A bad day; a warm brew.

[Galedeaap]

It seems that everyone here has lost something, or someone or both. Maybe there's something more to this meeting than just a passing interest in someone who's not quite here all the time. It seems she had a deep love for her father, almost as if her reason, her purpose was bound in his work and Slayn, he's been out of touch with anything remotely similar to himself for who knows how long, and I thought that I got the short end of the stick!

"A race that care's for naught, one has to wonder as to why they even exist at all; I mean, there would have to be a reason for them though, wouldn't there?"

He leans back in his chair, puzzled by what is going on at this table, in this tavern, heck why where any of them even here at all? Thinking through his life he wonders what lead him to this point, why he's sitting here.

"So, we know how Andhaka got here, but what could force a demon from his homeland? That would take a mighty force indeed"

[Slayn]

Slayn nodded. Some comfort washing over him by her words.

"I have heard similar ideas from my people. I do not know if it is true, but it gives me some sort of comfort."

He paused momentarily, an idea forming in his head...or his heart. He wasn't sure. It was difficult to tell the two apart sometimes.

"If I am to beleive that perhaps what you say is true...or has any truth to it....then we are cousins of a sort." He smiled and nodded to himself. "Yes..it is settled as such."

His smile faded as he contemplated Gal's question.

"I was betrayed." He sighed heavily and took a drink from his almost forgotten mug.

"I was a warrior for my people, the Gray Wolf Pride. A privilege of birth and a great honor. I trained and prepared for it my whole life. It was my calling. I brought great honor to my clan. Then the clerics took it all away," he growled angrily as he mentioned the clerics.

"They claimed to be the descendents of angels. They made it their 'holy mission' to eradicate all demons. They were nothing but religiously fanatical humans with wings, if you ask me. But they captured, tortured and studied me. For many years until I escaped. When I returned home, there was nothing left. My people were gone...killed or disbanded, I don't know."

Running is hands through his hair, his tail twitched angrily as he remembered the past.

"I became a sword-for-hire. There was not much honor in it, but it kept food in my belly and a roof over my head. By that time, I cared for nothing. I took a job to kill a man...a political and religious leader among my kind. I was setup to fail....I....killed his son instead. He was only a child."

Slayn cast his eyes downward for a moment, the shame of his actions creeping over him.

"There were many who remembered me from my time as an honored warrior. So instead of being killed, I was banished. Strong magics were used to open the portal that sent me here. That was almost two years ago, I think."

Slayn fell silent as he realized what he had just done. He was never one to talk so much. Perhaps he had one too many to drink.

I must be insane! Here I am telling these strangers my life story as though we have been comrades for years! Alisaar Slayn, you are getting soft, or going mad...not much difference. I wonder what they think of me now?

[Andhaka Adiir]

"I don't know much about reason...to, uh, tell the truth. I'm half one of them, perhaps is why. I'll tell you though that nothing feels more like true living than experiencing the world as the wind. And...they do care. They are just...fickle. Free spirit is more than just a quality to them...it's a requirement of existence. Feeling tied down makes them afraid, or even angry. It is just how they are. Those who have loved one of us say that none have ever cared so deeply for them...we are creatures of feeling. It is notice that we lack, I should say. We simply don't notice. Er...Tunnel vision." she didn't notice her shifting from the word them to us, she did it often as fit the sentence. Sometimes she felt like it was 'us' and sometimes 'them'.

Slayn called them cousins, causing Andhaka to double take. If she could consider him family, then she would have someone to protect and her purpose would be restored! She got excited, but figured she had better wait to bring it up. Excuse me, but do you mind if I followed you around for the rest of your life? She gave a small smile, sure that that would be an awkward thing to ask. Then Gale questioned Slayn about how he came here, which was something she was curious about. His tale made her sad, partly because she could feel his sadness...and loneliness.

"Banishment isn't always the lesser punishment against death....er, in some situations," she commented, looking at him compassionately. Then she turned to Galedeep.

"Well, um, we both spilled our proverbial guts. Why not, um, even the score, Mr. Soldier? Everyone has a story to...ah, tell. What is yours?"

[Galedeaap]

"Ha mine you say? Well it does seem that mine is rather a mundane history compared to your great tales but as you say, fair is fair. I grew up in a small town the son of a blacksmith, but I never saw the horse shoe or the how, I saw the ferocity of the sword and the strength of armour. I started with just a wooden sword I carved myself at age 10 and practised every night, working myself harder than I thought possible. One night my friend Nils found me, I thought he would tell my parents and my dream would be finished but, all he wanted was to learn along side me. We trained for eight years, every night, working all day in the fields or in my fathers forge. In our eighteenth year we decided it was time for a real sword. I'd learnt all my father had to teach, so one night we took to the forge, steel, iron and wood we worked with. My father awoke in the morning to the sound of hammer on steel. He came in and found us almost in a trance, working on our masterpieces. Two days it took us, but at the end of it we thought we had priceless weapons capable of slaying dragons. My father was so proud of me as was Nils's. That night as we slept soundly a howl plit the air. Nils and I ran out to see a fey wolf come towards us with a form on its back. Nils stepped foward to take on this beast, he could hold his own in a duel but never against a demon wolf. It ripped him to shreds infront of my eyes. Whilst it devoured him I stepped foward and slashed, ripping its throat out, a mist rose in my eyes and I stabbed and slashed, that wolf was not recognisable after I was done with it. The form on the back turned out to be the princess from the castle not an hours march away. And thus I gained my knighthood, my name and this ring" He took his glove off and laying it on the table, the sapphire sparkling as it catches the light, set in the smooth silver band. "This was in the belly of that fiend, no idea what it does, but anything from something like that must have some sort of magic cast on it. I've been at the castle ever since; I'm on two weeks leave at the moment, but I'll never forget that night and what it did to me" He closes his eyes as he puts his glove back on.

No one ever has heard that much before, not even those who saw it remember it in its entirety.

"But as a great man once said, such is life"

[Slayn]

"You are a brave soul, my friend. A true warrior indeed. Such events mark you....like a warrior's tattoo on your very soul. I sense honor in you."

Slayn outstretched his left hand onto the table to show his ring. It was made of silver and in the shape of a wolf's head. Two red stones were set as its eyes. The stones flashed as though there was life in them.

"I too possess a ring that I carry yet know nothing about. It was given to me by my mother. She once claimed that the stones came from a world that was not our own."

He shrugged.

"As my clan used to say....Fire burns, water drowns, wind blows, and earth keeps you. It is as you say....such is life."

[Andhaka Adiir]

Andhaka listened, feeling with the both of them as they spoke. On a sudden impulse she went insubstantial, blowing her glittering barely visible blue form around the room, knocking over empty chairs and pulling the poor barkeeps inventory sheets away from him, causing them to flutter around his head. She pulled herself in a figure eight around Slayn and Galedeep, then, wanting to change back, and not thinking it through, she dived into her cup.

She turned solid when she became wet and the cup shattered as her form rapidly filled solid space. She made a 'yeep!' noise as the glass broke and leaped up, promptly falling on the floor behind her, knocking over her chair as she went. It wasn't but a second before she hopped up again, and then righted her chair and sat in it with a flop, all over damp from the liquid. She licked her hand with a goofy smile on her face.

"I'm sorry..." she muttered. She sobered a little, but not too much, grinning, she stated. "I have a hard time being serious for long periods of time...all I want to know, I guess, is what's next? I have no purpose!" she said cheerfully. "No one thinks...how liberating that can be. Liberating to have no design for you, to be free to choose it, no? A little sad, yes, but certainly free. So where will the winds blow the two of you next! Like I said, I've got no plans for the next millennium, so I'm game for anything."

[Galedeaap]

Bursting out in laughter and spraying ale everywhere at Andhaka's little display. "It would be nice indeed to be free, and for a mortal such as me it's probably more on my mind than yours, seeing as I don't have a spare millenium to play around in. But as for where to from here, then if you two wouldn't mind a mortals company, then I think that my time at the castle may have come to and end and it's time for something new."

To leave the castle, to see the world, perhaps this is what I need, a permanent holiday of sorts.

"If you're interested then I am too." he says banging his hand on the table with a definite thud.

[Slayn]

Slayn watched Andhaka's display with an amused smile on his face.

"I too am one with no purpose. And like you, cousin,I have more than a little time to do whatever claims my mind to do. But, if I may be so bold....my sword and my loyalty are yours, no matter what the situation."

It feels good to be connected to someone again. Even if she tires of my company after a while. To not feel displaced...alone....this is good....no matter how long it lasts.

"And you friend, Gal. You are a brother in arms...and mortal or not...you are welcome to fight or travel at my side for as long as you desire. You are a friend to me and I do not give such titles loosely."

Slayn emptied his mug and slammed it onto the table.

[Andhaka Adiir]

And so it seemed that three strangers came to be connected, in the way such things happen: by chance or by fates. The wind blew, the fire glowed and the steel glinted as the alliance was formed.

Andhaka smiled to herself, sucking on the wriggling end of her damp hair. Perhaps things would be just fine. Her father had passed, but a new door had opened. If not for her beloved one's death, she perhaps would have spent her entire existence doing menial tasks for children and villagers. Her father's death still pained her in some deep place in her heart, but as was her nature, she could not think of it much at all. Her mind and heart were forward on adventures yet to come.

And to think, it had started out such a bad day.

((I am going to submit this for judging, if that's alright with you two.))

[Galedeaap]

Sounds like a plan