Snippet #1171550

Jade had kept her back planted against the wall she had just slid down for a long moment while staring up at the lip, waiting to see a helmeted face peek over, or shouts of alarm ring out. She'd come within arms length of a sentry while vaulting the wall, which had come as something of a shock to her. Seriously, who posts guards on top of a wall? Oh right, it's not 130 degrees out here; the guards weren't going to die of heat stroke during their shift. Come to think of it, why had she jumped the wall in the first place? She ducked into an alley and started making her way towards the smell of sea salt and the sound of the gulls as she began to come to the realization that being an Al Mayin in these parts might not be a crime. It was a thought that made her question her original plan of finding passage back to Sarife. What was she going to do when she hit the port anyway, jump out and sneak back into the desert? The whole notion suddenly seemed silly to her.

Regardless of what she chose, the first step was finding some appropriate clothing: her flowing layers of desert garb were quite miserable in the humidity. With that thought in mind, she continued heading towards the port, since that's where the merchants were most likely to be. It took a while, navigating the maze of twisting streets and alleys, and she passed quite a few merchants along the way but it was apparently still too early for them to open up shop. Jade's stubbornly growling stomach reminded her that she couldn't remember when she had last had a solid meal, so she noted the location of the merchants to her mental map and left in search of food.

Jade wandered into an appropriately seedy place that had a sign saying... something (she couldn't read common) figuring that this would be the best test of the discriminating hatred that plagued her in the desert. Except for a few odd looks from the serving girls, nobody appeared to care about her appearance, which was a pleasant change, as was not being charged for the water she ordered while pretending to read the menu. Hopefully someone would come in and order something that sounded appetising. Her hopes were answered, though not in the way she had expected: just as she was feeling lucky, Vincent and his group, followed by Captain Highwind pushed their way inside. They had probably passed one another on the streets or in an alley and not realized it, and the only other table that wasn't occupied with a drunken or passed out patron was the one she was sitting at... which happened to have plenty of open seats surrounding it.

Jade muttered a few select curses in the Al Mayin desert tongue when she realized there probably wasn't a graceful way out of the situation, and instead tried to position the menu so it hid her face, but so she could still watch what the others were doing. Maybe they'd sit at the bar....