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THE THIRSTY MINNOW - AFTERNOON
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Bracvar sits on his 'custom chair' inside the Minnow, watching the street through a window as he casually picks away at an omelette that's gone cold. His ale mug has been empty for nearly an hour. He's been busy mulling over the events of the past week, from the day he arrived at Bairnell's Foothold until the moment he met with Brunilda.
Elizabeth walks into the bar, looking a bit ruffled around the edges though attempting to really not look such. The skunk lady gets herself a glass of wine, and only then looks around, not entirely confident she wants to get any closer to the big crab-fellow outright.
Bracvar is still fully distracted by his own thoughts, movement at the door catching his eye and drawing him to idly watch Elizabeth enter the bar. He only catching on to his own staring when she glances in his direction, starting slightly before pausing awkwardly for a moment.
Elizabeth notices the crab staring. She frowns slightly as she addresses him: "Anything... I can help you with?"
Bracvar squints slightly with his one uncovered eye as he examines her face from across the room. "Yes, I feel like I have seen you before, but I don't recognize you beyond that... Vague feeling."
Elizabeth raises an eyebrow, feeling a bit hesitant: "Me? I certainly do not recall you..."
Bracvar chuckles to himself, "Well, then I suppose we haven't properly met after all! I am Bracvar of the sea." He gives a slight bow, though he doesn't feel comfortable taking his eye off of Elizabeth. A vague feeling. "So are you new, or just very secretive?"
Elizabeth hums a bit, pondering how to answer this particular query. "What would you say if I answered 'both'?"
Bracvar blinks, letting out a louder bark of laughter. "I'd say that makes you interesting! Which is sort of counterpoint to being secretive, isn't it?"
Elizabeth shrugs a bit, taking a sip of her wine. She has yet to move from her spot of standing at the bar. "I guess I have always been a bit interesting, it's true."
Bracvar grins, the expression only showing around his unpatched eye. "What's life without intrigue? I became a merchant specifically to meet new and interesting people, after all." He pauses, glancing aside. "Well, that and the money."
Dorri walks into the bar wearing a bathrobe from the bathhouse as well as having a towel wound around her mop of unruly hair and tethered between her horns with a tie. She walks up to the bar and climbs up onto a stool. "The brown," she says matter-of-factly to the Barkeep. As she waits, she rolls her shoulders, not yet looking around the bar at the others present.
Elizabeth leans on the bar, considering this. "I guess it is a fair trade to work in as any", she adds noncommittantly. She glances at the newcomer, but her interest is now more on the crab.
Bracvar lights up, turning on his seat with not just a little scraping. "Ah! Good afternoon Dorri! It's been too long!" He looks back to Elizabeth. "Mh, yes, and catching fish is pretty easy when you can swim right through their schools. So what brings you all the way out here?"
Elizabeth takes another sip of her wine before answering. "Escape, I suppose. Finding a new life of sorts."
Dorri looks over at Bracvar. "Ah. Made it back to land? I suppose that's a good thing." She smirks at the crab as she takes a long swig of her newly delivered ale. To Bracvar's eye, he might notice that she looks a touch slimmer than before, obviously working off a bit of her pudge during the tower rebuilding.
Bracvar nods. "To an aptly named town, of course." He shrugs to Dorri, "I never even got to leave the docks! Not one leg in the water before some fellas definitely on the straight and narrow wanted my cart to bring some crates here as soon as possible. Their wallets said three days was as soon as possible."
Elizabeth chuckles despite herself at the 'straight and narrow', but attempts to hide it behind sipping her wine.
Dorri scoffs. She looks at Bracvar incredulously. "Sure. Anyway, tower's rebuilt. Nothing fancy, but it's a high place to watch the stars from, so it's good enough."
Bracvar glances toward Elizabeth's chuckling, grinning slightly. "What do you mean sure? Ah... It's because I didn't return with you... Isn't it?"
Dorri laughs. "Maybe. Just surprised you were so easily swayed after our heartfelt goodbyes at the pier..."
Elizabeth leans on the bar, just following the two's conversation for the moment.
Bracvar scratches the back of his head, looking dejected. "I really meant everything, but everyone has their price, right?" He chuckles dryly.
Dorri just nods to the crab as she drinks her ale, saying nothing for the moment.
Bracvar sighs, pulling his attitude back out of the dumps by force. "Look at it this way, I said I'd return, just did it much sooner than expected!" He eyes up the tankard in Dorri's hand. "And capable of buying you an ale or six."
Elizabeth looks between the two: "...you'll have to pardon an old lady's curiosity, but what sort of arrangement are we talking about?"
Dorri looks to Elizabeth. "No arrangement. We just travelled together to Folly a couple weeks back."
Bracvar hides a slight twitch as he turns back to Elizabeth with a shrug. "Right. Travel companions, nothing more."
Elizabeth nods slowly, mostly managing to hide her disbelief: "Fair enough. Nothing to worry about, then."
Bracvar tilts his head slightly, bumping his half-eaten plate aside as he leans against his table. "Hm, nothing to worry about? If you think there's something to worry about, it might be worth holding on to that feeling."
Elizabeth gives a soft chuckle: "I worry both entirely too much, and at times way too little."
Dorri looks at Bracvar curiously. "What's gotten under your shell, Brac? I didn't say anything and you go assuming I'm mad at you."
Bracvar turns to Dorri, frowning behind his tendrils. "I don't know, been running an awful record of disappointing people lately, getting a little defensive!" He shakes his head with a slight huff, turning to take up his fork for another mouthful of cold food.
Elizabeth raises an eyebrow at Bracvar, and just barely refrains from offering any sort of snide comment about people or disappointments thereof, if only to see where this goes otherwise.
Dorri sips her ale quietly, not sure how to continue this conversation without making things worse.
Bracvar grumbles to himself, pausing with his fork just above the plate before he unceremoniously swats at the top, sending cold egg and the skittery critter that was perched on it onto the floor. "Good, that's good."
Dorri turns at the sound of the clatter. "Huh?"
Elizabeth takes a sip of her wine, and some part on the back of her mind reminds her that this particular skit of huffy wasn't caused by her. A refreshing thought of sorts, that.
Bracvar points at the roach-looking bug as it recovers and flees from the mess around it. "SABOTEUR!"
Dorri squints and shakes her head. "Just a harmless bug..."
Elizabeth looks at the bug go, frowning at it though for different reasons than Bracvar. "Hmmh..."
Bracvar hangs his head, setting his fork down next to the empty tankard. "Harmless bug, symbol of a parade of failure, depends on your perspective."
Dorri blinks. "Failure?"
Bracvar sighs, turning to Dorri. "Don't worry about it, this crab always bounces back. Just really need that ocean time."
Elizabeth looks at Bracvar, musing: "You're an awful long distance from it, if that's the case."
Dorri nods. "Which makes me wonder why you took this latest deal." She drains her ale and replaces it with a new mug.
Bracvar chuckles lightly at Elizabeth's comment. "Tell me about it. If clients weren't so consistent and fish weren't so valuable here, I'd consider a new city to trade in." He turns to Dorri, thinking for a moment. "That's a good point. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken it. Not really fair to those waiting on me."
Elizabeth shrugs slightly: "Not really my place to say, I suppose."
Dorri looks Bracvar square in the eye. "You're worrying what I think of you when you really should be thinking of that family of yours. Unless you're just substituting me for them in your head with this guilt trip you're taking yourself on."
Bracvar flinches at Dorri's words, looking aside and remaining quiet.
Elizabeth shrugs and finishes her wine, then starts heading out without a word. Not her problem and one she intends to keep as such.
Dorri takes a moment to remove the towel from her curly mop of hair before looking at Bracvar again. "What's eating at you?"
Bracvar clicks his mandibles for a moment, managing to look at Dorri as he speaks, pointing to his injured eye. "This. A stupid situation got me stuck in Respite for weeks, all the money I'd made on that trip was spent on room and board... And ale for my self pity." He mumbles the last part, groaning after.
Dorri nods. "Sure... but you have some coin now from this other job, so why not head back before you wallow it all away too?"
Bracvar nods, "That's the plan, more or less. I wanted to see you and Yengrisk before leaving, since all I really have is my word and even that is thin of late."
Dorri smiles. "Fair enough. I understand, trust me. I'm not mad at you, old shell. I'll leave that to your missus." She hops down from her stool and joins Bracvar at his table, leaning against him to give him something approximating a hug.
Yengrisk wanders into the bar at long last, seemingly in a good mood. They are sporting their usual knit poncho, but those in the know would recognize their coat being unusually clean and fluffy from an earlier bathing.
Bracvar sighs, putting an arm over Dorri's shoulders in a quick hug. "Thank you. I assure you, the seas will boil for days when I return." He spots Yengrisk as the yak enters, waving. "Ah, hello Yengrisk! You look refreshed!"
Yengrisk smiles and waves as well. "Oh, crab friend is here! Yak is glad to see you, yes?" They head over towards Bracvar and Dorri with a grin and settle in near them.
Dorri turns and smiles at her erstwhile apprentice. "Ah, looking quite fluffy, Yengrisk. You deserve it after all the work you put in on the tower. Don't think I would have gotten those timbers driven in nearly as fast without your species's skill in that area..."
Bracvar looks between the two. "Ah, your tower's all rebuilt already? That's excellent news!" Bracvar does his damnedest to suppress the low mood he had been in when Yengrisk sits with them.
Dorri nods to the crab. "Said so already, It's simpler than before, but it's studier and should tolerate the sort of storm that blew it down in the first place."
Yengrisk giggles. "Yes, yak is good at smashing, yes? Yak wants to be good at many things. The tower should hold up."
Bracvar chuckles slightly. "Yes, I suppose you did, my apologies. How has the star study been going?"
Dorri fetches her ale from the bar before returning to the table and climbing up a stool. "Ah, well enough. Nothing too interesting these days, but the transit is next Thursday and that was the time crunch on the rebuild, so that's good..."
Yengrisk slips in and gives Bracvar a yak hug, as they are known to do.
Bracvar chuckles, giving the yak a backpat hug in return. "The transit, hm? Good thing you didn't run into any major issues, then."
Dorri nods. "It's a planet, but you might know it as the Autumn Star. It's passing in front of the sun, which we only see once every few years..."
Yengrisk shakes their head a bit. "Yak was told not to look directly at the sun. But this is different, yes?"
Bracvar lights up. "Ah, now you're speaking my language. Hm, perhaps I could blame my misfortunes on the Autumn Star, then. Bit of sailor superstition there."
Dorri nods. "We don't look directly at it, we project it and watch it indirectly."
Bracvar chuckles, then bursts into laughter for a moment. "What, you mean looking into bright lights is a bad idea? Nobody told me!"
Dorri looks at Brac's eyepatch. "Well, it does make you look more dashing, but I suppose you'd rather just see properly again..."
Yengrisk glances upward, only seeing the bar's ceiling. "It is interesting to think there are all these celestial bodies out there. Yet this is the one the herd lives on, yes?"
Bracvar grins at Dorri, then turns to look where Yengrisk is looking. "Hm... I think there's enough down here for me, thank you very much."
Dorri nods. "Maybe there are herds elsewhere too, we just don't know. With a powerful enough telescope, we might be able to see, though." She sips her ale, musing. "Of course my uncle would never let me talk such talk. Our job is to track the stars for the sailors, not to search for celestial goats."
Yengrisk hmmms. "Perhaps, yes? But the herd is here, so that's what's most important to yak."
Bracvar nods, looking back down at his empty tankard. "Yep, the herd is the most important thing."
Dorri looks at Bracvar. "So, you should probably be getting back to your herd, then?"
Bracvar grins sheepishly. "Yeah, yeah I will." He gives each a one armed hug in turn, sighing as he slowly manages to drag his legs under his body without bumping the two sitting with him. "Thank you, Dorri. You've been a great help."
Dorri hugs back and smiles. "I may not be much for people, but I know when blame is pointing the wrong way. You get back to your family and tell them an old goat says hello."
Bracvar turns to Yengrisk. "Sorry to cut our reunion a little short, I'll make sure to come back as soon as I can."
Yengrisk nodnods at Bracvar, resulting in the usual glasses slip and magical adjustment. "Yak will see crab friend again someday, yes!"
Dorri gives Brac another hug before he goes. "Take care out there. And go home this time!"
Bracvar smiles at the yak. "Absolutely. Keep well, you two." He nods at them, then turns to head out through the door with his usually careful stepping to avoid damaging the doorframe again. His cart should be loaded by now, one return trip to Bairnell's Foothold and he can relax for a little bit.