Zou visits the Drunken Rat Tavern

[Jaspenellar]

Lo'en did not flinch at the touch of the strange man, but she did gaze down and wondered mildly if he had a habit of touching every stranger he met. A dangerous habit, unless he had already measured her as harmless. Subtlety once could have been mis-interpreted, but the half-elf heard in the blind woman's words what she had mistaken for small talk in the man's and held her tongue as the woman directed her talk to the other patrons in the tavern.

She sat back in her chair and contemplated the company. She did not doubt the blind woman's words to their other companion which reaffirmed her initial assessment. The half-elf was becoming even more assured of the hungry girl's vulnerability as she had skirted the question and was acting very furtive. The new male that the blind woman was addressing could have purposely chosen his table near their own since there were still open seats at the bar, one of which he had recently vacated, as well a few other open tables at the other end of the room.

" 'Slong as 'tis not catching," Lo'en grumbled under her breath, sincerely desiring to have not travelled all this time only to fall prey to some disease from a city-dweller.

[Aura Thesin]

Aura finished her stew while watching the goings on of the next table subtly, keeping her head down, but looking upwards past her eyebrows to see. She caught the touch from the disfigured man on the arm of the woman who had asked her about the stew, missing the wink as he was mostly turned away from her.

She listened, catching most of the words over the din of the tavern, but found nothing much to interest her. She wondered, at one point, who the deeply accented woman was talking to about lurking, but quickly ascertaining it wasn't her, Aura continued on with her own business. Pushing the bowl of stew away, she took a small drink of her wine to wash the worst of the taste from her mouth.

Aura let her gaze wander, not really watching or listening to those at the table next to her anymore. Her eyes caught on a large-ish man, broad shouldered with a barrel chest and an ample gut. His hair was thinned to a widow's peak on top, and he was staring at her. When he noticed her notice him, his grin widened, and he virtually leered at her.

Aura groaned inwardly, while offering the man a sickly smile. She had never been good with interactions between men and women ... in -that- way, and it showed. Little did she know that the man would take her wan smile as an invitation to get to know her better.

Aura had known she wasn't picking the best tavern, but she wished now that she had just kept walking instead of letting her small amount of coins choose a cheap place. Placing enough Bishan to pay for the meal and wine, along with a small tip, Aura stood and began making her way to the door, taking a more circuitous route than was needed in order to avoid her would be suitor. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she saw the man stand and begin making his way towards the door as well, still leering at her the entire way. Aura picked up speed to try to make it to the door before he did.

It was not to be. The man easily intercepted her at the door, the leer still in place on his face as he looked at her from top to bottom. Aura shivered, feeling suddenly naked in front of the entire tavern.

"Ye be wishin' ta come back ta me place for a bit o' fun, do ye?" he asked in the rough accents of the common man.

Aura offered another sickly smile and shook her head. "No, good sir. I would prefer to be on my way alone, this night."

The man's grin slipped only slightly before he continued. "Tis dangerous 'round these parts fer a lonely w'man ta walk on her own. Could get ... hurt." The widening of his grin let Aura know his true intention.

With another shake of her head, Aura tried to quickly slip around the big man, but he moved surprisingly quickly. Aura's upper arm was clamped tight, the man's fingers digging deeply into her flesh. She bit off a cry before it could escape her lips, and it suddenly showed in her eyes that she wasn't the nervous girl with an over eager suitor anymore. She stared hard at the man, trying not to let the anger and frustration over her situation rule her.

The man hissed down at her in a voice barely audible to her, his leer again taking her in from feet to head. "I dun think ye get it, lass. T'was nay a request, but ye will be comin' back ta me place wit me, y'hear?"

[Ra'Nali]

Ra'Nali wasn't about to argue with the woman, she hadn't really asked so much as ordered, and he didn't feel much like causing any sort of scene that night, he was just trying to relax a bit. His chair scraped against the floor of the tavern as he stood. He moved and took a seat beside Caiohme, giving a nod to both Lo'en and Zou. Lo'en's grumbling didn't much bother him, having become way to use to comments like that being said on a daily bases.

"Not actually drinking it." He said to Caiohme, holding his mug out to show that it was still almost full. His voice was weak, raspy, only a few decibels higher than a whisper, and it hurt him to get it that loud. Constantly coughing for 3 years had left his vocal chords shot, and forcing words out was difficult, so he kept all of his sentences short, and to the point, leaving out words that were unnecessary to getting the point across. "Not sure what plagues me. Lungs fill with blood, not spreadable."

Socially awkward would be a rather large understatement. Truth be told Ra'Nali didn't talk to anyone, he didn't have much of a point to. It wasn't that he didn't like people, it was just most people didn't associate with him for fear his illness was contagious, and he didn't associate with people for their own comfort. Out of the corner of his eye he watched the situation developing between the girl and the man. He sighed mentally, this was troublesome. He had not want to get involved, he wasn't that nice of a person, it was the inns owners job to deal with people like that. However if the man kept this up, he'd be breaking the law, and Ra would need to go get a guard or something to deal with it.

[Zou]

Zou raised his eyebrows in a characteristic Zou sort of manner at being called "lord" by Caiomhe, but was quick to respond graciously, in spite of his mild surprise.

"My favour to the door has now lessened considerably, Caiomhe. I like not the burly one occupying its breadth with foul intentions, and neither does the object of those intentions, the lady so recently seated adjacent us. Perhaps I had better remain aloof of this matter... Yet I cannot. Please excuse my hasty departure, friends" spoke Zou softly, nodding especially to the coughing man who had recently taken his seat. "I offer in my defense the promise of a hasty return. First, however, I must compel the mongoloid in the door to pummel the chivalry out of my fool bones, for it cannot abide their inactivity in the face of his unwanted advances upon the lady."

At that, he took the twenty-odd paces solemnly over to the door and approached the tense pair. He knew that he was not in a position to use any of his capabilities, lest he reveal to the patronage his unlawful nature. He was therefore left with his wits alone.

"Say, old fellow. Did you know exactly how many friends the lady has with her this evening? I think you would be wise to find a more willing recipient for your amorous endeavours."

[Caiomhe Feryn]

Caiomhe puzzled over Zou's words. Her grasp of this language was shaky at best, and she wasn't really understanding half of what he said. She stopped trying to work it out when she reached the phrase about mongoloids, pummeling something, chivalry, and bones. Separately she could place to words (well, except from 'mongoloid'), but she didn't see how they fit together.

Cai's attention wasn't much drawn by the woman's plight. The sightstealer tended to have more of her own problems on her mind than others, save those she could help with her powers. Like this man... elf? that she had bossed around. She couldn't quite tell if he was human or elven.

She nodded a bit at Zou instead of offering a response, and turned instead to the new man. She frowned a bit at his voice, though it was what she had more or less expected from coughing. She nibbled on her lip, not entirely sure what to say to him after ordering him around so rudely. She had turned her face away from him by this point, and was now seemingly eyeing the floor and the candles on the table alternately.

She eventually spoke up, not looking too near to the elf-man. She couldn't quite bring herself to apologize for ordering him about in such a fashion, due to her sense of pride, but she did speak softer. "Hae long haev ye had yer problem, ser? I em glad tae hear ye nae are drinkin' thae 'coholic stuff'n... 'tis one o' thae most herribel things ye could dae fer'n a cough o' such a saert."

She laughed slightly, though it was more of a covered cough of her own. A faint blush mantled her cheeks, but whether it was in embarassment or shame was hard to tell. One would have to have sharp eyes to even see it in a dim light, but her next words explained it. "Fergive'n meself, ser. I em Caiomhe, but'n ye can be a'calling me Cai, should ye like."

[Jaspenellar]

Wincing visibly as the white-maned gentleman, true to the description, took his leave from the table, Lo'en turned her attention back to the remaining persons. The whispery coughing man was furtively keeping track of the situation developing at the door whereas the blind woman was doing her best to ignore it and take their attention from it. That made sense to the half-elf- a blind woman would not make it far in the world if she stepped into everybody else's problems. Lo'en was mildly curious as to the man's interest in the situation, perhaps it was simply a bystander's interest in the outcome. Knowing nothing about healing on the deep illness level, her attention was drawn back to the scene, noting the very faint scent of goat had faded with that man's departure from the immediate area.

He did not appear armed, but he did not appear to be any kind of fighter either. The situation puzzled the half elf, wondering if the scholarly man was planning on confusing the large one with his large vocabulary. There was no taunting in his tone, but the quiet confidence in his words was sure to anger the clearly belligerent man. Judging by the persistance in which he had followed the young woman to the door, Lo'en figured he would not drop his "candy" on the floor at the behest of a tall, skinny strange looking man. The half-elf weighed her choices superficially- to get up and provide back up for the no-nose man for a silly little girl would probably gain her nothing but some bruises, perhaps a night in jail, and more than likely lose her any opportunity for employment at this establishment. To remain seated and ignore the situation would get her at least the opportunity to question the barkeep for a job and leave her in the mundane company of a blind healer woman and a sickly man.

Lo'en stood, leaving her travel bag on the floor near her chair and her bow propped against it. She was never prone to making any smart choices- life tended to be a lot more boring living intelligently.

[Aura Thesin]

Aura's mouth opened to allow a scathing remark out, to bring the man down a notch, when another voice sounded in the conversation.

"Say, old fellow. Did you know exactly how many friends the lady has with her this evening? I think you would be wise to find a more willing recipient for your amorous endeavours."

Quick with words herself, Aura took only a moment to follow the gist of the man's words. Though her eyes never left the man with a grip on her arm, her ears recognized the voice as one of the gentlemen seated near her only moments before. Unless she missed her guess, it was the fellow with little left to his nose.

The man in front of her turned his gaze to the skinny whelp, sneering. "Per'aps ye shud mind yer own bizness, ya?"

His grip tightened unintentionally on Aura's arm, causing the merest squeak of pain to push past her lips before she bit down on them. With a warrior's eyes, she noticed the man's fist clench, and she knew that his man knew how to fight with both hands.

From the corners of her eyes, Aura could see at least one other approaching, though it seemed most of the rest of this area of the tavern was ignoring the situation.

It wasn't quite prudent for her to act yet. Ever the prudent one, Aura awaited her opportunity.

[Zou]

Zou's perky ears had picked up on Lo'en's approach, and was reassured a little. His gut still quaked within him, but he was careful to show no trace of fear or emotion in the delivery of his next words. Beer muscles urged forth a scathing bravery that the sober corners of his mind were loath to let pass.

"If my business were half as interesting as the shape of your skull, I most certainly would."

As he finished his sentence, Zou swung a beer glass suddenly down towards the man's head with all his speed and might, hoping the girl would be quick enough to effect an escape in the throes of this little surprise.

[Caiomhe Feryn]

Caiomhe, as she waited for the elf's response, turned her attention to the ensuing fight. She'd been listening with half an ear to it, though she'd decided to do nothing about it. What could she do? She smiled just a touch. Well, she could put everyone to sleep and then leave, but that wouldn't be considered nice, and would likely draw the government's eyes to her.

And that wouldn't be any fun...

She sat, not 'watching' the drama ensue, but turning her head slightly to bring in the best sounds of the action. She felt the brush of the air disturbed from Lo'en's passing against her arm and knew that the lady had gone to help in the fight.

A tinkling smash of glass had her wince with a healer's sympathy. She hoped Zou had smashed a bottle before. She'd seen once, back when she still could see and was training to become a healer, a man's hand who had smashed a bottle and then squeezed his hand. A smashing bottle creates fracture lines all along the neck of it, or at least the one she'd seen had, and her healer teacher had spent the majority of the night removing glass shards from the man's hand.

She leaned back slightly in her chair and waited for a scream, from who she didn't know. She touched her herb-and-bandage-stuffed pouch, just in case.

[Aura Thesin]

Aura kept her eyes on the bigger man while his attention was distracted by the others approaching. No one else in the bar, save for the two from the table next to her, seemed to be inclined to help. She hardly heard the fellow from the table speak again.

Suddenly, the big man was dragging her forward, while throwing up his forearm to deflect the blow from the beer glass. It glanced off his forearm, barely missing Aura as she was pulled into him, and then bounced off his shoulder. As the man had backed up from the attack, he bumped a table, and a glass sitting at the edge of the table overbalanced at the edge and dropped to the floor, shattering.

Surprised by the sudden movement, Aura hesitated for only a moment. Her back was to the man, and she was facing towards the attacking group. Her left knee rose, almost as if to kick the no-nosed man in front of her. As it reached hip height, she reversed it's direction and drove the heel of her left foot into the top of the man's own left foot. The thump could be felt through the floor, if not heard over the still loud buzz of conversation, the drunken patrons of the tavern still not realizing there was a fight in their midst.

The man lifted his foot and grunted in pain, his grip on Aura's arm loosening. Aura took her chance and brought her left hand up to grab the big man's right hand fingers and twisted in his grip. As she turned to face him, she clamped her fingers around his middle and ring fingers and pushed back in towards him. The sudden movement from his previously docile victim drove the man back again, allowing Aura to get the leverage she needed. Rolling her wrist over, she drove his middle and ring fingers back and down, pinching the nerve at the back of his hand.

With a grunt of pain, the man was driven down to his knees. Aura stood over him, straining forward, using all of her power to drive his fingers back. With twin pops, his finger joints dislocated. A gasp of pain escaped his lips, but at the same time, he swung his left hand at her, the fist glancing off her hip. Barely maintaining her balance, Aura decided it was time to finish this.

Again, her knee came up, driven hard into the man's face, breaking his nose and sending a spray of blood over the table behind him. Unconscious and limp, he collapsed to the floor, Aura's hand still holding the man's fingers as she breathed heavily, glaring down at him.

The entire incident from beer glass to finish had taken only a mere moment of time.

[Jaspenellar]

"Well," was all that Lo'en could say in response to the very short, very efficient 'fight', if one could call it that. She had been a pace behind Zou when he raised the bottle, just as she was in the midst of thinking his words sounded much more provocative than calming. The half-elf had taken a quick step forward, but as she was reaching one hand out to yank the tall lanky man back and one hand behind her back for her larger knife, the girl was moving quickly. Lo'en did continue with her motion and pulled Zou backward, not trusting him to get out of the way himself, but she stayed her knife as the scrap seemed to be over.

"I guess there wasn't much need for us, then." Lo'en eyed her present company, not sure anymore what to make of this girl, not feeling entirely at ease.

[Ra'Nali]

"Ra'Nali Solatia" The raspy whisper finally came out of Ra's mouth, he had been a bit distracted by the 'fight.' Glad he was not going to have to get involved, he devoted all his attention to the first person to be polite to him in a long long time. Even if she was a tad bossy, it was still enjoyable to here something other than, 'heal me, as long as you won't get me sick in the process' and things along those lines. Even if he wasn't sick, the fact he used magic made the common folk dislike him, even if it was government sanctioned.

"3 years it has ailed me" was his answer to the first question. At least she is showing an interest other than 'oh no don't let me catch it!' Bringing his hand to his mouth he coughed lightly, well, it was a painful sounding cough to be sure, but it was light for him. A few deep breaths, deep for him anyways, and the coughing stopped.

His bright gray green eyes scan over Cai's...the film, along with her mannerisms, he was sure she was blind. Even though he was not great with social interaction, jumping up and yelling 'your blind' wouldn't be right. "Accent. Were you from?" He managed to make the whisper sound polite...kind of.

[Zou]

As the stumbling Zou was extracted from the maelstrom by Lo'en's deft hand, he absentmindedly (and redundantly) dusted off his robes, feeling rather pleased with himself. He had accomplished what he had set out to do, mainly to provide some form of distraction, and more! There was not a scratch on him, a fact which baffled him to no end.

He muttered a satisfied sort of "well, um... quite, yes..." and then offered Aura a seat at their table. "Errhm... Quite a show, I must say. Very impressive... Would you grace our party with your presence, madam?"

Zou cast a sidelong glance at Lo'en, eyebrows striving ineffectually to catch the wrinkles of surprise laden upon his tanned forehead, and blinked twice.

[Caiomhe Feryn]

Caiomhe noted the fight was done as well, giving a brief nod in Zou's direction as he returned with his new guest to the table, seeming flustered. She'd heard the thud of his foot against the rough floor as Lo'en had pulled him out of the danger zone, and she'd also recognized the sounds of fighting on the other woman's behalf, the new one.

She turned back to this man, Ra'Nali... something. He'd asked about the accent, of course, and she'd guessed that the brief pause in which she'd felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise due to someone watching was him looking at her eyes. So he'd probably guessed that she was blind, not that it was hard to tell.

She decided to answer his question, looking him in the face, seeing if her milky-green gaze would unnerve him. It seemed to make people uncomfortable, and it was a sort of misplaced and wrong sense of humor that drove her to look him in the face. She remembered how it was to look at people, and she roughly remembered where the eyes were in someone else's face, so she stared at the approximate area of where Ra'Nali's voice was coming from.

"I'm frum far tae thae west'n, ser Ra'Nali. But I dinnae call ye o'er here tae be exchangin' plaesantries. Ye donnae be a knooing what plagues ye, and yet ye have been a slave tae et fer three years noow? Are thae sae few healers en this depressed toon that ye cannae be a'healed?" The slight rebuke wasn't sharp, but the implied question was. What she was really asking, though not in so many words, was if Ra'Nali was really stupid enough to go for three years with a chest-rattling cough.

Caiomhe wasn't being nice, but she wasn't being flat-out rude either. It was somewhere in between, where she could be insulting and yet polite at the same time. She smiled just a touch, still looking at Ra'Nali.

[Aura Thesin]

Aura finally let go of the unconscious man's fingers. A low moan escaped his lips again as the pain from his dislocated fingers caused him to shift uncomfortably in his unconscious state.

Leaving the man on the floor for the moment, Aura turned to look at Zou and Lo'en. "Thank you for the distraction," she said, glancing back at the man, then up again to the two in front of her. She took the invitation to join their table, but as she walked towards it, she caught sight of the bartender and one of his bouncers hurrying her way.

The bartender stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Ye were lucky thar, lass, but ye shouldna dun what ya did. Him's gots some nasty friens," he glanced over to his bouncer, who was waving another bouncer over to help drag the man out to the street. "T'would be smart of ya ta be gone when he awakes. I'll tell me boys ta get one of tha medics ta drag him down ta tha infirm'ry. Give ya some more time ta get gone."

Aura smiled gratefully at the bartender, then glanced to the table she had been headed towards. She watched as the two bouncers dragged the large man from the bar, and a few moments later, only one came back in. He gave her a smirk, which Aura took as a congratulations from him to her, and offered him a small, shy smile back.

Then she turned to make the acquaintance of her new sitting partners. "Thanks again. I'm called Aura."