"I am cutting you off, lout. You've drunk more than your share of my booze tonight. You go ahead and get on out of here before I call my bruises in on you." The gruff, booming voice that came from the bartender hushed most of the chatter and babble in the bar, cutting through and across everything to the drunken 'engineer' who was demanding more ale.

There was a hush following his call for a few moments, before the loud man stood up with an intense scowl on his face. He shot his glare around the room, meeting the eyes of everyone who was looking at him - of whom, there were quite a few, as he had been made the impromptu center of attention. He turned on his heel and finally began stomping out, tossing scowls and imprecations over his shoulder as he left. The babble slowly resumed, filling up the air of the bar once more as people picked back up their conversations where they had been cut short by the brief confrontation.

"Girl. You put that man out of your head, and stay in here for a time. Fellow is an old crook, and apparently he's finally done something bad enough to draw the attention of a Huntsman. I didn't know there were any of their ilk left, but you leave the crooks to them when you see them." he jerked his head to one side, where there was. Heavily shrouded figure sitting in a corner. Silver eyes pierced the gloom from above a leather mask, covering the lower half of his face, and a shock of white hair crept from beneath a jagged hat. The 'Huntsman's' eyes were locked onto the fleeing figure of the boisterous man.

---------

Good. As the man looked around the room, glaring at everyone who was watching him after the bar keep yelled at him, he wasn't paying attention to me. I was carefully not watching him at first - lure him into thinking I had put him out of my mind as nothing more than a drunken idiot being thrown out of a bar. I only looked at him after he had started walking away, at which point he was making a spectacle of himself.

Watching him move, I could see the outline of a dagger and a pistol tucked into the back of his belt line. A rare combination even here in Alerar - flintlocks were still unusual, and having one wasn't for everyone. No, this man definitely had my attention, and I watched him sharply until he was leaving the doorway. I stood up smoothly, dropping a few coins on the table beside my untouched mug, and slowly strode out of the bar, twisting and limbering up my muscles and joints as I prepared myself for a short chase.

I knew he wouldn't get far, so I didn't bother drawing out the Saw-Spear. No, having seen both a dagger and pistol, he had moved up my target list. There was a chance that this little worm had an idea about why was happening to the children, and I would make sure he told me every single scrap of information he knew bout it. The saw-spear would end it too fast.