Introducing Aurora

Jude took a quick draft of his drink before setting down on the bar in front of him. He hung his head downward as he savored the sweet taste of the cordial in mouth as he cleared his head of all the thoughts he had accumulated throughout the days work. He slowly raised his head and blinked a few times as he opened his golden colored eyes. He turned around and leaned his back against the bar as he looked around and took stock of his situation. It was quite large, approximately 20 feet long and 25 feet wide. There was a fire beneath the 6 foot wide, wooden hearth at the other end of the room across from him. The floors were all wood, and the walls had spaced vertical wooden beams every few feet, with plaster covered sandstone in between. There were various lanterns, each of different appearance, dotting the walls. In some areas the plaster had crumbled off, revealing the red sandstone beneath. The ceiling was all wood, with three dimly lit, iron chandeliers in line along the center, all equally spaced. There were various small square tables of no particular design accompanied by an odd assortment of rickety old chairs that creaked whenever one sat on them. It made sense to keep such old furniture as no doubt bar fights were quite common. Each table had at least one candle. Surprisingly the place was quite clean. Whoever owned the place must put in a great deal of work to keep the place up to spec. which is odd as the stereotypical bar or tavern are supposed to be absolutely filthy.
The tavern was quite boisterous. There were a couple dozen or so men, some sitting and some standing, in the middle of the room all of them laughing and roaring voraciously, as they half guzzled, half spilled their various choices of beer. Most of them were obviously drunk, and whether or not the various statements made had any real comedic sense to them didn’t really matter, as they seemed to laugh, snort, giggle, or cackle at whatever they said to each other. Some of the men were older, more grizzled characters, with large ears and long sharp noses; and their skin tan and rough from the decades of hard work. The younger men were already showing signs of hard labor, their faces tan and dirty, their hands calloused, and their musculature strong.  They were all them strong men, “Let’s only hope they don’t get violent, or else we’ll have quite the situation on our hands,” Jude quietly commented to himself. He noticed a two sober men quietly conversating to his right. One of them was a younger chap, dark curly hair and a brown cap and jacket, talking about some woman named Sarah, and how to tell if she fancied him or not. The other man was a fat older man, next to him, facing Jude’s direction. He had long grey hair tied into a ponytail in the back, and a well kept grey goatee. He had bushy eyebrows with dark, deep set eyes. He had a hawk like nose and large fleshy jowls. He merely nodded or shook his head as the young man rambled on.
Jude noticed a flash of red in the corner of his eye. He cocked his head to the left, and noticed a young girl wearing a dark crimson skirt and slightly off white top, with short, loose fitting sleeves falling off the shoulders, to reveal the brown leather straps supporting the garment. She was probably the barmaid as quickly walking in from another room carrying an assortment of meat and bread on a tray. She was pale and fair skinned, and quite tall, five foot ten to be exact. She was of lean muscularity and build, but obviously strong. Her shoulder were a little broader than most women. She had big, bright grey blue eyes, and a slender nose. Her jaw was defined, but quite petite, and she had full, pink ,cupid bow shaped lips, pursed in concentration as she balanced the tray. She had beautiful loosely curled golden blonde hair with which she tied the back up into a loose ponytail, but the fronts wavy curls fell along side her face. She would be considered, by most accounts, quite a beauty. She had long, graceful strides, as she hurried to serve the rambunctious customers. Jude couldn’t help but noticed that the girl had a brown leather belt, with a simple silver buckle, that had a long hunting knife strapped to the left side. “Good thing a girl like that is armed,” Jude thought, “As there is no telling what could happen with a crowd of drunken rabble around you... some girls are not so fortunate.” Jude’s point was confirmed as at that moment, one of the middle aged drunks sitting down, leaning back with his feet propped on the table made a rather rude remark about the girl’s appearance. He groutestly yelled, so that his couple dozen comrades could hear him. “Well, ain’t she got a fine package. She’s just the type I like, not too big!”  He then attempted to slap the girl’s backside. What followed next was a bit surprising if not quite enjoyable to watch. The young blonde immediately dropped the tray she was carrying, and spun around to face the man, whipping out her hunting knife, a shining silver blade, a dangerous looking thing. She placed the knife against the man’s neck.
The girl’s voice was rich sounding alto as she spoke to the man in a menacing tone, “If I ever hear you say or do something like that again, to me or any other girl in town, I will not hesitate to gut you and feed your entrails to city strays! Do you understand me?”
The man’s lips started to quiver as his eyes widen in terror. He attempted to stammer out a reply, “Y-y-yes, ma’am! I-I won’t never say somthin’ like that again!”
The girl just stared at the man, as her penetrating grey blue eyes bored into him. The man said nothing further, but just whimpered as he feared she would cut his throat. His comrades made no attempt to help him, but just stood there, dumbfounded by what had just occurred in front of them. The girl’s low voice echoed through the now silent room, “Good. Now enjoy your meal boys.”
She then withdrew her blade and quickly sheathed it. She then spun around and walked back towards the room from which she entered, but not before picking up the tray she had dropped. The couple dozen men all replied in unison in response to her command, “Yes ma’am!”
Jude heard a deep baritone voice from behind him, “Darn that girl, if she treats all my customers like that, I’ll go out of business. The problem is that she’s such an excellent cook, I can’t afford to replace her. That and of course, she’s my niece.” Jude spun around on his stool to face the speaker, it was the bartender from earlier.