Dinner with the Harrowdens

"Not a problem," Kallista said to her friend, "I can always manage to keep myself entertained."

She quickly glanced over at Tavya surreptitiously and grinned.

"So what made you decide to become an adventurer instead of going into the family business?" she asked Aleyn.

"Well, my Dex was decent, but not as amazing as it would have had to be to be really great," Aleyn said with a shrug. "Lystra and Maynard were already very talented at it even when they were kids, so my parents weren't too worried about having someone to take over the business. And honestly I used to get pretty frustrated when my little sister and brother were already doing better than me," he said, smiling. "So my parents decided I could do something else if I wanted, and by the time I was thirteen I was working for Miss Nettle - uh, she's an alchemist, her shop isn't too far from here. Anyway, she did a lot of business with my parents, since they made the specialized glass vessels and tools and things she needed, so she was willing to take me on even though I think she didn't really want to at first... And she used to be an adventurer before she retired and set up her shop, which meant I heard a lot of stories about it from her over the years, and it started to seem like it might be interesting. More interesting than working in a shop, anyway," he added with a bit of a wink.

He knew better than to ask Kallista about her own family and background at the table, but he figured other topics might be safe enough. "What about you, why did you join the Union? Did you already have friends in it, or did it just seem like a fun way to make a living, or what?"

"Mostly it justed seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess. My first week in Highmark I got into a bar fight in Lower Undertow. Somehow I managed to come out on top of it. Raddok happened to be there and recruited me on the spot. I didn't even know what an adventurer was, but he told me you get paid to wander around and beat things up, which seemed easy enough. Looking back I think he mostly just wanted to get into my pants and was really disappointed when I ended up assigned to Monti's team instead."

"That's... for the best, really," said Aleyn, helping himself to more rice. "I've seen how Raddok works, and... yeah, you're definitely better off. But I'm glad you ended up in the Union, or else I might never have met you." And, he thought, there were definitely a lot worse things that could have happened to a young woman alone in an unfamiliar city than inadvertently becoming an adventurer.

Meanwhile, under the table, Tavya squeezed her ankles together, trapping Kallista's tail between them, and went on eating demurely.

Kallista choked very slightly when she felt Tavya's ankles trap the end of her sensitive tail. She tugged on it slightly, but the woman had her effectively pinned and at her mercy. Somehow the tables had been turned very quickly. She uncoiled as much as she could and ran it up Tavya's leg, tickling the inside of her calf lightly.

"Oh... totally..." she said, trying to maintain eye contact with Aleyn, "It's been good for me, I think. I've made some really good friends. I get to see the world. What else could I ask for?"

Tavya jumped up suddenly from the table. "I, uh, we're out of bread," she blurted, grabbing the basket off the table and carrying it into the kitchen.

Aleyn watched his sister's exit, bemused, then glanced back to Kallista. "I don't know, I suspect there are plenty of things you could ask for," he said under his breath, but he was smiling at least.

Kallista quickly retracted her tail, coiling it innocently under her own chair when the flustered Tavya jumped up.

"Nah..." she said to Aleyn with a wink, "No need to ask for things when it's more fun to get them on my own."

She took a bite of lamb with a self-satisfied smile and grinned. It was turning out to be a very fun evening.