Elora took one look around the crowded tavern, smiled, and made a beeline for the bar. She boosted herself up onto a stool and held up a finger to the man serving drinks. He nodded, setting about getting her a mug, and she used the opportunity to take another, closer look around the room.
There was nothing quite like soldiers off duty. Personally, she thought it was because they were forced to be so regimented in the rest of their lives that when they got the chance to just be loose they were loose. She grinned to herself, ducking a little further into the hooded cloak that shadowed her face.
Her drink was slid in front of her and she took it, flipping a coin to the bartender before turning on her seat to observe the room again. I will be good, she reminded herself of the personal oath she'd taken when she'd gotten off duty earlier that day. I will have one drink, maybe chat a bit, and then I will return to my lodgings.
She was in the middle of repeating this mantra to herself when someone- a soldier who'd somehow already had more than he could handle- stumbled into her, spilling both of their drinks all over the two of them. She gave a rather undignified yelp and leaped to her feet. In an effort to spare the rest of her clothes, she quickly shucked her cloak, which had taken the brunt of the attack.
The soldier was slurring drunken apologies, but she waved him off with a smile. "No harm done," she assured him, brushing a the few locks of pale blond hair that had struggled free of her braid out of her face. No harm, yes, but they had caused a bit of a spectacle- his rather inebriated pleas for forgiveness weren't exactly quiet, and she knew her hair was eye catching in an Adelan crowd.
She sighed internally as eyes started to drift their way. So much for a quiet evening.