[h3]Martina Stonehammer[/h3]
What was all the commotion about?  It was as though these people had never seen a dwarf greeting a trusted comrade before!  Was it because she didn't have a beard?  It [i]was[/i] highly unusual for even a female dwarf to shave, but... Well, maybe it was due to her human-half but Martina had never liked the beard.  Too itchy, for one thing, and it looked... Weird on her.  Father didn't approve, of course, but mother was perfectly fine with it.  They'd even had their monthly argument over it last night as she begrudingly prepared for the ball.

Still, she couldn't let this stand, and so Martina gave Gillian a stern look right in the eye.  Of course, she had to stand on her tiptoes in order to do so, but the effect was there at least.

"Now listen here, lad," she growled, her legs trembling just slightly as she tried to maintain eye contact, "ain't you ever seen a dwarf before?  It's a traditional dwarven greeting between friends, you hear!" It was a well known fact that dwarfs often liked to remind non-dwarf races that they were, in fact, dwarfs, and with Martina only being half-dwarf sometimes she overcompensated a little.  Laying her feet flat on the ground again, she gave Gillian one last glare before turning back to Fanilly.

For a moment she pondered repeating the gesture, but her common sense prevailed for the time being.  Maybe later.

"Of course everything's alright, lass!  Me and the captain go way back!" she assured Marianne, her brow twitching ever so slightly at the assumptions plain to see on everyone else's faces.  "Ain't that right, captain?"

Even as she tried to clear the air, Martina couldn't help but notice what appeared to be a young child approach the knights.  Maybe she was just curious about them, but hopefully she wouldn't stick around for too long.  The Iron Rose Knights were no place for children, after all!