The desert was a place that was never quiet. The ever shifting sands and the untameable winds that came as a long, lonesome, wail across the sky; the always moving wildlife that made the sounds of life stayed in the background, creating a cacophony, an orchestra that kept the entire thing going to a soundtrack that kept one on their toes, if they knew how to listen.
So long as it didn't go quiet, you knew you were relatively safe.
Luckily for Kira, she knew how to navigate the sounds of the desert almost as well as she knew how to navigate the forests of her own homeland, but she'd been wise enough to hire a guide all the same. It was never a bad idea to have someone else with you who knew the way, just in case you were wrong; two heads were always better than one, no?
The Azimeran deserts were not kind to strangers who thought it was easily trekkable, but Kira was happy to dress in the same garb as the nomads that occupied its breadth, and those that dwelled in the villages that'd been there long enough to mark the maps like henpecked breadcrumbs. Some were still there and some had been lost to the sands of time, which is a joke that her guide liked to remark on.
She rolled her eyes every time.
Still, that had been yesterday.
Today, she was sitting pretty in an inn that'd been constructed next to a dazzling oasis.The name had also gotten her attention: The Three Fingered Djinn; A waystation for weary travelers that were in desperate need for rest and respite.
And Kira was never more desperate for a respite than she was now.
With a limestone foundation that'd been reinforced with iron bars added to the mix and a skeleton made from local ironwood, the place had originally been a military outpost for some long since faded empire, and every inch of it still held strong. The owner, Kaseem, had made sure of that, he was a large, bronze skinned man, with a potbelly and arms that could crush rocks. Jovial, always with a joke on the tip of his tongue, Kira had barely known him a day, and already she was enamored.
Not half as enamored as she was with the bartender. She'd seen him looking, of course she saw him looking, the purple haired elf assumed most everyone was, at some point. Slim in the right places, but voluptuous in the others; it was as if the woman had been carved from ivory by a master artisan using only an hourglass as a reference. It was as if a drum should beat at a steady pace every time she walked. Kaseem was about to call the young bartender over but he stopped when Kira lifted a hand placed it upon his brawny shoulder. "Who, is that?" She asked, her head tilted to the side, those violet shaded irises on a human at a nearby table.
"I can't say that I know him, but I see that he has your eye." Laughing more than a little, but Kira simply bit her bottom lip, tugging it betwixt her teeth. The big man just patted her on her back, letting his hand linger before he nudged her. "Go on. All the men are going to cause a puddle from their drool, pick your stallion for the night and stop the nonsense." Mock offended, she placed a hand on her chest and mouthed 'moi?' before the big man rolled his eyes.
All the same, she stood up to her feet only to realize that her prey was choosing her. Bold, she liked bold men, she particularly liked bold human, much to the disdain and disappointment of her father, but that was irrelevant to her now.
His shoulders were broad, draping down to powerfully chiseled biceps and powerfully corded forearms; with hands the width an' length of frying pans and feet to match, the man was much like a bull with that raw muscle, with shoulders just as broad as one The green tunic he wore was tight around the chest and much looser around the waist, thost tufts of black hair peeking from the V shaped neckline with how it was angled. The way he walked was with purpose, even with the wine having sapped some of his grace. "Milady, may I have the honor of knowing your name?"
"Why would you want that?" She crooned, almost purring out those words.
"I want to know your name so I can tell people far and wide about the great beauty who's visage struck me blind."
