Kiga followed Grayell into the tavern in complete silence. He looked about with his eyes only and saw no one with which he had a rapport. As Grayell interacted with the young lad, Kiga simply turned and leaned against the rear wall, one leg lifted and his arms folded across his chest. He closed his eyes.
Kiko's laughter threatened to overwhelm her again. Still, only someone watching her face might have seen it in her eyes, she recovered quickly enjoy. She glanced past Tyre to Grayell, made a small gesture with her hand to run her fingertips across his arm before speaking to the boy.
"I promise, Tyre."
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
As she walked past the Tavern, Rue heard loud voices from inside. Curious as to the occassion, she entered the building to see many familiar faces, talking to what seemed to be younger versions of themselves. Spotting Venom, she approached him and the child he was talking to.
"Hello Venom, and... Venom Junior. An All Hallow's Eve festival, I see?"
She recognized the costumes and decorations from when she used to dress up when she was a child, smiling at the memories.
Celephai entered the tavern, followed by a legion of curious children, constantly pestering her with questions. She obviously wasn't happy about it, either. She had come to speak with the local guards whom were currently off-duty, but the horde of children refused to give her passage. She conceded, then, to tell a story in exchange for being left the hell alone.
She took a seat at an empty table near a wall, gesturing toward the empty space like a canvas.
"Today, children, I shall tell you a story about where I come from, and teach you of one of our mightiest champions. It begins in a land far from here in a city by the sea, named Sarnath..."
Cel gestured to the wall, and some shadows began to warp and change, taking on the shape of a large city skyline.
"Now, Sarnath was well-known for it's fishing exploits, vast riches, towers of exotic metals and scholars with boundless knowledge of the cosmos. Unfortunately, they also had a neighboring city, Ib, that also sat on the seaside. Now, the creatures of Ib were not pleasing to behold with their greenish skin, bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips, and strange, warped ears..."
She constructed from the shadows a silhouette of one of the creatures she described, showing on the wall in various poses. The children awed and gasped at the fantastic nature of the silhouette, but Celephai continued:
"They were, rather fittingly, without voice. Nonetheless, they worshiped an idol by the sea that was as green as they were, and it was made in the likeness of Bokrug, the great water-lizard. Every night they danced horribly when the moon was dark in the sky."
Cel once again constructed another image of shadows on the wall, portraying several of the ugly creatures dancing around a large statue.
"...Now, the inhabitants of Sarnath, whom had come later and built their city, did not like the cizitens of Ib, because of their heinous appearance, vulgar rituals, and strange sculptures and grey monoliths. They eventually marched into the city with their spears and slings and bows and swords, and slew all of the inhabitants of Ib! They pushed the bodies into the sea, as well as their strange statues and monoliths. The city of Ib was completely annihilated, and nothing was left of it."
Cel portrayed a great, animated slaughter taking place, with the weapon-wielding shadows tossing the defeated bodies and statues into a great pit.
"Now, Taran-Ish was a great priest of the time, and was quite a powerful sorcerer as well. He secured the sea-green idol of the Great Water-Lizard, and took it back to Sarnath, but as the night came, a great cacophony of laughter was heard over the sea, and in the morning, people wondered aloud 'What was that sinister noise?' And when they entered the temple of Sarnath, they found the idol gone, the priest Taran-Ish dead, and scrawled in his blood upon the altar, the sign of DOOM!"
Celephai constructed a strange, alien letter, which, while merely a shadow, seemed eerily sinister in it's shape and meaning. It quickly disappeared, however, and she resumed her story.
"Now the city of Sarnath prospered greatly for several hundred centuries. The city walls were built of desert granite, and stood three hundred feet in height, and seventy-five in width, so that chariots could pass each other as men patrolled along the top. A full five hundred stadia did they run, and the only exposed side of the city was toward the sea, which was held back by a stone, sea-green wall, against which the waves of the water would rise quite oddly on each anniversary of the destruction of Ib. In Sarnath, there were fifty wide streets, paved in sleek onyx, upon which rode fantastic creatures such as camels, tigers, yeti, and more! At each gate to the city, made of bronze, there stood statues of fantastic creatures, some not even known among man any longer..."
"...but most marvelous of the city were the palaces and temples and gardens made by Zokkar, the Olden King. So high were they that one fancied himself beneath only the sky, but when the lanterns were lit with the oil of Dother, there were great murals of kings and battles, and grand fantasies that would be unimaginable should one not behold them himself. On most of the palace floors, there were mosaics of great beauty constructed of sardonyx, and lapis lazuli, and beryl, and carbuncle... so intricate and beautiful were these that often one fancied themselves walking among the finest of flowers."
"Perhaps the greatest among these was a throne which sat upon two crouched lions of purest gold, carved many steps from the floor out of a single piece of ivory. In that palace there were many galleries, and amphitheaters where kings could watch man and beast battle at their leisure. Sometimes these theaters were flooded to allow for enactments of great water battles, or skilled swimmers and terrifying sea beasts!"
Celephai wrought from shadows a still image of a man fighting a many-tentacled creature, and the creature seemed quite much to be winning.
"The seventeen tower-temples of Sarnath were just as luxurious as any palace, and often held many grand rites and festivities, wreathed in incense were grand statues of many pantheons and great chronologies of epics past. At the top of one tower, at the peak of many hundreds of steps, where the high priests looked down over the city and across the vast sea, was the altar upon which bore the Doom-scrawl of Taran-Ish..."
Some of the children began to shiver in fear and anticipation. There was some quiet whispering between some of them, to which Cel put her hand up to signal for silence.
"On the eve of the tenth millenia since the destruction of Ib, there was a great feast in the greatest hall, and the greatest king, whom sipped the greatest wines. The moon began to wane, finally eclipsing by a shadow, and the high priest Taran-Kas, descended from the fated Taran-Ish, first saw the shadows falling from the terrible moon, and the great mists that came from the sea to obscure the city."
"One by one, the gates of Sarnath closed, and were never to open again. Caravans were locked both out and in, and in that single night, was heard the screams of all the hundred million inhabitants of Sarnath. The few traders whom were outside the city when the screams were heard rushed back to their home cities, to tell them of the doom that had come to Sarnath. Many armies were raised and not less than a month later the gates of Sarnath were broken in. The streets were littered with the bodies of strange, green creatures with awkward, pouty lips and bulging eyes, with curious, warped ears. Thousands of them littered the streets, amid the incoming tide of the sea... and upon the king's seat, in the finest palace in all of Sarnath, was the high priest Taran-Kas, sword in hand, stained to the hilt with the blood of the horrible invaders. Before him were hundreds of the creatures, and many more horrifying than the descendents of Ib, broken upon the many stairs and great halls of marble and precious metals. As he was addressed by the general of one of the armies, his voice boomed throughout the hall: 'None shall have Sarnath, not even the foul sea...' and with that singular ultimatum, he died."
"Now, nothing is left of Sarnath, save for marshland and the skittering of the foul sea-lizard, but always are the descendants of Ib despised, for their place on the Sea of Sarnath was removed long ago, and they now have no right to their old home."
The children sat quiet, mortified for a few minutes before Celephai finally spoke up again.
"...The good guy won, the bad, ugly guys lost, and that's why you always cut off a sea lizard's tail."
This was met with a collective cheer from the children, whom each ran off to occupy all of their pent-up energy from sitting still so long. Celephai herself slid down in her chair, exhausted from using even such a basic amount of shadow magic.
Grayell warmed to the touch upon his arm and smiled as he pulled out a chair at her table. He spun it to sit backwards, facing both the table and Kiko. He kept his smile subtle but mischief was in his eyes.
Grayell knitted his hands with a smug smile and rested them on the back of the chair. He lifted his chin, looked over her in a very investigative manner and smirked.
Today? Interesting. I tend to keep tabs on new people in town. No offence meant miss, but you like you might be trouble.
She considered his words for a moment, no longer before extending one hand out in front of her and then the other. Kiko studied both of them and glanced down the front of her body. She looked back at him.
You sure about that? I'd get your eyes checked if I were you. I'm just a simple traveler in for the night.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Kiko's head tilted back when his came forward. She mirrored his gesture and left one hand out on the table in front of her. She was quite plainly demonstrating that one hand, at least, was no danger.
Someone might be putting me up. I wouldn't let it bother you. I can assure you it does not bother them.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
She settled a bit more deeply into the chair. The tavern had slowed down some and there was still the matter of Tyre's secret. She answered him quietly enough, but beginnings of a sleepy note was in her voice.