Zou visits the Drunken Rat Tavern

[Aura Thesin]

The door opened and closed again, releasing a wave of low conversation, laughter, and the smell of sweaty bodies and barely drinkable ale into the night. The brief opening of the door also allowed the cool air of evening to rush into the tavern and freshen the warmth of the interior with a touch of the outdoors.

Aura stood nervously just inside the door, just opposite another figure, and let her gaze move swiftly over the patrons. She barely refrained from moving her hand to the knife on her belt, even though she noticed most people seemed to be holding their own concerns. She barely noticed the woman on the opposite side of the door, and definitely did not notice the elven pointed ears. If she had, she may not have recognized them for what they were.

Aura slipped a hand into the pocket of the pants she had liberated from the small hut she had first appeared in front of, and fingered the pitiful few Bishan she had made while working on various farms.

At least everyone in here appears to be normal, she thought, and began to make her way in. So intently was she scrutinizing the crowd, that when a waitress brushed by her from behind, Aura's head whipped around and she almost drew the knife from it's sheath. As it was, the waitress gave Aura an odd look, her eyebrow lifted in near disbelief at Aura's reaction. Luckily, no one saw the movement towards drawing her knife.

Aura took a deep, shuddering breath and offered a wan smile to the young waitress, who continued on as if she had already seen everything she was going to see in her life. Aura wished that it was her.

She continued on, seating herself at a table next to an odd trio. All three looked human, as she had noticed the rest of the bar seemed to be this night as well, though one had a horrible disfiguration of his nose. She managed not to stare, barely, and quickly took in the other two seated at his table. A musician, it would appear, from the guitar in his lap, and another, young woman, with a strange way of looking around.

As another waitress walked by, Aura plucked at the young woman's sleeve, stopping her. "I'd like a bit of stew, and perhaps a small glass of white wine, please," she said in a diminutive voice. It was not her normal voice, but being in a large room filled with strangers had never been her strong suit.

The waitress nodded her assent and walked away quickly with her order. The Rat was starting to get more lively, and she had other drinks to get out to people.

Aura settled back to wait, and watch.

[Ra'Nali]

Ra'Nali disappointedly gazed at the door of the Drunken Rat. This had not been his destination, his home had been, but it was here he had to stop. With his skill of navigating being what it was, coupled with the final rays of light from the sun almost completely hidden behind the western horizon, he knew it would be futile to continue without consulting his maps.

He took a step towards the door before being bombarded with a feeling that had long ago stopped being anything other than a normal part of any day; the feeling of drowning. Placing his left hand against the front wall of the tavern for support his body arched over as he emitted a wrenching coughing sound. Blood dripped from his mouth as he straightened up and doubled back over in a serious of lighter coughs, it'd take a few seconds, but his lungs were soon clear of the liquid obstruction that was his blood.

Spitting what was left of his blood on the ground he straightened his back best he could. Wiping his lips on his black sleeve, his faced scrunched up from the pain his throat was in. How serendipitous that it'd be a bar my wanderings would lead me too, he thought to himself. Alcohol wretchedly burned his raw throat, but the burning was a lot more tolerable than the sensation he had a spiked club moving down his throat every time he swallowed.

A good portion of people who saw just how ill he looked would instantly become wary, wondering if he was contagious, so making sure his graying hair covered as much of his sickly face as it could, he pushed the door open and made his way in. Moving out of the way of the patrons to stand by one of the walls, he would wait for a waitress to come to him, coughing lightly all the while with lungs not quite strong enough to make the transition to the thicker air of a room full of people instantly.

[Zou]

The din of revelry had rendered the comings and goings of even the strangest folk unnoticeable to Zou, and he sipped his drink in a relaxed manner, planning on slowing his pace and relaxing until the wee hours of the morning demanded that he retire. He responded to Caiomhe in his usual gentle manner:

"I hail from the far eastern mountains just west of Odeijani, if the name is familiar to you. I grew up in a large family clan, but made my way out in the world at the age of sixteen. I am now twice that, and have seen most places atwixt here and there. I-"

It was at this time that the oglings of a half-elf caught Zou's eye, and his train of thought suffered a total derailment. Normally, he was quite capable of ignoring those that laid more than passing notice upon his missing nose, but the girl's grey gaze seemed rife with so many emotions that one could hardly help but be interrupted by them, having once laid mark to them.

Shaking his head, he muttered an apology, and took another sip of ale, sitting forward in his chair and folding the sides of his robe over his lap so as to keep the hem from brushing the dirty floor. He then yawned visibly, and made a valiant attempt to shake off a creeping disorder in his mind.

[Caiomhe Feryn]

Caiomhe started as Zou suddenly quit speaking. She'd felt the light breeze of the dorr opening and closing brush against her bared forearm as she sat at the table, but she didn't actually expect any of the newcomers to pay attention to the small group at the table. She, of course, couldn't see anything, and looked down at the table, straining her ears for what was going on.

She muttered a quick and quiet 'it's all right' in response to Zou's apology for stopping speaking. She hesitated before asking her next question, not wanting to seem like she was suddenly dependant on his for information, but went ahead and asked. "Zou? What is going on?"

A very slight whiff of sickness came to her nose, drifting on yet another breeze pushed into life by the swinging door. She turned her face to it and then past a bit, trying to sneakily channel the noise into her ear and process it. By calmly rearranging the hood of her greyish-green hood and folding the fabric slightly she created a soft cone for the sound to travel easier into her ear.

Coughing. Surely a sign of sickness if there ever was one. She wondered if there was any potion or brew she could make to ease a cough, and then gave a quick and bitter smile at herself, and her silly ideas. She probably could make up something to heal, but her first training was certainly different than healing.

She waited for Zou to answer her question and took a sip of her drink, musing over her somewhat turbid thoughts.

[Julian Daniels]

Julian frowned as something nagged at his consciousness. There was somethnig he was supposed to be doing, or he'd forgotten something important. Whatever it was, it could wait until after they'd finished chatting.

Probably.

As he sipped at the coffee that the barkeep had brought him, his mind slowly began to clear. Caffiene is wonderful stuff for that, and as it raced through his bloodstream, eradicating the effects of a certain amount of alcohol on his brain, everything suddenly became horribly clear.

"Oh... shit..." he managed, as the memory of that morning filtered through to make it's presence felt, kicking angrily at the alcohol which had held it captive from Julian's attention until now, almost too late.

"Jen's birthday..." He bolted, leaving his guitar on the table, and dashed for the door, past several people who looked like they'd just entered the tavern and were trying not to attract too much attention.

Mike, the barkeep, sighed and shook his head as he saw Julian finally remember about his wife's birthday the following day. He smiled, knowing that when Julian got home, he would find the carefully wrapped present that he'd taken the liberty of hiding in one of Julian's most secret hiding places. It was right next to the beer, so he was bound to find it.

He sighed again, hoisting the guitar off the table with a nod to the others around it, and set it back in it's usual place behind the bar. Smiling happily, he went back to cleaning, as if someone had not just raced away from his bar.

[Jaspenellar]

Lo'en had the compunction to feel slightly embarrassed at letting her gaze linger too long on the strange looking man. She immediately dropped her grey eyes, easy to disappear behind the woman who came in. Noticing the stiff, tense movements of that newcomer, Lo'en started to feel wary, though not necessarily threatened. There was something to her guarded but awkward motions that indicated she was ill at ease, rather than guarding actions more suspicious.

The half-elf was momentarily distracted by a few more new entrants as the tavern started to become more crowded. Coughing caught her ear, and she dutifully gave that one wide berth as she moved more towards the interior. As the patrons shifted and waitresses moved, amidst the thick smell of people in close, warm quarters, Lo'en scented again goats. A different type than she had grown up with, but one does not easily forget that smell. Again her attention was drawn to the table, at which the young woman had seated herself.

Well, my Da would be aghast at my rude stare, I might as well go and make up and find out what smells like his goats, Lo'en thought to herself as she moved through the crowd toward the table populated with strangers-no one at that table seemed to be at complete ease with each other, but there was nothing hostile or tense either. The man with the guitar who had been seated there brushed past her in a hurry as she made her way over.

"Well, t'looks like there is now an empty seat," Lo'en spoke in her low, calm voice and smiled disarmingly. She spoke with only the faintest accent of someone from the north, sometimes clipping the first portion of her words, but it was clear that her native tongue was the regional language. While not completely at ease in the crowded scene, the ranging half-elf felt nothing to fear here, though she was managing to keep her grey eyes continually shifting to avoid catching any one for a long period. She did look momentarily at the half-nosed man, genuine apology written on her face with a spark of curiosity in her grey eyes.

"My 'pologies, good sir, for my rudeness. I seem t'have interrupted your company." She gestured to the swinging door and remained standing, waiting for an invitation. There was something about this white-maned, middle-aged man, something that reminded her of goats and her curiosity always got the best of her.

[Aura Thesin]

Aura leaned back in her chair, hearing it creak beneath her. She relaxed as much as she could, aware of the sounds of conversation rising and falling around her. Someone began coughing nearby, and she craned her neck around to take a quick peek. Scanning the crowd quickly, she didn't see whoever had been coughing, so she turned back and waited for her drink. The coughing started again, but, not wanting to draw attention to herself as she did, Aura didn't look again.

As a woman, with slightly pointed ears, Aura noticed with much dismay, began making her way through the crowd towards Aura's general area, the musician at the table next to her suddenly got up and rushed out of the Tavern. Aura 's eyes followed his fleeing back until he was out of the door, then the slowly scanned the room for the waitress she had asked for food and drink. It appeared the waitress had vanished into thin air.

Aura sighed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face in annoyance. Her stomach was trying to gnaw a hole through her middle, and the waitress was nowhere in sight. She glanced to her right, where the trio had been, and noticed that with the musician's sudden departure, the 'elven' woman was making an attempt to join them.

Watching people interact with so little suspicion caused Aura to suffer a sudden bout of homesickness, and a tear drifted unnoticed down her cheek. Giving a light sniffle, barely something that would be heard at the next table, Aura looked up to see the waitress slowly making her way back to the table. The waitress was stopping every so often to hand out mugs of ale and glasses of wine, and there was yet a bowl of stew steaming on the tray. Aura's stomach made a completely unladylike noise, but Aura was to hungry to care, even her bout of homesickness and crying were forgotten for the moment.

[Ra'Nali]

Service was being rather quite slow, which wasn't entirely unexpected or unappreciated by Ra'Nali. It gave him the chance decide what he wanted. Normally, he would only order ale on nights were his throat was especially sore, the constant coughing left it rather sore at the end of most days. Ale didn't make his throat feel better, quite the contrary, it burned the raw and sore lining of his throat fiercely, but that pain was more manageable then the sore feeling that came from coughing. Today however had been decent enough, and the coughing fit outside the tavern was the only bad one he had had today,yet for some reason he still felt like an ale. "I'll regret this" he mumbled as the waitress came to take his order.

As the waitress left to get an ale, he watched as the musician bolted out of the inn. That was...odd, but not entirely uncommon in a bar setting. Reaching into his messenger bag he pulled out his map of Marn, spreading it against the wall, he began charting the route he would have to take to get home himself after he had had his ale for the evening. He was farther off than he thought, which disheartened him a little. Directions were never his strong suit, but over the past year it had become ridiculous, streets he walked again and again and again were still just as foreign as the day he first walked them.

He folded the map back up and slip it back into his bag. Surely my declining health has something to do with it, he thought as he coughed lightly into his hand, what other reason could there be? He jumped slightly when the waitress came back with his ale, he ad been facing the opposite direction and she had had to poke him to get his attention. Thanking her and taking the ale, he lifted it to his lips, it smelt horrid, which it always did to him. Taking a light sip his face scrunched up in pain as it passed down his throat, what a stupid idea, he scolded himself in his mind, all while taking another sip.

[Zou]

Zou was quick to reassure Caiomhe. "Not a thing, madam. Julian has just run off, he seems to have forgotten something important. And here is his replacement," he finished, nodding amicably at Lo'en. He rose from his chair as Lo'en spoke, not missing the twinkle of an excited heart that strafed her eye, and introduced himself in his usual formal manner, replete with a little bow.

"You may join us, of course, madam. The chair is more than empty, it is bereft of meaning without your presence." Zou held up a finger at a waitress that was passing by two tables away, indicating a round of drinks. This would be his last for the evening, he thought to himself. He had pupils the following morning, one in particular that would require all of his mental resources...

As he turned his head, his acute ears picked up a sorrowful little sniffle from the table behind him, and he swiveled ever so slightly in his chair. It was a woman, looking to be about in her twenties, alone and looking thoroughly depressed. Zou, lacking a sex drive, and therefore being free of the usual social pressures normally adhered to by men and women in public, nevertheless understood that it might be slightly inappropriate for an older man to approach a young, solitary woman in a tavern at night, and therefore did not turn around, or leave the comfort of his chair. All the same, his gentle heart could not help but feel a tug on behalf of the poor girl, and he wondered, without looking, what was going through her mind.

[Caiomhe Feryn]

Caiomhe gave a slight nod. She felt the breeze as Zou motioned to the chair brush up against her arm, ruffling the light hairs. She slid her grey-green sleeves higher up on her arms, above her elbows, and turned her sightless eyes to the newcomer. So Julian had left... a pity. She liked listening to his musical voice, because it held much more tone and beauty than the average male voice that she would hear in the streets.

The newcomer had the bearing of an elf... being sightless, Caiomhe had quickly adapted to indentifying different types of people, and elves had an earthy and yet very proud bearing around them. As with Julian, they also had a musical cadence to their voices that she liked listening to.

Caiomhe smiled slightly up at the newcomer, or in her general direction anyways. It would probably be noticed soon that she was blind--Caiomhe was very used to it by this point, people seemd to be very good at picking up that she could see them, for some reason. Caiomhe gave a bit of a wry smile at herself with that thoughts. She was trying to be less bitter about her blindness, but it didn't often work. She added her own welcome, pushing her bitterness aside. "Please, m'laedy... set ye doon with us'n 'n we caen talk, should ye no miend."

She hoped as she said it that the newcomer could understand her thick accent.

[Jaspenellar]

The half-elf seated herself opposite the gentleman-ly man, wondering slightly at the generosity of strangers. She shrugged to herself as a drink appeared in front of her and gave a quick, friendly grin as she held up her cup in thanks. A fleeting thought crossed her mind as to how she would repay the kindness, not having enough bishan to buy a meal, let alone a round of drinks for the three seated at this table.

The woman who bade her sit was looking to her, but not at her. Wondering if she had something wrong with her eyes, Lo'en murmured her thanks, understanding the thick accent as her parents farm had had the rare passer-bys from the Western Lands. Her travels had not led her feet to wander north- or west-ward, nor had there ever been any strong desire to seek out season tougher than what her family had wintered in the mountains. Without consciously realising it, the half-elf quickly assessed that woman with some respect- it could not have been an easy task to make her way to Thar Shaddin with little or no sight.

There was another woman seated at a table adjacent to their own. The subtle acknowledgement of the white-maned man drew her attention to her. She was little more than a girl, seemed to be out of place, but strangely, no more than the lanky half-elf, hooded Islander, or strange looking gentleman. She was plain and pretty- in fact, in the same quick thought, Lo'en figured her to be somewhat of an easy target for opportunistic thieves and gave a subtle glance around the tavern. She was putting off waves of glum, and Lo'en, no master of tact or subtlety, loudly asked- "So, s'that goat stew?"

The half-elf knew it was not, but not knowing how else to broach the subject, asked anyway. She motioned at the empty seat next to her, indicating the lonely girl to join their table, while she kept an eye on the gentleman's reaction to her question.

[Aura Thesin]

The few bites of the stew she had managed to get down had staved off the worst of the hunger. The stew itself wasn't the best she had ever had, but neither was it the worst.

Aura had just settled herself down to a pace of eating that was a little more ladylike and didn't resemble something of a wolf devouring it's dinner, when a voice rose above the normal steady din of the tavern.

"So, s'that goat stew?"

The young woman looked up quickly, searching for the owner of the voice. In short order, Aura had ascertained who said owner was, if only by the obvious way she was being looked at. She took a quick look around, fighting rising panic. No one else around her was eating stew, which, though not boding well for the quality of the stew, meant that the speaker was engaging Aura in conversation.

Aura had never been a people person, especially after her mother had died. With a tentative smile, the young woman lifted her spoon out of the bowl, revealing a lump of what was probably meat of some kind.

Her voice mostly steady, she replied, "I'm honestly too hungry to question it."

She looked back into her bowl, purposefully 'missing' the invitation to join their table, for the moment. The spoon went into her mouth and she chewed slowly, her eyes slowly lifting back to the table next to her.

[Ra'Nali]

It was to painful to finish the ale, he had thought maybe it would have numbed his throat after the first few sips, but that most certainly was not the case, the first sip had burned as expected, but every subsequent sip there after burned more. Ra'Nali would not put down the mug or anything of that sort though, he kept up the appearance that he was still drinking it, for no other reason than that someone drinking at a bar is a lot less likely to draw attention than someone loitering in a bar.

He watched the half-elf approach the table that a man had bolted from a few minutes earlier. Something's going on over there, this thought reeled in his mind, taverns were a fairly common place for illegal activities and meetings, and it was starting to look like there was one going on at that table. He started shifting his way towards it, although making it look as though the table next to them was his destination.

Catching a glance at the three at the table, as he sat at the table beside theirs, keeping them in sight out of the corner of his eye. One of them certainly looked like he could have been a hardened criminal with a disfiguring injury, but the other two seemed to fit the role less so. It was not in till he heard the half elf's question to the man did he consider that maybe they were just normal bar patrons, and not part of some criminal underground. Sighing and shaking his head at himself, he took a sip of ale and grimaced. Sometimes even i get too paranoid, he thought to himself as he observed the other two in his peripherals. One of them had an odd way about her, not quite looking at the other two. Mentally he wrote this off as either shyness or being blind, though from the angle he was at he could not quite tell one way or another.

[Zou]

Zou, privy to the nuances of courtesy and motive alike, had no difficulty separating the two in the half-elf's inquiry over the stew, and grimaced ever so slightly before butting in (something that he rarely, if ever, did). Though it was seldom enough that he played patron to the Drunken Rat, the years had taught him the fruits of discretion by pointing out to him the barren persecution that could be brought by a loose tongue in the wrong company.

He touched Lo'en's arm gently by way of catching her notice. "The stew, madam, is well tended, else it is resigned to the flames. Whatever its ingredients, you can be sure of its consistency." His double meanings were accompanied by a prelude to a wink, a slight shuddering of the eyelashes that spoke, in the gentlest manner, three very serious words: Hold your tongue.

It seemed to the docile shifter that the magnetism of the table had strengthened. Strangers seemed to gravitating towards them in a most unsettling manner. Perhaps it was time to call it an evening... But what of Caiomhe? He could not very well abandon her, and after all, a fresh round of drinks had just been ordered. He would just have to exercise patience: One thing Zou held in spades.

[Caiomhe Feryn]

Caiomhe was also noting the people moving in on their table, and some of them seemed to be trying not to be noticed. She stifled a laugh, instead coughing oddly and ducking her head slightly. Not be noticed! As if. She might not be able to see them, but she could certainly feel the light brush of their passing wake left on her arm, she could certainly hear the quiet scrape of wood on wood, the chair moving against the floor, and she could certainly hear the man coughing softly behind her.

She tried to resist the urge to turn and comment on the cough by listening in on Zou's conversation with the female at their table. She snickered slightly at both his and her comments, getting a light scent of goats from her and the idea that her companion wasn't exactly entirely human. She chimed in with her own soft comment. "What e'er et, this soup es, et es well'n enoof. I would'nae venture tae sae that et es the most grat'st thing I hae e'er tasted, but'n et es certain'y ateable."

She got the feeling that Zou was thinking about leaving, and yet that he hesitated somehow, for some reason. She had a slight idea that she might be the reason he was staying, and she pursed her lips in slight annoyence. She was perfectly able... okay, she could with a little trouble... quite a bit of trouble... she was sort of able to take care of herself. Well enough, anyway. She could at least make her way through a room without too much trouble. And she had the herbs at her belt pouch to deal with any attackers. The flowers of the plants that she held, when crushed, produced a sleep so deep that the affected wouldn't wake up for two days.

Caiomhe herself was nearly immune to the flowers scent, having made herself smell them repeatedly until her body developed a resistance to them and she could hold off the sleep easily enough. She was immune to most of her herbs, which was both good and bad. She wasn't affected by them and so could use them to her advantage without falling prey to tiredness, but when she had trouble sleeping the flowers couldn't help at all.

She wrentched her thought out of her musings and smiled slightly, though a bit tighter than her usual wry smile, at Zou. "Plaes, m'lord Zou, I am gettin' thae feelin' that ye are wishful o' leaving. Donnae stae en me accoont. Though'n et would be lovely iff'n ye did." She still tempered her words with a smile.

"And as fer ye..." She turned and directed her comment at the coughing man sitting near her. She couldn't see him, of course, but she turned her sightless face in his general direction. "Either ye stoop coughin' or ye be tellin' me what es thae matter with ye. And with'n a cough like'n thaet, why thae hell ye are drinkin 'coholic drinks is faer beyond me." She motioned slightly with a pale hand to their table. "Alsae, stoop yer lurking behind us'n. I dae know yer there. Come'n join us 'ere. And ye be tellin' me yer problem, yer sickness. Now, iff'n ye please. I donnae haev all night, but I em a healer... o' a saert... and mayhap I could be help'n ye."