|
Post by Tiamat on Sept 6, 2018 19:36:28 GMT -6
Kesstril gave Drake a long, wide-eyed stare before she slowly, carefully settled herself into the chair. Hairs at the back of her neck prickled; did the elves know how uneasy she was having some of them behind her? Drake looked unconcerned, but then, he had made it clear he didn't think the elves were a threat. That speech of his had been... unexpected. A welcome surprise, after his 'slip of the tongue' last night.
Silver gleamed before her. Kesstril touched the base of one shining, elegantly detailed knife with her fingertips. It was beautiful, to be sure, but she had no desire to test the ridged, cutting edge.
Movement near the queen snapped her gaze up. One of the elves in armor, light-skinned with brown hair in a braided and coiled bun, stepped in close to the queen and leaned down to murmur in her ear. A faint look of irritation crossed the Elf Queen's face. She waved a dismissive hand at the other. "Not now, Li'lan," she said. "There will be plenty of time to address that when we are not entertaining guests." Pointedly she inclined her head with a gracious smile for Drake, barely glancing at Kesstril at all. Kesstril couldn't say that she objected: much better to be ignored than scrutinized by the elves.
The queen glanced around at the other elves and gave a regal nod. At her signal the greeting committee took their seats around the table with quiet rustles of cloth. A chair scraped loudly across the floor, giving several elves a strained expression before they could revert to their bland, close-lipped smiles.
"Now," the queen said, lifting her hands up into the air. Servers filed into the room bearing platters of food. "You must be hungry, Drake and... friend, to travel so lightly as far as you have. Let us eat, and you will tell me first-hand about the dragons you've slain."
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2018 18:20:05 GMT -6
Drake looked down at the food, glanced at Kess and then shrugged. He certainly thought it all looked nice enough, and they hadn't had breakfast in...a day or so. Three minutes worth of munching would be more than enough time to settle his raging stomach. He sat down as gently and politely as he could muster, making nary a sound as he did so. It was here that Drake noticed his first problem with the whole occasion. there were quite a lot of forks, knives, and spoons set about accordingly on the table. He was reminded of the times he was invited to dine with richer folk and how they always had this many utensils stacked around their plates. He sighed but kept the smile. "I'm afraid I haven't done much, if any, dragon slaying in my recent times. However, there was this recent troll venture that is quite riveting if I do say so myself."
"Trolls? Hmm, well...I suppose they are less filthy than dragons, " The queen responded, though her voice sounded slightly wet. She coughed and it was clear sounding again. "Do tell us of your battle."
Drake glanced at the array of utensils and decided to give up on yet another breakfast. "Well, they were big bad brutes, the size of houses! Their lumbering bodies carried a foul, inhumane odor that could fell a field of crops. We were backed into a corner by the humongous creatures, Kess and I out of plans for how to escape them...and what did I do, Kess?" He nudged her with an elbow.
"Yes what great feat did...ahem. Excuse, the wizard pull off?" The queen kept up a dominant smile, though it seemed more strained.
|
|
|
Post by Tiamat on Feb 5, 2019 13:55:53 GMT -6
The woman froze. Abandoning her contemplation of the food on her plate -- surely the crushed meat rolls would be safe to eat, right? Maybe? -- she slowly turned her head until she could gaze, not glare, at Drake out of the corner of her eye. He was drawing attention to her? Intentionally? Her lips twitched. With any luck the flicker of expression would be mistaken as a smile, or even a grimace, instead of a snarl. Left without another option, she raised her head to stare directly at the queen.
"The wizard tricked the trolls into releasing us, claiming that he had a... great feast, for the leader. They demanded he hand it over, but he insisted only the stronger, the winner, should receive it. He then bound their arms together with rope for a strength contest, with their foolish consent. While they were thus distracted, we slipped away through a narrow crevice in the canyon and escaped. One of them flung a small boulder after us, which Drake shattered without so much as a glance." Technically his cape had done that work, but never let it be said that Kesstril did not know how to relate a good tale. A poor keeper she would be indeed, if that was how she treated her treasures.
The telling helped to calm her. Her stare became more confidence than challenge, not that the queen noticed. The elf's gaze was watery, almost teary, but she couldn't possibly be crying. Kesstril frowned, confused, but did not break her stare until the queen looked down first. The other woman picked up her napkin with a trembling hand and dabbed at her eyes with the cloth before pressing it to her lips.
"Do... do excuse me, I seem to..." Another cough interrupted her, this one rough and violent enough to shake her whole body. Bubbles of frothy, pink-tinged foam seeped around the edges of the napkin despite her best efforts to contain it. She gagged, attempted a ragged inhale, and then collapsed facedown onto the table. Her head missed landing in her plate only because the elf adjacent to her slid it neatly out of the way at the last second. Complete silence fell. For an instant all was still, and then every last elf in the room turned to look at Drake and Kesstril.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2019 23:44:32 GMT -6
Drake probably would have cringed if she actually snarled his way, clearly not pleased with being chosen to reiterate the heroic tale that had him as the star. Thankfully, she got over her chagrin enough to explain all of the events of their perilous encounter. To be honest, the wizard expected the story to be told in an unexciting way by her--he was so used to telling stories himself that hearing others was boring. But he came to admire how different things sounded with her own voice. The say she explained how he outsmarted the beasts and went on to destroy an entire boulder was absolutely stunning. He couldn't blame the Elf Queen for being so teary-eyed about his feats; he felt a lump in his throat as well. "Ah, that's the way to tell the story! Why it reminds me of when I was lad, challenged to eat for dozen e--"
Then the Queen died.
Well, not immediately anyhow--it was a bit of a process before it reached that point. First, she convulsed and choked on a strange sort of foam that gushed out from her lips. Then she failed the simple task of inhaling fresh air and practically rammed her head face first into the table, just barely missing the expensive silverware in front of her. The Elves started with held breaths at the visitors to their kingdom.
Drake's bugged out eyeballs couldn't even manage a blink. He gawked at the lifeless husk lying down in front of him before his eyes traveled down to the food. He leaned back in his chair slowly, raised a finger and began to push the surely poisoned meal as far away from him as possible. Even after that, he continued to stare at the corpse without a single coherent thought buzzing through his mind. What does one even say after seeing that? How would anyone be able to come up with a word to say after that?
"Ha Ha." Apparently one of the Elves had an idea where to begin. "She is perfectly fine, We assure you."
Drake stared at him, and then back down at the Queen. The fabric of the tablecloth was darknening with the foamy liquid pouring from her mouth. He pushed the food further away from him and somehow kept what little lunch he had inside. "B-but..."
"These things happen to everyone with a busy schedule such as hers, " Another Elf said calmly, and yet there was a clear tone in his voice that assumed he was panicking big time about this. We're the other Elves trembling? "Why, I remember the last time that happened to me."
"Last t--What???"
A brief glare was sent at the Elf, but it was gone too fast to be certain it was ever there. He and a few other Elves hastily picked up her body and began to waltz their way towards an exit."Give her an hour; she'll be poignant as poison--I mean right as rain!"
"riGHT AS R--?!" The flabbergasted wizard babbled incoherently and turned to Kess. "I'm still asleep right? This is all some twisted nightmare, isn't it?"
|
|
|
Post by Tiamat on Feb 6, 2019 14:56:48 GMT -6
Kesstril didn't bother returning the wizard's look. This wasn't exactly what she'd expected from the elves -- moreso a vicious, outright attack aimed at her eyes and mouth and wings -- but all things considered, she couldn't really say that she was surprised. Honestly, the elves' insistence that their queen was perfectly fine was more surprising than anything else.
The elf the queen had called Li'lan stepped forward from her place along the wall, looking away from the exit where the others had carried away the fallen queen. She gripped the queen's chair with the back of one hand and addressed Drake. As she spoke, she adjusted the queen's napkin until it covered the unsightly stain on the tablecloth. "Please accept my sincerest apologies. It is quite unfortunate that you had to witness that. The queen has... as you can see, she has been working tirelessly for some time. I fear with all this -- excitement -- her fatigue has caught up with her. It might be more than an hour for her recovery--" she shot the elf who had said that a sharp, almost venomous look, "--so please, enjoy your meal, and Ranthenal can see to any of your needs afterwards. I hope this little incident will not lead you to think poorly of us." Reaching down, she picked up the queen's fork as if it were her own and speared a slice of yellow-orange fruit off the abandoned plate. After she swallowed, she said, "Please excuse me. I must see to Yvaméle now." Setting down the fork, she delicately lifted the queen's cup and swept out of the room after the queen's makeshift retinue.
Several of the elves exchanged sidelong glances. First one, then another, then the rest resumed eating their meals as if nothing particularly distressing, like the queen's apparent death, had just occurred. A low hum of forced chatter filled the air. Only then did Kesstril look towards Drake, her gaze sliding past him to watch the room. Unsure of how keen the elves' hearing was, she muttered, "You do recall my reluctance to... impose, don't you?" Despite her low tone there was a distinct bite of resentment in her voice.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2019 23:08:58 GMT -6
It was one thing that the Elves had witnessed the unsightly death with strained expressions, but it was another thing entirely just for them to look at each other and then continue with their meals as if nothing had happened aside from a slight inconvenience. Drake found himself stiffly sitting down, blinking at his own meal with a foreboding feeling in his gut. He only looked up for a moment, when Kess spoke to him. "...there might have been a...little imposing on your end, yes." He said, barely caring to glance at her as he was still in very deep shock.
She had to be actually dead, right? No way someone spurts up that much foam and then just comes back afterward all fine and dandy, no way at all. Drake worriedly began his own meal while stealing occasional glances at the Elves in front of him. While some of them seemed a little red faced, none of them were devouring poisoned food. Plus, his food wasn't posioned either as far as he knew. Just a little over salted. Maybe she really wasn't dead after all. Maybe all this adventuring was starting to make him lose his marbles.
Still, he wanted to be sure, after this meal was done. He would not be able to move forward with his view on Elvss until he confirmed it for himself.
|
|