Misery Loves Company [Godlin!]

[Draconian]

Oops.

Luna wilted at the hand wave, a flush on her cheeks that turned her ears red and embarrassment so thick it made her eyes water and she cleared her throat. In an attempt to hide that she felt so bad, Luna ducked her head down and nodded while he continued on.

She hadn't noticed his teeth, her tongue went over her own and she lifted her eyes to look at his mouth, leaning in a little bit so it was less fuzzy. "I see, I apologize," Luna smiled - or she tried to smile - and then leaned back a bit to wring her hands. Perfect. She'd insulted and embarrassed a guest to the country and the castle and she was going to be put out onto the streets and left with no home.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out again, brows knitted up and looking worried, "I didn't know that you couldn't eat fruit," Luna shook her head tried to smile, "I might have something in the pantry, if you were actually hungry." Give him something else he might hate, "Or... What else can't you eat?"

[GoblinFae]

He lowered his head to look down at her, rather confused at why she was suddenly becoming like his namesake for her people and turning quite so pink. Humans were weird. Zhirai stiffened as the little human proceeded to lean closer into his face and stare up at him with her red face and watery eyes. That was an awful lot of 'sorry's' coming out of her too. The rest was too foreign for him to understand completely though so he just shrugged and attempted a far more vicious bite into the apple.

His teeth made a loud pop-crunch into the skin as juice flooded his mouth and dribbled down his chin which he quickly wiped with his sleeve. He had an easier time chewing the fruit with it separated with the skin. The peel he politely pulled from his tongue and discarded to the ground. It was only then that her earlier words finally made a bit more sense in his head.

"Braid," he answered abruptly.

[Draconian]

There was a curious tilt to her head and she watched his sharp teeth finally sink into the apple, and perhaps she was too close to get an unfuzzy look at his face to see if he hated the taste. A glance at the dragons, the adorable fuzzy-non-furry things they were and Luna chewed on her lower lip.

"Braid," she said simply, repeating him. Since this wasn't his natural language, she turned the word braid around in her head. But a braid was already a thing. He didn't eat hair? Well that was good. Luna reached behind her head and pulled her own pale braid over her shoulder, "Braid?" She pointed at her hair, "Hair? Braid? You don't eat hair?"

Luna scrunched her nose while she thought, mouthing the word 'braid' over and over again. It was when she started to say something that sounded like 'brayd' did she snap her fingers and exclaim perhaps too loudly. "Oh! Bread? Like... Loaf of bread?" Her eyes were bright while she mimed what a loaf of bread was incase the word didn't click.

"Then..." She pointed to her mouth and then his before she smiled and asked, again, not taking into consideration he wasn't the best at the language, but at least he could understand some of it, "What do you eat? Are you secretly a dragon? Just eat fresh meat?"

[GoblinFae]

He looked at her quizzically and shook his head, repeating 'braid' again for her as if it was obvious. Only when she corrected him and mimed a loaf did he nod. "Brayed." Her questions indeed took time for him to process again. "Dragon?" he asked, pointing at the lumbering young beasts around them, before pointing at himself. "No. Am I Ztara Vratazi. Fish. Animal."

Zhirai paused and looked at the fruit in his hand again, scrutinizing it for a moment before attempt another, easier bite. "Apple."

[Draconian]

Luna smiled faintly at him, bringing a finger to her lips to tap at them and giving a little pondering hum. "Fish and animals." She repeated, she didn't know what a Ztara Vratazi was but, maybe that was the name of his kind. He certainly wasn't human.

Absent mindedly, Luna reached out, while Zhirai nibbled on the apple, she found his features fascinating. While Ketra wasn't quite a melting pot of non-adelans, more than enough travelers went through, and she'd seen non-humans before. She'd never been so close to one though. Lina's finger traced the point of Zhirai's ear before she really realized what she was doing. "You're very beautiful," she said, trying to cover her tracks, "Are you all so pale?" She pulled up her sleeve and held the back of her hand next to some of Zhirais exposed skin.

While he was lovely colours, she was sapped of them, pink undertones were the only colours. Not even a freckle. "I'm a bit odd looking, for an Adela."

[GoblinFae]

He froze, his entire body tensing as if submerged in the frozen waters of home. The Pinkskin touched his EAR! Not only that but the highly sensitive appendage was sending shivers up and down that made it difficult to think clearly. Zhirai was so thrown off kilter that he could not even begin to consider slapping her hand away as he would have done back home. Matters were only made more befuddled when as he opened his mouth to give her an earful, she proceeded to compliment him.

Beautiful? Him?! She must be blind. He could think of no other reason for her to call him such a thing even as he stares at her with his one good eye in dumbfounded disbelief while she continued as if it was so normal and simple to call a foreign stranger attractive. 

Aaaand she was touching him again, her arm pressed along side his. He dragged his gaze downward indeed taking in her pinkish undertones to his own bluer ones.

"Many colors, fire, gold, ocean, snow, or night. We have names for them. Am I Procyon...snow. Like you."

[Draconian]

While her own eyes weren't clouded and she was close enough to see Zhirai clearly and she smiled softly, eyes tracing along the scar on his cheek and over his lips before looking down at their skin.

"Snow," she repeated, "Like me?" Luna smiled and tilted her head, looking up at her newest friend. Finding him not violently pulling his hand back as permission, she took his hand in hers and traced her fingers over the back of it, marveling slightly in how the same but different it was. "We don't seem so different aside from the undertones," She said oddly pleased.  While no one treatedly her badly for her strange colouring, it did ostracize her. The superstitious ones full on would pretend she didn't exist.

"We should get you back to your kin," She finally said, dropping Zhirai's hand, "you can come visit any time, if you like." Luna nodded towards the castle and extended her arm for him to take her elbow, "I can escort you back, if you like."

[GoblinFae]

His fingers flexed under her touch, feeling slightly unnerved at how touchy feely these Pinkskins seemed to be without need for personal space or permissions. Two could play at that game though and although she dropped his hand, Zhirai was quick to catch hers. His long, calloused fingers traced her palm with feathering touches.

"Smell," he commented as he measured his much larger palm against her more delicate one. "And no ears." The elf reached out to touch the rounded top of her closest one as of to punctuate the point.

He made no indication of otherwise understanding her words though as he continued to maintain their physical connection while staring down at her, lost on thought.

[Draconian]

"Ah," Luna started to say, surprised when her hand was tugged back and her palm explored. Had she missed some feature that she had but he didn't? Luna looked at her hand and flexed her fingers, head tilted curiously before Zhirai took his turn examining the things he had but she was missing.

"Yes," Luna tucked whatever loose hair behind her rounded ear after he touched it and smiled, "I am quite plainly human." she spoke with the assumption Zhirai understood her and with his hand in hers, she led him back to the castle, fully intending to drop him off with his own. "Can you hear better with them being all pointy?" She asked, pointing to his ears and then her own.

[GoblinFae]

Zhirai looked down at her and slowly tilted his head. He understood the question or at least he thought he did, but he did not know how to answer it. How could he possibly know if his hearing was better because they were pointed when he did not know what she could hear with her weird, rounded ears.

"What hear you?" He finally questioned, staring at her intensely as if doing so would allow him to hear as she did.

[Draconian]

Luna blinked owlishly, slowly and wide-eyed  and then opened her mouth to speak before slowly closing her mouth again.

"What hear me, indeed," that was a difficult question and now that it was turned on her she understood confusion. Looking around, she just frowned again, not even able to identify anything decently far away. "Erm... Nevermind. Silly question,"  dismissive handwave and she looked up and away, knowing her face was bright red with her embarrassed blush.

Then she sped up, the castle growing closer. She'd be able to leave him at the castle, go home and then smother herself with her pillow. Be dragon food because the babies would no doubt get hungry and find her. Trying to be nice but all she did was embarrass herself by being ignorant.

"Well, I hope you have an okay day once you're back at the castle, I'm sorry for the apple. And the ears. And bumping into you. And just..." Luna sighed, "I've made a terrible impression of Adelans but I promise you it was all well intended."

[GoblinFae]

He raised a pale brow at her before shaking his head in disbelief. Pinkskins really were too strange for words. Zhirai easily matched her pace, his longer legs not even straining as she walked briskly to lead him back to where the remainder of his people were housed.

"Connlaothians worse," he intoned, neither denying the impression she had made nor agreeing with her harsh self-judgement. "You fast too talk." He added after a thought, unable to keep up entirely with everything she was hurrying to apologize for but understanding at least the gist. Still, it was a far more welcome ear-buzzing than he was sure to get from Anastolyr once he returned. Damn wordsmith never knew peace and insisted that no one else would either.

[Draconian]

Luna ducked her head lower, pulling the hood farther over her face because it was only getting redder. Leave it to her to just embarass herself at the end instead of enthusiastically be friendly.

Maybe the enthusiasm is what killed it. "I'm sorry," she said again, lifting her head up and looking at her companion, trying to smile but grimacing instead. "You know where you're staying in the castle, right?" Total topic change. That would be fine and not at all odd. Still, her cheeks and neck were red from blushing and every passing moment just made the urge to bury herself higher. Spoke too much. Too fast. Embarassing.

[GoblinFae]

"No." The response was flat and unbothered. His attention was less on the fact though that she likely would be stuck with him a bit longer until she either abandoned him, found someone to help him, or miraculously found where his shared rooms were. Instead he was more concerned with how rather pink she was suddenly becoming. Of course the first Pinkskin that he found to look almost like him would start to show her true colors. But was she sick? Why all of a sudden?

There was nothing for it. He would just have to ask.

"Are you diseased?"

[Draconian]

The words echoed in her head and she looked down at her hands. Moving to quickly hide them before a look of pure hurt crossed her features and she looked up at at Zhirai for a moment before ducking her head back down. Luna tried to get smaller, shoulders hunching and hands held in front of her.

"I..." a small sigh, "No, I'm not." Luna chewed on her lip and continued to walk I silence. She'd given herself a duty and she'd see it though, even if she just wanted to crawl into a hole now. Surely Zhirai didn't mean the way it came out but Luna couldn't help how much the question hurt.

She scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand, careful to keep the hood up and kept moving. Surely the guards in the castle knew where the elves were staying. "We can find where you're staying and then I'll leave you alone. I'd feel terribly guilty if I just left you lost and alone," Luna's voice was soft and a little quiet, very much missing the enthusiasm from before

[GoblinFae]

Perhaps it was the nature of being Pinkskin to just flush from beige to rouge at a moment's notice. She had been nothing but kind and truthful to him, as far as he knew at least, he had no reason to doubt her answer. He did not even think twice at her rubbing her face. With this infernal heat being as miserable as it was he too found himself wiping sweat from his brow quite regularly.

Her words however normal they were for conversation's sake, sent an odd curling in his stomach. Had the apple made him sick and was now not agreeing with him? Cursed Southlands. Why was everything so horrible here? The plants made their eyes hurt, the sun made their bones hurt, the food made their stomaches hurt. Everything was miserable. Even the roads made no sense so while the Pinkskin beside him seemed to know the way, it was all a maze to him.

The castle gates coming up into view was startling for him despite their having continued to head in that direction. He could not have possibly attempted to retrace their steps from the dragons to here even if held at spearpoint.

"You require payment for trouble. Come with me and will be sorted."

[Draconian]

Payment for trouble.

Luna pulled a face behind her hood, not wanting to force her company on the elf longer than she needed to. It wouldn't do to offend him further, so Luna kept her denial to herself. A little nod, a quiet 'okay' and she continued on.

She would guide him to their suite and that would be that. Luna walked through the door, making sure Zhirai was beside her still and once inside and away from direct light, she removed her hood and pulled her braid over her shoulder.  The guard was the first person she went up to, the conversation was quiet and the guard pointed off to the side before giving her a dismissive look and turning away. A small nod and Luna started to a door on the side, waving Zhirai over.

"Almost there, you're apparently just down the hallway. Guest suites." A small polite smile and she quickly turned away and began to walk again. "You should keep a journal. Or a map, so you don't get lost again," Luna gave another polite look to Zhirai? Her smile not reaching her eyes. Diseased. Walking past a mirror in the hallway, she caught site of her reflection, giving it a momentary distressed look before turning away again, head down. Ready to drop Zhirai off and then go home.

[GoblinFae]

He hummed softly while looking about the hall they were walking down before shrugging. "All looks same."

Zhirai sighed as he tried to remember which door was which. "Getting lost met you," he added simply. "And apples and....dargoons?" His nose crinkled as he tried to remember the name of the big lizards he had encountered and watched her feed. 

[Draconian]

It did all look the same and Luna remained quiet while she gave a hesitant polite smile of apology.

"I..." Luna cleared her throat and nodded, "Yes. Getting lost did do those things, the dragons didn't seem to mind you." She wrung her hands while she kept count of the doors on one hand before coming to a larger door at the end of the hall. The flush clung to her cheeks and she rested her pale hand on the door before pulling it away. "This should be it," Luna stepped away and offered a little polite bow of her head to the star elf. "It seems rude to open the door but it's the right amount and the biggest door, so it must lead to the suites. It was lovely to meet you, Zhirai."

A hesitant smile and she reached, took one of his hands between hers and gave it a gentle shake before letting it fall and she tucked her hands back into her sleeves.

[GoblinFae]

"But you did?" Zhirai replied before being distracted by their arrival at the door and her sudden taking and releasing of his hand. He stared down at it as if trying to remember what Anastolyr had told them about such customs.

He was saved from further confusion though as suddenly the door opened and a giant of a woman dunked her head on her way out the door.

"Oh! Greetings!" The Antares greeted in her native tongue rather surprised by the pair and mistaking Luna for a Procyon at first glance as well.

"Pinkskin," he interjected causing the woman to glare and hiss something nasty back at him, her skin turning a deeper shade of red out of embarrassment.

"Apologies. Um thought you were one of us. I Kirsikka. You? Hurt? Need healer?"