Snippet #1563074

Andulin had been absorbed in his own thoughts when the dwarf approached. He sat in his chair, leaning against the arm rather than the back, one leg cocked up over the other. He had a hand over his eyes, trying to shade out the commotion of the inn and think about what he really needed to thin about. Where on earth could these people be going?
As such, he hardly heard the dwarf's greeting, and he did not register that it was aimed at him. He made no move to respond. And that left Dessana to do it.
She gave Andulin a vicious glare, totally uncharacteristic of her people, but it was lost on him. He could not see her anyways.
"Human," she hissed. He did not answer, so she reached out and slapped him sharply across the back of the head. "Human."

Andulin jumped sharply, sitting bolt upright, and turning to stare at her. Dessana arched an eyebrow sardonically, tipping her head sharply towards the dwarf. Andulin whipped around to stare at Izhak.
"Ah," he gasped. "My apologies. I didn't... see you there..." he trailed off, aware of how stupid he sounded, stating what was quite obvious to everyone. He forged on anyways, determined not to make a complete fool of himself. "Are you here about the kidnappings?"

Dessana, for her part, lost all interest in the conversation. She turned to gaze out at he rest of the inn. The Black Hat had always been popular, but this was getting ridiculous. Why her people had ever been foolish enough to put her up in a place this full of people, she would never understand. She did not do well among a crowd of her fellow elves, let along surrounded by these brainless humans, and metal-headed dwarves. She had never wanted to be involved, never wanted to go out and search for this half-wit mage who got himself caught by someone doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. More than likely he was already dead. So this whole thing was entirely pointless.
But she was stuck here, whether she liked it or not.

Desperate for something to occupy her time other than this stupid human and his dwarf friend, she started to examine the rest of the room. Her eyes fell on a kinderling; a barilas; sitting at a table nearby. She had always liked the barilas, more even than her own people. For some reason she simply… got along better with them.

She could only hope that the little kinderling would come over and join them. It would make this journey quite a bit more bearable, if the barilas was with them…

Her thoughts were abruptly cut off as a dwarf exploded into the Black Hat Inn. Dessana looked around at him, arching her eyebrow in irritation. Adulin, too, looked around in alarm.

" So, I hear Eagleview needs The Collector to find some missing people!? Before I do this, I will need women and wine, in that order."

“Pompous ass,” Dessana observed quietly, narrowing her eyes at the dwarf. She hated men like that, who were so obsessed with their own masculinity that they assumed any woman would simply fall into their arms.

Apparently, the dwarf assumed that she would simply fall into his arms. He came across the room to her and whispered in her ear. She did not bother to listen to whatever it was he said to her. She just pulled out a dagger and set it against his thick neck. A cruel elvish dagger, more than long enough to sink straight through his airpipes.

“Dessana!” Andulin gasped, distracted from one dwarf by an assault on the other. “What-?!”

Dessana did not move. She did not say anything. She simply sat with her dagger point against the offending dwarf’s throat.