It worked.

I didn't waste too much time being pleased with myself. Not that I could have said anything smug in my moment of mini-triumph. Well, I could have, but that would have complicated things beyond what I was willing to work around. One-thousand gold on the line made me far more humble than I might have been otherwise. I may not speak, but money talks, and I'm little if not a damned good listener. For the second time in a day, which was probably a record for the year, I looked to the man behind the desk signed: "Thank you." I left out the part that said '-for seeing it my way.'

I was too beaten from a day's heat to go through the motions of trying to convince him that I was all he needed and that all other commissions, which in this case, was only the single other, would be better thrown my way. There's not a lot I imagined I wouldn't do for two-thousand gold in my current predicament. If I wanted to make any money, though, I made the executive decision that my energy was better saved for the task at hand. For something that gives life, the sun sure did have a way of sucking it out of me on the hotter days. I'd blame it on my Elven half if I had any good clue where it actually came from.

"I have stuff at the inn. We should probably get some paper and pens too."
I whirled around toward the voice, finally catching a good look at the person who'd managed to sign up before me. The same tilt of my brow that had come when I read the name echoed across my face. Somehow this wasn't what I pictured in my head when I read the name. Though, I suppose very few of my preliminary mental images ever come close to the mark. I certainly didn't expect a woman who appeared as if she could throw me clear over the outpost wall. Not that I am particularly scrawny, far from it, but that should speak volumes of the person I beheld.

I blinked in a rapid flutter before nodding in agreement. I immediately drew the conclusion that she didn't understand my finger speech. It wouldn't be the first time someone had suggested pen and paper in order to overcome the barrier. I suppose I was thankful she wasn't illiterate, otherwise, I'd be back to playing charades like a deaf jester in the street. Degrading as it sounded, I am unfortunately forced into such a song and dance more often than I am proud to admit. It was unrealistic to expect everyone to learn finger speech when those who required are the vast minority. Reading, at least, would have some virtue in mandating.

I followed Felicity toward the Inn, dreading her attempts to un-strangerize me that I somehow felt were inevitable. I've never claimed to be a seer, but these premonitions were more damned accurate than any fortune I had ever been told. In my head I prayed to no god in particular that she was at least tolerable.