Clothes Do Not Make the Man

Expressionlessly waving at the men at the cart and approaching Amaris called out, "I'm trying to get to the next nearest town and as it turns out I have an outdated map." She also made sure to hide her tail by wrapping it around her waist under her clothes so they wouldn't think she was a monster like Ritz. Apparently there were sometimes intelligent monsters that could speak and they were leagues more powerful than the others, at least according to Ritz.

The one with the bow drew an arrow and called out, "That's far enough. Stop there while we wait for the boss."

In no real hurry Amaris shrugged and stopped where she was. The man's bow didn't look to be a very heavy draw and he was plenty far enough away that she should be able to react in time if he tried to shoot at her, Frnak had shot at her with bows similar to that one, but his were always better looking.

"Hey you ought to take better care of your bow. Using a resin would go a long way."

The man eyed her warily. At first he only drew an arrow thinking that she was bait for a trap being set for them, but now she's fearlessly standing there and even commenting on the fact that his bow isn't in the best shape. Maybe that was a threat? Maybe it could be her way of saying that she is just much stronger than me.

Luckily the man didn't have much time to consider the possibilities as another man walked out of the cart and spoke up in a gruff voice, "Oi! Who're you little lass? These parts are dangerous ya know."

Looking over the man he seemed slightly better built than the rest of them. His armor looked slightly different too, more geared for freedom of leg movement and less around the shoulders. Probably uses a spear but he doesn't seem to have it on him now. He also stood with more confidence than the bowman. They all seem to have some knowledge of their own weapons, but he seems to have some sort of extra training, maybe one of the swordsmen do too. His bearded face was scowling, possibly in an effort to look intimidating, and he had a few scars that had healed over on his cheeks and nose. Formal training and experienced fighter?

"Hello there I'm Amaris. Like I said I just need directions and maybe a map if you could spare it. Mine is out of date... by quite a bit."

"I see Amaris. Well 'ow do we know that you're being honest and not just trying to lead us into some trap? A pretty little thing like you all by yourself? I'm not that stupid."

"Well I guess you're kind of right, I'm not by myself," at this all the men tensed up and brought their hands to their weapons beginning to look around for an ambush that would never come, "Jumpy bunch. I'm traveling with a friend, but they were afraid you might be an... unscrupulous bunch and didn't want to show themselves."

Hearing that it was likely only one friend the men half relaxed, but were still ready for a confrontation.

"Awful bold of ya ot approach a group of men that could be mistaken as looting this cart and ask for help. I'm gonna guess that un...scrup-you-lus means we ain't great people or something, but you got lucky that we have no interest in kidnapping. Jus' hunting down a big creature been stalking the woods."

"Wait bandits are real? I thought those were just things written in stories." Amaris mumbled to herself, "hmm guess that makes Ritz's reaction make more sense. To think humans actually do that to each other."

"Anyway did the creature you're looking for look like a big troll from storybooks?"

Raising both his eyebrows in surprise, "Spose' it does. Yeah."

"Oh I can tell you were I last saw it."

Even though Amaris didn't think the man's eyebrows could get any higher they did, "You saw that thing? And it didn't make a meal of you? Tha blood on the cart is from where 'e picked up our horse and ripped it apart. Then it smashed the wheels when tryin to attack one of the boys."

"Yeah. I described it without you didn't I? My price for the information is where the closest town is and a map if you have more than one." The man's refusal to give her an answer to her initial question was getting cumbersome, it made her think about how her people never did such things.

The man tapped his chin in thought for a moment he looked at Amaris' face several times while doing so before shrugging and finally coming to a decision, "Alrighty. Since you aren't askin' for anything more I'd say that's fair. Closest town is probably a three day walk up this road. I'll give you the map when you mark the location on another one for us."

"Can I approach or do I need to dodge arrows to do so?"

Looking up at the bowman with the bowstring still taught with an arrow prepared to be fired, "Ye can stop that ya idiot. The lass is giving us info for info." The man slowly relaxed the bow and Amaris went over to the leader to make on his map where she killed the Troll creature and getting a more up to date map of the immediate area from them.

"Do you have a name?"

"Huh? Oh. Er. Yeah. It's Kai."

"Thanks Kai. I'll be on my way now I'm sure my friend is waiting for me somewhere ahead." With that Amaris turned and left.

The man felt a chill run up his spine as the 'little lass' left. While the entire exchange seemed normal he was still very unsettled by the young woman he has just met. Never had he seen someone so beautiful with such a dead expression. She never smiled nor frowned. Hey eyes never reflected nervousness or fear like he expected when he first saw her. She was just a girl surrounded by men with weapons yet he still felt like he was the one being suffocated by her prescene. Sure he got useful information that would help their hunt, but it was done in a rush to try to get her out of their hair as soon as possible. He just prayed that he would never meet her again.