Lorenzel, Part 2

[Sareth]

There was a pregnant pause in the shop. No one seemed to quite know what to say. The blatant hate was like cold water on the back.

Then, in the quiet, a soft, gentle voice, barely audible, but audible enough hissed one word.

"Bitch..."

[Drannin]

(OOC: Uh-oh)

Argus's eyes goggled. Slowly, his head turned to look at Lillith. He took one look at her face. Paled. Ohshi-

Harker also took one look at Lilltih's face. Goggled quite prominently. Made a small sound that sounded like "Meep," and suddenly found somewhere else to be very quickly.

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose gasped silently, but the old woman barely seemed to notice what Lillith had said, or more accurately, she completely misinterpreted it, whether intentionally or not. "Yes, that elf is a bitch, Luminosita forgive me for saying so," she confirmed, without looking back over her shoulder. "She comes in here about once a week. I always want to scrub the place down afterward. Elves just don't feel right, they contaminate what they touch. But trust me, those halfbreeds are worse."

She turned to where Rose was still reeling inside. "But let's forget about all that for now. We who love Our Lord Luminosita shouldn't be bothered with such things, should we? Let me pour you some nice tea and I'll tell you what I can about my poor, dear nephew." She reached for a teapot by the shop's door, as Brad moved unobtrusively to position himself between the woman and Lillith; he may not have been the most forceful member of the Nuria family, but he was no fool.

[OOC: I think this was actually happening in the shop, not on the wagon. Doesn't really change anything, though.]

[Sareth]

[OOC]Fixed the error.[/OOC]

Brad had faster reflexes than one might have expected in a depressed priest whose wife had just run out on him. As Lillith picked up and hurled a clay jar of herbs at the back of the shopkeeper, he was able to get his hand up and in the way. He didn't manage to actually catch the jar, but he was able to deflect it so that it crashed to the floor half way to it's target, cracking and spilling cumin on the wooden slats.

As Lillith reached for another, she was roughly grabbed from behind and dragged off balance. She flailed and screeched in a manner far from the quiet and pretty young woman she normally appeared to be. Her legs kicked and she tried to shake herself loose, but her small stature and lack of training in feats of arms left her completely unable to resist as she was dragged from the store.

[Drannin]

(OOC: I got this one)

"Lillith! Calm down!" Argus yelled to the shrieking young woman. Lillith apparently didn't hear him, being more concerned with bodily harm to a somewhat bigoted lady. Fortunately, Argus had had a bit of warning (ie the Glare of Death) and had moved as soon as the clay jar had made its arc across the shop. Argus was currently trying to remember his hand-to-hand combat training, failing at it miserably, and had resorted to half-dragging Lillith out of the shop. Harker came up to lend a hand and got a half-elven foot in the face for the trouble. Far from the worst he had ever had.

"A little help here?!" Argus yelled to whoever was listening.

[Graybeard]

A different age might have remarked that Argus took the snap and handed off to the fullback, but in this world, some other metaphor would have to do. Two enormous hands wrapped around Lillith's waist and lifted her into the air with surprising gentleness. A moment later, she was deposited in front of the store, where Sister Rose gaped in amazement at what was doing the depositing. (She wasn't too amazed to simultaneously rush to check Lillith for any injuries -- there didn't appear to be any -- and also gently but firmly restrain her from doing anything else foolish.)

"Mamma ..." a voice rumbled, "she wuz ... gonna be ... mean tuh yez." The huge form retreated to the back of the store.

"Thanks, Sonny," the old woman said, returning to her tea as though nothing had happened. "Wonder what that was all about?"

"'Sonny'?" Rose asked, not quite believing what she had just seen, and not sure she wanted to know; the question just came out.

Edith produced a curiously youthful, puckish smile. "Well, if a troll decides he wants to call you Mamma, what would you call him?"

[Drannin]

Argus' eyes bulged. TROLL!!!

A frantic smackin at his waist drew Argus' eyes downwards. Harker was making frantic motions of negation.

Oh, right, It would probably be a bad idea to liquefy the monstrosity in a public place. Especially since it had somehow gone local. Right. Argus let his magic subside; magic that would have killed the troll 12 ways in approximately .35 seconds.

Argus was somewhat less than fond of trolls.

[Sareth]

Lillith seemed unaware that she had been hauled out of the store by a troll. She wavered on her feet, face turning an alarming shade of red as she stared at the store, lips quivering with ill-suppressed fury. Then, with an inarticulate cry, she flung herself at the door, only to be blocked by Sister Rose. Attempting to get around the woman, she dodged, and found herself now blocked by Argus. She began to curse (in a way that would have been very cute in less serious a moment, given that the only thing stronger than 'damn' and 'hell' and 'whore' that made it out of her mouth was that original 'bitch.') However this wore off very quickly, and the red in the face, furious girl suddenly collapsed into tears, wavering.

Sister Rose moved in to comfort the girl, only to be surprised when the girl collapsed against, of all people, Argus. She buried her face in his shoulder and began to bawl.

[Drannin]

Gwah?!

Trolls were forgotten, utterly. Instead, Argus had to contend with the fact that his estranged daughter had just collapsed against him in a sobbing mess. And he had no idea how to handle it. Argus glanced down at Harker, looking for... something. Advice? This had never happened before in his life. Fayna and Addon had never been criers.

Harker looked back at him like he was insane and made some indescribable motions that basically added up to 'DO SOMETHING!!'

The best 'something' that Argus could come up with was to gently put his arms around Lillith and hold her tightly. And hope it was sufficient.

Weave, he was awful at this.

[Graybeard]

"Excitable, isn't she?" Edith observed to Sister Rose, still daintily sipping her tea.

"Well, I can't really say I blame her," Rose said. "I'd probably feel the same way if I'd been manhandled by a troll, no matter how gently." I don't think that's all that's bothering her, but let it pass... "How did he come to be part of your, ah, family?"

"My husband was a construction worker up in the north," Edith explained. "He had Sonny working for him up there for a while, and when we moved south, he came with us. Trolls live much longer than we do, so when my husband died, he decided to stay with me and help me take care of things. They're -- I think the word is 'matriarty,' which made it easier for him."

"Matriarchal," Rose corrected her. "So they are, or at least so I've read." In the Heretic Knowledge Vault, but I'm not going to tell you that. "That was very nice of him, but doesn't he have trouble fitting in? I'd suspect that many of the townsfolk don't take well to a troll in their midst, what with all the tales of them eating people and such."

"Oh, the tales aren't true," the older woman said, and Rose nodded; that was another thing she'd learned in the Vault -- that, and some things that she definitely didn't want to know about why the church allowed the myths to be perpetuated. She put that decidedly inconvenient thought out of her mind as the woman continued, "Some of the tribes are friendlier to our kind than others, but none of them are cannibals, at least not any more. When people around here got to realize that, they didn't have any trouble with Sonny; he just keeps to himself, and once a year he goes back to his homeland for a while. I'm glad people can see him that way. They shouldn't say that all trolls are nasty and evil just because of a few that do start fights and get into trouble."

"That's very perceptive and tolerant of you," Rose smiled, as she thought, Now if you could only see half elves the same way ... But we all have our cultural blind spots, don't we? The smile stayed on her face as she turned to the hugging Argus and Lillith, thinking, It's an ill wind that blows nobody good...