Melodious Tourney

[Lion]

It was such a rarity for Taladan to be giving a performance as sober as he was in a crowd as rowdy as this one.  But they were delightfully cheerful in their reception and roared for more while he stood upon the creaking crate that had served as his stage for the past three and a half hours.  He was a tired bard and his throat was starting to itch, but it was all in a day's work for a traveling bard.  He couldn't complain that the citizens of La'marri were not generous in their payment of him.  His words were only interrupted here and there by the various clangs of coins being tossed into the basket at his feet.

The only instrument other than his voice was the old, battered mandolin in his arms that he didn't mind borrowing from the blind beggar in the alley behind him for a few coins of his earnings.  Another sign of the generous heart there was to find here.  Taladan was amazed as his song came to an end, that he hadn't come here sooner in his travels.  He normally stuck to the east where the roads were more easily accessible, but generally had no desire to cross the mountains into the Niahi and to this hamlet that received him rather well.  The crowd was jovial and this was turning out to be quite a good business day.

Taladan plucked several notes in succession, giving his voice a rest for a moment, closing his eyes as he let the music move through him.  Yes a good day for business, indeed.  Wait a minute...what the hell!  Could his ears be deceiving him?  As he plucked the introduction for, "The Night of the Webspinner" ballad, he heard another voice picking up far from the back of the crowd, coinciding with the very song that he strummed.  The audience he so skillfully nursed to empty their purses began to thin and stem over to this other bard!  Taladan stopped playing and his browed dashed together, infuriated.  Who the hell did this person think they were?!

[Anonymous]

La'marri was generally a quiet town, but not this quiet. Suzume glanced around apprehensively at the nearly-empty portion of village. It was probably just coincidence, but her avian side didn't like silence, and the place was eerily still. Her pragmatic side was just irritated; if there was no one around, then she wouldn't be able to earn any money, meaning she would have to hunt for food tonight. Where was everyone? She knew a few people from La'marri, and they knew she tended to visit this time of year.

The opening bars of a ballad, accompanied by the general rumble of a large crowd, answered her questions. Suzume shook her head in annoyance; partly at the fact that her human shape couldn't use any of the body language her hawk shape could, and partly that someone had dared invade her territory.

The hawk was getting into her thoughts again. Too much time in between towns... La'marri wasn't her territory. It wasn't anyone's territory. She didn't have a territory--that was a mammal instinct anyway, what was that doing there?

Of course, that didn't stop the impulses from being annoying, and Suzume was always up for a friendly bardic competition... as she slipped into the tavern unobtrusively, she recognized the first notes of "Night of the Webspinner". The shapeshifter grinned; a bawdy one she'd picked up in an Adelan establishment. She unstrapped the lap harp from her back, tuning it quickly, and took up the first first.

"Oh I once loved a beautiful lass
As pretty as any you'd find
But this girl was strange, it was easy to see
She had spinnerets on her behind."

The ballad continued in a similar manner for more verses than Suzume personally felt was necessary, but it was catchy, and from the looks on most of the patrons' faces one they hadn't heard before. She'd like to meet the bard who'd written the song, but that wasn't likely to happen anytime soon.

It took a couple of verses, but she began to win out, and people began turning around to listen to her own music. The woman grinned cheekily at the other bard between choruses. Your turn.

[Lion]

Taladan wasn't the kind to hold a grudge longer than necessary and the very fact that this woman had the gall to literally steal his performance made him grin a little as he knew then that she was blatantly challenging him.  At least she knew the song and could play well.  Imagine getting outplayed by an amateur, how embarrassing would that be.  Yet, if that ever happened, Taladan could only imagine that he was getting worse.  No one ever turned away while he performed before.

So, this is how you want to play, huh?  Fine, have it your way, he thought before readjusting his position and preparing for the next verse.  He smirked then began to sing himself, effectively drawing the crowd again back to him.

She ate men as easily as if they were swine
Downed them all in one big gulp
Drinking as if they were wine.

"With a spitter and spatter,
She crawled in a clatter,
Ensaring me in her web.
Lo and behold, I wasn't so bold.
But it was with me, that she'd be fed!"

If it was a bardic war she wanted, it was one that she would get.  And the crowd would determine who was the champion.