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It wasn't the fanciest inn that Elysia had ever played in, but it sure as heck wasn't the worst either. From what she'd seen so far at least the place was reasonably clean and was without the stench of piss or vomit.
The innkeeper was a nice enough sort too, letting her barter for room and board for the night. All she had to do was play her lute, sing, and recite poetry. Not a bad deal for either of them. She got a warm, dry bed to sleep in, plus hot food, and the innkeeper got to watch his customers linger to listen and dance to her performance. The longer they stayed, the more drinks they bought, and the more money the innkeeper made.
Some of the men tried to buy her drinks too, and her lute case had a smattering of coins in it to boot. A good day for a young bard, indeed! The only downside was the locals only really loved a handful of songs, so she ended up singing the same folktales over and over again. Great for them, mind-numbingly boring for her. At least it freed up her mind for actually observing her audience. There were some guys with cards that had been gambling at one of the tables all evening, but they didn't seem to be attracting a lot of attention.
She didn't know a lot about gambling, to be honest. Sure, she found that a lot of inn common rooms had at least a few games of cards or dice going on, some people just liked to risk their coin for a chance to gain a lot. Elysia figured coin in the hand was worth more than potential coin, so she played and minded her own business anytime she encountered gamblers. Today wouldn't have been any different, except the merry mood in the room changed abruptly when a fist loudly struck a table and the word cheater rang out.
Her fingers faltered on the notes as she stopped singing and turned to look with everyone else at the table of men. Elysia had no idea if the guy was cheating or if the accuser was just a sore loser, but either way an angry crowd was not a good thing. Bad for business and bad for your health too, if you were the one about to get your face smashed in, which kind of looked like what would happen to the poor guy that had been accused of cheating.
Now, if one were to listen to logic and reason, one would stay out of it. Except Elysia was a bit more impulsive than reasonable, and she hated to see someone get the tar beat out of them. Violence was seriously not her thing! Hopping down from her seat, the little bard hurriedly interjected herself into the middle of the mess. "Hey now, let's not get all riled up over a handful of coins. Why don't you let me buy you a drink there big fella and we can all cool off and go back to having a good time, right? You know, singing and dancing and nobody fighting!"
Sometimes, Herrick thought he was just too damn good at cards for his own good. He'd played them with the best and worst, at smuggler hideouts hidden in Thanati caves and Essyrni gambling dens with more luxury per square foot than most castles. In all his years of thievery and skullduggery, the one thing that had remained constant was that you never quite knew what the average, everyday man will do during a game of cards.
Smugglers will try to cheat, Essyrni hosts will try to hawk as much of your losses into their pockets as possible while keeping things civilized, and apparently, the surly brute in front of him preferred to try and recover his losses via accusation.
Not a bad strategy at all, and with Herrick, there was always a decent chance the accusation could be correct.
Before Herrick could defend himself, none other than the bard herself stepped in to try and prevent the man from attempting to beat Herrick's face in. In actuality, all this truly accomplished was turning his rage from Herrick to her.
"What, are you colluding with him? Huh?"
From the bellow in his voice and the red on his face, it'd be plain to see that the man was belligerently drunk. Herrick didn't quite appreciate the tone he had with her, and he stood up. He slugged the man in the face, and he stumbled away from Elysia and caught himself against a table.
"Oi! That's my mate!"
Someone grabbed Herrick's shoulder and wheeled him about, clocking him in the face. Similarly, he stumbled backwards and into Elysia.
It certainly wasn't the smartest decision she'd ever made, but Elysia hadn't even paused to consider that they would turn on her. All she wanted was to keep a fight from breaking out. When the red-faced drunk turned on her with his spittle spewing accusation she took a step back quickly, raising her hands defensively.
"Wha-?" How could they think she had anything to do with it? All she had done was sing and play her lute all day.
That was really all the thought she could muster on the matter, because it was about that time all hell seemed to break loose. So much for warding off a fight! Elysia squeaked when Herrick stood and punched the aggressive drunk right in the face. It was a heroic effort she made to scramble backwards out of the way, but all for naught.
Herrick was knocked backwards and right into her. Elysia was more than a foot shorter than him and probably weighed a hundred pounds.
Maybe.
It was a heck of a collision, one that sent her careening backwards, crashing into a table and taking it down with her when she grabbed it in an ill-fated (and failed) attempt not to fall completely down. Elysia yelped in pain when her hip smacked against the floor.
Herrick sort of went with Elysia. She was just small enough that she didn't really have all that much effect on his monentum, although Herrick managed to keep his footing. He glanced down at the fallen bard, and winced sympathetically.
"I'm sorry, I--"
He cut off to duck a swing, and around them, a bar fight erupted. Some people were just looking for an excuse, others were drunk enough to misunderstand the situation and stood up to fight.
He countered and tossed the man who swung at him over his hip, sending him crashing through a table. He ducked down to offer Elysia a hand.
"--Can't stand it when a guy muscles up to a lady. Need a hand?"
Elysia cursed softly under her breath, rubbing tenderly at the spot that had hit the hardwood that made up the inn floor. It hurt, and she'd probably earned herself a nice little bruise on her backside for her troubles, but she was pretty positive nothing was broken.
Her storm-grey eyes were still wide from surprise when she looked up at Herrick, who started to apologize to her, before a full blown brawl erupted around them.
This was so bad.
And probably a little bit her fault for sticking her nose in. Well, she was only trying to help! Now she had a bruised butt and she suddenly realized that she stank of ale. Probably because she was soaked, practically dripping with the reeking booze. Yuck. Must have been from the table she knocked over on herself.
Given that there was sort of a huge fight going on, Elysia had figured that the gambler this had all started with would probably be too busy to notice her anymore. She was a little surprised when he sent a guy flying right before turning back to her.
"Buh?" Yes, she was definitely an eloquent bard all right.
Her eyes widened a fraction when someone threw a chair at them. Well, they were probably throwing it at him, but still.
Herrick reacted just in time, grabbing Elysia by the shoulder and tugging her aside just as the chair went spinning past and smashed into someone else. The man who threw the chair was quickly accosted by someone else, and Herrick took the opportunity to haul Elysia up to her feet.
"Keep your head down," he said, and he did the same, keeping low so he didn't accidentally make eye contact with anybody who didn't already have someone to fight.
In a few tense moments, he'd slipped the both of them out of the door, and when he did so, he leaned against the wall next to it, and then glanced over to Elysia.
"You alright?"
Having a chair sail past her head, one that only missed because Herrick had pulled her out of the way, snapped Elysia out of her semi-shock. She scrambled to her feet, well, more like she was dragged to her feet, but she tried to do it herself.
Hunching her shoulders and ducking her head, Elysia let herself be led through the chaos and out the door. The middle of a drunken brawl really was no place for a bard like her. She hated violence.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Uh...thanks." Elysia blinked over at him sheepishly. Honestly between the accusation and him attempting to help her, she'd really not taken the time to really look at him. She had to look up. Way up. God she hated being so short. "Sorry, I was trying to help but I think I just made a bigger mess of things."
Herrick chuckled at her words.
"Honestly, I don't think you changed that much," Herrick said, nonchalantly ignoring the sounds of chaos coming from within.
"I get the feeling he was going to get aggressive anyways. Would've had the same result."
He looked at Elysia, and his smirk dissipated slightly.
"Shame about the tavern. What say you and me go to another?"
"You think so?" Well if she hadn't made matters worse then Elysia figured she didn't have much to feel bad about. It made sense, wouldn't be the first time she witnessed drunk fools itching for a fight ignite an entire room into total anarchy.
If anything she felt bad for the owner of the building. He was going to have one hell of a mess to clean up.
"Really? That one wasn't enough for ya?" Some of her things were still inside, and the innkeeper owed her room and board - Elysia had been performing for hours already! She winced as the sounds of something breaking reached past the door. Well...maybe it would be better to come back later after things had settled back down. "You buying? My money's still inside and I ain't going after it."
It'd be gone by the time she got back. No doubt.
"Buying's the least I could do," Herrick said, and he put one of his hands in his pocket.
"I know a nice place just down the street."
"Might as well, it'll be a while before I can go back in there." Elysia gestured at the door, making a face. Yeah, in a few hours when everyone had cooled their tempers she could go get her stuff sorted. Until then there wasn't anything better to do.
"Oh yeah," she started, shaking her head with a laugh as she thrust her hand out towards him, "Name's Elysia."
"Herrick," he said, and he gave her hand a friendly shake.
"You been playing long?"
"Playing, singing, dancing, juggling, so on and so forth for as long as I could crawl," she grinned, shaking his hand before pulling away and stepping into the street, "Of course only been doing it professionally for a few years, but my family said I always had a flare for theatrics. Did you like the show?"
Surely he'd listened to at least some of her performance between all that gambling. She did love feedback. It was the only way to get better, and she so wanted to be the very best.
"Oh, it was lovely," Herrick said, smiling warmly.
"I've been all over the continents and Thanatos and yours is a rare kind of music," he continued.
"Now you're just trying to butter me up for something." Elysia accused him with a teasing waggle of her finger and a cheeky grin. "But thanks, glad you liked it. Even if it was mostly just little folksy tunes. That's what they like around here."
"What? It's the truth," Herrick said, returning her finger waggle with a slight grin.
"I thought the tunes were nice. There's a time for a drinking song and a time for a serenade."
"Well I wasn't expecting to do any opera or something, but I know a lot more little tavern tunes from all over the place. They only wanted to hear, like, the same six! Small little towns, I guess." Elysia shrugged her shoulders.
She ran both hands through her hair, mussing it into a little pixie mess and tossing him another grin. "Sooo, Herrick, what about you? Make a habit of rescuing damsels in distress?"
Herrick laughed.
"I like to help out where I can," he said.
"I don't think "trampled by fighting bar patrons" is a good look for you."
"Hey now, I think I could pull off just about any look if I tried hard enough! Although yeah, trampled doesn't sound fun to work with." Elysia chuckled, shaking her head slightly, but there was a skip in her step. "So what brings you too...whatever the name of this little town is?"
Herrick chuckled, picturing Elysia trying to pull off "disheveled and roughed up" as a legitimate look.
"Just passing through, actually," Herrick said, and he stretched out a bit, taking a deep breath of the cool night air.
"Yeah, I'm always just passing through." Elysia tilted her head, looking at him with pursed lips. "So if you're just passing through is there somewhere in particular you're headed?"
"Yup. Heading to the coast," he said. After a few more moments, they were coming up on the other inn, which looked considerably tamer and more reputable than the one she'd been playing at prior.
"And you?"
"I'm a bard, I go where my whims take me." Elysia could head in any direction she wanted from here, it really didn't matter too much. There were people any way she went and people meant money.
She spotted the inn and practically bounced up the steps. It was a nice place, but that's why she hadn't been here before. The better the inn the more expensive it was. Sure, the people inside probably would have tipped better, but she doubted the owner would have let her have room and board in exchange for her performing for a few hours.
Herrick followed her up the steps.
"We're not too different," he said as he walked to the door and pushed it open for her.
"I can make money most places I go. Sticking to one place's never really sounded like a good idea to me."
"Nothing wrong with staying in one place, if that's what you want to do. I just never thought it sounded like all that much fun." Elysia ducked past him into the building, looking around curiously.
"Although something tells me we don't make money the same way. You don't strike me as the guy to be sitting at the center of attention strumming a lute and singing a tune." She bit her lip and hesitated just inside, not sure exactly where to go.
Herrick smirked.
"You're right," he said as she walked past him. He came in behind her and gave her shoulder a pat, walking past her and motioning to follow as he headed for the bar.
The inside of this inn was nicer than the other place in pretty much every single sense of the word. Better looking clientele, an actual bar, and tables that didn't look like they were assembled from a carpenter's surplus wood.
Elysia had been in nice places before, but really, the other one hadn't been so bad. Okay, it was pretty shambly in comparison to here, but beggers and choosers and all that.
"I bet the ale in this place doesn't taste like watered down piss..." She muttered, following him to the bar and hopping onto a stool to make herself comfortable. "Why were you over on the shady side of town if you could have come here to begin with?"
Herrick set himself down on the stool next to her, and turned to face her.
"Call it a mix of humility and a job requirement," Herrick said.
"I like to keep my ear to the ground."
"Humble and a hero?" Elysia chuckled.
She put her chin in her hand, elbow resting on the bar as she studied him. "So what kind of job requires you to gamble with drunken low-life guys eager to start a fight?"
"I'm... an adventurer of sorts," Herrick said, and he looked about ready to say something else when the bartender approached, an expectant look on his face.
"I'll take some stout," Herrick said, and he looked to Elysia.
"That's a broad term. I'm an adventurer too." Elysia pointed out with a grin, but she perked up as the bartender appeared to take their orders. "I'll have what he's having, please."
Alcohol was alcohol to her, really.
Herrick grinned at her words.
"I go into dangerous places and come out with valuables. It's like..."
He rotated his wrist a bit as he searched for words.
"Reclamation. Bringing things back out to the people. For a nominal fee, of course."
"Oh yeah, of course. Can't go putting yourself into dangerous places for free." It was hard to say if she was being sarcastic or not.
"So is that what you're doing here, then? Doesn't seem like there'd be too many super dangerous places around here. Except maybe the place we just came from." Elysia made a face, something between distaste and scowl. "All my money will be gone. I'll be lucky if any of my stuff's still there when I go back."
Herrick frowned slightly at her words, and the distaste in her words rang with him. He frowned slightly as well, and put a hand on the counter in front of her.
"I'm sorry about that, I feel terrible breaking up your night like that," Herrick said, giving her a sympathetic look.
"I know the feeling."
Their drinks arrived, and Herrick's expression perked up a bit, and he pulled his flagon a bit closer.
"You're gonna let me pay you back, right?"
"Well I wouldn't exactly say that you broke it up." He'd been accused of cheating, but whether it was true or not didn't make much of a difference. It was the other guy that had started the fight that ran them out.
"Pay me back?" Elysia questioned as she brought her drink up to take a swig, making a quick face at the burning sensation. "For what?"
"For your stuff, you're probably gonna lose it," Herrick said, giving her a weak smile. He sighed, and his usual expression returned.
"I know it was the other guy who started it, but I threw the first punch, I feel partially responsible."
He looked to her, and sipped his drink.
"Didn'l like the way he was moving up on you."
"I'm a tiny girl travelling alone across the world. How many times do you think I've lost my stuff? It isn't your fault, so try not to feel bad." Elysia reached over to pat his arm gently.
"Yeah, well if he'd have touched me he'd have regretted it." She sighed, taking another sip of her drink. This time she didn't make a face.
Herrick's eyebrow cocked up a bit, but he made no mention of it. He took a healthy swig, letting himself loosen up a bit more.
He looked to her, and his characteristic grin returned.
"How long you been playing for?"
"Since I could hold an instrument. As a way of life, about two years now. I think. It's all I've ever wanted to do. See all the places I could, collect all the stories, meet as many people as possible, and become a famous bard. If I do that, maybe I could even perform for the Queen herself!" Elysia beamed at the very prospect, before taking another drink.
"Well, if you can pluck strings like you say you can, I'd say that you can definitely do it," Herrick said, giving her an encouraging nod before he swigged some more.
[Not sure if you saw my return thread, but I'm posting again. If you want to drop this thread I understand and you can just not reply anymore.]
"Yep, I figure if I get a few more years of experience under my belt I can build up enough of a reputation to gain an audience with the Queen. I don't know if all bards have that kinda goal, but I think it would be a pretty big achievement." Not every bard could brag that they got to perform for royalty, and Elysia definitely liked the idea of all kinds of bragging rights.
"Played for any noble courts?" came his next question, and by this point he'd turned to face the small, energetic woman, taking a moment to study her with a quick scan of his eyes.
Gods above, she really was small! And cute, too...
"I wouldn't be surprised, you look like you've been all over the place," he said, noting her interesting fashion sense with a point of his finger.
"I've played for some nobility, yeah. Just a couple of the less grand parties, mind you, but it was still pretty great." Talking about what she did, it was pretty clear how passionate Elysia was about her performances by the way her eyes lit up and the excited tilt to her voice.
"I have been all over Serendipity, and some of Adela too. I want to see and perform everywhere someday." An ambitious goal, but she was certainly driven to try.
"It's a pretty world out there. Thanatos, Essyrn, I've been around," Herrick said.
"Not a stranger to the courts of nobles either," he added, although the left out the part where he was in the houses of nobles because he was robbing them.
He smiled, and leaned on the counter before.
"I've been inside the Shah's palace."
Well that got her attention.
"The Shah's palace? No way! Seriously? What was it like?" Elysia leaned towards him, stormy eyes wide and absolutely enthralled. Her ultimate goal was to perform for the Queen herself, but performing in the palace of foreign royalty would also give her major bragging rights.
"You're not lying? Not just trying to impress a pretty girl?" It wouldn't be the first time she'd listened enraptured to a tall tale.
"Oh, I may be trying to impress a pretty girl, but I speak the truth," Herrick said, giving her a grin.
"The stones are polished. Marble columns, velvet tapestries. All the ceilings were so tall and domed, it took my breath away to stand there," Herrick said.
"When I was there, the Shah was a big fan of art, so there's statues and paintings everywhere, even in the bathing hall and the stables. The wealth was staggering."
Elysia flashed her own grin at Herrick, for his honesty.
"That sounds amazing, and beautiful. I'd like to see it one day," Elysia sighed wistfully.
"I wouldn't mind going back. Last time I was there, I was in a bit of a rush," he admitted, stroking the back of his head.
"And the city around it's interesting too. I spent more time than I want to admit in hookah dens."
"Oh yeah? I've heard tons of stories about Essyrn. I really want to go there, but I have a feeling I'd burn quite a lot." Elysia gestured to her very fair complexion.
"What are the hookah dens like?"
"Well, it's the same concept as a tavern," Herrick said, and he scooted his seat over closer to hers and put his back against the bar, looking out across the inn.
"They keep 'em dimmer, and instead of a bar they have lots of tables with plenty of seating space. The hookahs are these tall pipes on the table that have smaller pipes connected by tubes," he explained, and took a deep drink of his stout.
They didn't water it down here, so he could feel a buzz coming on.
"People share tables or groups take 'em up and they pay for the tobacco or other stuff to put in the pipe and smoke. Lotta those places also got booze and food," he said.
He looked over to Elysia.
Elysia listened and sipped her drink while he explained the hookah dens.
"Sounds like an experience, when I manage to get to Essyrn I'll have to try one out, just so I can say that I have been to one," Elysia smirked, looking over at him as the alcohol warmed her pleasantly.
"I like doing things just so I have a new interesting story to tell."
"Really now?" Herrick said, and he turned back to her.
"I've just recently been there a couple weeks ago. If you want to try smoking something I brought some of that stuff back, but it's not tobacco," Herrick said, setting a couple of golden coins on the counter to get a refill on his drink.
"Apothecary who sold it to me says it's an herb."
"Oh yeah, you can't be a good bard without a sense of adventure," Elysia chuckled, still drinking slowly from her first drink. She wasn't a big person, so it didn't take a lot before she started feeling it.
"I'll try anything once, if you're sure you want to share some of this herb of yours. What's it supposed to do that's different from tobacco? There's got to be a reason people smoke it," she hummed, setting down her mostly empty drink.
"It's not that crazy of a thing, the Essyrnis grow it locally," Herrick said, receiving his next drink and downing a sip. Herrick had the opposite problem, he was a big man with a strong liver, and thus needed more than her to start feeling right.
"But if you smoke it, you'll feel like you're drunk. I had some over there and liked it so much I bought enough to bring back. He even sold me some dried tobacco leaves to roll it up in," he explained, and he studied her.
"So we could do that, if you're feeling adventurous," he added with a teasing sort of grin.
"Makes you feel drunk?" Elysia questioned, quirking a brow as she glanced at her drink.
"So if one drink at the bar makes me start feeling warm and fuzzy, then we go smoke some of this herb of yours, I might be more than a bit tipsy," she mused softly, considering.
"I'm curious enough to try it, but I'm not sure I want to just be wasted with no assurances that I won't be passed out on the street later, you know?" Elysia gave him a questioning look.
"I give you my word as a gentleman that if you pass out, I'll put you in a room at this very inn," Herrick said.
"I'll pay for your breakfast and everything. It's the least I could do after breaking up your previous gig."
"Well aren't you generous?" Elysia said with a soft laugh at the offer.
"I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, as they say. My brothers think as a young woman traveling alone I shouldn't be so trusting of strangers, but let's have an adventure," she smirked before picking up her cup and finishing the last of her drink.
"To adventure," he said simply and he guzzled a good bit of his new drink. Giving his head a little shake, he shot her a smile and left some more coins on the bar to pay for their drinks.
"Funny enough, all my things're in the place we skipped out of," Herrick said.
"So you can grab your stuff while we're there."
"Oh yeah? Well hopefully things have settled down over there, and hopefully my stuff is still there. I wouldn't be surprised if it was stolen while we were gone, though." Elysia hopped off her stool with a sigh.
"Are we going to smoke over there? Seems odd you'd promise to put me up here if I pass out over there. Seems like just leaving me over there would be easier." Or smoking here.
"It's not that far of a walk," Herrick shrugged.
"It's not like I was planning to go here anyways, either. This is just the first inn that came to mind when the first one got a little too heated for me," he added. He finished his drink and stepped off his stool. He walked ahead of her, glancing back.
Now that she saw him from behind, she'd notice that he wore a rather large pistol on his rear-hip. The barrel was the size of a forearm! Just as quickly as she'd seen it, he turned about, walking backwards out of the inn as he spoke to her.
"We could come back here and smoke up one of the nice rooms. I think that'd be fun," he said with a cheesy grin."
"Nah, not far, unless you're fall down drunk or high," Elysia thought any walk was a lot father when in that condition.
The petite bard did notice the pistol as Herrick turned his back to her for a few moments, but aside from giving it a confused and bit of a wide-eyed looks, she didn't comment. Firearms weren't exactly common, she had never actually seen one before.
"A nicer room would make a nicer time, probably, but since you're the generous one I'm gonna go with whatever you pick, seems the polite thing to do."
They stepped out into the night air.
"Nice room it is. Probably not a good idea to stay in a place I started a fight in, anyways," he said. He gave his short stubble a stroke and glanced up to the stars before returning his eyes to his drinking buddy for the night.
"So, where're you travelling to?" he finally asked.
"Yeah, maybe not the best idea to stay there, shame about the work I put in there, though. Ah well, that's how the dice roll sometimes." Elysia had performed for hours, and now a lot of that work was probably for nothing.
"Anywhere, really. I don't usually plan too far ahead. Even if I try, my plans usually crumble kind of fast," Elysia chuckled at herself as she walked beside him.
"I am a beacon of trouble, I think. How about you?"
Herrick chuckled.
"I get in so much trouble, I've done a lot of crazy shit over the years," he said. Already, the inn they came from was in sight. It seemed like things had calmed down, if only in the sense that
"Now that's some stories you can tell right there."
He looked to her, almost sizing her up.
"And you, are you usually a lone wolf?"
"Oh yeah, I will definitely be telling about the time I accidentally started a bar brawl and got saved by the dashing hero who bought me a drink. I am totally spinning it with a win angle," Elysia grinned as she bounded towards the door, only pausing to turn when he asked a question.
"A lone wolf? Yeah, I guess. I usually travel by myself, most bards do, I think."
"Dashing hero. Gotta like the sound of that. Just don't keep the part where I took a chair to the back," Herrick said with a short chuckle.
As they stepped up the porch stairs to the first tavern of the night, Herrick opened the door for her, only to look inside and go tense.
It seemed the fight had gotten broken up by the city guard, of all people. It looked like a couple of patrolling guards had noticed the commotion and arrived to sort the rowdy folks out.
Bad news for Herrick, good news for Elysia, as the presence of guards might've turned off potential thieves from her things. Still, he played it cool, walking up to the innkeep and settling his tab from before, for which the man was grateful.
He turned to Elysia.
"I'll be right back, stick around here for a moment."
He went up to get his bag and rapier from his room.
"Aw, but that is a great part! You were protecting me and all," Elysia chirped with a cheeky grin as she slipped past him inside as he held the door. The bard nodded to the guards with a smile.
They headed for the innkeeper and she turned to him when he told her to wait. "Yeah, sure thing."
While he was gone she chatted with the innkeep about her things and her payment for what she had done earlier. Since she no longer needed the room, he agreed to pay her a small amount of coin instead, plus her belongings had been put behind the bar safe and sound after the guards broke up the brawl.
It really was turning into a winning adventure.
Within a few minutes, Herrick was coming down. He wore a fine looking rucksack and had changed from his red tunic to a buttoned brown shirt, as the previous had stains from the bar brawl.
"You got your stuff back!" He noted, walking up to pat her elbow.
"Lucky you."
He settled up his dues with the innkeeper and approached her once again.
"All ready to go?"
"Yeah, really lucky. The thieves get a bit nervous when the guards show up, only reason I got me stuff back, and I got paid!" Elysia was extra pleased with the outcome.
"Born ready, let's get this adventure started," she chuckled and headed for the door with a bit of pep in her step.
"Let's blow this place," Herrick said, striding back out into the night, losing some tension once he wasn't in the same room as city guards. That, and he seemed much more comfortable on a moonlight street than in a well-lit tavern.
"You play any other instruments?" Herrick asked, curious to learn more about his companion for the night.
Elysia seemed equally comfortable in either environment, the tavern and the night time street were both met with a grin and mischievous twinkle in her eye.
"Well other than my lute, I have a flute and pan flute. The lute is the most popular, though." Elysia patted her bag, where the other two instruments rested in their cases. The lute was larger so that case was slung over her shoulder.
"How about you? I guess it probably isn't something most adventurers find useful, but instruments and music are fun," she smile at him as they walked.
"I don't own any, let me preface with that," He said, looking at her sidelong.
"But my singing voice isn't bad, and I know how to play the violin. Learned when I was still a kid," he added, smiling a bit more at her.
"You were really good. Are you self-taught?"
"A violin? Now there's a fancy instrument. I wish I knew how to play one," Elysia hummed softly, eyeing Herrick out of the corner of her eye.
"I would say more self-started than strictly self-taught. My da got me the pan's flute when I was very little and I loved making noise with it. Eventually I learned how to combine notes into something pretty, but whenever traveling musicians would come through the city I would beg 'em to teach me something new. A lot of them taught me new songs, both to play and to sing."
Herrick nodded as she spoke, and then chuckled at her heartwarming little story.
"Well if you want to learn, maybe I'll teach you," Herrick said, and followed that up with a chuckle.
"I ended up liking it but I didn't have much of a say. My father was insistent that I learn because it's what "proper gentlemen sharpen their minds with"", he continued. Then, he looked back to her.
"I was terrible with it then but I'm decent with it nowadays."
"So that proper gentleman bit, are you from a upper class family or something? Roving adventurer seems like an odd job choice for a guy from money," she quickly shook her head.
"Well if a proper gentleman was gonna teach me to play we might need a violin and more than one inebriated night to manage it," Elysia chuckled as she shot him a smirk.
"Son of an Adelan general," Herrick said, and his face seemed to fall for a bit.
"But, uh... I left. And I'm sure I've been disowned." He put his hands on the back of his head as they walked.
"But I do have a violin in this bag. So all we need are a few more drunken nights," he said. His joy returned to him and he eyed her almost identically to how she eyed him.
Elysia raised her eyebrows at the idea of him being the son of an Adelan general, but made no actual comment on it.
"Well maybe if this night goes good a few more wouldn't be a terrible idea," she laughed softly.
That earned her a smile, and he didn't say much else as he stepped back up to the entrance of the fancy tavern. He opened the door for her, motioning for her to enter.
"And what about your destination? You got a place in mind or are you just traveling about Serendipity?"