Playing hide and seek

[Anadwen]

He picked up the bunch of bandages beside him. "I can't really do it with only one hand." he explained her plainly. "You don't need to look, I just need someone to help me hold the bandages." he added, noticing how her gaze was desperately trying to avoid that sight.

He picked one of the white wraps up and bound one edge around his hand, shortly glancing up at Grace right after. "It's not gonna take long." he assured her.

[Alegretto]

"Alright alright." She moved closer and forced herself to look. She was a grown woman and this was ridiculous! Plus, she never like appearing weak, especially not in front of Aldanith... She shook her head or the millionth time. What was happening?

She held the bandage in place for him so he could tie it properly.

[Anadwen]

Without a word, Aldanith carefully, but firmly wrapped the bandages over his arm, occasionally moving Grace's hand where it needed to be, and it really didn't take that long for him to finish. Finally, he picked up the thread and needle again, and sewed the one loose end to the rest to stop it from falling off.

"Thank you... Did you find it that disgusting in the end?" he raised a brow, teaching after the shirt and pulling it over his head.

[Alegretto]

Gracie's face was a paler shade of green than usual, but she held her breakfast in. "A bit, but I need to get over this ridiculous problem eventually. Now's a good a time as any to start."

She smiled a little shakily. "So what now? You need to rest more?"

[Anadwen]

He gave her a quick nod. "Maybe not sleep, but a rest would be good." he muttered, shaking what was left from the water in his hair into one of the cloths, and dropping down onto the pillows. He yawned and closed his eyes, delving into his hair with his hands.

"The next time I should remember not to drink after being sewn up."

[Alegretto]

Grace chuckled at his remark. "Yeah maybe that wasn't your most brilliant idea." She shrugged. "Then again, I don't really know the extent of the bad ideas you've had over your lifetime so I can't say for sure."

The half-orc looked towards the door. "Anyway, I gotta get going. There's gonna be some folks that want answers about last night." She looked back down at Aldanith, with maybe just a little tiny bit of concern. "Are you alright staying here on your own? Should I call Salia? She does make house calls."

[Anadwen]

Aldanith shook his head. "Not until after noon. Till then I'll be fine... I'm used to being alone, I don't need a carer." he assured her, and pulled the blanket up to his chin. He turned aside, and fell asleep, contrary to his expectations, withing few moments.

When he woke up again, a few hours have passed, and he felt comfortably refreshed - far better than in the morning. He yawned, and rolled over on the bed, stretching, and kicking the blanket off. Sighting the mirror he didn't notice before, he raked his hair with his fingers, and reached amid the plates of his armour, which someone put on the side table. He tied most of his long, stark white hair atop his head, letting just a few wisps hang, lining his paled face, and stuck the short, curved blade into it.

Feeling confident enough for it, he put the lower, leather layers of his armour onto the dark shirt, and walked over to the kitchen, silently despite wearing heavy boots. He searched for food, all of a sudden hungry, but instead of finding anything, he just made a lot of mess, opened all the cupboards, and finally sat behind the table with his feet on the wooden board, leaning back on his chair, eating a piece of bread. It appeared that he was completely careless about the disaster he left behind.

[Alegretto]

Grace was walking back to her house. She had just finished the rather tedious task of explaining to the innkeeper why there were three bodies in one of his rooms, explaining to several of the villages men why they had cleaned up six bodies last night, and explaining to Salia that she needed to be at Grace's house around one.

She swung a cloth bag from one arm. In it were a couple loaves of bread and some cheese. She'd picked it up while she was out, seeing how she was mostly out of food. She came into her house shouting ahead of her. "Aldanith, I've got food. Why don't you get out of bed an-" she stopped as she came into the kitchen. The elf was there, sitting at the table like he owned the place, and eating the rest of the bread she'd had in the cupboard. The kitchen was a mess, and it looked like someone had ransacked the place.

Grace put on her most sternly disapproving expression. "You know you could have waited." She held up the bag. "I was picking something up, there was no need to tear my kitchen apart."

[Anadwen]

"I was hungry." Aldanith mumbled with a shrug. "I didn't know you were picking up food." He stuffed his mouth with the rest of the bread, and stretched his arms above his head, balancing the chair on two back legs with his feet still upon the table.

"But when it's there, what did you bring? I'm still sort of hungry, you know." he added after a while wiping the breadcrumbs off his clothes, and the chair landed back on all four with a loud thud.

[Alegretto]

Grace sighed. What a slob. Her earlier impressions of a handsome elf were quite suddenly replaced with that of a messy one. Still, she said she would put him up, and that included feeding him. "I've got some bread and cheese," she replied to his question, "just give me a second."

She pulled out a couple loaves of bread and chucked one onto the table. She also put a block of cheese down, and then went to fetch a knife out of one of the open cupboards, before closing it gently. No time to start cleaning like the present. She went back to the table and stuck the knife in the cheese, before sitting down in the chair opposite the elf.

She started pulling apart her loaf into smaller pieces for eating, but she made conversation while she worked. "So what brings you to La'marri, Aldanith?" She asked him. Maybe he was in a better mood today and more willing to answer questions.

[Anadwen]

Aldanith ignored the knife she handed him, instead using the one he had in his hair till now, which was far sharper, and sliced even the hard cheese with ease. He cut a piece off the bread with the same knife, and tearing it to pieces, he slowly ate what was given to him, provocatively exposing the tip of his tongue, his slightly pointed teeth...

He ate with grace, almost passion, like a lion tearing its prey, only far slower. He didn't bother with answering her question until he finished eating what he currently had in his fingers. "Just passing through. I wasn't planning to stop here."  he shrugged, and picked up another piece of bread and cheese, piercing it with the tip of his knife, and he snapped at it in the moment when it got close enough.

[Alegretto]

Grace felt her question hanging in the air as the elf ate. She couldn't help but stare at the way he consumed his food. So much like an animal. She ate her own piece of bread, acutely feeling that her way of eating it was somehow wrong compared to his.

She shook herself out of her reverie. What was she thinking, he was a slob. Yes he was eating like an animal, and he was getting crumbs everywhere like an animal. She might not be a refined lady or anything but at least she had the manners to eat her food without sending half of it flying wherever.

Satisfied that her way of eating was actually superior to the elf's, Grace was about to tear of another piece of bread when the elf spoke. She stopped and listened to his short answer. he asked him another question. "So how long do you plan on staying?" She didn't really want him staying here longer than he had to for recovery, but she could hardly refuse him after taking him in once.

[Anadwen]

"Sta- staying?" Aldanith almost choked on his food as he broke into an almost hysterical laughter. He dropped the knife onto the table, gasping for his breath, but when he finally calmed down, he gave her just a crooked smirk and a look, full of cold, hard ridicule.

"I don't plan on staying. I'm getting my armour repaired this afternoon, and I'm leaving. I'm definitely not staying here." he scoffed. "And that's exactly what I was about to do now. I've finished."

He stood up, dusting the crumbs off his black armour, and kicking the chair back behind the table. Picking his knife up again, he licked its edges to clean them off the food, and cleaned them with his shirt, sticking it back into his hair and slowly walking back into his room, where he left the metal parts of his armour. Every move he made possessed a strange, flowing grace, as if he was swimming, not walking. Despite how hard and edged his appearance was, his movement was elegant and incredibly smooth.

"Where's the forge or blacksmith around here?" he called out, collecting his armour.

[Alegretto]

She watched the elf choke on his food. She almost made a move to help him, but he seemed to have it in hand. Really though, he didn't need to laugh or look at her like that. It had just been an innocuous question.

When the elf called back about a blacksmith, she replied, "There's one not too far from here who does quality work. I'll take you to him, meet me outside." She finished off the rest of her bread and cheese, and then went to her room to throw on her keeper uniform. It didn't have nearly as much armor on it as the elf's equipment, and she was able to put it on faster and beat him to the front door. She leaned against the wall next to it and waited for him to come out.

[Anadwen]

It took Aldanith only a short while to collect his metal armour and walk out of the house after Grace, carrying the plates of hard, dark iron, hanging from his arms by their chains and buckles. The cold wind outside blew his hair into his face, but he ignored it, glancing at Grace.

"Which way now?" he asked, and the armour in his hands clinked a little when he moved it up a little, to stop it from falling onto the ground.

[Alegretto]

"C'mon, follow me." Grace replied. She walked down the street. It wasn't more than five minutes of walking, though there was a lot of twists and turns on the way. She stopped at a building and pointed up at a sign of a hammer and an anvil. "Here you go, Derell's forge."

She nodded to the elf. "I believe that this is where we part ways then. Can't say it was a pleasure, but it was interesting, I guess." She started walking back to her house, intent on cleaning the mess the elf had left in his wake. "Good luck out there Aldanith!" She called back over her shoulder as she walked.

[Anadwen]

Aldanith stepped into the forge. "Farewell." he wished her coldly, turning towards the blacksmith inside. The man, strong and broad-shouldered, greeted him, and Aldanith only gave him an explanation as short as possible before handing him his armour to repair. Many plates were damaged, scratched and broken, and needed serious repairs, but fortunately, there was more than one blacksmith, and he had quite a load of money inside his pocket. They got to work, and Aldanith watched them with his cold eyes, leaning onto the wall.

A tall, strong figure, garbed in dark armour that didn't reveal anything except a pair of blood-red eyes, stepped into Grace's way, and grabbed the half-orc's neck. Two shorter, smaller ones peered at her from the goliath's back. "Have you seen a dark elf around here?" a deep voice growled. "Pale, white hair, dressed in black. Don't try to lie, or I'll snap your neck." 

[Alegretto]

Grace pointed to her neck and made a gagging sound, making it quite clear that that there was no way she could talk with the big man's hands around her neck. The fellow released her, though he kept a hold on her arm. His grip was strong, probably stronger even than Grace's, which was saying something. Whoever these fellows were, they weren't ordinary humans.

Grace was moderately sure they'd seen her with the elf, or they wouldn't have picked her out with such certainty. Honesty was probably the safest option. "I've seen him, I can show you where I last saw him. Follow me." The four started walking, though the man was keeping a hold of Grace's arm the entire time. As they walked, the half-orc heard the clatter of armor, a lot of it. But none of them showed any sense of encumbrance. Definitely not a group of amateurs.

She was almost positive that if she just led them to the elf they'd kill her on the spot, so she needed to do something else. Maybe she could lull them into a false sense of security. "So, uh, what do you guys want with him?" She asked, trying to sound scared and as nonthreatening as possible. Not that difficult considering she was, not afraid necessarily, but worried for sure. This was a tough situation.

[Anadwen]

"Our master wants his head." the voice growled again. "And our master shall have it." They weren't too talkative, and even though Grace led them, they made it very clear that they are the ones in charge here.

The blacksmiths repaired Aldanith's black armour faster than expected, quite obviously using magic to help in their job. The steel was still warm when Aldanith closed the buckles and chains, finally safe and secure in his gear again. He was just closing the buckles of his cape, when a dark silhouette appeared in the door. It blocked almost all light, entering through the rectangular doorway.

Aldanith wasn't stupid, and he knew far too well who this man was. Not like he'd encounter him for the first time... He reached after the handles of Bloodstorm and Frostdeath. The blacksmith behind him stepped back. The dark elf's cold eyes pierced the stranger like a spear. "She's persistent, isn't she?" he asked, his voice devoid of any emotion, but there was no answer, only silence.

"Shadow-blood." the huge man spoke again. "We can avoid the fight, and let you come without opposing. Or, you can decide for the more painful path. But we shall take you." A thud sounded on the ground as he stepped into the smithy, pushing Grace before himself.

"In your dreams..." Aldanith hissed. The sound of clashing iron screeched through the air, and like a lightning, the two long, sharp scimitars flashed in his hands.

[Alegretto]

Grace stumbled into the smithy, the big man finally releasing her arm. Apparently her strategy worked, she wasn't seen as a threat. She slipped around a nearby table, putting it between her and the three men, and creating a kind of triangle between her, Aldanith, and the door.

Clearly the elf wasn't going to go without a fight, but she couldn't leave him alone after she'd brought the men to him. Of course she couldn't fight them head-on, if they were all as strong as the big one. There was another way she could help though.

Grace began to sing. It was a song she'd figured out recently, one that increased physical power and speed. Shaman songs were interesting in that they had a certain amount of power in them, and the more people the song affected, the less power it had on each. However when concentrated on one person, the results were huge.

The wordless melody quickly picked up in volume. It seemed as if multiple voices came from the half-orc's mouth, creating an eerie harmony, and right about now Aldanith should feel about three times his usual strength coursing through him.