[Nethyrra/Maeve] The Strong Man of Nethyrra's Dreams

[Ella]

It had been a week since things had started to settle down a little from the attack on the guild hall and on the goblin attack of Powder Keg. This was long past what Maeve had expected Nethyrra would have to wait for the man who had promised to look for her. The tigress did not like men backing down on their word, especially when it left a woman to wonder why. And so, she took it upon herself to retrieve the man.

There were not many places he could be. Inns were full of refugees that could pay. There was a refugee camp outside of town. And, those who did physical labor often went back to Powder Keg during the day to work on repairing the town. Considering neither Nethyrra nor Maeve had noticed him come through the guild hall to return to Powder Keg to work, that meant he must still be around Ternadan.

She checked the inns first, describing the man she was looking for to the innkeepers and also describing the woman just in case. Some questioned why a Guild of Galas'nor member needed to find this man from a town in the middle of nowhere, suspicious of either her or the man; sometimes she could not tell which. Some questioned why a pretty young woman like herself was looking for him. Several of the women had seemed to pity her, probably thinking he had broken her heart and left her. She did not like to be pitied and made sure to explain that this was all for her friend, not herself.

Next, she checked the refugee camp. After asking around, she had heard that those who went back to work on rebuilding Powder Keg had given the man a hard time because he never went to help him. Apparently, the old woman they had him help evacuate refused to let him leave her side. Well. Maeve would fix that.

She barged into their tent to find the old woman sitting in a chair happily chatting away at the poor man as he seemed to be preparing their dinner.

"YOU!" Maeve cried accusingly, pointing her finger at him. "You sit here contentedly cooking dinner while a maiden's heart brreaks myore and myore with each day you do not show your face?!" Although she had been doing better at keeping her tigerfolk accent at bay, it appeared to be slipping out now as some words sounded like she was growling them out.

Before he could sputter his reply, the tigress moved in and grabbed his arm. He was strong from the physical labor he did for a living, sure, but she had been doing brawling in the arenas when she wasn't on missions or quests or general adventuring. She had more experience tossing and dragging men around. And that is what she did. She tossed the man over her back so he landed on his back on the ground and then proceeded to turn and drag him out. There was no time for explanations or a struggle. Maeve had already wasted most of the day just looking for the man.

"I'm taking him!" She called out to the old lady, ignoring her calls for help and pleas for mercy. The woman probably didn't even hear what Maeve had said, but the tigress felt better saying it out loud.

~~~~~

"Nethyrra, I brrought your dinner date!" The red haired woman called out as she slammed the guild hall door open. It seemed she had decided to let him arrive in a more dignified manner than being dragged in. The reason probably being more so she didn't have to explain why she was dragging him around the town than to save his pride.