"The elf is coming to Darktown."
The word whispers through the passages, from one squalid camp to another, the residents passing it along.
Fenris notices them as he passes, sneering slightly as he catches them out of the corner of his eye. They draw away from him, bundling up children and moving them out of his sight. Murmuring to each other. Staring out from the darkness. He is used to being an object of fear and distrust. He will not let it bother him. They are of no concern. His destination lies ahead. Everything else is dross. Chaff. He walks on.
"Bundle up the littles, send them up to Auntie for the night. You, girls, stop your gawkin." Old Brynne slaps her teenage granddaughters on the backs of their heads.
"What's all this then?" Ferghil, her good-for-nothing son-in-law emerges out of the shelter they've been squatting in.
"That there elf is on his way. Headin to the Healer's again. Got to get the kids further up. And find some rags or bandages or somethin."
Ferghil stares at her, baffled. "What that white-haired one? Ain't he one o' Hawkes, then? He ain't so bad."
"Ah, you don't know nothin, you old fool. You ain't been down here long. You don't know how it is. Can't be havin kids here tonight. Not with all the screamin and carryin on. Rosa! Marley! I told you two to stop your gawkin."
"He won't hurt the Healer or nothin? Will he? There be somethin we should do?" Ferghil looked uncertain, worried for the man who stands between them and death most days.
"Ain't the Healer we're worried about. Elf treats that Healer just fine an' everybody knows it. That ain't it. It's the noise, Maker help us. Nothin but thin walls between them and us, and the sounds he gets out a that man ain't fit for no children to be hearin."
The two girls start poking each other and giggling, watching out of the shadows as the elf walks past them.
"There he goes!" swoons one.
"Maker, he's sooo handsome."
"His voice. When he, you know, moans." The girl giggles and blushes.
"That swagger. Like he just knows how sexy he is."
Brynne smacks the backs of their heads again. "All a Darktown'll know it in an hour or less. And he ain't yours to be moonin after. That's the Healer's boy, and we all know it. Now get up to Auntie's with the littles an shut yer traps." She starts cramming scraps into her ears. "Here." She hands a few rags to Ferghil. "Ain't nobody this end a Darktown sleepin tonight, but this'll shut out most of it. Some things ain't no one meant to hear. "
