A tavern? Why would Ariana be in a tavern?

He padded in through the open door and took in the room. It was a rather dirty place, with scraps and other refuse strewn about the floor. There were six Aeradalla sitting in backless chairs, pulled up to worn tables in the large common room, dominated by a massive hearth on the right wall and a wooden bar across the back wall, a bar made of bone-white wood. Another Aeradalla stood behind that bar, which was built out from the wall to accomadate his wings, wearing a spotted apron.

It looked just like any number of taverns he had seen in his life. But where was Ariana?

It did look just like any number of taverns. Strange that the Aeradalla would adopt something that was so commonplace among humankind. Why build in the human ways when they had their own ideas? Or was this place here before they arrived, and they had simply adapted the existing buildings to serve their own ends?

A door beside the bar opened, and he saw Ariana. She wore the very same clothes that he had seen on her so long ago, and they showed their wear. They were torn and dirty, and her lustrous deep blue hair was matted and unkempt. She was unnaturally thin, and her eyes had sunk into her skull in a frightening manner. The hints of her beauty were still there, but only just. What had happened to her? She looked so frail! She was carrying a heavy tray carrying bowls of something, and it was obvious that she was straining under the weight of it.

Ariana, a serving wench? She said before that she was a trader, caught by the Arakites in Saranam. Why was she now doing such menial labor?

He watched from the doorway as Ariana came up to a table and set down the bowls for the four Aeradalla men that were pulled up to it. She bowed and gave them a weak smile, then turned to go back to the kitchen. One of them laughed and reached out and pinched her on her backside, and that made her squeak and whirl on the man with hot eyes. She looked as he remembered her for that fleeting moment, her eyes burning at the man in righteous indignation. She reared back and slammed the brass serving tray directly into his face, and she didn't hold anything back. The man cried out and was toppled backwards out of his backless chair, blood flying in an arc. The man behind the bar screamed out something in the Aeradalla's language, thrusting his wings to vault him over the bar immediately as Ariana held the tray like a club over the fallen Aeradalla, who now had a broken nose. The barkeeper grabbed Ariana by her wing, then yanked her around to face him, screaming at her at the top of his lungs. Tarrin watched in mild interest as the man berated her, but when he raised his hand and struck her across the face, he crossed the line that he should not have crossed. Ariana was a stranger, but he needed her help, and he wouldn't allow her to be abused like that. Not when he had need of her.

Ariana stumbled back into the table behind her, the back of her hand against her face as she stared up at the taller male in both anger and fear, then flinched away when he raised his hand to her once again.

Tarrin's paw closed around the man's wrist even before the first startled shout emanated from the five spectators. Tarrin hauled him up off the ground by his wrist, crushing it in his powerful grip, making the man cry out in pain, then hurled him bodily halfway across the tavern's common room. He crashed into the top of a table on his back, his wings taking the brunt of it, then slid off the table to the floor behind it.

"Stop!" Tarrin snapped in a powerful voice, in Arakite, to the two Aeradalla that had scrambled to their feet and were rushing towards the door. They froze in their tracks, staring back at him in absolute terror, at the monstrously tall, unimaginably huge creature that had seemingly come out of nowhere and attacked the barkeeper. "Anyone who sets a foot out that door won't live to put his other foot down," Tarrin warned in an ugly voice, glaring at the two of them.

He didn't know if they could understand him, but he was pretty sure they understood the threat of immediate violent death that rippled through his voice as he spoke.

Ariana had just opened her eyes, her face wincing as if expecting a blow, but her expression turned to surprise when she looked up at him in amazement. "You!" she gasped in Sulasian. "What are you doing here?"

"You said you owed me a debt," he told her with a neutral expression. "I'm here to collect on it."

"You-how-when-why are you so tall?" she finally managed to ask.

Tarrin looked down at her, and he laughed in spite of himself. "You look awful," he told her conversationally as the rest of the patrons watched in shock, and as the barkeeper and the one who Ariana had floored groaned from time to time. "What happened to you?"

"It's a long story," she told him with a laugh. "I'm surprised to see you! How did you get up here?"

Tarrin showed her his claws. "They're not just for show," he told her with a smile. "I had to come here to check something out. Now that I'm done, I need an easy way down."

"I can't believe you got up here!" she said. "They've always said that nobody could ever get up here that couldn't fly!"

"I have certain advantages," he said mildly. "Why are you so thin?"

"I've had a run of bad luck since returning home," she sighed, leaning against the table behind her and looking up at him, shivering her wings. "Very bad," she grunted, dropping the bloody tray. Tarrin noticed that it was bent. Ariana may look thin, but she was still much stronger than she looked.

A movement behind him alerted him to one of the Aeradalla sliding towards the door. "Didn't I tell you to stop?" Tarrin said without looking over his shoulder. "If you move again, you'll be hanging off the wall by your broken neck. Do you understand me?"

The mover ceased his activity immediately, so Tarrin turned his attention back to Ariana. "I'm sorry to ask this, but I really don't want to climb back down."

"You saved my life," she said simply. "I owe you alot more than a simple ride." She looked up at him. "If you're still alive, then I guess you made peace with Fae-da'Nar. Are you here on their behalf?"

"No," he told her. "I've joined with them, that's true enough, but I came for another reason. Don't worry, I didn't come to break anything or steal anything. I just had to see something. I've seen it, so now I can go."

"I'm not worried. Well, at least not now. I'm sure they'll ask me alot of questions after I come back over this, but that's alright. It's the least I can do for you, after what you did for me."

"Sorry," he said, a little sheepishly. "When that one over there hit you, I kinda lost my composure."

"You probably saved his life," she said, a bit flintily, but he knew that it was bravado.

The two Aeradalla that had been edging towards the door suddenly burst into motion, seeming to sense that no matter how fast Tarrin was, he couldn't stop them from getting out the door before he reached them. He let them go without much thought, since there really wasn't much he could have done about them. "What about them?" Ariana asked.

"Let them go," he shrugged. "I just didn't want them to run out there screaming."

"They'll go straight to the sentries."

"Let them. Feel like flying a little?"

"Uh, furry one, I can't carry you," she said hesitantly. "At least not if I'm trying to climb. I could glide with your weight, but I'll need to climb, or at least hold my altitude, to get clear of the city."

"Tarrin," he said calmly. "My name is Tarrin."

"You never told me."

"I have now, and I'll be very easy to carry. Sarraya!"

The Faerie appeared, hovering sedately in the air near him. "I can create what you want, so don't bother to ask," she grinned.

"A Faerie!" Ariana gasped. "I never thought to see one in my lifetime!"