The girl walked through town in a calm manner, carrying her basket of goods as she went. As she passed by a shop window she glanced at her fleeting reflection. Her hands subconsciously checked her hair, ensuring it was in place. As she saw her appearance, her eyes cast a downward glance and a bitter smile graced her lips.

She continued on her solitary trek, her feet pounding the gravel streets and her ears graced by the laughter and life of the city. The two suns were already high in the sky and the clouds were far off in the distance, nary a worry of rain or bad weather.

As she walked along she noticed things. Glances, murmurs, whispers and glares, all of which were common and at the same time, uncomfortable.

“Sigh, will there be a day where the words of others are pleasurable to the ears? Or will this be my life until the day I die?” As she thought these words, she stared at her hands, the dark undertone a constant reminder of who and what she was.

Eventually the walk came to an end as she approached the inn. The earthen colored words that adorned the sign read as, “The Lazy Hobbit.” Accompanying the words was a crudely painted picture of a hobbit as it slept under the shade of the sign. The words and the midday light really gave the illusion of a hobbit sleeping the day away.

The bell gave a jingle as she made her way in, acknowledging the glances of her co-workers. The entrance of the inn hosted the tavern as well, and the lack of customers was a usual sight during the day.

“Seria! Did you get the ingredients?”, A plump woman with a friendly face popped her head out from the kitchen.

“Yes Holly! I was able to get everything on the list accept for Salamandra Spice, looks like the prices went up a bit again.” Seria just sighed and shook her head.

“Pity, and it used to be so cheap too! Well I suppose I can substitute it with some Phoenotian Peppers, but everything that comes from the Spice Islands has been going up in price recently.” The stockish woman simply held her face in worry as she thought about the inflation that has appeared recently.

“There, there, we can work it out! For now let’s finish the preparations for rush hour! This place will be bustling in a matter of hours!” Syria refused to let her benefactor wear such a glum expression.

The older woman just smiled as they set out to do their work.

Shortly after, the din of the evening made its way through the windows and evening customers began to trickle in.

“Oi! Barmaid! Another round o’er here!”

Seria rushed too and from as she was called by one customer after another. She did her best to stay professional, but the customers were getting more and more difficult to handle as the night went on.

“Hyahyahya!” One particularly drunken man grabbed her hand as she was leaving the table.

Seria squealed but quickly quelled her surprise. In a voice slightly higher than normal she tried to reason with the man, “Dear customer, please let me go! I have to- kya!” the man pulled her closer, so close that she could see the enlarged pores of his nose and smell the stench of alcohol and meat on his breath.

“Come on missy! There is more to servin’ a man then wine and meat!” The man leaned in to kiss her and she struggled to break free, furiously kicking and scratching but refusing to scream.

“Ah, sir? The lady doesn’t seem to like it.” Out of the corner of her eye, Seria saw a hooded man eating dinner while seated in the furthest corner of the room.

The brute ignored the man, either because he was to far to hear or because the brutish man did not care.

“Ah! Sir! That’s not right!” Seeing how the drunken man continued to grab Seria, the man stood up with a start and tried to come between the two of them.

Unexpectedly, when he grabbed the drunk man, the hooded male appeared to be twice as tall and twice as wide, so he was pulled away from Seria with ease.

This left an out of breath and flushed barmaid panting from exhaustion to one side and a drunken brute far away to the other, both wide-eyed and confused by the turn of events.

Seria was shocked stiff, unfortunately drunk was not. And in his confusion he lunged at Seria, pulling at her hair.

“Kya!” She screamed as she dropped to the floor kicking the ground with her feet as she went, trying to escape her assailant.

“Hey! Enough of that!” The man in the hood interrupted once again, this time less gently. As the confused girl ran and the drunk man chased, he stepped between them once again and threw a straight right into the man’s abdomen, launching him several feet vertically and several more feet back.

“Piss off and go home! That’s no way to treat a lady!” The man’s face was still hidden but he was obviously displeased.

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Seria was frightened. She huddled up on the ground, covering her head with her arms.

The man in the hood turned his attention towards her, “Miss? Are you okay?”

Seria was still panicking, “I’m fine! Thank you for your help, but I am fine!” She screamed these words at him and continued to clutch her head.

“Don’t let them see! Don’t let them see! Don’t let them see!” These desperate thoughts rushed through her mind as she continued to hide herself behind her frail little arms.

“Huh? Did you get hurt? Here, let me help.” The stranger reached down to help her, trying to part her hands so he might assess the damage.

“Hiii! I’m fine! I am not hurt! Let me go!” Seria screamed. Despite the strange man’s good will, that was the last thing she needed at the moment.

At this point just about the entire tavern had focused its attention on the commotion that was caused. The drunk man was already out cold from his brief flying experience and his friends were having a merry time laughing at his expense.

Holly saw what had happened and was trying to make her way to the fallen Seria.

“Hold it!” She cried out these words as she tried to force her way through the crowd. Her stocky frame was hindering her movements and the concerned stranger ignored Seria’s words.

“Now, now, I won’t hurt you.” His voice and words were gentle, but that did not matter.

To Seria he was the devil incarnate. With ease he pulled her arms away from her face.

Without any obstruction he could clearly see that she was alright and that no harm had befallen her. He made a sigh of relief, that was until he noticed something he wasn’t expecting. “Pointed. . . ears?”

Seria froze with shock and started to shiver with fear.

The sight of her ears caused an uproar as people started to speak.

“Pointed ears? But she has dark skin!”

“How can she be a dark elf? Look at her eyes!”

“So what if they aren’t red? It’s obvious she’s a mutt!”

The conversations in the tavern were taking a turn for the worst with Seria as the topic.

All she could do was cry as she huddled her head, trying to hide the obvious shame that she felt.

“What do you think you’re doing?! Get away from her!” Holly finally made it through the maze of people and found herself beside Seria. The hooded man was the first to be pushed away from Seria in her mad rush.

Holly glared at all the people that crowded around her employee before pulling her from the floor and guiding her away from the scene.

Though the customers had a new focus for the evening and were discussing amongst one another with heated fervor.

“That girl has been here for ages! I refuse to believe that the inn hasn’t known she was one of them!”

“More likely that they are supporters, I bet you they will be receiving a visit from a Moderator soon. This behaviour is clearly against the teachings of the Holy Legend's Church!”

The gossip created a tension so thick that one could cut it with a knife. Some of the guests just up and left then and there refusing to pay! Saying they would not support an establishment that allowed members of the Nightosphere to work there! One of the customers went so far as to say the Innkeeper was just a taller member of the dwarf species!

The hooded man with nothing but good intentions tried to say something, anything to stop the growing dislike of the crowd but his words fell on deaf ears. He grew angry at the prospect of the trouble he might have caused and was about to start something until a delicate white hand gripped his cloak.

H quickly turned ready to fight whoever dared to grab him only to stop short when he saw who it was.

“Big brother, don’t.” The owner of the little voice had a little figure as well as a small presence. Most of the customers at the inn probably didn’t notice that the little lady was sitting at the same table as the hooded man.

The man tried to refute, “Abi, I-!”

The girl cut him off by shaking her head, “Don’t bother, at this point big brother has done more harm than good.”

Under his hood the man bit his lip while making a complicated expression. Even though she could not really see his face the girl knew what he was thinking. “Sigh~ Alright, we can help, we shouldn’t make a move right now though.”

The man’s mood immediately brightened. He pulled the little girl into a hug and rubbed his cheek against hers. “Aw~ Abi is so sweet~”

“Ah! Big brother stop! You’re going to get makeup on me!” The little girl cutely screamed as she tried to free herself from her brother’s monstrous grip. Luckily the other customers were to busy talking about the recent event to bother with the girls odd comment just then.