Thread: Dire Straits (Atroxa & Ostrich)

To say that the war was making life difficult was a vast understatement. The economy suffered as the enemy pushed further and further into their country, gaining ground every day. Many towns and cities had fallen to these invading Orcs, and unfortunately, Westwatch was no different. As it's name might imply, Westwatch was in the west, to be precise it was one of the larger port cities along the western coast of Valanthia. For nearly two weeks now, the city had been captured and occupied, but honestly, Cassia thought things were no worse than they had been before. She knew that she should hate this, should be rallying against the invaders holding their city, her own husband was off fighting in the war, but she didn't have the time or energy. And she had her daughter to worry about. War did not make bill payments stop, and she still had a business to run. Her husband had left the inn to her when he left, and she was determined to keep it running. It was the only way she could afford to take care of herself and Lorelle, especially if her husband never returned. Gods willing, he did, but Cassia was the sort who hoped for the best and expected the worst. Men were killed in war often, she knew that there was no way for her to know for sure if her own would survive or not. And if he didn't, no one was going to take care of her, she had to do that herself. So she just kept her head down and tried to run the inn, which was difficult considering she had few patrons. With the city occupied there weren't as many people coming and going. Cassia stood at the counter, chewing on her lip as she worried about how she was going to pay rent, and how she was going to be able to feed herself. She sighed heavily. Despite being in her mid thirties, she was an attractive woman, with long black hair and blue-gray eyes. In the past, her beauty had only helped the business, her husband hadn't much liked letting men look at her but if it brought them in, then it brought them in. So even when he had been here she had been the inn's public face, she was pretty, smart, and could be rather charismatic, but she also knew when to put her foot down. Her husband had handled the business side and while he had taught her as much as he could before he left, she knew she wasn't as good with that side of things as he was. He probably wouldn't be having near as much difficulty as she was, but surely some. Cassia hoped it wasn't purely her own incompetence that had them in this situation. In fact, she knew it wasn't, as hers was far from the only business that was suffering. Some inns were doing quite well with the soldiers occupying the city staying in them, others had these soldiers but they were refusing to pay, so it was certainly hurting them. The ones closest to the docks were still getting sailors and travelers staying with them, but no where near the numbers they were used to. Her own inn, the Sapphire Tide, had once been very successful because of it's location, halfway between the docks and the center of the city, but now that was hurting them. None of the travelers and sailors wanted to venture far from the docks for fear of needing to leave in a hurry but being too far away, and all the soldiers and the like were gathered towards the center of the city. She could only hope one or both groups started spreading out soon or she might lose the inn... The inn itself was a nice two story brick building that was hugged tight by its neighbors, inside the first room was a common room with tables filling most of the space, a fireplace on the far left wall and a bar on the right, with a small kitchen and liquor wall. There were a few rooms downstairs but most were upstairs. There was a third floor as well, though it was more of an attic, made into an apartment where Cassia and her daughter, Lorelle, lived.