[h3]Lissa[/h3]

Now Lissa was getting very tempted to give these guards –more like thugs—some lip. If this was how they treated every outsider then it was no wonder that people didn’t come here often. It would also explain why the entire place looked poor. [b]“Eh, well hold up now. You can’t just go arresting every merchant or traveler that comes by just because one outsider was a bad egg.”[/b] Lissa placed her hands on her hips in a displeased manner, a pose that only slightly coincidentally placed her hands closer to the sidearm at her hip. 

She glanced over her companions, and leaned into them with a hush voice for their opinions. [b]“Thoughts? They’re more aggressive than I’d thought… might be best to cut our losses here.”[/b] Lissa was willing to march right up inside if the cues they gave were right, but she wasn’t willing to march right up into actively hostile territory and be immediately taken prisoner, either. If her companions didn’t have any objection to what she was about to do, then she would continue on. The lady shaking her head at her made it all the more prudent to her, even if she couldn’t quite tell if she was shaking her head no to leaving, or shaking her head no as in ‘don’t go in there, it’s dangerous.’

Lissa gave an indignant protest. [b]“We came here to offer some wares and to see if there were any dangers on the road ahead. Most villages I know of pride themselves on their hospitality and good business sense, but if you insist on breaking the established rules of hospitality and [i]being[/i] that danger, then I think we will be taking our leave. Thank you, and [i]good day.[/i]”[/b] And leaving a bad review of the town everywhere else, but that was an obvious statement best left unsaid, as was the fact that they would give the patrol a pretty good match for a fight, with escorts and heavily armed weapons and all.