Bree--Late Night in the Common Room

Late night on a Sunday at the Prancing Pony, and the place is nearly deserted. Sure, there are a few stragglers here and there still nursing a brew, but for the most part the Common Room is full of empty mugs and dirty plates. It\'s here that Cordelia works, tending to the last chores of the day. She\'s moving slowly--collecting armfuls of glasses and plates, bringing them into the kitchen, then coming back again. At the moment she is wiping down tables with a cloth, upending chairs on them so she will be able to sweep the floor. Her black hair is caught up in a kerchief, strands sticking to perspiration that dampens her forehead the rest of the long locks hanging down her back. Her sleeves are firmly pulled down to her wrists.

Even though the night has grown old, Nauthcel enters the Common Room taking quiet steps that carrying him across the room to one of the chairs that has not been relocated. As he seats himself, his eyes turn towards the woman who is cleaning up and study her for a moment. It is then that he says, \"The other night, I had not had the opportunity to find out what your name was. I am called Neal by the Breefolk.\" His words are calm and his demeanor peaceful as he speaks.

The young woman is upturning more chairs onto another, nearby table--heavily favoring her right arm as she does so--when Nauthcel speaks. She looks over, and it takes a moment for her to recognize the man. \"Oh! I was looking for you to thank you, but I couldn\'t remember what you looked like. I\'ve been meaning to thank you,\" Cordelia continues earnestly, setting the chairs aside and walking over toward where \'Neal\' sits. \"Whatever you did helped tremendously. What /did/ you do? And I\'m Cordy.\" The words come out in a rush, accompanied by a smile.

The lips of the Man form a small grin as he replies, \"A few herbs and some knowledge about healing - nothing special.\" His ashen eyes focus on the areas that he had previously applied the salves to before asking, \"If you do not mind, what had I walked into in the parlour the other day? I assume that is not how you gained your injures?\"

\"That...uh..was me. Losing my temper.\" The girl hangs her head as she speaks those words, her cheeks even flushing a little red. \"I shouldn\'t have, and Nob told me off about it the other day.\" Well, Nob told her off for something else, but it\'s close enough to the truth.

Cordelia then looks up, her own eyes studying the man for a moment, weighing her options. \"I...I can\'t pay you for your time and the herbs. Only work here, washing dishes,\" she gestures with the dishtowel she was using to wipe tables. \"But I can get you an ale....\" Those narrow eyes study Nauthcel again as she adds, \"and a bowl of the stew that\'s left. My treat. I owe you more than that, but it\'s the best I can do at the moment.\" She seems sincere about it.

\"There is no need for payment. I am glad to do what I can,\" answers the Ranger as his own eyes do not depart from the woman. \"Yet, I am curious. Where are you from? I have been to this inn enough to know those whom assist in it and you are new. Mayhap the answers can be the reward I receive,\" remarks the Man as his grin continues to show a light sense of humor and yet also interest in Cordy\'s awaited reply.

With a bright laugh, Cordelia shakes her head and then starts using the towel she holds to wipe a nearby table. \"Yes, I\'m new. But I\'ve been here in Bree long enough now to be from here.\" She turns back briefly to shrug at the man. \"Besides, my mother was from around here.\"

Keldean eases into the common room, his brown eyes darting around as he carries a bowl of stew in one hand, and a couple of dinner rolls in the other. He\'s on the lookout for Hazel, but hasn\'t seen her yet and hopes the woman has gone to bed.

The boy is fourteen, with auburn curls that hang loosely around his face. He\'s wearing newer pants and shirt, looking cleaned up considerably from how people usually see him. He spots Cordelia and heads in her direction, a small grin forming on his face.

Nauthcel grins as he replies, \"So there is a past that you do not wish to speak of. I can respect that. Do you plan to work in this place full time or are there travels in your future?\" The Ranger continues to present casual speech, yet he does not notice the new arrival since his back is facing at an angle away from the door.

Cordelia looks up from wiping the table, and though she is still smiling, there\'s a hint in her eyes that she\'s not pleased at a stranger asking her questions. Even a stranger who eased her injuries. \"Well, I hope I don\'t work here forever. I\'d like to marry and have children. I mean, even if I do have to work here to help out my husband in lean times on the farm, say, what I want is to have children.\" She blinks a few times as she looks at Nauthcel, as if to imply, what else would any woman want.

Keldean\'s arrival doesn\'t go unnoticed at Cordelia, and perhaps the stranger\'s question has soured her mood a little. \"Eating /again,/ Kel?\" she remarks.

Keldean helps himself to a seat at the table, univited. \"I\'m hungry.\" Is his response, a fairly common answer from the teen. His brown eyes study Nauthcel curiously even as he takes a large bite of one of the rolls. \"Friend of yours?\" He asks after a moment of chewing.

The tone in the woman\'s voice seems to deter Nauthcel from asking any more questions as his eyes now turn to the new arrival. As he asks Cordy the question, the Ranger replies, \"I would say we are more like aquaintances considering we only formally met a few moments ago. Yet, I take it that you two are friends?\"

\"Keldean, Neal Neal, Keldean.\" Cordelia waves her dishtowel by way of making the introduction. \"And when you\'re finished with that, you can help me clean up,\" she snaps at Keldean, pointing to his stew. \"I don\'t want to be up until 2 in the morning cleaning here just because you fell asleep from your full belly.\" To Neal, she turns on a smile. \"We work together. And we\'re friends. Though it don\'t sound like it sometimes.\"

Keldean is too busy devouring the bread to answer immediately. He nods absently in response to the ranger\'s question, then turns a scowl on Cordelia. \"What? I\'m sure Jacquelyn is around. She\'ll help you clean up.\" He moves in on the stew next, practically shoveling spoonfuls into his mouth.

\"Every friendship is unique in its own way,\" say Nauthcel with a grin as he turns his eyes towards Keldean. After his eyes have passed over the boy, he asks, \"Do you also work here or just went you make a mess?\" The jest is revealed in the mirth the rings in the Ranger\'s voice with his grin never leaving his visage.

\"Jacquelyn isn\'t getting paid to work here, you are,\" Cordelia says as she moves on to wipe off the next table. She gives the towel a playful snap, trying to hit the back of Keldean\'s head--and winks at Neal as she does so. \"Unique? How so?\"

\"Yeah she is. She talked to Nob.\" Keldean mumbles around his mouth full of food. She snaps the towel at him and he looks over in annoyance, reaching to try and grab it from her. He answers Nauthcel once he swallows his food. \"I work here too.\"

The Ranger nods slowly to the answers before replying to Cordy\'s question by saying, \"No two friendships are exactly the same but each one works. And how long has it been since you two became friends?\" The questions seem to become more innocent with the more evasive ones having been left behind.

The sound of heavy boots unexpectedly breaks the relative silence outside the common room as a midnight wanderer makes his way towards the near empty room. Frarin it is who opens the door to the common room, clad in a light cloak and tapping a thumbfull of pipeweed into the bowl of his long pipe. He is looking down as he comes in, concentrating on the simple task, but his feet take him towards the hearth, as if having come to the common room to retrieve a brand to light his pipe.

The voices in the common room, however, bring the dwarf\'s head up and his feet come to a stop abruptly. Dark eyes survey the three lone occupants of the common room. \"Oh, I--\" Frarin says, surprised, looking pointedly at Cordelia.

Keldean gets the towel easily from Cordelia--she wasn\'t holding it that tightly, and maybe now that the youth has the towel, he might clean. \"Oh, it\'s been a while,\" she giggles in answer to the ranger\'s question. \"I started here before Keld did, too. But you know, we are both trying to improve our lives.\" She grins at Keldean, eyes narrowing briefly. \"And you,\" she continues to Neal, \"you\'re new here? You do a lot of traveling, too? What\'s it like?\"

Cordelia picks up another chair as she waits for the ranger\'s answer, upending chairs on an empty table. She\'s about to reach for another chair when Frarin walks in--and she stops, frowning. \"I can leave..\" she suggests to the dwarf quietly. \"Or I can apologize for being such an idiot earlier this week. I\'m sorry.\"

A tapping and thumping follow Frarin, and soon Thari can be seen limping behind the taller dwarf, head down as well. \"And I\'ve been thinking that--\" the healer is saying, as if continuing a conversation. \"--what?\" is asked as Frarin abruptly stops.

Thari looks up at Cordelia and releases a breath.

Keldean finishes off his stew in remarkable time. He must have inhaled it. The look that Cordelia gives him has the teen scowling. \"It\'s not my job to clean..\" He grumbles, but there\'s no real conviction behind it. He looks up curiously at her sudden distraction, his brows lifting at the sight of the dwarves but soon enough those brown eyes are watching Nauth again, waiting for him to answer Cordelia\'s questions.

To the inquiry, Nauthcel replies, \"I do travel as a merchant but am here when the weather allows me to return.\" The Ranger speaks calmly to the inn workers before turning at the resounding of leather against wood. As the dwarf enters, a small nod is given before the Man says, \"Hello, Master Dwarf.\" A second nod is also offered to Thari as she too steps in.

With one thumb still pushed into the bowl of his pipe, Frarin narrows his eyes at Cordelia when the woman offers to leave, even moreso when she offers to apologise. \"Mm,\" the silver merchant rumbles, looking at the hearth, then sidelong at Cordelia as his surprise fades. Thari limps in behind him and Frarin does not answer Cordelia as he turns to the healer dwarf, setting a hand on Thari\'s shoulder as a friend might help a friend. But Thari might notice that his grip is strong, as if steering the healer towards the hearth.

Frarin looks again towards Cordelia, Nauthcel, and Keldean. \"How is your back?\" says the merchant abruptly, neither accepting Cordelia\'s apology nor her offer to vacate the room. He nods politely to Nauthcel. \"Good eve, Master Merchant,\" he says. \"And Master Healer, I presume? Have we met before?\" The man is given a curious look, as if his face were familiar to Frarin.

\"A merchant? Do you specialize in any sort of goods?\" Cordelia does seem to take some interest in Nauthcel\'s answer, but whatever further question she might have had fades when Thari enters the room. She looks between the two dwarves, eyes settling on Frarin--and then it\'s hurt turn to be surprised by Frarin\'s question.

\"My back?\" Cordelia asks, frowning slightly in wonder that the dwarf should ask this at all. \"I\'m..it..\" she stammers for a response, then points to Nauthcel. \"Neal, the merchant here, did wonders for it. Enough that I could work again, though it\'s still sore to move. How..\" She frowns. \"How is the leg healing?\" She doesn\'t look at Thari, but that\'s where the question is directed.

Thari\'s sudden hesitance seems to be overridden by something, for the healer-dwarf is limping now toward the hearth, gaze having slid over Cordelia as if the other woman isn\'t there. But then back to her it goes at the question. \"It heals,\" Thari says stiffly. \"Just fine.\" Thari\'s dark eyes then shift quickly toward Keldean..

\"Keldean,\" says the shorter dwarf in a tone that is level, firm, and cautious all at once. \"Haven\'t seen you in a little while, my lad.\"

Keldean looks between them in confusion, not following the conversation much at all. He stuffs the other dinner roll in his mouth, chewing at great length while they talk. He swallows, looking over at Thari as the dwarf speaks to him. \"Oh.. uhh.. .. I guess not.\" He\'s been avoiding Thari, for good reason. Very good reason. There\'s a faint flush to his face as his mind recalls the last time he saw the dwarf.

\"Yes, a while ago though the memory fades me as to why,\" answers Nauthcel to the dwarf before answering the inquiry of Cordy by saying. \"There is nothing in particular, only what I find in my travels. Is there something that you seek to have that I might be able to obtain?\" Yet, as Thari addresses the other man, the Ranger turns and asks Keldean, \"Do you have dealings with most of the travelers through here?\"

Frarin seems to have expected Cordelia\'s own surprise, for the dwarf\'s lips press together and one brow rises as when an expectation is confirmed. He nods and looks as if to settle the point there, but he does add, with a keen look at the woman, \"Fair\'s fair then?\" An odd comment, perhaps, for someone who does not understand the details of the unusual conversation. It is said with a hard edge and a frown from the dwarf, but Frarin nonetheless looks somehow as if a dispute has been settled.

It is Frarin\'s turn then to look at Keldean, and he glances also at Thari as if remembering something. With a tone near identical to the healers\' level, firm and cautious one, Frarin gives a half-smile. \"Us, at least,\" says the silver merchant, looking at Neal as if to answer the man\'s question on the youth\'s behalf, but the comment is also clearly meant for Keldean.

The young woman\'s cheek flush hot red, but she nods and doesn\'t break eye contact with Frarin. \"Fair\'s fair. Yes, agreed,\" Cordelia answers, her tone almost as if sealing a business deal. That seems to settle something, for she starts to move off to another part of the room to begin clearing off dirty dishes, but first she pauses, addressing Nauthcel. \"You let me know if you change your mind on that food or ale.\"

Keldean shifts nervously, glancing between Neal and the dwarves a couple of times. Frarin\'s response has the teen shifting his gaze to Cordelia, sudden worry on his face. She\'s moving away though and Keldean has no help from her. He looks back, forcing a smile. \"Frarin is teaching me to fight with an axe.\"

\"An axe you say....interesting. Have you previously learned to use any other weapons from those whom pass through this area?\" asks the Ranger as he shows interest in the youth\'s combat abilities. Turing to Frarin, he inquire, \"How is he as a student? I assume similar to that of dwarf teens when they first begin to understand the art of fighting?\"

It is probable that Thari is listening to the exchange between Frarin and Cordelia, but the dwarf does not look at the woman anymore, attention instead focused on Keldean. \"An axe you say? Now, most dwarves will carry battle-axes, but I carry only the axe. We ought to spar once I am healed, if I am still here.\" A pause, with Thari glancing at Nauthcel while he speaks. \"I\'d like to talk to you, Keldean my lad, if you have the time. You\'re a difficult person to catch.\"

Frarin frowns in a final sort of way at Cordelia, though his eyes are still narrowed. But he seems at least well enough convinced of the woman\'s sincerity to leave off his attention to her. Surely there will be no more slapping or thrown carving knives in the obviousness of the common room. \"Yes, the axe,\" Frarin says instead in a wooden voice, looking at Keldean. \"He is decent. Learning the difference between splitting wood and splitting skulls, though I daresay he will never likely need know the difference. But he insists.\"

Frarin glances at Thari, then adds, \"Aye, Keldean lad. In fact we were just heading outside for a smoke. Perhaps you will join us.\" Polite are the silver merchant\'s words, but the last sentence is not a question.

By this time, Cordelia has moved well across the room, gathering up a stackful of plates and dishes to take to the kitchen for washing. She pauses at the door to the hall to take a last look around for anything that she has forgotten, but her eyes are mostly on the group that is gathered and talking: a worried look given to Keldean as the dwarves call him over, and a small frown as her eyes travel to Nauthcel, studying the man once more. Then she is out the door and on her way to wash dishes in the kitchen.