were occupied by someone. Including the bartender, the two in front of the counter, and a man leaning on a wall, there was about thirty nine people in all in the pub. All thirty nine of them were looking at Kai and the girls, silently.
Lanterns hung from the walls, providing light to the place.
Kai stepped into the building, and the girls did too, reluctantly entering it. They knew this was no place for a princess. But, for Kai, he fit in well actually.
Even as they walked in, there was still an awkward silence among everyone. The men in the pub with drinks in their hands were all focusing on Kai and the girls. That made them uncomfortable.
"Carry on." Kai said, behind his face mask.
Though most would rather watch Kai's every move, chatter broke out among the men once again. They seemed to have stopped focusing on Kai and back to their recreational activities; telling each other manly gossip, and drinking until they couldn't see right. There was still some who were watching the tree. The bartender was still focusing on his new guests and so was the man leaning against the wall. As Kai walked towards the bartender, the man leaning against the wall walked over to one of the tables occupying four people. The girls saw him whisper something to them, and they could've swore he was talking about them.
Kai took a seat next to the man on the far left seat in front of the counter, looking at the bartender. The girls both stood behind Kai, not wanting to take a seat. Kai slouched his back as he sat and put his hands on the counter in order to fit in more. The bartender then stood in front of him behind the counter. Looking closer at the bartender, they were able to see that his left eye was milky white, indicating half blindness.
"I haven't seen your faces here before." The bartender said.
"We're just passing by." Kai said. "I was wondering if you could help us out."
"You're "just passing by" in the middle of nowhere?" The bartender asked.
"In that case, what are these people doing in the middle of nowhere?" Kai asked.
"These men aren't confined to one place for things like a job. They like to spend their time here." The bartender answered. "You three look like you have your own duties. People like that don't fit in here."
"Is there a problem, sir?" Kai asked.
"There a dangerous folk out here." The bartender said. "I was just wondering what your business was."
"Stick to serving drinks." Kai said. "Our business is our own."
Then, the bartender looked over at Anna and Rapunzel who were still standing behind Kai in an elegant manner. They obviously didn't know how to act like the people around them. They feared that if they did try to act that way, it would end comically. They didn't know how these men felt about comical.
"Are these broads with you?" The bartender asked to which Kai nodded. "Men here would wonder how much they're worth."
"Excuse me?" Both Anna and Rapunzel said at the same time, hoping that the bartender wasn't implying what they thought he was implying. Unfortunately, he was implying it. Before any one of the girls could speak up, Kai turned around to face the girls. He put his left hand on Anna's right shoulder and put his right hand on Rapunzel's left shoulder.
"Save it." Kai told the girls. He then took his hands off of them and turned back to the bartender. That told them one thing; let Kai do the talking. He seemed to know what to do in this situation, and he wouldn't want them ruining things for him and making things far more difficult than it needed to be.
"She looks familiar." The bartender said, pointing at Anna. Kai, too, turned towards Anna. She gave him a look that told Kai to tell the bartender something, but Kai just kept his gaze. This told her that she should make her own lie. She couldn't rely on Kai to talk to her all the time, and this was her chance to prove she didn't need him. He knew well he was giving her that chance.
"Um..." Anna said. "You must be mistaken."
"I'm not mistaken a lot." The bartender said.
"Well, I've been told I have common features that many other women have." Anna continued.
"Oh, like eyes bigger than your wrists?" The bartender said.
"We've not passed through this area before." Kai interrupted. "You've probably never seen her before." He didn't want to go back and forth with the bartender. It was wasting time, and it could potentially blow their cover.
"Let's just get to the point." The bartender said. "What do you want?"
Good, Kai thought. "We're looking for food." Kai said.
"We only sell drinks here, sir." The bartender said. "Want a place that sells food? Go to Arendelle."
The girls were disappointed. They had hoped and prayed for a bite to eat for hours. Now, they had to go on without fuel for the rest of the journey, assuming there wasn't another pub around. There was an off chance that there could be another building that provided food since they still had a lot of ground to cover before they reached the North Mountain. But, they highly doubted it.
"I can offer you drinks." The bartender said. "If you're just going to loiter, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
They needed a short rest, even a rest in a place like this would suffice, though it wasn't ideal. Kai knew how exhausted they were from walking, so he knew how much this rest was worth. Also, he wouldn't mind a drink.
"Give me a scotch whiskey." Kai said.
"And for the girls?" The bartender asked.
Kai turned his head back at the girls and then refocused himself back on the bartender. By the looks on their faces, he decided the thing they needed most.
"Two cups of water for the girls." Kai said.
Anna put her hand on Kai's shoulder. "I appreciate you being a gentleman and all, but I think we can order for ourselves." Anna said. Anna then sat on the chair to Kai's right, and the bartender looked over at her.
"What do you want?" The bartender asked.
"Um... Two cups of water, please." Anna said.
The bartender took out two metal cups from under his counter. He then took out a glass bottle filled with water and popped it open. After he filled both cups with water, he put the bottle down and handed the cups to Anna. She then stood up from her chair, turned around to face Rapunzel, and gave her one of the cups. Rapunzel studied the cup and water carefully, making sure that the water wasn't tampered with in any way. After finding out that it was clear, the girls cheered their cups, and drank the water quickly since they were parched.
While the bartender was readying Kai's whiskey, he looked to the man on his left. The man had two empty glasses in front of him, and was holding the handle of a knife whose blade was stuck on the wooden counter. Kai didn't want to be near that guy much longer as he didn't know if the man was hostile or not.
Then, the bartender snapped his fingers in front of Kai's face. Kai looked at the bartender who pointed at the glass of golden liquid that was filled half way in front of him. Kai's whiskey was ready for him to drink. Kai pulled down his face mask which he realized was still on him. He grabbed the glass with his right hand and brought it to his lips. As he drank the whiskey, and he drank it quickly since he wanted to get out of the pub as soon as possible, he slammed his left hand on the counter with his fingers spread from each other because of how strong the beverage was.
Anna and Rapunzel didn't know how Kai was able to drink something that strong so quickly. Alcohol wasn't their preferred drink, and they could never bring themselves to do something like that that fast.
Kai had to admit that the whiskey tasted a little different than most whiskey he drank. But, he hadn't had a drink in a long time so he just shrugged it off and told himself that he wasn't used to it anymore.
Once again, Kai scanned the room. He was just about ready to leave, but something strange was going on in the pub. The amount of chatter and talk died down immensely, and those who were still talking kept their voices low. He noticed that a few people in the room were eyeballing the girls and him, with dirty looks on their faces. Kai also couldn't help notice that those men had weapons strapped to their backs. The girls were too busy focusing on Kai's interaction with the bartender to notice the men looking at them.
The men also knew that Kai was aware of their presence. Three of them stood up from their chairs and slowly walked around the pub, making their way towards Kai and the girls. He also couldn't help but notice that the man who was leaning on the wall joined the three men walking in a subtle manner. Something was about to go down, and Kai was sure of it.
Still looking at them, Kai used his right hand to slowly reach for his dagger that was strapped to the right side of his waist. His left hand was still on the table so his actions would look less suspicious. The girls noticed who Kai was looking at, and they got the same feeling Kai was having. This isn't good, Rapunzel thought. Anna was somewhat disappointed that something bad was going to happen. She just wished that no one would try to kill them on their adventure for once. She readied herself for the worst.
Then, in a split second, the man who was sitting to the left of Kai took out his knife that was stuck on the table and stabbed the middle of Kai's left hand with it, going through his palm and sticking to the table. Blood immediately guahed out of his started to gush out of his wound. Pain filled Kai's hand immediately after. Kai gave a loud yell in agony as he looked at his hand. The scream was so loud, it could easily be heard two miles away. Though he had experienced worst pain, this was definitely the second to worst in his life. A small pool of Kai's blood grew below his palm onto the wooden counter.
The girls looked over at what was wrong with Kai and gasped when they saw his hand.
"AAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!" Kai yelled, still in agony. The pain was all Kai could feel. He couldn't focus on anything else. The only thing that bounced around in his mind was the blade that had just stabbed his hand. The pool of blood soon started to run over the counter, dripping on the wooden floor.
From behind, a large man grabbed Anna and held her hands behind her back. The same thing happened to Rapunzel but with a different man. Anna was too paralyzed by Kai's pain that she didn't think about fighting back, though any attempts to escape the grasp of the man would've been pointless as his grip was incredibly strong. Rapunzel was more feisty. She tried to shake away from her adversary's grasp, but he wasn't willing to let her go.
The bartender was smiling as he looked at Kai who was still in agony. The sight of Kai trying to take the knife out of his hand made him happy. Kai was too weak to take the knife away as the pain overcame his strength. The flow of the blood coming out of Kai's hand was still there but it wasn't as intense as it was seconds before.
"Does it hurt?" The bartender asked, sarcastically. Kai did not answer because of the pain.
Then, the bartender took his own knife from under the counter and quickly stabbed Kai's ring finger, about half an inch above his knuckle. Kai let out another agonizing scream, much louder than his previous scream. Many of the people in the pub covered their ears when they heard this. More blood was coming out from Kai's ring finger, adding to the pool of blood that was already there by a little bit. A single tear came out of Kai's eye. He couldn't believe pain made him cry.
"Kai!" Anna yelled.
"Oh no!" Rapunzel said.
The bartender then shook his blade around and took it out of the wooden counter. The two then saw how Kai's ring finger was severed from his left hand about half an inch above his knuckle. Kai gas able to see the bone of his severed finger and blood was still slowly coming out. Anna gasped as she saw what was happening to Kai. It hurt her too see him in pain like this. She closed her eyes to save herself from the image. Rapunzel couldn't believe that a tough guy such as Kai could be hurt like this.
The man who was sitting next to Kai saw the whole thing. He grabbed a hold of the knife that was sticking out of the back of Kai's hand and took it out. He then stood up and walked behind the men who were restraining the girls. For some reason, when the blade was yanked out of Kai's hand, it hurt just as much as it did when he was stabbed. Kai couldn't do anything because of the pain that was still being inflicted upon him. His hand was free to move, but it still felt horrible.
Kai raised his hand in front of his face to see the damage while he was still still simpering in agony. Blood was flowing down from his hand and onto his clothes. He looked at where his ring finger used to be and saw the bone of it. He could've fainted from this sight.
At this point, many of the people who were in the pub had already left before any of this went down. The man who was leaning on the wall had informed everyone of his plans and told them to leave if they wanted no part of it. Most did, leaving only ten to fifteen hostile individuals in the pub. Kai was in too much pain to realize that many had left.
The bartender leaned over the counter and pushed Kai off his stool. Kai fell to the floor in front of Anna and Rapunzel who were still being held back. Falling down to the floor seemed like a papercut compared to having a finger severed. The bartender then looked at Kai's ring finger in the small blood puddle, and picked it up.
"Aww." The bartender said. "Now where will we put your wedding ring?" He then threw the finger across the room.
Kai was still on the floor, paralyzed from the pain and horror of losing his finger. Now, he could no longer count to ten using his fingers. He couldn't form any words with his mouth since the sound of him in pain would be the only thing that would come out. His hand stung like crazy, blood slowly coming out of it. It was safe to say he had already lost about a pint of blood in all.
The man who was leaning against the wall walked up next to the bartender behind the counter. He then looked over at both Anna and Rapunzel.
"Don't think we're stupid." The man said. "We know a princess when we see one. Two princesses is even better."
"Do you work for Cade too?" Rapunzel asked, angrily.
"No." The bartender answered. "But, we know he'll give us a good price for you two."
"If you don't work for Cade, then who are you?" Rapunzel asked.
"Don't you think it's a little odd for a pub to be this far out away from cities?" The man next to the bartender asked. "This place is a trap for unsuspecting people such as yourselves. After we trap them, we sell them to the highest bidder."
"As what?" Anna asked.
"I don't need to answer that." The man replied. "Anyway, we know Cade is willing to give us a grand amount for you two broads."
"Then what about him?" Anna asked, looking down at Kai.
"Don't worry about him." The bartender said. "He'll be taken care of." Kai didn't like the sound of that. He still couldn't do anything about it.
"Wait, how do you know about Cade?" Rapunzel asked.
"Don't worry about it." The bartender said.
Rapunzel put it together in her head. The North Mountain was close to them. Cade probably passed by this pub many times where he told them of his deals. But, she doubted Cade would actually give them payment for anything. Cade didn't seem to have much to offer.
"Before we give you to Cade and that crazy broad, Lilith..." The bartender said. He then looked over at the remaining people in the pub who were drinking and socializing as if nothing bad was happening around them. "Two hundred and fifty pounds for a piece of princess!" He announced. The men in the pub cheered and raised their mugs in the air, knowing what the bartender meant by "piece".
"Going in here was a bad idea." Anna told herself.
"I'll say." The bartender agreed.
Luckily, Rapunzel freed herself from the grasp of her captor. She then ran up in front of the stool where the man who used to sit next to Kai was sitting. He turned around facing her adversaries, with an injured Kai on the floor next to her. She was cornered and had no where else to go.
"Please let us go." Rapunzel said. "My dream is to save my parents, and I can't save them if you're going to just kidnap us. Where's your humanity? Haven't any of you ever had a dream?"
Silence followed that. The men gave her an unamused look. She wasn't appealing to their good side at all it seemed.
A weak Kai who was groaning silently on the ground managed a sentence. "I don't think thats going to work..." He said, weakly and quietly.
"Well then..." Rapunzel said. She then reached into her satchel and pulled out her frying pan.
"Time for plan B."
Author's Note: Kai only has nine fingers now... ouch. This chapter was to have more action included, but I realized then that it would be way too long, so I decided to just cut it out until the next chapter. Get it? Cut it out... because Kai's finger was cut off. Cut. Yeah, you get it. Hey, don't start pointing fingers at people who make bad jokes. Get it? Fingers... because Kai lost a finger.
Anyway, here's a question for you guys. In your opinion, who do you think the main protagonist(s) in the story is/are? I tried to not have a main character in this story, unlike my last story where Kai got most of the spotlight. In this story, I tried to make everyone have an equally important role. Despite that, who do you think has the most important role, therefore, the main protagonist in your opinion.
Hm... Turning to ice, getting shot in the shoulder, falling down while climbing a ship's mast, being cut numerous times, getting your hand stabbed, and having finger cut off... Man, it must suck to be Kai.
As always, please review/comment! Feedback is really appreciated. Also, I'm trying to reach over one hundred reviews before the story is over. Actually, once I reach 100 reviews, I will reveal details for my next project on an author's note. Let's reach that goal! Ciao.