Taurus took one look at Aldyth and I sprawled out on the floor, before he stepped back outside the door with a quick shake of his head. "I'm sorry, I'm interrupting something, I'll just leave you two alone. Good evening to you both."

"Get your elf hide back in here," Aldyth snapped and waved for him to come in. "Where have you been, we've been waiting all night."

"So I can see," he replied and set a sack of stuff down onto the floor. "Keeping busy aren't we?"

"They be cards, Taurus," she waved a handful in his direction. "None more -- lest you've the time to hear the explanation of Eli's collapse before jumping to rash conclusions."

He held up his hands hands in surrender. "Peace, Aldyth. I only speak what my eyes saw and what they saw you don't want to speak, so we shall remain silent on such topics 'til it becomes convenient for thee. Alright?"

"Alright," she sniffed.

"So where have you been?" I interjected before one of them verbally succeeded in ripping the other's throat out. The elf quickly draped his cloaks over a chair, then with our permission, took a place with us down on the floor, whilst laying a wooden staff across his lap. "Every place and no place," he replied as he slid the strap of his quiver over his head and unbelted his sword, laying them both within hand's reach on the floorboards. "I've been in town hearing the news and searching for an missing son -- and while I was traveling I happened upon a boy who was tethered to a stake in the ground like a horse with mad cow disease, you two don't happen to know anything about that, now would you?" His large orange eyes widened comically as he raised his eyebrows to disappear into his hair.

The two of us caught the other's glance then looked down immediately with the blood rushing to our faces. "Oh, so it was you?" Taurus crossed his arms. "I can't leave you two alone to do some simple errands without you going off and cow tying innocent civilians."

I raised a finger at him. "In our defense; he attacked us first."

"Did he?" Taurus asked in disbelief.

"Did you release him?" Aldyth countered.

"I did," Taurus nodded firmly. "But I have to say, it was a regrettable decision on my part as soon he started cursing everyone in my family from the greatest ancestor to the ones yet unborn." His forehead furrowed together. "Hateful little devil spawn that kid was..." He flashed his teeth at us in a way that made it known that he didn't care either way.

"He did put up quite a fight..."

"That he did..."

The elf glanced down at the staff in his lap, which shifted my attention back to the fact that he had disappeared into the daylight without a second thought. "Where have you been, Taurus? What tales have you of the day passed?"

"You first," he laughed easily. "It seems that your afternoon was more interesting than mine on the forefront."

Aldyth shrugged at me nonchalantly before starting to tell all ripe gossip of the day. The prophetic door that wanted to crush me to death (I interjected at her exaggeration), the meet with Simon, and the donkey that now had our deepest sympathies, followed by the brawl behind the supply shed (to Aldyth's credit, she didn't make me out to be an insolent bait worm, which I was perfectly sound with), and last but not least, our walk into town and the encounters with Hyde and his daughter. I spoke fondly of all the strange books his had hidden away in the back of the shop. Aldyth laughed at the memory of Cwen running around the shop swinging her pole like a drunk fellow. Taurus laughed too.

"I happened into that shop at well," he nodded. "She caught me in the leg a few times and tried to cut off my feet."

I smiled. "Pleasant."

"Oh so."

The three of us just sat there and laughed for a moment. It was strange, there shouldn't have been anything humorous about a young girl who had the makings to be bred into a trained mercenary. In fact, the idea alone should have been quite frightening, yet we laughed as if the entire day were had been just a drunken reality recounted by sober minds.

"Okay, Taurus. Your turn, what is so dulling about your own tale that makes it so you avoid the question?"

"I'm not avoiding the question," he rolled his eyes. "I went in search of this," he gestured to the staff on his lap. "And to get off the streets," he added when Aldyth and I gave him looks of disbelief. "It's not safe to be elf in places like this... I thought we were far enough away from the West for us to travel together, but it appears not."

"Do Westerns specifically fear elves?" Aldyth asked.

"The West and South," he amended. "You understand, there is a fear of elves everywhere, that alone is bearable, even useful at times, but the level of fear that accompanies the South and West...it's horrible. It's not simply about fear anymore. They hate us. They hate us like one hates the plague, purely and totally with no pieces of remorse."

"Why would they do that? There has to be reason for it," I whispered; the room grew quiet in anticipation.

"Their memories are long," he replied wearily. "Longer than mine....it's of no matter to us though. This town isn't as bad as it gets, truthfully. I only got booted from some buildings, not all."

"That's still a horrible thing for them to do, Taurus," Aldyth murmured and moved closer to him. "You don't deserve that."

Taurus waved it off. "It's of little matter now. Mind you, tomorrow we will have to stay here another day."

"What?" We both looked up at him sharply. "Why would we have to do that?"

"Because I found what I was looking for," he lifted the staff from his lap and held it out for us to see. "I've yet to tell you this... but the North Cardinal has archers guarding every inch of their southern border. Not the best archers, no," he rolled his eyes. "But archers all the same, they shoot and kill everyone who crosses the boundary line, lest," he nodded down. "They wield a Flag of Knowing, then the Cardinals are required to at least hear one's pleas before they shoot you."

"A Flag of Knowing?" I repeated skeptically.

"It's a full black flag with a vertical stripe for each Cardinal down the base of the silk," Taurus explained. "Only a friend of the four nations would know to fly it, and they don't sell them in any shop out here, thus it takes a at least a day to put together -- even longer if we're travelling."

"So you'll be making this flag tomorrow?" I queried.

He nodded.

"Will you need help?"

"No. No offense to you, but it'd go faster if I worked on my own."

"None taken," Aldyth replied.

"You'll have a day to yourselves tomorrow," he continued with a twinkle in his eyes. "Don't do anything stupid."

A/N
A little colorguard thrown in there for all the South Cardinals out there! Above is a slightly more accurate edit of Taurus....he's older than the eyes let on though.