From alt.pub.dragons-inn Sat Aug 19 13:12:49 1995 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:8637 Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!caen!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!news.itd.umich.edu!maniac.deathstar.org!gemini From: Phaedra Whitlock Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [INN] Niki Silverun - New Character Date: Fri, 18 Aug 1995 22:18:16 -0400 Organization: University of Michigan Lines: 40 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: maniac.deathstar.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII [Apologies, the story isn't coming out right. Normally Niki is much more cheerful.] Niki gazed out from the shelter of the staircase to search the common room one more time with her eyes. He wasn't here. He wasn't coming. Valentine always came. Something hurt in her chest and she raised a slender hand to scrub at the feeling that would not go away. Deep blue eyes looked longingly out from under thick, dark lashes. Rich auburn hair curled about her oval face, striking was the word most often used. She stood straight and was just over average height in her low heeled black thigh high boots, balanced like a dancer. And she was young for a human. Just 17. The patrons had been thinning for some time, the last had departed up the stairs or wandered into the night. Even now the waitresses were wearily wiping down the chairs and stacking them on the round tables in deference to closing time. [Apologies, does the Inn ever close?] Niki slumped in her soft, off-black leathers and moved out from concealment. The barmaid, Sera? jumped in surprise and Niki smiled disarmingly. "Here, let me help you with that". The familiar, unaccustomed work made her feel better, before Valentine had taken her away from all this she had been a waitress, and other things beside. Scout they'd called her, ignoring the fact that she knew more than she should about locks and traps and nothing about plants or tracks or trails, or even how to find wood for a fire. She could ride though, and fight dirty like noone's business. Niki smiled and hefted the last chair onto a table. Dying firelight glimmered on the pommels of her daggers as she went to stand before the misted window. Was that fog? Her finger idly traced Valentine's initials and a heart sigil in the condensation. The darkness outside chilled her. Shadows had killed her last party, only she had survived. She had followed orders, not possessing an enchanted weapon she could not harm the things and had been ordered to take the dwarf to safety, then wait. Wait she did. The dwarf sickened, dying of magic he had been warned to avoid, and had sought out instead. He died, and still noone came. She shuddered and touched the pommel of the short sword Valentine had tossed her at the last. A thief afraid of the dark.