The Big Spill.
"Well, I have been known to elicit such a response in a woman but " Damon replied sarcastically in his low whispering, raspy sort of voice. Jereez immediately dropped Damon s wrist as though he were a leper.
"Not you," she said exasperatedly, "that you saw it, didn t you? Tell me you saw it!" She turned to Damon, a man Jereez had known for quite a few years now. Damon was a human. A human male who claimed to be a bard, though anyone who truly knew Damon knew that, as talented as he was, he didn t give a halfling s little toe about music. Damon s real passion coincided quite closely with one of Jereez s own money and gems and other expensive, glittery items. It was that shared enthusiasm, and that shared enthusiasm alone that kept them in each other s company.
Aside from money, Damon liked ale and women, which one might think would also closely correlate with Jereez, being a woman who owned a bar after all. However somehow, it was more of a sore point. Or at least, for Jereez it was.
"Ok," Damon shrugged unconcernedly, "I saw it." He took another step forward to stand next to her at the bar, his surprise entrance obviously having been ruined now.
Between the two there had always been this odd competition; who s thieving skills could outdo the other. Usually this consisted of Damon attempting to display such skills against Jereez by picking her pockets, or sneaking up on her, or a multitude of other ways, and Jereez catching him before he could complete the task. This contest was never directly vocalised, as though each of them were trying to pretend they weren t doing any such thing, though occasionally Jereez was prone to snide remarks.
"Really?" Jereez replied distractedly, still staring out into the crowd hoping to catch another sight of the stranger and his industrial size gem.
"No." Jereez turned to Damon and rolled her eyes at the slight arrogant smile flickering at the corners of his mouth.
"What kind of a thief are you!?" she demanded, "It was bigger than my " she rolled her hand into a fist and held it up gently before hesitating. Heck, why tell him about it! If she did, she d only have to share when she
"You know what," she told him, lowering the fist, "It s not important Not important at all," she smiled roguishly, "I think its time for a song." Damon immediately accepted the cue; there was always the prospect of a few more coins to line his pockets when he sang.
He did a pass on the harp today and pulled out a strange box-like stringed instrument from its leaning position against the bar then threaded his way out into the middle of the crowd and sat himself on a chair. Damon strummed a few notes to test the instrument then, when he was satisfied, began one his more common melodies and lifted his voice up to join the music. As soon as he started singing, Damon s raspy voice disappeared into a quite gifted music voice.
This, of course, drew the majority of the bar s attention to Damon. Several groups continued their chatter on regardless, but the bulk of them dropped their noisy antics to listen, or at least pay half their attention towards it.
Jereez gave the scene a satisfied glance before she began to weave her way through the crowd to the area she d last spotted the group of newcomers. From that vantage point she could finally see them, seated in the corner, deep in discussion and continuing to randomly give the bar scene strange uncertain glances. They were only partially drawn by the music, seeming to be more concerned for their own discussion.
It was enough for Jereez. Hastily she grabbed a couple of full mugs from a nearby barmaid, sloshing it over the rim a little absentmindedly, and began to walk towards the table holding the newcomers.
Just as Jereez was nearing the group she clumsily caught her foot on the edge of the human male s chair and stumbled forward, spilling ale over him as she went. He stood up dripping ale as Jereez recovered from her stumble.
"I I m sooo sorry," she stammered embarrassedly to him, "I can t believe I was so clumsy! Here let me!"
"No it s alrigh " he began to protest as she headed towards him but it was already too late, as Jereez was busily dabbing at his clothes with the bar-top rag that was always tucked in at her waist. He looked just as embarrassed now as Jereez had a moment before. Behind her, a barmaid was already attending to the spilt ale. Jereez dabbed a few more times.
"I really am sorry," she apologised again, then turned to the barmaid behind her, "Lain, get these nice folks some drinks on the house." She made a big deal about winking at the barmaid, which the newcomers would connect to the free ale, but which the barmaid caught as a signal. It was a "you know what to do, take care of my bar while I m gone" sign. It would not be the first time Jereez had used such a sign.
The barmaid shrugged and nodded before carting off the mugs. She was used to Jereez s strange behaviour. Jereez turned back to the group.
"Well folks," she told them, "I better be going, please enjoy your drinks " She left them, dumfounded, and hurriedly filtered her way back through the crowd, passing Damon still singing, as she made her way to the entrance. A huge grin plastered itself across her face she couldn t help it. She ran her hands over the smooth surface of the most prized possession she d ever had the chance of holding.
Back at the table, Elwood growled angrily, "What drinks!?" He stared at the tabletop as though it might suddenly sprout mugs of ale, "We don t have any yet!"
