While keeping a hand on Rata'nah for comfort, she closed her eyes and tried to sort her thoughts. She had only entered that strange city two days ago and immediately a 100 things happened at one fell swoop. Not only were, seemingly, all city customs alien to her, but also the behaviour of her companions and everybody around her was incomprehensible. Only the ranger seemed to act "normally" and reminded her of the more simple-minded men in her tribe, her brothers included. If he would be representative of humans, she would be home in no time with not much to learn. But it seemed far from it.
The other half-human in the group seemed to be a practitioner of the arcane and mostly after gold coins. He was difficult to anticipate and whenever she thought she finally understood his intentions, he surprised her by reacting differently. But he seemed to have a way with people and could manipulate them well. Whether this was only connected to his elven ancestry or his arcane powers, she could not guess, yet, without more insight into elves or the arcane; powers so different to hers. And speaking of elves, she only heard about them through stories of her granny. But the specimen standing in the middle of the small square now somehow managed to destroy the whole image of the noble, wood-loving creatures that once were so similar to her own kin in many respects. He also did not, in any way, resemble the diplomatic visitors she saw her grandmother receive in her function as the head of her tribe. Where they had been respectful, prudent, and well-studied, the elf at hand appeared sneaky, weasely, and most likely a felon in disguise. The only character that so far managed to fulfil her expectations in his caste, was the cleric. He was full of himself and self-righteous, traits that most clerics she had met on her way here had shown. That he prayed to Wee Jas did not help the matter, either.
She had followed the group because the thought she could see a good example of people in a city helping each other, learning about the positive sides of life in such a large and multi-faceted tribe: Many different people coming together to help one of their own. But she more and more got the impression that everybody's motivation was merely personal gain. Even the gnome, the person that had requested help, went against his sister to take the inheritance where he should have sought her wisdom on how to share it. But the sister was none the better, seemingly showing no wisdom at all, at least none that Dera'nah could comprehend. And instead of helping each other, because this is what a tribe does, all actions were bargained for with everybody aiming at maximizing their amount of gold. How a community can work on such basis was beyond her!
She needed time to think and get her thoughts straight again, before getting more impressions and even more confused. She remembered the park they had been to, where they had met with the old sword master. Trees unknown to her and beautiful flowering bushes had caught her attention at the time and she was sure to find a quiet place there to meditate and converse with her mother. This park was the closest she could get here to a forest in this monstrosity of stones, metal, and strangers. She would try and find some of the people from this group again to learn more since she was sure that those individuals would attract even more interesting encounters. And she was sure because of that, she would have no problem finding some of them again. But for now, she needed a break. Just as she silently rounded the corner, she could hear shouts and cheers from a large group of younglings coming up the other road. At least this sight her world and the strange city shared.....
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