Whilst Taryn was, of course, eminently grateful to the Goddess of Life for the mighty gift that was Suraklin’s Bane, he couldn’t help but feel that it had been tantamount to lighting a beacon above his head which sent out a coded message to everyone saying “Potential Undead Slayer Here!”

He had been in the marketplace now for around twenty minutes and no matter how often he looked around, there was always one of the traders staring at the huge mace he wore strapped to his back as though calculating probably two things: what the weapon must be worth and how difficult it would be to dispense of its wielder.

Of course, it could just all have been natural paranoia on his part. He was a fairly well-known face in the markets after all and he’d never been seen carrying a weapon before. The two or three who were bold enough to ask him where he had got it were told, amiably, that he’d always had it, but now that he was effectively homeless after having been booted ungraciously from his room at the Port Authority, he had no choice but to carry it.

It was admired by many of the weaponsmiths, one of whom offered Taryn such a vast sum of gold for it that he had been briefly tempted. Then thoughts of what the Goddess might do to him if he went back to her temple and explained that he’d sold her blessing for cash flitted into his mind and he had turned down the offer.

He’d felt like crying, though.

Presently, he was browsing the wares of a leather worker. He had figured that if he was going to wandering around with this huge mace, then the likelihood of attacks on his person were likely to increase in tandem and a little personal protection might not go fully amiss. Of course, he was marginally limited, given that for whatever reason, his particular magical ability refused to work through anything stronger than hard leather: another one of the experiments that he had volunteered for back at the College. There were some mages who could wear anything up to and including plate and scale mail armour and still successfully cast their spells, but Taryn had found that chain mail and upwards blocked his spellcasting. This was not uncommon, but disappointed him greatly. He’d always fancied himself as potentially looking rather dashing in chain mail, but alas, leather it would have to be.

The merchant whose stall he was browsing was eyeing the young mage rather than his mace and sifting through the assorted armours that he had available here and now, finding one that would fit Taryn’s surprisingly broad shoulders. He may have been tall and slender, but he had dedicated some of his spare time to the various exercise opportunities that were made available to the young men and women of the College and had become quite athletic in the process. Athletic perhaps, graceful…not so much.

“You might find that this tunic is a perfect fit,” said the merchant, a decidedly greasy little chap, whose sales manner was just as oily as his hair. He indicated some hard, black leather armour, with steel studding on the body and the pauldrons, buckles that fastened just below the arm. “Try it on. You will see! It will serve you well. This leather is cured by my own brother…”

He continued talking whilst Taryn carefully set the mace down where he could see it and slid into the armour. The merchant did up the buckles tightly enough that the armour sat comfortably, but not so tight that his breathing was restricted. He jiggled up and down a bit to see how it felt.

It felt surprisingly good, actually.

He picked up the mace again and looked in the full length looking-glass that the merchant had at the back of the stall. He cut a rather impressive figure in his armour, holding a mace.

As he stood there admiring his reflection, a lock of hair fell into his face, rather spoiling the effect. He sighed and pushed it back behind his ears. He looked so ridiculously young. Wurzag and Thal had suggested that he needed a few scars. Perhaps one or two of those would…

What in the name of all the gods are you thinking, Taryn? Since when did you become a demon slaying hero? You’re a FIRE mage, for the love of all that is good and holy. Stick to what you know!

“It looks good,” he acknowledged, a little grouchily. “Feels comfortable.”

“And to you, my good friend, a mere one hundred gold.”

“It doesn’t feel that comfortable,” countered Taryn, immediately starting to undo the buckle. “It feels about fifty gold comfortable to me.”

“Ah, you force my hand! I am distraught! But ah, Master Pallerion, you did help me with my account books that time – for you, perhaps, ninety.”

“Sixty five.”

“Seventy.”

“Done.”

“Done.”

“Yeah,” said Taryn, ruefully, shaking the merchant’s hand and parting reluctantly with the gold. “I think I have been.”

Alchemy had woken up in a very good mood that morning, of course this was perfectly normal for a girl like her. She liked the idea of thinking positively all the time, for example: A guy waking up might usually think 'not another morning' or 'egh, too sleepy' whereas Alchemy would go somewhere along the lines of 'morning, that means only ten hours to make friends and have adventures, best get started' or similar. So as fate would have it, Alchemy was walking through the marketplace, humming merrily to herself and doing more of admiring the good than actually doing any buying, despite the merchants' best attempts to goad her. Alchemy merely replied with a pleasant smile and skipped off to the next stall to see what they were offering.

Alchemy did have money with her, and she did intend to spend some of it, she was thinking something along the lines of a late or early birthday present for herself. Since Alchemy had chosen to forget about her past she had therefore forgotten her own birthday, and so bought herself presents and called them 'late' or 'early' birthday presents to make up for that fact. Money was pretty easy coming to Alchemy too, even if she only worked part time and received minimum wage, she could still treat herself to just about anything that took her fancy.

Alchemy was currently bending down over a stall of jewelery winking up at her. Alchemy spent more time at these than most others, simply to admire the objects.
"How much for that one?" She asked, indicating a large diamond necklace in the middle.
The kind looking old lady behind the stall peered down to what Alchemy was indicating.
"Ah, dwarf craftsmanship that," she said, obviously trying to goad Alchemy into buying the artifact even more "I'd put it to be around 5000 gold crowns."
Alchemy felt her own face drop slowly, almost like it was melting off her face.
"Oh." Was all she could reply.
Possibly if she worked her back off non stop for nine months solid and never paid her rent or food she might be able to afford it, however Alchemy wasn't even close to half the price of it.
"Never mind," she said, brightening up again "I'll just come back later!"
Ten years later, maybe,

She turned about and wandered off, feeling defeated.
"Well that bites," she sighed "The only way I'm ever going to get that is if I steal it, and I can't see that happening in a million years."
She sighed and looked down at her sword swinging casually at her side.
"What do you think?" She asked the inanimate weapon "Should I give up or work my elbows off?"
The sword gave no reply, but Alchemy assumed it had a neutral opinion.
"Oh well, guess I'll have to look for something else then." She finished.

Taryn had, of course, spotted the petite red-head. He had an eye for such interesting things and if he were brutally honest with himself, he did have a bit of a thing for girls with red hair. Maybe it was something to do with his affinity with fire, but whatever it was, he found his feet taking charge of the situation and taking him across in her general direction.

She could do with a bit of feeding up, his inner critical self pointed out. Taryn slapped the thought away and watched the young woman from a distance. His inner self slunk back again straight away.

Taryanderon DeVere Pallerion, you are about to embark on what could well be the very last journey of your entire existence. You've been given a Quest. You're in the market for buying a coffin and yet here you are, eyeing up girls in the market place. What the hell is wrong with you?

Taryn had a long running association with his conscience. Over the years, he had largely learned to ignore it - although when it came to matters of the heart, he had an uncanny ability to shove it far, far away from himself. It was the mental equivalent of sticking his fingers in his ears and going 'la la la la' very loudly.

He watched the young woman for a little longer and a brief smile flickered around his lips when she picked up the diamond necklace. He watched as she walked away, her shoulders in a slight droop, giving away the fact that the old biddy behind the stall had overpriced what to his eye, even from back here, was a fake. Of course, even if it was a fake, it would still be a costly piece - but perhaps there might be something else...and she was very pretty...

Ah, what the heck.

When he wanted to be, Taryn could be extraordinarily charming. It was a natural skill that he had been blessed with and it had got him out of more trouble than he cared to remember. Of course, it had largely been his charm that had gotten him into most of that trouble to start with...but that was by the by.

"Good morning, Barlia," he said, approaching the stall and letting his most winning smile slide onto his face. He knew this old lady very well; she had received several shipments of jewellery whilst he had been working for the Port Authority and had always commented what a pleasant young man he was. He was about to see if he could turn that passing comment to his own ends.

"Master Pallerion!" Despite her age, the old lady managed to preen a little. "How nice to see you!" She frowned. "You look...different."

"It's probably the leather," he said, shifting about a bit so the still-shiny new armour settled more comfortably on his shoulders. "I'm going to be heading off on a journey soon and I was hoping that I might be able to buy one of your pieces for a young lady." He waggled his eyebrows. "As a parting gift. You know. And I couldn't think of anybody who sold such beautiful pieces as you."

It didn't take much for Taryn to win the old woman over and he bartered down the price of a pretty silver charm bracelet to a mere few silver - considerably less than the five gold she had started at. He reached across the stall and kissed her old wrinkled hand.

"When I return from my adventures," he said, "I may have more money to spend. And you can bet that you will be one of my first visitors."

With that charming farewell, he was gone. He'd made the old dear's day.

His long stride allowed him to easily catch up to the red haired girl and he mentally ran through his repertoire before he settled on how to play it.

"Excuse me," he said, sliding a definite shy tone into his voice. "I couldn't help seeing you at Barlia's stall...you looked so sad when you walked away. Here, please, take this as a gift." He held out the silver charm bracelet. "I'd like to see you smile again."

He stood there, a slightly bashful expression on his face, his blue eyes slightly downcast (so as better to show off what he had been told were very long eyelashes), letting his hair cover his face. He glanced up once or twice, but seemed nervous and anxious to look at her. When he did look up for long enough, she saw the fading bruises on his face from his encounter with one of his conquest's husbands a few days back.

"Please accept it," he said, with a smile. "It does my heart good to put a smile on a beautiful woman's face."

Alchemy stopped a little way off from the lady's stall, breathing a heavy sigh. Despite her self imposed illusion that her sword understood every word she said and even spoke back in its own special way, it made for a very boring conversation when it was merely taking a neutral approach to the situation and not really swaying Alchemy one way or another, a fine help that was when she needed something doing. Vyri-Sys was probably one of the reasons that Alchemy kept herself in an almost constant positive hyper-drive, it was a very pretty sword as well although Alchemy was unsure why she felt to attached to it.

She shrugged this thought off and began glancing about to see what else was on display, she had browsed virtually all the items and gifts stalls and since she had no interest in weapons, armor or magical artifacts, she had pretty much run out of places to browse about. She supposed she could redo the stalls she'd been through, but she'd only end up with the same results as before, she had a pretty tight budget already, what with having to buy food and stuff like that. She eventually decided that for this year she might lay off the personal birthday present to herself and see if she could get two next year.

She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and looked up with her usual smile, happily elated again at the prospect of two presents in one year, if she could hold a job that long. She was a keen worker but of course sometimes a little too keen, having rushed her chores a little too much and always missing a spot somewhere along the line. Still she kept her employer in a good mood as well as the customers she served, and so far she hadn't encountered any bar-fights, aside from one before she'd got a job.

Standing here and thinking about random things meant that Alchemy wasn't truly aware of the world around her, and included in this fact was the mage walking up behind her. She jumped as he addressed her, pulling her back into reality with a rough shove, knocking her senses up a notch. Calming down she turned about to see the stranger, and was surprised to see him presenting her with the very same necklace she had been admiring before. Her eyes widened in wonderment, at the same rate her cheeks turned slowly pink. She gulped and took the gift carefully, looking up at the stranger.

It was rather odd to look up at someone taller than you who was attempting to avoid eye contact by looking down, it almost made Alchemy think there was something shiny on her foot or something.
"Oh. Err....Thank you sir," she replied, glancing down at the necklace fondly, a soft smile spreading over her face.
She remained quiet for most of the next few minutes, at a complete loss for what to say, after all it wasn't everyday a man came and delivered a beautiful item of jewelery to her, mind you it wasn't everyday you found a sword next to you without any question of how it got there, nor did you see a red-haired human everyday especially topped off with slitted pupils and a collar burnt onto her neck.

She swallowed and looked back up at the man, catching a glance of an odd bruise on his face when he actually looked at her. Much to her own surprise she found herself keen not to make eye contact as well, partly because it saved her looking up. She supposed he would be good looking, however she had never thought herself as really being a 'guy' sort of girl, or whatever that was described as.
"I.....I'm Alchemy," she said bashfully "Alchemy Testerossa."

(OOC: It said 'open to all' so I hope this is ok. I'm also an uber-newbie to the site, so please tell me if I mess up anything.)

She dreamed of falling.

Air rushed past her face, and her heart beat so furiously that it threatened to tear through her chest. The ache inside her was a black, hollow emptiness that only grew stronger as she was pulled downward, farther and farther from her other half. In despair she looked below her, and saw nothing but blackness.

Her eyes opened.

Rièle inhaled the overwhelming scent of hay, and... horse dung. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes. The dream wasn't new to her, but she forced thoughts of its significance to the back of her mind for the time being and replaced them with more immediate concerns. Sitting up, she began pulling large straws of hay from her hair and clothes. The previous night had found her alone and without any coin, so she'd spent the night on a haystack behind an innkeep's barn. She reflected that she'd managed to sleep surprisingly late, it was strange that no one had discovered her any earlier. After passing several groggy moments in the receding patch of warmth that had been her bed Rièle resigned herself to the beginning of a new day, and stood. Her muscles were stiff from sleeping on the lumpy hay so she extended her arms and stretched.

A horse whickered nearby. Turning around, Rièle found one of the animals staring at her through a nearby fence. Its expression clearly suggested that it expected her to produce some tasty morsel from her back pocket. She returned the stare, and in turn contemplated what a tasty morsel such a fit and well-fed hindquarter might make, swiftly seared. Disquieted, the animal withdrew, and Rièle grinned. That'll teach you to poop near my bed.

Echoing the thought of food, her stomach expressed an unpleasantly audible growl. Rièle supposed it was reasonable for it to complain, given the lateness of the hour and the fact that she hadn't had anything to eat yesterday. Still she was no stranger to hunger, and willed her mind to explain patience to her stomach. Food would have to be her first priority for the day.

And then I'll find something to interesting to study. Hopefully her curiosity wouldn't pique before her stomach was full. That could lead to... complications.

She made her way down the road and entered the marketplace. This was definitely the place where humans in this area procured food, except all of them traded money for it, and at the moment she didn't have any. She set about browsing the stalls, hoping that she might find someone interested in purchasing a modest potion in exchange for a few coins. Those she had with her weren't particularly valuable or interesting, as she hadn't come upon many useful ingredients lately. This state of poverty didn't bother her, she walked purposefully and patiently past the stalls, content to leave her situation up to fate.

The market was a little disquieting for Rièle, with several mages browsing the stalls, but in such a populated area she'd found that it was difficult to avoid them. Fortunately none so far had been able to see her for what she really was, and thus she remained safe. She assumed that some of these magicians were probably trustworthy, and knew that most were probably not powerful enough to pose a threat, but there were the few among them who would eagerly butcher one of her kind for valuable ingredients to spells of power. And she would not be so quick to trust their kind again.

A man caught her attention, drawing her mind from its musings. He was elderly, for a human, and from the clothes he wore she judged him a farmer. The stall he manned was filled with fresh fruits and vegetables, though Rièle had her eyes on the large brown eggs sitting in a basket on the counter. She approached the stall and smiled at the man, who seemed friendly.

"Good morning, sir," she greeted with a smile.
"Ah, a fine morning it is lass." He rubbed his hands together stiffly, the chill in the morning was stressing his arthritis.
"Would you be willing to trade?" she asked timidly. "I have a small potion that will help with your hands." Rièle pulled a small bottle of the potion out of her bag. "It reduces swelling, and makes the pain less."
The man looked interested. He gestured, and she handed him the bottle. He seemed to examine it for a moment, and then smiled back at her. "Well, this looks fine indeed. How much will you trade for it?"
Rièle looked at the selection in front of her. "One apple, two of those eggs, and we have a trade." The potion was worth twice that, but it was all she needed.
The man nodded. "Done."

Rièle took a large red apple in her left hand, and the two eggs in her right. She felt the fire inside her swell, and directed it down her arm and to her hand. The heat from her skin would have the eggs cooked in minutes.

While she waited she took a bite out of the apple. It was large and sweet, and the juice ran down her chin. From everything she'd heard, a perfect apple. Still she grimaced at the flavor... meat tasted so much better than fruit.

"Pleasure to meet you, Alchemy," said Taryn with a well-practised smile. "My name is Taryanderon Pallerion. My friends call me Taryn. How about you do, too?" His smile was nothing but genuine, the tough leather armour that he'd bought bare minutes earlier making him stand taller than he was used to and even a little uncomfortably.

He indicated the bracelet. "I'm glad you like the gift," he said. "Barlia's workmanship is usually exquisite and that is no exception."

Taryn took the girl in, considering her stance, the weapons. Probably a warrior of some kind, he reasoned. Different indeed from the city girls he was used to flirting with. On the whole, most of the young women that Taryn formed attachments to here in the city weren't likely to slice his head off if he annoyed them.

Tread carefully, young fella-me-lad, he thought to himself as he contemplated his next move. You don't particularly want to be losing your head now.

What to do next? Perhaps an invitation to come for a drink in the inn, or a walk through the market...Taryn felt like it had been weeks since he had last enjoyed the company of a young lady, despite the fact it had only been a couple of days.

As it happened, fate decided to intervene in the way that fate enjoyed doing.

"STOP! THIEF!"

The voice came from somewhere over Taryn's right shoulder, disturbing his train of thought completely. He whirled around. Thieves in the market place weren't uncommon, of course, but it was always worth watching someone make some sort of attempt to be a hero. Only this time, things were more interesting in the worst possible way.

The following events happened very, very quickly.

The thief, a big, burly fellow - perhaps half a foot taller than Taryn, wearing a patched leather jerkin and dark trousers hared away from the stall he had just stolen from, a food stall by the look of it and was presently heading straight in Taryn's direction, a look of panic on his face.

Oh please, no, don't make me try to be a hero in front of this girl, I'm a bloody abject COWARD!

The weight of expectation seemed to be crushing him as he felt all eyes turn to him as the man raced towards him.

Time slowed. Even turning his head felt like he was moving through something that was the consistency of treacle.

Approximately forty seconds later, Taryn no longer had to worry about attempting to be a hero. The thief, panicked as he was, had only seen an armoured young man with a ridiculously huge mace in his way and had reacted by holding out a fist at Taryn's face level as he ran past.

It was a perfect shot and, as Taryn slid to the floor, his brief thought before he passed out was that he was glad he wouldn't be awake to see the look of incredulity on people's faces.

The thief continued running.

Alchemy turned over Taryn's present in her hand, admiring it despite having done a good deal of admiring back at the lady's stall. She'd never had a stranger come up to her and present her with something she desired just like that, not in her recent memory anyway. Of course, Alchemy's eternally positive attitude had chucked all thought of suspicion about this man out the window like an old sock, no matter if he was guilty or not, thus resulting in an almost constant illusion that everyone was a good, kind hearted person, she wasn't dumb but she was extremely stubborn.

She smiled again and look back up at Taryn, having barely listened to what he had said but for once she actually had a general understanding of what he was talking about.
"Yes, thank you si...Err, Taryn," she replied "oh, I already said that."
She didn't blush this time, since those minor side effects were long since over. She had encountered a new friend and already her adrenalin was higher than usual, so naturally she was exited about what else would happen during the course of today. It was a habit of Alchemy's to deliberately go after troublesome events even if she didn't know they were troublesome, she just got exited as the prospect of adventure no matter how dark the plot was.

She went back to admiring the present again, not having any pockets to fit it in she opened the catch and fitted it around her neck so as not to carry it. It stood out against her black shirt, but didn't really go with the outfit too well, she merely decided to get a separate set of clothes that did go with it in the future, possibly her next 'birthday' present to herself.

However, she was dragged out of her pleasant fantasy world when a loud cry came from a stall not too far off:
"STOP! THIEF!"

Alchemy's expression changed to curious interest rather than shock or surprise. However she did have to crane her neck to see the rogue running through the crowd in their general direction. The shock truly came when the man reached her, panic showing on his face he raised his free arm and landed a punch on Taryn's face, knocking him down. At this Alchemy's positive thinking routine took a back seat all of a sudden, she stood by calmly as the thief teared past her however. Her expression had changed again, her eyes seemed to portray a look of anger, while her smile represented one of cheeky malice.

Panic wasn't the best thing for a thief to have whilst running from people trying to stop him, it caused him to lose focus and lash out wildly. One of more of these reasons was probably why he didn't notice Alchemy sprinting along behind him, and it wasn't until she jumped into the air and slammed her knees into his back that he realized he'd been caught. He crumpled under the force generated by Alchemy's body weight and momentum, sliding along the ground for a short way. At this Alchemy seemed to snap out of her mood swing and leaned over, still on the man's back.
"Excuse me, sir," she said "I think it might be best if you apologized to my friend please, I think you might have hurt him."

She stepped off the man and looked behind her, noticing that Taryn hadn't followed her.
"Huh? Did he run off or..." She thought about the events that had just taken place, suddenly remembering him dropping "of fish sticks! Well I guess we'll just have tom huh!?" When she looked about again the thief had gotten to his feet and tore off again, this time keeping a close eye on his back.
Alchemy sighed and scratched the back of her head, frowning.
"Why are people so impolite these days?" She muttered, wandering back over to Taryn.
She looked down at his unconscious body, wondering if her was going to wake up any time and realize the thief had just added to his nice collection of bruises.

Rièle resumed sifting through the market stalls as she waited for her eggs to cook. She nibbled on her apple discontentedly. If she'd had a choice in the matter she wouldn't have bothered eating fruit at all, but she'd found that a human body needed something of a balanced diet in order to function properly. Eating solely protein for an entire week led to certain... digestive pyrotechnics.

Most of the stalls in the market offered jewels, clothes, or trinkets, all things she had no desire to buy. For Rièle the market was more of a study of human customs, a chance to watch them interacting in a situation where a quiet observer would go unnoticed. She'd only been in this land for a few weeks, and it had been difficult to comprehend all of these peoples' behavioral nuances. Her first attempt at trading had been disastrous, she'd had to watch an additional 10 exchanges before she'd been willing to try it again. During her studies, decades ago, she'd spent a great deal of time as a human, so she was familiar with the balance and limitations of her body and with the manipulations of its various appendages. But reading and writing in a human form was vastly different from trying to be one. Her mind seemed to resist the emulation of a being that was so different from what she knew as herself.

A shout behind her made her turn from the group of people she'd been watching. "STOP! THIEF!"

The crowd of people around her began to move in many different directions. Near the farmer's booth she spotted a gigantic human man, running in panic through the crowd. She found herself pushed and shoved at the crowd, until she realized that they had stranded her in the middle of the aisle directly in the giant man's path. He bowled her aside as a rhinocerous would a flamingo.

Rièle hit the ground hard, but as her body was somewhat more sturdy than it appeared, she was unharmed. Her breakfast, however, was flung from her hands, and with a pang of disappointment she watched her apple roll across the dirt and her half-cooked eggs shatter to pieces. A wave of nostalgia washed over her. If she'd been in her normal form, he would've bounced off of her. Heck, if she'd been in her normal form she could fly out of here, feel the wind across her back again, and go back to-

Stop it. This is getting you nowhere.

Rièle watched the thief continue to flee through the market, and winced as he rammed his fist into some unfortunate warrior's face. A second warrior, female from her hair, fled after the thief and down another aisle. Rièle sighed, wondering how the world managed to be so chaotic and maintain the laws of physics at the same time. With as much grace as she could manage she stood up and brushed the dirt off of her skirt. She schooled her mind to patience, and felt her thoughts calm down.

The man who'd been hit by the thief wasn't moving. The crowd was still scattered, and she watched as several people trod on his legs in an attempt to get away from the commotion. Tentatively, she approached him. He was clearly breathing, as his chest moved up and down with a regular rhythm, but other than that he remained still. She moved to stand in the way of a group of people who looked as though they were going to step on him again (that was one useful thing she'd learned from watching humans - they deferred to confidence, feigned or no), and they changed their path to step around her. Things in the market were gradually slowing down and returning to normal, but still the man didn't wake up.

Rièle reached into her bag of potion supplies and fished through her ingredients. She pulled out a small vial of concentrate Eysyl and uncapped it. Hesitating only a little at getting so close to a human she didn't know, she crouched down and held it under his nose.

As she waited, a shadow passed over her head, and stopped there. Rièle looked up to see the red-haired warrior who'd run after the thief standing over her. What did she want? Rièle started to get nervous, but stopped herself from panicking. She would simply wait for the other woman to speak first.

Afterwards, Taryn would have had a hard time explaining exactly why it was that the man's fist had managed to render him unconscious. It was just one of those unfortunate things where he smacked exactly the right spot via a very, very cruel twist of fate.

However, that was afterwards. This was now.

He was dragged from the woolly embrace of unconsciousness by what had to be the foulest stench he had ever known in his entire life, right up to and including the stench of the undead. And that had been pretty powerful. Of course, these things are never graceful or impressive - and so it was with absolutely no grace or charm that Taryn sat bolt upright and said, in a panicked voice, "And a pound of langoustine as well, please!"

He blinked. His unconsciousness-induced dreams of shrimp dissipated into the mists of reality and made a series of interesting discoveries. Firstly, he realised that he was sitting on the ground of the market place. Following this, he looked around blearily to take in two young ladies, one with red hair who he vaguely recalled having spoken to right before whatever had just happened had...well...happened. Thirdly, he discovered that he had the most horrible pain in his cheekbone - and, bizarrely, his legs.

Finally, he realised that he could taste blood in his mouth. His blood. Now, Taryn was by no stretch of the imagination even remotely vampirical in any way, shape or form, and the taste of blood was not like some highly prized delicately. It was metallic and highly unpleasant. He fumbled for his water canteen and took a swig of water which he swished around his mouth.

"What," he said, in a very faint sort of voice, "the hell just happened?"

The faint voice was partly an affectation. Taryn was who he was. If he had just found himself in a situation where two attractive young ladies were prepared to fuss over him a little, then who was he to question the fates?

Alchemy wandered back over to Taryn, heaving a heavy sigh. It wasn't anything to do with the thief managed to run away from her after she'd caught him, more the fact that he was far too rude to stay around and talk let alone apologies to Taryn for knocking him out like that. She just couldn't believe the attitude of people these days, still she had just knocked him over a given him a few grazes and bruises so she didn't expect him to be so peaky towards her, but he should at least have the manners to say one five letter word.

Once she reached Taryn she noticed he was still on the floor, and that there was somebody else kneeling over him with an odd bottle of some sort. She looked down at the stranger with a slightly bemused look on her face, wondering what she was doing with that bottle of hers, it wasn't as if Taryn was going to be able to drink that whilst he was still asleep, his mouth was closed for crying out loud, not to mention it smelled pretty bad from here and most likely tasted foul too so Alchemy couldn't imagine anybody being able to stomach that thing, even if they were out cold.

She turned her attention back to Taryn, still asleep on the ground, however he was stirring a bit. She noted the signs of a person about to break out of a coma, having done so herself and seen a lot of other people do it, so she stood back whilst he burst out with a random sentence unrelated to the current events. She smiled softly at him as he calmed down and knelt down beside him as he took a drink, her expression looking almost amused at his misfortune.
"That big guy gave you one in the face," she said, indicating the exact same spot on her own face "But you wanna know the worst part?" She rolled back onto her backside and leaned on her hands, heaving another heavy sigh and bowing her head "He ran off without even apologizing, I mean I know he was in a hurry and all but he could at least have said 'sorry' or whatever, man people are far too hasty these days."
Saying this implied the fact that she had completely forgotten he was a thief running after stealing something without paying, and was therefore naturally going to punch the lights out of anybody he thought might stop him.
"Oh, by the way," she turned to the blond girl with the bottle "What were you doing with that bottle thing, you know..." She mimicked her actions with an empty hand "It smells awful, I think it might have gone off."

Rièle jerked backwards as the human suddenly sat up and shouted. At first clearly frightened, she put an arm in front of her instinctively as a defense. Almost instantly, however, she realized that he wasn't planning to attack her, as the expression on his face was confused and disoriented. She lowered her arm and resumed her seat next to him. The human seemed groggy, and as he took a drink from his canteen Rièle noted the small amount of blood inside his mouth.

"What," he said, in a very faint sort of voice, "the hell just happened?"

Choosing to ignore the question, as the woman with the red hair was eagerly answering it anyway, Rièle reached out and firmly, but gently, grabbed the man's chin, tilting his head to one side slightly so she could better see the injury on the side of his face. The area where the thief's fist had collided with his cheek was already starting to swell, and she could see a slight blue tinge forming around the outer edges. Releasing him, she fished into her bag, only half-listening to the red-haired woman as she complained of the thief's behavior.

Until the woman decided to address her. Rièle stopped searching in her bag and regarded the woman, exceedingly worried that she would answer incorrectly and draw suspicion to herself.

"Oh, by the way. What were you doing with that bottle thing, you know..." The woman made a strange motion of putting her hand under Taryn's nose. "It smells awful, I think it might have gone off."

Rièle blinked. What was 'gone off'? Her studies of the Common Tongue hadn't included slang, and she was confused by the phrase. She chose to respond to the rest of the question instead, hoping that wasn't important. "It's Eysyl," she said, a little nervously. "Humans sometimes call it vinegar." Rièle realized that her voice was coming out as a timid squeak, and she attempted to raise it a little. "The smell often helps break unconsciousness, when it's not too severe."

Hoping the answer was satisfactory, she turned back to her bag. As her nervousness faded, she realized she'd said 'humans call it vinegar.' She attempted to suppress a wince. Had that implied that she might not be human? Unless they interpreted it as beings other than humans have other names for it. Elves certainly had different names for everything.

Her hand finally rested on what she was looking for, and she withdrew it. The metal container contained a whitish paste, made from camomile flowers. There wasn't much left. Again she reached out to grab the injured human's chin, only he seemed to be a bit less groggy this time. "Hold still," she instructed softly.

She rubbed the paste gently over the bruise, unfortunately using the last of her stock. But at least his head wouldn't be the size of a green melon for the next week.

Rièle replaced the container in her bag, and a soft groan from her stomach reminded her that she hadn't been able to eat much breakfast before it had been dashed to pieces by the fleeing thief. And now she had practically nothing to trade. Resignedly, she began to stand and contemplate in which direction she might go such that the fates were most likely to grant her a meal.

The young mage was caught somewhere between being grateful that more people weren't standing around gawking at him and being embarrassed that he'd been taken out by a passing nutter. He listened to the exchange between the two women with only half an ear, scanning the market place as he was in the hope that he might catch sight of the swine of a thief and go treat him to a little of the special Taryn treatment.

The thief, however, was long-gone.

When the new member of their small group reached to put something on his face, he smiled at her. Which is to say, he tried to smile. He discovered very, very quickly that his face was now that stiff from a combination of the beating he'd taken the other day at the hands of his lover's husband and now this new facial injury, that smiling was really something of a big 'no'.

Instead, he smiled as much as he could.

"Thank you," said. "Thank you both. Here, would you mind helping me up? I adore being looked after by two such beautiful specimens of womanhood, but I'd rather do it from an upright position. At least in the market place," he added, as a somewhat lascivious afterthought. Clearly if Rièle's 'human' comment had been noticed by the young mage, he had thought it prudent to say nothing.

Holding onto Alchemy, he got himself into a standing position and pushed his now mussed-up hair back out of his eyes. "Don't be fooled by the armour and the mace," he explained, a little ruefully. "I'm a mage first and foremost. These new tools are still just that - new. I haven't ever been the best in a one-on-one situation so I'm afraid I'm a little bit, well, useless, really. Although I've been told I have my uses."

Taryn winked.

He swayed slightly, feeling a bit dizzy and decided that he may as well play on it. At the very least he could end up with pleasant company for the rest of the afternoon. "I could do with a drink after that," he said. "I wonder if perhaps both of you ladies will let me buy you a drink and a bowl of stew as a 'thank you' for making sure I got back on my feet. Of course, I understand if you're busy and everything, in which case, thank you for your assistance."

When Taryn switched on the charm, he did a mighty fine job of it.

Besides having absolutely no interest in cross-species sexual experimentation, Rièle's grasp of human socialization was far too naïve to pick up on the charm rolling off of Taryn's tongue. This was probably a good thing for Taryn, as females of her kind had rather aggressive means of communicating a lack of interest to unwanted mates.

Rièle considered her surroundings while Taryn prattled on, thanking them. There seemed to be more shops ahead in the direction the thief had run. Maybe she could find one that would let her work in exchange for a meal, unless one or more of the common ingredients she had left in her bag was actually valuable enough to trade.

And then something Taryn said piqued her attention.

"I'm a mage first and foremost. These new tools are still just that - new. I haven't ever been the best in a one-on-one situation..."

She quickly smoothed her shocked expression to one of calm. This is not good, she thought to herself, now even more frightened than she was before. How had she not known he was a mage? He looks like a bloody mace-wielding mercenary, that's why. Well, now that she thought about it he really didn't have the muscles of someone who normally swung around a weapon of that size. She really needed to learn to be more observant of these things. But the question was, could she get away without him realizing?

As she pondered whether it would be suspicious to turn and leave before Taryn was finished talking, something else he said piqued her attention.

"...buy you a drink and a bowl of stew as a 'thank you' for making sure I got back on my feet."

The mage was offering to feed her! Her stomach rumbled in ecstasy at the thought of a meal, but she again forced thoughts of hunger aside to think before she acted. Keeping company with a mage was dangerous for her. He might see through her present form, realize what she was and the weakened state she was in, and take advantage. Or, what if the whole thing was a trap? What if she'd already given herself away and he was attempting to lull her into a false sense of security by manipulating her urgent need for food?

Wait a minute, she told herself, as she considered Teryn. This fellow... just isn't that devious. His mind seemed to be on other things. And what about the mace that he didn't know how to use? The situation just didn't seem that complicated.

She decided to take the risk. It would be good practice to interact with humans over a meal. Maybe she'd even learn something. Plus, there was the matter of potential starvation if she refused.

Thus, after several moments spent considering, Rièle nodded her agreement to the offer. She kept her distance from the mage however, allowing the red-haired woman to help him.

Despite asking a question, Alchemy practically ignored the stranger's answer, merely giving a short nod in a vain attempt to acknowledge her reply. She'd made out the words 'human' and 'vinegar' but these meant absolutely nothing to her at all. Instead she leaned forwards again, balancing on her toes and resting her arms on her knees as Taryn continued to speak. Of course she didn't have the slightest idea what a mage was either, so this didn't do much to enlighten her as to how easily Taryn went down.

"Oh, I get it!" She exclaimed "you don't actually do much fighting."
She gave an appeasing smile for her self satisfying logic and left it at that. She wobbled slightly when he leaned on her to stand up, luckily his bulk combined with the leather armor and the mace wasn't enough to topple her over, she was surprisingly agile for someone with no training and little combat experience. Once he was done she stood up too and stretched lightly. She looked over at the blond girl with all the crazy bottles, she seemed to be acting a little nervous for some reason. However Alchemy noticed none of this, she was far more interested in who she was and whether she was any fun to hang around with, she certainly seemed like she needed cheering up a bit.

"Say, what kind of food do you like?" Alchemy asked brightly "I work in Estalod sometimes so I end up seeing a lot of the same people so life gets pretty repetitive up there. I'm Alchemy by the way, what's your name?" She said all this surprisingly fast and fluently considering she'd just made it up on the spot there and then, her practically limitless bundles of energy serving as a great aid in this feat.

Taryn looked from the one woman to the other as they engaged in conversation. He caught a glimpse of the blonde's almost uncertain nod and gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. She seemed decidedly anxious about something, but he simply wouldn't pry. That wasn't his style.

"Well, how about I offer both of you this deal? I have to head across to the Wilwarin Inn anyway - I need to sort out a room for tonight. What about if the pair of you finish your conversation and your trip around the market place and I go over and do that? And then we could say meet me there in half an hour's time and I'll be there to buy food and drink as a gesture of goodwill?"

The young mage ran his fingers through his hair again, which promptly flopped into his eyes. Absently pushing it back, he closed his fingers around the hilt of the mace which was still strapped to his back. It was still there. Nobody had tried to take it off him whilst he had lain unconscious on the market floor.

Idly, he wondered what would actually happen to anybody who attempted to steal Suraklin's Bane. The weapon had been given to him, was his responsibility. He'd read many times that those who attempted to steal holy weapons paid the price. One particular account had been quite specific about it, and there were no signs of lightning strikes that Taryn could see.

Once more looking from the red head to the blonde, he gave that same slightly self-deprecating, sweet smile that had always served him so well in the past. The red head he figured would be fun company; she certainly seemed to be bubbly enough with a level of enthusiasm he suspected could tire a man out very swiftly. The other girl, though - the one who'd roused him from his stupor - he found himself somewhat intrigued.

"So without further ado, ladies," he said, taking a step or two backwards, "I shall go sort out my business at the Wilwarin and hope to see you there in half an hour or so. I do hope you join me."

He bowed: an old-fashioned, courtly gesture, but one which again had always served him very well. He discovered that it wasn't quite so easy when one was dressed in rigid leather body armour, but he tried anyway.

"Until later," he said, and strode off towards the Wilwarin.

When he was fairly certain he was out of sight, he ceased the strolling and let the limping start. Holy hells, but his leg hurt.

[[OOC: I shall move Taryn to the Wilwarin, please feel free to either join or not, thought it would be fun for the pair of you to 'become acquainted'! :) ]]

"Say, what kind of food do you like?" Alchemy asked brightly. "I work in Estalod sometimes so I end up seeing a lot of the same people so life gets pretty repetitive up there. I'm Alchemy by the way, what's your name?"

Rièle regarded the lively girl shyly, but with interest. She found herself much more comfortable with the red-haired girl than with the mage. After mistaking Teryn for a fighter she'd considered Alchemy more closely, and thought that she was actually experienced with the weapon that she carried, unlike Teryn. The woman's body language was also much different; the way she held herself marked her as athletic and alert, like a fighter and not a magician.

Gradually relaxing, Rièle formulated her answer. She still spoke softly and patiently, in discrete contrast to Alchemy's bubbly conversation. "Rièle," she said, even managing to return the girl's smile a little. Rièle had actually shortened her obviously Draconian name substantially and shifted the pronunciation so that it sounded more like a name in the Common Tongue. She thought she'd done fairly well with it, and even found that she didn't mind the shorter version as much as she'd thought. "I like all sorts of food," she said, allowing her imagination to contemplate what Teryn might be buying them to eat. "Cows, sheep, deer, elk, buffalo... antelope, though they tend to be stringy. And pigs are a bit on the small side."

Rièle found herself surprised at how friendly the girl was toward her. It seemed unusual for a human. Most of them tended to mind their own business and ignore strangers, or respond to them as politely as possible before going back to what they were doing. She liked the fact that the girl was willing to be forward in her conversation while she could just listen, and think for awhile on what she wanted to say.

Teryn, who'd regained his footing moments earlier with help from Alchemy, then addressed the both of them. "Well, how about I offer both of you this deal? I have to head across to the Wilwarin Inn anyway - I need to sort out a room for tonight. What about if the pair of you finish your conversation and your trip around the market place and I go over and do that? And then we could say meet me there in half an hour's time and I'll be there to buy food and drink as a gesture of goodwill?"

He then made a strange movement that looked like he was going to fall stiffly forward into the dirt again, straightened himself, and walked away. Rièle watched him make his way through the market, and found herself a little confused. "Why is he trying to walk gracefully when his legs are bruised and his head is throbbing? He's going to fall over again."

Suddenly blushing, Rièle realized she'd spoken her thought out loud. "Um, that is... he seems very nice. Do you know where this Wilwarin place is?" She paused in her question for a moment, considering how much to tell Alchemy about where she'd come from. "I'm... I've never been to this city before yesterday." That sounded like a good explanation. There had to be lots of people who'd never been to the city before.

Alchemy kept her friendly smile as she listened to Rièle's reply. She was eager to make friends with as many people as possible in her lifetime, her basic philosophy was that there's no point to life if you don't enjoy it, so rather than seek out bold quests and become a historic hero, she proffered to spend her time larking about and having fun, it made her seem almost ten years younger than she actually was, but this would be incredibly inaccurate for more reasons than one.
"Oh, I see," she replied "I have absolutely no idea what any of those is by the way, except maybe the pigs."
She gave another smile more suited to if she had just commented on the pleasant weather. She wondered exactly what cows, sheep, deer, elk, buffalo were, and how a creature with strings in it would live from day to day.

She was about to give another reply when Taryn spoke again, and she turned her over-energetic attention to him instead. However the promise of food wasn't that much to heighten her mood, since it was already at its peak, but the fact that he was paying for it as well made the perfect combo to make it go soaring through the roof. Of course the only effect that this gave was an slightly broader smile than before.
"Boy am I having a good day," she muttered under her breath as her heart did several somersaults in her chest.

She looked back over at Rièle with the same smile as Taryn wandered off to do whatever it was he was going to do. He seemed completely undeterred at having been knocked out a few minutes before hand, not that Alchemy took the attention to notice, all she cared about was if he was any fun to hang around with never mind recent or old problems or injuries he might have, she would probably attempt to make friends with a tree if it was sentient, but she had yet to encounter an Ent so far.
"Wilwarin?" Alchemy replied with the same bright tone as before "not a clue! Only ever been here for the library!" She finished still with the same tone of voice.

"There's a library?!" Rièle asked with a sudden burst of enthusiasm. She'd thought libraries were only in the homes of rich and powerful scholars or magicians. At least, that's where she'd found all of the books she'd ever read. There were bound to be heaps of new books in the library of a far away city she'd never been to....

Rrrrrrowwwwwrrrr.... said her stomach.
But, a library! her mind argued back.
Food...
Books!
You'd starve to death before you finished three of them. With food you could read for longer.
...........

"Can we go there later? To the library? Er... after eating, that is?” Rièle tried to subdue her excitement. She hadn't thought she'd have the opportunity to read books. When left to herself she could read for days at a time. A library, of course, was likely to be crawling with magicians... but it was also well-known etiquette that it was rude to speak in a library, so she shouldn't have much to worry about. It was amazing that she might actually be able to find a way to enjoy herself and forget about her situation, even for a short time.

But, first thing was first. "So... how do we find this place where Teryn wants to meet us, if neither you nor I know where it is?" The city was large enough that Rièle didn't think wandering around aimlessly looking for it was a good idea. She was hopeful that Alchemy would volunteer to socialize with whomever they needed to speak with in order to find this place. It was nice to have someone to help with these things, it saved Rièle excess worry about engaging the wrong person or allowing her tongue to slip.

(OOC: Really sorry, I don't want to get warned or banned so I have to stop posting with this character. I put a lot of effort into edits and explanations that she's just intended for tagging along and basic character interaction, but the mods say I'm in violation of the rules. If anyone thinks they can help I'd really appreciate it, I'm at a total loss RP'ing on this site. :( )