As A Stranger Or A Friend?: The Swallow And The Drowned Sailor

Axtapor - 1 Sun's Dawn, 1246 A.D.

"Kava's blessing! I might be envious of all women looking at you if you were mine." Idhi remarked as we walked arm in arm through the crowded square.

"'Haps, you should no have dressed me as so..." I grumbled.

"Well, now I'm rather wondering if you should have been the one wearing the corset instead of me." She said with a sly grin as we stopped at some place she deemed suitable for us to be gawked at.

I frowned at her.

"Xck'tich kalfja, it was only a joke...and you're not supposed to be frowning." She said, trying to force my mouth into a smile with her hand, "Remember, the women see you, and they want to be me, for I have won the prized catch, and how can they be me?"

I sighed and yanked my head out of her hands. "If'n they buy yer wares."

"Precisely. So go on, make them envy me." She said, poking her cheek.

"I will no kiss ye, Idhi." I hissed with another frown.

"Most men, the ones with sense anyway, marry their cousins in The Empire." She retorted with a frown of her own.

"'Haps so, but we nay be in The Empire now."

"Well, you have to do something." She said with some frustration.

"I been doin' ye a favor just by bein' here." I frowned more deeply now.

"Gods, are you sure you weren't born a scaled mule? And if you're not going to appease me then put your mask on." She said, pushing me away from her slightly.

I let out a small growl, put my mask on as she asked, and pulled her along to where many couples were dancing.

Maybe if I spun her around enough, she would be looked at plenty and too dizzy to bother me with any more of her ridiculous requests. Her advertising scheme made some sense, but I was still very annoyed with her for not being honest about her approach from the start. Then again, if she'd told me her plan ahead of time, I probably would have refused it completely.

I grabbed her hard by the waist and pressed her against me, deciding a traditional safrim xk'ic, or 'lover's entanglement', was suitable enough to accomplish what she wanted. It would be eye-catching by comparison when everyone else was just touching palms and twirling around. She let out a surprised gasp and tried to push away as I forced her to move with me.

"Axtapor, what do you think you're doing?!" She complained as she struggled in my arms.

"What ye wanted." I replied in an uninterested fashion as I threw her away from me and pulled her back just as harshly.

"How is this less perverted than asking you for a kiss on the cheek?!" She demanded.

"Ye wanted 'ttention did ye no? There be plenty starin' now." I responded flatly as I scanned the crowd.

Among them, I spotted a short woman in a starling mask who was surrounded by many small children and carried a baby in her arms. I felt oddly remorseful for putting on such a display where there were families present, but stopping the dance now would certainly ruin things, and besides, there was no obligation for them to be looking at us anyway. No one was forcing them to. They could simply look away.

"Give me yer tail." I whispered to her with a frown.

"No!" She hissed back, "Don't be a pig!"

I tried to find it with mine, altogether ignoring her refusal, but it seemed that she was intent on dodging me as I couldn't locate it. I threw her from me again though this time, when I pulled her back, I was met with a strong and loud slap to the face. It was so forceful that she knocked my mask off in the process.

"You brute! What in Kava's name is your problem?!" She screamed at me in Hamatian before storming off.

I rubbed my jaw for a moment, then retrieved my mask from the ground, slinking away from prying eyes.

Even if I'd earned myself a slap to the face, she had the attention she wanted, so my job was done as far as I was concerned. I came to an area that was quiet and away from everything to smoke for a bit before my grandmother could scold me for what I'd done. No doubt Idhi was off telling her about my current misdeeds, which would eventually lead them to locate me for the thrashing I was evidently due. It was tiresome, to say the least, but even if I tried to avoid it now, she would just let me have it later on.

When I'd finally crawled out of my drunken stupor a few days ago and returned home, I found that Ulsei had tattled to my grandmother about how I'd barged in on her and her new husband. So naturally, I was given an earful about privacy and not just throwing doors open when it pleased me. It made me wonder where Lord Haphrex had managed his assessment of me being mature. It seemed that none would share his opinion; instead, everyone was bent on treating me like a boy. I took a long drag of my pipe and heard someone approaching. They'd found me rather quickly. Then again, I wasn't exactly trying to hide.

"She wanted 'ttention, she never—"

I stopped speaking upon seeing that it was not my grandmother who'd approached, but instead, the woman in the starling mask. I did my best not to grimace outwardly. This was going to be far worse. I was sure she would have many words for my behavior. Usually, I wouldn't care if I'd been seen making a fool of myself, but with how things had been lately, I wasn't sure I could tolerate this strange woman's scolding without losing my temper. Still, I was in no place to forbid her from berating me, so maybe I could make my apologies now in hopes that her criticism would not be so severe whenever it came.

"'Pologies, for yer wee ones havin' to see us as so." I bit down on my tongue, dreading the words that would come out of my mouth next, but I had to make this convincing, "My wife be difficult. We have no been married long, ye see..."

She didn't seem pleased with my apology or my poor attempt at explanation. In fact, she appeared almost stiff now, as if someone had just put a bomb in her pocket. Regardless, if she didn't accept my excuses, then there wasn't much more I could do. If I came out and told her that Idhi was my cousin and not my wife, she might even be more scandalized since marrying cousins, or being intimate with them, was not common practice outside of the Holtep Empire and the elven Savaniel Forests.

My parents were second cousins, though their match would have been perfect had they been first cousins; that degree of closeness was considered ideal. As repulsive as a woman like this might find that fact, one might argue that the elves of the Savaniel's were worse. They often, and almost exclusively wed brother and sister. Ophelia herself was married to one of her older brothers, though they hardly seemed like siblings, what with he resting at the comfortable age of two-hundred and forty-five and her being a chipper one-hundred and sixty-eight. That put them seventy-seven years apart, which was a lifetime for most, so they may as well be strangers instead of siblings. Even so, humans and dwarves found both practices equally shocking and revolting.

"Do ye want gold for yer troubles?" I asked, hoping that might get her to disappear.

No such luck. She was unmoving as if she'd turned to stone.

"Axtapor!" My grandmother yelled before she came into view.

I looked in her direction and could see in her eyes the unmistakable greed for punishment and braced myself for what might come next. She marched right up to me and gave me a firm strike on the hand with her fan to knock my pipe out of it. I winced.

"Explain to me what you just did! I cannot believe what Idhi has told me, but given the state that she is in, I am inclined to believe her until I hear otherwise!" She demanded.

"She wanted 'ttention, so I did as she asked." I replied, not even trying to defend myself.

I would be found guilty anyway, so there was no point in delaying the inevitable.

"I expected more from you! Honestly, Axtapor, what in your right mind..."

She continued her tirade, and while she did, I couldn't help but notice that the woman in the starling mask had disappeared. When had she gone?