1079 Ja Matta Ne.

I went ahead and finally had Hiveworks transfer over the site to their servers. They are supposed to be far superior to the service I’ve been using, so hopefully the page will load super fast now and you won’t be held back by the near constant throttling I was getting on Bluehost. Even on my shitty connection it’s been working much better than usual, so I hope you notice the improvement. I can actually load the page in seconds now compared to the sometimes minutes it would take, if the server would let me do it at all. Hopefully as time goes by the other little issues with the site can be repaired.

Here’s a continuation of the story from Monday.

There was no way she could see him. If elves could see this far they wouldn’t need magical bows…
Maybe it was happenstance. Yes, happenstance. Out of all the possible directions she could be facing she was looking directly at where he was crouching, and grinning wryly… for no reason.
As Julius studied her face he couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t look exactly elfish. She was probably half or less, but her ancestors still must have been exceptionally attractive and passed it right down the line. Her whole face was involved in her adorable smile and he studied it intensely. A few stray hairs fell across one side and she brushed them away gently, then pointed at one of her sky blue eyes. She then flicked one of her very large ears and pointed at him.
“I could hear you,” thought Julius, rolling his eyes at his own incompetence. There was no point in pretending he was hidden now. Hopping over the log, he set off towards this seemingly good natured person.
She watched him make the entire, laborious, trek down the mild incline. He fussed and struggled with his cloak as it caught on brambles, stumbled here and there, and was remarkably entertaining. If he hadn’t been flailing around so much she would never have been able to see where he was. His clothing perfectly matched the coloration of his current environment. The distinct sound of cursing and exasperation radiated away from him with every slight failure. In spite of all this he made good time and soon she could make out his features more clearly.
His hair was shoulder length, and parted in the middle. It was managing itself quite well considering its master was whipping it to and fro, like and idiot, at random intervals. In the moments when he was struggling against invisible enemies she could make out weapon handles on each side of his hips. Whoever he was he was well armed in spite of how shabby he looked. Although she was having a hard time seeing this odd man as a danger to anyone but himself.
Rather than stand and wait she decided to to go back to the shaded spot where she’d been sitting, before she heard him trampling the foliage. At length he marched, with as much dignity as he could amass, into the little clearing. She leaned forward, hanging on her pike, and grinned broadly at him. He couldn’t help but notice her prominent front teeth, which were not very elf like at all.
“Hello.” He said after a long moment.
“Hello.” She grinned back melodiously.
Julius held his map out. The two dots had been replaced with text. She read it aloud.
“You have reached your destination.” She held out her own map. The same text stared back at him. “These things are terrible.” She said. “You should have used a proper map.”
“We see most clearly that which has passed.” He replied, slumping onto a patch of moss. “Are you my client, or another member of the party?”
“The latter. I’m an associate loremaster, or mistresse if you prefer to be specific.” And with a wiggle of her spear she added. “In addition to other potentially useful skills.”
She rose and offered a hand. Julius did likewise, but found himself looking up at her a bit more than was typical when greeting a woman. Up close she was a bit more majestic than he was emotionally prepared for. He instantly felt shabby and the sensory perfection that was touching her hand didn’t help this feeling at all.
“Julius Drywood.” was all he managed to sputter out.

I was going to go on from here but I couldn’t think of a name for the girl. The character is being played by Nina in my head, which should be painfully obvious to you. It always takes me forever to name stuff.