Talic would have been much of a fool not to anticipate the event of everyone having to introduce himself. He would have been even more of a fool not to think of a cover story for himself -- just in case any of his listeners would get second thoughts upon hearing the truth and come to the conclusion that trying to denounce him might bring more coin for less risk than trying to slay the beast. He still would have revealed his true name and origin since it was quite probable that someone recognized him anyway, but the explanation of his presence here would have been a well-prepared lie. For many more ordinary people the noble families of the Citadel were a society whose members were eager to prove themselves towards each other even if it was potentially life-threatening, so claiming that he had been given the task to slay the beast for the sake of Rastoch glory would have been plausible. He had already proven to the public that he wasn't good at jousting, so why not try to restore his family's honor by proving that he was a good hunter ?

All irrelevant now, at least for the moment. Talic's plan was on the verge of derailing silently already.

It had been a fluctuation in the corner of his eyes at first, something easily to discard. Then however the other people around him started to turn heads and even called out for someone. Then he saw her, too: A young woman, almost looking like a girl... and she had a bow. A rapier had been plugged into Talic's own hands when they had been a fraction of their current size already, so an armed youth could not be a big surprise to him [i]normally[/i]. The circumstances weren't normal in any way though as he had serious concerns about his parent's actions back home. Was she a one-woman killing squad on a manhunt for him who simply had failed to avoid discovery more thoroughly ? It would have explained her diving into the dangerous forests without insinuating her being crazy...

Talic went on red alert. He tried to duck and cover behind the stone cairn that happened to be adjacent to the small gathering, however his ludicrous size was anything but helping with that. His hand reached for one of his spears and formed a tight grip around it. These things were not only good for stabbing, they could also be thrown. A not so conventional weapon like a bow with much less range, much more limited ammunition and lower speed, but with an impact that was very significant even if not conducted by someone of his stature. He'd not allow himself to be killed that easily even if that meant behaving much less relaxed than anyone else!

Even he could see that his first thought had been erroneous soon though. An assassin would not reply to any kind of conversational attempt, but instead either try to get the job done or abort. That didn't mean that he would not have to watch her more closely though, if not for the sake of his own safety then for the sake of preventing her obvious hot-headedness cutting her life very short. Believe it or not but at least some nobles even had compassion for other people and Talic's stomach cringed upon seeing just how carelessly she kept shouting at the party. Was it really that difficult to understand that making loud noises on purpose had great potential to either attract or shy away whatever entity had just roared in the depths of the forest ?

The attractive potential appeared even more critical to Talic as he agreed with Heddwyn. As much as he would have liked to get out of damn Fero as quickly as possible as much did he have to admit that even his resources were limited.

[color=ff9900]"I think he's right. I at least could use a bit of sleep and I doubt that tired eyes will improve anyone's aim with a bow either. So why not stop holloring, calm down and arrange for a camp while we still can ? Preferably not right at the rim of the forest maybe..."[/color] There was no real intention of Talic to make himself sound demanding or even just 'significant' in any way, but he also could not avoid that his voice was very dark and no less chesty.