Chapter 7: Out of the Bag

By the time Jassen finished playing, we had earned enough for a night’s rest and then some. The guests had been very gracious that night, they had slipped us money while I was off listening. The night was yet over, the remanence of the mob still chatted in countable small groups.

Most were the typical groups of friends spending as much time as they could with each other, before they would have to sleep and work again. Then there were the typical drunkards hooping and hollering at the bar. And finally there was a small group of about four foreigners huddled in a corner table in the back. Knowing this was where Xanrei had made her perch, I guided us over after Jassen had finished packing his kes.

Both intimidating and mellow, the group of strangers sat relaxed amongst one another. Two were humi like most, but they were hyum and Emu, as opposed to the majority ulmi of the area. The two were locked in an intense conversation, having their chairs turned to face one another.

The hyum was much like jassen, hairless and tailless, but he was about half the height of Jassen, despite being clearly much older than he. The little humi also was slightly more harry and had eyes twice Jassen’s size. He wore born with the design reminiscent of the diamond motif of the older keupaal temples of north-eastern Whidyr.

The other humi wore bohrn as well. His were much simpler but had more striking colors of teal and vermilion. He was a polar opposite of his conversationalist, tall and ethereally thin. The chatty emu was nearly as tall as Jassen while sitting down, and would tower over him upon standing. He had a tail similar to an ulmi, but his was more akin to a drake’s, thicker at the base and not as maneuverable. But unlike an ulmi, he was nearly completely hairless. The only hair at all was silvery and fine hair atop his head. In addition to his bohrn, he also wore a teal and vermilion gown, hiding all of himself bar his face.

Another ulmi humi sat away from the group. He had his attention divided with most devoted to a strange device. It was a black and stout pyramid which projected images similar to how Xanrei could. The humi mindlessly maneuvered changing manuscripts, images, and structures, waving his hand in particular ways to make it do what he wanted it to do. I had seen this kind of device before, father had bought it for our older sister as a gift of name. Though she did not let us touch it, I did get to see some of what it was capable of. You could store hundreds if not thousands of books on it, it recreating each page in a not-quite-real material above it. It could also let her communicate with her friends though they were not directly in front of her, or even on the premises. Sometimes their face was projected above the device and other times I could only hear their voice.

The humi’s other point of interest laid to the center of the table. Shocked, though not fully understanding why, Xanrei drunkenly dancing around a bowl of alcohol while singing some song in her draconic tongue of haseh. Though not entirely familiar with the language, I did recognize a few words that had been melded into the world language of lald. Something about a lover and flight wass I could ascertain though.

Again and again it seemed she was going to fall onto her face, but each time she would pick herself up as though it were part of the routine. Her squeaky voice hissed with each word spoken, her alien language not hiding the fact that she still fumbled over her words. I stifled a chuckle as Jassen felt the same way about the tiny inebriate.

The final guest was a creature neither of us had seen before. It was lumbering, long black wires of fur covered its body, making it look like a heavily used mop than a furry creature. In the dim light of the tavern’s fires, we could see a scarred and letheren face beneath the fur. Its facial features were like a large feline, with puffy cheeks and long whiskers over two large protruding fangs; with one of the fangs end chipped off. Its tail, curled around its sitting frame, was as long as its body and half as wide. Face only visible due to two enormous and elaborate braids, it also had its fur braided sporadically across its hefty body, almost as if a child had done it as practice.

Foreboding, we halt our approach, only a few paces away from the table. Xanrei, oblivious to all but her drink. She continued to dance, taking sips from the bowl she was whirling around every now and then. In fact, it was the strange creature that noticed our hesitant approach. From underneath the mass of fur it lifted one of its great paws to motion us to come closer. Encasing its paw was a well worn ebony and metallic gauntlet. It held its leg fur within, but hat five holes having the fur spill out.

We pulled out a seat at the table, its legs making a louder-than-expected scratch across the stone floor. The two in deep conversation only took a second to glance at the disturbance before heading back to chat. The other humi greeted us with a smile and a nod before going back to what he was doing with the pyramid. And Xanrei, in the most obnoxious way possible, bawled at how we left her alone for so long. She fell into our lap, wings flapping in desperation. Jassen picked her up with two hands and nearly threw her back onto the table, chastising her on the way she was acting.

Before Xanrei could retort, the strange beast spoke, ‘I’m l-l-Leif of c-clan Rekun, it’s a pleasure to meet you.’ I looked first to the others, all three of the humi busy with their own doings. Then looking to Xanrei, she was on her back crying, garbling about what did she ever do to deserve such mistreatment or something to that effect. Jassen, after a moment's pause, returned the greeting. The beast then looked to the now unconscious wyvern, then used one of his paws to flip her over onto her belly. ‘you n-know this sahhas?’ His voice was deep, reverberating to our core.

‘I do, though not a friend,’ Jassen, though I felt his anxiety, was well trained for faking courage. After overcoming the initial shock Jassen replied to each of the beasts questions in proper time.

The beast looked first to my arm then directly to my eye, ‘you have l-left before encasing your host, that is most unbe-unbecoming and grotesque.’

As if summoned with her true name, Xanrei shot back to life, ‘That’s because the gheforis hasn’t completely taken the host, their two beings!’

Even Jassen lost his composure, we both looked to the other three to see if they heard what Xanrei had claimed. To our relief they were still too involved to even notice we existed. Jassen, rightly furious, raised a fist to strike the maddening wyvern before being stopped by the beasts heavy stuttered words. ‘How horrifying, is this tr-tr-true, that you h-have two minds of two beings in one singular b-bo-bo-body?’

Jassen looks away, searching for a way out. He tightens our grip on our belongings, ‘yes.’

The beast stared at us in disbelief, the glowered at the prospect of it. Jassen prepared for a retreat, we made enough money to quickly buy more spears and skip town. Reading our intentions, the beast interrupted our escape,’do not r-run, you will not make it far. P-please, follow me to my room, I w-w-wish to discuss this further where prying indi-indivi-individuals may not interfere.’

Jassen gripped tighter, ‘Our apologies, but we don’t even know what you are or what you want.’

Xanrei lazily flopped onto our shoulder, wrapping her wing around the back of our neck. ‘Cmon, what’s the worst *hic* that could happen. He’s not chasing you away so he can’t beall bad…’ She proceeded to fall forward onto our lap, falling unconscious yet again.

On edge, Jassen made neither utterance nor motion, waiting to see what the beast would say or do next. The beast asked, ‘Have you never heard nor seen an image of an isynx?’ He bowed his head low and leaned in close to us. ‘Listen, we may not know each other, but I need to talk with you.’ We pulled back from his encroached visage, his breath foul and his mane unclean.

Jassen started to get up, but his motion had raised Xanrei yet again. She swooped down from the table, only to gain lift right before hitting the floor, and flying up to land atop our head. ‘I think… I think for these guys to… uh… to listen to you, you gotta save their lives. That’s what I did, now look at us, we’re like fruit in a basket we are.’ She wrapped her wings around our head, making herself into a sort of hat.

Before the isynx could lure us into more conversation, Jassen tried to bolt. As soon as got up and turned around, the isynx was already in front of us. ‘As I said, you will n-not be able to get far.’ It then bowed to us, trying its hardest to prove itself to Jassen.

Jassen took a deep breath, then accepted the isynx’s, Leif’s request. We would accompany him to his room to discuss things further.