I'm staring into the flames, savoring the smell of cooking meat; it's a welcome change of pace from the olfactory cacophony that I've been experiencing for most of the day. I see some movement—so slight it barely registers—on the other side of the fire and I look up, blinking, trying to get my eyes to adjust faster to the darkness, trying to make some sense out of the inky void beyond my little circle of light. Slowly, a shape resolves. It's human-sized, but its shape is hard to gauge. It seems indistinct somehow, and I'm wondering how that could be when it suddenly hits me: whoever is standing just outside the radius of my campfire is wearing a robe, dark-colored from the look of it.

“I been here twenty minutes, city-man.” The voice is rich and dark, smooth and melodic and very, very female. “You jes now notice me?”

I stand up, trying to lay my hand on the hilt of my sword in a casual, understated kind of way that won't provoke a fight but makes it clear that I can fight if I need to. I'm not sure I pull it off, since she doesn't really react like she notices.

“You gon' invite me to sit?” There's impatience in her voice.

“You're waiting for an invitation? You've already got the drop on me; why not just come and sit?”

She shifts restlessly and crosses her arms. “That an invitation or what, city-man?”

I hesitate a moment, unsure of what to say. Finally, I just say, “Yes.”

She ambles into the light and sits down at a log a few feet from the fire, on the side opposite me. I was right: she's wearing a robe, and it's a deep, dark blue. There's no cowl, though, so I can see her features just fine now. She looks human enough, though she's got some markings on her face that would make her stand out a little in Bastion. Her hair is short and red, and her skin is a dark brown, like mahogany. She has delicate features which are only accentuated by the swirling blue tattoos etched across her cheeks and on her forehead. The thing I notice most, though, are her eyes. They're a vibrant, vital green, and they seem to catch the light like a cat's eyes. There's clearly a sharp intelligence there, and there also seems to be a wild, mocking laughter, like she knows a joke that nobody else is going to get. At a loss, I just sit back down.

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