Welcome to Gaia! ::

"The storm that passed moments ago has left me refreshed as if I had slept an entire day in my own home. As for food..." He chanced another look around the tavern. Humans probably thought the food was good, but Chälan didn't think it would be wise to try it. "...my body prefers the gifts of nature to the flesh of animals...." He tried to say it kindly, but even though he understood the necessity of the concept, it still repulsed him.

"At any rate--the time is well--since it is you who better knows the land around this place, we shall say for this mission that you will have the final word if ever we two come to disagreement," he said, and then added in his own language, "dhän lli ärda," making it a promise, on his word.

The two exchanged a few more words as they made to leave. Whereas a hobbit behind the bar saw them go and wished them well... a group of three human men also kept eyes on the pair, and their thoughts were not so full of goodwill.

((I am posting in proxy for Riiko777 until she gets into the guild smile ))



The rain outside had been falling for quite some time. Gray sheets of it fell relentlessly from the sky as Tania glanced out the tavern window. "Rain." she hissed quietly. She hated rain. She had reached the Witch's Hat long before the rain had begun to fall. She always knew when it was about to rain. The only boring part was waiting around inside for the rain to die down. She glanced nonchalantly at the paper resting in her lap. The King's Decree. It boasted a fine reward. Not that Tania needed to do anything so reckless for a mere amount of gold. It was a waste of
time and effort.

So why had she decided to go off on such a quest, anyways? What purpose could it possibly hold? Some method of redemption, perhaps... to prove that she didn't have to steal to earn gold. She could work for it, like everyone else... ugh. Stealing was just so much easier. And whoever decided that killing a witch was honest work, anyways? So the local rabble wanted a supposedly evil menace disposed of. How did they know it was the witch that was causing the ill weather? It could just be an excuse... a cover-up... but such thoughts were pushed aside as she continued to stare at the decree... she sighed. Suddenly becoming profoundly irritated at her own indecisiveness, Tania shoved the paper into a pocket, left her table, and made for the front bar. A drink sounded nice about now.

"What can I get for you, m'dear?" The small hobbit asked over the counter. She didn't seem to be affected in any way that Tania was a neko. Perhaps the discrimination was not so strong in these parts. A mischievous smile crossed her face, "Well, I've always wanted to try rum." She replied cheerily. The hobbit smiled knowingly as she began to prepare the beverage, "One rum for one silver," She said over her shoulder. Tania feigned worry, "Oh, dear.. I seem to have forgotten my money purse... one moment." Tania strode over to a particular table she had noticed before.
The man who sat at it had long before passed into unconsciousness, numerous empty mugs arrayed in an unorganized manner across the tabletop. "Sleep well, friend. While you can." She murmered as one claw came out, slitting the leather that had held the man's money purse around his neck.
So typical. For some reason, people seemed to think that just because you hide your money down your shirt, no one's going to know where it is. Ha! All good thieves know that this is the first place to look! The idiocy of humans was one thing that would never change, it seemed.

"Found it!" She grinned as she jingled the purse. She pretended not to notice how so many greedy eyes turned on her in that moment. She knew they'd never get what they wanted. "Here, take three." She smiled as she removed three silver pieces and placed them on the counter top. She was feeling extra generous, for some reason. The hobbit smiled pleasantly as she rested the mug of rum on the counter and carefully pocketed the three silver pieces. "Thank you, dear. Enjoy your evening, won't you?" Tania picked up the mug and winked, "I will now." She returned to her seat just as the front door opened, and another guest stepped in.
She took a grateful sip of her rum before bothering to notice who it was. Mmm.. rum was likely going to be her new favorite. She peered over her mug to note if the new visitor had anything of worth.
A nymph! The only reason she recognized the creature was due to the pictures in countless childrens stories. Long hair... blue-toned skin... yes, this was definitely a nymph. But... she had always assumed them to be fairytales. Never in her life had she actually seen one! This was something to remember.
She casually sipped her rum as she kept an eye on him. He was conversing with a woman in the far corner of the bar. It bothered Tania that she hadn't really noticed that woman
before. She had always made a point of noticing everyone and everything when first entering a building.

After a few minutes, the two seemed to come to some sort of agreement. They stood then, payed the barkeep, and went out into the rain. Huh... there were sure some strange folk in these parts. She didn't bother to follow them, though. She certainly wasn't planning on going out in the rain anytime soon. But alas, fate has a way of playing with people--of shaping their lives in ways they would much rather have been left alone. And so it did this night with Tania, as the three she had really been watching moved from their seats, making to follow after the two who had just left.
Tania hissed under her breath. Why did they have to leave now? Couldn't they see it was still raining? Ugh! Well, now she had to follow them. Those three had some very nice valuables on them. She couldn't pass that up. Even if it was raining. Good thing she had brought her rain cloak. She had stolen it especially for times like these. It was said to have been made by some famous magician somewhere. Said to have magical powers of keeping the wearer
of it dryer than a bone when all else was drenching with precipitation. Fortunately, she had tested its claims beforehand. It worked wonderfully. But she still dreaded being so close to the water from the sky... she sighed once more as she finished off the rum in her mug. The three were leaving now. Well, at least it seemed they had enough sense to wait a bit before following after their prey. She waited an appropriate amount of time herself before departing after them.

With a last, longing look into her empty mug, she stood, draped the rain cloak about herself, and disappeared through the doors of the Witch's Hat.

((That's fine biggrin ))
Sauda grinned in reply and agreement and opened her mouth to say something. "Then you would not mind if I stole from them? I will return in one moment," she said and slinked off into an alleyway, hoping they would follow her. One of them did at least.
"Come out girly," the man said in broken human.
Despicable creatures humans, Sauda thought to herself. "Come find me." She replied back to him. He rounded the corner and Sauda delivered a quick knee to the stomach and a punch to his face. He fell to the ground, and Sauda quickly bashed him on the head with the hilt of her weapon and he became unconcious. "Despicable," she repeated and grabbed some coins, jewels and various other trinkets. Sauda hurried back to Chalan quickly, before anyone would really notice her disappearance.
"Anyone else?" she whispered to Chalan, nodding her head towards the others that were following them.

The rain had had another short burst. One second the air was clear, the next it was full of water, but before you could make much bother about it, everything was clear again. Chälan hadn't even gotten very wet.

He knew he'd felt something a moment ago, and thought he heard something, too, but the rain had masked it. Now everything had a slight echo to it.

There were soft footsteps following, very faint, padded. And the humans were no longer there. Chälan turned around.

"Mind if I tag along?" came a young woman's voice, speaking human. She was obviously not human, though. Judging from the large eyes and the way two points under her hood suggested themselves as ears... could this be one of the cat-kin? What had humans called them... nekos? Yes, that was it.

Chälan groaned inwardly as he realized he might have to start trying to speak human words again. Before answering her question, he said, "Huër är the hh... mm... ans that wer... phh...hhal-le-inkh us? Did yi phhait huith the...mm?"

The neko had an odd look.

Chälan turned to Sauda for help. Returning to elvish he said, "Tell it to me, do you suppose she does not understand my words? I wished to say: 'Where are the human-men which had been in pursuit of the two of us?' and: 'Is it that you have done battle with them?' I know the human words, but I cannot yet frame to pronounce it right." He looked back at the neko for a moment, then added, "I am suspicious, a little so, of this one. However, if we are careful with our trust, perhaps it will be a help to let her join together with the two of us?"

Tania tried to decipher what the nymph was trying to tell her. Was he... trying to speak human? He turned to the elf with a pleading look and spoke in some foreign language. It was a beautiful language. Most likely some sort of elvish. It bothered Tania that she didn't know what they were saying. Finally, the she-elf turned to her, "Greetings." she said, "You may tag along if you wish. My friend here has troubles speaking the human language so I will translate: Where are the humans that had been following us? Have you fought them?" At this point, she said something else to the nymph in elvish, but Tania replied regardless, "Nah, I didn't fight 'em." She said, "I like to avoid violence, if possible--but in any event, you won't have to worry about them anymore--I think they got scared off by something. Oh, but I haven't introduced myself yet!" She bowed dramatically, "You can call me Tania--it's great to meet you both!" She straightened, "So, where are we going, anyways?"

It may prove difficult, traveling with two people who can speak a lanuage you don't understand. They could say anything they wanted and she would still have absolutely no clue as to what they were saying. That could prove quite annoying. And dangerous. But still, this was the best plan she had so far. It was too late to turn back now. She'd just have to deal with whatever consequences accompanied her decision.

((That's fine, it keeps us moving. biggrin ))

Sauda smiled to Tania and introduced herself and Chalan and continued walking. ((Skip a bit.)) They approached the gate and left the City of New Hope for what Sauda hoped was not the last time. She turned to Chalan and smiled, then spoke in the elvish tongue. "We shall be approaching the forest in which the Black Magick resides in a fortnight, with a steady pace." She turned to Tania and repeated the same thing, in human, and continued walking.
The dusty road became an untravelled path in a small gathering of trees, which lead into a small clearing. The night had steadily became lighter at the approach of dawn and Sauda was feeling a little fatigued. "Shall we rest?" she asked Tania, and then turned to Chalan, asking the same question.

"Iph all this rain iss ...'bm...echauss oph her, then shi iss phauerphul indeed," said Chälan, almost fluently. After a moment of contemplation, Chälan thought to change the subject.

"Wud yi likhe to hir a stori? It will chiv ...m...i a tshance tuh phractice hu...m...mman."

There didn't seem to be any objection, and in fact his companions enthusiastically observed that a good tale would be the perfect thing to precede sleep.

And so, after taking a moment to translate the nymph tale into human language in his head, Chälan started in.

"Uhnss uphon a tai...mm, there wass a young wum...mman oph the phorest-pholk--nymmphss--who wass not a**...s 'bm...mb'eautiphul as the otherss...s.
"She ...was... alway...s sad oph this, and ophten wandered on her ...own, far away from ephveryone else. When out likh this, she sometimes would use her phvoice phor mb'eautiphul sounds. Sometimes she ...mp'retended to mb'e a ...b'ird, with high notes. Sometimes she would try to sound as water, sometimes as wind.
"One day, she heard a phvoice phar away through the... trees.... It was a phvoice that was dee...p'...er than her own. She lophved listeninch to it. She stayed still and listened for a lonch time to the sinchinch...nng...ng...singing. Aphter a phew mmoments, the sound stopp'...t. She waited a little, mbut the sinch...nging did not retern.
"She wanted to hear the singing so mut...chh...much, that she decided to try it herselph.
"As soon as she started to sing, all the phorest around her stopped to listen. The 'birds were silent, the trees stopped their whis'pering, and ephven the wind stopped to hear.
"The young nymph was lost in the delight oph her own phvoice, oph the 'beautiphul sounds she was creating. She was enzhoying herselph so much that she didn't realize her singing was drawing someone toward her. It was the phvoice that was singing before. It was a humman, a young 'man who was searching phor her'bs in the phorest.
"The young man fell in lophve as soon as he saw her, and started to sing along. 'But as soon as he did, the young nymph womman was startled and stopped singing. She al'most turned and ran away, but the young man said "Oh no, wait! 'P'lease don't 'be aphraid." And then he started singing again, phvery sweetly, without words. Then the woman nnew that his was the phvoice phrom a moment 'bephore, and she phell in lophve with him, dzhust as he had phallen in lophve with her.
"And they went on singing tochether, and were wedded, and liphved alone tochether in the phorest phor the rest oph their liphves, and were happy phorephver aphter."

Chälan finally finished with a big smile--both because of the story and because he'd been able to tell it in human without many hang-ups. He still avoided 'k' and 'f' like a plague, but he was finally getting used to 'm,' 'b,' and 'p.' Even 'ng' and 'tch' were becoming second nature.

To conclude his tale he said: "And that is the story--the short phversion--oph how 'by chance a human lured a nymph, rather than the other way around... although in the end he was lured into lophving her anyway."

((Fine by me--the more the merrier! ^^))

Tania listened as Chalan told his tale. A few bits of it were slightly difficult to understand, but she understood more and more as the story progressed, and found she actually had begun to like the tale.
"That was quite enchanting!" She said, clapping her hands together in appreciation. A moment later and she realized she was starting to fall into the trap of trust. She chided herself mentally, but did not allow anything to show on her features. She couldn't allow herself to get too attached to these people. Not if she intended to use them like she did. She found herself questioning her motives about that when Sauda answered her previous question concerning the sorceress. Tania forced herself to listen.
"Ah, that helps, then." She smiled in response, "So, then how exactly where we planning on disposing of such a powerful person? We should have some sort of strategy, at least."