A Bard's Tale of a White Bat, the Scarred Bear, and a Rabid Red Fox

3.

Dawn has come up with Scratch licking his mistress's face to wake her. Yenna stirs on her bedroll next to Gwynnistri's. The poor girl snuck into the Bhaalspawn's tent in the middle of the night/ Poor thing kept having night terrors and she felt safe with the Blood Druidess. Not that Gwynn was sleeping anyway when Yenna popped in. A little hesitant with her sleeping in her bunk, but the little girl's look of utter fear and terror. Just her saying she felt safe around her; it was hard to say no. A bit ironic if one thought about it too much. The being that most people feared if they heard tales of Bhaalspawn was like a mother to her. Not to mention Yenna herself felt safer around a group where most of the people were killers. Roughly about three or four of them would kill without a second thought.

Deciding to let the girl sleep a little more; the half-elf takes her things and heads to her lover's tent to get dressed. When she got to Astarion's tent and opened the flap to go in. She was a little surprised to see the Owlbear cub in there sleeping beside his empty bedroll. Wouldn't ever admit it openly, but she knew he liked her animal companions. Perhaps they helped ease his PTSD a little... They at least helped hers, but animals are not like people. They don't ridicule you for what you are. As long you don't wrong them in a way at least.

Just as she's about to change when the tent flap opens up. "Mornin', Astarion. Have a nice breakfast and sunbathe?" She hands him a damp cloth for the bit of animal blood stained on his hands and face.

Accepting the gesture with a nod he starts to wipe the blood off. "It wasn't bad, but I would have had better last night." Astarion huffs a little while wiping his chin. "Why did you have Yenna in your tent? I didn't think someone like your kind had a soft heart towards children. You didn't bat an eye with my remarks about the band of little Tiefling thieves."

He speaks mostly annoyed the little human girl blocked him from his favorite meal. The brat already gets away with stealing the bloody arrows he stashed in his tent. Fuck's sake, the other day he found one of the crates in his tent lock-picked. Inaddicate skill mind you. But- he couldn't deny she was learning well for a little human girl. Course, she did have a few people in camp teaching her.

Why did she have Yenna in her tent? Sure she practically took her in. But even still it was risky if she lost control. Gods, she wouldn't ever be able to forgive herself for it. As if a side of her wasn't even tempted to kill Yenna. There was no urge to kill her. Arabella and some other children she'd met there were, but she didn't understand why those voices were silenced about the little human girl. What was so special about her? She was just a child that lost her mother. Not exactly an uncommon thing these days.

The voices were mostly quiet around Astarion now. Besides the occasional thought of what his blood would taste like on her lips. Probably like an aged brandy that was stored in a cherry wood barrel with subtle hints of pomegranate. Honestly, some of the voices about him were a bit perverse, and it made her uncomfortable. Mostly as she respects his celibacy and didn't want to press it. She could tell from yesterday, however brief it was- he was not having a good day. He didn't make a whole fuss about Yenna in her tent or ask to get her out. He just left and didn't think to ask.

"I don't know to be honest. I know I just wanted to comfort her as I felt sorry for her. It's not unusual for children to be orphans around these parts or go missing."

The vampire's body twitches slightly while stripping out of his casual clothes. She couldn't see his face as his back was to her. Only could see herself in the mirror. He was studying her facial reactions closely with a reddened gaze. Tempting it was to ask why he twitched, it wasn't hard to piece it together... Just hard to see if that was guilt for taking the Gur children to Cazador or something else. "Anyway, I am just as surprised as you are, that I had lil' Yenna sleep beside me. The lass just wanted to feel safe. Heh, the irony of that. A child feeling safe around the local boogyman." She scoffs as she gets dressed as well. Changing into some light padded armor due to the heat wave. Astarion's ears twitched a little at the sound of her bones grinding against each other or popping in a way from just changing. Always was louder in the morning.