Shady

“Nice to meet you.” Jerica nodded to him. Well, now, this was awkward. Should she stay or go?

“Hmph.” She glanced across the bar. She probably shouldn’t get another. She should be done. Probably.

“Luckily I wasn’t asking you to get involved,” Jerica said dryly.

“Hmph,” she said again, though the irony was not lost on her. “I sound like a woman out of beer.”

“Hmph.” Jerica tried to take another drink of her beer and realized she was out. “…Hmph.”

“Right, but, like.” She furrowed her brow. “Did he know they were real , though? Like. I don’t hide from the boogey man. I don’t check under my bed when ...

“What stories? Did he know them? Did he know they were real?” Why was she getting so involved in a myth?

“How could he have known better?” Jerica countered. “Was there a giant ‘do not eat — god’s goat’ sign next to the goat?” (Yeah totally fair lol I’m always down ...

(Oh 100% he’s the freaking marrow man she’s toast but would still probably try lol then just piss him off good and thoroughly… I wonder if he’d be able to ...

(Oh gawd that would be a disaster lol) Jerica was ready to scoff that off. But now she wasn’t so sure. It seemed the gods might be real. Or maybe ...

“What are they about?”

“No.” Jerica shook her head. Just been reading about Strithr, but she’d learned her lesson about mentioning them. “What other ones are there?”

Jerica nodded as well. “I bet.” She finished off her beer.

Jerica shrugged, forcing herself to play it cool. “He was a good orator; it was nice.”

“Hm…” she thought for a moment, taking another drink of her beer. “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it.”’