Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » An adventure of the Bravest (IDK Im bad at names)

Laydrin was slaving away at the tavern like usual, serving drinks to the alcoholics and food for the travelers. Her mind would occasionally wander to the more odd things in life like "why are we here?" She never knew the answer so she never bothered to try finishing her train of thought. It never really mattered she was just curious.
As she continued to serve she got more and more bored by the hour. It was mid-day so not much was going on yet. Just the regulars were filtering in and out. Laydrin got the latest news around town by having small chatter session with Old man Olly. He's a regular here who seems too over his head but he's a paying customer who give her information so she doesn't really mind him.

A few more hours go by and her shift is over. She goes off to her room where she changes her maids dress into something more comfortable. As she finishes off her outfit with her cloak she heads out the tavern. Hood down, she walks around town searching desperately to find something to do. She stumbles upon and old library in which she walks inside. Laydrin searches around until she finds an old book covered in dust. She picks it up and reads it, considering it's in common. Her mind gets lost in the story, as she becomes one with the adventurer and his journey to find his long lost sister.

Leap of Graceful Stag entered the quiet library, a cheerful attitude about the young Tabaxi as seen by the clear-as-day smile on her sleek muzzle. The traveling Tabaxi had just pulled of a successful contortion performance at the bustling tavern, followed by a decent meal of brothy pork stew and buttered bread for dinner after things simmered down and some people left. It was a lifestyle for Stag, traveling from town to town and performing at different taverns, bending herself into seemingly impossible positions, along with self-taught acrobatics she had picked up from watching those at the circus she had used to be apart of.
She liked the change of pace from a loud, crowded tavern to a quiet bookstore or library. It was appreciated, the calm demeanor that seemed to inhabit bookshops, it helped her cool down and get some much-needed time for herself. As Leap of Graceful Stag scanned the plethora of shelves for something that caught her interest, lightly dragging her left arm behind her for her paws to tap against the spines of the books softly as to not bother anyone.

The gleam of embossed feign gold caught Stag’s bright amber eyes, causing the young Tabaxi to stop to pick up the book. She read the title, it was that of a generic romance novel, so the Tabaxi put it back on the shelf, uninterested in the book’s theme. Romance never sat with her well, it was an awkward topic for her in general, and she didn’t favor the lovey-dovey sort of books, they just made her recoil when she got to any particularly ‘heated’ scenes. Nothing was wrong with Romance novels in general, it was just the Tabaxi didn’t particularly enjoy them.
Going to the next aisle over, Leap of Graceful Stag saw a humanoid reading an old...tattered-looking book. The worn appearance catching her eye. Breaking the silence of the bookstore, the Tabaxi asked in a hushed, but still cheery voice,”Where’d you get that book? It looks interesting.”

Laydrin's eyes shoot up in a slightly piercing stare at the thin cat like creature. Her piercing eyes turn into a kind look and she smiles at the beautiful girl. "I just found it on the shelf. I started reading it and I kinda got side tracked. I'm almost finished with it! It's about a man who goes on an adventure to save his little sister who got captured by dragons and he falls in love with a girl along the way. Tragically he must kill his love to get his sister back! What does he do? Who knows! I'll let you read it when I'm done if you would like."

Laydrin seems overly excited. This level of ecstatic hasn't rushed through her bones and soul since she got free of her horrid chamber.

She glanced out one of the huge windows to see that the sun is slowly making its way down, past the horizon, giving the moon it's time to shine. She looks back at the splendid creature. "I really have to go. It's almost time for me to get to work. That pitiful place won't run without me." Laydrin stands, ready to leave but pauses. She hands the girl the book.

"Would you mind keeping it safe until I get back? It'll only be a few hours. The Bustling Pony doesn't stay open too long. If not its fine." Laydrin puts her hands on her hips, not in a defensive manner but in a more thinking manner. "I think you should read it. It's. How would one put it? Thrilling."

Her smile grows to enormous sizes as Laydrin thinks back to the erotic story of twists and turns, love and trauma.

"Um, excuse me," a quiet voice came from around the corner. A young, blue-haired girl was making her way toward Leap of Graceful Stag, and the rat on her shoulder was sniffing the air cautiously. "Sorry, I just wanted to get that book, there." She reached toward a dark green book with silver binding, and sat in an empty chair in the corner. The rat scurried down from her shoulder and landed on the book.

"Stop, Nova. I'm trying to read," the girl giggled, then slapped a hand over her mouth and glanced around. There weren't very many people in the library, which was good. She didn't like large crowds anyway.
Turning, she spotted a black tail leave through the door.
She settled in for a good read, Nova falling asleep on her shoulder.

Leap of Graceful Stag nodded slowly, looking down at the dusty, worn book now in her arms. In the middle of processing the sentence, the Tabaxi’s thoughts were interrupted by the touch of a fleshy humanoid arm reaching past her to grab something. Recoiling from the cold sensation, Stag nodded firmly at the humaniod’s apology. Turning around to get a good look at who had just touched her, the feline realized it was either a half-elf or elf from the light skin tone and pointed ears, along with the unnatural hair color.

Seeing the cat-human-hybrid-person had left before she could say bye, Leap of Graceful Stag sighed to herself and walked over towards a stool to read the tattered book.
After getting herself into a comfortable position, she began to read the old novel that had been thoroughly spoiled not ten minutes ago. Stag didn’t blame the humanoid, it must have been a really good book for her to be so sqeualy and excited over it. Although she didn’t much like Romance, or Tragedies, the Tabaxi still read the ancient-looking book on the person’s request, not one to refuse offers like that often. It was just a book after all, and by the humaniod’s cheery ‘review’, a good one too.

Laydrin quickly rushes into the tavern, hood up at this time as to not try and deter the customers. She goes up her room and swiftly changes, having just enough time to get back down and start serving.

It was a rather hefty and hard night, as it was jam packed with people. It didn't make it much better at the fact that whenever one person left, another came in.
She started to think about the book she was reading. Stopping mid way to tea table, as her mind wandered through the journey of the brave man.
"Hey! Cat bitch! I want my bloody drinks!"
That's snapped her out. Laydrin shook her head and walks over, trying to keep her calm end smile at the young gentleman.
"I'm very sorry sir. I didn't mean to delay." She kindly sets the drinks down in front of the man and his friends.
"Yeah whatever. Freak."
Laydrin's tail flicked in anger, her cheeks because flushed and her mind wandered again. She thought of her companions known as that "Shadow People" and she snickered to herself. "Your gonna pay for that you drunk piece of shit." The man looked shocked and confused.

Laydrin glanced over at the corner of the room behind the man, to see a friend of hers. She nods to it and the shadow run to the wall the man is facing. As the shadow gets in his field of vision, his breathing slightly increases and his heart beat quickens. She can hear it all. A smirk glides over her face. The man looks at her and stands up to leave.

Laydrin shoves the man back down. "What do you see?" His hands are now shaking and his eyes are burning with tears. "My wife. My beautiful wife." Laydrin laughs slightly, loud enough for the people in the area of 5 feet to look at her. "What about your wife?" The man is frozen in sadness. He can't speak or even move. The shaking has stopped and the tears start to roll softly over his eye lids and down his cheeks.

Before this can get out of hand a bouncer walks over and picks the man up, and places him outside the establishment. Laydrin turns to the other three men. "That'll be 8 copper." They nod and split it mostly even, ruling one man to not pay the third coin. She picks up the coin and walks over to the bar setting down the said coins. "Ain't it about time to close sir?" The bartender nods yes.
"Go close up the doors for me when everyone in here leaves. Turn the sign to closed so nobody else comes in"

Laydrin nods and turns the sign. About twenty five minutes pass and finally everyone is gone. She runs upstairs and changes into better clothes. When done she goes outside and locks the doors up, and makes her way back to the library. She looks around until she finds the furry cat lady. She walks up and sits next to her. "How are you liking the book?"

By the time the humaniod hybrid had come back to the Library, Leap of Graceful Stag was three quarters through, skimming most of the pages but the action scenes, it was enough to get a gist of what the book was about and the important characters. Startled a bit by the suddenly broken silence, the Tabaxi quickly closed the book to look and see who it was. Seeing it was the cat-human-person she had talked with earlier, Leap of Graceful Stag’s tense ‘muscles’ relaxed and she replied in a light whisper, not wanting to bother anyone,”Oh- it’s going pretty good. I’m around finished with it, I kinda skipped over the romance parts, don’t like it much. It’s an okay book, the plot is not all that original but I like how the author integrates small details well. Kinda like if the main character had..what was it called again...ADA-, no, ADHD, yeah that one the uhhh disorder where you notice a lot more than you should and it’s hard to pay attention to one thing. Yeah, that.”
(Sorry it’s kinda short)

Laydrin shrugs slightly. "Yeah I guess. I don't really like romance either. I just the fact that the romance intertwines with gore and strong emotions. Then I don't mind it. I usually just pass over to really romantic parts. Like 'oh I love you so much' blah blah blah blah. Who cares about that?"

Laydrin continues on, speaking her mind until the earlier events at the tavern reoccur to her. She stops mid-sentence and smiles. "At the tavern on the next block down, I was serving this stupid jackass and he called me a freak. He got kicked out and his buddies had to pay for his drink. It was pretty funny. I also caused him to see whatever and he broke down in tears, crying like a baby bitch. It was really funny." She speaks with no care of the others in the library, even though it's few, her voice isn't necessarily quiet nor loud.

Laydrin chuckles to herself slightly. "Well if you wanna finish it then go ahead. Just tell me when your done so I can finish."

Isla looked up from her chair.
"Where do you work? I might have been there before," she said shyly, standing up from the soft, worn chair and joining them. It had been a long day, and she was glad to finally be in the quiet library.

"Hi! My name's Isla, by the way." She extended a thin hand to shake. "And this," she gestured to the sleepy rat on her shoulder, "is Nova. Are you looking for a good read? This book is good, but it's gory enough," she commented, referring to the silver-bound book in her arms. She became suddenly aware that she had been talking for too long, and she scratched her head in embarrassment.

Laydrin turns her attention to the humanoid female. "The Bustling Pony." She takes her thin fingers in her own slender ones and shakes it gently, not wanting to break or fracture her petite figure. "My name is Laydrin. Your little rat friend there seems like a lazy bundle of cuteness." She let's go of Isla's hand and smiles warmly.

"Gore doesn't really bother me. I've had a fair share of that in my life time so I'm pretty used to the nasty stuff like that. So what's the book about?" Laydrin's voice goes from friendly to intrigued, as she is slightly excited for a story that contains blood and guts.

Leap of Graceful Stag was...disgusted by the hybrid’s description of events, set off by the man’s actions towards her and how the cat-human handled it. ‘It was really funny.’ repeated in her head multiple times before the Tabaxi opened her mouth to speak. She was cut off by the other humaniod’s voice, and stayed quiet so the two could talk for a bit before pitching in,”The Bustling Pony, I performed there, the folks seemed nice enough. Look uh..Laydrin, do you really think it was that funny?” Taking a short breather, Stag continued on a cheerier note,”Also, I really liked this book, so I was thinking I would buy it. You could borrow it before I leave though.”

Getting up from her seat with the old, worn book in hand, Leap of Graceful Stag went towards the front of the store, and the to the clerk’s counter without another word. Stag began to dig in her tan leather satchel for silver coins, she felt fifteen silver coins would be enough to buy herself the tattered novel.

Laydrin becomes shocked and slightly confused. She follows the huge cat to the front. "Yes it was funny. Is there a problem with that if you don't mind me asking? He highly insulted me. And not to mention the way he treats the other girls who work there. He's married but he acts like a single pervert."

Laydrin thinks back to the words that she said. "the folks seemed nice enough." yeah sure.
"Listen. They seem nice at first. You learn eventually that people can seem sweet on the outside but are sour on the inside. You came there, you performed, you left. That's how it always goes. I make my living there. And let me just say, a good bit of the regulars are assholes. I'm not trying to be mean it's just.... You don't seem to know much about the real world do you?

Isla trailed the pair, not wanting to be left behind. "I didn't think there was anything wrong with the way Laydrin reacted. He was being a jerk," her voice changed as she realized she was being too loud. "Maybe she overreacted a bit, but it was in self-defense." She turned toward Laydrin. "I think your ears and tail are fascinating!" Glancing around, she gently picked up a relatively new looking brown book, thumbed through it, shrugged, and slapped it on the clerk's counter along with a few coins from her pocket.

Isla turned back to them, Nova sniffing at the dust cloud that the book caused. "The more you travel around the world, the more you find out that not everyone is going to help you. Not everyone's going to be friendly toward you, or compliment your rat," she paused and smiled back at Laydrin.

Leap of Graceful Stag sighed, thinking of a dozen other ways around the problem that Laydrin had just proposed, some that would work and some that wouldn't. A half-minute or so passed and she found a decent-working pair of solutions while waiting for Isla to finish speaking to the hybrid. "Well- how about you tell a local militiaman, guardsman, or whoever keeps order in this place, that he attempted to assault you? Threaten to tell his wife how he acts around the girl tavern workers, that generally gets the cheating type good. Emotionally derailing people is not funny, it's disturbing and sadistic. Don't you guys at the Inn ever think of banning people, that works too I guess. He was being a perverted jerk, for sure, doesn't mean he's not still a living being."

With her satchel lightened slightly, Stag left the bookstore, the generally cheery and bubbly Tabaxi's mood thoroughly soured by the conversation.

Laydrin turned is Isla, smiling slightly at her sweet compliment. "Thank you. It's rare to hear that from anyone really. Only my best friend. He doesn't visit much though. He gets really busy really quickly." As she turns to continue talking to the cat creature, she has disappeared.

Highly confused, Laydrin looks around to see her exiting the library. She nods at Isla to follow her as she walks up to the woman. "Listen. You think I haven't? Kinda hard to tell a guardsman what's going on when they are all judging you. I'm not necessarily normal you know. I'm an oddity. And how the hell am I supposed to know where his wife is? Even so do you think she would believe me? It's hard living in a world where you aren't really excepted by anyone just because of how you appear. At least I dealt with it myself then and there. I could've gotten my best friend to deal with it and he would've murdered the man on sight. Or screwed him over. We try not to ban anybody and I don't have the authority to do it. If I could I would. What I did was the best possible answer."

Laydrin starts to sound more and more defensive. This woman is trying to tell her what to do, when she doesn't even know the struggles of living in this unforgiving and cold world. "The part about it being funny, that's just my personal opinion. At least I didn't laugh as he was dragged put the tavern."

"What's he like? I'd love to meet him someday," Isla addressed Laydrin, and Nova poked his caramel-colored nose in the air in agreement.

"When some people think you're odd, they treat you like it. When everyone thinks you're odd, no one helps you or stands up for you, so Laydrin had to stand up for herself. Banning him would have been a good idea, but Laydrin is just one of the employees. No one would have listened," she added quietly. "And if he comes to the place a lot, they wouldn't want to ban him, they would be losing too much money."

She lifted one shoulder. "Some people will still try to hurt you, even if you are nice to them. That's why I turned to animals for friendship. They don't have facades, or pretend to be nice to you so they can get something out of it." She scratched Nova between the ears, and he nibbled her fingers. She started talking again, aware that she was getting off topic. "Ultimately, Laydrin had two main choices: to stand up for herself, or keep quiet. She chose the one that would get her out of that situation the fastest."

Laydrin looks over at Isla and chuckles slightly. "His name is Dylan. Dylan Sylus. He's extremely kind and he is the entire reason I am where I am. Without him I'd be lost and scared. Still screaming for help. But he gave me courage at times that I couldn't muster it myself."

Her mind flashes some of the heart retching times he saved her from an infected arm or bleeding eye. To all the times he embraced her with his large arms and welcoming smile as she cried into his strong chest. She smiles warmly at her own thoughts as she misses him dearly. "He should be coming back in a few weeks so I'll see him soon. If you and I happen to become friends then you might meet him. He'd probably like you."

She thought back to how Isla mentioned turning to animals, as they aren't cheap or fake. How they are up front and honest. "And I think that turning to animals was a good idea. It's just.... Well you can't understand them. Can you?"

Leap of Graceful Stag had kept walking, hearing the defensive tone in both humaniods voices and seeing practicality wasn’t going anywhere. If these townspeople are that horrible, why not just leave? You can get a job elsewhere, maybe another tavern, or work as a stablehand. Maybe teach yourself a second language like Elvish and teach Common in an Elvish-speaking area. There are probably even more possibilities, but I can’t think of them right now. But still....yeesh. Getting joy off of tearing someone down to the brink of tears...you must have something wrong in the head.

"That's sweet," Isla said, wondering about what Laydrin had been through.

Isla looked over at Nova. "If you're around them for long enough, you can understand them," She grinned, thinking of when she had first found Nova. "You learn their quirks and what they like or dislike. With Nova, he's very dramatic. Every nose twitch has a meaning. I had a family dog before, and he was very laid-back and calm. He loved to chase the squirrels, and he made everyone happy. He was independent though. Didn't do anything unless there was food involved," She giggled, thinking back to her childhood.

"Oh. Yeah I guess so. I never thought of it as sweet. More caring. Or understanding. We are one in the same when it comes to our past. His is a bit more twisted but it all sums up to the same thing in the end."

Laydrin, being the curious cat she is, wonders why the cat woman hasn't spoken up yet. Especially since we followed her just to speak with her. "Why do you have such a problem with it anyways? It's not like you know the guy and he hurt me so I dealt with it. Should I just let people harass me now?" She starts to sound angry, as this woman obviously wasn't being reasonable about this whole situation. "Besides when did this ever involve your input?"