The Little-Big Adventure

Eva looked about at the people around her as they spoke. First Nikolas had mispronounced her name, which didn't bother her too much. She made a mental note to correct him later. Then he'd apologized to her and then said he used to be a pet! In reaction, she went wide-eyed at the thought, then gave him a sympathyzing expression.

After that, Eva guessed that she was a mute. While this was kind of true, it would have been harder to explain fully, so for the time being she simply nodded in response before the neera turned her attention to Nikolas to give her sympathies as well.

After that, she noticed that the as of yet unintroduced neera had pulled his face from the jar and apparently joined the conversation. He directed a comment at her, doing nothing to hide his snark. He clearly was not of a grateful mind. And then to add on to that, he threw out an insult to her village! She could already tell this one wouldn't be enjoyable company.

Elissa ignored everything else Nikolas said as she wrote another note, then ripped it from her pad and pressed it forcefully against Vince's chest.

If he looked at it, it read, "We happen to have an efrii warrior's protection currently as retribution for our hospitality. If you'd like to enjoy the same hospitality, you will lose the bad attitude."

"You're a Naga." Carlyn stated flatly. "Nagas eat people, simple as that. And bandit? I'm one of the people guarding this village thank you very much." She frowned, the needle wasn't exactly the most dangerous weapon she'd seen. After all, it was like a short metal spear. Sure it had some range, but it couldn't be thrown. All she had to do was get in close and she'd be fine...unless the naga decided to use her tail, but then that's what the poison was for. However, something felt kind of...wrong. The naga obviously didn't want to fight, and the fact that she thought predators who ate people were monsters was odd. Plus she kept implying she was a hero. Carlyn frowned "You say you don't want to fight...alright then. Drop your weapon. I'm a guard of the village so that make me...good I guess? I dunno...Look, long story short, you don't wanna fight then drop the weapon. I'll put mine away two...but you try anything sneaky and you'll regret it. I didn't survive two nekos and a harpy to be eaten by you."

Meanwhile there was Life in the orange Flowers - slowly a Silhouette appeared - until May-Lee was standing directly before them, right to be seen by the two Adversaries - but apparently still not being recognized. So she watched - and let herself being watched while doing this.
These two may be strange in her Eyes - but they are surprisingly... honest. And therefore reassuringly... normal. Let´s see, how keen these two are.
May-Lee knew, that she was someone, who would be seen as suspicious - because she knew, how she apppeared to others. Despite of her nice Face with big green Eyes and a cute Pout - these Eyes were looking at everyone with uncovered Suspicion. Her All-Day-Stance is one, that enables her to be literally ready for everything to come - turning back and run away like Heck, leaping forward, vanishing to the Side into the Green - or throwing a Knife at someone - or even worse. She looked, as if she was always on Tension. Her highly trained Body was used to release an Agility Output that just was awesome. So she was curious, what Reaction these two would start to trigger...

This was odd. Certainly this little bug didn't quite know what she was dealing with. Nagas eating people? What was she supposed to be, some weird cannibal? Some monster from the books?

"No they don't! Besides, you don't even LOOK tasty at all. Like... Why would I ever want to... Uargh! Gross!"

Tina felt an unpleasant feeling, as if she had to throw up. Nasty little bugger. Shaking her head to get rid of this strange thought she considered the other words that thing said to her. And they confused her pretty much. This didn't go quite as planned. This bug was supposed to burst out in evil laughter and try to intimidate her, not stating it was on the good side and to drop weapons in order to avoid a fight. Could it be a trick? But what if it was right and didn't want to fight either? Or maybe it didn't want to fight but overwhelm and backstab her? This was a dangerous situation. But at least it had talked to her, not tried to silently assassinate her like all the plants and creatures before. So either it spoke the truth, or it was so weak that it needed sneaky tricks like that to even stand a chance against such a large being as Tina.
She decided to try and go for it, after all, she was a nice person and didn't want to shed blood. Very slowly she lowered her needle, watching closely and full of tension what the other one would do. Smelling the air around her with her sensitive tongue, she noticed that one other being was present, so she had to be wary of an ambush. In fact, that was when all her alarm signals were starting to howl inside her head, especcially when suddenly it came out and walked towards them, then just standing still, doing nothing.
Just before the needle hit the ground, Tina stopped in her movement. No, she had to go through with this first, but she could stack the odds in her favor... She laid down the needle and squirmed around nervously, ajusting her tail slightly so if necessary, the tip of her tail would easily slide through the hole on the rear end of the sewing needle, so she could immediately use it if she got tricked. If anything, that way she could still use the needle as a club and elongation of her tail in the blink of an eye, just to be sure she wouldn't get her pretty scales cut by those swords. Tinas scales were tough but she never tried to use them to defend against swords. Thorns and claws were little problem as she had learned in the past, provided there wasn't enough force behind them, but this was a manmade weapon. It was not like she wore a shiny golden armor. But she would eventually. For now though Tina would have to rely on her speed and nimbleness, if things turned for the worse.

"Alright, I dropped my weapon. Now yours..."

She said with nervousness in her voice. Tina tried to look strong and brave as her eyes darted back and forth between these two strangers, but she wasn't really good at it and her tension and nervousness, maybe even a little bit of fear could be seen in her body language - if one was used to "Naga speak" at least.

This was too funny to let this Situation slip away unused... May-Lee feel slightly amused by the two - so the Snake-Babe has finally noticed her.
And if this four-armed Whatever would look around carefully... perhaps there was something - right in Front of these irritating orange Flowers. There was an odd Effect to be seen, disturbing the Depth Perception of some Observers... Light and Shadow were strange there - and then there were... Legs.
And there were... these green, stinging Eyes.

!!!

HOW could anyone NOT be seeing them? This was strange!
Someone was standing there, in broad Daylight!
May-Lee´s Pout began to smile a bit...

(Sorry I think there was a misunderstanding here as I apparently edited my post and mentioned you WHILE you were posting yours. Im sorry I didnt notice at first as I was mostly focusing on Nergals posts. ^^' )

(Now it all works out just fine. )

"What do you mean by a male born of age? Everyone has the right to freedom. And well, no. Negav is a city for the big folk. But inside that city is a place called Pelnepi, a sanctuary for us. I have need to travel there..... and actually need a company to travel with me. Much more safety when others are watching your back for you." She smiled and then looked to Elissa, who seemed to be upset and shoving another piece of paper into Vince's chest.

Carlyn frowned, confused that the naga would say that nagas didn't eat people. It didn't make any sense that a naga wouldn't eat people. However, the naga began to lower her needle, that is until a new person stepped out of hiding. Carlyn jumped slightly and cursed to herself, quickly adjusting her stance to be ready for an attack on both fronts. She glared at the newcomer. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" Carlyn grit her teeth, a naga she might be able to handle but two assailants at once might be a bit much. Thankfully the naga dropped the needle to the ground. "Alright Naga, I believe that you won't try to eat anyone in my village. Now, who are you? And is this woman a friend of yours?" She turned to the newcomer. "And as I asked before, who are you?"

"I am the one observing You two for quite an Amount of Time by now." May-Lee said - with a surprisingly nice, relaxed sounding Voice. But her Eyes were still saying: This - Don´t-know-what-the-Hell-it-is-but-it-has-too-many-Arms is... wicked. So she slowly went over to this Being called a `Naga´ and decided to stay next to her: "She seems to be nice - so what is the Problem here? Now I have another Question - how is she supposed to... eat anyone? Do You think, she has a transportable BBQ-Grill with her - and a foldable Field Kitchen? Not to mention a very bad Taste? I don´t see anything like this."
The red haired Girl with her wide, orange-black Jacket looked at Tina: "But hey, look at this - she has a Needle - wow... big Deal. I must say, I am deeply intimidated."
May-Lee then stared back at this strange Creature, that obviously looked more weird than a Girl with a Snake Tail: "YOU are the one spreading bad Mood around and wielding some Knifes - and big ones, too. So it seems to me, You are much less friendly as she is after all, don´t You think?"

Vince blinked at the tomthumb guy’s response to his statement. “Negav? Full of people our size?” He glanced at the mute girl, about to make a rather pointed joke when she shoved a piece of paper into his chest. Vincent stumbled back a pace or two, blinking and glancing at the paper rather angrily. Nobody angrily hit Vince Vincent with a piece of paper! His temper shortened even further as he saw what she had written. “Oh well isn’t that terrific! I don’t need you people’s hospitality!” He shoved a hand in one of his pockets, fishing around. “I have money for that!”

He paused when the neera girl spoke up again, explaining Negav to the dumb tomthumb kid, and pointing out she was heading that way. He blinked, a tad surprised that anyone from this backwards little village wanted to go anywhere civilized - much less Pelnepi, of all places. “Pelnepi? A sanctuary?” Vince guffawed, tossing the piece of paper he’d been hit with off to one side. “That’s just advertisement. The place is a gods-damned museum for humans, and a candy store for nekos.” He scratched at some stubble on his chin. “Buuut maybe I’ll have some room in my business for some… companions, once we get there.” He offered, with a smirk.

Nik flinched when he realized he had, once again, mentioned his unexplainable past. mabye he could partially repair the damage. "Ah well in the world I come from originally women are the ruling class. Men are bought and sold as slaves and have no rights at all. Not even pets like me. It's sorta why I don't morn the passing of my mistress when she was eaten by that giant snake woman." He said sighing. Hating to think about his old life at all. He looked up at her suddenly. "Wait did you say you're going to this Pelnepi place too? That's where Iopa, the busy tailed woman who saved me, said I should go. I've been trying to figure out exactly how though. She gave me this and told me it would help me get weapons and supplies...But I don't see how." He said holding out a bag filled with various seeds. grains and even a very large ...wait was that?? It was! There was a huge chuck of metal about palm sized wedged in between the seeds. She seeds themselves were several varieties including Licora which in some corners of Felarya were more valuable than even a human sized chunk of Ascarlin. But the metal...It was worth more than the whole bag twice over. Tiny metal smith's would kill for even half of it. It was enough that if properly smelted could be forged into a set quality knives or several bits of jewerly or even when added to other lesser metals could forge a decent alloy to use in much better things. Many Tiny blacksmith's would kill for this stuff. It seemed Nick didn't even notice it was there though.

When Vince tossed away her paper, Elissa interrupted her fuming for a moment to lunge forward and catch it before it got too far away. The motion would easily cause her shawl to flap upward briefly, offering Vince a brief and much undeserved view of her not large but definitely well-shaped bare bust, should he have been looking at that moment. She preferred not to leave loose papers to the wind, lest they be found by predators and lead them back to the village.

After securing the paper in her pants pocket, she turned her attention back to the two thus-far much more tolerable people, shooting Vince a glare as she turned around. They were mentioning Negav and Pelnepi, two places her father had occasionally told her stories about. Her face took on a solemn expression as memories replayed in her mind.

Tina listened to what the other one had to say. Apparently they didn't look too convinced, but they followed her for now and resumed to talk.

"I am Tina. The grass naga. And no, I have never seen that person before. And as I said before, I didn't even know there was a village nearby. It's been a few days since I have been in a settlement from where I started my journey. I don't feel safe to tell you any more without knowing who... or even WHAT you are." she stated truthfully, but not naming her home village or giving more detailed descriptions such as direction or distance. She had tried to remember, but it was more likely than not that she was lost by now anyways as she often had to run quickly and navigating during the nighttime was harder than one would think.

The other one that came into sight earlier now spoke as well. She seemed to be more reasonable and supported Tina, even though she grew a bit upset about that remark about her needle. These guys really weren't aware of how well Tina was able to use it. Then again, she didn't feel like telling them for no reason either, so she kept her mouth shut even though one could see her mood dropping. Silly people, she thought. Why do they make things so complicated? When she spoke though and accused that bug of being the only one disturbing the calm, Tina nodded though.
"Yes, it's pretty rude. Now if you excuse me..." She said, bowing down to pick her needle back up from the ground as for her, things have been settled. As if she was going to attack - or even EAT - somebody for no reason. Pfff! That bug sure must have had some hard childhood. Or maybe cannibalism was a feat of its species? Who knew.

Carlyn stared at the pair for a moment, dumbfounded, then sighed. "Well, I'm Carlyn, and I am an Efrii." She shook her head at the pair, putting her swords away. "You two really think Nagas don't eat people...How much do either of you know about Nagas?" She grimaced. "No, don't tell me. I am sorry for being so hostile...I thought you were coming to kill us. All the tinies in the village did. I'll take you both there, but try to eat anyone and I'll behead you myself." She motioned to them both. "Come on, let's go and follow me." She glanced to May-Lee. "Still don't know your name by the way."

"Because I haven´t said it. I am May-Lee." she answered and followed this `Efrii´. Never a dull Day in this Jungle, that´s for sure. This red haired Girl sure wasn´t big - but there was a Feeling of... Tension near her. As if there was a hidden Trigger to... start something. And there was a slightly disturbing Odor of something... unknown. If Carlyn looked closer at her, she would see... there were thin, glassy Thorns sticking out of the Back of her Jacket - and the Elbows at her Sleeves. Unpleasant looking Thorns. And now - if Carlyn would be used to the Life in this Jungle she would at least recognize the Odor of this Girl as... a risky Cocktail of extremely dangerous Liquids, that can be found here - if You know where to search for them. She reeks... venomous.
May-Lee thought about it - and said frankly: "I don´t know anything about this `Naga´-Stuff. I know this Girl - You are one, right? ...is one, because You two said so. Hm... So that, what You know about Nagas seems to be different from what she herself knows about them, despite the Fact that she is one."
She now looked at Carlyn - rising a Brow, awaiting a Comment.

Eva smiled. "Why yes I did say I was going there. Better to travel in a group than alone. I would appreciate any company I could get." She looked around at all of them as she said it.

"Besides who wants to get eaten alone?" She joked.

Vince ignored Elissa’s glare… and apparently in payback, the tomthumb and neera ignored his advice. “Can’t you hear what I’m saying?” He demanded, looking between the two. “Pelnepi’s a far-cry from what it’s supposed to be!” He frowned, crossing his arms. “But once I get back to Negav, I can get my old business going again… and I can keep you all safe, then.” For a reasonable fee, of course- He thought, until he caught the glint of something valuable.

In a split second, the neera criminal was leaning over the tomthumb, Nikolas’, shoulder. His trained eye immediately caught the chunk of metal in the bag, and both of his eyes widened noticeably. At least, until he pulled his poker face on. “What, you expect to get equipment with that?” He asked, reaching over and pulling the little chunk of metal out. He did his best to keep it out of sight of the more experienced tinies. “Why, this is a piece of absolute trash! I’ll lighten your load for absolute free, if you say so!” He added, trying to hide a conniving grin. 'Sharking' inexperienced merchants was his absolute favorite borderline legal activity.

(sorry i had tooth pain again and werent able to focus enough to make a post)


Finally that bug called Efrii put its swords away. The threat seemed to be gone for now, but Tina stayed vary. This bug certainly wouldn't hesitate to attack her for whatever reason and Tina didn't want to give her a reason to - and at the same time didnt want to get surprised either. That other person, May-Lee, seemed to be more friendly. But at least Efrii-bug decided to lead Tina to the village she was talking about and the little Naga couldnt help but feel excited about it. A real village? Another one, unlike her home village? And as far as she could tell, the village was also as small as them?
"Say, that village..." Tina began as she slithered behind Carlyn, keeping enough distance to stay out of strike range in case she would draw her weapons. "... is it,like... small as well? I've never seen a small village at my size before! Or is it even smaller? So I could be a giant for once, like those humans are to me? This would be exciting~"

"This would more be spooky. Would You like a huge Klutz rampaging Your Neighbourhood?" May-Lee asked Tina - rising a Brow.
"I´ve had it with Monster-Morons for a Time. So now I am relaxing between People roughly the same Size as me."

Carlyn laughed out loud. "Oh lord, tinies smaller then us? That would be hilarious and amazing. No, they're our size." She glanced to May-Lee and Tina. "Tina, you say you've never seen a village of tinies before? Where the heck have you been living? And don't worry May, it's a quiet place. So you should be able to relax." She walked under a bush. "Just keep your guard up, don't make any sudden movements, and let me do any talking once we reach the village. That goes double for you Tina. People might not be pleased to see a naga slithering through the streets."

"Why would they be so racist? No one cared about me being inside the village I've been living before. Everyone liked me! And I've been in a village full of giant beings before, so I don't know what problem you have. I wont accidentally slither all over you, don't worry..." Tina responded while following the others. Letting this bug do all the talking was pretty much a rude and bad idea though, it didnt seem to like her at all, so it would probably just speak garbage about her. Stupid tinies. The little Naga felt very upset as they closed in on the village. She had expected her first meeting with another small species to be more friendly and all. Instead she got threatened, lectured and told what to do. Silly bug, as if it could command her around like that. She would definately speak for herself.

May-Lee observed Tina. Then she mentioned: "After all, what Carlyn has said, Your... Relatives seem to have some strange Habits. I think, she has just a few Concerns left. That´s all."

Carlyn nods at May-Lee. "May is correct. You seem to be a good Naga Tina, but your fellow Nagas aren't so nice. I've had multiple friends get eaten. Some were devoured by Nekos, some were eaten by Nagas. I know it is racist, but not trusting a Naga at first sight is generally a good idea, unless you want to become a snack." She looked at Tina. "I'll vouch for you, don't worry." They would turn a corner and the village would be in view. Carolyn grinned and motioned to it. "There we are, home sweet home."

"You definately have no idea about nagas you stupid racists..." Tina pouted. She never ever heard of such a silly thing and her family certainly was more believeable than a bunch of strangers that even threatened her at first. Probably they just wanted to make her feel bad or even apoleotic so they could benefit from that position of strength somehow at some point later. Silly them. Tina thought about leaving, but decided against it for now, planning to just ignore those stupid accusations in the future. Vouch her her, pah, that bug just wants to gain her gratitude for no reason! Maybe even wants Tina to pay her for her "service" in the end. Not that Tina had any money in the first place as she never had any need for paying for anything. Anyways, as the village came into sight, Tinas mood lifted up a little. These buildings were even smaller than the puppet house she had as a child! "Ohhhhh, how cute! There's even smoke coming out of these little chineys!" Imediately Tina rushed forward and into the village towards the cute little citizens and buildings. Of course she was careful not to crush anything, but one could see she was more than genuinely excited to see a tiny village like this. It was so amazing, so small, so vulnerable! She really had to be careful with these tiny little creatures!