With his hood over his head Blake led them into town. Leiko was going after them, so they wouldn't look like a group. Emeryl still couldn't imagine what he looked like. Some drows glowered at him queerly, and he tried to avoid eye contact.
      Blake grabbed his arm and suddenly led him towards a bar.
      "What's wrong?" Emeryl whispered.
      "My father." Blake nodded his head slightly to the right. Glancing over his shoulder, Emeryl saw a stern, upright drow with short, dark brown hair. He could see a glint of dark green in his eyes, with a richly decorated dagger strapped behind his ear like a hairpiece.
      "Don't look!" Blake yanked on his hair.
      "I hardly got a glimpse." Emeryl immediately defended.
      "Good, don't let anyone catch you staring at them." Blake released his hold.
      Emeryl glanced behind to see Leiko enter the city, backpack still strapped to her. The drow with brown hair went into a house, and she chased after him.
      "Wait... that's her father?" he thought, facing Blake.
      "Leiko?" he asked.
      "Yeah, I think she just..."
      "Sh!" Blake hushed him. Again Emeryl peered back, to see the face of an angry drow right next to his. The brown eyes where flaring with gritted teeth.
      "Are you lookin' at me?" he growled, scaring Emeryl back as Blake realized what was happening, "What are you, a pussy little girl?"
      Dropping to his knees, Emeryl covered his head with his staff, "Yes, I'm a pussy little girl! Don't hurt me!"
      "Uh..." both Blake and the drow face-faulted.
      From the corner of his eye Blake noticed the giant spider on the faintly decorated end of the staff. The other drow obviously didn't as he stole the staff from Emeryl's hands.
      "Hey!" Emeryl whined. With a swift kick of his foot Blake popped the staff out of the drow's hand, and when the other drow instinctively caught it he found himself face to face with a hissing spider.
      "Wagh!" he passed the staff out of his hands, darting away.
      "And don't come back!" Blake shouted as he returned the staff to Emeryl and quickly dragged him away.
      "Don't call yourself a pussy girl!" Blake raucously said, "Now, follow my lead..."
      Yanking him over to the bar, Blake sat him in the stool and calmly recollected himself, "Two Spirits!"
      The barkeep wiped clean a mug with a dirty rag, studying him with keen brown eyes, "I don't recognize your mug." Drawing some gold pieces out of his belt, Blake tossed them on to the table and the drow took them without question. Two more drows were at Blake's left, rambling about some of the loot they'd stolen.
      "I don't drink." Emeryl whispered.
      "Shut up and listen." Blake waited for the drows to laugh boisterously about some gems they'd stolen.
      "You haven't heard about the village downstream?" Blake acted surprised.
      "Village?" the one next to him asked.
      "Yeah..." Blake's hand clamped over Emeryl's mouth.
      "Nevermind." Blake turned his head the other way.
      Setting the drinks in front of Blake and Emeryl, the bartender threw the rag on the table, "Come now, you can share with us."
      "Well..." Blake hesitantly replied, leaning in closer, "Rumor is that some great Hobbit smithies live in this town."
      "Really?" They leaned in closer.
      Glancing over his shoulder Blake saw his father again, dagger still strapped to his head, heading out of the city.
      "Oh, he must be going there now." Blake implied his father.
      The two drows glanced back, leaving the bar and trotting after him.
      "Not going?" Blake asked the bartender.
      Resting his weight on one elbow, the barkeep suspiciously studied Blake, "Why aren't you going?"
      "Just got back. I'll get some loot from some of the guys that come back." Blake shrugged.
      Satisfied, he leaned towards Emeryl, "Don't talk much, do you?"
      "Ne..." Emeryl fingered his drink. Quickly he took a large chug to keep from having to talk.
      "Are you flirting with her?" Blake queried with a hint of jealously.
      "No, she's just been quiet." The bartender backed off.
      "He's just a girl." Blake pfft'ed. The bartender caught Blake's slight mishap but put it off as a mistake.
      "Well, I get my money from getting them drunk afterwards." He greased his dark brown hair against his head.
      "I'll bet they'll be thirsty right after that fighting and burning though." Blake wiped his forehead, "You could make a lot if you could find a way to transport some of this."
      "There go a few more... News travels fast, eh?" the keeper wiped out the abandoned mugs.
      Emeryl glanced back again. Leiko and a few others, including a female with long raven hair started by. Stopping in the middle he saw Leiko try to find a way to crawl out of the crowd. As she got out the familiar dagger decorated drow returned, snatching both her and the raven colored drow and dragging them away.
      Leiko caught sight of Emeryl, playing with her long black hair as she was carried away. Again Emeryl took notice of that familiar drow carrying her.
      "Bla...aA!" he tried to tell him but Blake yanked him off the stool by his hair.
      "Better get our supplies." He took a last sip of his Spirit and yanked Emeryl away.
      With glazed over eyes Leiko watched after them, biting back her urge to tattle as she was carried off.
      "Blake, Leiko got stuck in that crowd." Emeryl told him as soon as Blake gave him the chance.
      "Let her, she lives there. All she has to do is dump the book and if she's not caught all will be normal." Blake answered.
      "But..." Emeryl stopped him before they reached the group, "You told her to tell her parents..."
      "And?" Blake impatiently folded his arms.
      "Your father was... Nevermind, let's go back." Emeryl cracked as his stomach twisted.
      "We don't have time to waste." He sneered, pulling down his hood. As they went back, climbing over the rocks and boulders, Emeryl counted on his fingers. Blake was gone ten years, Leiko was nine years old.
      "Well?" the voice suspiciously demanded. Looking at Bentora momentarily, Emeryl went back to his fingers.
      "Prism, can I talk to you?" Emeryl asked.
      "Hey, why can't we know?" Eric grumped at him.
      "It's personal." Emeryl balled his hands. Getting up and following Emeryl to the side, Prism brushed off his cloak.
      "What is it?" he glanced at the others.
      "It's Blake and Leiko. When we were in town, I saw Blake's father, and when Leiko came into town she went into the same house as him. Then when some of them were leaving, Blake's father dragged her along. Blake's been gone ten years, and Leiko is nine, I think... she's his little sister." He fidgeted, "But she got caught in the crowd and Blake doesn't know..."
      "I see, Simple enough, we can figure out a way to get her back, then tell them later." Prism thought.
      "But Blake wants to leave her. He said that if she dumped the book she could go back to her normal life." Emeryl explained.
      At this Prism took several minutes to think about it, "Then, maybe we should let her stay. I think she'd rather live at home then be stuck with us."
      "I hope you're right." Emeryl leaned on his staff.
      "Me too." Prism nodded.
      Waving at the others, Prism announced, "We'll wait one more hour before we go through."