You Wouldn't Expect Us

The sun elf wrapped head to toe in whatever she could find would disagree with that statement. She absolutely hated damn near everything about winter and just wanted to stay inside.

Seras tried to memorize what she could. She no doubt missed some pieces. She scooted herself as close to the fire as she could without burning herself.

“ Pretty impressive hun.” She chirped, not sure if the harpy could see her grinning or not. “ So what are you doing out here anyway?”

“Oh me?” She asked, looking over at the sun elf with a smile on her face as she stopped playing.  “I’m traveling!  I want to make everyone happy with my music!”  The young girl was certainly enthusiastic.  Seems the sun elf was speaking with another bard.

That was… a lot to take in all at once, yet exceptionally vague at the same time. Saelihn also had to wonder if there weren’t any other ways to make money, but at the same time, she understood that sometimes… Sometimes there wasn’t any other choice.

Not to mention, asking a tribe that was gracious enough to take him in… to make him their god… Even if there was a story there, she wasn’t going to touch that with a nine-foot pole. She couldn’t. One negative opinion would annihilate the good will she just built up.

“I hardly know my father, either, I suppose. He takes great care to hide what he thinks from others. Especially someone of my station.” Her expression turned wistful for a moment. “Regardless. I may have a job for you. It is adventurer fare, however.”

“Is that so?” He asked, curious as to what job she had to offer.  Adventurer fare or not, he would take it.  Any gold he could make off of a job was worth it.  Of course, he had to hear the terms and conditions first.  It was unwise to accept a job without knowing first what it was.

The sun elf wrapped head to toe in whatever she could find would disagree with that statement. She absolutely hated damn near everything about winter and just wanted to stay inside.

The sun elf wrapped head to toe in whatever she could find would disagree with that statement. She absolutely hated damn near everything about winter and just wanted to stay inside.

The sun elf wrapped head to toe in whatever she could find would disagree with that statement. She absolutely hated damn near everything about winter and just wanted to stay inside.

The sun elf wrapped head to toe in whatever she could find would disagree with that statement. She absolutely hated damn near everything about winter and just wanted to stay inside.

The sun elf wrapped head to toe in whatever she could find would disagree with that statement. She absolutely hated damn near everything about winter and just wanted to stay inside.

Saelihn’s head shook solemnly. “I was only a child when I decided to leave,” she answered. “But I knew that if I was to leave on my own, Father and my siblings would still be stuck with Mother. I would regret it every single day if I left my family behind.”

She flashed a sad smile. “So I came up with a plan to save the whole city-state. It took my whole life thus far and a lot of luck… but my city-state is free.“

“You’ve accomplished more than I have then...”  He sighed, looking away from her again as he turned his attention back to the fire.  “I ended up exiled by Kuo Toa tribe who took me in because I asked them to make me a god...  After finding my way to the surface, I had to learn to fend for myself...”

When Saelihn had come to the surface first, all on her own, she was dangerous in the eyes of the surface-dwellers. They assigned a guard who had been told to slaughter her if her message of peace turned out to be false. She got where she was in this land not through expecting everything to be peachy-keen from the start, but by patiently wading through suspicions and doubt until she came out the other side.

“I understand,” she told him. “My mother was the same. I still have scarring from the time she refused to allow anyone to heal me, lest I grow complacent in failure.”

She sighed. “Father suffered most in our house. It is all I can do to try to help him recover.” She gave a sigh. “Those on the surface are perhaps more afraid of me than of you. I cannot blame them for this, either. All I can do is keep trying.”

That got his attention.  Finally, he looked over at her with a bit of a surprised expression.  Solo hadn’t expected Saelihn to respond like this.  This was...  A pleasant surprise, to say the least.  “So...  You feel the same way then...”

Solo seemed to be a little on-the-nose as a name, there, but Saelihn simply nodded and took it in.

One of the Hun’ar boys had named himself Lightning Caller, claiming that one day, he’d be a powerful wizard. She wouldn’t begrudge Altonqualyn, so she could hardly begrudge Solo.

Her eye caught on the arrow in his hands. “Has it been a hard journey?” she asked him. Then, for just a second, her face fell. “Never mind; I would hate to pry.”

“Like you wouldn’t imagine...” He began, not even looking at her.  “My mother is a massive bitch for starters...  Obsessed with following the teachings of Lolth...  And you think that just gets better once you reach the surface?” The dark elf asked a rhetorical question before answering it.

He really seemed like he didn’t want to engage in any conversation whatsoever… but Saelihn never gave up. That was what people knew her for. When they actually knew her, anyway.

“I suppose,” she started, taking a seat across the aisle, “I can begin with an introduction. My name is Saelihn. What is your name? Or, if not your name, what do you prefer others call you?”

His name?  One thing he was taught when becoming an assassin was to never give his name to anyone.  To instead, give them an alias.  This was exactly what the dark elf did.  “Call me Solo...” He informed her, taking an arrow out of his quiver and examining it in front of the fire.

Tazennin glared back. Ugh. All this selfish brattiness native to the surface was really rubbing off on him now… “Surface rules, right? Do unto others?” he asked. “I apologized for snapping… I don’t know what else to do.”

He wanted to vomit. All the world around him felt like darkness even his eyes couldn’t penetrate.

“Is intimidating someone like that surface rules, too?” His glare softened up and he turned forward. “Because you win. Please don’t hurt me… I’ll shut up and leave if you want.”

Yet the very same person who’d threatened him still asked further probing questions. Maybe he didn’t have to leave yet? Or maybe this was some common courtesy surface rule Tazennin didn’t understand and he did need to leave. “Surface rules are confusing,” he finally answered. “They go on about the freedom of choice until you choose something they don’t want you to. Or, saying I should be myself…! Don’t let anyone dictate who I am! Until myself is someone they don’t like.” He simmered down, trying to steel himself… yet his voice cracked anyway. “Or I should stop acting like I have to keep to myself, but the first person I try to talk to all on my own needs whiskey just to deal with me.”

He crossed his arms on the bar and buried his head in them. “I wish I could afford your services… unless you’ll kill me for free?” He laughed at that. Nobody did that pro bono anyway.

Now this was just getting confusing.  Solo took to the rules of the surface easily, but here was someone who didn’t understand them at all.  Don’t let anyone dictate who they are until they’re someone they don’t like?  What...?  “Sorry...” He looked away, letting out a sigh as his drink arrived.  “I...  Don’t really get along with my own kind...  I’ve had...  Bad experiences in my youth...”

“Okay.” That was all she said before she passed the bowl off to another worker, instead. To his hostility, she gave a sadder smile than the one she showed him before, but she would move on.

This would not shake her resolve.

“You are welcome to sit down if you like,” she offered, motioning to a selection of logs they’d re-purposed for outdoor seating, some of which had been occupied by fluffy-coated workers minding their own business. “If you are not opposed to conversation.”

This offer, he would take up.  After traveling for a while, looking for work, he wouldn’t be opposed to just taking a bit of a rest.  He sat down on an empty log away from the workers.  Seems like he really didn’t want anything to do with any of them.

Tazennin dragged his head back up, and gave the other dark elf a tired look. If only he could afford whatever this guy’s going rate was. He could make someone happy this month.

But no. He spent all of his money on a bunch of spells he wasn’t going to need after he parted ways with the pair of humans in a week or so.

“Sorry,” he started. Seemed like the most appropriate thing to say. “I’m not doing… well… on the surface.” He squinted and turned his gaze toward the other side of the bar for just a second. “I got nostalgic, so thanks, you’re really reminding me of home right now.”

He shook his head.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t talk to you like that.” Not even if he was reminded of his pissant of an older brother.

“I could say the same about you...” The other dark elf replied with a slight glare in his eyes as he let the other speak.  The fact that he said he felt nostalgic when he saw Solo really didn’t sit right with him.  “And that’s not a good thing...  Word of advice...  Be careful with what you say to me.  You can either walk away from this with an acquaintance or an enemy...”

Males never trusted Saelihn much. Her people in general weren’t very trusting, but when it came to a female in power, especially someone like Saelihn… She had a higher hurdle to jump than most.

This wasn’t the first time someone asked what she wanted in return for her generosity and it wouldn’t be the last, either.

“I suppose the catch is that we will want our bowl and spoon back, so we may clean and re-use them tomorrow.” That probably wasn’t good enough. She could claim that her religious customs demanded hospitality, but that sounded more like one of her excuses than anything else.

So, she simply sighed. It was going to be like this again, was it?

He knew all about the stereotypes of drow.  Heck, his mother tried to raise him to conform to said stereotypes, right down to the backstabbing and betrayal.  He hated his mother and did his best to stray from her teachings as much as possible.

While that wasn’t what Tazennin was necessarily asking, the answer was good enough. ‘Not from the same area’ was all he really needed to know.

That whiskey order got him to shut up but good, though. Instead of bothering the other dark elf any further, he opted to stare up at the menu and feel as the lump in his throat rose and rose until he wanted to vomit.

He let his head fall to the bar, mumbling curses to himself.

That made the other quirk an eyebrow.  What the hell was he doing?  “And just what’s your problem...?” He asked, unsure as to why the other was burying his face into the counter, mumbling curses.  Hard day?  Stressful circumstances?  He wasn’t entirely sure.