From chapter 6 The Dome City
Nathan’s Bar was an attractive clean place for one to drink in, from the outside it had the homely look of an old fashioned country cottage, with a thatched roof and a clean white painted face with wooden support beams built into the brick work. Hanging outside was the sign with the words in elegant lettering “THE BELL FREE INN”.
On the inside it was just as pretty and homely as the impression the outside look had given it. As one entered the inn he would see before him only a few paces away the serving counter, with plenty of mugs and jugs stacked neatly along a shelf at the back of the bar. The counter was made of a mahogany wood and three barrels lay neatly in a holder on top beside each other with taps ready to release the beverage that they held inside. To the right of the entrance were big wide steps that lead upwards to the inns rooms. All rooms were neatly kept and tidied regularly; pillows were always fluffed and clean bedding every night was offered to make the guests stay as comfortable as possible.
It was rare to find rooms such as this in any inn at the dome city Ipswich, most inns never kept their rooms this well. This is why Nathan charged a higher rate for guests to stay in his clean tidy homely rooms. It was mainly those who were better off than others that spent nights at the Bell Free. This also helped to keep troublemakers and riff raff out of his bar. The stairs were wooden also and the banister was made of oak wood. The floor to the whole downstairs bar was made up of giant slabs of stone put together like brick work. Nathan had the floor scrubbed daily so there was never any dirt build up to destroy the cleanly look of his humble abode. The walls inside were painted a warm cream and the dark vanished frame support oak wood beams could be seen on the inside just like they were on the out.
On the walls hung photo pictures in glass frames, pictures of old that had been collected and sold at the market place. He had pictures of the dome city before the force field was made. Pictures of men drinking merrily in bars took up most spaces on each wall, but his most outstanding pictures were those of the flying machines. He had a picture that was taken during the war of many Grey alien flying machines gliding through a bright sunny day time sky casting dark shadows on the land below. However, his greatest pride was a rare picture to find, a picture of the human flying crafts flying to do combat with the enemy. The symbol R.A.F could clearly be seen along each side of the planes as they flew gallantly across a red sky at dawn.
An Orcus had almost smashed the picture shouting that it was rebellious for him to have this up in his bar, but Eed an Elfin commander had ordered the Orcus to leave the pictures alone. Eed had always showed respect to Nathan, he even tipped his head to him when he sometimes saw him on the streets. This is something that none of his non-human customers ever did. That night Eed had said to the Orcus if Nathan put a picture up of their Grey Flying crafts why was it not right for him to put up flying crafts of his own kind. The Orcus did not respond, nor fight with him, he was a commander and had authority over them.