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Doc walked into the tavern and had to smile. It reminded him of his original home. And where Pops had found him so long ago. It felt good to find something familiar here, even if the patrons varied.
He looked around for a moment, his pale blue eyes adjusting to the dimmer light before he moved further in and approached the bar, nodding to the bartender, "I'm looking for Rex?" he asked simply. The bartender looked him over briefly then pulled him a glass of the local ale, passed it over, then nodded to the stairs, "Upstairs. First door on the left. Just knock once and go on in," he was told simply, nodding as he carried the glass up the stairs.
He looked around on the way and found that he seemed to fit in better than the others, despite his height. He stood a couple inches less than Griz and wasn't quite as muscular. Still, they both favored leather and wore their hair longer but pulled back. While Griz was all browns and muscle, Doc was darker tones except for his pale blue eyes. Before Griz came along, Doc had been the largest of the bears. Still, he'd given that position up gladly to the larger bear.
Doc moved up the stairs and knocked on the door then opened it and approached the man behind the desk that looked like a misplaced lumberjack, "You Rex?" he asked, gaining an easy smile and a nod as the other male stood and shook hands with him, gesturing to the chair on the other side of the desk, "I'm Doc, Beta to Pops. We're all passing through. Pops is on his way up to the castle now to talk to Griz and Sebastet. We have another boat coming in with the rest of our Den. I know we'll be alot of mouth to feed and house, but we didn't really have much choice. Honestly, I think we'd do better in one of the other realms. But for now, Pops has said that we're to be useful while we're here. The other guys are good with heavy lifting and construction. The girls are good with minding kids and teaching them. I'm a doctor and veterinarian. We were told that you'd be able to tell us where we'd be useful while we're here," he explained, hoping that he wasn't overstepping Pops in doing so.
Rex listened and considered it seriously, "Honestly, we're looking at moving the non-essentials up to the castle for a bit. All the older people, the kids, the sick, the pregnant females... You get the idea... We've got the Church coming after us again with better numbers and better firepower. We're supposed to increase patrols, do repairs, and see what else we can do in the village," he started then paused to consider the male in front of him for a moment.
"We had an attack earlier. They went after our resident gem carver. They took out his mates and hit him hard. Apparently he escaped the dragon's healer and came back here. But he's not doing very well. The ammunition has been very specific for most of the targets here. They hit him with silver, murcery, and toxic waste. All three are deadly to him. Apparently he's just stubborn enough to decide that he's going to die in his house. If you could look in and see what you can do, we'd all appreciate it.
"As for the others... Cassius' house needs repairs, as do a few of the neighboring buildings. We also need to arrange escorts for the people we're evacuating to the castle. They can wait until yours get here to make the trip for all of them," he offered.
Doc gave a nod, "That'll be fine. We can use the horses for it, maybe add in a wagon or two for it. We're used to that kind of transport. And I'll gladly look in on your friend. How can I find his place?" he finished with a question that pulled a grin from Rex.
"Oh you won't be able to miss it... It's as overdone as Cassius is. Trust me, you'll know the building when you get there..." he assured him then stood and shook his hand and showed him out.
Doc shrugged his shoulder and moved on down and headed for the door to find the others, then look for the gem carver's building...
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