Professor Djarlee comes in, leaving the door open for Raven to follow. The man does, reluctantly. His argument seems to falter here in the office with three non-humans.
Raven changes his tack, and says, “I’m not sure it will be worth the time, Djarlee. Have you ever seen Shy Folk fight? There’s nothing to it.”
Djarlee says, “That’s only when they fight each other, and you know it? What happened to the last person you heard of who threatened a family gathering of Shy Folk?”
Raven appeals to Larrikan, “Tell me, boy, do you think you could kill to save your own life?”
Larrikan is annoyed. He can tell this weasel is trying to use him to get out of something he finds unpleasant. With a hint of steel in his voice, he replies, “My name is Larrikan of the Swift Folk, and perhaps you forgot, I am neither a child nor a human. “Boy” is not appropriate. If you have such a difficult time with one name, I do not know how you manage magecraft.”
Raven looks indignant, but before he can say anything, Larrikan continues, “To answer your question, I can, and have.”
“Oh, really?” sneers Raven, “Was it a scary bunny? Or did the contents of a henhouse startle you, so you savaged them all?”
Raven grins when Larrikan’s ears flick down. The Shy Folk gets his temper under control before he answers, “You mistake me for a woodland creature. You can do better, or I’ll start to mistake you for some kind of ape. You are, after all, covered in hair and flinging verbal shit at me.”
Ktharr snorts a tiny trollish giggle.
Raven snaps at the troll, “Stop that! That isn’t funny!”
Ktharr grins, and tells him, “Ktharr thought it funny. You a fool to fight words with a wizard-bard.”
Raven humphs, and turns back to Larrikan, demanding, “You never answered me, b-.. fox.”
“Better,” comments Larrikan. “I killed two bogles at the last rade.”
“You did?” says Raven, “Who helped you?” He clearly does not believe Larrikan.
“They had captured two of my friends, and were trying to use them as bait to capture me,” Larrikan tells him, calmly, “so I killed them. The second one had an anti-magic charm, so was tricky.”
All three of the older men in the room stare at him for a long moment. Larrikan is just starting to wonder what he has done wrong when Ktharr breaks the silence by saying, “Wow.”
Raven says, “Really?”
Larrikan tells him, “Yes. I couldn’t let them kill me or my friends.”
Raven’s demeanor has changed. He is now listening intently, and says, “Tell me of it. All of it.”
Larrikan does so, explaining the situation, Bandé going missing, the capture of Aedaith, and how he summoned water to drown the first one, tried fire and failed on the second, then flew the dead body high into the air and dropped it on the second. He adds, “We went and rescued the pixies the next day.”
This time it is Raven who says, “Wow.” He adds, “Djarlee, I will train this one. He has promise.”