The sun was an enjoyable sight for it was the clear indication that they had left this largely unexplored subterranean mixture of dwarfish and dark elven infestation behind for good. The Skayleigh spent a lot of time on looking downwards, waiting for his eyes to do what any dwarven eye would have done long ago and adjust. The moment pain ceased to be the reward for looking into the distance, An-Hasst raised his senses and inspected the environment himself. A village. Inhabitans ? Humans. Or should one say... daredevils ?

While he had never participated much in the struggle on the Kaelic Isles himself, he still could recognize how terribly wrong the order of construction appeared to have gone here. Wouldn't have it been a much better idea to try and get a decent defensive ring completed first before upgrading improvised shelters to nice little houses ? Without a wall they'd have to try and shoot their bows from inside the houses and await any enemy there after he had broken through the gate. Or simply get slaughtered outside by virtually any projectile on any arbitrary trajectory. An-Hasst silently hoped that those people at least [i]knew[/i] that there was this massive cave entrance nearby ?

He noticed how their most recent addition opted to seek cover behind him -- and in fact he started to support this move. The woman was horribly exposed and who knew how badly her reputation in this village was biased by either previous confrontation on the personal level or general vilification of her race. Her getting held up, probably caught and possibly even be killed would only help to give their own cause a boost downwards. So he started to move more slowly and barely enough to make his stance and position not appear odd. [i]Sometimes[/i] being the largest member of the group could be quite advantageous. If only there was be more he could do to make her drow-ish appearance just vanish for a brief, decisive moment. The old 'we have captured this individual and would like to perform our investigations' trick wouldn't work on such short notice, would it ? At least he decided not to dare and try it single-handedly. If she'd decide to pull it off, he'd assist her though.

Maybe though this wouldn't even be necessary: Maybe Settionne would succed in wrapping this guard into so much of his disgusting verbal slime that the poor fellow would simply slither along the ground of arguments no matter what part of his mind or body he'd deploy to try and gain a foothold ? Time would tell in a few moments, and so long he'd have to try and move this rog captain's halberd into a less prominent position. What if they'd recognize what kind of species it originated from ? And last but not least there was the not so enjoyable brain wave that those humans likely were refugess from any of the northern battlegrounds. This included the one his own kind was involved in. So... maybe someone would step into the breach and boldly claim that [i]both he and Aeryn[/i] were captives ?

Events didn't fail to quickly pass the Skayleigh's mental position. A man in shiny armor and with a damn precious looking sword appeared, even though he obviously had the bad habit of letting its tip rest in the dirt where sand and stones could make it lose its edge very rapidly. He noticed the drow, probably a glitch in An-Hasst's footwork that had exposed her legs, but nothing dangerous happened. At least so far... crossbows were still aimed at them. Not having to conceal anyone anymore, he decided to step forward. The bridge's floorboards protested precariously beneath his feet, something that made him wonder if those spikes had also been placed in the ditch beneath them.

He felt a little flaw in the arguments exchanged so far. What was money worth in a place as remote and cut off from any trade like this ? [color=ffff00]"If it would assist in the matter we maybe could also offer our workforce for the time we'd stay here. I could imagine that your ongoing construction effort could need it."[/color]


[@POOHEAD189][@Gardevoiran][@Mortarion][@Fetzen][@Stormflyx][@BCTheEntity]