Chapter 3

 In the beginning... Chapter 1

Before this....Chapter 2

CHAPTER 3
---A---
In the end, Ann found herself sitting alone at the bar, an empty glass before her, but a full bag of coin in her grasp. Rolf had paid her and indulged himself in her company for a short while at the bar, before going off to speak with others.  Ann had quietly drank her glass and was simply enjoying it’s strong flavor and the dulling of her mind.  The tavern was the only place that most of the people ignored her presence.  They cared more for their drink or their greed as they dealt business to one another.  Two men even dared to sit at the table closest to her without a thought to who she was.  She couldn’t help but smile, yet her smile began to frown as she listened in.

“It’s got a well already built and it has very fertile ground. You can grow whatever you and your family want. It’s a great piece of land!” The man was a stranger in the town.  He seemed to be a quick scheme sort of man with his greasy hair and long grasping fingers. 
“It sounds great! How much for it?” She had seen this country man before around town and he had been struggling with his business. It didn’t surprise her that he was planning to move away to begin farming.  The stranger at the question of price, pawed across the table to peer into the man’s wealth. 
“Uh, I think 3000 gold would be good” he said with a grin.  Seeing the other man’s troubled look, he remarked “I’d be willing to set you up with a payment plan.”
Ann couldn’t stand it any longer. “You do know his lying right?”
“Wha...What do you mean?” the poor man questioned.
“He doesn’t even think that the land is worth that much.” She said standing from the bar and dropping a tip at her glass.  “He has more interest in your money, than being fair.”
“Are ya really going to believe a woman like that?” the stranger said to the country man with a lopsided grin.
“You are lying to me! You were going to cheat me out of my fortune?”
The man shrugged. “No harm right.”
The other man’s face boiled and his large, gruff hand grasped the other man’s shirt picking him off the floor. 
“You were going to have me and my family live on a DIRT FARM!” he shouted.
“No harm?” again the stranger replied as a fist pummelled into his face.

Within moments a brawl occurred as merchants fought against the country people trying to pull the two men apart.  Ann, in her part, walked out the front of the tavern mindless of the fight she had begun. 

---A---
Minutes later, Rolf had caught up with her, obviously a part of the brawl himself as he held a cloth to the shallow cut on his arm.

“What, What did you that for!?” he said out of breath. “Why didn’t you let their business go as would? If the man was foolish enough to pay for a land he had never seen before that’s his business. Instead you caused the whole tavern to fight. Not getting paid anything for your truth telling!”
“Have you seen the town man before?” Ann said calmy
“N...no”
“He likely would have hired me, if he could have afforded, but unfortunately his shop had been doing so badly that he had little money and little time to check on the land. It sounded like it was a good distance away. Though, I have never talked to him before, the man is the sort that doesn’t want to trouble his neighbor, so he couldn’t ask anyone to go for him.  I imagine he apologized a great deal after the fight?”
“Yah, that he did.  Even offered to pay for every one's injuries and what got broken in the tavern.  We all shrugged it off and chipped in to the owner to pay off everything.  All was good once it was over, though we had good talking to with the stranger.  Told him to run off and all--not to mess with people in our town.” Rolf broke off into a grin.  “It was a damn good clean fight. All good feelings and everything.”

They were silent for sometime before Rolf interrupted again. “I see why it’s good that you did it, but I still don’t see why you of all wanted to protect him.”
Ann was about to reply when a boy ran rounded the corner before them, nearly bowling them over. 
“Hey there! hey there! What’s the hurry?”
“I got to find the Truth Seeker!” the boy said as he ready himself to dash off again. Rolf grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around.
“She is right here boy!”
“Oh!’
Ann peered down at him with a mocking grin and he raggedly smiled in return.
“So, what is the message?”
“Well, my da and the other men need your help!” he starts heading back the way he came. Ann and Rolf follow after him as he continued.  “There’s...there’s an odd man--a stranger.  Da said to tell you that he’s causing mischief and won’t listen to anyone.  He doesn’t say a word.  It doesn’t seem like he can.  We’s were wondering if ya could, read him?”
“I would only be able to guess what he wants”
“It’s better than what anyone else can do. We don’t need a whole lot, it’s just that Da...Da really wants his ladder back!”
“His ladder...?” Ann began, but as they turned the corner she saw exactly what he meant. 

There on top of a ten foot ladder, crouched a Moharian grinning like a mad man, while the town people shouted for him to come down.  He only swung and swayed back and forth as the men tried to keep him from falling.  Rolf beside her for once beside was stunned into silence at this man’s audacity.