Completed Dating a Harlot 101

[Matthew]

Honestly, the fact that she was a savage was actually probably one of the reasons that Matthew was comfortable around her. It was the same with Razkar. They didn't understand the social norms of the world, just like him. They saw sex as something simple, like him. Really, it seemed like they saw everything in black and white shades. There was their complex relationship with Myri, but that was probably only complex to him. They certainly seemed to view it as something very basic. Still looking mildly insulted, Matthew slumped forward just a tad, breaking his posture underneath the strain of various children. He didn't really know all that much about math, but it was an interesting subject to talk about. Interesting to him at least. Apparently the feeling was not shared. He just continued to look sulky and grumpy, morphing right before Kaie into one of the children that was crowded around. It was unnatural how well he eventually seemed to blend in, perhaps hinting at why the children were so comfortable with his presence. Somewhere inside of him, he was very child-like. Naive was perhaps a better word for it, though. He absentmindedly heard an offhand comment about Kaie's hair and glanced up at it. She had quite a few natural curls, but they could use a comb ran through them quite a few times. He would have to remember to offer that to her later. Hopefully she wouldn't react with the same glowering look that Razkar had given him when he had nearly offered to comb the brute's hair. ...the Dhani! Matthew snapped back to attention, his mind returning to the current and focusing on Kaie's enthusiastic story. His blue eyes widened as she gave the horrid description of the squeezing snake demons, and when she suddenly leaned forward and raised her voice, he was one of the few to nearly topple over backwards. He did quickly change his positioning, actually scooting back so a few more of the children were between him and Kaie, a suspicious look cast in her direction. Was it a true story (which would further his conceptions of the horrifying outdoors), or was she just trying to scare him? He couldn't tell by her facial expression. She looked sly, but she could be sly for a multitude of reasons. When she asked him for affirmation and the kids turned to him eagerly, he was quick to reply. "Matthew. Not Mattie." His sullen scowl only caused the children to giggle more, and with a deep sigh he did his best to match Kaie's performance. He could do it. He was good at acting. Just imagine they were customers. No, no, don't imagine that. "No, I never have." The children sighed, looking disappointed. "If I had, don't you think I would be dead?" The children gasped, their attention definitely drawn back. Matthew took a deep breath again, once more sucking his magic up from within his stomach. Oddly enough, the fact that Kaie might notice didn't even occur to him. He swirled the Djed through his veins and breathed it out his voice, not using it like an aura this time, but actually just washing it specifically over the children. "Oh yes. Kaie might be a mighty warrior, but I am not. They would shred the skin from my bones after they had crushed me to a pulp, and then serve me on their dinner table." He resisted the urge to say how impossible the story was, feeling that the children would punish him somehow. Who would believe such a monster existed anyway? ...Such a monster didn't exist, right? He threw an unsure glance at Kaie, looking slightly intimidated by her story all over again. His Hypnotic aura leaked out over the children, laced with strands of pure fear, settling on them and giving them just the small taste that he had mixed in. One or two of them shuddered, giggling at the same time, amused by their fear and by the uptight prostitute trying his best to tell them a story. Matthew opened his mouth to continue, but paused, a look of awkwardness crossing his face. Apparently all of his storytelling energies had been expended for the moment, and he would need a few chimes to come up with more. He felt very tired all of a sudden. "Tell them more, Kaie. And I think you should do it down here with the rest of us. Don't be shy." He tried to fight back, having a feeling that she was somehow toying with him. Though, on second thought, this seemed to be somewhat natural for her. Perhaps forcing her to join in the pile of children wouldn't actually annoy her. Her infuriating little grin hadn't gone away.

[Kaie]

The woman's eyes sparkled with delight as soon as Matthew played along with her bout of storytelling. Matthew was good at that. Improvising. Just as Kaie might pick up a makeshift weapon in a dire situation and do her best to adapt to her needs, Matthew could practically slip from one image into another. Professional harlot to wild, handsome bachelor. She wondered if that alone was his charm, his image he conquered. Surely that played a huge role with the women he took home. Or was it to their home?

Back to the story.

"He's right," Kaie said with firm confirmation, nodding solemnly as if delivering the more fateful news. For a moment her mask almost contorted with deep thought. Honestly, his fatal description of the Myrian enemy sounded more like the aftermath of an encounter with her own people. Sans the constricting and crushing to a pulp bit. Ironic and perhaps unintentional. It was definitely thought provoking for Kaie to say the least.

Finally someone who knows how to give and take, she thought when Matthew shot a small jab her way. Not that she wanted to crawl into the pile of eager children or anything, but if she was going to one up him, she had to play the game. So the savage woman found herself cross-legged rather than crouching, now within the inner circle of listeners. However she did shoot Matthew a look accompanied by a roll of earth colored eyes at his challenge.

"Of course! Where was I again?"

"The Dhani!" A few high pitched voices chimed in imperfect unison around her.

"Right! The Dhani...Ugly snake people with reptilian scales and bright, slitted eyes. They live in deep caves in the darkness...Waiting to get revenge on the great Myrian warriors and their Goddess Queen, Myri, for driving them down there. But every once in a while a few slip out of the dark to pick travelers off. One..By..One," She made her tone dark and menacing then, eyes wide and smile fading. The children almost mirrored her expression, eyes wife with fear and minds swelling with images to fuel nightmares later. Had this been a collection of adults listening to the story, they probably would've written her off in a heartbeat.

"Are you Myrian?" A brave child piped up from the back, sitting just off Matthew's shoulder. He simply looked at her blankly with a steady stare. Waiting.

"That easy to tell, huh?" Kaie turned to Matthew and shrugged, brushing off the obviousness of her race. She seemed to have hit a brick wall with her story then, and her hopeful eyes hinted at her desire for his beautiful improvisation skill.

[Matthew]

"He's right." Gods, he was right? He had been making it all up! There were actually such horrifying things that happened where she came from? Or was she making it all up? Matthew tried his best to keep the expression on his face completely straight, though a mixture of horror and disbelief danced behind the stone wall of a stare. Noticing that Kaie was rolling her eyes at him, he quickly rolled his own back, but still found himself sidetracked with thoughts of giant snakes. What was a demon anyways? He certainly wasn't going to ask about something else that could keep him up at night. The high-pitched chimes of the children brought him back to the present situation, and he tuned in as Kaie continued the story. Reptilian scales and bright, slitted eyes? The description triggered something in Matthew's memory, and he briefly thought back to one of the women he had pleasured in the Herald's Arms. The one who had given him the pendant with Ionu's symbol on it. The woman had grinned at him with yellow slitted eyes. He tilted his head, briefly curious, but Kaie's description of how the Dhani slipped out of the dark once more filled his mind with nothing but childish fear. Sadly, he didn't know just how much he looked like the various children around him. He almost perfectly mirrored them, leaning forward with obvious awe, eyes wide and mind swelling with multiple horrid images. The child asked the seemingly obvious question, and the harlot shot him a look like he was stupid. The child didn't notice at all though, which mildly frustrated Matthew, but he shrugged it off. Feeling intense eyes on him, he glanced over to Kaie with an eyebrow raised. It was his turn again, was it? He was good at improvising in the bedroom, so this should be no different. He took a deep breath and set off, adjusting his tone of voice this time around. He set it deep, raspy, slightly scary... though Kaie would note it was mixed with some sensual undertones. He was using a voice that children wouldn't recognize for what it actually was. "There is a tale of a brave handsome blue-eyed man and his brown-eyed female sidekick." His eyes momentarily slid to Kaie, a smirk on his full lips, and then he was back to the children. "They were searching through Falyndar one night, isolated and alone, lost in the wilds. They had been stalked for days by the Dhani, who they could sometimes hear slithering through the trees. They had tormented them with sounds and flickers of sight, trying to wear them out before they swept in for the kill. Imagine being surrounded by darkness, the growls of beavers in your ears, and hearing the hisses of man snakes that want nothing more than to eat you alive." The children leaned even further forward, blissfully quiet, causing Matthew to think that this whole storytelling thing wasn't that bad of an idea at all. Kaie was wise in her choice of what to tell the little brutes. "The man was doing his best to keep his sidekick calm, and she clung to him in order to thrive off his bravery. Soon though, they were worn and slowed to a stop, needing to rest. That is when several slitted yellow eyes lit up in the surrounding darkness, knowing that an opportunity to strike had presented itself." He turned, bright blue eyes intense on Kaie's, giving her the floor. "Do you remember what happened next, Kaie?"

[Kaie]

It was a bit surreal for Kaie, to see Matthew the way he was then. Among the crowd of small bodies and childish faces, he was almost indistinguishable from them. Well, he was older and much bigger than they were. Yet there was a bit of an innocence that came to him then. Maybe it was the look in his eyes that reflected the children's or the feel of the environment as a whole. Whatever it was, she felt as though she was seeing a different part of him. This Matthew wasn't the one who had her almost bent over a bar table, manipulating her by his very fingertips. Never would she have ever guessed she'd be taken to an orphanage on a whim to be a part of story time.

Kaie's eyes widened at the beginning of his narrative, then an amused smirk crossed her features when she realized the connection. Of course, Matthew was the courageous blue eyed hero of the story. She knew perfectly well who the brown eyed woman was, too.

Sidekick? That's cute...

For a guy who didn't know much of her world, he wasn't doing too bad. Whether he knew it or not, most of what he had going was pretty accurate. Even the Dhani part was plausible. Kaie was actually pretty surprised and proud of how well he was doing, creating a story of his own. Up to that point she'd been telling them facts she knew from her own experiences. He was taking them to a world of adventure and entertainment. Up until the part about the beavers (which caused her to stifle a little laughter), it felt like it had truly happened. Okay, well not all of it.

"How could I forget?" Kaie responded like it was an unthinkable thing, giving him a look to remind him two could play at the game he had started."That's when they heard the hiss. Then another. And then another! Until three Dhani revealed themselves looking hungry as ever. Their scales were dark, ugly shades of brown that caught the moonlight as they walked closer. And closer,"She leaned in toward the kids, trying to seem serious though she wasn't quite sure how well she was pulling off the charade."But the handsome blue eyed man, since he was such a gentleman, offered to face the wretched Dhani head on. You know, because he was so brave and strong," Kaie's eyes danced mischievously making it seem as if she had truly offered Matthew up to the three jungle snakes. If he wanted to play hero, his character would certainly have to show some heroic qualities, right?

[Matthew]

He was regretting his decision to put more than one of the snake creatures into his story, because now her description of the multiple monsters was scaring him just a tad. He could see the Dhani in his mind, glittering in the light of the moon, with dripping fangs and muscled tails. Had she said they had wings? They probably had wings, and just weren't using them out of mockery. The snakes were toying with their prey, until they could finally sink their fangs in and relish the kill. The harlot shivered just a tad, intimidating himself as much as he had managed to intimidate the children sitting nearby. Then Kaie glanced at Matthew, and then suddenly he was the one who was having to face the Dhani. Head on, she said? Brave and strong, she said? "Well, I mean, it probably isn't the smartest thing to face them head-on. Perhaps, you know, put a tad bit of distance between me- I mean the hero- and try to come up with a plan?" The children laughed, instantly booing the tactic, and Matthew let out a deep sigh and shook his head. "Fine, fine. The hero faced the Dhani head on, since the sidekick wasn't quite ready to fight yet. She was likely too enraptured with the hero's ass to be much of a threat." He shot another look towards Kaie, eyes burning a bit. How dare she make him fight the Dhani alone. "Ass?" A child spoke up, and Matthew blinked, realizing his error. "I said rump, not that. That is a bad word." Moving on. "So, uh... he punched." The kids blinked, craning their heads to peer curiously at the man. "That was all he did? He just punched? That wouldn't work very well." Matthew nearly snapped back, quite happy to inform the child that he was well aware it wouldn't work. But what else was he supposed to do? He didn't really know how to fight, besides the one punch that Kaie had shown him awhile ago. He had practiced that punch a lot. He knew that one punch very well. With that in mind, a sudden idea triggered. Matthew cleared his throat, speaking in a stronger voice. "You have never seen the punch of the hero! The hero is a strong man, and is so very strong because he has trained his punches for years and years and years. The hero has never lost a single fight, and has killed every person that has been at the mercy of his punch. One punch was all the hero would need." The children gasped, shaking their heads furiously. "But there are three of them!" Matthew nodded, blue eyes sharpening as his mind blurred in thought. It only took him another second or two to find the solution. "That is why he had lured them out here! To get them in position! To make them feel safe! As the Dhani approached, they eventually got close enough to where the hero could hit them all in a single strong punch. Right in front of the sidekick's admiring eyes, the hero struck, swinging his fist in a mighty blow that burst the heads of all three Dhani in one great strike!" The boys ooohed and aaahed, and the girls made faces and little squealing noises as they discussed how much blood there would be. Both were amazed at the idea of three of the horrible monsters being struck down in a single blow. Matthew let them discuss, flopping onto his back, suddenly quite worn out. Storytelling was very hard. He was impressed Kaie had done it without breaking a sweat.

[Kaie]

Now that she had put him in a trap, Kaie was eager to see the fruits of her story time victory. The problem was the fact the story was just that. A story. Considering how he described the characters, all was turning into quite the fantasy, and the problem with fantasy was anything could happen. So how would Matthew handle the little dilemma she threw at him?

His first attempt at escaping proved futile and far too boring to the children. It was only natural they'd be adamant about a dangerous story full of risk and adventure. Even as he tried to explain his tactic, the kids were just not having it. Kaie was certainly enjoying his failure this time around, even if he was alluding to the fact she was a woman dictated by a man. It was blasphemous and went against everything herself and her people stood for. Had he been anyone else, she might've stormed through the little bodies to enlighten him.

Hah. One punch to take out three Dhani? If only...

"It's true! And the...Sidekick...Was overcome with awe at the hero's unrivaled strength! It was so...Dreamy!" She chimed from her position, her ending sentence more uncertain as if she was unsure of the meaning of the word she used. Kaie looked at Matthew for approval, hoping she nailed what a pathetic, swooning woman was in barbarian stories. "But the hero forgot the most important part! He forgot how he had rescued the sidekick from the very caves the Dhani lived in!" Kaie exclaimed with great bravado, leaning toward the children with a grin and bright eyes. They seemed to mirror her expression, looking at Matthew with open mouths like they didn't believe her. After all, what fool would march right into the lair of the enemy alone?

"You see, she was a Myrian soldier from Taloba and her fang were protecting the border from the bloodthirsty Dhani killers. But one day the Dhani raided her post and attacked the noble warriors of the Goddess Queen of War, Myri. Some retreated to send reinforcements, but the sidekick stayed behind to fight!" She explained with great emotion, placing a right clenched fist over her heart. The children reacted to the valor of the tale, nudging each other. A few girls even had the audacity to poke their friends with gestures that made it seem as if they identified with said soldier. It was Myrian propaganda at its finest. "So just when the reinforcements came and sent the Dhani back to their caves, the sidekick was captured and brought back to Zinrah! It was there they held her captive and began to torture her. Until the hero came along..."

Kaie turned back to Matthew and broke eye contact with the children. She studied his face, a playful grin back on hers as she returned to reality. No longer was she trying to one up the master in seduction. This time it was an even playing field. "You remember what the hero was doing then right, Matthew?"

[Matthew]

He furrowed his brow as she shot a glance at him for approval, giving her a clueless shrug of his slim shoulders. He had no idea how things like this were supposed to go. He knew very well the roles would be reversed if they were actually ever in that kind of situation. He wasn't exactly the swooning sort though, so he couldn't imagine acting like the thing she was trying to mimic. She seemed to be getting it right though. He used the giggles of surrounding young girls to judge her success, and from the sound of their high-pitched chortles, she was doing quite a good job. The harlot glanced back up at the roof of the castle, trying to gather his thoughts and catch his breath. He kept an ear on Kaie, keeping track of the story, making sure that it wasn't going anywhere too particularly terrifying all over again. Leave it to her to instantly move on to yet another dangerous thing. He was noticing a pattern here. He sat up, shooting a stare at the Myrian woman, grimacing just a bit. The child were staring at him with amazed faces, and he shot a glare at them as well. They were encouraging her, the little runts. No idiot would walk up to the cave of a bunch of snake monster things. Any smart sort of person would keep a safe and smart distance from such a cave. But no, she was a soldier, and her post had been raided, and apparently the sidekick had decided to go down in a blaze of glory. So here he was to save her apparently? He made a face, mumbling under his breath. "I think he would have left her with the snake things so she'd learn her lesson." The children leaned forward, not quite catching him mumbled words, and the harlot quickly had to correct himself. "He had been busy at the time, doing all sorts of... heroic... manly things. That heroic men do. Like quests." It was obvious Matthew wasn't the sort who often thought about heroic adventures. "But the minute he heard of his sidekick's plight, he was quick to jump to her aid!" It almost pained him to say it. The approving cheers of the surrounding children didn't make him feel the least bit better about this plot. "He strode right up to the front steps of the snake castle, the horrid Zinrah, and he demanded her back. When they laughed at him, he punched, and their heads exploded like all the rest!" His story was teetering into completely insane territory, but neither Matthew or the children seemed to notice. He certainly knew exploding heads were illogical, but so was a hero who decided to take on a whole castle of snake people. Zinrah was a castle, right? "As the hero strode through the castle, he called out for his sidekick, knowing that she was not one who simply sit by and be tortured. He would never have such a person as a sidekick! He knew she was no doubt lying in wait, everything a cleverly designed plan to bring down the Zinrah castle once and for all!" All eyes turned to Kaie, sensing it was her moment again. All of them except Matthew were obviously having a blast. The harlot was actually breathing a bit hard. Children wore him out. He was thinking he would have liked a normal date better than this, and that was saying quite a lot.

[Kaie]

Kaie's lips parted in disdain for his "thought" at first. Her eyes narrowed momentarily and her tongue probed the inside of her cheek with a half-grin. It was clear Matthew hadn't a petching clue what Zinrah was. Not even an educated guess. To leave one in the custody of those scaly bastards was far more brutal than any sentence a Syliran could pass as justice. Few Myrians, if any, had ever been dragged to the abyss the Dhani dwell and scampered out alive. Even if they had, their bodies would surely be riddled with evidence of heavy abuse. She could only speculate on what they did exactly in that system of moist tunnels beneath the surface. Siku's little monsters were not further above torture than Kaie's own clan. The question was who could be more sadistic about it...

The Myrian woman had the restraint not backhand the harlot for his detail to the fantasy. It was like one of those "civil" courtesies she had been warned about. Just like it was frowned upon to eat steak raw without utensils, it was labeled unbecoming to show open violence. Considering it was just that, a story, Kaie decided to take her moment of silence to listen and get creative with a form of storytelling retaliation. Granted, she wasn't great at all this stuff, but she could borrow from some Myrian legend to make it all interesting. That or try her hand at inventing her own punishment.

A castle? Really, Matthew? I wish. If that were the case we would've killed the constrictors out a long time ago.


"Right. The Dhani were holding her deep with in the...Dun-geon. Yes, the dungeon! And as soon as the guards slipped away, she used the pointy parts of the stone walls to cut herself free. Then she walked quietly through the tunnels and up into the...Castle," She continued, casting Matthew a mirthful smirk at the end and shaking her head. Kaie continued with the strange illusion Zinrah was a building if only to keep the story cohesive. "But the sidekick didn't have the power to explode heads like the hero. She had to be sneaky and smart to get out... But since the hero took out the castle guards at the door, she could be free! And the Myrian soldiers were coming to destroy Zinrah and the Dhani forever! It was what the hero and sidekick were planning from the start."

Kaie looked at the faces of the kids, biting her lip in hesitation. She had clearly just set the story in motion for an epic battle to take place. A war between two races who were at each other's throats the same time the fabricated tale was being told. Everyone in Taloba had some idea, some fantasy how their day of glory would go. The day they would storm Zinrah and annihilate the scaled heathens at plagued their jungle. There would be casualties. Lots of them. But by military prowess and numbers, Myrians would more than likely come down like a godly hammer. They would be favored to win. But how should such a battle be told before it happened? Matthew seemed to take a very sharp turn for the impossible, so why couldn't she?

"All of a sudden a Tigress of Myrians were yelling battle cries! With weapons raised, they ran into the castle to slaughter the Dhani that were lured above ground, thinking it was just the hero and his sidekick! They were wrong. Dhani blood was splattered against the stone walls and scaly heads were hacked off and raised in victory! By the time the Myrians were finished, not a single Dhani lived. Except for their queen. They dragged her back to Taloba and tortured her slowly until her death. Zinrah was nothing but smoking rubble. The Myrians were again the only race to rule Falyndar! And Goddess Queen Myri was dressed in the finest armor splattered with Siku's blood."

The Myrian woman grinned broadly, seeming to be lost in her own fantasy. In fact she was so immersed in her own telling of fates that she didn't even realize the utter horror that plagued the faces of the orphans.

[Matthew]

Matthew sensed the brief moment of disdain for his thought, with blue eyes analyzing her and staring at her in that eeriely focused way. He had picked up on emotion and was trying to access it, process it, and understand it. From the slightly glassy look to his eyes, he was obviously having a hard time. Had he gotten something wrong? From what he remembered of Razkar, these Myrians had all sorts of rituals and cultural quirks that he didn't understand at all. Maybe he would have to ask her to teach him sometime, or perhaps Razkar could teach him. He made a note in the back of his mind and stored it away, hoping to recall it when it was a good time to ask one of the Myrians. He certaintly didn't hesitate to return her sharp look with one of his own. She brought out the sass in him. She was headstrong enough to somehow make him want to be headstrong right back. You DO realize I have no idea what I am talking about, right? He kept his stare sharp as she continued to go through the story, finding some sort of amusement in the part he had told. He had obviously messed up some major detail pretty badly, but which one? It was still something he would have to ask later. For now he let her speak uninterrupted, thankful that she was drawing the attention of the little beasties he had been tricked into watching. They listened and cheered, gasped and fell silent, and then leaned forward with excitement as she set the stage for the final war. For a brief moment he dipped into his Auristics, sucking Djed from his belly and burning it to activate some normally un-used region in his brain. Colors and shapes flickered into existance, and Matthew lashed out with his tongue, tasting some of the colors nearby. It was near erotic the way his tongue stroked the air and his lip, drawing more than a few blank gazes from the children. He stayed distracted, tasting their excitement and suspense. He couldn't remember being this excited about stories when he was a young boy. Then again, he would have known how silly this particular story was. He had been a special sort of child, or so his mother had said. A glimmer caught his eye, and he noticed Kaie's face had taken on a rather ferverous look. She was grinning so widely that her teeth were showing in a near snarl. Something twisted in Matthew's stomach, and even the harlot with his lack of social skills winced at her rather descriptive finale to the story. Then again, why should he wince? Of course the story was horrifying to the children, but what if they had been Myrian children? It was merely a circumstance of their upbringing. Was it wrong of Kaie to describe such a thing? It was only a story, so why did it matter? Nonetheless, Matthew still sat up and scooted forward into the group of orphans, the warmth of his body and his awkward pats distracting the children for a moment. "Kaie is a warrior, you see. She wants you to know what it is like to fight. There is blood and carnage, and you have to realize that is a part of violence. It is silly to be so thrilled by it one moment, but horrified by it when it is detailed for what it really is." He tried to tack a moral onto the story at the end, as if it was what him and Kaie had been planning on doing all along. Clearing his throat, he stood, lithe body unfolding as he peered down at the children. "Is it your bedtime yet? Or dinnertime? Or something? Or do Kaie and I have to stay longer? I suppose we could play tag, or hide-and-go-seek, or perhaps have the warrior teach all of us how to fight. I would think in Kaie's homelands, children are taught quite early. It is very different there." Truthfully, he had no idea if he was right or not. He was just making educated guesses. But, in an odd sort of way, this was a form of payment for her help today. Or at least partial payment. He had sometimes seen the lonely look, or the lost look that glittered in her eye when she spoke of her homeland. Perhaps it would help to simply talk more about it, with children who were willing to listen and learn. Or perhaps it was time for the Myrian to go to bed as well. She had just engaged in something of a war herself, though with multiple children instead of Dhani. And he had called this a date, hadn't he. He'd need to remember to walk her home. It was oddly hard to get into the mindset of a "date" when he wasn't being paid for it. However, even though Matthew had given the children an option of what to do next, Kaie would notice something different when his stare once again returned to hers. She was familar with some of his little quirks by now, and she would perhaps see the wide-eyed innocent puppy-stare for what it was. He was trying to soften her up with that vulnerable expression of his, while at the same time silently begging her to find a way to free them from this particular situaton. Matthew was painfully aware he had somehow put her in total power during all of this. He was clueless with kids, and she seemed to know what was going on. Hopefully she hadn't realized her control yet. She was a certain type of power-hungry that was dangerous to him, amusing to her.

[Kaie]

The dramatic pause that seemed to conclude the heroic adventure of combat and conquest had left the Myrian oddly smug. Flashes of the fantasy played through her mental projection. She could just imagine what celebrations would come when all was through. It would be glorious, indeed. Yet as she sat there upon the floor in the orphanage with a detached smile, she began to realize the children did not react in the same way. Tiny mouths hung open, a few girly girls makes faces that resembled fear or disgust. Several boys nudged each other in awe of the action, but overall she found the reception of the gruesome ending was controversial. She had forgotten. The Syliras children were used to tales of chivalry and righteousness done by knights. They expected damsels in distress and skips into the sunset. Not blatant genocide and racism.

Kaie's smile began to fade and her eyes wavered toward Matthew. Luckily, her companion sensed the children's distress and make a smooth recovery. It was pretty accurate, too. She'd have to remember to thank him for it later. Maybe she'd pick his brain on the inner workings of the barbarian mind. After all she did find it strange they held Knights so highly when commoners often cringed at the idea of spilled blood. It was quite hypocritical, really.

Strangely, a yawn itched at the back of her throat just then. Entertaining kids turned out to be a little more interactive than she had thought before. So much thought and improvisation, all in hopes of pleasing their eager minds. It was too bad. She almost wanted to relive the games that were the staples of childhood. But her mind was already becoming so foggy with tiredness.

"Kaie? Do Myrians like you come to Syliras often?"

Valid question.

"Once in a blue lagoon," She answered with a softer smile, completely deaf to her error. A few children giggled before a smartass spoke up from the back. Why was it always from the kids in the back?

"Um, don't you mean 'once in a blue moon'?"

The Myrian bit her bottom lip in deliberation of her next reaction. It seemed her mind had been strained enough with the struggle for stronger vocabulary in the Common tongue. Drexel had gotten her in the habit of reaching for more complex speech. He insisted it made her more legitimate and "more than just a heathen" in the minds of the people. Even mentally, she had had enough.

"You know what? Matthew right. Bedtime. Sorry, we've got to go. Uh, good talk," She rushed out hurriedly, head turning to find the harlot's gaze that was already upon her. Part of her almost broke the facade of urgency in their leave with a mirthful quirk at the edge of her lips. There it was again, the soft little eyes that begged something tragic. "Right, Matthew?,"

She could bullshit her way around the orphanage where the minds were young and easily manipulated, but to pull their source of entertainment out of the equation, she needed his backing. Already she could hear the sighs that warned of an oncoming tidal wave of whining. If graphic and gorey stories weren't enough to sate them, it would be a battle impossible for Kaie to win. There were no more weapons left in her arsenal. And for the first time, there was a bit of pleading with him in her own amber pools.