Wild at Heart

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Gilbert slowed down to a jog when he saw the horse come to a stop, a little out of breath by the time he caught up. He hadn’t managed to get close enough during his mad scramble to make a difference, so he was more than a little mystified over how the horse had gotten over that scare so quickly - until he saw that the guy petting its snout was an elf. 

“Hey! You’re one of those prissy pointy-ears!” Gilbert gave him a grin as he stepped over to pick the trailing reins off the ground, keeping a hold on those just in case. He was pretty sure the red-faced man that was struggling to catch up much further down the road was the horse’s owner, but it was going to take a good few minutes for him to make it this far, if the exertion didn’t make him fall over first. 

“It’s a good thing you were here to commune with nature an’ shit ‘fore someone got hurt~” Honestly, Gilbert just assumed that all elves could do that kind of thing. Why else would they want to live in forests all the time? 

Toris perked up a little when he saw the human paladin coming over to him, and taking the reins, even as he gently held the animal’s face, using a low level spell to make sure the horse was still calmed. “Prissy...?” he questioned under his breath. Sure, some elves could be that way, but that was a huge over generalization.

He deflated a little, but it was very quickly replaced by an exuberant vault over the shop counter and a manic search for his travel bag. He could find stuff to sell that wasn’t critter parts, probably – and friendship was infinitely more valuable than material wealth anyways!

Except friendship wouldn’t exactly pay for his next meal. But he’d worry about that later. 

“Ready to go!”

Toris laughed a little quietly at the other’s enthusiasm. Perhaps this wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. “Excellent.” he stated, slinging his own pack over his shoulder, and walking out of the shop.

@quietandcalmbeast

Gilbert was hanging out right off of one of the main roads through Hallbach, chewing through a piece of jerky he’d brought as a snack, when an alarmed cry went up down the road from him. 

“Th’ fuck?,” was all he managed to get out before a spooked horse sped right past him, trailing its reins. Gilbert dropped his food and took off running after it without a second thought - because that was a danger if he ever saw one, a scared horse wouldn’t think twice about trampling someone! It hadn’t reached a gallop just yet, but once it did, it’d be even tougher to handle. 

“Oi!” He shouted as he ran. “Someone stop that horse!” 

Toris had simply been eating a piece of fruit while checking his maps for his next location to make his way to. He wasn’t sure where he wanted to go next, but the desert to the north seemed interesting.

He heard yelling from behind him and turned to see a loose horse running down the street, causing all sorts of panic. He was able to see the horse coming from far away thanks to his eyes, and new he had time to act. He took his fruit and wooden staff, standing firm in the middle of the road. He held out the fruit, and used a spell to calm the horse down and befriend it.

“Woah, what, you really mean that!? I can to travel and look at cool critters?” He leaned across the counter a bit, glancing shiftily from side to side, before dropping his voice to a whisper.

“If we kill stuff, can I keep their parts? Can I get first dibs on their bones? I like to collect them.” That sounded less creepy in his head – backpedal, backpedal.

“I mean, I collect them to sell! Lots of creature parts have alchemical purposes and such.” Which wasn’t exactly a lie, but it wasn’t entirely the truth either.

“Well sure, if you want to come along.” he stated. When the other leaned in, he also leaned in to speak, listening closely before responding. “Oh--well, I’d like to avoid killing the creatures if we can. Though, worst case scenario, I suppose you can take some parts to sell for alchemical purposes.”

Mogens mumbled shit under his breath once again before speaking up, “it’s fine- not a problem-” still holding his hands over his ears, Mogens took a step back to leave this elf more room not to bump into anything. Oddly enough, the elf was shorter than Mogens. 

He had assumed, like many humans, that elves were always tall… but this one didn’t seem to follow that pattern. Was he also a half-elf that just appeared more elf than human? He slowly lowered his hands from his ears as his curiosity was piqued, but then quickly put them back as he realized that Toris could still see him. “Um… what brings you here? To the town, not uh… this shop, I mean.”

Toris narrowed his eyes a little, wondering why this man was covering his ears, like he was trying to muffle the world around him? This guy seemed a bit strange.

“Oh, uuuuhhhh.” No one had ever asked him if he was good at something before. Was he good at something? He was a pretty passable harp player, if he said so himself. And he could do a little bit of magic!

“I can play the harp! Studied at the Bard’s College and everything,” for approximately four weeks, before he was kicked out, “and before that I studied magical theory, so I can do a bit of spellwork too. Why?”

Toris thought a bit for this. Would he eventually regret what he was about to ask of Mihai? More than likely. Still, the man deserved at least a taste of adventure.

“Haha, wow! I actually sold something! Hey Tweedle, I sold something!”

“Good for you, milksop.” And he was back in his cups, his chair straining under the weight of his fat little gnome body as he leaned it against the wall with only two legs resting on the floor, downing horns of ale like it was no one’s business.

“Thank you! Come again!”

Toris couldn’t help but feel bad for this guy. The man just wanted to go on a little adventure, but was stuck here, working at this shop where he wasn’t going to make anything. 

Oh. Well, now he has to think about how much they’d be worth in an actual shop that had actual stock and fixed prices for things. Thankfully he’s good at math.

“Uhhh, how heavy’s the tin?” He plucks the hunk of scrap from his pile of miscellaneous garbage, placing it on a dented little scale and clicking the beads on an abacus around until he reaches a consensus he’s alright with.

“Four coppers for the tin and the arrows are half a copper each!” Tweedle grunted from the corner, pointing in Mihai’s general direction with his little finger.

“You ain’t calculating for inflation?”

“Oh! Right. Four and a half coppers for the tin, a full copper for each arrow. That amounts to a full silver, right?” He goes to his abacus again, clicking the beads around some more.

“Actually a silver and a half copper. Thank you for your business!”

Toris listened to the two debate on how much he had to pay for the rubbish, and let out a sigh. Curse him for being so kind-hearted that he’d buy scraps off this poor man. Still, he took the required payment, and a little extra (because he felt bad) from his money pouch and handed it over to the other. 

Feliciano nodded, excitement not dying down, “that sounds so cool. I’ve never left the town, not on an adventure of any kind, anyway. I want to, though.” He nodded, he hummed, falling near-silent as he finishes the sketch, “There!” He says, holding up the paper to show Toris, beaming. The sketch is quite good, with detail and depth, impressive for just use of charcoal. “Corellon is the Goddess of Art, so I offer her my art, when I’m not around healing.” He nodded, cheerfully.

“Where would you want to go? If you could travel?” he asked, his curiosity starting to take hold a little. He took a look of the picture and blinked a bit. It was pretty good, for only having a bit of charcoal to work with. “It looks wonderful. It looks like I’m staring right into a clear pool of water.” he stated, smiling a touch.