An Awkward Journey to the City

Dandree was kind enough to give you what clean water he had available for a bath, before your companions awoke. Nobody cares about a dirty dwarf, he reckoned. As you wash off the smell and evidence of last night, you try in futile gesture to peace together more of the series events, including what possessed you to do what you did. You had never even thought to do that back home around your fellow Elves back home.

Than again, there's a few reasons for that, you realize. Even something as small as singing such a song would have led to furled eyebrows and scorn, let alone showing skin in public. Had you even tried to become that intimately familiar with someone in public back home, the castigation you would have received would be unfathomable.

Also, you never saw a fellow elf that turned you on, not like this at least. Sure, there were some you could recognize as having more proportionate or fairer features than others, but there was never one that stirred your imagination just by looking at them like you were doing with Bruce and the others. You explored your sexuality back home as well, but you also fully recognize you never left a partner's bed feeling totally satisfied, certainly not how blissful you felt last night. Being fully honest with yourself, the taboo of being able to feel the strength of a human's touch on you, and to feel their passion inside you was part of the reason you ran away from home in the first place. Maybe it was the primary reason, and you didn't want to admit it than. Was it just the opportunity to fuck with humans, was it the excitement of doing something so obscene in full display with no concern of what others thought, or could there be something else at play?

As you finish cleaning, you touch the pendant around your neck, still pondering how it got there, and if maybe that could be an answer. You admittedly did get hot and bothered while in Veserae's temple, but that didn't fully answer things. It wasn't you or your new friends who had started things off, it was humans who don't even know of the Goddess' existence. Plus, why would Veserae be displaying her power and influence here of all places and now of all times? Surrendering any attempt to understand the events before you, you get out of the bath and get dressed, your clothes thankfully still reasonably clean. Unusually, you leave the top button of your blouse undone, revealing your slender neck, the pendant, and some of your cleavage.

Your comrades were slower to wake up, again. Groggy and groaning, they all seemed to be suffering from effects of partial amnesia same as you, and also from hangover, possibly. Bruce seemed a little **** to look you in the eyes, especially while naked. The brothers seemed a little impassive towards events, while Swigrod first met you with a hearty smile, possibly stemming from a better memory of what happened, or just less sense of a self-imposed stigma against what he did remember doing. Once they awake, they assemble themselves promptly and quietly.

It's about a half-days journey into the main city of Krakorum from the tavern, and the walk is oddly quiet. The men knowing where they're going, you follow the lead in the rear, each of them intermittently turning back to look at you. Nobody wants to talk about what may or may not have happened, which is fine for you. Maybe after this treasure is sold off and you can leave, you can talk it over with them, so that if things do get particularly strange, you never have to see them again anyway. The city itself is an urban walled monstrosity, most of the trees and life cut down to fuel its expansion. Though you admire human ingenuity and enjoy your time around humans, their incontrollable urge to remove all of the green of the world bothers you a little bit.

You're led through Market Square, constantly side-stepping the bustling crowds into a series of alleys. Though you've never been here before, you recognize the feeling of it by word of mouth; this is the "rough" part of town. You enter a specific unmarked shop in a darkened corner. The shopkeep appears to be a haggered, curious little halfling, perched up to the counter by a ladder. As Kraig tries to sell him on the rarity and preciousness of the relic you found, you look through your haversack, and recognize it's missing. Panicked, each of the humans in turn look through their bags, to find that it is nowhere to be found.