The Throwback Mountains

[ladyhawkca]

"I'm not broke, you dolt," Freya hissed quietly, holding her tongue seconds later as the pair reached the guards. Freya also kept her head bowed and face semi-covered until they were out of earshot of the guards.

"Here," she said as she discreetly placed a few coins in Axindr's hand. "I may be a stick witch, but I'm not a completely broke stick witch," she huffed, her pride had taken a fair share of a beating lately. 

"So, what now?" she asked while keeping close to Axindr to the point that anyone who saw them might think she was his servant or partner.

"Dinner, a place to stay?" she suggested as she looked around them warily.

[Max!!]

Axindr raised an eyebrow when he received the coins from Freya. If she was paying him back, he wasn't too worried about that. He had to remember to return it later. He looked around and then inhaled deeply. "Ah smell that filthy town air. Every town smells just a little different, and I can always tell by the smell."

He was grinning as he headed down the main street. An inn shouldn't be too difficult to find. "Yep, food and a bed are next. Why? We'll just get a room together if you're worried about anyone coming after you."

[ladyhawkca]

Freya wrinkled her nose. "This place smells odd...sort of like old fruit left out to rot and piss," she said as she immediately remembered that her town in Essyrn had smelled somewhat better than this... or at least it didn't smell like urine or old food she surmised.

"If you don't mind," Freya replied gratefully as she walked beside Axindr. "I won't abuse it. I promise. I just want to make sure those guys aren't coming back," she sighed as they made their way into an inn.

[Max!!]

"Yeah it's pretty bad," he agreed with her as they walked. He was scanning the buildings, a town inn would be a pretty distinct thing to spot. It wasn't too long before they found it.

"How would you abuse it? Just keep an eye out for anything suspicious while keeping your head down," and with that he adjusted his pack and headed into the inn. "Gods I hope they have some good job postings."

[ladyhawkca]

"I dunno," Freya said, trying for a nonchalant shrug as they took a seat at a table and ordered some mead and food.

"I was just assuming that maybe, you know, you might want to take someone to bed," she said blushing a little at this. She didn't know what Axindr was like, but most men in Essyrn liked sex and had it often, and in her experience, a lot of men were like that.

"I just didn't want to be in the way or cramp your style," she admitted as she lowered her hood, exposing her silvery red tresses.

[Max!!]

Axindr went ahead and ordered a lot of food, notably a lot of meat, and with great enthusiasm. He narrowed his eyes at his companion across the table. What did she take him for? Sure, he was no stranger to other members of his old group hitting brothels when they were in or near towns. His ears drooped a little. "No? why would I do that?" he asked indignantly.

The truth was he was never sure how to go about bedding a girl. Though he had come close on a few occasions, but didn't realize it until days after. This often led to teasing from the others. He huffed, and started angrily distracting himself with food when it was finally served. Then he stopped and looked around for a moment. Were there eyes on them? It sure felt like there were, the people that Freya was trying to avoid maybe? Then he spotted a job board.

"I'll be back in a minute. Guard my meat, and yell if someone makes a move on you," then he stood up and headed over to see about any worthwhile postings.

@Kada

[ladyhawkca]

Freya had very obviously offended Axindr with her question about sex and that surprised her greatly. She had thought bedding a woman was easy and something every man did. Lords knew her uncle did it and quite frequently... even bragged about it.

Sighing, Freya just nodded and waved Axindr away with a, "I'll be fine. Go do your thing." 

She then picked up two smaller pieces of meat and placed them on her trencher and began to pick at them with the dagger Axindr had given her.

@Kada

[Kadakism]

Axindr wasn't the only one checking out the job board. Rowan had been standing there, trying to make sense of the jobs that were being offered based on the very limited reading ability that she had. Too embarrassed to let herself ask for help but too stubborn to just give up. She needed to do something. She needed money to keep following Bobby, and more importantly she needed to make a name for herself so that the next time they met...

She honestly didn't know what the step after that would be.

Sensing movement to her right, Rowan shifted over slightly to make room and glanced Axindr's way. Then did a double take because he was definitely not like anyone she had seen before. She found herself staring more than she meant to.

[Max!!]

What was with these strange women today? For the first couple seconds, he was making an attempt to just ignore the fact that this girl was looking at him and not the board. He was used to people staring at him to some degree, but when it was this close it was just weird.

"Can I help you?" he asked, still not taking his eyes off the board. He was particularly looking at a request to take care of a troll that had taken up residence a little further out of the town. It was, as one would assume becoming bad for business.

[Kadakism]

Rowan averted her eyes, not sorry that she had been staring but more so that she had been caught. She focused on the board, frowning once again as she honed in on a word too large and hard to pronounce. So she scanned a bit lower and found one that she could at least sound out.

"I don't know if you can or not," she said, not quite getting the accusatory tone in his voice. "Though perhaps you know this word? High Way Men?" She pointed at the poster, breaking the word down into its component parts.

He had to be looking for a job as well. If he had meant to put a job up, he would have just nailed it to the board and left. Probably. Rowan actually had no way of knowing that. Either way, she adjusted the pack slung across her shoulder awkwardly and waited.

[Max!!]

His eyes focused on the poster this new girl was looking at. She clearly wasn't the best at reading, but that wasn't something to be held against a person. Plenty of people couldn't read, and she was still a notch better off than some. "Yeah that's right, highwaymen. You know, robbers. Jump travellers and the like."

He frowned then looked at Rowan. She didn't really look like much as far as he could tell. Definitely new at this. He couldn't in good conscience just leave her be. "The reward money for that one isn't too bad either. I'm assuming you're not just staring at this thing to further your reading abilities. Is it a job you'd be interested in taking?"

[Kadakism]

Rowan lowered her hand, balling it into a fist. She chewed on the inside of her cheek, considering the definition given to her by this... demonic looking man. She nodded once. "I need money, yes. Though this seems like... difficult work for a single person."

She certainly couldn't capture what she assumed were several grown men all by herself. Maybe if she got the element of surprise, but it seemed like that was their specialty so it would be hard for her to do.

"You are also looking to work?"

[Max!!]

"Yeah, this is kinda what I do because I am good at it. I don't know what kind of skills you have, but I wouldn't go alone regardless. Wrangling a gang of spineless cowards can be a real pain in the ass. Trust me."

Axindr's tail wiggled a bit as he wrapped it around him so he wouldn't take up as much room. "Well, since we're both after the same thing we might as well help each other out. Although chances are we'd be splitting the reward three ways," he said gesturing back to where Freya was seated.

[ladyhawkca]

Meanwhile...

As she was eating, Freya couldn't help but notice Axindr and whomever the new girl was that he was chatting with. She was cute Freya had to admit and began to wonder if... despite what he had told her and made it seem, that he was actually trying to pick the girl up...

Though before she could speculate more on this turn of events she heard a sudden and very loud roar of men laughing and swearing

Turning her head towards the noise, Freya went pale when she saw that some of the men she had had her encounter with had just entered the tavern part of the inn. Pulling her hood up around her head, Freya sunk down into her seat, ready to bolt if they suddenly noticed her.

[Kadakism]

"That sounds..." Rowan took a look at the paper again, squinting at the numbers. She wasn't... great at math. But she imagined that the money would still be fine, even if she had to share it with two others. And besides, stopping these high way men would be good for her reputation. Right?

"That sounds fine," she said, restarting her sentence as she looked back over at Freya. "She is your companion? Would she be alright with this, splitting the reward?"

[Max!!]

Axindr shrugged, he wasn't actually sure how Freya would react to this new job. He did only just meet her earlier that day. "I dunno, I met her on the side of the road. Tried to hit me with a stick. I'm pretty sure she'd be alright with it, we just need to talk..."

His voice trailed off as he noticed her draw up her hood and put her head down. "There's also some guys after her or something. Should be fine though."

He sort of looked at Rowan and gestured for her to follow him to their table. "What's up with you?" he asked as he slid back into his seat.

[Kadakism]

Rowan did as she was told, sliding back to the table with Axindr and taking a seat not too close to either of them. She took a brief look at the meat that they had ordered, but figured that it would be rude to ask for some.

She wasn't sure how to kick things off with Freya, the girl trying to hide under her hood. In Rowan's opinion at least, it just made her more conspicuous. So she opted for the most basic thing she figured she could say. Neutral, unimposing but not too friendly either. She didn't know these people. For all she knew, they were also high way men.

"Hello."

[ladyhawkca]

Hearing a voice addressing her, Freya glanced up from under her cloak hood, relieved to see it was Axindr and not somebody else less welcome.

"Not much... I'm just trying not to call attention to myself hopefully," Freya admitted as she sat up, her hood still covering her head while she tucked her telltale red silvery hair behind her ears not wanting to give herself away.

"The merry men of mayhem are back," she said quietly as she glanced at a table across the room where a group of men were making loud, drunk and very lewd comments at any woman that walked by, their waitress included.

Noticing then Rowan, Freya nodded, said "Hi" and then looked at Axindr curiously for an explanation. 

[Max!!]

Axindr nodded as his eyes slid over to the group of men. Every town seemed to have one. He just rolled his eyes and proceeded to ignore them. As long as they didn't make themselves his problem, he would let them be. He had other things to discuss for the moment. "Just don't look at em... idiots," he sighed.

"At any rate there's a job to take care of some highwaymen. The reward's not bad, and we could split it three ways. Are you interested?" he asked Freya.

"Oh right, I'm Axindr, dragon for hire," he introduced himself to Rowan.

[ladyhawkca]

"You want to what? ...Attack highwaymen?" Freya remarked incredulously and in a hushed whisper as she looked between Axindr and the new girl, Rowan, in disbelief. Not sure whether both of them were serious, joking, or quite simply off their rockers.

*Are you two nuts? We could all be killed," she added as her violet gaze strayed to Rowan, who, in her opinion, looked about as capable as herself in dealing with such dangerous types. Not very.