Closed [The Pig's Foot] A Crossing of Sorts

[Sadie Sundown]

Late-afternoon, 45th of Winter, 518AV The sun was nearly setting by the time Sadie crossed river between the Sunset Quarter and the Castle Commons. It was one of the few times of day when the city appeared to be beautiful, with the sky swathed in many colours, while shadows grew long, disguising the terrors within. Sunberth was by no means a safe city, especially for those who travelled alone; they were seen as gold on legs. One thing that the shadows couldn't disguise though, was the stench that hung over the city. The scents did weakened somewhat during the winter or after rains, but for a good portion of the year, there was no escape. It was particularly worse in some parts of the city than others, but over the course of thirteen years, Sadie had grown somewhat familiar to the smells; it still hit her whenever she returned from her occasional hunt, which took her past the farmlands and away from the city. Sadie ran her thumb over the handle of her dagger. It had been a while since her last hunting trip, having thought that most creatures would have been hibernating or absent for the season, yet winter had not come, Morwen had yet to appear, and her children were killed in retaliation. For a while, Sadie had feared that she would be one of the ones slaughtered or offered as a reward, but she had come to realize that no one else knew of her heritage but her. As a half, her hair did not share the famed multi-coloured eyes, or the mysteriously coloured hair, but rather, she blended in among the regular populace and by no means was she about to change that. Instead, she had behaved mostly as usual, keeping to herself for the most part, apart from what was required to work and daily life, since her common state was to be wary of her surroundings and folk who showed a bit too much interest. That was how she had lived during the years of Morwen's disappearance... and that was also how the locals survived in this chaotic city. Sadie glanced skywards. She still had time before work, but she had no where else to be. 'Might as well head to the tavern then,' she thought, disembarking from the ship, waving to the crew has she hopped onto dry land, and set her feet towards the Market District. The Pig's Foot was the oldest and most popular tavern in the city, and was perhaps one of the safest places, at least during the day. The owner, Merv, was respected by the locals, and he took good care of his establishment; one still had to mind themselves though, lest they be victim to theft, mugging, or risk the Merv's wrath by getting into a brawl. Sadie entered the tavern quietly, gently letting the door shut behind her before surveying the room and headed over towards the bar, keeping her posture relaxed, her dagger peeking out at her waist, and her face calm. She noted that few eyes turned towards her, gave her a once over, before turning back to their conversations, though some lingered more than others. She did not appear to be a threat, but she did not scream 'prey' either. Finding a rare spot near the wall, she seated herself and asked for a mug of ale. oocThe edit was made when I realized that Sunberth didn't have bridges. XD Woops!

[Kurin Fell]

Kurin was exploring the commons today. He was making it a point to familiarize himself with the city as soon as possible, and to that end had been slowly working his way south from the clinic. The impression he was getting was that Sunberth was a bad city to get lost in, or wander blindly into the wrong neighborhood, lest he get attacked, robbed, killed, and so on. That would be less than ideal, to say the least. The commons, though, seemed to be neutral territory, and something of a public hub, not unlike West Street in Zeltiva.

Although West Street never had a gallows, as far as he knew. Kurin knew better by now than to stand and gawk at the thing; that was a sure way to get mugged. Again. Instead, he took a quick stroll around the structure, admiring it from all sides, before heading off to explore some more. Idly, he wondered if there was a proper hangman in the city, or if the citizens just mobbed and lynched whoever they wanted. Gods knew the hanging oak seemed to be something of a free for all.

More wandering brought him in front of a new building -- a bar, it seemed, judging by the shouts and laughs he could her behind the door. Well, he might as well drop in for a look. Pushing open the door to the — he glanced at the sign over the entrance — Pig's Foot, Kurin found himself greeted with an explosion of noise. He started, hand reaching automatically for the dart under his cloak, before realizing the commotion had nothing to do with him at all; across the tavern, two men were on their feet, bellowing at each other, and the patrons around them were jeering and egging them on, some dragging the nearby furniture away.

That didn't seem like something he wanted any part of. For a moment, he considered just turning around and walking out again, but decided against it. He was probably going to have to get used to navigating around violence in this city. Swiftly, he made his way to the other end of the room, far enough from the action there was no risk of the fight spilling close to him. All of the tables were occupied, it seemed, and Kurin wasn't going to risk getting knifed for sitting with the wrong group of people, but there was some space at the bar.

He chose a seat besides a woman with a fairly cool expression, and no scars that he could see — practically harmless, compared to some of the others around the tavern. Ordering an ale, he looked over at where the shouting was turning into a shoving match, then glanced at the woman beside him. "This happen a lot?" He asked conversationally, gesturing at the disturbance.

[Sadie Sundown]

Just as she received her mug of ale, voices began to raise a couple of tables behind her, as two men stood up. Sadie turned until her back was against the wall to watch along with the rest of the patrons. The companions of the two men carefully moved their and their friends' chairs out of the way, their gazes cautiously flickering towards the bar and their shoulders betrayed a hint of relief. Merv had left to get another keg of ale. They knew that damage to his establishment would not be tolerated. One man stood perhaps half a head taller than the other, and stood lightly on the balls of his feet, a humorous smirk playing across his sharp features. His opponent was shorter, but more grounded and sturdily built, perhaps from some physical labour, and although his lips displayed a grin, his eyes had a slight edge to them. Jeers and cheers of encouragement began to rise around the room as some of the patrons began to clear more room around the pair. "What'cha say? Hows about you say that again? Louder this time?" the shorter man said in a taunting tone, his voice easily projected throughout the tavern. "Are you sure about that? You might not like what I have to say," the cocky one countered. "Oh, come on now. Try me." The smirker leered, looking him up and down. "Oh, I'd rather not, myself. I'd much prefer goin' excavating for the night. Perhaps if you were a bit less hostile..." he drawled dramatically, glancing towards his audience, before dancing to the side as the shorter one took a mock swing, tapping the man's arm as he did, and was rewarded with some laughter and hooting. "Oopsy there, you almost got me! Seems like this one likes it rough!" "This one was speaking slander against my business!" "I could speak slander against other things too. For instance, I bet your nightly company has regretted spendin' the night with you after you went down the mine shaft." "You're dodging the subject!" "I thought I was dodging your fist." The onlookers jeered and egged them on, and laughter. Sadie watched on, surveying the bystanders around the tavern for the most part. In doing so, she noticed a man who entered the tavern and had begun making his way towards the bar. He had initially stood at the entrance, perhaps startled by the two fools who were entertaining the other patrons, who continued to make room for the two jesters in preparation for the bought to come. The man arrived at the bar and settled into the seat beside her, while the majority of the other patrons continued to cheer as the spectacle continued. "Oh, I'll give you something to dodge," the shorter man said, before making a move to shove the other man. "This happen a lot?" Keeping her face Sadie glanced over the man who had spoken to her. His hair was short and soft looking, and he had spoken in a friendly tone that should have marked him as harmless, but the sight of the scars littering his face suggested otherwise. “It happens often enough,” she replied, taking a sip of her ale, and turned to look back at the commotion. "Are you new around here?”

[Kurin Fell]

Kurin blinked rapidly as he listened to the exchange between the two men, the rough accents and gratuitous use of what he could only assume was local slang making his head spin. It was going to take some time for him to acclimate, he could already tell. 'Going excavating', 'down the mineshaft'; he'd read that Sunberth had once been a mining town, but somehow hadn't quite expected that that was something you could hear in the way Sunberthian's spoke. Although judging by the lewd hip motion the man doing the goading had made, he had a suspicion that these mining euphemisms had less to do with mining and more to do with petching.

At the curt response he got from the woman beside him, Kurin couldn't help but laugh a little sheepishly. "I suppose I'm rather obvious, aren't I?" Following her lead, he took a sip of his ale, and shifted in his seat to keep one eye on the heating scuffle. "Yes, I'm new to Sunberth. Not that there weren't brawls where I was from, but they usually would have been broken up by now."

As if he'd heard Kurin's words, a door behind the bar flew open, and a grizzled, thickly bearded old man stormed out. The knot of people who had formed around the brawling pair seemed to freeze, though the rest of the tavern seemed to be mostly ignoring the situation. The pair currently rolling around on the floor, especially, went perfectly still, one with a forearm caught between his teeth and the other with a fist balled up ready to drive down on a vulnerable kidney. The man stalked over to them, the patrons parting to let him pass.

"Marv..." One of them started, before his jaw snapped shut with a click at the glare Marv sent his way. "If I see —" His voice was slow, and icy cold "— so much as a scratch on my floor from this, you're both cut off for the next year." Both brawlers nodded frantically, then resumed fighting as Marv returned to his place behind the bar.

Kurin hid a laugh in his mug. "You see something new every day." He grinned, then turned to extend a hand to the woman beside him. "Kurin Fell, formerly of Zeltiva. Nice to meet you."

[Sadie Sundown]

His response didn't surprised her, since the clientele at the Pig's Foot were mostly locals, he stood out, though perhaps not for the reasons he may suspect, after all, there were always new faces in Sunberth. A face like his though, scarred as it was, wouldn't go easily unnoticed or be forgotten. Predictably, Marv burst onto the scene. She respected the old man, despite the dislike he sometimes showed to others, since the care and hard work he put into his establishment was obvious, and he was honest, holding nothing back. Sadie chuckled as he gave the two brawlers a stern warning, which they knew better than to test. As the pair resumed their wrestling, punctuated with strikes, which were noticeably more controlled. No one would want to be barred from this bar; it was one of the few safe havens in the city. The man drew her attention back to him as he spoke and introduced himself. 'Kurin Fell', she thought to herself, storing the name away. Sadie considered Kurin's offered hand briefly before taking it. She couldn't quite figure him out, perhaps it was a facade; maybe he spelled trouble with his friendly air and deep scars, or maybe he was just unfortunate. He didn't necessarily seem to be of a bad sort, but one could never be too careful and decide to keep her reservations until she got to know him better. "Sadie," she replied, shaking his hand once before letting go. She shifted in her seat until she faced Kurin more directly, took a sip from her mug, and continued to speak, as if replying to his comment about the brawls. "People here don't like being controlled by others, so for better or for worse, people tend to act freely... unless their actions effect those around them. No harm, no foul. She looked over the other patrons, and noticed a few gazes glancing in their direction every now and then, no doubt curious about the new face. 'Predator or prey? They wonder. Fresh meat to be picked clean, a rival to size up, or something to be best avoided?' She released a soft sigh. The mind games the city forced its occupants to play wore her down sometimes. She took another swig from her mug. "Even then, just being seen as defenseless or not being like by the wrong people can be enough to get you into trouble." She looked him in the eyes. Then again, who knew what this one was capable of? He could be a monster for all she knew. Sadie propped her elbow up on the bar, placing her chin on her hand. 'I suppose the only way to find out is to talk.' Her tone warmed slightly, becoming more conversational as she continued. "So what brought you to this lawless city? What kind of place was the one you came from like?" Thoughts, Common, Fratava,Vani