Just Passing Through

[Jaspenellar]

So there was the offer, Lo'en mused wryly to herself as she looked at Theuse. She turned her grey eyes back to watch Gia. Likely due to the wine, her gaze lingered openly and longer than what should have passed as a covert look. She couldn't disguise her suspicion, but the half-elf couldn't bring herself to feel openly hostile. Gia hadn't lost her waif-like appearance, even for all of her inconsistencies that marked her as less than trustworthy.

Lo'en idly waved her hand in the general direction of the two. "I thought I saw Alcippe g'pstairs earlier. We can sleep in shifts if need be. I 'ntend t'stay up an' finish this work, s'feel free t'g'up now."

The half-elf blew out a breath and reached over to the last of her drink. Really, what harm could another sip be?

[Gia Rilan]

Gia smiled gratefully. "Thank you. I can help pay for the room, of course. It'll be nice to sleep in a warm place tonight, although the nights aren't bad here." She started to mention that she could curl up on the rug then clamped her mouth shut. People would look strangely at her, and she didn't particularly want to sleep on the streets that night. Even though she had found a warm pile of garbage the night before...

She stifled another yawn, reasoning that Lo'en was beyond chatting at this point. "I think I shall go up, if you don't mind. It truly has been a long day." She excused herself and stood, heading up the stairs before Theuse or Lo'en could follow her. She'd asked a maidservant which room was rented and found it easily enough, slipping inside and shutting the door firmly behind her.

Gia fingered the chain along her throat and drew out the small gold charm from under her dress collar. Holding it tightly, she murmured, "My lord Belatucadrus, I have found Lo'en. I am sorry for the wait, my lord... she proved more difficult than expected to find. I have made acquaintance with her and will continue to do so, as you wished. Once I gain her trust I shall bring her to the manor. Again, I am sorry for the delay in tracking her down. I shall try my hardest to bring her in swiftly."

She tucked the charm back under her dress and let down her hair, the bound it up in a tight braid again. Gia lay down on the far side of one of the beds and looked out the window, resisting the call to change. There was time enough for that later.

[Jaspenellar]

The cute red-headed waitress stood at the doorway of the Rook with her mouth agape. The elven looking woman and the travel-worn man who had walked in with a long-legged equine smelling human female were still at their table they had settled in yesterday at the end of her shift. She blinked at the portly bar owner who was polishing the bartop on the opposite side of the room. He followed her gaze and shrugged his bowed shoulders uselessly. The waitress sighed; she didn't know why they allowed ruffians like these two turn the Rook into just another scum collecting place like the assorted other tavern-inns on this road. Having customers passing out in the main room was one thing, but allowing them to sleep through until opening just prior to noon just lent an air of squalor to the place. Especially the rude, obnoxious ones like these who had almost caused a brawl to break loose the previous night... the waitress sniffed diffidently and moved over to their table to clear away the multitude of empty and half-empty mugs from their setting. Well, there wasn't anything saying she couldn't go look to be hired by a higher class place like the Indigo Berber down the street...

Lo'en shifted, mumbling something incoherent as the last of their dishes were being carried, rather noisily, away. She lifted her head groggily from her outstretched arm on the table and blinked her grey eyes open after what felt like much effort. The feeling of lethargy was markedly different than her normal wake up and the sour taste in her mouth was horrendous. She groaned as the light filtered through the partially cracked window shutters and the waft of soapy water mixed with the putrid scent of stale beer assaulted her senses.

The half-elf found herself sitting across from Theuse, who had similarly passed out in his chair last night. She groaned again as she forced herself upright, her stiff body protesting against the stretch and her head pounding mildly uncomfortably. Despite the discomfort and reluctance, she found herself forcing her mind backward to review the events of the previous evening to find an answer as to why she had chosen the unyielding wooden chair and table combination over the soft, warm bed for which she had promised to pay.

Gia had immediately snatched up Theuse's gentlemanly offer to split the room yet a fourth way and ran upstairs before Lo'en could bat an eye. She remembered her debate with Theuse afterward, a few additional mugs of beer, and a heated argument whether the room had two beds or not. The night got fuzzier as time progressed- Lo'en could remember nicking her finger on her blade as she had attempted to finish her fletching work; she thought she remembered winning an argument with Theuse about the bad side of chivalry; perhaps they had trampled upstairs to confirm if their room had indeed two beds, and perhaps she had started giggling at the Waif sleeping in a bed next to Alcippe's bed, for an absurd reason clear only to an alcohol befuddled mind, and perhaps Theuse had to physically drag her back down stairs before she woke the two women up...

Lo'en caught the movement of the same red-headed waitress of yesterday as she moved about the main room, cleaning the tavern and preparing it for a new day's business. Still groggy, the half-elf looked at her immediate surroundings and by some miracle, all of her promised arrows were completed, although the last quiver's worth was scattered about her feet, table, and lap, and two of them were somewhat blood-stained, presumably from her cut finger which was throbbing hotly now beneath an imperfect, impromptu bandage, undoubtedly wrapped from an over-sized napkin.

She promised herself that she would start moving in about 5 minutes, after the lethargy cleared...

[Theuse]

Theuse's jaw clenched, his eyes moving rapidly under heavy lids as he was deep in sleep; it was unfortunate that it was not more peaceful. All around him was the black of night, only the small pool of light spreading out from underneath his feet. It was a road, no... it was the road. He looked about, frantic at the thought of having returned to this time, to this place. The Wanderer ran, heading toward the stones that were just ahead of him. He could hear the clang of swords, the curse of men, and he knew what lay beyond the rocks. The thought of Sindri spurred him on, his strides eating up the distance and yet barely making any progress at all. His best friend was still in trouble, trying to save Theuse, but the man could not let him face such peril alone. He arrived but found no battle.

The area beyond the rocks was clear, the grass was slick with the new fallen rain and the soil underneath was moist. Theuse bit back sobs, tried to dam his tears as he dug deeper and deeper into the ground. He had only a small shovel, a paltry thing meant for when one needed to dig a place to relieve oneself. The labor was taxing in the extreme, painfully slow, but still he dug. He was several feet deep into the hole, he had no idea how long ago he had started digging. Sindri had started to stink but he barely noticed. Theuse would not look at the inert form that he hid under his spare cloak, sheltered under one of the larger rocks. He had failed to get there in time, Sindri was dead and now Theuse was alone for the first time in years.

Theuse had no friends or family that he had kept in contact with, now there was only Marn. The city waited in the distance, maybe two days journey. Its presence served to mock how close the two travelers had come, that they had only been a short distance from the safety of the city's walls. And now Sindri would never find reach that place. He had not told Theuse what they were doing, why he had wanted them to travel to this place. Each step was dogged by the specter of his friend; Theuse could still hear him. The shade begged for Theuse to save him, to not abandon him to his fate. Theuse was within sight of Marn, of the gates left wide. The place was dead.

Theuse moved through deserted streets, it was finally growing dark, and nobody lived here now. It was empty of inhabitants, of life and love and friendship. Theuse reached a central market, where a large fountain stood in the center as the sole guardian. The wanderer moved to it, desperate for something to drink. To drown his sorrow. He found that it was dry.

Theuse cursed fate, cursed the gods, and he cursed this damned city. He cries for reparation, for vengeance, echoed back through the streets left vacant. He screamed and raged, until he took his friend's sword and swung foolishly at the fountain. The stone figure that stood at its peak seemed to wince as Sindri's wondrous blade cut deep into stone flesh, and Theuse watched in horror as it bled. The sword had disemboweled the statue and, as he looked up in shock, Theuse's eyes widened in new found horror. The statue bores Sindri's face, twisted in the agony of the killing blow he had been dealt. The betrayal that he had been gifted.

“Why?” It groaned in an earthy voice.

Theuse snapped awake, eyes now wide and slowly leaking tears. “So sorry...” he said in a pained whispered. “I'm so sorry.”

[Jaspenellar]

Lo'en's grey eyes opened only slightly wider at Theuse's stirring. He whispered something unintelligible but the half-elf didn't feel obliged to ask him to repeat himself. She got the general impression he was having a bad dream, but it would have hurt to open her eyes further and move to look him over. Instead, using as few movements as possible, she cleared her throat and started speaking in a low tone.

"So, th'sleeping in shifts thing... not so much..."

Still attempting to remain immobile, Lo'en began gathering her scattered arrows one at a time, using only one arm, one finger, and one thumb to slowly place them on the table in front of her. The logical part of her mind clamoured to discover exactly what time in the morning, lest she be late for collecting the money of her hard earned. Five more minutes...

[Gia Rilan]

Gia slept soundly through the night, though something about her conscience was troubling her. Maybe it was that the wolf was her conscience, and having an animal with primal instincts be the voice of good reason was a bad idea, but she felt slightly sorry for the people she'd just met. For all of them, because she didn't really know what her lord wanted of Lo'en, but she was slowly starting to assume it was nothing good. The wolf mentally chided her, a most strange experience, as usually the wolf in her head was violently raging against her masters. However, serving a powerfully strong and old vampire obviously shifted things around a bit.

She stirred a bit when she heard laughter in the doorway, and blearily opened one eye. A chink of light assaulted her and she shut it quickly, stifling a growl of anger. The laughter went away after some time, though, and she fell back asleep. There was another girl in the chamber that was also sleeping deeply, but despite her smell of horse, Gia wasn't hungry. Horses kicked, anyway, and the wolf didn't want a busted head.

When light started to filter through the dingy, barred window, Gia took a deep sniff of the air, and she decided she wouldn't go back to sleep. She glanced at the other girl, still apparently fast asleep, and shifted wolf, just for a minute. She shook and stretched pleasantly, reveling in the fact that the lupine body was much more suited for a full-body stretch than the human one. Shifting back into human form was the work of a second and she pulled the same brown dress from the previous night, combing and tying her hair back after the dress was settled.

Gia walked downstairs quietly, finding the other two sitting at a table, both appearing to shake off sleep. "Good morning," she greeted. She decided not to ask how they slept--judging from the haggard expressions, that would be a stupid question.

[Theuse]

Theuse realized what had happened, the nature of his nightmare, but even as he tried to think on it the details faded into the background. The events were not so rich, but the last few moments were burned into his skull. Biting back emotion, he waited a moment and then blinked away his tears; this was not the time or the place for weeping. Instead he focused on his pounding headache and the memories of the previous night (and early morning) that seemed just as tangible as the memories of his dreams. When Lo'en spoke, he was grateful that she used a quite voice.

“Duly noted, maybe we should get an extra bed or two.” he groaned.

Theuse's muscles railed against him, protesting the harsh abuse of sitting up straight. He ignored the ungrateful bastards and instead tried to work the horrific taste from his mouth. The sudden appearance of Gia, and a voice that was above a whisper, made the adventurer flinch and he had to force himself not to cover his ears. For a moment he wanted to glare at the women but couldn't muster the will. Instead he turned his face toward her, deciding that his terrifying morning visage would be punishment enough.

Theuse grumbled, “Good? Dear lady, you have no idea.” before looking around for the serving girl. He needed a steaming mug of strong mint tea—or as they called it back home, the courtesy flush.

[Jaspenellar]

For a well-traveled wanderer, the half-elf was surprisingly unaccustomed to hangovers, probably due to her largely solitary habits and her unwillingness to drink to excess alone. As such, she was almost always reduced to a dim-witted sloth when hungover. Even with the necessity of meeting a timeline in order to get paid, Lo'en was reluctant to move any faster than a snail.

She gritted her teeth at Gia's greeting, unconsciously reflecting Theuse's pinched facial expression. Unwillingly opening her grey eyes further than slits, she saw that she had gathered most of her arrows into manageable bundles.

"What time is it?" The irony of having to collect money in order to pay for a room she didn't use and excess drinks she hadn't needed was not lost to her but she lacked the energy to make the requisite wry expression or sarcastic comment.

[Gia Rilan]

Gia supposed she should feel guilty about taking the room that neither of them had used, but she didn't. She opened her purse and wordlessly passed over slightly more than her share of the fee, the slipped the thin leather cord back around her neck and tucked her purse beneath the collar of her dress. She'd never feared thieves, for obvious reasons--any human foolish enough to try and steal from her was going to get a throatful of teeth. The wolf didn't like people taking what was rightfully hers.

"Thank you for the use of the room," she said quietly, much softer than before. "Sorry for your bad morning. Lo'en, it's almost eight in the morning."

Gia was hungry again, which was the downside of being a werewolf. She was always hungry, and although her purse was loaded with bishani, she hated paying for food. Or the wolf hated paying for food and it transferred over to the human as well, because it went against her basic nature. You needed food so you hunted, or stole when there was no hunting. The human concept of paying was outright wrong. Sighing, she ordered a plate of ham and cheese, food that both the wolf and the human enjoyed.

[Tauremi]

The sun was just rising as Nym hurried past the farmlands of the Shims. She waved and smiled to some of the more familiar farmers but mostly she kept her head down as she walked briskly along. Today was one of the few days that the innkeeper of the Red Chalice Inn had sent her on an errand as soon as she had come in. Normally, the inn's errands were reserved for the boy runners; girls were just expected to wait tables. A broad smile spread across her face, well run errands usually meant larger tips, and if her uncle didn't know of it, she would be able to keep the extra.

She hadn't seen the guest who had requested the errand, but the Inn keeper had seemed fond of him, though he was fond of anyone who had bishani. Like most guests in the Shims, he didn't want to enter the city of Marn if it wasn't necessary, which meant sending her for the arrows.

The innkeeper's bishani jingled in her pocket, the man had seemed to want an awful lot of arrows, she wondered how he would carry them all on his adventures, or for that matter, how she would carry them back. Nym's face fell at the thought and she stopped in her tracks. She ought to have grabbed a messenger bag before she'd left the inn, but in her excitement, she'd forgotten. She bit her lip worriedly before sighing. "No good worrying over it now, what's done is done, I best get there before the sun gets too high, it looks to be a hot day today." Saying it out loud comforted her, maybe the fletcher would have his own errand boy to help out with the larger orders, that would make sense.

Grasping onto that hope, she entered the city of Marn and pulled out two tiny slips of paper. One slip with the directions, the other with the order. She looked carefully at the one with her messily scribbled directions, "I ought to write neater," she sighed before folding it back up. She used a rhyme instead to figure out her destination,

" Eeny, meeny, miny moe
Catch a kitty by the toe
If she hollers let her go,
Out goes one
Out goes two
And that leaves you!"

Nym smiled cheerfully and headed down the road her game had chosen.

[Theuse]

Theuse blinked at the thought of food, just as a small glass of mint tea was placed in front of him. Putting no sugar into the mixture, he took a long pull and tried not to cringe as the liquid stung at his tongue. It was hot, but not unbearably so, and he could already feel the refreshing taste coursing through his mouth. It would serve to take some of the stink out of his morning breath and to help sober him. He kept the drink sitting in his mouth as Gia ordered, only swallowing it down and placing an order for his own breakfast.

“I would say I am surprised we are up so early,” Theuse said, his neck and back popping as he stretched. “But these were hardly the best accommodations. Speaking of which, how did you sleep Gia?”

The traveler turned to look that the young woman that had joined them rather later yesterday, smiling pleasantly as he settled into consciousness. Every minute that passed proved to lessen his headache and improve his mood, which led him to wonder if the person who blended his tea had not thrown a little something extra into the mix for the hangover. It was hardly an instant cure, but he could feel the drumming in his temples ease off.

[Jaspenellar]

Lo'en allowed one eye to open wider at Gia's response to her question. She shrugged with her surprise, immediately regretting the motion of her stiff body. Attempting not to clench her teeth, the half-elf motioned at the serving girl who has just placed Theuse's steaming beverage on the table. She blithely waved at the drink, indicating she would take a similar order.

"It wasn't that it was a 'bad' evening," she muttered lowly. Despite her tone, her sentence carried the full character of her typical carefree manner. "I'll b'making quite th'bishani with these all done. Would have been a 'bad' night if th'hadn't gotten crafted."

Her drink came with Gia's platter of food, both of which caused the hungover girl to cringe. Lo'en forced herself to take a sip of the bitter tea, however, and experienced similar soothing effects as Theuse. The hot liquid served to relax her tight muscles and she finally ventured to open her grey eyes fully. Still not willing to attempt breakfast, the half-elf began moving, slowly, getting up from her chair and stretching gingerly. She packed her arrows into tight bundles as the other two ate, sipping her tea in between tying off batches. Lo'en gave side glances to the various workers of the establishment, but no one seemed to be giving her any suspicious looks. The half-elf aimed to sneak out of the tavern in order to collect on her wares, otherwise she wouldn't be able to pay her portion of the exorbitantly priced room, food, or beverages.

[Gia Rilan]

Gia recalled her wonderful stretch that morning with a happy smile. "Fine, thank you. I'd ask you the same, only it doesn't appear that your night was all that restful. No offense, or anything." She'd have liked to have been able to go out for a run as well, but she knew she could do that later. If she let the wolf run loose too much, it completely killed her social skills.

"So," she asked quietly, noting Lo'en's distaste at her louder voice a minute previous. "Do you two have any plans today, or...?" Gia hoped that they didn't. She needed to take them back to Kaledin--it had been too long already. A week on a tracking as bad for her, especially in a small city. Granted, it was easier tracking a scent when there wasn't the stink of humanity in close quarters compounding the problem, but a week was bad.

She hoped Master Tuc wouldn't be angry. Gia didn't think she'd ever want to see him angry. Even though she was normally scared of annoying her masters to the point that they were angry with her, she had an especially bad feeling about irritating Lord Belatucadrus.

[Tauremi]

Nym wandered down several streets, her curiousity overriding her fears of getting lost. It was rare for her that she got to enter the city of Marn, and the abundance of inns, taverns, and shops excited her. Her mind began to wander about what she could buy with the extra bishani she made from the errand. "It would be nice to get a new pair of shoes," she thought, "just a cheap pair would do; these are starting to wear at the seams." She watched as slowly more and more people drifted out onto the streets. City dwellers always seemed to sleep in longer than farmers, she noted, they were just waking up and the day had already started for those in the Shim.

Looking around, her eyes focused on a weathered sign, "The Rook? What a funny name for a tavern." She almost passed it by, but thought better of it, "don't want to be wandering around lost all day."

She pushed open the door to the tavern. Inside, she was slightly surprised about how spacious it seemed, it hadn't looked like much from outside. The main room was still sparesly populated by guests, some who, judging from their worn or haggard appearances, had never left. She grimaced slightly at that, she hated the stale smell of ale in the morning.

Wandering further in, she caught sight of the tavern's serving girl and went up to her. She was the cheery sort, though the slight bags under her eyes told Nym she'd worked most of the night. "'Scuse me girl!" Nym slightly shouted, "Can you get one of your boys to give me directions to the fletchery? I've got an order to run." The girl nodded to her in recognition as she carried a large bin full of dirty dishes to the kitchen.

Nym balanced on the back of her heels as she waited patiently, letting her mind wander again as she peered around the room.

[Theuse]

Theuse grinned, pulling the bowl of porridge closer to him and taking another drink of the strong tea, he was already starting to feel better but he knew he would need to use one of the inns baths to wash the dust off of himself—had had been traveling for quite some time and, in the rush of yesterday, had not taken the chance to wash off the grime. He noticed the door open and a country woman enter, and then he winced as she shouted to the serving girl about a fletcher. At least his headache was abating and, for that, Theuse offered silent prayer for his good fortune.

“I know what I am doing first,” he said as he blew on the steaming bowl that was his breakfast. “I am going to get the smell of the road off me. A good soak and then, well, who knows?”

Theuse shrugged, though he had a good idea of what he would be doing next. He blew again on a spoonful of porridge and started to eat. He blinked in surprise what a wonderful bite of something his his tongue. He moved his spoon around in the bowl, discovering what had caused the burst of flavor. “Strawberries?” he muttered. “Thought those were out of season, what luck!”