The Strongest Shape

1

"Did you see the way they were looking at you?"

"Yeah! Was great. Been a while since I had a crowd that nice."

"Not the crowd," Alexander corrected him, voice deep and rumbling. He gestured into the dispersing gaggle around them, leaning forward to whisper. "The blue one."

As a lionfolk and a tiefling, the couple were conspicuous enough themselves, but even with the small descriptor Marco spotted exactly who Alex was talking about. Tall, gangly, and absolutely neon blue, the tiefling was very pointedly looking anywhere but at them. Marco made a show of craning his neck in their direction, before turning back to Alex.

"Was it all funny-like?"

"Like they were seein' stars for the first time."

"Ohh," a wide and satisfied grin stole onto Marco's face. "Really?"

"Mhm."

Marco looked back over, as if considering, before shrugging. "I get that a lot."

Alex laughed, assuring him that he most definitely did, before throwing a gargantuan arm over his tiny shoulders. It was time to celebrate, the coin from Marco's performance bound to fund a night of revelry. Which, if there were any place for a night of revelry, this was it.

The Istanian city of Bushardes was host to an annual harvest festival, during which the entire city took up the spirit. Merchants and performers came from far and wide, and the city expanded with the number of tents and stalls set up outside of its walls, the streets themselves packed with early-comers. The chilly nip of night air replaced with the warmth of crowded bodies and myriad lanterns and torches. Murmurs replaced with shouts and music and uproarious laughter. Marco soon found himself with a garland of flowers and barley strung over his horns and around his ears; Alex spared all but the occasional flower stuck in his mane, being too tall for most to reach his head in the first place.

Sampling food and drink and moving from crowd to crowd circled around performer to performer made up most of their night, only starting to slow when the tinges of sunrise started showing in the east. Marco was blearily sipping his way through another flagon, sat on the stone rim of a fountain while Alex counted what was left of their earnings.

"Should be enough to get a room, if we can find one."

"Mmm, I quite liked the tent yesterday." Marco, still completely unfocused, smiled into his drink.

As the population took to resting before another night of celebration, it was a quiet morning. The morning chorus and the babbling of the fountain served to drown out most of the city's beleaguered murmurations, but a rising conversation made Marco's ears twitch. He couldn't quite make out the words, but it got a bit louder and a bit angrier and he turned his head just enough to catch it out of the corner of his eye. A bit of blue made him turn fully around.

The tiefling from earlier was getting into some sort of argument with a human, an accusatory finger pointed in their direction. Clicking his tongue to get Alex's attention, he nodded at the two, before starting to trot over. The conversation got a little clearer.

"I'll ask ya again, who'd you steal those from?"

"Ohh bhin heimeere! My own hands made these, and I'll not suffer you suggesting otherwise again!"

A strong Wehnan accent, even a bit of elvish.

"What'd you say to me?"

"Pardon my vocabulary, sir, but I find it hard to believe that you'd not know what it's like to be called an asshole in every language from here to the westshores."

"Oi!" Marco cut in between the two, brows furrowed but smile on his face as he spoke to the human. "Don't mind my friend here, ain't worth your time. This though!" He pushed the remainder of his drink into the man's hand. "This is!" Before he could get much of a response he spun the tiefling around and lead them away with his hand on the small of their back.

Which got them positively sputtering.

Marco gestured for them to hush until they got back to the fountain, whereupon he put his hands on his hips and stared them down. They looked back with offended confusion, their thin eyebrows coming together.

"What're you lookin' at me like that for! Saved your skin, y'were only making that worse!"

"I had it under control well enough! The devil was claiming that I-"

Marco zoned out quickly enough as they started to vent. He caught that they'd been accused of stealing their weapons, which included a pair of firearms Marco had never quite seen the likes of before. Part of why he immediately started paying only half attention to the deluge of prideful, frustrated explanation coming out of the other one's mouth.

A musket was slung over one of their shoulders, lovingly polished wooden stock with floral gold inlay. A flintlock pistol at their hip with a similarly elegant look, a delicately ornate rapier on the other side. This was topped by clothes that had faded in the sun and the wash, but the velvet coat and silk shirt had once been much nicer than Marco would have expected. Horns were a polished reflective gold, hair was clean and neatly tied with a ribbon. They smelled of soaps and perfume. He was surprised they hadn't been robbed.

He came back to when they were starting to get flustered and stumble over themselves. Waving a hand, he smiled.

"What's yer name?"

They abruptly stopped, considering for a moment.

"Glee."

"That is pretty. Mine's Marco, this is 'xander, er, Alex," he gestured behind him to where Alex was still taking inventory of the night. Alex waved absentmindedly. "And we just did you a little favor, 'cause you were gettin' the guards called the way you were goin'."

Glee was quiet, for once.

"But, it's the least I could do for a fan." Marco continued, smiling now.

"Oh," they started, and he could swear they were beginning to blush a bit. "I apologize, I didn't- I mean, you were very good."

Marco bowed with an overdone flourish, assuring them that the pleasure was all his.

2

Glee's laugh trailed off, smiling more to themselves than at anything in particular.

They'd set themselves up next to the two's tent, and all three were sharing a small fire as the sun began to set over Bushardes. Glee was still ever so slightly on guard, but the couple seemed pleasant. Friendly. Warm. At the very least, they'd passed the day sleeping peacefully.

The two were odd, though. Glee hadn't seen a lionfolk before, but knew they came from the far west. Indeed the two, even the tiefling, had the slightest remnant of an accent they couldn't place. But neither had spoken anything besides common, so there was no language to try and guess at. The lionfolk wore simple clothes, though Glee had seen pieces of what looked like plate armor in his things. He was also enormous, but Glee wasn't sure if that was true of all of his kind or not. The dark, frizzled mane around his face and neck didn't make him look any smaller, though.

The tiefling's attire clearly marked him as a bard of some flavor or another: bright carnival reds and golds and deeply-dyed blues. A rose-patterned wrap about his shoulders, a leather eyepatch with an eye-like symbol stamped into it, bangles of various sizes and colors about his wrists and hooves. And he was small, ridiculously so next to his companion. Only the need to stay polite kept Glee from wondering how much halfling he had in him.

He finished another rather rude joke, tin cup splashing in his hand as he gesticulated. Glee laughed again, and thought again. These two were very pleasant. They felt warm and good, even if the higher parts of their mind were warning them against letting their guard down. Their gut told them this was good.

Even so, it was hard to get a bead on Alex: he was seldom-spoken, seemed to mind his own business except when Marco made that impossible to do. He didn't answer many questions and asked even fewer. Glee was dubious of how deep Marco's boisterous and friendly exterior went, but figured by this point that it was sincere enough. He seemed to be a bit of a trouble-maker, but confidence propelled him through most situations. And oh, was he a performer.

Glee didn't quite like that he had apparently noticed them in the crowd the night before, but fondly remembered the show itself. Sent their heart aflutter.

"So what'd we like to do tonight?"

Glee looked down at their drink, hiding the inadvertent smile at being included in the "we."

"Supposed to be some sort of big circus show tonight, I think." The rumble was Alex's.

"Oh! Perfect." Marco clapped his hands to his knees, looking expectantly at the other two. "Might as well get an early start, eh?"

The big top tent wasn't hard to find, with a steady stream of people heading its way. It was situated some ways away from the city proper, a trail of torches lighting the way out into the surrounding plains. Already the din of a crowd was overwhelming, with the yelling of merchants and the excited chatter of a waiting audience mixing into a homogenous drone from a distance. Not set to start until the sun had fully set, the trio found a place to wait out the remainder of the dwindling day.

Small talk, people watching.

"You from around Wehna then, I assume?" Marco's eye had a bit of a glint in it, but the question was asked innocently enough.

"Oh, you pick things up traveling, do you not?"

"An accent that heavy? Far from home, I think. That's alright, we are too."

Glee's ears fell back with a placating sort of smile, pleasant enough but not liking the direction of the prying. They'd rather not have to excuse themselves, but there was really no reason for him to be poking around like that after the three of them had had nice enough conversations up until that point.

"I just didn't know they had more'n stuck-up elves over there."

"I did not know tieflings came from so far west, but we learn things every day."

Marco laughed, gesturing with a clawed thumb in Alex's direction. "You know, most just assume he's some sort of bugbear tabaxi. Less'n that know that we'd be from out west." The slight change in topic eased the tension gathering in Glee's shoulders.

"With an accent that heavy?" They joked back, which got a loud but laughing 'hey!' out of Marco. They were busy reveling, confused, in the feeling when Marco suddenly looked concerned at something behind them.

"Glee?"

It was a new voice but it tickled something in the back of their head, and they saw why immediately when they turned round. A wood elf woman was approaching, brown hair like a halo around her head, broad smile on her pointed face.

"That is you, isn't it! Couldn't miss you if you were five miles away!" She slung an arm around their waist, pulling them close with a laugh.

"Sileth! I'd have never thought it, this is your show? You are so far from where I saw you last!"

"Right! We've started coming this way for this get-together, it's good business." She winked and tugged on them before stepping back. "And who are your friends?"

"Oh," Glee glanced back at the two, who were happily waiting off to the side. They felt a bit sheepish at the assumed friendship. "This is Marco, and this is Alex. We, ah, we met earlier today."

They paused, ears twitching, before smiling and continuing the introductions. "Marco, Alex, this is Sileth. My, ah, what would be the word? My troupe and her show would sometimes work together, many years ago." Alex gave a friendly nod, while Marco took her hand with a characteristic flourish. However, he barely finished the gesture before grinning in Glee's direction.

"Your troupe? You used to be in the circus?"

"I suppose, yes."

"I'll be damned. Well! It's a pleasure Sileth."

The elf bowed, before straightening up with a tight smile. She turned to Glee, leaning towards them in a nearly conspiratorial way.

"Listen, I know you left the life back there, but I could use someone like you for something that's come up." She looked over at the other two, considering for a moment. "Maybe your friends too, if you all would. See me after the show, alright?"