Nothing but Trouble

[Guest]

Thea travelled herself to a group of a about four men who were busy with there drinks and chatting loudly amongst themselves.

"Excuse me," Thea said.

She expected them to look up. They didn't. They ignored her and continued their loud talking.

Regaining some composure, she took a step forward and said more loudly, "Excuse me." It was hard not to let them hear the anger in her voice.

They ignored her again!

She angrily walked close to their table, slammed a closed fist on their table. "Oi!" she yelled. The aftershock of her fist connecting with the table left it shaking mildly.

The men stared up at her in shock, their mouths hanging open with food.

Oh no, she thought to herself. This is the sort of behaviour Thea had told Ash not to engage in, but to be nice and polite. If he saw her acting like this she wouldn't hear the end of it. She refused to let him get the better of her, her pride couldn't handle it.

She cleared her throat, put her hands behind her back and said in the most welcoming voice possible, "I'm wondering if you have seen my friend's gem..." She recounted Ash's story and waited for the men's reply.

"Haven't seen it," said one of the man. This seemed to be the general answer for the rest of the table so she moved onto to the next one.

[Ashven]

"Sorry. Haven't seen anything like that."

The first man shrugged and gave Ash a pat on the shoulder.

"If I were you, I'd check down at the docks mate. If I had stolen something like that I'd be on the first boat out to keep folks off my tail."

Another man at the same table slowly stood up and gave a nod before speaking.

"I saw a man last night who was in a rather big hurry to get down to the docks. I don't think any of the ships were done loading and unloading their wares so he might still be down there."

For once, Ash's smile faded completely while his face contorted into a look of shock. He grabbed the man by his robe and almost pleaded with him.

"Tell me! What is the fastest route to the docks?!"

The man chuckled, removing Ash's hands from his robe. He gave him directions, pointing every so often as if to clarify the directions.

What happened next occurred so quickly, no one could be sure exactly what they saw.

Once given the directions, Ash spun toward the door and almost instantly a large wolf with a white blaze on it's forehead seemed to appear where Ash had been just a second before. The Wolf wasted no time dashing through the door and down the street, leaving terrified and shrieking men and women in it's wake.

[Khei]

The sudden commotion of the other patrons caught Khei's attention just in time to notice the wolf headed through the door and the distinct lack of the man they had entered the tavern with.

She waved at Thea and Pointed feverishly toward the door while there arose loud comments from the crowd.

"Did you see that?!" "What Happened?!" were but a few of those comments.

[Guest]

On her way to the next table, Thea saw Khei and the reaction of other patrons of the tavern. She realised she had missed something that left this tavern in quite stir. She ran to the the door, where Khei was pointing, and looked our on the street. Wind whipped hair into her face as she saw the people on the street. What had happened? She tried to find Ash in the throng of people but he was no where to be found. She made her way to Khei who by her reaction, definitely saw something.

"Khei, what happened?" she asked over the noise of the tavern.

[Khei]

Khei shook her head and shrugged but pointed at the door again.

"I have no clue what just happened but people were suddenly yelling and screaming.. Well you heard them. And there was this.. big dog.. or something.. it ran out the door."

She took another look around the tavern.

"And Mister Creepy is nowhere to be found. I can't even smell him now.."

She looked expectantly at the door.

"Do.. you think he has something to do with this?"

[Guest]

Thea was reeling her head around about what had just happened. "I-I don't know. But with Ash...who knows?"

Whether it was magical or a trick of the light or a complete misinterpretation, something had happened that caused these people to go frantic. Whether it was extraordinary or unusual, was something to figure out. If they even could.

With her recent experience with Khei, she wouldn't be surprised if something extraordinary had happened.

People were starting to settle down but she picked up words like "dog", "wolf" and other sayings along those lines.

She collapsed in a chair, flustered, and let out a string of questions. "Should we find him? I mean the dog, or Ash? What really happened?"

[Khei]

Khei shrugged. She opened her mouth as if to say something but she stopped short. She thought again and fidgeted with her bracers.

"I dunno.. I mean.. we kinda still need the money he promised right?"

She thought for a moment again then looked toward the general area Ash had been headed to talk to the other tavern patrons.

"Well.. he was over there when I left the table so maybe someone over there has some idea of what happened exactly."

Khei walked over to the table where she thought he would have been and questioned the men there. Clearly she had picked the right table as when she returned to Thea she pointed to the men she'd just talked to before speaking.

"He was talking to those men over there and they had told him about a questionable person who was headed for the docks. They said that they couldn't believe what they saw next. A second later he was gone and that dog ran out the door."

[Guest]

Ash did owe them the rest of the money he promised. Her anger flared up and she stormed over to the man Ash had been last speaking to. Ash was not going to get away with this. She decided to make it short and "sweet".

"Hey!" she said, getting the man's attention. "You were talking to a man before all this commotion broke out. What did you say to him?"

The man look up at her from his chair. "He asked about some gemstone...I told him about some merchant at the docks. Are you looking for him? I could give you the same directions." He rambled off some directions even though Thea knew where it was.

"Thanks for the information," she said. Thea knew she could be temperamental but she had good reason to be mad at Ash this time. She made her way over to Khei. "To do the docks!" she said theatrically, smiling.

[Khei]

Khei nodded and started toward the door.

"let's go then!"

She stopped at the door and waited for Thea.

"You know where we're going so.. you lead."

[Guest]

Thea walked out the tavern. She made her way over to the horses in the alleyway. "I think we can ditch the wagon and just ride the horses," she said. "It would be quicker to catch up to Ash the..." The wolf, was what would have been at the end of the sentence had she not trailed off. She shook it out of her mind and decided not to make deductions. She continued, "We should hurry."

[Khei]

Khei nodded as she followed Thea. She caught on to where Thea's train of thought was headed even after she stopped herself from saying it out loud.

"We don't know if he had anything to do with what just happened right? I mean.. We didn't witness it. Even if he does have something to do with it.. Maybe it's a curse or something?"

Her tone clearly marked her uneasiness about Ash having some connection to the wolf. Maybe she wasn't actually human herself but she had grown accustomed to living like one and though her bracers were made with magic and magic is what maintained her guise, she was rather uncomfortable about the concept of Ash having some sort of magical properties.

[Guest]

Thea unhitched the horses from the wagon. Her thoughts lingered on Ash and magic. She had never seen anything magical until she met Khei. "Maybe you're right," Thea said. She didn't know much about magic. Thea made herself not entirely believe Ash was magical, and as Khei had said she hadn't even seen anything. Thea mounted Razi, who was a bit agitated, and was ready with the reins.

[Khei]

Khei followed Thea's lead and mounted the mare once again. This time much more confident at the reins.

"At least I hope I'm right."

[Guest]

Thea urged Razi and galloped him down streets and alleyways, dodging past people and vendors, leading them closer and closer to the docks. She once delt with a couple of arms dealers there. "Not far from here!" she called to Khei over the sound of the noise of the streets. The streets continued to rush by.

[Khei]

Khei nodded to Thea as they continued down the streets. She did her best to keep up though it was apparent that she was very inexperienced as a rider.