Welcome to Gaia! ::

More later (after my exam).

A query: should I make this low-fantasy, or mid/high fantasy? I am debating making it more like Dungeons and Dragons (with magic, creatures, et cetera). Opinions would be appreciated.



The stench of stale alcohol engulfs me as Arturo holds the tavern’s door open. “After you, milady.” He gives a mock bow, and gestures me inside with a black-gloved hand.

“Quit being so melodramatic. I’m no lady, you’re no gentleman, and this is no palace.” I step in, trying not to breathe through my nose as the new scents of body odor and cooking meat add themselves to the unpleasant slurry of smells. Predictably, a number of the men look up to see who the new entrants are, and even more predictably, a number continue to follow me with their eyes, rather than going back to their chatter.

I choose two seats at the bar, mine next to one of the men who had returned to his conversation, and Arturo takes his seat without any complaints. Routine.

“Why must we always go to the tavern first?”

“It affords us knowledge via a quick survey of the local population, and may lead us to new members, or to emolument,” Arturo replies.

“No it doesn’t. It just gets us into fights.”

“Yes, sometimes we don’t see things quite the same way that the locals do, and that occasionally leads to disagreement.”

“So you call showing off to ladies with dagger-tricks that always seem to go horribly wrong a ‘disagreement’?”

“Well,” he begins.

“No! That’s what always happens. Either we get no information and end up spending far too much money on beer and lodgings, or you find some pretty tavern wench to make the object of your pathetic attention!” I realize that my voice is fairly loud only as I finish my tirade, and look around, wincing as I notice that a majority of the tavern denizens seem to be very interested in what I had been saying.

“And you waited until we had already come in and sat down to mention-“ Arturo is cut short by the tavern-keep, who shuffles over to us, flexing his formidable biceps as he does so.

“Did I jus’ hear you right? You callin’ my honest servers wenches? You tryin’ ta find some trouble?” He glares at me over his large brush moustache, seemingly answering his own question.

With a heated growl of frustration, I toss a few coins on the counter. “Come, Arturo; we’re leaving.” Behind me, Arturo mumbles something to the tavern-keep before he follows me, but I do not bother to listen to his words.

“Hey,” he grabs my arm as we step into the summer light, and I stand still to let my eyes re-adjust. I turn to look at his pale face, kept so clean by his daily styling. Nothing but a smirk answers my questioning gaze, which infuriates me more than his verbalizing the irony of the situation would have.

With a sliccckk, my longsword whispers from its sheath, then emits a harsh tintinnabulation as I give it a flick just as it passes the locket at the end of the protective sleeve. After a few wild swings of passion, my arms find themselves guiding the nearly meter-long length of metal through my daily exercise.

I just did something horribly silly and backspaced my way out of a really long review of this. The bulk of it was mostly that I was confused for a long time (and still am, really) on whether or not she was a warrior. It read a lot to me like they were not really the type to abide by rules enough to be any kind of official warrior. Their exchange read very similarly to a Zoe/Mal conversation from the show Firefly. This isn't a bad thing, but if it wasn't what you were intending, be aware that this is how your characters are coming across to me as.

I also get the sense that this would be very good as a mid-fantasy with whatever other fantastical elements you think to add in. Experiment a little bit. Think about what else is in your world. What kinds of races and cultures and creatures exist in it and how they get along. I'll be waiting to see what you come up with, because I'm very interested in seeing it.

Anything else I had was really already covered by my twin, above.