PM to join In Search of Webbing (Rue Nightsong)

[Fallan Windchaser]

It might have been an odd question applied to anyone else, the question of whether she had been to Zeltiva, but they were of the Amethyst clan who of all the clans were the most widely ranging.

"I've spent some time there," he answered as their ale arrived. He regarded it dubiously. "It's not a city that I'd recommend," he said, "and if you do go there then I'd strongly recommend that you avoid the ale. They claim it's made from seaweed, but I don't believe it, for it tastes more like something that they've pumped out of the bilges of the ships." He raised his beaker in a toast to her, "but I'm sure this will be fine."

That her family were protective of her wasn't a surprise for the women of the clan were precious, and he guessed, his gaze returning once more to her hair, that her slightly exotic looks would make them even more keen to keep roving predators away.

[Naiya]

She glanced at the dark red liquid in the mug with suspicion. It looked similar to some she'd had once before, but she couldn't be sure, having only arrived at the tavern serving it after she and her friends had been kicked from another tavern for being too rowdy.

This wasn't the same place was it? She glanced around, but her memory of that night was not the best. With a mental shrug she went back to eyeing her drink as her companion spoke the praises of the ale in Zeltiva, which were apparently few and far between. Bilge water for ale, she gave the other an almost savage grin, lifting her own mug in response to his.

"Words to live by." she joked as she took a drink from her mug. The red liquid was surprisingly sweet, lacking the bitterness that was often associated with ale so dark. "Well, it's certainly not bilge water." She told the other, her grin still spread wide across her cheeks.

[Fallan Windchaser]

He laughed and raised his own mug. "Sage advice indeed." He drank deeply, committing himself to the liquid regardless of the taste for he had been on the trail for too long.

He breathed deeply and wiped at his lips where the liquid had splashed in his too exuberant move. "Much better than bilge water and a pleasant welcome home." He drank again, finding a taste for it.

"Ah, it has been a long time, in fact I don't recall the last time I had the chance to enjoy a mug in such pleasant company." He grinned softly, relaxing and caught the eye of the man serving the ale, lifting his now rapidly emptying mug and took out his purse.

Satisfied that the message had been passed correctly he turned back to Rue. "Would you do me the honour of accepting a refill? It's such a pleasure to be back in civilisation." If he was aware of the incongruity of such a statement as he sat outside a tent then he didn't appear to be aware of it.

[Naiya]

She took another drink as he spoke, nodding in agreement. "I'm afraid that if we linger too long you will miss the webber you are looking for... but I suppose one more drink won't hurt." She lifted her own drink once more then glanced into the rapidly emptying cup. "Besides, how often do you find ale this good?"

She laughed then, thinking of his story. "And you less often than others if your story is typical. Bilge water and who knows what else you have happened across in your travels."

[Fallan Windchaser]

He laughed softly at her answer and nodded, sipping at his drink a little more sedately.

"Ah, yes you have me. There are things that I enjoy in my travels, such as the choice of what to do and when to do it. Not being held responsible to others and not having others make my choices for me."

"But whilst that is all to the good there are some down sides to it, poor ale sometimes among that. But it can be good to come home as well, to see friendly faces, to be able to relax amongst people you understand."

He grinned at her. "It can be a lonely road, and for all that foreign women can be exotic, I'd rather spend the time having an ale with a beautiful red head of my own people any day."

[Naiya]

It was so unusual to her, the way he complimented her, the sincerity of his words as he did. She had not been treated such in long enough that it was almost uncomfortable for her, for she was unsure how to respond. Unsure even what he would expect from her.

Maybe that was something to work on, that she needed to change, but for the moment she had little more in her than another blush that lingered as heat in her cheeks even through the warming feeling of the ale.

Rather than give up and fall quiet she took another sip of her drink, emptying the cup, then shifted the subject away from herself once more. "Tell me more about your travels? What exotic place do you hold closest to your heart?"

As much as it was a shift in subject from her, it was a shift in subject from Endrykas as well, she wanted so much to travel, or at least get out from under her father's thumb..

[Fallan Windchaser]

He laughed softly at her question, still the question of why he had never noticed her before coming back to his mind.

"Now you have exposed me." He grinned and glanced around at the tent city as though to remind himself what was normal. "I'm not entirely sure that I'd call anywhere I have been exotic for my travels have mostly been in Syrila and that is a drab place indeed. Exotic is what I think of when the Run passes the deserts and the cities where the bazaars are full of gold and colourful spices."

"Syrilas is a rock riddled with holes in which the inhabitants scurry like beetles. I would think only the Underwatch of all our people would be comfortable there. I suppose that the Knights are exotic or am I thinking of idiotic?"

He flashed her a smile and pulled a drink from his mug, wondering just when the first signs of intoxication would kick in; for all his worldly talk he had spent most of his time huddled over a campfire trying to keep warm rather than drinking ale in strange taverns.

He had never yet met a woman who was not happy to talk about herself. "So what of yourself then Rue? What brings you and your family to the city at this time?"

[Naiya]

"We always stay close to the city. My father keeps track of the traders and what sorts of things are coming in and out. Then he sends my uncle out to buy and sell in other cities..." Her voice trailed off a moment before she pulled herself back to the conversation.

"I work in a seamstress shop, so recently I've been staying in the city regardless of whether or not my family is near." She laughed then, a mocking sort of laugh. "My father seems to have trouble deciding whether or not he likes that, believing that I lay about with whatever man will take me on the nights I don't return home. He is.. undecided as to whether that makes me more or less likely to be taken from his hands."

She sat up straighter then, realizing what she'd said and the implications of her own words. "I don't, though. Despite what he may think." The ale must have loosened her tongue, a stronger brew that what she usually found, something she would keep in mind for the future.

She had accepted the second drink, and it sat mostly full beside her. She gave it a calculating look trying to decide if she could handle it. With a mental shrug she decided that now that she realized the strength of the drink, she could be more aware of herself and her tongue, so she lifted the mug to her lips once more.

[Fallan Windchaser]

Fallan could understand the business that her father operated for many in their clan dabbled in that and Fallan himself had attempted it. However it seemed to him that her father was a good deal more organised than Fallan and likely would prove hard competition if Fallan ever ventured down that path again.

”Ah, trading I understand, for it is how I supported myself when I was in Syrila, but it is a hard business to learn and already you have told me that your father is very well organised on that, more organised than many.” He wondered just how good that setup was and realised that if done well it could be very profitable indeed. He tore his mind away from the possibilities and risks that it presented though for it was hardly the sort of romantic discussion that he would prefer just now especially since it became clear that there was some conflict involved between Rue and her father.

He wondered where the truth lay with regards the men that her father suspected her of laying with. It was he assumed a natural concern for any father who wished the best of their children, and here she was a little exotic in her looks with that hair and doubtless drew attention. His thoughts were now just becoming a little muddled and the barriers which controlled exactly what he said and how he said it were starting to become a little eroded.

It did not however from taking another drink, aware that he was ahead of her in that. ”You don’t?” He smiled at her, his face genuinely curious though it wasn’t a question that many men would have asked quite this early on. ”If I were your father I too would be worrying what men were doing more than dream about laying with you. Have you never been tempted? You surely have had the opportunity and any man with any sense would have made the attempt.”

He grinned and winked, ”but forgive me if I’m forward, the ale loosens my tongue and I find it hard to think clearly when a beautiful woman tells me that she is saving herself for some man that she has never met.” He assumed it would be a man, as would any Drykas regardless of what might happen in the cities.

[Naiya]

Rue couldn't help but laugh at his words, "Don't sound so dissappointed." She teased as he finished the whole of his words.

She left it at that, however, choosing to change the topic before they got to airing out all her secrets in the not so empty bar. "I suppose the second round of drinks may have been a poor choice. What kind of impression will we leave the webbers with, stumbling into their shop and asking them to help you find soething." She laughed a moment then continued.

"They are likely to think the both of us drunks misplacing things and asking others to find them for us."