Meddling in Foreign Affairs

Chapter 1: Trapped

Dismas scanned the crowd at the Sneaking Sarka again from where he sat next to a wall, hoping to spot an easy target to lighten up his mood. His lack of luck in the past week made him irritable and nervous, and it had been altogether too long since he'd been graced with a large amount of money. Most of the patrons were drunk sailors who had nothing more than what they had spent on their ale, but every once in awhile a merchant or other wealthy person would wander in. It was one of the benefits of food that actually tasted decent when one wasn't drunk up to one's ears, and it was why the tavern was his favorite place in the entire city. That, and its unusual lack of elgins scavenging food from the floor. The little horned animals were cute, and their scales made it so there wasn't hair all over the place, and they were useful for cleaning up the floor when people drunkenly spilled food, but Dismas wasn't fond of animals in general. And not having them showed that the bartender was willing to actually clean the floor himself, which meant that it was actually clean and not just good enough.

When no one caught his eye as being particularly carefree with a worthwhile amount of money, Dismas sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. He was seriously considering giving up for the night when he remembered that he didn't have enough money to pay for another night at the inn. He had no choice but to find at least two gold pieces, or to sleep outside. And it was early enough in spring that sleeping outside wasn't really an option because of the weather, not even considering how dangerous the streets of Sdelki could be at night if you happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Dismas held in another sigh and stood up to go sit with a group of sailors who were happily drunk, but before he could, the door opened and another patron walked in. Silence fell throughout the tavern as those sober enough to notice the bright green eyes and pointed ears wondered at the presence of an elf. The citizens and visitors of Sdelki were used to seeing all sorts of strange people at the port city, but an elf in dwarf country, even so close to the border, was almost unheard of.

The elf looked around at the patrons openly staring at him and grinned. Dismas wondered for a moment why the elf looked pleased with himself, but made sure he wasn't looking at him when he glanced his way. "Next round of drinks is on me," he said to the bartender before pulling out a large coin purse and handing over more gold pieces than necessary.

Cheering internally and thanking luck for returning to him, Dismas sat down again to observe the newcomer. He looked like he was already tipsy, and obviously had more money than he needed. Dismas was more than willing to relieve him of his extra gold, and he continued to watch the elf out of the corner of his eye. The rest of the people in the tavern had relaxed significantly and most of them welcomed the elf willing to pay for their ale. It was amazing how quickly the mood of drunken sailors could shift. When the server came by to give Dismas a drink as well, he took it so as to avoid attention, but didn't drink. Over the years he had learned that trying to steal when drunk usually didn't end well.

The elf, however was drinking freely as the night continued. Dismas didn't know much of the constitution of elves, but if he were a human, the elf would've been plastered. When he paid the bartender a second time (which was completely unnecessary and frustrated Dismas because that only meant that he would have less gold to steal) and stumbled out the door alone, Dismas couldn't help but smile.

Paying for his food quickly and pulling his dark cloak closed around himself, Dismas hurried outside after him. Following the elf through the dark streets near the harbor was no difficult task since it was late enough that sensible, law-abiding citizens were already asleep. As the drunken elf turned down a small street, Dismas drew one of his knives and crept in quietly. The elf was too busy puking out his guts to notice that he had company.