 | "I saw your party at the Dragon's Inn last night," said Robin
casually. "Have you come to town specially for the winter
Celebration?" And if they had, why hadn't the man had sense enough to
wear warm clothes? Robin himself was in heavy wool trousers, velvet
shirt and fur boots with a heavy wool cloak to go over it all and _he_
was still chilly. "If you need winter materials, I know of an
excellent cloth merchant who can fit you out properly."
Ajali wrapped his hands around the mug of cider and gave Robin a
thankful smile, showing no fangs at all. He watched the bubbles float
at the top of the cider and spoke, "Thank you. This will help keep
the chill away, at least for a while."
Figment's little forked tongue flick in and out of Robin's tea and
Ajali arched one eyebrow while he viewed this prodigy; a small talking
dragon drinking tea. Suddenly realizing that a question had been
asked, he replied, "I have no party. Rather I didn't until Carelya
found me."
Pale blue eyes turned to Robin and the bard could see tiny red flecks
in the vampire's irises, "I have only just arrived from the south."
With some embarrassment in his voice, his free hand slapped at the
smooth silk of his trousers, "I had no idea that the north was so ---
um, polar."
Ajali had to look down on the bard, since even seated he overtopped
him by quite a few inches, and his tone was flat and low, "You have no
idea what I'll have to do to keep warm in this climate. I'd run to
the nearest cloth merchant if I only had money to exchange that was of
any worth up here."
He parked the mug on the table close to Figment and leaned to one side
as he fished around in his pants' pocket. The motion brought him much
neared to Robin as his long blond hair swayed and trailed onto the
tabletop, touching the bard's hand. He didn't smell of gore, not like
one would expect of a blood drinker.
Plunking a number of assorted coins down on the wooden table, Ajali
then poked them around to spread them out, "What are these worth
here?"
Robin could spy a few very large golden coins, numerous silver ones
and a smattering of small gold discs with holes at their center. The
vampire waited expectantly, as though Robin was his expert on local
culture. If the bard hadn't known what the creature was, he would
have been flattered by such an aristocratic fellow's attention.
However the whole charade might have been just that; pretense clouded
by a bit of mind control. The bard was not subject to that sort of
play though, being a master of it himself.
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