Canaries out of the coal mine

Canaries just wanna have fun

There were two parts of her job that Pattadol found particularly stressful. The first, understandably, was the fact that they were sent in with the full expectation that if absolute worse came to absolute worst, at least some of the Canaries, if not herself, would be left to die if it meant they would successfully complete their mission and neutralise the offending Dungeon. Secondly, and arguably more stress inducing was the brief period of leisure they got between the time they reached their destination and the time they needed to descend into the Dungeon.

This was more stressful for her because there were simply too many factors at play for her to plan accordingly. She was to try and herd a gaggle of dangerous and highly skilled criminals through a populated area while also making sure she did not lose their directionally challenged Captain that had no particular investment in whether he lived or died. Even when she did let them go off and entertain themselves, she then had to worry about being able to collect them again afterwards because she still didn't entirely rule out the possibility of them just running off the second she foolishly blinked for half a second longer than she ought.
Oh, and the very real possibility that it was the last time any of them actually had the chance to go off and do anything was a very real thing that lived like a very loud, uninvited house guest in the back of her mind.

So really, it was altogether far too much stress for one elf to have to deal with at any given time.

While Pattadol was out there fretting to no end this did not extend to, well, any of the other Western Elves. Well, one could suppose there needed to be somebody to do the fretting for them, and it did make sense that it was her. After all, when the other options were death or imprisonment for so long it would make anyone's mind dizzy, to feel the sunlight on their skin every now and again was almost worthwhile. Enough to tug at the proverbial chains that bound them to a life of self-sacrifice that they never intentionally signed up for. 

A cackle to her left drew her out of her rapidly deepening pool of concerns with the efficacy of a shovel to the face. Fleki, golden blonde hair in dire need of acquaintanceship with a hairbrush, flinging herself at her much taller friend. Lycion, who wore so little it surely did not pass any decency guidelines anywhere at all, met this with a laugh of his own. How often had she been sure the pair would run off and never be found, only to find herself pleasantly surprised on several occasions? Okay, she did not really want to try and find an answer to this, just in case it jinxed things and they vanished off for good. 

"D'ya mean the nudist colony you got arrested in?"

"It was not a nudist colony, it was a community for other beastman with like-minded ideals and-"

"Oh, so it was only you then! You know that makes it worse, right?"

The lighthearted chatter between the friends, notably, was getting further and away from the group. Of course, they were granted the most fleeting moments of not-quite-freedom before they were expected to regroup to meet with the council in charge of the area the rogue Dungeon was, so they were allowed to wander off and have a bit of fun before potentially getting killed in a more permanent fashion. That didn't mean she had to like how quick they were to scoot off for whatever mischief they had in mind. 
And it certainly did not have anything to do with wanting slightly better company than just the Captain while they were there in an unfamiliar area.

"I did some work around these parts before."

The unintentionally well-timed comment had come from the other criminals to the right of them. Otta, distractedly rolling one of the decidedly scandalous ear piercings as she spoke to her colleague, let her gaze dart about in the search of anything that might have rung a bell from the last time she had been there. Cithis, who was not ringing the more literal bell that hung at her side, did not seem quite as invested in being in just one of far too many medium sized villages after they all seemed to blend together into one amalgamation of tedious towns.