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Leana nodded and saw Nova run off to do her job.

"Well yeah...I suppose the pawn shop's closed..." she muttered to herself. Without another word, seeing that Merro was now diverting her attention to the woman (apparently, they knew each other), she shrugged and headed off. Even if she hadn't been given a task, she still felt uncomfortable around Letalus.

Stores were bound to be closing soon, but Leana knew that her best way of getting hens would be to steal them. Nice and simple.

First off, she scouted around areas she knew people kept their animals. There may not be farms nearby but someone was bound to have hens at least for the sake of having eggs and meat nearby.

Once finding a place, which was a young couple's house near the outskirts of town, she waited on a nearby rooftop...waiting until they would turn out their lights and get to bed. Then, observing their little coop of chickens, she'd steal as many as she could and put them in a crate or box...and then head back to the tavern.

Hopefully this wouldn't take long, and hopefully the tavern allowed animals inside.

Ah, so that's who the woman was. Letalus pocketed the gold and adjusted his cloak. He stood over the women, gazing impassively down at Sentelle. "A better question would be why you thought it a good idea to go up against me with a glaive," he said. "I wasn't aware noblewomen made it their business to jump into someone else's battle."

Sentelle directed a sober expression at Letalus and quirked an eyebrow. "So you're an expert on the business of noblewomen, are you?" She pondered a retort about his being poised to attack an unarmed girl, but that matter had already been resolved Merro had a cursed blade that needed blood and she was his charge. How had Merro come to possess a cursed blade anyhow?

Not caring to address her comments to the being who had just sliced her open she turned her attention back to Merro. Sitting upright she asked, "May I see the blade?"

As Merro held it out to her Sentelle tested the sword by touching her fingers to it and rapidly drawing them a short distance above. After a couple of repetitions—satisfied that the she would not, once more, have an adverse reaction to the blade—she cautiously took the sword. Unsure weather the magic now lay dormant due to the fact that the sword had had a taste of blood or if was merely the fact that it could not presently taste blood Sentelle handled the sword carefully. Turning it in her hands her eyes grew wide, "This blade is of elven craftsmanship. See these markings?" she pointed to the script, "that's elven script though too old a script for me to read." I wish Avery were here, he would have no problem reading this script. With a wistful sigh Sentelle handed the sword back to Merro and picked herself up off the ground.

Mentally noting that Letalus must surely be Merro's only companion if they had to 'find lodgings,' rather than return to them Sentelle offered up; "I've coin enough for a couple of rooms." Sentelle surmised that her best chance of getting to the bottom of all this was to get Merro away from Letalus. What better opportunity than a shared bed quarter, which letalus, as a male, would not be allowed to share with them.

"Oh, and to answer your unasked question Milady, I am a humble servant of Lord C'vesia." While the statement would serve as an answer as to why she had not needed Merro to drain herself over a healing spell. Sentelle was more interested in Merro's reaction to the title 'Milady.' If her hunch were correct Merro would not presently like being addressed as such. Sentelle was quite willing to go along with this for now and she hoped that Letalus–if he were in on this–and Merro would appreciate the fact that she had had enough sense to address her as simply as "Milady" rather than "Lady Kisan."

OOC: For the sake of moving us along to the inn, I have written this as though Merro would let Sentelle have a look at the sword, especially seeing as how it will also serve to distract her attention from the questions that Merro had not wanted to answer. If this is not something that Merro would do Meri let me konw and I'll gladly change it.

As Sentelle sighed over being unable to read the ancient inscription upon the sword, Merro involuntarily cut her eyes over to Letalus for a moment. He'd recognized the word "sacrifice" when examining the blade. What was his education, that he had knowledge of things that even Lady ZhaDhurn, with her blood and background, did not? The list of things she wanted to ask of him were growing.

Unfortunately Letalus probably had some things to ask of her as well. Things such as, "have you gone mad?" and "have you even one good reason I should not tie you up, throw you over the horse and ride back to your father immediately?"

Merro took the sword back and laid it across her lap, holding it firmly but carefully with both hands around the blade. Her thoughts were pulled toward the beautiful blade's need for blood and life. Leana and Nova promised to keep the sword fed for at least a few days, but who knew how long the journey to the temple would take. The many delays and disasters that she'd already encountered in a few days brought sudden doubt welling up. Would she make it?

She was startled from her musings by the paladin's offer to pay for rooms.

"I thank you," she said, wondering whether Sentelle realized that their party consisted also of Leana and Nova. To the rest of the paladin's speech, she responded with her polite company smile.

"If I am to call you Sentelle, I would be honored if you would call me Merro."

Letalus drew near and held out his hand. Merro looked up at his expressionless face and then back down at the sword in her lap. She picked it up and wordlessly placed the hilt in his hand. Since she was playing Lady with Sentelle, it was no use trying to take the weapon to bed with her when she had a guard to hand. Besides which, she was still unsure how he had managed to overtake her and arrive in town before she had. Added to all this was the slowly dawning conviction that she didn't seem to be very good at running off on her own.

Curse it all.

With a small, tired sigh, she pushed herself off of the ground and gave herself a quick dusting off before waiting for Sentelle to lead the way. If Merro remembered correctly - it had been a bit of time since their meeting - Merro was outranked.

The sun had almost gone down completely now. Leana's clever green eyes were glued to the house, but had occasionally wandered to check out the scenes around it.

Finally, the couple turned out their lights to turn in for the night. She smiled. Now to get to work.

She leapt down into the shadows below and swiftly ran across the street to the side of the house with the chickens. There were a few cages to transport chickens nearby, so she'd just have to get a few of those and take as many as she could back to the tavern. Luck was on her side as she discovered a rather large sack to perhaps put the boxes in.

She got into the caged in room with a few crates here and there, a pig sleeping in the corner, and a cow chewing boredly on some hay, with the skilled use of her lockpicks. She went over to the chicken coop and opened it, seeing about five chickens and a rooster.

Quietly as she could, she began putting them in the boxes, two to each one. They were a bit fussy and flapped about, but they didn't make much noise. She'd left the rooster for last, knowing that they had those sharp talons to use as weapons. Thankful she wore gloves, she pulled the reluctant male out of the cage and put him into the box. He'd scratched, but hadn't gone through the cloth.

She smiled to herself and put the sack over her shoulder. The chickens clucked obliviously behind her, and she went to go outside.

But Leana's unfortunate habit hadn't occurred in a while, and decided to drop in on her right then.

Reaching the door, she went to turn to get access to the doorknob with a free hand, and the sack had smacked against a broom leaned against the wall. It fell, hitting a metal bucket. That fell over and rolled along with a clang, finally knocking into a badly balanced bag of chicken feed. It tumbled and the feed noisily spilled into the room. The cow started panicking and the pig grumpily woke up and made a few loud squeals.

Leana didn't dare wait, and ran as fast as she could, not caring that the door had closed behind her with a snap. Feeling awkward hauling a sack full of six chickens stealthily in the dark to a tavern, she didn't dare look back and kept running until she reached the tavern.

"Merro had better appreciate this." she muttered, heading over.

"Hmmmm..." Tomlin mused, as a man in torn and tattered clothing ran into the building. The band had just finished playing their set, and a couple of dwarf lyricists had just come on stage and started to rant about peppers, lemons and golden orbs.

"Milady, duty calls." he said with a slight bow. He stood, grabbing his hat of the table and pulling it to shade his face, raised his hand. "Oi~!" he said towards the man, stepping in his direction. "What seems to be the trouble?"