Private Tales Air Currents

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
Cerridwen had packed a couple extra knives for their trip today...just in case. She was practically vibrating with excitement because she had never had interactions with anyone else and this was an adventure!

"Do you think they're nice?" She felt like a child asking such a question but, in truth, she was by her kinds standards. Both of them were. Young, brash, and reckless had all been words used to describe the healer but her talents were so great that she never got kicked out of the training.
 
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"I don't know..." Fynaurie called over her shoulder.

Vaxor was slowing himself down, having picked up some speed in the descent. The air was thicker and warmer now they had dropped into the valley.

"There!" Fynaurie called.

At the end of a winding path through the valley was a roughly circular palisade wall. There were humans in the fields beyond the wall.

"Lots of orcs around here, so they always build a wall," she called out. "Shall we...go down there?"
 
Orcs. Cerridwen had heard of them, of course, but she had never actually seen an orc. It wasn't really on her list of things she wanted to see either. From what she had heard about them and the damage they could inflict, she could not blame the humans for building walls. It made sense to protect themselves, it was not much different than how their people lived among the clouds.

"Yes!" Would the humans be nice? Would they attack them? Would they be scared of Vaxor? So many questions that she wanted answers to.
 
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Vaxor skimmed the ground as he slowly himself down. From Fynaurie's perspective, having flown so high, it always felt as if he was about to crash.

It was one of the moments that always reminder her that Vaxor had control and she had to trust him implicitly.

He touched down, extending great legs to cushion the landing. Fynaurie unclipped her bag and her aether glaive and slid down from Vaxor.

They could see the fences from here, just a few hundred paces away.

"Circle for a bit Vaxor, then find somewhere safe on the cliffs if you want," she said. She knew he would probably get bored of watching what they were doing and go and find something to eat in short order.
 
Cerridwen slid down after Fynaurie and softly touched Vaxor's feathers once her feet were on the solid ground. After Vaxor had received his orders, he took off, leaving the two elven women to their own devices.

"I am a little nervous," the healer admitted as they walked. "I've never met anyone outside of our people..." She smiled sheepishly.

They made the relatively short walk to the fence. Cerridwen tried to look calm but inside was a torrent of excitement and worry.
 
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"I've met a few," Fynaurie announced proudly, as if she was an expert on the subject. Saving a few humans against orders did not make her an expert.

"I'm sure it will be absolutely fine," she continued. Her heart was fluttering, but as Cerridwen had announced her nerves first it fell to her to be brave.

"Stop there!" Called down a voice, using the common human trade tongue.

Fynaurie looked up to see a row of archers stood on the platform behind the wall. In the gate stood two men in chainmail.

"They don't...look so friendly..." She muttered quietly.
 
Cerridwen, who had been all smiles and giddy nervousness, frowned up at the archers and then looked at the two men who stood waiting at the entrance. Definitely not friendly. All this for two strange women seemed unnecessary. A couple men, sure, but if those archers loosed their arrows Cerridwen and Fynaurie would have at least six arrows each in their bodies.

Nonetheless, Cerridwen and Fynaurie stopped like they were told. Fynaurie said she had met humans so she was definitely the one to take the lead here.
 
Fynaurie leant on her glaive, keeping the point straight upwards. She lifted her left hand and gave a wave.

"Hello!" She called out.

This alone seemed to prompt a conversation between the humans.

"What do you want?" came the sharp question.

Fynaurie turned towards Cerridwen. She gave an awkward little shrug. "What do you think we should say?" She whispered, eyeing those archers.
 
The humans did not seem to like the greeting and the wave. Maybe this was a terrible idea and they should just back away and go home. Forget all of this mess. Forget their curiosity.

"Um..." Cerridwen was as elegant as usual with that reply to Fynaurie.

"We just wanted to meet some of the humans in the area..." She called back to the guard who had asked the question.

Cerridwen looked at Fynaurie with a frown and a shrug. "The truth?"
 
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Fynaurie shrugged back.

"Yeah...hopefully that..." she whispered.

"Do you come from your people officially?" The humans called out.

"Oh...I didn't think they'd ask that..." Fynaurie hissed at Cerridwen.

"Er...No!" Fynaurie called out.

The humans turned amongst themselves to discuss this. It apparently was not what they had expected.

"Was this a bad idea?" She hissed out of the corner of her mouth.
 
Cerridwen had been asking herself the same question. Was this a bad idea? Right now it seemed like the answer to that was a resounding yes. They were definitely about to get killed her and their people would probably say oh well they did it to themselves and use them as examples on why they didn't talk to outsiders.

"I think so," Cerridwen answered at the same time three of the humans came walking towards them.

Cerridwen felt herself stiffen as they approached and looked both elves over. She tried to look as nice as possible.
 
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Fynaurie took a half step backwards before steadying herself. She met the gaze of the man who looked to be in charge of the other two guards.

They had cheap armour. Boiled leather with some thin plates of iron sewn in around the chest. Swords looked rudimentary, but remained in their sheaths.

They gave Fynaurie's glaive a disapproving look, but didn't try to take the weapon from her.

"Spying on our defences?" the lead asked, keeping a good few yards between them.

"We could...have just flown over to do that?" Fynaurie suggested, pointing upwards.

"They don't look much," one of the two guards grunted. Fynaurie wasn't quite sure what he meant by that.

"You can go into town. No trouble. These two will escort you around."
 
Cerridwen let out a very small sigh of relief when the leader gave the okay for the two strangers to enter his city.

"Thank you," Cerridwen said with a smile. "We promise not to cause any trouble."

And with that assurance (and a grunt from the leader), the five of them started to walk back towards to walled town. She looked up at the archers as they walked and noticed that they had not yet lowered their bows.

"What do humans do here?" She was genuinely curious when she asked this question of one of their guards. "Sorry...what is there to do here?" The healer amended her question.
 
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Fynaurie didn't sigh, but the tension left her body very visibly as they were granted entry. She didn't know that the two guards were not great human warriors, but part timers who could barely swing their swords.

It wasn't even the danger that concerned her. If she got into a fight and was chased from the town it would be something that she needed to report. That was what frightened her.

"What is there to do?" echoed the guard.

Fynaurie could see where they were coming from. Life in their tower didn't always afford much time for relaxation.

"There is the Inn?" offered the other guard.

"What's an 'in'?" Fynaurie asked with more enthusiasm than they had expected.

"It's where you buy beer...or rent a room..."

"Oh," said Fynaurie to the unexpected answer.
 
Cerridwen was as perplexed as Fynaurie. Humans were strange creatures. They had a place where people went to rent rooms? Did people not have homes? She was curious if this beer was like the wine that they partook in sometimes.

All things to find out.

The real question here was if they say something or just go with it? Definitely just go with it.

Cerridwen smiled at the guard who had answered. "Could you bring us there, please?"

He nodded and they all started in that direction.
 
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The inn was noticeably larger than the buildings around it. It had a wide front directly onto what Fynaurie assumed passed for a road through the town. It was the widest Street, even though it was simply made of compacted dirt.

The building had a heavy wooden from, wattle and daub construction. The dark wood and white walls made geometric shapes which Fynaurie found quite pleasing. Very different from the endless stone of their towers. Towers constructed by a race that had long since left Arethil.

She opened the door. It was quite dark inside, even with some shutters open. There were a few people sat at wooden stools around a bar. They were drinking from wooden mugs, with a frothy foam of suds visible on their drinks.

"It's quiet now," explained a guard, "but in an hour it will get busy."

There was a large, rotund man behind the bar. He eyed the two elves suspiciously.
 
Cerridwen stood next to Fynaurie awkwardly as she looked around the bar. It was an interesting place to say the least. The bar top held the wooden mugs, some platters of food, and gold coins. Gold coins.

She leaned close to Fynaurie and whispered, "do we have coin?"

The healer did not but she was not sure if the Dragoons carried any. These humans certainly were not going to give them free drinks and food.
 
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Fynaurie fished around in her pockets and pouches. She didn't have any human coins, but she had what they used for transactions.

They were pressed rectangles of silver. No number etched into them, only the same pressed symbol of a tower. Different sizes were different denominations.

Fynaurie marched up to the bar and took a stool. The barman gave the glaive she leaned on the bar a suspicious glance. One of the guards shrugged. Their presence seemed to reassure him.

"Can we use these?"

He reached over a took a piece of silver and turned it over in his hand.

"Yup."

"Erm, two...beers?"

He took the piece of silver. It was worth an entire flagon of wine and she winced, but she wasn't going to argue.
 
Cerridwen watched the human turn the piece of silver in his hand and she let out a small sigh of relief when he said yup. She was quite interested in finding out what beer tasted like. She didn't even know what beer was but it seemed to be along the same lines of wine. Possibly? Maybe.

The barman threw a weary smile at the two elves before turning to get them two giant mugs with frothy liquid. He set them on the bar top and Cerridwen eyed it suspiciously. Wine was not frothy like that.

The healer tentatively picked up the mug and brought it to her lips. She tipped it back and let the liquid fill her mouth. That was interesting. It was slightly sweet but also bitter? It was very confusing and it was nothing like wine!
 
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The two guards seemed to lose interest in immediate events. Seeing an opportunity for a rest, they took a table in the corner. They kept their backs to the wall so they could watch the elves, but waved for the innkeeper to bring them some bread and cheese.

Fynaurie tilted her head to one side as she considered the drink. It was surprisingly bland. Almost like water with a bitter note to it. It was clearly much, much weaker than the wine they made in the tower.

"It's...alright?" She whispered to Cerridwen, taking another swig.
 
Cerridwen chuckled softly at Fynaurie's whisper. That pretty much summed it up. It was alright. She was not really sure why someone would choose this over wine unless the wine the humans made was equally alright.

"Do you think they have wine?" Cerridwen whispered back and took another drink. She was not going to waste it.

"Do humans really just come here to drink this stuff? That seems...boring."

Humans were clearly complex, weird creatures.
 
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Fynaurie glanced over her shoulder. A pack of cards had emerged and the two guards had started dealing.

"I...think most of the people are doing work and whatever things they do here."

Fynaurie leaned forwards over the bar. She was trying to be as surreptitious about it as possible, but the innkeeper saw and pulled a face at her.

"I don't think they have wine," Fynaurie hissed. "It isn't that the beer is bad. It's just...without almost anything approaching what I'd call flavour..."
 
"It has the flavor of grain and grain does not have flavor," Cerridwen agreed with a soft chuckle.

She thought about asking the barkeep about wine but they were already being judged so she did not want to push it on their welcome.

"How much more coin do you have? I have a feeling that they will want us to drink more than one of these things..."

If she was being honest, she was not actually sure if she could drink another. She decided to suck it up and raised her hand to call over the barkeep.

"I was just wondering what else you have to drink? Where we come from we only have wine so we are interested in seeing what other people have."
 
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"There's water..." he said, turning and waving at a small open barrel. It didn't look particularly clean to Fynaurie. She wrinkled her nose.

"And we have some gin. Shelly brews it out back," he added, waving to some green glass bottles in the shelf.

To Fynaurie, it looked more appealing than the water. She took a smaller piece of silver out and placed it on the bar.

"Would that do for two gins?" She asked, suspecting she had overpaid the first time.
 
The barkeep looked at the small silver and nodded but slid it back towards Fynaurie. "Your first silver covered it already. That will cover another two if you want more," he said before turning to get two glasses of gin.

He had a mischievous glint in his eye as he smirked then threw a look at the guards who had stopped playing cards to watch. "It is stronger than the ale, ladies," he said with the smirk still on his face.

"Thank you," Cerridwen replied then took a tentative sip. The liquid burned and she started coughing immediately eliciting a round of cheers and laughter from the patrons.

Was this some weird human rite of passage?
 
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