Garrick waved as the barman looked up from his conversation with the dark figure. Yoozaad seemed relieved to have the company, deflating like a tiny green balloon before offering a brief wave. Despite the crowd, none seemed inclined to sit at the bar itself, save for himself and the man.
"Gary, m'boy! Come in, come in! Don't linger in the doorway, now," Yoozaad greeted, accent still thick, despite the length of his residence.
Garrick played along, as this was typical of the goblin to get names mixed up, even though Yoozaad never seemed to catch on.
"Gary? I thought it was Garrick, Yoo. Last time, it was Mary."
"Garrick?" Yoozaad asked, his frog-like eyes bulging slightly and wandering in their sockets. He tilted his head and twitched his ears as his brain churned and cranked hard for a few split seconds, and Garrick imagined smoke floating from his ears. But Yoozaad simply shrugged, gave up on the mental effort, and waved dismissively. "Never heard of him," he stated blandly. "Sit, sit. Got a pint wit' yer name on it, boyo." The tiny barman cackled, pulling a frozen mug from an electric freezing box and filling it from one of the many casks behind the bar. He set it down, foam sloshing and spilling down the side of the glass.
Garrick, only hesitating momentarily, pulled up a stool and planted himself three seats away from the stranger Yoozaad seemed nervous about. As he took a sip, Garrick hoped and prayed that this stranger was uninterested in violence tonight.
"So! Haul up anythin' interestin' from the deep today?" As usual, Yoozaad's bulbous eyes lit up with excitement at the prospect of treasure, including the blind one glossed over like a broken blue marble. Even just hearing about it set him on edge.
Garrick grinned into his beer and set the mug down after a big, hearty gulp, followed by a gasp of satisfaction, and a tiny burp.
"S'cuse me," he mumbled, mopping his chin with the cuff of his sleeve. "No, not really. But we caught a few redfish you might like. There's a school offshore that the dolphins have been picking at, and they finally rounded up a fair number of decently big ones."
Despite the subject not precluding treasure, Yoozaad's interest was piqued.
"Pure now? Muckle ones, yeh say? I just might have ta take 'em off yer hands, then. I've been needing a mascot er two for this place!" He laughed at the notion, motioning around his bar with all the pride and joy of a new mother, despite the supposed age of the establishment.
"Is that what a 'tanner' is?" Garrick asked, suddenly bewildered. Why would anyone call a redfish a 'tanner'? It wasn't brown at all.
"Tis what pirates called them. That and Tribannian Navy bobbies." Yoozaad turned his head to spit momentarily. "Back in my time, they had red coats, and soon after they stopped sportin' their coats, some sailor some years ago thought it funny how far red a redfish is...said 'Tribannia must have spies everywhere! Even those fish might be Tanners!' "
Garrick laughed in chorus with the old barman, whose wheezy chortle quickly faded into fits of hacking, though he still did his best to squeeze out a few bubbly guffaws between coughs. The old gobby then pulled a pipe from an inner pocket of his vest and a small leather tobacco pouch and set about carefully stuffing and lighting his pipe with his long, spindly fingers.
"I guess that makes a lot of sense, now. I'd always wondered what that meant... 'Tanner Shoal'. You meant to have named this bar after a school of damned redfish." Garrick dove into his drink again as Yoozaad chuckled behind his pipe.
"Aye, laddie. I called her that after a shoal of those 'damned redfish' saved me life!" Again, Yoozaad's eyes twinkled, but Garrick knew it was for an entirely different reason. Even without looking, he could sense other patrons in the bar glancing up with interest.
Many folks who regularly frequented the tavern weren't there for the mediocre food or the particularly bland ale (it was as skunky as any other two-bit bar, but it still inebriated one just fine). The wenches weren't exactly lovely to anyone but other goblins, being all Yoozaad's grandkids and great-grandkids. Many folks came to this bar for one reason, and one reason only: the stories. Yoozaad, blessed in his old age, had lived a great, fantastic lifetime over several centuries and had been gifted with a silver tongue.
"A school...of redfish...saved your life?" Garrick said incredulously, raising his voice if only to play along and help Yoozaad sell his story.
"Well...yes! They did!" Yoozaad said, blinking myopically at Garrick and pouting briefly, evidently not quite wise to his ploy. Garrick gave him a quick wink and turned on his stool so that he could lean back against the bar.
"How in the world did a school of redfish save your life, Yoozaad? Please. I'd love to know." Garrick cast a coy grin over his shoulder at the goblin as he finished.
This time, the gobby seemed to pick up on his subtle cues and grinned madly before hopping up onto the bar, adding a scant foot to his otherwise unimpressive height. More folks sitting at tables looked up or adjusted their seats to observe and better listen to his tale as he cleared his throat and raised his voice.
"'Twas a stormy night… I was a young laddie of sixteen or so, workin' an honest job aboard the merchant ship, The Jolly Gnome…and scared outta me wits! The boat was a-rockin' and a-tossin'. Ye could hear her hull moan as the waves crashed against her boards! Then, outta nowhere, there was a flash…and a BOOM! As the deck exploded inta splinters! Fire swept over the deck – like a demon – catchin' everything alight. I fell outta me bunk and we scrambled to put her out...but another flash and then a BA-BOOM! I was tossed into the drink as another...yes, another bolt from on high SPLIT the ship in TWAIN!
I awoke the next mornin' to the sound of a calm sea…but stranded, I was, in the middle of the ocean! What was I to do? All I had to cling to was a wet spread o' wood. Days went by, and I realized not a soul would be comin' fer me, fer not a soul survived that sinkin'. I had nearly given up my last bit 'o' hope when I saw...a tanner!"