Seemingly Pointless Meandering

[Shann]

Summer 122PW

Thud.

Unlike the previous knife, this one chose to stick in the wall or rather the forehead of the unfortunate woman in the painting that hung on the wall.

"They are going to kick us out of here if you keep that up."

Shann wasn't listening to the quiet voice that spoke up from under a mass of fur. He knew the boy was only trying to be helpful but he wasn't in the mood to care much either way. He was trying to find a way to pass the boredom that came with each morning and throwing his knives against a wall seemed like a good enough idea at the time.

Down to his last one, he decided to set it atop the nightstand next to the bed he was occupying rather than throw it as well. He played with the thing for a few moments, tracing the various groves that had formed in the well worn wood as he thought about what to do with the rest of the day.

"We need to get moving again." The boy spoke up again. "I don't think her husband will be too happy when he finds her here."

Shann let a smile cross his face as he turned to look at the lump of sheets next to him. Part of her dark brown mass of hair tangled around an arm crept out from her secret little hiding spot. She mumbled an incoherent phrase of sorts as she sought to pull him back to herself.

He couldn't have been more pleased with himself. Shann motioned for the boy to leave the room as he pulled the sheets back over himself and thought to spend the rest of the morning as he had done the night before.

Zain took that as his cue to leave. He knew his uncle had his mind set on one thing and one thing alone and nothing short of an angry husband with a mob would keep him from doing what he did best. Well second best, the first being his drinking.

He closed the door to the small room they had rented for the night previous and made his way down to the small tavern on the floor below. His furry friend kept time with his pace as they made their way down the stairs and took a seat at a table against the back wall.

"Feeling any better there son?" A friendly young waitress set a glass of cold ale in front of him before running her hands through Thanmorion's shaggy mane. She had been there when he had faked another one of his episodes the night before and it was her friend that was upstairs with his uncle right now.

"Yes." He spoke quietly into his glass, not making eye contact with the girl until after she left to attend to other patrons.

He noticed how the barkeep kept looking around the room as if he was looking for someone or waiting for someone and he couldn't help but get a bad feeling. He knew something wasn't right but there wasn't anything he could say about it. Instead, he dropped a hand to the dog so that he could scratch his faithful companion.

[Shann]

The waitress didn't stay away as long as Zain would have liked. She was far too pesky for that. The girl had a way of going from table to table, not leaving her customers alone for very long so they never really got the chance to fully finish a drink before she refilled their glasses. It might be seen as a good business tactic but Zain couldn't help but to find it bothersome.

"Can I get you anything from the kitchen?" She asked her question with a cheery smile upon her face. From what he had observed so far, she seemed to be the only one in such a mood this early in the day.

Zain nodded his head in agreement more so to get rid of the girl than anything else. He hadn't been all that hungry upon waking but knowing that Shann's little upstairs adventure was going to find them out on the road again, he figured that he better eat while he can.

When the waitress departed from his table, he took note that the mood within the room began to shift. Several of the other patrons turned back to their breakfasts and muted morning chatter while the barkeep grew to new levels of inpatients. Whoever it was that he was waiting for was not making themselves known and as the minutes passed, Zain was getting the feeling that he knew who it was and why.

A part of him wanted to run up the stairs to warn his uncle but doing so would only bring more attention to himself. You want to stay as inconspicuous as you can unless doing the opposite benefits you more. That is what Shann always said to him.

As to distract him from his current train of thoughts, the waitress returned with a plate of eggs and fresh bread. It wasn't much of a breakfast for one served in a tavern but it was warm and would fill his stomach.

"I would have brought you some meat as well but I've heard that some of your kind don't eat animals, at least those from the island." She still held that same smile on her face, one that said don't be offended by my ignorant racism as well as how she was just trying to be friendly.

Lucky for her, Shann was not present to hear such talk for he was the kind to go into a rant about the ignorance of people and the racist comments they made. Funny thing was that Shann was also a hypocrite, he would just as easily become enraged by some outlandish racial comment as he was to make one of his own.

Zain merely shrugged it off as always. He didn't see the point in trying to start a fight over his breakfast. He was still getting food and that was all that really mattered. As he saw it, he would let the girl think what she wanted and leave it to the next guy to correct her.

Thanmorion let it be known that he too was willing to let the issue pass as he beat the floor with his massive tail in his anticipation of table scrapes.

[Shann]

Licking the plate clean, Thanmorion was preoccupied when the other elf came up from behind. He pulled a chair out from the table and he sat down opposite his nephew.

"How's the food, kid?"

Zain chose to ignore the question knowing that it was only being asked as a distraction from Shann's little upstairs activity. He also knew that there was no point in bringing up the subject, Shann did what he wanted when he wanted and it took a threat of bodily harm to change his mind.

"So then... how is your morning?"

He shrugged off this question too and returned to watching the agitated barkeep. The old man was staring back at their table again. The way he squinted his eyes and wrinkled his balding head, it was obvious that was upset but until he acted on this emotion, Zain could only guess as to why this man was so upset.

"Not in the talkative mood today? Anyways, I was thinking that we should be heading out sometime today. We can get back on the road and explore more of the countryside."

In other words, Shann was saying that he expected something to go wrong and if they didn't leave soon enough, they would be chased out of town. If only he ever learned to stay in his own pants and keep his mouth to himself, they wouldn't have these problems but Shann incapable of learning such things, or so he claimed.

The older elf realized that his younger companion wasn't really listening to anything he said and decided to inquire as to what had captured the boy's wandering mind this time. He followed his green eyes to the human behind the counter who seemed to be exchanging glances.

"What's that all about now?"

"He has been staring at our table since I came down." Zain broke his stare to turn and look at his uncle again. "He's looking for that girl isn't he?"

"Could be." Shann was neither shamed or embarrassed by this but acted rather proud of himself. With a slap to the tabletop, he stood up laughed. "That's her problem now. I'm going to go gather some supplies and then I'm off. You can join me if you would like."

Zain fished a few bishani out of his pocket, set it on the table and got up to join his uncle.

[Shann]

They had only just left the tavern, heading down the long strip of town that served as the main marketplace for all travelers, when the bartender stepped out of his establishment follower by the dark haired lady that had previously occupied Shann's bed.

"Hey you! You! Stop walking away and get your pansy ass back here!" The large man yelled at their backs as he tried to catch up to their quicker pace.

Zain turned his head around but for a moment to catch a glance at what was going on but as he saw a small mob begin to appear behind them, he turned back to look at his uncle for direction. Shann on the other hand had every intent on waking away, at a slightly quicker than normal pace, and acting as if he had not heard a word the man was yelling at him.

They rounded one corner, then another and a third and after realizing that the bartender wasn't about to let the man go so easily, Shann turned around to face the angry man and the wife who hadn't taken the time to straighten out her outfit or comb the loose bits of hair back into place.

"Well hello there, I didn't happen to see you fine people following us as it were. Is there anything that I can help you with?" Shann was one cocky bastard but he wasn't stupid. He knew why they were chasing him, he knew that the husband had been embarrassed in front of his friends and neighbors to see his wife come out of the room that an elf had been sleeping in, smelling of sex. He knew that the man was trying to confront him in the hopes of winning back some kind of respect for himself.

Those that had gathered behind the man and his wife looked excited to see what was to happen. Was the bartender going to beat the crap out of an elf that had slept with his wife? Was the elf going to try some sort of elf trickery to get out of a beating?

"That's him, that's the elf that tricked me into..." her words broke off into pathetically fake tears as the wife tried to make amends for her misdoings. She pointed at Shann accusingly, trying to increase the feelings of rage building up inside of her husband.

"Tricked you? I have done no such thing. I am incapable of doing such a thing. I simply offered up the company of a warm bed, it was your wife that accepted it if I might add." He put one of his best smiles and attempted to look as innocent as he possibly could. he even put his hands out, palms open and slowly approached the husband to show that he meant no harm.

His planned seemed to be working because instead of the man lashing out at Shann, the man turned the accusing eye instead on his wife. "Is this true? Did you go behind by back and sleep with an elf?" His words were both harsh and stung with the way he said the word 'elf' as if it were some sort of foul, disgusting thing.

"But...but..." The woman turned to look at her husband and then back at Shann, unsure as to how the situation was no longer in her control.

Her husband took this as a sign of guilt and push her out of arms reach. He turned back to the mob to back away but after a split-second decision he turned on his heels and landed a good punch right into Shann's jaw.

"You can keep her, she's no good to me anymore."

With that the bartender spit on the ground and turned back to his disappointed mob, to lead them back to the bar for drinks.

[Vexako]

Vexako was used to being called many things. Oh, he'd run the gamut of creative and not-so-creative insults, and he learned to cherish certain words that he felt described him most admirably. However, those aside, there was a certain trend of late towards a less esteemed list of adjectives and titles that he felt were not at all deserved. There was much in life he could be accused for, and less he could not be accused for, but in the long row of misdeeds he had performed over his very full life, he had never been a magic user. He had never had the opportunity, therefore, to misuse magic (because if he had access to magic it was inevitable that he would have misused it in some way, some fashion).

And yet lately, here he was being labeled as a black sorceror, a witch (which he felt was terribly inappropriate because most witches were harmless and the ones who were harmless doubtless deserved to be called something more like bitch or unreasonably bull-headed, quarter-witted imbecile of a woman. He had experience in that field), a wizard, a master of the black arts, etcetera, and on and on. The reasons for this of course was his curse. He was forever doomed to turn into things (or for his appearance to more closely reflect such things, should they be inanimate) he found disgusting or ugly until he spoke or wrote the "cure" as it was, though it only lasted until he beheld the next grotesquery.

It was a shame the world was so full of ugliness. And it was not his fault that he was deft at perceiving such ugliness. Really, why did the ugly or gross not cover themselves so they couldn't be seen by the more fortunate?

But, anyways, it would explain his current hotfooting state away from a south-eastern travelling merchant caravan, from which he had attracted the attentions of the headman's extremely ugly daughter. When he had morphed into her form, they screamed at him for (apparently) trying to perform ill bouts of dark magic upon her so she'd fall in love with him. Or something like that. As if he needed magical help to get any person to fall in love with him. Preposterous! But they could not see reason, so he had run away while still in that disgusting form. It wasn't until later that he'd crouched exhausted on the side of the road and grated out the words to turn him back into himself.

Each time he did so, he remembered her, the real magic user who had cursed him. Nothing for it but to grit his teeth and bear it until he could find someone to fix it for him. Of which, it was extraordinarily difficult to get money for travelling and expenses because inevitably he ran into some hideous lout who always seemed to be of some extraordinarily religious or intolerant bent who would scream curses at poor Ko and chase him here and there with the most rude accusations. Not to mention it was difficult to get a proper roll in the hay with all of the hullabaloo chasing him anywhere. He'd never imagined Eyropea to be so close minded.

So he strutted along the road as though he owned it, preparing himself for the next town and hoping above hope itself that he would not be assaulted by ugliness along the way.

[Shann]

Shann looked disdainfully at the spot of drying saliva on the ground. Part of him wanted to speak up and tell the overweight bartender what he could better do with his saliva and his group of friends, but this time he thought better of it, for once.

He knew that they needed to get out of town and on the road again before these men got more alcohol within their systems and thought to come back and make a real fight out of the situation. Such a human thing to do. But seriously, they needed to get going. This town just didn't present itself as one in which they could set up a more permanent home for themselves.

When the crowd had finally disappeared from sight, Shann gave the upset woman a playful grin and rubbed the soar spot on his chin. There was certainly going to be a good mark there later. "Now wasn't that fun? You didn't tell me just how friendly your family was."

"What?" The woman screamed back at him. She turned back to look at the building that hid the main road from view, the one from which the bar was located and other humans had gone back to. "Fun? You! You made them turn on me. I can't go back there now. They'll kick me out, I'll be branded as a whore." She was clearly upset, almost to the point of tears but she tried her hardest to keep her voice sharp as she lashed out at him.

The problem was that she was yelling at Shann. He could care less what the others thought of her, what she did now that she was no longer in his bed or if she went back to her husband or not. He turned his back to her and let her continue to yell at him as he returned to Zain to check on the boy after such an ordeal.

Zain had merely stood there too shocked by the whole experienced to say anything. Not that the boy ever really said much to begin with. He had just stood there like a statue and waited for either the moment in which he would have to run for his life or when Shann would come away from the angry crowd with but a few new scratches and cuts to joke about later.

"We still need to get some food before we head out." Shann told the boy.

Zain nodded and headed down the back street out of the alley, but away from the main street from which they had come.

"You're just leaving?" The woman yelled after them but Shann and Zain were already several houses down before she decided to chase after them.

[Vexako]

By the time Vexako reached the town he was a sight more tired and a good deal more irritated by the world at large. He was overused to walking now, too much used to it that he had a hard time remembering a time when he did anything else. This only made his outlook the more sour. He entered the village, and let his eyes drop to the ground where they would likely stay for the duration of his sojourn into civilization. It was becoming a habit, which made him angry, and in turn made him think of --

Womenly screams were something he was accustomed to hearing, and his eyes jerked up of their own volition to try to pinpoint the sound. He slouched, shoved his thumbs into his belt, and followed the noise, letting his eyes drift partway shut and his lips curl into a devilish smile.

When he came to the source, he had to restrain a laugh at the sight of a disheveled and irate woman trailing after two Darleone elves, of all living creatures, and for a moment had a good gloat at the thought of someone else being in worse luck than he himself. He really couldn't help it. He stepped up closer to the woman, tilting his head to the side and showing a line of gleaming teeth at her as he looked her up and down.

"Ho now, woman. What's this about then?" He let his eyes cut over to Shann and Zain, who seemed to be quite content with walking away from her loudly voiced caterwauling.

[Shann]

"You're a rat, lower than a rat, you're scum. You lied to me, you tricked me. This is all your fault!" The woman continued to scream at Shann. She was so caught up in her rant that she had not noticed Vexako at first. She picked up her skirts to run through the dirt covered back street after Shann. He wasn't getting away that easily. "Where are you going now? Don't just walk away from me like that."

She was red in the face from screaming by the time she noticed the other man. Her hair was messed up. Her clothes had been pulled on in a hurry and they didn't sit perfectly straight on her. She exchanged glances with him, though hers were more focused on judging him as a person and trying to win back some shred of dignity to herself.

"That man there," She extended her arm and pointed in the direction in which Shann and Zian were headed off in. "That man there is nothing but trouble. He's lying, deceitful and he used some sort of trickery to make my husband turn on me." She spit on the ground in a similar manner that her husband had done. "Why don't you go back to your island and play your tricks on your own kind?" She yelled after them.

Shann simply waved his hand in the arm in a 'farewell' motion and kept on walking. When he reached the point where he was nearly out of earshot, he added "If you are going to be like that, you can stay here and work things out, but if you want to but on a sweeter attitude, you can always come with us. You can bring your new friend too and we can make a grand old adventure out of it."

[Vexako]

Ko was unused to being ignored. It did not suit him, and he found his magnanimous patience dwindling rapidly as the woman saw fit to scream at the retreating elves before giving him her attention. He was not particularly impressed with the result. Nor with the imperious attitude the 'lying, deceitful' elf gave to the irate woman, and coincidingly, with Ko himself.

Ko tipped his head to the side and cranked up the charm. "Don't tell me you fell in love with me at first glance? It seems odd for an elf to invite a stranger along but! I wouldn't dare step on your romantic illusions. Of course I will follow you."

The woman was, for the moment, shocked and silent.

Vexako started walking towards Shann, keeping eye contact and a smug little smile on his face. It suited him perfectly. Elves were known to keep with the mystical and magical; he'd have a far higher chance of finding someone who knew the means out of his curse by taking a chance with strangers rather than looking through yet another backwater village and being chased out again for some offense or other.

When he caught up to Shann he turned partially and winked at the woman, raising an eyebrow in a daring gesture.

[Shann]

Shann was caught off guard by the other man's comment.

"Don't tell me you fell in love with me at first glance?"

He couldn't help but wonder if he had heard the other man correctly, but he laughed all the same. It was one of those long, hard, wipe the tear out of the corner of your eye laughs that took a moment to recover from. "HA! Trust me buddy, I'm nowhere near drunk enough for that yet and besides I usually go for those of a smaller waist give and a large bust line." This he had to illustrate by drawing a nice curvy, womanly figure in the arm with his hands. "With enough liquor I could lower my standards, but I ain't promising anything."

Zain giggled quietly and to himself. By now he should have been expecting such a response from his uncle, but he never really knew what was going to come out of the other man's mouth when he opened it.

The woman stopped her forward advance and stared at group of men for a moment. Then she ruffled up her skirts, huffed and stormed off in another direction. From a distance she uttered something about men, but from her distance it was hard to hear.

"So breakfast and a beer? We can even fallow it up with some dancing and a nice mid-morning walk."

[Vexako]

Shann's amusement was catching, though Ko didn't much like the look of the boy, and he waggled his eyebrows in appreciation at Shann. What the hell. Maybe it was time to take off a bit from women to pursue decidedly more dangerous prey, though even he had caught the women's curves Shann had molded and nodded appreciatively.

"Oh aye, oh aye. Women like that, mm, firebrand in bed and a pissed cat out of it." Ko said without rancor, turning an eye back to the woman who had given up too easily, and had a feeling he'd been in that scenario before, but let it go with a shrug. Ko moved even when he stood still, thumbs loosely cast in the curve of belt, head at a rakish tilt and a wicked leer upon his lips.

"Breakfast, eh? I could use some tuck. Haven't been through here, 'fore, so I'll be relying on your guidance," and somehow there was an insinuation in his words, oily slick but playful, "And I'll follow you to the skirts if there's fair pretty pickings 'round here. No uglies, though. I can't abide looking at them."

His words skimmed so close to the truth it was nearly painful, but he threw that off with another shrug, and shared his gleaming smile between the two elves.

Nothing magically warped here, folks, nope, not at all. Just your friendly neighborhood lecher on the prowl.

[Immy]

It's been five long weeks and not a single dragon, or powerful mage. Father used to battle them all the time, why can't I even find them?

*Five weeks ago*

Lawfin was at his home, making locks for customers. Several months earlier he had gotten a request for a lock he couldn't make without special machinery, which he didn't have. The only place that had the machine was in Trelhan, so he sent a message there.

A messenger came knocking at his door with a letter. Opening the door and seeing the messenger with the letter he said,

"A singing telegram, how wonderful. Well, I'm listening."

The unamused messenger held out the letter. Grabbing the letter Lawfin said,

"My birthday was yesterday, where's my chocolate and flowers?"

The messenger ignored him and left.

Shutting the door and walking back to his work bench, he sat down and opened the letter. He read in the letter that his machine was ready and awaiting payment and pickup.

'Why can't they deliver?' Complained Lawfin. 'Well, I guess I get to set out on an adventure, like father, and maybe even fight a dragon and save the world.'

Getting ready for an adventure, he grabbed a brown leather shoulder bag and put some essentials in it, such as food and money. Walking up to the door he checked to make sure he had everything he needed.

'Food, check, money for machine, check, spare money for whatever, check, lock picks, check.'

Looking above the door at the hammer, 'Weapon, check.' He grabbed the hammer and a strap for wearing the hammer on his back and left the house. He was adjusting the strap on his back and putting the hammer through the loops so it is held securely in place, but easy to pull out. After bartering a reasonable price for a horse he left town, traveling west.

*Present*
'Maybe even a rabid dog or something, a small group of bandit? How about a talking tree?'

Lawfin thinks thoughts like these a lot, wishing for something to happen that can make him great, and known by all. In the midst of his wild thoughts he had actually entered the city without noticing. Coming to his senses, he went to the place that the letter had said the machine seller could be found.

Finding the seller, a small gnome, he asked for the machine, saying he was here to pick it up. The gnome brought Lawfin around his shop to the back to see the machine. Disappointed, Lawfin said, "This is what I get for traveling. I should have asked for delivery. This here, little gnome, is a T-13 model, and I needed the X-6 model. How do you expect me to make good locks if I don't have the right machinery? Sorry gnome, I should have figured, gnomes can't do anything right."

The gnome started arguing with Lawfin, telling him that's the one that was asked for. The argument started attracting spectators as a large man with a hammer on his back was arguing with a small gnome.

[Shann]

Again Shann found himself caught in laughter at the remarks of this guy. Man have I found myself one hell of a drinking buddy. What could have been an awful start to the day was shaping up to be one of the most entertaining days he had had in quiet some time.

"That is the last thing you have to worry about. If there is anything that I have learned in all my years, it's a refined taste. You don't think Theogious gave me a such a long life so that I could waste it on the uglies do you?"

He motioned the boy and his dog forward before placing a hand on one of Vexako's shoulders. "Come," He he tilted his head off in the direction that the boy was headed in. "I think I heard tale of another tavern around here somewhere. That one we stayed at last night had decent enough service but they sure don't greet you with a smile the following day."

Zain rolled his eyes. They had been kicked out of taverns, inns, houses, barns, cottages and just about any kind of shelter that held an attractive woman so many times that he thought it was near impossible to for them to actually leave a place in the same manner that they had entered the place. With Shann, it was near impossible.

Thanmorion led the way through the backstreets of Trelhan. The deeper into the city they traveled, more streets opened up before them. People went about their daily lives paying little attention to the group of men, a smile here and there maybe a friendly wave from a street vendor trying to peddle their goods, but for the most part they weren't look upon as anything special.

Upon crossing one such side street, a gathering of people were spotted standing within and around the doorway to some rather plain looking shop. Raised voices could be heard coming from within, but as to the topic of argument, it was unable to be heard clearly from the street.

[Vexako]

Ko rumpled his own hair, and followed Shann with an easy walk meant to demonstrate just how awesome he was. Ko was, shall we say, terribly unimpressed with the shithole so far. The streets were mostly mud canals, the inhabitants likely never having heard of cobblestones or gutters, and the buildings were ramshackle affairs thrown together with all the love of a sow in heat. Shann had cheered him immensely with his like-minded speech about ugly women, but now Ko was not so sure. He felt. . .well, he felt rather doomed when he looked at the dirt and mud. It was almost as if he felt destined to meet some ugly old hag in the ugly (old?) village, and then be stuck there for eternity after they captured him for witchcraft.

But of course he'd kill them before he let them take him hostage. Just let them try. He stroked the hilt of his cutlass, and tried to keep his eyes glued to Shann's back. He pretty much ignored the kid, who seemed like the sort of baggage Vexako himself would never carry around. Which of course made him think of Rigger, which lead to. . .

Fuck.

Shann would find the beauties. Or Ko would find Shann. He leered at the thought, kept his eyes pinned to the other man's back. Shann suddenly paused, and Ko paused too, terribly aware of a crowd and the sort of voice-raised anger that often lead to brawls and death and drunken looting.

Ko perked up immediately, trying to look without looking, and picked out the drunken loiterers who ringed the shop burly shoulder to burly shoulder. They'd the bright idea to encourage the fight, randomly picking sides (and often switching mid sentance) and giving several doubtful anatomical suggestions that Ko knew weren't terribly feasible, having either tried or seen it tried, and in particular that one wouldn't ever work.

He snorted. "Didn't know gnomes were dumb enough to come to a backwater like this. Thought they was sposed t'be smart."

[Immy]

A large crowd has now gathered around the gnome and the stranger, shouting, antagonizing, pushing for a fight. Angry voices yelling insults such as 'you can't take him,' and the such.

"This is the piece you asked for, and if it wasn't, then you need better handwriting." Said the gnome.

"Hey, if I hit you I might go to prison for beating a child," Lawfin said, turning and leaving the crowd.

Pushing his way out of the crowd, the gnome was still yelling at him. Lawfin spotted to people standing away from the crowd, seeming as if they were wondering what was going on.

"That gnome is a hoot, can't tell a T-13 from an X-6, haha." Said Lawfin, walking away from the crowd, the gnome following him. The gnome, seeing Lawfin speaking with the two spectators, said,

"You're friends of his? What did you lot come here for? Trying to ruin my business? I'll rid the city of all of you. How many more are there?"

The gnome, upon completing this, hurled a lug-nut at the spectators.

Glad that the gnome had forgotten him for the moment, Lawfin decided to get out of there, heading back the way he came.