Whilst many across the city wake to the crowing of a rooster, the breaking of this particular day at this particular Inn is announced by blood curdling screaming. Grown men of violence are driven from their beds by the screams sending a chill up their spines. Weapons are bought to bear, shutters fly open, doors swung wide, and the hallway flooded as these fearless men leap to action.
Halfway down the hall a door remains closed, one of their own is unaccounted for and this is his room. The screams have drawn them to this door, and a pair of strong shoulders sees it breached. Confusion reigns as no enemy is found, but a man thrashes in his bed, drenched in sweat, limbs failing out at the first of his teammates to approach.
"Watch his feet!" barks a voice of authority. "Make a hole!"
Order has arrived as Coach Stikkyfingers steps past his Blitzers and empties a bucket of water onto the man thrashing in his sleep.
A gasping and shaking Richard Hotstone hoarsely struggles for words. "Green... Stunty... Out in the first round... So much blood... the dead..."
"Hush now
Richard," soothed the Coach. Addressing a player by his first name was a shock to the team crowding the room and its entrance, as foreign to them as the soft tones in their Coach's voice. "It was just a bad dream. We're all here. It's all okay."
"But I saw it Coach, it was so real. Gobbos and out in the first round. Hacket's dead!"
"Hacket's in the doorway behind DeShank and the draw hasn't even been made yet," the familiar steel had returned to Coach Stikkyfingers voice. "Nobody ever loses to goblins in the first round of a major! Certainly not the
Sons of Brutus! Get a grip boy!"
"And you lot, since you're up I'll have you working!" it was time to get some order to the Sons. "Fifteen laps before anyone gets breakfast!"
"And somebody find me my pants!"