--- KINTHEK ---
Kinthek felt his gaze lingering on the red heads of hair as the hours wore on. There were only two of them, but their luster and shine had his full attention.
The most eye-catching of the two was a gruff looking man who constantly glared at anyone and anything. At his side was a short hand and a half sword, and his eyes had a tendency to track every movement. From what Kinthek could tell, the Mercanary hardly even stood still as his gaze constantly tracked around the group and the shadows. Kinthek wasn’t sure what he’d sold his soul for, but it clearly wasn’t beauty or immortality. The man was well into his middle ages and looked like you could chop a block of wood with his face without even scratching it.
He kept giving Kinthek annoyed looks at the staring, but he never did anything about it, simply letting his eyes keep searching for danger.
The other bloodbinder was a stark contrast to this man. She was bright and perky, constantly chatting and smiling. She was beautiful as well as young, with the kind of looks that probably had every man she’d ever met pinning after her. Her most odd feature was that she had a very small nose, small enough that one could hardly even see it unless you looked for a minute. However, after that minute you’d be remarking about the colors of her eyes—which her red hair was perfect to bring out the blues and greens of—or the brightness of her smile instead.
At his staring, all she did was smile in a perfectly innocent way and focus her attention on something else, as if she was completely oblivious to the attention. With how she looked though, Kinthek suspected she got the staring part a lot.
“I can’t blame you,” a voice started.
Kinthek blinked and glanced up, meeting the eyes of a pleasant enough fellow, he was fairly old, probably about thirty five or fourty, but it was harder to tell since he was a Niortak. Kinthek felt his eyes squint slightly, “Ah… for what?”
The man gestured toward the female Bloodbinder, “Staring. I don’t think anyone here hasn’t occasionally daydreamed about Filfinde. I have to warn you first, she’s got a thing for Flame.”
Kinthek blinked at the bird man, following his gesture toward the other bloodbinder, the gruff looking man. “Ah… good to know?”
“Yeaaauuupp, I like looking out for the strays. I’ve got lot’s of important information for you if you’re going to spend any time with this lot.” He gestured toward himself, “I’m Talfaxin. Probably the most normal person here, well… right after Rohanosh, can’t beat him with that… Anyway, it’s Kinthek, right?”
Kinthek nodded, “I’m not sure how long I’ll stay, but I don’t really have anywhere in particular I’m going, so…”
Talfaxin perked up visibly, “That’s neat!” He lowered his voice, whispering across the short distance theatrically, “But hey, if you feel like you need help leaving stealthily, I can get you out for good without anyone even noticing, just say the word!” he winked and sat back up straight, as if he hadn’t said anything.
What?
“...Thank you?
Talfaxin nodded happily, “We the Leftbites have all sorts of odd people!” he waved a hand absently, a strange construct of light appearing beside the bag of rolls and tossing one in his direction outside the watchful gaze of Taenseva. She’d been expertly preventing everyone from nabbing any more than a single roll, and even this didn’t pass by her sharp eyes.
“Talf! Put that back before I wip your rear end! We’re rationing those!”
The Niortak was already taking a huge bite of the roll, trying his darnedest to choke the whole thing down as Taenseva marched over with a purpose in her step. As she left her post though, a surprisingly thin woman with brown feathers as her hair nabbed three rolls and hurried off, her own strange construct of light hitting a fourth in her direction as she turned to finish her getaway.
Talfaxin started choking on the roll he was shoving down his throat, but the whole thing was in his mouth by the time Taenseva got to him. “You little-” Taenseva started, and then shifted to a different language that reminded Kinthek of Teli-teli, and was probably mostly curse words. He examined her lighter skin tone and more erratic scale patterns before realizing that yes, she was probably from Teli-teli. Stars. That was far away.
Talfaxin simply grinned at her, raising his hands and responding in the same language as he made another hand gesture that flung a fifth roll toward the thin woman, who caught it just as deftly as the others.
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It was around this time that one of the Niortak, this one held himself like a nobleman, walked up the path and stopped in his tracks. He was carrying water, but his expression told it all really. He watched a sixth roll fly toward the woman and then shouted in outrage, “The roll thieves strike again! There’s Teizen behind you!”
Taenseva’s head jerked upward with a murderous expression, and it was only moments before the thin woman—presumably Teizen—and Talfaxin were being chased around with a very large spoon.
Kinthek was left watching them all, his eyes wide as the show continued. It was perhaps the most entertaining thing he’d seen in his entire life as the situation continued to escalate, leaving Teizen scarfing down rolls as she ran around the camp and Talfaxin summoning those strange constructs of light over and over again, which somehow managed to thrust him into the air in a way that was almost flying. Kinthek got the sense that Teizen would be doing the same thing if her arms weren’t filled with rolls.
Eventually, the rest of the caravan intervened, the two remaining Niortak tackled Talfaxin out of the air as the gruff looking bloodbinder managed to help Taenseva corner the thin woman with the rolls.
Taenseva stood over her, taking back the three remaining rolls with a glare, “You two are lucky that you’re more than half of my mercenary force! Otherwise I’d’ve thrown you out on your spectrals for that!”
Talfaxin seemed wholly unrepentant, and he’d probably been fully aware of what would happen too, he settled back down next to Kinthek, who was watching him with bright, intrigued eyes. “Were the rolls worth it?”
Talf nodded sagely, “One hundred percent. Filfinde cooked today.” he leaned closer and whispered, “Taenseva was probably going to just hoard them again…” he perked up again and gestured toward Teizen, who the annoyed Larborak was still scolding. “It’s also the only way I can bribe Teizen to patch my clothes.”
Kinthek smirked, “What, are you that bad at sewing?”
Talf shook his head, “No, no, you don’t understand, Teizen is magical with a needle. You can hardly even spot the seam with a magnifying glass, I checked!” He gave the thin woman a haunted look, “but the last time I asked her to help me without getting her something like this, she nearly stabbed me.”
“With the needle?”
“Ah… no, she’s got plenty of weapons, she’s one of the mercenaries after all. I don’t think she actually owns a single needle now that I think about it… didn’t actually see any that time we stuck all her things to a tavern roof… hmm.”
“Then how does she patch your clothes?”
Talf shook his head, “It’s one of Arendi’s greatest mysteries…” He paused and then grinned, “Oh, here comes the runt… Don’t tell him I told you that.”
A red haired man was approaching Talf, his eyes just as hard as when Kinthek had been examining him earlier. “Talfaxin, there are other ways to fix your clothes than pissing off Taenseva.” The man glared, a firey and slightly unhinged anger in his eyes. It struck Kinthek that this was a bloodbinder, and they weren’t exactly known for being able to regulate themselves.
Talf simply grinned though, not even scared. “It’s totally worth it. Maybe you should try it sometime!”
The redhead glared at him, “Are you just trying to show off for the newbie or something? There are much more interesting ways to do that.”
Talf put a hand to his chest, a look of utter bafflement that was probably just an act spreading across his face, “Flame in the Darkness Casting brilliant light is offering to breathe fire for us! Finally!”
Without warning, Talf was tackled to the ground, an angry bloodbinder attempting to grapple him.
Kinthek wasn’t even sure what was going on exactly, but he took a step back, feeling an amused—and slightly worried—grin spreading its way across his face. He glanced to his side as someone else approached, only to see the beautiful young bloodbinder sighing beside him.
Filfinde, as Talf had called her, sighed with annoyance at the grappling duo. “Stars of squalling…” She muttered for a moment, before finally directing her voice to the two men, “Flame, he’s not worth it.”
The bloodbinder looked up at her, his eyes still murderous, “THIS SQUALLING-” Talf wriggled out of his grip again, still laughing maniacally, while Flame—as Kinthek assumed his name was—started trying to… bite the smaller man, with teeth that were far too sharp to be natural.
After several minutes, the two of them ended up breathing heavily on the ground while Filfinde grabbed one of Flame’s legs and started pulling him away from Talf. Surprisingly, Flame stopped struggling at this point.
Talf sat up sharply, getting to his feet and retreating in the other direction, still grinning, “Flame is violent today! Good to know!”
Taenseva was finally approaching, apparently done with Teizen, who didn’t seem phased at all at the scolding. “The day is nearly over, I should hope that that won’t be useful information to have. Aren’t you supposed to be tired out from a whole day of walking behind the wagons?”
Talf looked at her, wide-eyed, “Yes, of course, I’m the most tired little Niortak that ever did prosper. Say, are you going to make me do that again tomorrow? Just asking for a friend.”
Taenseva put her hands on her hips, letting out a long, annoyed breath, “Water duty.”
Talf groaned.