Segari had a wonderful beard. Facial hair wasn't uncommon in elves by any sense of the word, but they tended to be thin, sleek things, as soft in feel as the hair on an elf's head, and with barely a curl to the ends if there were any at all. But Segari's beard was massive, and thick, and full of the soft coils that seemed to be most prevalent in the Southern folk's kind. Ana was overtaken with a weird, wild impulse to ask to touch it— and he found he rather liked the idea of putting braids against Segari's chin.
But then again, he'd always been a very curious sort, and so the impulse was treated just so— as an impulse and nothing more. After all, he was soon overtaken by another impulse to take those great hands in his own and see just how much larger they genuinely were. How had he missed folks like Segari in all the time they had travelled? In all the passing interactions with the Hyoite people in their nomadic paths? The Starstriders had been isolated, sure, but was Segari's sort so rare that it had been hundreds of years before Ana had ever met one?
Or was Segari the only of his kind? That was a sobering thought, and suddenly measuring hands didn't seem so good an idea. What if that just reminded the man of his loneliness? Ana's hearts gave a small shudder in sympathy. Loneliness he understood only too well; he felt it keenly, day after day, with each incomplete sunrise to each unfulfilled sunset and all the cloudy and starlit moments in between. At least Anastolyr had his family, the rest of his kind, his fellow companions.
Segari hadn't mentioned anything of the sort for himself.
Ana's eyes dropped to Segari's hands again, where they were moving as if to draw a map all their own, and Ana had a wonderful, amusing thought about those large, rough knuckles being mountains in their own right. He listened, head tilted to where the shaved side was aimed closer to Segari, eyes following each motion as he followed the map in his head. His face split into open delight at the little finger wiggles that marked Segari's home, and Ana pulled on his own memories of those mountains to help color the portrait of how Segari had once lived. It would have had to be a solid place, to be so isolated, and large to accommodate Segari himself. But Ana couldn't help but find the idea of a tiny (by the giant's standards) cabin high in the snowtops. It suited him.
"No, no, I understood," he said, quietly, when Segari seemed a bit embarrassed by his own explanation. And that was the point, to be understood. Pretty words that meant nothing were worth far less than short, clumsy ones that spoke true. Ana didn't have time to explain this, though, as that moment brought their serving woman soon after, and everything else followed so quickly that at first Ana was struck dumb as if he had been the one to be slapped.
Another wild impulse took Ana then, one that was far uglier than reaching across the table to braid a man's beard. Far uglier and full of far more heat than Ana might have thought himself capable of. Even when Valys had had to be dragged back drunk to their quarters by none other than the Regent of Adela himself, Ana had not been this angry. Eyes narrowed and pearly fangs bared in a raw smile, Ana forgot about being a guest in this country. He forgot about appearances, he forgot about manners, about cultural exchange and about diplomacy. His words left him in a rush, and he didn't even have a chance to consider them before they were out in the air, crackling like static from rubbing against too much wool.
"Perhaps you might ask yourself exactly why that's the first thing you draw as your conclusion before accusing others of wrongdoing. Perhaps also you might consider that two obvious foreigners in your place of business might not be overly familiar with what you serve here. Perhaps also, if you do indeed have the wits to string two correlative thoughts together, that I as a non-human, may have specific needs. Perhaps, if you might care to notice anything outside of your own person, I cannot chew bread, and would indeed also prefer something large, freshly cooked, and made of meat. But, of course, if you are insistent upon being an utter fool, I would make it abundantly clear, here and now, that I would not wish to see up your skirts if it would save my life."
Ana drew a deep breath, closed his lips, and gave the woman a painfully sweet smile. "Would you still like to throw us out? I'll be sure to tell my other visiting compatriots that our kind will not be welcome."