[@Silmaril]

"Are you serious?" Helena asked, shocked by a drunk man's story.

"You better believe it!" he said, cheeks rosey, "I had the sea monster by the throat!  I looked at that scaley neck and I said to myself, I says, 'Charles, this is the finest beast you will ever fight.  Drink the blood and you will become a god!'  So, I sunk my teeth in and drank every drop of blood!"

"How did the 'god' feel after?" Helena laughed, figuring the story was fake.

"Terrible!  Worst blood I had in my life!" he laughed, then finished off his pint.

Helena shook her head, still chuckling a bit, and looked back to a stage.  A woman with a beautiful smile sat with a guitar.  Helena couldn't help but smile a bit more seeing the woman.  Her bold look was admirable and quite fitting for her.

The woman played the sweet music of the guitar and sang her song.  Immediately people seemed to be lulled to her, a good part of the talking silenced to listen to her singing.  Helena watched, absolutely mesmerized.  She greedily took in every detail of the woman she could find- eyes, lips, hands, voice, everything.  There was something about the woman that seemed... familiar.  It took her a moment, but she remembered this was Deena, the stylist.  Helena never saw her other than when a ball or formal event was being held, and even then Deena had never styled her before.

As the song drew to an end, Helena moved to the side entrance to the stage and asked for permission to enter.

"Nope, sorry, can't do that," the guard said.

"Please, I know Deena and I really need to talk to her.  We're friends," Helena said.  In reality, she probably could've used her status to get in the back, but she felt dirty doing that.  She wanted to find a way in like any other of the patrons here.

The guard raised his eyebrow at Helena's words, not sure if he could trust this woman.  After a moment, he took a step aside and let her in.  "Make it snappy, and if I hear anything that sounds a little bit suspicious you'll be outta here."

"Yes sir, thank you," Helena said and entered the backstage.  She was terrible with instruments and music, though she thoroughly enjoyed it.

Helena tried to think of a way to approach Deena without seeming creepy or weird.  Her breath caught a bit in her throat when Deena finally came backstage.  "Hey uh, Day- er, Deena," Helena said, stumbling over her words a bit, "I think your song is really great."  She then realized Deena might not recognize her, so she quickly added, "Oh, uh, I'm Helena, by the way.   We've met a couple times, but didn't really talk too much."  Now that she thought about it, she might've overloaded Deena with too much at once, even though it was a couple sentences.  [i]Oh gosh she probably thinks I'm some stalker,[/i] Helena thought, nervously running her hand through her thick brown hair.