Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: aaron@atlantis.uucp (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: [MI][AU][Storm] Teonyl: Shelter From The Storm
Message-ID: <1993Apr19.030803.23661@atlantis.uucp>
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1993 03:08:03 GMT


Characters involved: Teonyl, Alfvaen, Mary Littlefair

Characters involved peripherally: Sheryl, Rowan Littlefair, everyone else
  currently in the Inn


Teonyl woke with a warm body beside her in the bed.  The bed was not made to
hold two, and others may have called it cozy, but Teonyl was used to her
space.  Usually she found it easy to get to sleep when sharing a bed, in the
afterglow of lovemaking, but waking up wasn't as pleasant.  Carefully she
disentwined herself from her companion.  What was his name again?  Alfvaen,
that was it.

"You awake?" he mumbled.  "'Time is it?"

"Just a sec," she said.  She opened one of the shutters and peeked out at the
sky.  It was still quite dark out, but the noise of the city sounded like late
morning.  The gloom came from overhanging dark cloud.  "Morning sometime.  The
weather doesn't look so great."  She sniffed the wind, but couldn't tell
much.  Being used to inland cities, she was doubly disadvantaged, not having
either the coast-dweller's or countryman's sense of weather.  Still, she knew
what looked like a storm in the air.

Alfvaen moaned slightly.  She recalled him making a point of not having a
drink the night before, so he couldn't have a hangover.  Maybe he was just
cramped, like she was.  She started going through her morning's stretches,
trying to ignore the morning-after-a-one-night-stand awkwardness.  At least
she hoped that was all it was--she wasn't ready for too much more than a
one-nighter.  She didn't want to put down roots anywhere until she felt sure
she was safe again--maybe never.  She'd lived that way before the Florians,
and would again.  She was just a bit out of practice.

Alfvaen watched her stretches with sleepily lustful admiration.  "C'mere and
let's get you warmed up properly," he murmured.

She laughed.  "All right."

***

They ate breakfast together at Nester's Inn, taking advantage of the gap
between breakfast and lunch crowds.  Perhaps this could be a one-nighter that
turned into friendship, Teonyl thought.  "So what do you do in the city?" she
asked.

"Investigation," he said.  "The day I came into the city, I checked out ads
for this place, Moriarty Investigations.  Turned out they needed my help, so I
signed up.  It's been...interesting work."

Luck must be with her.  A friend in an investigation agency was just the thing
she'd need to search for her sister.  "That's a stroke of luck," she said. 
"One of the reasons I came to Generica is that I'm...looking for someone.  I
may want your help with that later.  But right now I have to figure out some
way to get the money to pay you, right?  Unless you work for free..."  She
grinned.

Alfvaen grinned back.  "No, I don't think we work for free.  Hmmm...well, most
adventuring-type jobs are posted in the Dragon's Inn.  You been there yet?" 
She shook her head.  "I don't blame you.  I've never been comfortable in the
company of 'career' adventurers anyway.  Still, here in Generica you get a bit
better class, usually.  And the barkeep, Rowan Littlefair, is a nice guy."

"I'll check that out, then," Teonyl said.  "Before the weather gets any
worse.  And I'll get back to you when I can afford you..."

***

Teonyl was in sight of the Plaza of Glittering Steel when the first rain
started to fall.  It felt more like hail than rain, though.  She cursed as it
pounded her head and started to run.  When she hit the Plaza proper, she
skidded on the slick metal(stupid, stupid, should've expected that)and
sprawled facedown.  Dazed, it was a couple of minutes before she picked
herself up.  She heard thundercracks off in the distance, several in
succession.  Some part of her brain whispered metal, lightning, bad bad bad. 
When it penetrated, she cursed again and pulled herself up.  A bit muddy, and
very soaked, but damned if she was going to get fried by lightning standing in
the middle of a huge sheet of metal.  The downpour was thick enough to obscure
the vision, but she could make out the Dragon's Inn sign and made that way. 
As long as they hadn't bolted the door...no, they hadn't.  Erevan be praised
for his restraint.

She pulled open the door, struggling against the gale-force winds which had
come up when she hadn't noticed, and finally managed to pull herself inside. 
The thick door closed and everything suddenly seemed quieter.  She could hear
the gentle strains of a lute, and hushed conversation.  Standing a bit more
firmly now(her left knee crying a bit ungraciously in pain), she surveyed the
inhabitants.  Standard adventurer-types(mostly--a unicorn there, how
ostentatious, hope she didn't scare it off), but she didn't focus on any of
them.  A bar, a barkeep, the Rowan Littlefair Alfvaen had mentioned, no
doubt.  A fire.  Yes, the fire got priority.  She was soaked, and all her
clothes were at Nester's except what she was wearing, and damned if she was
going to skin down in front of an innful of adventurers, so it looked like
she'd have to dry her clothes and herself at the same time, sitting in front
of the fire.

She walked over to the fire, limping slightly, and sat as close as she could. 
Blessed warmth.

"You must be soaked, dearie," a voice said from her elbow.  She turned to see
a matronly woman standing behind her, looking solicitous.

She nodded.  "I think I'll be okay if I can sit at the fire and dry off," she
said.  "But a hot mulled cider would be just right."

"Coming right up," the other woman said cheerfully.  "I'm Mary Littlefair, by
the way."

Teonyl considered giving a false name, but she'd already told her real one to
Alfvaen, so, caution to the winds.  "Teonyl," she said.

Mary brought her her cider a few minutes later, and Teonyl sipped it
gratefully.  Eventually she started to get warm.  She could hear the storm
outside get even louder, and shuddered.

Finally she was warm enough to wonder about the employment opportunities
Alfvaen had mentioned.  There was some kind of board with bits of parchment
pinned to it--maybe that was it?  She went to investigate.

-- 
---Alfvaen(1969 Books, 1101 Albums, And Counting)
"The word 'semen' is included in the word 'basement'."  --Gooley
Current Album--Richard Thompson:Across A Crowded Room
Current Read--Nicole Luiken:Ribbons Red