milliways_bar | (no subject)

And suddenly there was a sound somewhat like a certain youth trying to climb a tree. "Hup!" He jumped off the ground and scrambled up branch by branch, far less nimble up a tree than on the ground. "Urgh." Two hands appeared only a littleways down from Shadow and suddenly the owner hoisted himself up onto the branch and sat down, somewhat puffed. "Forgive the intrusion, I saw the smoke."

Shadow smiles and moves over to make room for the smaller elf.

"Fortune favor you, Link. How are you this fine evening?"

"And also you, my friend. Quite well, actually." A few moments rest and Link pulled himself up to sit next to her. "Is that a pipe?"

She nods, holding it out to him. "Dreamweed. Gift from the heavens. Care to try?"

Link grinned a little mischeviously. "Sure." He took the pipe and gave a mighty puff, followed by a mighty coughing fit. Is the name Dreamweed an apt name for the plant?

Shadow laughs, cheeks flushing a little in the moonlight. "Easy, easy! It's to be savored ... and too much might have you walking right off this branch."

She leans back against the trunk of the tree and sighs, one leg dangling off the branch.

Link gazed up at the cataclysm above and shivered. He hated that doom above. It was the total opposite of what he fought so long for. His view wandered the heavens for some time, before returning back down to the world he was currently in.

"From the Heavens? Literaly?"

"Some would argue yes, but I say it's to the credit of the most skilled herbalists my people can produce. And if there's a little divine hand guiding their own, who am I to complain when the result is so lovely?" She smiles again and lifts the pipe from his hands before he has time to blink, taking a deep draw and exhaling slowly.

Link quite deliberately leaned backwards until his bottom slipped off the branch and he hung by his legs. It had been awhile since he'd done this. "I love climbing trees. Or, at least, I used to. I haven't had much time for it."

"You have a point there, about this blessed plant."

Shadow laughs delightedly and joins him, hanging by two legs until she has enough balance to dangle by one. Still smoking.

She grins over at Link and takes the pins out of her hair, letting the braid tumble until it almost reaches the ground.

Show-off? Shadow? Never.

"You have longer hair than I do." He remarked, somewhat amazed, but far more to himself. "How long have you been growing it?" Link, seeing her trick, attempted to do the same. He fell.

As he fell he attempted to right himself and instead of what would have been a rather painful fall, it ended in an only slightly painful roll in the snow. He rubbed his shins, got up and returned to the tree and to hanging upside down.

Dreamweed would be the explanation for that, she thinks. His reflexes would be sharper without the dulling effect of the herb.

"Since my birth," she says easily. "Elves mark their age by the length of their hair. It gives us some status within the clans. I see younger elves in the city cutting their hair these days but I guess I'm a bit of a traditionalist."

Link smiled. How in the name of all things sacred his hat was staying on his head was a mystery. "That is an impressive tradition. I only wish my people had such things. Actually, they probably do and I just don't know it. I'm not really one of my people in any sense except for race. When I visit the castle town its always brief and the people are happy to go about their bussiness without me amongst them. Except maybe the people of the village to the westish."

Link now took off his hat to let his fringe and the rest of his hair tangle downwards. In fact, he let his hat plumet into the snow. He didn't need it right now. "Do you have a husband or a lover back in your land?"

His hair is the color of the sun in comparison to Shadow's, black as the sky above.

"I have had many lovers but no mate," and is that a touch of something besides humor in her voice? Perhaps. "My people are slow to change and slow to breed. It is rare that a female gives birth more than once or twice in however long she may live. Many of us are born barren; I am one such."

"And I'm also out of touch with the forest," she says, a little lighter. "The city is my home now."

Link was somewhat the opposite. He was quite sure he wasn't impotent (having not had any time to really test that, he could only really assume) but he had never had time for women.

"But there is still hope. You will find one or one will find you. Promise." Link said, giving her a bit of an upside down hug.

Link was very much her younger but he couldn't help but feel kinship towards her. "What are the forests like in your homeland? Deep an inpenetrable? Full of life and spirits?"

"I don't put down roots easily" she says, extending an arm to return the hug. "If someone - elf or man - matches my tongue and my spirit then I'll see myself settled. If not, I'll enjoy all the variety that life has to offer." A little bit of a wicked grin at this.

"The forest is bright and beautiful - full of spirits and animals and life," she says. "But I've never felt fully part of it. The bustle and excitement of a city suits me better than a forest."

"Of course. It is put there for you to enjoy, why neglect it of its purpose?" He said with a mischevious grin. He was vering on going slighly pink from the blood flowing to his head. Since people an endure up to 45 minutes like this at a time, it wasn't a problem.

"It sounds like a beautiful place, the forests. But the cities of your home sound better still. Our only city is small and holds a meager population, to be honest. I'm sure there are actually cities and villages further to the west but no one speaks of these. There isn't really much of a hustle and bustle in the city that we have. Actually, on market days there is a quiet one, but they never really have their heart in it."

"Why is that?" she asks curiously, swinging back up to a seated position.

"They do it over and over, day in and day out, every day of every week. You get the picture. City folk already lack in spirit as it is, so they really only do what they must and not anything more. Then, as they do it for longer, they lose interest in it and turn their eyes to nature and other things relaxing. Like travelling. Some turn to women, some turn to alcohol, some do this and some do that. They stop caring about what they do and they start living only for the relaxation at the end of the day. The hustle and bustle remains, but it isn't as hustley and bustley as it should be. Or at least, if you ask me." Link grasped onto the branch and let his legs slip, pulling himself up with his arms and straddling the branch before swinging the other leg over. "And the hustle and bustle isn't terribly big to begin with, anyway."

"Ah, friend, if there was a way to take you with me so you could see my city, I'd promise you'd change your mind," she says, smiling.

"There's always something to hustle and bustle about in Allanmere. And there's even more interesting ways to lose your purse."

Link laughed. The idea of it. He'd nearly been stolen from once or twice, but most of them had been scared off by the threat of being cut in twain.

"It even has a nice name. Allanmere." Link, of course, stumbles over the pronunciation but still manages to enjoy it. "But are you not the leader of the purse snatchers?" He then added hastily, "No belittling intended of course."

She grins and pats a jingling bulge in her sleeve. It drops out into her hands and she tosses it back to him.

It's his, in fact.

"The best this and any city in the west has to offer at the moment," she says lazily. "And until someone steps up and bests me, I intend on staying there."

Link was genuinely suprised. When he saw ye olde money bag in he hand, he checked his belt to see it missing. "I'm impressed. You are trully a skilled thief. You should probably have kept the bag, you could have pawned my currency for quite a bit." He produced a green rupee and handed it to her for inspection. Rupees where overly well-carved jewels, colour coded according to value, that where both made and seemed to pop up out of no where. They weren't actually any established type of precious stone, but one could quite easily pass them off for precious stones.

Shadow eyes the gem critically, holding it up in the moonlight, then produces an emerald of her own. "The two look nearly identical. This is fine workmanship and would fool most."

She hands it back to him, impressed.

"I'd actually prefer a real gem. As a currency, this by itself is worth next to nothing. I couldn't even get a loaf of bread for it." He said with a smile.

"Do I irritate you? Am I too bubbly or energetic?" He paused to let his rather strange question sink in. "I think without my Fairy with me I've gone a bit off the rails. She was almost like a guide."

"Fairy? You had a spirit guide?" she asks. "What happened to her?"

"And no, you aren't irritating in the least. It's a pleasure to meet another elf who isn't aloof to the Heartwood," she says with a smile.

"Well, when I was sent here, accidentally I hope, Navi didn't come with me. Actually, I'd been seeing a lot less of her around that time, now that I think about it." He paused to think and reflect. "I don't think she was a spirit guide as such but more a Best Friend, the kind that is the other half of the loaf of bread that you are, if you get my meaning. I wasn't technically supposed to have one, now that I think about it, since I am not actually one of the Faerie-folk, I was just raised amongst them."

He smiled and gave her a proper, friendly Elf-to-Elf hug this time.

She returns it and adds a swift kiss to his cheek before he pulls away. "And she helped you on your quest? I hope that she's waiting for you back in your homeland."

"Me too. I'd be worried sick if I even began to ponder where she was." He paused this serious talk to add a slightly aloof. "Hey, am I taller than you?"

She grins and shakes her head. "I'm sad to say no, friend, but it's the truth. I'm a slight taller than you."

Link let loose a terribly cry, like a soul being crushed beneath and evil boot. Wow, he was a better actor than he thought.

"Nooooooo!" The cry overbalanced him and he plumeted from the tree, this time catching himself properly.

He grinned mischeviously and pointed up at her. "Remind me to do two things: Buy you a meal or a drink, and get some Dreamweed off you."

She laughs and is on the ground next to him a moment later.

"I wouldn't say no to either of the first two and the Dreamweed's easy enough."

She pulls a small pouch out of her sleeve. If Link were to open it he'd find a decent quantity of the potent smokeleaf and a few tabs of resin to chew besides. She presses it into his hand and pulls a dagger, touching the tip to her forehead in salute.

"Duty calls, 'm afraid."

Link looks for a dagger on his person and not finding one, draws his sword instead and salutes back. "May all things sacred guide and watch over you. Oh, and thank you for the gifts." He bowed low and the two went their seperate ways. She put it quite well herself: Duty calls.

[OOC: Well, that rocked. I'll let you relax and RP with someone other than Link for awhile.]