"That captain's son"

[Elladan]

At first Fionan contented himself with simply listening to Kerituin's singing and the music of the lyre and pan pipes. A mysterious mark of pride flickered over his visage when he took the time to note the accuracy of the pipes playing. It was apparent that these two had crossed paths with some significant meaning before this show.

The woman in chocolate could do no more than stare at the scene playing in front of her eyes. The barmaid, however, seemed delighted.

Fionan, however, felt idle, and his eyes kept venturing off to the gilded letter that now lay a reaches distance from him, so utterly tempting. The idea of joining in occured, and, so as to past time productively, he lent another voice to the song; a soft auxillary voice:

"That instant then, in love were they, that evening they were wed,
And so the maiden found her love and wore a crown upon her head.
The hummingbird then turned and went, he flow most far away
So that he might help another maid, upon another day."

[femalefred]

A gentle smile sprang to the bard's features, varying her own tune slightly now that another had joined in to make a pretty descant over the top of the melody - it was, in fact, the tune that she had struck upon the lyre earlier when watching the exchange of pipes between the two elves, though with fewer grace notes. This Fionan certainly did have a fine voice though, even if he had sung a little more quietly than she would have anticipated, and the emissary of Avalbane was a master on the pipes - better than she, but then, she'd never really taken to the wind instruments.

As the little ballad came to a close, she smiled, the applause a little more enthusiastic that she might have anticipated, but then, some of the men at the bar had probably been here since early evening, and had probably been drinking rum for most of that time. Standing, she gave a short bow and then gestured to the elves, announcing with an odd sort of smile, "I would like to thank my new friend Fionan and.." here she trailed off. Turning back to the elf she'd actually met and spoken to, she hissed, hand still in the air and gesturing towards the unknown person.
"Who's your friend, Fio?"

[Elladan]

Fionan's mirthful countanance glowed, and his eyes were lit with old, faded memories "Erados..My nephew,"

A smirk of recognition tugged at a corner of Erados' lips, a tell-tale habit of his. He nodded, idly handing the pipes back to Fionan, who put them aside and breifly embraced the man.

When all had settled, he sat, anxiously glancing toward the gilded letter. Erados, noting this, promptly handed it over.

"It's from my father... Obviously."

"Indeed, but why did you come?"

"He wanted me to see my uncle, of course."

"Of course," Fionan replied, smiling warmly. He carefully pried the wax stamp off, retrived the letter, discarded the envelope, and opened the neatly folded parchment.

His eyes scanned the page, adn a wrinkle of intelligent confusion appeared upon his brow. He looked up to give Erados a funny glare, then continued.
When he had finished he seemed perplexed, but pleased.

"Well, I'm invited to dinner, and your father kindly reminded me of the rum, " he gave a slight chuckle, but his mind seemed elsewhere.

When he looked up again he started, realizing his idle foolishness.

"Aye, but I almost forgot!" he turned to Kerituin and beamed, "Kerituin, this is Erados, and Erados, Kerituin. Might I add, you played brilliantly, Bluey," he winked, then turned his gaze to the fire to court a muse.

[femalefred]

Her eyebrow rising, the bard's gaze flicked from Fionan to Erados during the reading of this most official looking letter, and her brow rose even further when it was announced what the message concealed within was. She remained silent though - she wasn't quite up to date in affairs of court and pure elves, and perhaps this was the standard method of communicating with one another about such matters as invitations to dinner.

At the introduction, one hand leapt away from her lyre to offer to the richly garbed elf in a formal handshake greeting, eyes rolling at the "compliment" from Fionan, her tongue sticking out at him impishly for a second.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Erados. You weren't so bad yourself, vagabond."

[Elladan]

"Enchanted" Erados replied in a smooth, deep voice, "You both played well,"

"And you, Erados, you've not forgotten.." Fionan mentioned with an mischievous grin. Erados quietly raised a brow, as if hesitant to acknowledge the fact.

"Oh, but of course you remember," he continued, swelling his speech as a father proud of his son, "See, every day we would sit out in the garden, he'd comfort himself on my knee, and I would teach the little devil a note or two. I taught him everything I knew until... Well, I left."

Erados dropped his eyes for a moment, then returned to catch Kerituin's gaze.

Fionan stood suddenly, "Well, I'm off to get a bit of rum," Taking his mug, he strolled over to the counter, not without note of the bartenders wife, and politely asked for a refill. The bartender irately mumbled something about the storages and left, leaving Fionan to exercise his patience and wait. Suddenly a flood of crimson caught his eye, and Erados gracefully glided into the chair beside Fionan.

"Its good to see you again. Isn't 't strange how swiftly time passes? I remember the boy, and now I get full grown prince." he said with comic emphasis, childishly fiddling with a cloth.

Erados sat silently for a while, anxious, then cleared his throat, "I know he didn't send you just a dinner invitation. In respect I didn't read it, but I know he spent quite a while wondering what to write. When he reached news that you were around, he wanted to sent you a letter, but he seemed awfully troubled with it.."

Fionan sighed, then looked up, "He mentioned something he desired to show me, if it troubles you. I'd not keep it from you, nephew. It's just an auxillary note, nothing entirely important.."

Erados' brow gave a funny shift, softening as the bartender returned and handed Fionan his rum. They both left to return to the table by the fire.

"Sorry about that.. He had to retrieve the rum from storage." Fionan mentioned as he sat. Erados, however, remained standing, placing a few complementary coins on the table.

"We must hence, uncle. Dinner beggings in... about forty hours."

"Now? No rest? I've just arrived!" he exclaimed.

"I've brought swift horses, it should only take thirty..."

[femalefred]

This exchange drew a smile on the lips of the bard, a spark in her eye recognizing both the older man's delight at the memory and Erados's apparently fervent desire that he didn't bring it up in such detail. Well, that was until Fionan had suddenly stopped, and the elf-prince's gaze had dropped to the floor. There was certainly some tension here that she didn't know the reason for, though it didn't appear to be any kind of animosity between the two men.

As Erados slipped off to follow his uncle to the bar, the bard lifted her whiskey, sipping on the surprisingly rich malt slowly and thoughtfully, not just enjoying the flavours as they sank through her mouth, but contemplating the conversation that she could just barely hear the murmurs, but not the words of the conversation at the bar, wondering what it was that had suddenly turned Fionan's words so very taught.

As they returned, though, she smiled in a light welcome, taking a final sip of the whiskey as the older of the pair apologized.

"There's no need to be sorry for something that has no fault belonging to you, Fionan."

The next set of short and quite curt statements that were interchanged between the men caused the bard's eyebrows to rise once again, eyes flickering to the coins as they dropped onto the table. She'd already paid for a room, but if there was the option of transport by horse to Avalbane, that would be much, much faster than walking, and perhaps playing in an orchestra again wouldn't be too bad, and she was in desperate need of the pay and rest that staying at the elven court might bring her for a while. Hrmm...

"Erados, Fionan, you don't mind particularly if I tag along? That is, if you have a free horse. I'm hoping to find some employment among the musicians at your father's court, Erados."

She wasn't completely ignorant of affairs of state in Avalbane, it seemed, knowing that the name of Lord Aricin's son was Erados as it was, but how the rather more rough-and-tumble Fionan fitted into the equation was, at the moment, beyond her. She had heard that Aricin's wife had died in childbirth, years and years ago now, probably when she was just a child, but did that mean Fionan was an elf princess's brother? It just didn't seem to quite all glue together.

[Elladan]

"Employment?" Erados remarked, a bit surprised. Avalbane rarely received any requests as far as orchestral inquiries and employment of any fine arts,

"Unfortunately, I only brought two mounts...as I never thought I'd be confronted on such occasion. We could, perhaps, double up. Our horses are just as strong as swift. Being such fine equines, I didn't want for more than necessary, for they are troublesome, and for that I beseech apology."

Fionan didn't reply immediately, for he had noticed a new expression take upon Kerituin's face as she contemplated his awkward existance. He, however, made nothing of it, and turned back to Erados,

"Oh, no matter! I've the answer. Come, I've not been a vagabond for all these years without benefit," with that having been said, Fionan whisked away a few coins from small pouch, gathered his papers, took one last swing and rushed out the door. The lady in chocolate was silent, having nothing else to say on the matter. When outside he patiently waited for the others to follow, gazing up at the stars and their fantastical wonder. His eyes seemed to take on a wild sea-green glow in the pale moonlight.

Erados came afterwards, crimson trails flowing in the slight icy breeze, as though the wind itself was bleeding. He signaled in the direction of the horses and disappeared into the foliage to retrieve them. Fionan watched as his faint moonlit silhouette vagued, then resumed his idle stargazing.

[femalefred]

"Oh, no worry. I've ridden double with people before, and I know that youre elven horses are both strong and swift, though I've never actually ridden one myself."

Well, that was settled then, wasn't it? They'd be on their way to Avalbane soon enough, though Fionan seemed to have some kind of plan, and both of the pure elves had fled the building with quite some speed - though fled is probably the wrong word for it. The bard herself rose a little more slowly, shifting her lyre back around to rest upon her back and clipping her cloak back around her neck, once again giving her self that odd, misshapen look that she'd had on first entering the tavern.

Glance turning to the barman, she nodded, a soft smile springing to her lips in thanks as she walked quickly to the bar to speak shortly with him before she followed her two new companions outside.

"I shan't be needing that room now, but keep the money. I think I underpaid for that whiskey."
With a gruff nod, the landlord acknowledged her speech, then turned away and began to serve the other customers with rum and ale and all the other drinks that they might be wanting as the half-elven bard slipped out of the door. She managed to exit the inn just in time to see Erados's crimson trappings disappearing into the foliage to retrieve the mounts, and so naturally her line of vision fell back to Fionan.

"Looking for something up there?"

[Elladan]

Silently he smiled at her comment, eyes fully alighted with the mysterious glow, now vividly evident, then his gaze swiftly shifted towards the forest. An unexpected tune emanated from his lips, first quiet and soft, peaceful and light, as though he was beckoning something. Then the tune gave a rise to powerful, breathtaking cresendo, and the theme resounded through the Earth, as though the very spirits of the trees were awoken, but as swiftly as it has climaxed, it fell into decrescendo and died in vague murmers. His eyes fell dim and he returned his gaze to Kerituin.

"Fancy elvish enchanments?" he joked, though his expression held traces of expectance, as though something should come of the spell.

[femalefred]

There was power in that tune, definitely, be it gentle majicks or a deeper and less subtle enchantment, the bard could not help but notice that. She had had a little training in incantations herself - musical ones, of course - but as she was only a half-blood and her father a human, neither were able to truly master the spells with the precision that Fionan clearly had. Her eyes were instinctively drawn to the point at which her new friend was staring, vague possibilities as to the nature of the spell flickering through her mind, each one equally dismissed.

"Well, that would depend on the enchantment, my friend. Not everything depends upon the stars."

[Elladan]

(SoOoOo, Who wants to just *poof* over to Avalbane? I may be posting these two characters over there so they can be involved, but don't freak out. Several roleplays in here are not on the same time frame.
Its crazy. Eeh, eepp. Well, lets continue. Elrohir will be posting sometime soon. That's what I'm waiting on. That's who Fionan called. ;D

[femalefred]

((hokie ^^ Shall I post with Kerituin there as well, or just keep her here for now?))

[Elladan]

(Yeah, head on over there. =))