Chapter Text
It's not far to the town near camp, and Karlach decides she's taking a day to fight off a little of the stir crazy starting to build up in her. There's only so much of sitting in one place she can take, before pulling off her own horns starts to look a bit too appealing.
The day is a beautiful one, and it would be a shame to waste it.
Shrill voices and kerfuffling draws her attention down the street she's passing, just spying eye on a group of kids jostling around with each other. Karlach has already passed the cutoff to the street when what she saw registers properly, and she backtracks to head towards them and investigate.
"Stop! Let it-- let it go!"
"Leave us alone!"
Karlach stands and watches for a minute, crossing her arms over her chest as a boy and girl, both roughly about five years old, try to shove away three older kids. She can't quite see what's going on in the middle of them all to be causing the commotion, but the fight wouldn't have been fair even if there were an equal number on either side.
"OI!" Karlach barks from behind them, enjoying with some mild satisfaction the sight of all of them jumping at her voice. The bullies turn to her, eyes going wide as they have to crane back to look at her towering over them with obvious fright. "You three had better learn some damned manners before I have to teach you them, now beat it. Go on, outta here!"
The kids scamper with their tails between their legs - they are just kids, after all. With any luck, they'll think twice before acting like twats again after having some sense scared into them.
That's when she sees for herself what had been going on, the smaller two who'd been being picked on crouched around a scattering of now-ruined flowers they're trying to salvage. No doubt they'd been in a better condition before their altercation with some unfriendly neighbours.
Karlach grimaces, leaning over them both and unsure what to do.
"They were for mum," the girl sobs, rubbing at her eyes and trying not to let any tears start falling.
And oh, don't mind that, it's just the sound of Karlach's heart shattering. If she still had one, that is, but it's the sentiment.
"Did you just pick them?" Karlach asks, kneeling down to their height - or, as close as she can get, really. She reaches out to tip the girl's chin up, meeting her sad eyes. "I'll come with you, help you to get more. You don't need to worry about them coming back while I'm here."
The kids look at each, much happier now with the offer, and the boy jumps up. "That would be cool, yea! You're way scarier than them!"
"Xander! That's not nice!"
"What, yea it is?" Xander turns to his partner, hands on his hips in a pose; his little puffed up chest making Karlach want to giggle, and she does, quietly, trying not to interrupt. "It's a compliment! I wanna be as scary as her when I'm big one day."
"If you say so..."
Xander grabs his friend's hand, tugging them both off and keeping spirits high. Checking over his shoulder that Karlach has followed them, he takes off in what must constitute a sprint on little legs - forcing the girl to join in, and after a few seconds of running she starts giggling along.
Karlach jogs after them, at a much more languid pace. She had a friend just like Xander when she was their age, all those many years ago; wonder where he got himself off to? Nowhere good, knowing him.
She's led just slightly back out of the town, doubling on herself to be brought to a meadow full of overgrown wildflowers. Something underfoot trips her as she follows the kids into the field, looking down revealing a rotten old wooden gate melding into the undergrowth - an abandoned garden, maybe? Whatever had once been here, it's clearly not been looked after for a long time.
Catching up to where the other two are, she pulls alongside next to the girl. She's definitely the more nervous of the two. "Hey, what's your name?" Tapping a hand to her chest, Karlach dips her head towards them both in introduction. "I'm Karlach."
"Xander!" Xander immediately shouts, holding out his hand like a man three times his size. Again, Karlach laughs to herself at the bravado and shakes his little hand.
"I'm Coral," copying her friend, Coral also shakes Karlach's hand - much more subdued with it than her boisterous companion.
Straightening up, Karlach smiles down at them. "Okay, Coral, Xander," she nods to each of them, "I'm gonna leave you two to it. Let me know when you're done and I'll walk you both home. Sound good?"
"Yea!"
"Mhmm!"
With the kids preoccupied with their flower picking, Karlach finds herself a nice spot in the grass to sprawl out under the sun; she's got the whole day, so what if she spends an hour out here napping and helping out smaller souls in need. And hells, some giggling children make for a nice change from the usual violent racket she's spent so long trying to sleep around. Sure, some would find it annoying to listen to, but not her.
A little while into her siesta, humming by her chest draws her attention, glancing down to find a bee buzzing around her exposed sternum. It flits around the glowing under her ribs, trying to investigate for anything tasty but being put off from the heat from her. Karlach watches it flutter around for a bit, waiting for it to figure out there's no pollen to be found here. She's waiting a while, the bee not catching on. Snapping up a flower by her side, Karlach dangles it by the bee and it finally finds somewhere to go.
Ms Bee rubs herself all over the flower, pollen clogging up on her legs and wings before she flies off and that's another job done for Karlach today. Why the bee couldn't figure out to move a foot to its side on its own, she doesn't know.
Karlach leaves the flower on her chest as she lays back down, in case any other passers-by get a little lost.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Pssst... Karlach!"
"She's asleep. It's rude to wake people when they're sleeping."
"It's fine, stop worrying. Karlach!"
Something is tickling her face, and Karlach opens her eyes to be met with blinding sun and two owlish faces peering down at her. Xander and Coral, one of whom is nudging at her cheek with a bunch of flowers to wake her up. Laughing, she brushes the flowers away to sit up and stretch - an audible pop coming from her back as she does so.
Both kids present their bouquets proudly, waiting for praise.
"Those look great! Excellent work, guys, your parents will love them." Karlach happily grants them the well done they're waiting on, returning the smiles and rising to her feet. That's when the kids both place the bouquets they're holding down - Xander with a different collection in his hands and now holding them out to Karlach; Coral with a ring of flowers held delicately in her hands, like she's afraid to hurt it. Karlach looks between them, confused. "What's this?"
"We made these for you!"
"As a thank you for helping us," Coral finishes, motioning for Karlach to kneel down closer to her. The ring of flowers are draped over Karlach's head and horns, Coral smiling when the crown stays put after her hard work making it. She'd even gone as far as to make extra hoops in the crown for Karlach's horns, ensuring it will endure anything that threatens it; very impressive craftsmanship.
Karlach tells her as much.
Xander shoves the flowers he's holding into Karlach's arms with less grace then, standing back with his hands on his hips again; and what a little poser he is. Astarion isn't much for kids, but Karlach thinks he'd maybe like this one.
Gods, she'd come out here to stop kids crying and now she's the one ready to start greetin' herself. Holding the flowers to her chest, Karlach takes a sniff of them. Has... anyone ever given her flowers? She can't even remember. All she knows is her voice is thick as she tries to thank them both.
"I love them, thank you!" Reaching up with a hand, she touches gently against the ones by her horns. "And my crown, it's beautiful."
The kids welcome the praise with big grins, turning to each other in congratulations at pulling off their successful plan. Picking up their own bouquets, Coral skips off ahead of them back towards town and Xander runs off after her her with a last little salute at Karlach.
She simply follows their lead again, her flowers clutched to her heart. After all of their team's frantic searching for a solution to their little tadpole problem, as well as the many other problems they all have, playing follow-the-leader with a cute couple of spirited kids is exactly the balm she didn't realise she was needing. Karlach catches up to them both easily with large strides, listening to their idle chatter as they blather about some game they'd been playing together.
She's too busy feeling loved to pay much attention, just enjoying the adorable company.
Breaking upon the town centre, Coral hops up ahead and points vaguely over the market. "Hey, look! That's my house." She spins round to face Karlach, all big baby teeth in her smile. "We're gonna go give our flowers, thank you so much!" Then she bounces forward, wrapping her arms around Karlach's waist in the most confident display from her Karlach has seen so far.
Karlach returns the hug, hands dipping down to gently cradle Coral to her.
After a second of trying to look tough, Xander seems to decide he's done being left out and joins in with a loud, "Thank you!" of his own.
They both pull away, Xander running ahead to take Coral's hand and start dragging her across the courtyard. They nearly stumble right into an older man hobbling along with his cane, but he just laughs and uses it to steer them both out of his way before continuing on with a friendly nod to Karlach.
She waves after them both, watching until they're welcomed inside a door on the far end of the space. With a glance down to the flowers in her arms, Karlach takes one last little sniff before going off in search of somewhere for a nice, stiff drink.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now feeling much more cheerful, and after having chased off some hornery elf with a glint in his eye determined to see her in his bed that night, Karlach makes her leave from the pub she'd found her way to. Absently, she'd had a nosey around town for any of the missing members of camp who haven't slunk off to some miscellaneous quest or another - Astarion being one of the those who'd skulked off in the night a few days ago, though Minsc had also been absent when she'd awoken that morning. Often, he joins Karlach for some early morning exercise, so she'd been a little disappointed in finding out she'd be alone today for them; Wyll had waved her off when she'd tried to wake him, grumbling about goddesses or whatever.
Both Astarion and Minsc are good for a drink and a laugh, though she'd been unlucky in locating either.
One of the stalls she's passing by catches her eye, tugging her gaze hypnotically towards one display in particular - a short stack of elaborately decorated bottles containing swirling green liquid. Remembering back to what little she remembers of drow culture, Karlach is drawn in to the stall like a moth. It's manned by an older tiefling woman, grey saturating her once vibrant blue colouring as well as her hair.
Reaching out, Karlach lifts one of the bottles, turning it in her hands. The attention captures the other tiefling's interest, moving up to the other side of the display as she regards Karlach.
"See something you like, sweet?"
"Is this a drow wine?" Karlach asks, looking up to meet deep purple eyes.
She's granted a nod in answer. "It is, you've a good eye. Ulaver wine, one of my rarer imports." The woman leans in, a hand held conspiratorially by her mouth as she whispers to Karlach like she's being watched. "I have a contact, down in Menzo. He's always needing some extra income."
Karlach muffles a smirk, knowing enough about the hierarchy down in the Underdark to comment anything on that. And the fact that's she's quickly being made an accessory.
She smiles up at the older woman. "How much for a bottle?"
At hearing the price, Karlach deflates - she knew she shouldn't have pissed away so much at that tavern. But she just couldn't help herself, when that barmaid was being so cute towards her.
A marketing ploy, no doubt; and a smart one at that.
Placing the bottle back down, Karlach shrugs apologetically at the woman watching her. "Ah, sorry. A little out of my price range, I'm afraid."
There's a tense moment of silence without the woman answering her, instead scanning over Karlach top-to-toe keenly. Lifting a hand to her chin, the shopkeeper eyes her with renewed interest.
"You're a big girl. Tell you what, I'll give you a bottle for some of your time instead. Fancy helping an old woman out?"
Karlach jumps at the chance, pumping a fist excitedly. "Of course! That would be amazing, thank you!"
"Don't thank me yet, pet." The woman smiles and lifts up a small box by her elbow, pocketing it then stepping out to the side towards an alley. She waves Karlach after her, starting to walk down that way - Karlach leaning down to leave her bouquet under the stall for the time being. Only a couple blocks, and her guide dips into the left to a small home and garden surrounded by shrubs. Karlach continues following her, until they reach a decent sized shed that the woman unlocks and leads them slightly inside. "I've been asking my boys for weeks now to help me shift all this and I'm tired of nagging. If you could move it all around to my stall, I can get it sold off from there. My old joints can't quite manage the heavy lifting like they used to, I'm sad to admit."
Karlach immediately lays on the charm. "Nonsense! You're looking great for your age, if I were a little older I'd be tempted to ask you to dinner." She grins, crossing her arms to flex just because she can. "Though I think your 'boys' might have something to say about someone their age swooning their mother."
The woman lets out a hearty laugh, reaching out to pat Karlach's cheek. "And if only I were half my years, sweet."
Karlach leans into the motherly touch, enjoying it for the brief moment it lasts before it's pulled away. She straightens up, eyeing the task in front of her - about a dozen large sacks of miscellaneous goods, a couple oversized weapons, and some old furniture. All in all, maybe an hour or two worth of work? She's done far worse, in much less time. Turning to the woman again, she sends her a bright grin and a thumbs up.
"I'll have it all round to you in no time!"
The woman smiles, tucking her shed keys into Karlach's palm with a warm hand. And, of instant note in that moment, is the fact she's entirely unafraid of touching Karlach where many others have always been. A thumb runs over the back of Karlach's hand, soothing.
"I know you will, pet." She pulls her hand away then, tucking it to her side before holding it out once more between them, in the air. "I feel I should make proper introductions, my name is Zehiri. Nice to meet you..." Zehiri trails off, looking up at Karlach expectingly.
Watching her strength, Karlach grips the hand held out to her in a welcome handshake - revelling in the normalcy of a firm handshake, an introduction, to someone not shying away from her. Zehiri's hand is soft, and calloused, and frail in hers; and Karlach lifts it to her lips, placing a delicate kiss there worthy of a woman so confident in herself to lay hands on such a devil.
"Karlach." She raises up, meeting Zehiri's eyes. "My name is Karlach Cliffgate. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"My," Zehiri smiles, and slowly reclaims her hand from Karlach. "You are quite the charmer, aren't you?"
Karlach shrugs, meeting the smile. "I have my talents."
Shaking her head at the flippant teasing, Zehiri turns to leave. Crossing a few metres over the garden, she rotates back towards Karlach. "You've talked yourself up well, I'll reward your talents in kind, my dear." Giving a small wave with the hand Karlach had kissed, she's gone from view - leaving Karlach to her task.
Stretching out her muscles, Karlach prepares for a quick workout. Gotta keep the body in good shape, after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dropping the last of the cargo off behind Zehiri, Karlach dusts off first her hands and then her shirt and trousers. A job well done, and even without the promise of a reward, she'd still be aflame with the glow of helping out someone in need. At hearing a pleased hum from beside her, Karlach turns to face Zehiri watching her with warm eyes.
She reaches out again like she had before, laying that same frail hand against Karlach's sternum - and, that may have been the first hint, how aged Zehiri is despite the fact she's likely only in her fifth or sixth decade. Again, she doesn't flinch at all away from the heat no doubt found there, her fingers firmly against the embers of Karlach's mutilated heart.
"I don't want to say too much of it all, except this - I'm glad to see some have gained their freedom from that all." Zehiri frowns, glancing between Karlach's eyes and chest. "I've known others, caught in that war. A cruel thing." Then, she looks up to Karlach, meeting her resolutely - almost eye-to-eye, with Zehiri standing straight for the first time. "You have friends here, should you need them. Come say hello, if you're ever passing by, pet."
Karlach can't answer, throat on fire like the rest of her, not expecting such a forward addressing, and Zehiri cups her cheek again with the hand that had just been against her core. She nods a thank you.
Her face is patted again, Zehiri turning back to her stall and lifting a woven basket to press into Karlach's hands. The flowers she'd left for safekeeping have been wrapped to the basket with some ribbon. There's a couple bottles of the green wine; plus biscuits, pastries, even some chocolates layered over the top. All of it is covered by a decorative cloth, that Karlach had peeked under.
"Whoa," Karlach blanches, holding it out back towards Zehiri. "That's way too much! I can't accept this."
"Nonsense," Zehiri laughs, copying Karlach's assertion from earlier. "I believe in rewarding good deeds, and you've helped me out plenty. You've earned it."
Determined not to start bubbling like a baby at the kindness, Karlach squeezes the basket to her chest where she kinda wishes she was squeezing Zehiri instead. That'd probably be weird, though.
"Thank you! It won't go to waste, I promise."
"I believe you."
An orc nearby had wandered over while they were chatting, eyeing up one of the weapons Karlach has relocated from the shed, and he flags for Zehiri's attention. Wishing Karlach farewell, Zehiri repeats her invite for Karlach to stop by in future and waves her off home as she goes to tend to her customer.