Tavern Visitors.
Jereez leaned her petite frame across the top of the bar in the Devil's Grin Tavern, passing a customer their ale, and flashed her own broad smile that quite possibly gave the bar its name.
"Knock yourself out," she encouraged the orc fiendishly, her eyes dancing excitedly as she did so. As the orc's large green body bumbled awkwardly out of the way, Jereez noticed something a little different at the entrance of the tavern she owned Newcomers, not just to the bar, but to the area also. She could tell, if not in the clothes they wore, just by the way they walked and looked around the tavern as they eyed up the establishment.
Newcomers were the best kind of people to look out for. Occasionally they were actually interesting, and in the majority of the time when they weren't, they were gullible, easy pickings.
She drummed her fingers across the bar top and eyed the group like a hawk. There were four of them; a motley bunch. Towards the front was a youthful human male, brown-haired not bad. She raised an eyebrow and moved on.
A human woman about the same age stood close by him. Close, definitely, there was something there, between those two. Jereez quickly caught the offending smell of human magic radiating from the woman mage. She screwed up her nose.
The other two members of the group were equally intriguing. There was a rather large, well-built but grubby dwarf wielding a battle-axe to fit his size and in contrast nearby stood a calm, collected female elf with dark skin. She had the kind of look in her eyes that insinuated she never stopped collecting, compiling and analyzing the data stream of information she was accumulating from her surroundings.
The four of them had stopped uncertainly near the bar entrance as thought trying to absorb information from the rambunctious crowd bustling through. Then, silently, the human male turned and led the group towards the rear of the tavern. But not before Jereez caught sight of something that made her eyes sparkle further.
As he turned, the man s cloak billowed just slightly, enough for Jereez to catch site of the glittering of the largest gem she d possibly ever laid her eyes upon. Her mouth dropped, her heartbeat slowed and her breath became a gasp. Jackpot! Kaching, Kaching! You could almost see gold coins in her eyes.
Then the beautiful object was gone, once again covered by the cloak as its possessor moved away deeper into the crowd.
Behind her, Jereez felt the entrance of another man and reached behind her to grip his arm tightly. He was nearly a head and a half taller than her, lean, with dark hair, equally dark goatee and a thief's shifty glance. He looked surprised that Jereez had noticed him there, sneaking up on her.
"Damon," she told him as she squeezed his wrist firmly, "I think I'm in love!"
