Dark Streets, Dark Thoughts

[Alegretto]

Ori's question made Phintil look off into the distance again. "I guess it was nice..." He mumbled in response. He was going to say more, but the commotion from within the shop distracted him. Enedith came out with his arm in a sling, which was a good sign. Phintil chose to ignore the sounds of a scuffle that had directly preceded his egress from the building.

He watched the byplay between Enedith and Ori with some interest. Their banter seemed heated, but the lizardman was pretty sure that it neither fully meant everything they said. Still, he came back to his standby, none of his bussiness.

Enedith's question about his lodging however, that was his bussiness. "I was going to find an inn to stay in, but if your offering, I'd gladly take a free room for the night." He laughed a little bit in his silent imitation of the human motion, "After all, free is always better, right?"

[Anadwen]

"Sure is." he nodded, and pointed at his pockets with his free hand. "Especially if you're broke!"
Ori chuckled at his joke, and followed him further through the complicated labyrinth of backstreets. They passed a few back gardens, even climbed through a pair of fences, till they stopped before a narrow entrance to a two story building, squeezed between two other of the same kind.

"We're here. It looks a little dull, but it's fine." Enedith assured the lizardman, and he was the one to initiate the entrance this time. He knocked onto the door loudly, and waited till it opens, gesturing for Phintil to step back a little. It opened soon, revealing the figure of a man, entirely hidden under several layers of coats and robes in green and black. The scruffy hair around his head had the color of hay, but he didn't appear much older than the two.

"Ah, come in you two. You're late... Pretty late, but as I see, you have an excuse, eh?" His eyes narrowed into slits as he grinned, and pointed at Enedith's arm. He, in response, made some kind of grunt, and nodded his head at Phintil. "We got someone to give a room to... We'll explain it inside, okay?"
The man nodded, and gestured at the lizardman to follow them inside. Only when he stood next to the two in the narrow corridor it was visible that he was actually almost as tall as Enedith.

[Alegretto]

Phintil had to follow the bickering pair closely to avoid getting lost in the maze of backstreets. It took some innovation on his part to get his large frame through some of the obstacles they encountered, but he managed too stick with them until they stopped at a two story building.

The lizardman watched as Enedith knocked on the door, and stepped back when prompted. The figure who opened the passage was not who he was expecting. From the way that the kids had been talking, he'd thought that the "master" would be someone of advanced age, but even to Phintil's untrained eye this fellow didn't look all that old.

Phintil followed the three into the home when invited, and he couldn't help but notice that the old man was pretty tall, same as Enedith. Odd for humans to reach that size.

He looked at the man for a moment longer before realizing with a start that he was staring. And that he hadn't introduced himself. "It's a pleasure to meet you, and thanks for taking me into your home. My name is Phintil Sargus."

[Anadwen]

"Nice to meet ya, and tha's alright!" the man gave him a smile. "As long as Ene and Ori can vouch for ya, you're welcome in." he assured him, waving his hand at the favor, and led the three into a small dining hall.

The table was low, and there were only ragged pillows placed around it, not chairs as it would usually be. The room itself was a little dark and a little dusty, with a few lanterns hanging off the ceiling, and three candles on the table itself. The 'master' sat on the other side - only then it became visible that all along, he was walking barefoot - and Enedith and Ori took two places one side. The man gestured Phintil to sit opposite those two.

"Now, though I don' have any objections agains' you staying here, mister, I'd like to know why... Ene, Ori? I guess you gotta say me somethin'." He pierced those two with his glance. Ori nervously bit her lip, while Enedith just stared straight down.

"Well... We were walking back home when we got ambushed by some thugs. And they were going to drag me off... Till here mister Sargus came and helped us. He knocked them all out." Ori explained eventually.
Her words were met with a raised brow of their master. "And couldn't Ene do something about that? Did I train you to be so useless, Enedith?"
"I couldn't. Before we got to go home, I fell and broke my wrist." Enedith growled back, avoiding any kind of eye contact. He received a sigh, and another wave of his master's hand. "Then you got an excuse... Sorry for blaming ya, Ene. Are they telling the truth, mister?" His wide eyes were turned at Phintil, and he crossed his arms on the table.

Ori and Enedith exchanged a glance. She sighed, and he gave her a very upset look.

[Alegretto]

Phintil followed the three into the tiny dining hall, and sat on the pillow when the man gestured. The lizardman didn't miss having a chair, they were hard to sit in with his tail anyway, so he plopped down and sat cross-legged totally at ease on the floor.

The lizardman listened to the back and forth between three people who were obviously very familiar with each other's company. He was following along pretty intently, so he was able to answer Master's question promptly. "That's the truth as far as I know it. I can't say for sure about the arm, but the part thugs I can vouch for."

[Anadwen]

The master nodded. "Very well... I'll leave checking the rest out for later." His hand reached up to scratch his head and mess his hair up even more. Enedith and Ori both let out a sigh of relief - for now, they were out of trouble.

For now!

"Ori, come bring the food. I don't want to let our guest to go hungry once you brought him there. There's something in the kitchen..." With a wave of his hand, he sent the girl off. Enedith managed to turn around and grab her by the leg before she'd be gone, though.
"Bring the bottle of fruit wine from my wardrobe! You know where it is." he muttered, and released her. She giggled, and ran out of the door.

A long awkward silence between him and his master followed - right before Ori returned, balancing several dishes on a tray too small for that amount of bowls, and a bottle of wine atop that all. It was mostly leftovers - some pieces of chicken, salad, various pieces of bread, three pancakes, a jar of honey, and other bits of varying kinds of food - along with four plates that she somehow managed to set onto the table.

"Dinner... We don't have much today, mister, I have to apologize." she mumbled through the sound of clinking dishes, desperately trying to stop the salad from falling into Ene's lap. "Cooking day is tomorrow... So today we have mostly leftovers."

Something clinked, and Enedith ended with a whole load of bright green salad on his bright red hair. To say the truth, he didn't look amused. Their master smacked his head against the palm of his hand as she tried to eat it off his head, with little success. In the end, she had to scoop it up with her hands and drop back into the bowl.

"Don't eat the salad!" she warned them all.

[Alegretto]

Phintil watched the antics with a sort of detached amusement. The three were obviously very close-knit, close as any blood family, and the lizardman felt like a bit of an outsider. The food was good, though obviously not fresh. Still, he wasn't a picky eater and he put away what was put in front of him with gusto.

"It's alright Ori, this is plenty good," he told her in response to her concerns about the food. "Who cooks here anyway?" he looked at the three. He seemed to remember both Ori and Enedith complaining that the other could not cook, so he looked to their master as the most likely candidate.

[Anadwen]

Two hands pointed at the master, and his own hand arose. "I do." he admitted, taking a piece of the cold chicken into the other hand and nonchalantly taking a bite. "Each of them complains when I let the other one cook, so I do it myself instead." Enedith and Ori exchanged a quick glance, and continued eating.

"I always burn it and Ori puts honey onto roasted fish and who knows what other crap." Enedith explained, taking a big bite off his pancake. For that, he received a sharp poke into the ribs, immediately followed by a fit of coughing. Ori responded by smacking his back, and it seemed to work, as he stopped, instead trying to catch his breath. "You wanna kill me?" he burst out, staring at her in horror. "First you tell me you hold me and you let me fall and now this..."

Her terrified look reminded him that something is wrong. Ohhh... He should not have said that. He should not have said that! Both of them gave Phintil a look of utter desperation as they met the hard, suspicious gaze of their master.

[Alegretto]

Satisfied with the answer, Phintil resumed eating and watching the shenanigans. He saw no reason to say anything until the conversation abruptly came to a halt. The lizardman looked up from his mea, confused about why the trio had stopped speaking.

He had to review his memory of what had been said to figure out what had caused the silence. Something about Enedith falling had earned a suspicious look from the pair's master. Phintil decided that maybe this was the time to broach a different topic of conversation. "So me and Enedith were talking earlier about the possibility of him joining me in, ah, well... maybe it's better if he tells you himself," he looked to the young man expectantly.

[Anadwen]

Enedith raked through his hair, dropping the cutlery for a moment, and grinned nervously. "Yeaaah, I guess... I wanted to join here mister's mercenary business... Thing. I mean, having to sweep up the back yard all the time does get kind of boring. Besides, I've been training for quite the time, so I guess it would be pretty worthless to carry this," he pointed at the large sheathed sword at his back, "around without putting any use to it." he explained hastily. Ori secretly gestured to him something that could have been thanks.

The older man gave him a mellow shrug. "As long as you don' neglect what you gotta do 'round here, that's fine with me." he replied in a nearly careless manner, picking up a piece of food, and stuffing his mouth with it. "It's not like you're still seventeen or what. I ain't gonna stop you in this."

[Alegretto]

The exchange left Phintil a little bit surprised. That was much easier than he'd been expecting. Still, the lizardman wasn't about to complain. Easy was fine by him.

He inclined his head in the direction of Enedith's master. "I can see that you care a lot for Enedith, and I promise you that I'll do my best to keep out of trouble. Well, as much out of trouble as a sell-sword can be."

((OOC: sorry, short post is short.))

[Anadwen]

The man cackled, and shook his head. "Keep 'im outta trouble? Mister, don't be funny. He'll cause you more trouble than he's worth with that kinda attitude. But I ain't gonna stop him, anyway. He can take care of himself... Though it doesn't look like it."

Enedith gave his master a somewhat annoyed look at that statement, and scoffed. Ori sighed. "That's not true!" she defended her friend. After all, she knew him all her life - and somewhere deep inside he was actually nice. She smiled widely and tugged a string of his bright red hair. "Ene's actually really nice, right?"

He groaned at the pull at his hair, and forced her hand off. "Not if you pull my hair! That doesn't really count as nice, does it?" he complained. She let go off it, and backed up. "Sorry! Didn't mean to pull it too strong!" she apologized.  Though, before they could continue in their antics, they were interrupted by the 'Old man'.

"Ori, you wouldn't mind letting Enedith in your room for the night, so here mister can stay in his room, would ya?" he asked, pointing the bone from the chicken he ate at her. She nodded. "Fine with me as long as he doesn't mind." she responded. Her friend let out a sigh. "What about the guest room?" he asked. As a reply he, however, just got a shrug. "Full of my stuff. Mister Sargus - you wouldn't mind sleeping in his room? It's pretty much empty..."

Enedith grabbed the bottle of fruit wine and drank straight from it. Fine, he could sleep in Ori's room for some time...

[Alegretto]

"Oh, uh," Phintil hesitated, "That's fine I guess. It's not as if I need a bed, they don't really agree with my constitution, so I'm okay as long as there's enough space on the floor to lie down."

He looked to the master, than to Enedith, to Ori, and back to the master. He was happy to have gained a new recruit, but he was a little sad to be breaking up this eclectic family of people who clearly cared for one another...

He shook his head to clear it of those thoughts. It was alright, it was Enedith's choice and not his concern. He waited a few more beats before speaking again. "So, if you don't mind me asking, how did this little family form?"

[Anadwen]

"No worries. It's not like we really have that much of a bed in any room. It's more like mats on the floor, but it's comfortable!" Ori assured Phintil enthusiastically, and smiled at him. Enedith shrugged. "It's better than the ground." he admitted, handing the bottle to Ori, who took a drink, and passed it back.

They all looked at each other with the lizardman's next question. Enedith reluctantly scratched his head, turning his glance to his plate. "Uh..." Ori muttered. It was a difficult subject.
"I found 'em." the Old man replied after a few moments, breaking the awkward silence with another of his wide, but slightly creepy grins. The two redheads nodded, adding two slightly nervous smile to that of their master. Ori handed Enedith a bowl of dried fruits, and he stuffed his mouth with them.

"About... Like that." Ori agreed.

[Alegretto]

The tension in the air was thick enough for even Phintil to notice that he'd brought up a touchy subject. He decided that it was time for a change of topic. However he couldn't really think of anything else to talk about...

He gave up on finding another conversation topic and instead stood abruptly. "Thank you again for the food," the lizazrdman started, "it was delicious, but it's gotten quite late, and I think that it's time for me to turn in. I hope that one of you wouldn't mind leading me to my room for the night?"

[Anadwen]

"It's alright! A friend of Ene and Ori is my friend." the master waved his hand at it, and smiled, finishing the rest of his food. Enedith stood up, still with the bottle of fruit wine in his hand, and gestured for Phintil to follow him. "I'll take you." he spoke, stretching his back from the long sitting, and letting out a yawn.

"It's kind of a small room, but you get a view straight into the neighbors. You can just pull the blinds down when you don't wanna to get stared at, the neighbors are creeps. I would've sworn someone was staring at me a few times." he spoke while he led Phintil up to the second floor, waving the bottle around in the air. Maybe he had more than he should have...

[Alegretto]

Phintil followed Enedith, happy to have a roof over his head for a change. He followed the young man up the stares, dodging the errant bottle whenever it came to close to his head. "Careful with the thing," he told his new acquaintance. "how much did you have anyway?"

That was a big bottle and Phintil didn't remember how much of it the master had drunk, if any of it. The lizardman didn't have a problem with drinking, even in excess, but he did want to know if Enedith was drunk. If he was gonna be partners with him, than knowing the young man's limit could actually be pretty useful information.

[Anadwen]

"Like..." Enedith glanced at the bottle, narrowing his eyes. "Like, three quarters of the thing. But damn, innit awesome? Did you have any?" he asked him, grinning. He wasn't too drunk, but the slight blush at his cheeks was a clear proof that he wasn't sober, either.

Finally, he led him to the room that actually belonged to him. Clothes were scattered around it, but the space around the sleeping mat was clear enough to sleep on. "Just... Lemme grab what I sleep in, mmkay? I don't wanna lay next to Ori naked." he cackled, grabbing his flowered night clothes from where they lay, and putting the bottle down on the place instead.

[Alegretto]

Phintil watched slightly bemused as they walked along the corridor. "No I didn't have any," he answered Enedith's question, "though now I'm wondering if I should have considering how much fun it looks like you're having."

When they arrived at the room, he watched Enedith pick up his, questionably patterned nightclothes, and listened to his statement. The lizardman frowned, or did the lizard approximation of a frown. "Wait why wouldn't you want to? Aren't you two, you know, um, together?"

[Anadwen]

Giving Phintil a slight, and very confused frown, Enedith took a step back into the door. "Together? Like... Like... That kinda together?" he asked, narrowing his eyes, and then shaking his head. "No... No way!" His cheeks flushed with an even brighter crimson, getting closer to the color of his hair, and he took another step back, still vigorously shaking his head, and making the mop of crimson hair swish from one side to the other.

"We're only friends. I mean... Only friends!" he assured him, pointing a finger up as he held the night clothes, and with a nervous cackle exited the room.