The Tribes of K'haren - Completed

Chapter 18.3

Nume walked back out of the small dressing-tent with a grim look on her face. She hated the dress she was wearing but she wasn't going to take it anyway. It had been a simple deal, if she'd try that dress on, Raf would try on some clothes in a colour that wasn't black. Now she regretted it anyway. She looked ridiculous and he still looked threateningly dark in the bright yellow shirt he was wearing. And he grinned at her.

'You...' he started, but she quieted him with one deadly gaze.

'Lovely!' The phraio woman standing next to him shouted. She was the shop owner's wife and she was fascinated with simply everything they tried on. Nume wondered whether that was because she wanted to sell the clothes or just tried to be nice.

'I think I'll have a look at something else, though...' Nume said, forcing herself to smile a little. 'You know, something more useful on the road.'

'Of course!' the woman exclaimed, disappearing once more in the depth of the bigger tent they were standing in.

'So, how do I look?' Raf asked.

'Great.' Nume said with a smirk. She wouldn't let him know that he actually still looked good so she pretended to just be making fun of him. And it did look a bit funny, a lizard-like man with horns and dark green scales wearing a bright yellow shirt and blue pants – it's something you don't get to see every day.

Raf didn't reply, instead, he took his shirt off, revealing bright, phraio-like skin underneath. Nume paused for a moment without noticing that she was staring at him.

'Am I distracting you?' Raf asked, pulling on another shirt. Nume was taken aback, did he think she were interested in him in that way?

'Not at all. I just didn't know your skin wasn't all green...' she replied, turning around and disappearing back inside the smaller dressing-tent.

'Why would it be?' He didn't seem to see a reason for the conversation to end there.

'Because,' Nume started. She pulled the dress of and then said: 'You're a dretho.'

'Half-dretho.' He corrected her while she quickly slipped back into her normal clothes. Despite being dirty and smelly, they still made her feel much better than any dress.

'Yes, but, still. I mean, you've got these horns and all...' Nume said, peaking back out of the dressing-tent. She could see him proudly strike his left horn. 'I sometimes just forget about the phraio part in you.' Nume admitted.

'You shouldn't. It's the dangerous part of me. I might look like a dretho to you because I'm the only one you've ever seen but that doesn't mean I am one. If I were, I wouldn't be carrying this.' He said, tapping the hilt of his sword. 'Nor this...' he leant to one side so he could pull a small but deadly looking dagger out of the side of his pants. 'Nor...'

'I get it!' Nume said, not wanting to know where else he might be hiding weapons. At that moment, the phraio woman returned, carrying some clothes for Nume and a dark leather jacket for Raf.

'Oh!' she said when she saw the dagger in Raf's hand. He put it back in its place and took the jacket out of the woman's arms.

'Thank you.' Nume muttered when she was handed her clothes. Once more she disappeared behind the cloth of the small tent.

After a few more adaptations, they were finally dressed properly. With Nume's help, the woman had already prepared some stuff Kran could try on once he'd join them. Now that they were finished and the woman had got used to Raf, Nume wished for Kran to return as soon as possible because the woman wouldn't stop talking. She went on and on about how she'd married into a great family thus now being responsible for that shop, the best in all of K'haren, she claimed.

Nume didn't listen but tried to smile in a friendly while, already to distract the woman from Raf's expression which had gone back to normal. He looked like he was going to kill somebody any moment now. Nume wondered how much of him was just a façade and where the real Raf actually started. Only moments ago, he'd still been talking and joking with her about silly fashion trends in some fairy colony he'd once run into. Now he was all cold and hard again. Was that the phraio or dretho part of him? Or was it maybe neither?

Once Kran finally showed up, Nume sighed a bit too loudly for it not to be noticed but she made up for that by immediately shoving him into the dressing-tent with a bunch of clothes in his arms.

'Try these on, they should fit you!' she said with faked excitement. Then she turned around and looked at Zurem and the bevy of servants entering the shop. Once again she noticed how heavily armed they all were and once again Raf's hand kept hovering above the hilt of his sword. But now Nume also noticed his other hand staying close to where the dagger had disappeared.

'Ah, I see you've been cared for, good, very good indeed. Thank you, Markia.' The Great Leader said, turning to the woman with his last words. She bowed low and then disappeared in the depths of the tent again. 'Now, is there anything else we can do for you?' Zurem asked with a tone that was curiously friendly wherefore Nume assumed his conversation with Kran had gone rather well.

'No, nothing, thank you very much.' Nume politely replied.

'Actually...' Raf started. Nume knew he was going to ask for more supplies, she'd thought about it, too, but it was rude to ask for more. However, Raf didn't seem to care about that. He also asked for a bigger gear for Luthi and he wanted to know what Zurem and Kran had talked about.

The Great Leader gave them supplies and the desired gear. He refused to tell them much about his conversation with Kran, though. The only thing he said was that he was going to speak to his people that evening. By then, he seemed to expect his guests to be gone already. Usually, it would have been his duty to ask for them to stay for at least a night but Nume assumed that the war was more important to this tribe than its leader wanted them to think.

Kran was soon content with his new clothes – Nume had chosen exactly what he'd have chosen himself. Of course she had, she thought to herself, she'd known that man all her life, she knew what he liked to wear and she could easily guess his size. He'd only changed one thing, he'd added a red sash, something Nume had never seen him wear before. It was strictly reserved for Great Leaders and even they only wore it on special occasions.

'I'll explain that later.' He whispered when he passed her. Nume couldn't help staring at him.

Kran took Zurem's hand and shook it with a cheerful smile. They said some words of minor importance and Nume couldn't wait to get out of the town again so she could finally ask Kran all the questions she now had.

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