If she had had a fluid in her mouth, it would have been spat out in a comical spray hearing him joke about the two at the fire. Instead, she let out a large “ha!” that may have been a bit louder than she had intended, and spilling a bit of the scotch that she had been pouring in their glasses. “Ah shit.” She muttered under her breath, wiping it up, barely paying attention to the conversation he was having with a couple of the locals.<br/><br/>“I’d heard about that beast for a while.” Abia pushed on of the glasses toward her new friend. “Honestly, I think it’s just rumors spreading through a simple town that rarely sees excitement. Probably one of the children playing pranks for a good laugh.” Abia shook her head as she lifted the glass to her lips and took a sip.<br/><br/>“It’s no joke! We saw it!” The one man piped up to her comment.<br/><br/>“It’s true!” The other added, “even my little boy says he came face to face with the monster! Nearly scratched his face off it did! He got the scar to prove it!”<br/><br/>“Did you see it attack your son?”<br/><br/>“Well, no, but-“<br/><br/>“And when you saw it, how close to it were you?”<br/><br/>“Well...maybe about...a mile or two away...”<br/><br/>“Then how did you know it was a beast of the monstrous kind and not a beast of the normal kind?”<br/><br/>“Because he attacked my son!!”<br/><br/>“You sure he didn’t just tell you a story to distract you from the fact that maybe he was playing outside the town again and didn’t want to get in trouble?” The men only sat there dumbfounded without words. “MHmmm....that’s what I thought.”<br/><br/>“Are you calling my son a liar?” The man stood, snapping out of his stupor, and stared intimidatingly at Abia.<br/><br/>“I’m just saying he’s a small boy who doesn’t want to get a spanking from his pa.”<br/><br/>The man didn’t let up from his anger as he approached the bar, glaring at her. “You’re lucky you’re the only bar in town.” He narrowed his eyes before going back to his seat, sipping at his drink and glaring daggers at the girl the entire time.