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When he entered, Sabin pointed at the dwarf. "Is that your brother, Sapphire? No, wait... your brother has blue eyes and red hair. And isn't a dwarf, likely. My apologies." With that, he moved a bit towards the little man with the gray hair, crouching down to be on eye level with him. "Sir, you haven't seen a little boy around, have you? We're looking for one. His name is Cade. No one in the bar has seen him, and the only place we haven't looked is the forge, but if you've seen him that would be great." Sabin was getting a little testy. He didn't want to smoke with the girl on his back because it would all just blow into her nose, and he needed a smoke right now. Never once did it cross his mind that he could just put her down- he didn't trust the townsfolk enough.

The smith was a lonely looking aged man, who still was powerfully built. He was hammering a bit on a pot, taking careful care the curved sides. Looking up, his eyes looked spooked for a moment before calming down. "Y...yes?"

-----

The barkeep would look over the odd trio, frowning. Then he would look at the coppers that came out. "You... you have money? But... you look..." He shifted uneasily, looking at the door. Nothing more came in. Quickly, he grabbed the coppers, setting out a mug of some foul smelling brew. "S-sorry, all of the better stuff has been taken."

The sky was a bright, hazy purple as GrimGrubGrot rode into town on his bristly grey wolf, though for some reason Dag had changed his fur to pink today. GrimGrubGrot didn't mind too much - it wasn't like the big folks reacted well no matter what color he was. No big deal. He dug into his sack and partook of another small part of his sacrament, and mused on what the Great Tree Stump wanted him to do today. Boy, was he ever hungry...

As luck would have it, the Great Tree Stump guided him to a wonderful meat hole and he had a pretty good meal of whatever kind of meat it might have been - it was pretty charred, but it might have been horse at some point. GrimGrubGrot hated horses. The idea of them stepping on him... that was the worst possible anything. But now it was inside him, and his tummy wasn't aching nearly as bad anymore. And he could see the town up ahead.

Riding into town, he sidled up to some building with pictures of food on the sign. That looked promising. He directed Dag inside. "Food here?" he asked a likely very confused shopkeep in the general store.

{Incidentally, Emerald... I love the horse bit. Had to reference it. Looks like I'm not the only one.}

The blacksmith would look at her as if she were nuts. "War? War's the furthest thing on our minds here. We're ransacked by bandits near weekly, barely keeping enough to feed ourselves. Used to be I'd do this work for a decent pay, enough to feed me for a week or more, now I barely get enough for a day, and that's only if I ration it properly." He stopped and listened. "Who of the what now?"

-----

The barkeep looked between the three, keeping as he was. The place was full of tension. What was with these outsiders?

-----

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA---" The general store manager screamed in utter horror as a wolf came into his shop, along with some crazy amalgamation goblin and kobold riding on it. The scream could be heard quite clearly around town. It cut off as foam bubbled from his mouth, causing him to fall over behind the counter.

The store itself had some odds and ends, but barely carried anything food worthy aside from some hard tack, and even then it was the hardest of the tack.

((Rolling Sense Motive against Sapphire's bluff earlier, tipped off by the mention that she was a halfling. +6 mod means I still fail, actually.))
Sabin briefly thought about what he might be carrying on his back, but thought better of it. I mean, so what if she was a halfling? Just because she might look the same at twice his age didn't necessarily mean... well, okay... but... hmm. Maybe it was worth asking. At the very least, if she wasn't a kid he could smoke.
"Say, Sapphire? How old are you, exactly, anyway?"

"That's a very rude dwarf. Or, I guess, just a regular dwarf. They're mostly rude" says Sapphire, more or less to herself, and then she looks down at Sabin. "How old am I? Umm...about 24, I think. Cade's a couple of years older than me. He used to take care of me, but then he had to go away."

"Bandits? That's terrible. Where's your town guard? Why haven't they done anything to stop..." She cuts short as a scream echoes around the town. She turns away from the blacksmith for a moment. "Sounds like your bandits might be back! I'll go see what I can do." She dashes past her horse, more comfortable on foot if there might be a battle. Theresa, what should I do? She moves as fast as possible towards the sound of distress.

{ooh, damn. I really hadn't expected to actually hit with that small of a bonus... rofl Uh... I mean, sorry. 2d6+4 damage. The wolf will have to make a DC 15 reflex save or take 6 splash damage. At least he has Evasion, right?}