Welcome to Gaia! ::

If she wanted parlor tricks, then parlor tricks she would get. The whitened sockets of his mask seemed to glow with a greater intensity and his muscles bulged across his body. He grew upwards; one--two--now three feet taller. The white of his mask gained a crimson covering and his voice deepened to a low, rumbling boom. It wouldn't last long, but it would last long enough for him to escape unscathed. "Show me your tricks then. What have the likes of you to offer? I fear you no more than a wolf would fear a cat." He watched the hand reaching for his neck, but it wasn't his neck anymore, it was a mere illusion.

Without another moments hesitation he slipped off behind his illusion and into the crowd. The dagger had been left behind, but it wasn't worth the troubles it was causing. He would only have a few more seconds before the illusion faded away and he was totally drained for the night, but that was enough to escape from the tavern without some crazy b***h of a woman tearing him apart, limb from limb. He exited the tavern the way he had entered, through the back door and into the darkened alleyway.

Kirien watched the other woman stumble away and felt rather perplexed. She'd been quite prepared to fight for her life armed with nothing but a glass of wine and a tin spoon, but then suddenly the red glow had faded from behind the mask's eyeholes, and the woman - the drow - had said something that, oddly, sounded like "I'm sorry".

Very curious indeed.

The common-sense desire not to get involved and the impulse to find out what this was all about warred in her head for a few seconds. Then she saw the strange drow sway and fall, and that did it. She jumped off her stool and pushed through the gathering crowd.

It looked like her hand was bleeding - that must have been the dagger. Kirien knelt and pulled off the black glove, exposing the skin underneath. Dark, as she'd expected, and sporting a nasty gash. With a silent tear for her second-best festival outfit, Kirien pulled off her bright green scarf and began binding it around the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

Pushing back her green mask with one hand so as to see better in the dim indoors light, Kirien tied off the (now sadly stained) scarf with a neat knot. She sat back on her heels, and raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Don't mention it," she said. "But, you wouldn't care to explain what that little... episode was all about, would you?"

She had to admit, though this person had looked ready to stab her a minute ago she didn't seem to be behaving like a threat now. Despite that she was still obviously drow (if an odd sort of drow) and therefore not to be trusted on first acquaintance much farther than Kirien could throw her. The best policy for now was not to assume anything.

"if you're still out to kill me, by the way, I'll expect my scarf back before you start," she added, with a faint quirk of a smile.

Aria blushed beneath her mask, and then burst out laughing at the elf's remark. "No, my friend. I think I'm over the urge to kill anyone." Aria gingerly sat up and looked around. There didn't seem to be as much fuss about her as she had feared. While the odd patron still glanced curiously her way, most of the revelers quickly went back to their celebrating.

Aria took a breath to steady herself and looked back to the elf, who was waiting expectantly for her reply. An explanation? What could....should, she tell the woman. The frightened, wary part of her wanted to give the woman one of her many, well practiced lies and then put as much distance between them as possible. The other part of her, the lonely, weary part of her, wanted to confide in this stranger. In the five years she'd been wandering, she had never found anyone she felt she could confide in. This woman was a stranger, and an elf. She surely held no love of the Drow. But she had taken the time to bind the wounds of a strange woman who was not only a Drow, but just seconds before had clearly been dangerous and half-mad.

In the end, Aria's loneliness won out. She gazed into the elf's eyes, saw no deception, and gave a short nod. "An explanation? Well, its a long story, but if you're willing to hear it....I think I'd like to share it with you."

Aria carefully stood up, pleased to see that the last of the dizziness seemed to have faded. She extended her uninjured hand to the elf in greeting. "I guess a good place to start would be my name. I'm Aria."

Aria looked around the room, beginning to feel crowded. She definitely needed to get out of there. "Fresh air sounds really good right now." She noticed a few remaining patrons who were giving her curious looks. "Besides, I think I've had all the attention I want for one night."

The tavern had become even more crowded in the last few moments, and in the state Aria was in, making her way through the press of bodies was somewhat daunting. "Is there another way out of here? A quieter way?"

((Bleg. Not up to my usual standards, sorry. Writer's block. xp ))