Mischief in the Making (Xando/Klue)

[Klue Malinconico]

Early Winter of Era I, Era XIII

About a quarter candlemark’s stroll from the gates of Mystique, as the crow flies anyway, two paths converged in the thick of a densely wooded area. Converged near the bottom of a fairly low hill given the lay of the land, but that wooded mound just steep enough to make for a little unplanned excitement should anyone try to dash up it in the thick of winter. Most would say these two crossed paths weren’t paths at all, beaten or unbeaten, but merely deer trails cleared by way of wildlife traveling to and from a nearby brook.

It was mid-morning and despite the winter chill, it was manageable enough weather on this particular brightening, as what suns were left were shining bright through the trees and at the moment, least here, no misguided rocks hurled themselves to Telath to deliver their curious passengers. The sounds of the forest were the usual ones. Winter birds calling, the occasional chittering of mysterious fauna elsewhere, the trickle of that brook heard off to the distance. But otherwise, no matter the troubles elsewhere-nor what may come where present locales were concerned, a rather ideal setting as settings went.

[Xando]

This had been where she had woken up, she was sure of it. She remembered the forest, the sound of the brook babbling in the distance was actually her first memory.

Three brightenings ago she had woken up a little way into the forest, and she wondered whether there was some clue there as to her background, her family. Her life

So the Eshlahier strode purposefully through the outskirts of Mystique. As was her wont, Xando wore black today. Her long black cloak came down below the top of her black boots. Her trousers were long and loose, tied tightly at the waist where they met her black blouse. Her long white hair was tied back at the nape of her neck and her violet eyes were focused on the journey ahead of her.

Looking at the young Eshlahier, one would not guess that she was, in fact, in an internal state of confusion. No, in truth she looked completely calm and without any care for the world. Her cool gaze swept across the trees and she moved forwards.

There had to be something here. Had to be.

[Klue Malinconico]

As the Eshlahier, who curiously managed to bring together both dark and pale at the very same time, approached that spot where trails converged, sensitive ears might catch something of a tune on the breeze. And given a good sense of direction, off towards the top of the hill concealed by copses of trees here and there. It was a tune wholly whistled, but something about it meant that if it were given lyrics, they’d be bawdy and wholly inappropriate recited in polite company.

There was mischief in the making at the top of that hill, though it was all in good fun. Most things were, given the one making it, till things went horribly awry. And given an imagination that oft got ahead of better sense, that was an ever present danger. But the redheaded human at the top of the hill had time on his hands, given leave of his duties for a few brightenings and Cat off in another’s care. And too much time on his hands hardly ever boded well, if not for anyone else, then at least himself. As his step-father had oft said, the gadgeteer, now Imperial officer was an accident waiting to happen. A danger to himself and others…a menace to society. But in Klue’s mind, innovation took risk and lots of it. But there wasn’t much risk, in what he had planned. T’was his thinking anyway.

He’d spent the bulk of the morning making repairs to the stable aside of his recently purchased house, and finding himself in possession of a door with no doorframe to go in, had quickly concluded there was still a use for the thing. Old and rickety, a board missing here and there but never let it be said Klue wasn’t a kid at heart. In fact, he was the epitome of a young man who would never completely grow up, if by nature alone. T’was the nature of those whose imaginations lent themselves to innovation. And not surprisingly, that sort died young.

But this was just a door, at the top of a hill and with a somewhat clear path all the way to the bottom where by his calculations, he’d slow to a stop with the help of his boot heels, and just about where those two paths converged. So unaware of the approaching elf below, he dropped his door onto the slope and sat on it, then shoving himself off by way of a nearby tree. A straight path down, far as he could tell.

What he hadn’t counted on was the sun’s warmth that created a crust over the snow, making his course as much as a speed skating rink and before he knew it, he was flying down that hill, his flat crowned bowler blown away and weaving a not so straight path as he’d intended. Straight enough though. But fast enough that by the time he saw the elf approach around the bend that it left no doubt there’d be a collision the likes of which neither of them would recover from easily. It had occurred to him as well, that given his speed, the chances of stopping on that path were slim to none, even while digging his boot heels into the snow to stop himself. Didn’t work, but left two fine trenches either side of a path made by an old barn door.

Blue eyes widened, he reached for branches to slow his decent, and shouted out a warning…Too late, as she’d just nearly reached the point that would have them colliding. ”Look out, will ye!? Diana’s knickers, get out of th’ bloody way!” Had to be said that there was nothing politically correct about Klue. Oh, he could manage it in a pinch. But not on the fly…Which was a rather curious thing at the moment, given what was about to occur. Twigs and thin branches snapped to clear a path and if not for what lay directly his path, he would have slid smoothly across the path, in front of the elf and down the other side into the ravine.

That wasn’t Klue’s sort of luck. As his luck would have it, there was a fallen log between him and that path, and further covered with snow. ”Look out!” he warned again just as he took that snow covered log like a ramp. Door knocked off kilter, both Klue and it…having parted ways mid air, sailed across in front of, under or into Xando and crashed on the other side of the path, then head over heels till landing in a crashing of leaves at the bottom of the ravine. And all that was left after to disturb the silence of the forest was a pained and extended grunt, a gasp for air and a whimpered, ”Are ye a’right miss?”

[Xando]

Xando heard the whistling and sighed slightly. She had no wish whatsoever to meet anyone on this brightening, but still, the whistling was up the hill and in all likelihood she would see anyone who walked down. So she put her head down and walked, trying to once more lose herself in her thoughts so that she could reasonably ignore anyone who walked up to her.

Look out will ye!? Diana's knickers, get out of th'bloody way! was, in fact, the first that she heard of it, and Xando stopped stock still and looked over at where the shouting came from.

Of course, that was a mistake. At those words she should have dived for cover - forwards or backwards would have worked and stopped the chaos that was about to happen. But for all her cool exterior, Xando was an untrained woman alone in a forested area. She was already slightly nervous and she suddenly had a maniac human flying towards her. So, she stopped and her violet eyes widened as she saw him hurtling towards her and then taking off, separating himself from.....a thing

.......and what was that thing? she thought to herself, horror opening her eyes wide as she looked at the barn door hurtling over her. It looked for a moment like some sort of vile beast, and then she realised what it was as she followed it with her eyes, wondering briefly quite how a barn door had gotten to the top of the hill so that it could hurtle to the bottom of it....

...... but of course, that too was a mistake. For she was so busy following the door with her eyes that she did not think to guard the rest of her body from the human flying slightly skewiff from said door. But he was headed in a direction that was the exact opposite of skewiff from her. In fact, he could not have been more on target had he been fired from a balista. She would have realised that had she known he was even there.

So it was that Xando met Klue Malinconico as he thudded into her and sent her flying with him in a mass of limbs and white hair. The pair of them managed to intertwine with each other as they fell, twisting and turning and landing in a cascade of leaves at the bottom of the ravine.

Xando waited for the world to stop spinning before she fully answered the human Could you please get off me? she asked, quite calmly but with ice in her voice or I'll kill you in a second could have been an easy follow on from that tone of voice, although that was not what she said. Instead, she looked at Klue who was effectively laying on top of her and her violet eyes promised violence, in truth. Although the fact that she had a leaf stuck to her forehead and another twenty in her hair rather detracted from that overall impression of danger.

Also, of course, there was the fact that she was head to toe in snow. She looked at Klue with an almost calm expression, waiting for him to get up so that she could do the same and check if she had broken anything. Her arm hurt, she realised, as she tried to move it and winced noticeably.

[Klue Malinconico]

Could you please get off me? It took a minute for Klue to figure out where the request was coming from, given ringing ears and a face planted in the snow…Though it felt a little funny given strands of it that weren’t quite right. Like the barn door that had gone sailing off in another direction only to slide headlong into a tree and break in two, his senses were a bit scattered as a result of the tumble down the hill. That he’d had company escaped him till now. That he was sprawled on top of it was quite the revelation.

He raised his head then with befuddled blue eyes staring back at Xando’s violet ones, snow dusting his red hair and lashes, his dark blue cloak flipped up over the top of his head. That explained it then. Given the depth of the snow, he’d hoped in a panic for a softer landing and had wondered just where his calculations had gone wrong. He hadn’t counted on the tear in the seat of his heavy brown trousers either that caused a shiver down his spine before he managed anything else coherent. She wasn’t half bad, was the first errant thought gone through his young mind-not so surprising really. Though given her tone and expression, prickly too. Never mind that she was at the losing end of a pileup. He’d told her to move, after all.

”Oh,” he said, then wrenched an arm out from under her with a frown while pulling a thick strand of white hair from his mouth. ”O’ course, miss. Gods I’m sorry,” he muttered but only tried getting up after taking hasty stock of himself, making sure all was in working order before hauling himself up. His knee hurt a bit and he’d scraped his forehead on rock or tree along the way. But all in all, he’d suffered worse from riskier experiments than sailing down a hill on a barn door.

He rolled off with a grunt shortly after the request was made, pushing himself to a seated position and frowned while taking stock again: while snow sifted in through the tear in his trousers, then glanced aside at her. ”But why didn’t ye move aside? Didn’t ye hear me callin’? Ye see, wouldn’t ‘ave happened except that I miscalculated th’ probable aerodynamics of a barn door if ye were t' take int’ account th’ missin'…” This was surely a bad habit, sure to induce glazed eyes in some while he expanded on any number of innovations. But given present company and the expression on it’s face, likely a dangerous habit as well. So he trailed off, having thought better of it after all.

Then hauling himself to a standing position and ending up slightly downhill of the elf, Klue asked, ”Are ye injured?”

[Xando]

It took a while for her instruction to sink its way in to the human mans thick skull, and for a moment she was rather convinced that she was going to end up repeating herself, something which she loved doing, of course.

However, realisation dawned in his blue eyes, hidden as they were under the most oddly coloured hair. Xando did not think that she had seen a man with hair that colour before, but she might be wrong.

As he pulled her hair from his mouth, her own lips tightening in a noticeable moue of disgust at the thought of human slobber on her hair. But then, she conceeded, anyone's slobber would be bad, the fact that it was human was merely another notch to add to a bad day.

He rolled over and as he did she sat up, wincing as her shoulder joined her arm in protest. Then, he asked why she did not move aside. The glance that she graced him with would wither plants from fifty foot away, frankly I thought it might be interesting to experience being hit by a flying human in the snow she said, cooly Quite obviously, I was rather shocked at the sight of some.... one careering down the hill on what appears to be a barn door

At his beginning of an explanation, her glance turned more icy, but thankfully he trailed away. All of this was a very carefully executed plan to humiliate her, she was sure. Still, she seemed mostly uninjured other than the pain in her arm, and she sat on the floor and then stood up, wincing at the arm and shoulder.

I appear to have... excuse me, *you* appear to have injured my shoulder and arm. I'm sure it will be nothing more than a bruise and I will be in pain for a few brightenings only. Worth it for the sake of science, I'm sure she finished drily.

Then she looked at him and felt something quite unusual. She smiled, amusement lighting her face Although I'm sure that it will be worth it for the memory of your face as you flew gracefully through the air. she lifted her arm up to the injured one and rubbed slightly, her smile disappearing in a wince, but nonetheless it had been there and genuine.

At the risk of asking something detrimental to my health and well being she said, a twinkle of humour back in her eyes Who are you? I am Xando. Are you from Mystique?

If he was, of course there would be other questions, but those would do for now, Xando concluded.

[Klue Malinconico]

I thought it might be interesting to experience being hit by a flying human in the snow… Sarcastic was she(?) Klue thought with a glance aside at the elf while dusting the snow off his cloak and trousers. Prickly and sarcastic. Come to think of it, he’d gotten to know two other elves fairly well. Both women in fact. Both prickly, and both sarcastic. Course, Klue knew prickly and sarcastic, having grown up with no less than five sisters, mother and a senile grandmother that made a banshee look like a pussycat.

But back to elves. One had gone so far as to tell all of Tearsfall that they were man and wife just to ruin his game. He’d been on the receiving end of a few smacks, given his wide spread efforts to impress, before he’d become aware of her plot against him. And of Cat’s mother, she’d been the queen of her particular domain, and there’d been no contenders to challenge her title to date. And though he’d wonder at what must be a flaw in his own character, if he was given to wondering about such things at all, he’d liked them both…when he wasn’t cursing them under his breath. In fact, there’d been nothing quite so appealing as poking a proverbial stick at their tempers. This tendency was beyond his youthful understanding where as much as enjoying it was concerned. Now three. Three elves, and all of them given this apparent malady in their dispositions. This seemed to imply that this was a racial anomaly.

But for some reason, some illogical reason Klue couldn’t even answer to, he grinned slightly under her icy glare, till she brought up her injury. Here, he had the good sense to look repentant. For surely he was. ”T’is sorry I am about that.”

Then he grinned again in light of her smile and shrugged. Wide eyed, hat tossed to the wind and backpaddling fast, he must’ve been a sight. ”Swept ye off yer feet, did I?”

”Well met, Xando,” he said and dusted off his hands before offering one to her. ”Th’ name’s Klue Malinconico. Cencoris in the Imperial Legions when I’m on duty, innovator an’ downhill barn door racer when I’m not. An’ Mystique? Sure…Well,” he reconsidered while searching the landscape for his hat. ”Sort of. I’m stationed at th’ de Lylle’s Fortress, an’ I’ve a house not far from here. Just down th’ hill, round th’ corner and a stone’s throw from th’ road. But what were ye doin’ out here? Ye’ve no belongin’s s’ I’m guessin’ ye weren’t travellin’ far. From Mystique yerself?”

[Xando]

It hardly matters. I would not give it another thought. But thank you for the apology she said, as he apologised for her injured arm. When he suggested that he swept her off her feet however, her violet eyes narrowed slightly

Only with the help of the wind behind you, I assure you that without that you would have had a much harder time she said, eyebrow quirking slightly And we can both rest easy knowing that I've recovered quickly she said, sarcasm practically dripping from her voice.

When he offered her his hand she looked down at it and pursed her lips Elves dont shake hands as a rule. I appear to be making exceptions for you this brightening. It must be due to the head trauma with a ... she looked at him and her lips pursed a little further blunt weapon she finished, as she took his hand and shook it gently. Her hands were icy cold, unsurprisingly, and she moved her hand away as soon as politeness allowed.

Cencoris in the Imperial Legions sounds like a far less dangerous job, you know she continued I'm not travelling far no. I'm ... she had no intention of talking to anyone, and yet somehow this silly human man had her talking more than she usually did I'm trying to find out who I am. I woke up here a few brightenings ago and I have no memory from before that. she explained I have come back in the hope that there might be a clue of some kind to who I am here. But I do not hold out much hope she said, and then shrugged I think I am from Mystique. I seem to have a .... well, I rather suppose you would call it a house, although in truth it barely fits that description. I've seen better kept... she glanced further down the hill to where his makeshift sled had shattered Barn Doors she finished, laconically.

She watched him carefully as she spoke and then frowned slightly and asked What does a Cencoris do? as she realised she did not think she knew the phrase at all.

[Klue Malinconico]

There was that sarcasm again that for some reason, Klue wasn’t so offended by he might have been, or otherwise, she might wish he was. Even though he’d be tempted to otherwise grumble about it under his breath…so’s she could hear. ”They don’t, do they?” he asked with hand insistent and with a slight grin, given she was looking at his hand as if it were something vile in need of picking up off the floor or worse, scraping off the bottom of a boot. Cold hands…No surprise, nor the pulling back of a sudden, though his frown was on pondering her parting shot. But it should be known he gave her hand a good squeeze before letting go. Blunt weapon? What exactly did she mean by that, he wondered suspiciously. But since he’d a suspicion in fact, calling her out would only be confirming, for her, that what she meant was the case. So the grin returned. No giving her the satisfaction after all.

”I s’pose so,” he added then while eyeing the terrain for the least treacherous path out of the ravine. His military service was, in fact, probably far less dangerous than his pursuit of innovation. One wouldn’t think so. But given his nature, those who knew of his many mishaps would surely say otherwise. A legion itself was less capable of mischief when left to their own devices.

”Who ye are?” he asked while sorting out the best route and offering her his hand to help pull her up to the path at the top of the ravine. ”Not t’ worry,” he assured her with a gleam of mischief in his eyes and hand outstretched. ”I’m not tryin’ t’ shake yer hand again.”

”So ye woke up there, at th’ juncture of th’ path?” he asked upon reaching the top. ”I don’t know. M’be I’ve seen somethin’ on my way back an’ forth, or m’be I can lend ye a hand somehow. I know th’ woods around here pretty well…Ahh,” he said then while switching directions at her question. ”A Cencoris…An officer. Used t’ be referred to as a Major b’fore s’ many changes. I’m in charge of sergeants and five hundred legionnaires. A leader of men, that’s me,” he added with straightened posture and a self-important, but at the same time, mischievous grin. Leader of men and wild eyed and reckless innovator. This combination alone might make one wonder over the wisdom of just that combination, or worry further over the empire’s well-being as a whole, and as a result. ”S’ m’be I can lend ye a hand with yer search, aye?”

[Xando]

His glance at her hand and the insistent way that he held out his was something that amused her. Typical human, she thought to herself, but she smiled gently as she shook his hand if only because he looked vaguely nonplussed and so she assumed that her sarcasm had indeed gotten the better of him. She considered that she was head in the battle and was, therefore, winning the moral victory that she deserved.

"Yes. Who I am. Or at least more information than I have at the moment which is effectively my name and that is all." she said, and then when he offered her his hand she looked down at it and smiled a soft smile that was rather like a cat that has the cream "Oh you're not, are you?" she asked, returning his own words, somewhat paraphrased, back to him. She took his hand though, and nodded her head slightly in gratitude "Thank you for the help. Yes... it was here" she said, a frown creasing her brow as she looked at where she was. "I was here, at this crossroads and I was laying down, but there was not a lot of snow on me...."

She looked over at Klue, as though realising that he was there and her eyes narrowed slightly as she considered what he was saying "What do you know of these woods? This area? What goes on here? Are there any unusual animals or plant life? Also, are you aware of any Esh'lahier families that have been here in the last few brightenings? I... " she paused before she continued "I am sorry to bombard you with questions, I just... want to know" the facade of icy dropped for a moment as she showed the frustrated and slightly afraid young woman that she was.

[Klue Malinconico]

”Only yer name then,” Klue confirmed and idly scratched his head, only then to fully realize his hat had gone missing. Back up on the trail again, he frowned hard, scanned the area level and up the hill, finally spotting it hung on the log itself but turned upside down. Picking the thing up, he dusted it off and stuck the flat crowned bowler back on his head. ”An’ no, I wasn’t,” he added with a wide grin, and belatedly in fact. ”Tryin’ t’ shake yer hand, that is.” Important to mention it after all, rather than let start thinking she’d gotten the upper hand even for a second. Course, he was still pondering the ‘blunt’ remark with some suspicion.

When asked about the woods, he shrugged lightly and glanced off down the trail towards Mystique. ”As’well as any I s’pose. Though I’m stationed at th’ fortress, I walk or ride t’ town now and again and like t’ ride through th’ woods rather than along th’ road. So’s I come through here fairly often. I’m not sure about strange animals or plants. But Esh’lahier families…Hmm,” he added with somewhat of a frown before shaking his head slowly. ”Not that I can r’call, but there’s quite a few Esh’lahier elves in th’ area, Mystique an’ otherwise. From Ethgan'tor too, an’ some livin’ in b’tween. I’ve never been there, ye see. I’ve heard it’s hard t’ get to, through th’ forest of light, an’ other races aren’t s’ welcome there unless they’re slaves of th’ elves or traders of some sort…Ye’ve heard of it? Ethgan'tor? I’ve heard stories lately of a group of them stirrin’ up trouble in th’ area. Fires in Mystique, and even attackin’ their own kind in and out of th’ city. I’ve heard tell they’re not in league with those in Ethgan'tor. But nobody’s sure at’all, b’cause th’ group is secretive.” There was no arguing that once Klue got to talking, he was a near unstoppable force, but noticing the expression on her face, he did just that and trailed off.

”I’m sorry. It must be hard, not r’memberin’ anything of yerself. But m’be yer family was from Mystique…Or even Ethgan'tor itself?”[/i]

[Eir'helm Mithania]

Right. It was cold, and the Silrosian youth had no love for the cold, none at all. In truth he liked the cold almost as much as he liked dwarfs, and that really wasn't saying very much. The bard disliked the winter; he hated warm clothes and he hated having to cover up, and so he tried to get away with as little as possible. His shirt was open, exposing his chest to the early winter snow and his fingers were bare as they struck a song on his drum, helping to warm him with something other then a fire.

With a small smile the bard was heading for the pair. The light elf however didn't walk past, but diverted his path right for the lady elf and the brutish human. Klue, he had to be a brutish human, they were all brutish, graceless and bothersome. So it was that the child of Moonwillow sought to play the good favored son. He went to see if there was anything he could do to relieve the woman of the little man. As he came closer, and the music came into focus it's magic started to have it's way on their bodies and minds. As the elf got closer, the warmer things should have started to feel, they were his friends by default after all, or at least, she was.

"Serale..." Eir'helm seemed to speak to Xando and bowed his head ever so slightly. "... are you alight?"

[Xando]

Xando watched Klue carefully, looking at him with suspicious violet eyes "What is this Ethgan'tor that you speak of? I... I have *no* memory of who I am or where I have been. I do not know of the other cities. Could you please elucidate?" her expression was determined and frankly, all she was missing was her hand on her hips to complete the picture of determined young woman.

She turned, however, at the sound, her movements quick as she checked to see who was approaching. And wouldn't you know it, it was a light elf. If there was one race on Telath that Xando hated more than any other, it was light elves. Even the name Light Elf indicated their inherant and blatently misguided arrogance. They thought themselves the superior race, when in fact they were the insignificant cousins of Esh'lahier and that was all. Sort of like the family member that nobody wants around, Xando considered with a small, apparently friendly smile in the Elf's direction

Should Klue see that smile, he may be of an inkling to notice although the smile looked friendly, it was like nothing that she had graced him with. Her violet eyes were cold as she looked at the Light Elf.

Then, of course, the sound of the drums came and Xando frowned slightly. There was no harm in being polite, she supposed, and her smile became apparently more frosty, but in truth more real as the lightborn stepped up. She looked up at Klue with a vaguely quizzical expression at the half dressed elf, but she said nothing.

"Serale " she said, with a curt nod. "I am quite well thank you. How fare you this brightening?" she realised what she and Klue must look like, suddenly, covered with snow and with leaves and twigs here and there, she had no doubt. But then, she had just fallen down a ravine with a crazed human entangled with her. So she smiled politely and asked her question, one eyebrow quizzically.

[Klue Malinconico]

The hand on Xando’s hip might be missing, figuratively speaking, but Klue had an active enough imagination to think it belonged there, given her tone of voice and expression. Grew up in a house of seven women. If anyone knew, he should. And he might’ve grinned wide in response, if not for knowing better by way of natural instinct. But elucidate? That one took him a minute while the strung the rest of it together to make sense of it…and concluded that she was at trying to make him ask…which he was aeternia bent he wouldn’t. Not that he wasn’t clever. Just not with words. He could figure out how to make a bathtub fly with enough thought and ingenuity. He could work out the best way to light an entire house with the flip of a switch…But words, not his forte. But he wasn’t letting her know that. ”Ye haven’t heard of Ethgan’tor?” he asked with a scratch at the back of his head, for making him figure she either wasn’t at all from around her, or had truly gone and lost all her memories save her name.

Whatever the case, he was about to expand on it when he spied the light elf strolling towards them, and the drum too which raised a dark red and curious brow. A glance at Xando confirmed the smile, but the look in her eyes was more familiar and finally brought that otherwise suppressed grin to his youthful face. For whatever reasons, though they should be fairly obvious, Klue didn’t take to male elves the same as he did the female version. And while those he’d met of the female version had surely vexed him beyond patience at times, still there was a liking he couldn’t put his finger on and didn’t care to explain or figure out as the revelation would require inner reflection. Deep thinking and philosophical tap dancing that just wasn’t in his nature. Not so the males. Just elves without the added appeal of being female, and an odd lot, the lot of them. So given the look in Xando’s eyes, thus the grin. Not that he should wish ill on anyone just for ill’s sake, but better the other fellow than him…was Klue’s motto.

Now he couldn’t explain the sudden warmth as the elf grew closer, and surely he noticed it, but he was no great admirer of magical means. Therefore, not overly educated in it’s nature by design. ”Alright? Why wouldn’t she be alright?” he asked while Xando picked things up from there.

[Eir'helm Mithania]

Humans, they were so sad, so slow, and blind in that they simply couldn’t see the truth even when it was looking right back at them in a mirror. Humans were bothersome parasites, they had taken an empire from the allerians, an empire from the elves, and it seemed that there was nothing made by the short lived souls. All they could do was try to keep old wheels turning, they were uncreative, stagnant and a blight upon better beings.

Human’s dirtied elven bloodlines, so there was no response from the elf for Klue, he wasn’t worth it. There was nothing from the bard for Klue, save a disgusted, sideways glace. It was with a moment’s pause that the bard strained to force out a smile for him, he slipped out a small, tired smile for the human. He was trying to be polite, but it wasn’t easy, not when one was sober.

“Cause, you’re human. It’s dangerous to think too much of your kind.”

“Now, I’m glad to see you safe, are you of Ethgan’tor? Would this be your servant then or are you...?”

He implied something personal between Xando and Klue, but smiled a harmless little smile, trying to reduce the harm of his assumption.

“If not, are you making way for the marble city alone, or traveling the empire? I ask for concern of your company. If you wish, I could help see you to a near city of your choice, and if you want the human can come too.”