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"Greetings, human. I am Al-raii the elf, and this is Lyrra." Great, she barely knew the woman, and now she was introducing her to everyone as if they were the best friends. "I apologize for my... acquaintances' behavior. I swear to you I won't cause any trouble."

The mayor, as expected, was a very nice person. If the rest of the people in that town were half as nice as he was, then the town's reputation - Heaven on Earth! - was by no means exaggerated. Sadly, now they had a demon around. A demon that happened to be a Regent of Hell.

Al-raii knew by experience that demons on the surface meant trouble. Demon Regents? Worse even. As she thought this, she glanced at Arlo... and rolled her eyes. What was he doing now?

"But I'd keep an eye for the hellspawn if I were you..." She told the mayor "For example, right now."

Arlo licks his lips and placed the piece of metal into his maw. His inhuman jaws were able to crush and mangle the material easily and he soon was mucnhing away quite happily. That is until the stand's owner, who has previously been helping other customers, noticed the Hellspawn's actions.

He flew off the handle at Arlo, who had his mouth full and was quite confused as to what he had done wrong..

Sam took one look at the demon munching on metal crafts and bid the mayor good day. He'd have his hands full in a moment. She spurred Mort on, so they could get further in to the town and start searching for a tavern, stable, and/or general store.

The mayor's eyes widened when he saw the interesting chemistry happening between Arlo and the salesperson. He hurried towards them, quite upset; it's a bad idea to be rude towards a regent of Hell!

"Don't worry, my good man, I will pay for the goods Mr. Khorjex just... er... consumed. Send me the bill, please." He didn't even let the salesman reply, nor the hellspawn for that matter. "Please come with me, Mr. Khorjex, I will take you to a tavern. I will show you the best this town has to offer its visitors!"

It's true what they say, one's brain works better when under pressure.

"The Old Flask Tavern is my personal favorite. I-"

"Mister Fynn! Mister Fynn!"

It was Starwhim, the Dorky Elf.

Starwhim had been living in Libelle ever since Fynn had arrived there. He hadn't aged a day (that's elves for you) but he was still as much of a bookworm and socially inept as one could get. He was also the only elf Fynn knew who used glasses. An encyclopedic knowledge of everything strange and unusual (the Mayor loved some tales about unexplained events), together with that awkward behavior that kept unchanging (which was somewhat endearing), had made him and Fynn great friends, especially during the previous year. He was also his assistant. Not that anyone would care about such things during a time like that.

"What is it, Starwhim? I'm busy here." The mayor looked up at Arlo. "Excuse me for a moment." He walked over to the elf, leaving Arlo behind. "What is it?"

"...remember that lizardman that had been missing for some time now?"

Zacharias nodded.

"Yeah, what's-his-name."

"Yeah... We found him. Well, parts of him. His head and... a leg."

Those words hit Zack like if they were an electric shock. "What?!?"

Starwhim nodded.

"By the river banks..."

Oh dear!

"I will go and find the guards... please keep an eye on that satyr-looking person, he says he's a prince of Hell. Take him to a tavern, keep him happy... damn... poor what's-his-name..."

He should have told the elf not to let anyone know about it. Without another word, a very agitated Zacharias Fynn walked away... while a very excited Starwhim ran over to the hellspawn...

"Are you Lucifer?"

The mention of Lucifer made Arlo instantly like this fellow; not that he wouldn't have instantly liked him otherwise. He gave the man, elf, thing a once over and decided he was good people. In fact, he smelled like books and Arlo happened to love that smell because A.) Books were delicious and B.) his best friend and fellow regent ran the Pandemonium Library. The regent grinned, showing many of his pearly white fangs.

"I'm not but I have met him. He's awesome cause he's still all angelic with the wings and the real feet." At this point he was raising his hoof to make the point that he didn't have feet. "And and and he's so cool and collected an powerful. I know his daughter too and all the other Fallen..." And he rambled on for another few minutes to the supposed delight of this scholarly looked fellow. "I like you, you smell like Vinzen, what's your name?"

When Starwhim answered Arlo made a face because the name sounded strange to him. But he recovered swiftly and pulled off the elf's glasses because you know, they were such good friends now that he could do that without repercussions. "Are these special glasses? VInzen has glasses but he doesn't reeeeeally need them cause he can see and all. He uses them to see less." Of course, that was only half the story. Vinzen had cursed his own sight in a botched magical experiment and used the glasses so that he could see like a normal demon instead of seeing in magic terms. Arlo had been unconsciously following where Zacharias went while he babbled away barely letting the elf get a word in edgewise.

"Well, this is my cue to leave. This place isn't going to explore itself" Al-raii said, smiling, to whoever was listening to her. "I'm off"

And without further delay, she made her way to the nearest tavern. She was hungry and thirsty, and her frail elven constitution couldn't stand too long without a good, healthy meal.

Starwhim decided he liked the hellspawn. He was friendly, extremely friendly, and he liked friendly people. So what if he had his glasses? He didn't need them that much.

Well, maybe to read.

And reading was almost all he did.

But who cared? That dude was a Regent of Hell!

Plus, he knew Lucifer, and amongst the loads and loads of nonsense he said (it was nonsense for the poor elf, at least) Starwhim had managed to pick up a few very interesting things. There was also the Vinzen fellow, with some luck he would learn more about him as well. Glasses to see less?

Lost in Arlo's... unique speech, it took him a while to notice where they were going. Which was, exactly were they weren't supposed to.

"Hey, big guy. Hey! HEY! Big guy!" He called, grabbing his arm and hopelessly trying to pull Arlo. "I know, let's go to the tavern! What do you guys eat and drink? Yeah, why don't you tell me about that on the way?"

Arlo stopped mid step and regarded the elf. “What’s a tavern? Is that a place to eat? I eat a lot of different things. I like metal a lot.” He was, until that point, quite interested in what these glasses would taste like. But the elf seemed like he might want them back, what with all the looking at them pointedly…

The Hellspawn handed the spectacles back to their owner and continued his question tirade until he was successfully diverted from his path. He let the elf steer him in the new direction. When they had reached the “tavern” thing, he realized that they were, in fact, the only ones who had walked there. At this point Arlo stopped to look around in dim panic and said, “Hey! Where did all of my friends go?”

After a short while, Al-raii found the tavern. She was honestly annoyed when she saw Arlo there. Oh well, she would just find another table, and he would hopefully leave her alone.

Faithful to his shy young female elf persona - with body to match! - she walked over to the counter and quietly ordered something to eat, and something to drink. Few minutes later, she made her way to a strategically-placed table, carrying with her a piece of bread, some cheese, and a huge mug of beer. Perhaps she should have been more specific.

Sam could not possibly have ignored such a delicious adventure hook. She scampered after Fynn, with Mort trodding alongside her with his larger strides.

"Zack! Er, Mr. Fynn! Mayor!" she called, trying to get his attention. Mort threw in few gronks, always helpful.

(I hope the lizard guy's name was literally "What's-His-Name". I suppose he could've been an Argonian.)

(...it is now! )


Someone appeared to be calling, and the poor troubled mayor did not recognize whose voice it was. But he had work to do, he had no time to... his head was spinning. He didn't know if he should let the town know about what had happened... might as well pretend nothing was wrong... he stopped, and turned around to see that lizard girl and the friendly dinosaur. Yes, it was a good idea. They were foreigners, the last thing they needed to know was that a murder had taken place in the paradise they had heard so much about.

"Oh, it's you. What is it?"

He tried his best to smile, to be his nice and cheerful self... but he just couldn't.

While looking around for his "friends" who he insisted had been right with him and he would not go in the tavern without their company, Arlo's nose caught a scent. He stopped his yammering then and got deadly serious. Well, at least as deadly serious as he could get. This, in retrospect, probably wasn’t very deadly at all.

"What's that smell?" He recognized it readily, it smelt like home almost. It was the scent of blood and death. He put his nose to the air and turned in the direction it had emanated. Starwhim was tugging at his elbow and saying something, but Arlo was much stronger than him and just dragged the poor elf.

He was, of course, again going in the same direction Zacharias had tried to steer him from.

"AAAGHHH!" Back at the trading grounds the crotchety dragon let out a frustrated growl of disgust. EVERYONE was afraid of her. Were they seriously not going to buy her prized merchandise? Back in her homelands creatures would fight to the death to get a lock of dragon hair and here they would only fight to the death to get away from her. Letting out a snort of smoke she sat back on her haunches and thought to herself that maybe her appearance was a bit threatening. After all, she DID have an alternative...though rarely used, she recently learned the magical spell that would give her a temporary "human like" form. However, she often refrained from doing this, because frankly...she thought humans looked stupid. But, maybe it would get her at least one sale and she could go home. She was fed up with trying to be nice anyway.

So it was decided. Ignoring the blabber of the stupid crowd she took a few steps back and began to recite in her mind the strange words that would set the spell into motion. At first, nothing happened, but only a few seconds after she was finished reciting the spell a strange wave of light began to twist around her. Pressing her ears back she shut her eyes tightly and thought of the form she would take on. It seemed simple enough, but halfway through the spell, several members of the crowd noticed something was happening and began to circle around her corner.

"What's happening?"

"A magic show??"

"I can't see, Mom! Pick me up!"

Choshi rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed sigh. Of course NOW they would come near her. Why are humans so STUPID!? They're attracted to smoke and colors like moths to a flame. They better buy something once this is over.

The crowd stood wide-eyed before the dragon's sales mat, magical hair still untouched. Excess smoke from the transformation spell began to roll away from Choshi as the wind picked up and the crowd shuffled this way and that to get a better look at what had happened.

Where there was once a lumbering dragon now stood a rather short and very naked girl, no older than sixteen or seventeen in appearance. Shifting her weight this way and that, Choshi opened her eyes and glanced down at her hands and feet.

"DAMNIT! I DID IT AGAIN!"

To her disappointment, the spell she had only recently learned had worked but not the way she intended it to. Her arms and legs still retained their dragonesque appearance, and when her long tail snaked around into her range of vision she knew that it was still here too. Not only that, but her large ears stuck out from a fiery mane of thick red hair that tumbled down her shoulders and nearly reached her knees. She let out an irritated sigh and ran her leathery hands over her head. Yes. Her little horns were still there too, and probably looked absolutely ridicules poking out of her little humanish head. At leash she managed to get the torso part right this time.

Once she was finished examining new failure of a form she turned her attention to the crowd, who stood wide eyed, many of them staring in disbelief, others covering their children's eyes and making inappropriate remarks. Though, for the most part, they were staring.

"WHAT?!" The dragon picked up her bag of holding and stuck a clawed hand inside all wile glaring at the onlookers. "You gonna buy something or just stand there!?"

Most of the crowd, offed by the rude tone of voice decided to turn around and leave, while several young men stayed behind, talking amongst themselves. Rolling her eyes, Choshi could probably guess what they were talking about and let out a snort of smoke before pulling out an earth-toned tunic from her bag. The one thing she detested about changing forms was the need to cover herself in public. With a grumble she pulled the tunic over her head, paying close attention not to snag it on her horns and tied a blue sash around her waste.

After a few unsuccessful steps towards the group of young men, she finally bargained with them and sold a small portion of the hair for way more than it was worth. She didn't care though, they were probably too stupid to know it's use anyway and she tossed the gold coins into her bag along with the remaining lock of hair. She had had enough of selling. Maybe she could get someone else to do it for her next time. This friendly business was more than she could handle.

"Hey, sorry to pry, but I couldn't help overhearing your conversation. I won't butt in here, I'm sure you want to keep it under wraps until you know more. If you do come to decide you could use some help, though - well, here's my card. Think it over, take your time; I'll be in town at least a week, I should think."

Samantha decided against slipping it in to his coat pocket, instead just offering it to him. Professional printing, gold border - obviously she must be the real deal.



(There is a noticeable lack of actual contact information on the card. Mostly because phones and other communication devices haven't been invented, and she has no permanent address. Of course, everyone knows that if you're looking for an adventurer, you can easily find half a dozen lousing up the nearest tavern at any time of day or night. In this business, cards like these are mostly just to get a name and an associated face in the client's head, so when he has a problem, he's more likely to remember them than a competitor.)

Mr Fynn gazed blankly at the card for a moment, then blinked. Well, from what Samantha had said, she already knew what had happened. Maybe she could help...

"Oh, an adventurer. Well... I..."

For a second he tried to think rationally and ponder the question. Should he ask her for help?...he was tempted to say yes.

"Just... how much did you overhear, Miss Brooks?"

He hadn't noticed the two familiar figures closing in on them... the tall hellspawn and the short elf.

Arlo was following his nose like a lunatic bloodhound. He followed the scent the whole way despite whatever protest the small elf may have given him. His goat-like ears were pointed straight forward towards the body emitting the death smell. He noticed the Mayor standing over the scene and his entire demeanor perked. The mayor was nice… But that lizard lady was there too. She didn’t seem to like him much.

Looming up behind the Mayor because they were such good friends that he surely wouldn’t mind the closeness, Arlo asked: “What happened to that guy?”

(An apology for lateness. )


The hellspawn's words startled Mr Fynn, who suddenly turned around to face who he thought could be the killer jumping on him from the back. But no, it was Arlo. After recovering from an almost-heart-attack (if such things exist), he told him what he knew.

"He was killed."

Great, now everyone knew. Well, it's not like Arlo wouldn't notice that and tell everyone, anyway. The guy's disembodied head was there, for crying out loud! Still, there was no harm in asking for a little privacy regarding that specific matter.

"Please don't tell anyone. I don't want people to think my little slice of heaven is unsafe..."

Words that would be most probably lost in the hellspawn.

Arlo may or may not have hissed at the particular word; if he had it was too fast for those around him to pick up on. He did however step forward in his uncouth manor and lift the head off the ground. It dangled before his face as his expert nose sifted through the scents that clung to it.

He recoiled. “Did you know this guy?” He looked to the mayor, his icy eyes inquisitive and serious for the first time since their meeting. The Mayor stammered a noncommittal answer about whether or not the lizard man and he knew each other so much as knew of each other. The hellspawn checked out of the conversation already. He had dropped the head back to the ground and now surveyed the leg. “He smells aaaaawful, how didn’t you notice him earlier?” His nose wrinkled in disgust.

(Sorry dudes, been ultra busy lately.)

Sam gritted her teeth and steeled herself against the urge to defend the dead's honor in the middle of a bunch of civilians.

"Well, I'm not going to tell anyone, but with this guy here, you're probably already boned. I will of course do anything I can to help you find the fiend who did this, after we give this man a proper burial."

Choshi had already packed her belongings after an irritating argument with the merchant who had been next to her. She hadn't been paying much attention but he seemed to be going on about how she should "pay for damages to his tent for knocking it over with her tail". Blah blah blah. The man's voice was beyond annoying and if she was more accustomed to walking on two legs she would have been out of the trading grounds before he had time to finish his banter.

Swiveling her ears away from the chiding voice and grinding her teeth to stop herself from any further eruptions of anger, Choshi made her way down the mane rode. Each step a little studier than the next until she managed to get the hang of two-legged walking. She would have to wait for the transformation spell to wear off anyway...whenever that would be.

Not really set on any particular destination, Choshi found herself walking for only a few minutes until her nose was filled with a putrid oder that made her face twist in disgust.

"UUGH! GOD!! What DIED over here!?"