Heads turned with the sound of the door slamming behind Rai as she made her way across the room. Her disgruntled nature led her straight to a corner table where she kept her face concealed behind the old weathered cloak. Settling for a drink she lowered her hood revealing her long black hair and deep brown eyes. It was here that she watched as others trod in and out of the old building into the dismal weather that lay just beyond the door. The air surrounding her was stale and filled with laughter, the sound of scraping chairs made her slightly uneasy. Hardly touching the drink before her she scowled at the situation, as a stable hand it was her job to care for the horses that resided in the stables. But after serving months to the stable master she had been caught stealing extra food to share with the burdened creatures. Now without a place to call home she took what little belongings she still possessed and left early in the morning.
She had been kicking up dust all day as she walked from each new appearing village, desperate in her attempts to get away. It was not until the unsettling darkness that settled around her did she stop. Though the sign outside had suggested a level of uncertainty there was nowhere else to go. Now sitting her she let her face trace the shadows from outside. She shivered slightly wrapping the cloak tighter around her body in hopes of some warmth while she continued to eye everyone in the room.
Then standing up she made her way through the small lobby and kindly asked for a room. Thanking the innkeeper she paid and pushed her way back through some of the chairs accidently brushing up against one. “Oh, sorry” she said quickly and hurried back to the table where she could collect the rest of the belongings. So far her time here had not improved she thought, and could only get worse.

Roncho felt someone touch the back of his chair, and heard a soft voice apologize. He turned around to see who is was only to see a human woman quickly moving away from him. "Humans, always scared of me just because I'm too tall, or too scaly... either that or just the children's tales... under a bridge my big scaly ass" he thought to himself as he turned back to his game of cards. The playing cards were comically undersized for someone of his size but he still played. He felt something against his big toe and he looked down to see a coin purse, "must belong to that woman, now where did she go off to..." He looked around to see where she had gone too. He looked over to see her sitting at another table gathering some of her belongings.

Roncho looked at her face and scratched his head. He looked over to one of the people sitting at the table playing cards, "oi, any of you guys seen her before, I swear to the god of nature's holy right buttock that I've seen her before." The elf looked up, a unusually large pipe was between his teeth, he gave a weird look to Roncho, "yea, I've seen her before, its that stable hand, poor as hell, its almost a shame to see the stable master kick her around" he paused to take another puff of his pipe, "why you askin' Roncho, you've never been interested in humans, or actually any humanoids before." Roncho's face gave a innocent, or as innocent as a trolls beastly face could make, "God of nature's almighty beard no, she just dropped something I was just wondering why she was in such a hurry." The elf gave a weird look to the massive troll sitting before him, "so are you going to sit here talking about her past or are you going to return it you big lug." Roncho turned to stare at the elf, giving an intimidating look due to his insult, "normally I would challenge you for saying something like that but the last elf I arm wrestled I broke almost every bone in his arm, took about three casting to finally fix the thing."

Roncho finally reached down and scoped up the small coin purse into his massive hand. He grabbed his large tankard and walked over to the woman sitting at the table. "sorry to bother ma'am but you dropped this when you hit my chair," He tried to sound and look as non-threatening as possible, but it was hard to do due to him being a 10 foot tall troll. "I just hope that she won't be startled by me... humans don't like trolls... they never do..."

Making it back to her table she managed not to bump into any more chairs, which suited her just fine, she didn’t need the attention of anyone who may know of her. In a situation such as the one she was already in could mean trouble. But for the time being she was safe, or at least she hoped as much. Smoothing out her old cloak she picked up her short bow making sure that it was intact and collected the few arrows that still remained in her possession. Her hands moving out of habit down to the pocket she had sewn into the cloak. Rai always kept smaller trinkets or items that she used to take from the stable; sometimes she just couldn’t help herself. Unwillingly though, she sold the small items in turn for a few coins that she had used to pay for the room at this inn. This time however, she found that the small purse was missing from the pocket. Scowling at herself she slumped herself down into the wooden chair not sure of what to do.

It was then that she noticed the figure approaching her, in the dim light of table she could just make out his appearance. A troll none the less, many had come through the stables before but they were never there to socialize. Unless Rai was making deals with customers it was her job to stay out of the way and to avoid the stable master. But this troll came up bearing her coin purse, recognizable by the pattern and size. “Oh I didn’t know I had lost it thank you” she said reaching out to take the purse back. “Sorry again for running into your chair…I should be more careful.”

"Oh don't mention it"Roncho handed the woman her coin purse to her but before he turned he noticed the woman's small amount of possessions and what the elf had said earlier, this woman had to work at a crappy job for a measly amount of coins and be kicked around all day by an ungrateful stable hand. "say, you're a stable hand huh?" Roncho said casually, he pulled out the other chair and took a seat, the chair groaning in protest to his massive form. He looked closer at the woman's face, something seemed similar to him, he had seen her being kicked out of the stable, her master was yelling at something but he paid no mind to it. And it hit him, she had lost her job and probably only had what little money that was in the coin purse. Roncho felt like crap by bringing it up, but he waited for the woman to recall her bad memories.

Rai studied the troll’s face half expecting this question to be a mere joke, after all stable hands were not entitled too much. The cloths she and old cloak she wore now could easily give away that she worked under the title of stable hand but it wasn’t the only one. So now the only question was of whether this was a simple joke or if he actually knew, but by the way he brought up another chair she had the unmistakable feeling that he really did know this much about her already. Now curious she leaned back slightly in her chair, “Was one” she said and then leaned forward once more. “But the days were so long and dull that I left.” Straightening up once more, she crossed her arms and looked back at the troll wondering if she had said that with a straight face. As a rogue it had become an easy skill to learn but lately she had been faltering. Looking off behind the trolls shoulder she saw a table where a small group was clustered together talking but occasionally looking up. Frowning slightly she looked back at the troll with a confused look “Do you know them?” she said, nodding her head in their direction.

Roncho looked back to the elf and the others sitting at the table, "Oi don't mind them," he said in a soft voice, or soft for a troll, "I just play cards with them, its hard to find a job as a cook nowadays." He thought about what the woman had said. Was one, she got fired, or she left, either way she was in dire straights till she found a new job. Roncho was not in that situation, he often made money by getting hired in the odd job when someone needed muscle, and won a lot of bets in arm wrestling. He looked at what the woman had on the table, it was a few measly possessions, a bow, less than a dozen arrows. Roncho felt sorry for this woman.

Looking over at the table once more she turned her attention back towards the troll with curiosity. “So you’re a cook, is that where you met them?” She said, meaning his friends. After all Rai only knew the people who she had worked around. Of course she never lingered around in one place to really get to know the other stable hands. On their face they constantly bore an expression of either misery or confusion, always lost in their work. One of the older stable hands had gone mad; she had remembered watching him lumber around the place murmuring to himself barely above a whisper. This had always frightened Rai that she would perhaps fall into this state as well. She couldn’t help but laugh whenever she did think of such things for they were foolish, sometimes she just couldn’t help herself.
Realizing that she had been lost in deep thought, she shook her head slightly and brought her attention back to the troll. He was looking at her with a look she was only too well accustomed to, pity. She absolutely hated it when she found others staring at her in such a way. It suggested that she couldn’t take care of herself. Did it really matter if she was earning enough to get by with? There were other ways to survive. This gave Rai an idea, the troll had been playing cards at the other table and this could only mean one thing. There was money involved, something that she could make last for a few days at the most. Now the only thing she was missing was a plan. *This shouldn’t be a hard task at all* she thought to herself. Eyeing her glass that she had barely touched, a plan began to form in the back of her mind. “Actually I’m sorry to be saying this but it’s getting late and I’ve had such a long day. It was nice to meet you though,” she stood up with such force that the wooden table moved, knocking over her glass and its contents spilling everywhere. So far things were going smoothly the only thing she had to do was keep this act up and she’d have her money in no time at all.