Neverwinter Daze

NEVERWINTER DAZE

***Note: All characters within are created by Obsidian, with the exception of Kris Cagnus, who is this author's OC. Kris is a Rogue/Shadowdancer who chooses to take the "crime path" in NWN2. This story is a little heavy both on recapping game events and on getting inside characters' heads, so while there is sex and plenty of it, it takes a bit to get there. Enjoy.***

The city of Neverwinter stretched away, its buildings rising to blot out the horizon. As his boots clunked down the gangplank, Kris found himself gaping in awe; he’d heard what a city was, and he’d believed the stories, but they still hadn’t prepared him for the actual sight.

Pushing his new hat’s wide brim back as he reached the thicker, older wood of the dock itself, he found himself twirling a copper ring between his fingers unconsciously. With an effort, he put the trinket back into his pouch, muttering wonderingly to himself. “How can so many people live in the same place?” he breathed, taking in the slightly dilapidated stores and warehouses that began at dock’s edge.

“It is an unnatural creation of man,” a soft voice stated behind him. Turning with a slight grimace, he saw the slight form of a wood elven female, swathed in brown robes of a shade only slightly darker than her skin. Her almond-shaped eyes met his defiantly, and Kris was once more stricken by the dichotomy between her beauty and her seemingly arrogant ideals. As always, Elanee followed close behind almost silently, always watching him, seeming to study him for later dissection. Her delicate features would’ve ensured his affections, were she any easier to bear, but Kris found himself dreading her inevitably self-righteous next words.

“Pushing back nature like this always leads to unhappiness,” she began as she stood at ship’s edge, before she was rudely picked up and moved down the gangplank by the dwarf descending behind. His chain mail ringing faintly as he walked, Khelgar gave her an apologetic nod, his full brown beard swaying as he turned to take in the city from close range. “Better ‘n that infernal boat,” he said, unknowingly cutting off Elanee’s indignant scolding, “but so ugly as to be a sore on my eyes.” The blunt little man grinned up at Kris, raising a thick eyebrow higher up on his bald head. “When will you humans learn to build down, not up?”

Kris chuckled as he turned back to take in the sight once more; leave it to Khelgar to poke fun at his own quest’s destination. Before he could come up with a suitable reply, his chance was stolen by the last of his friends as she made her way down to join them.

“Hey,” came her high, almost childish voice, “don’t insult what you don’t know, kneebiter.” The smile on her face said she was joking, but Khelgar’s darkening expression said he took every insult personally. “It may not look like much from here,” the slender, exotic-looking girl continued, reaching the docks and stepping nimbly around the unmoving dwarf, “but it’s home!” She ended with such an openly enthusiastic look that Khelgar swallowed his angry retort, grumbling to himself.

Neeshka, though still head and shoulders taller than the dwarf, was a small, tightly coiled spring of mischief. Her pale orange skin and the short, curling twin horns which sprouted from her forehead marked her as a tiefling, the rare offspring of a demon/human coupling. Orange spots bordered her hairline, the short reddish hair pushed back away from her cunning, slightly immature features.

Kris turned his head to look quizzically at her. “I thought you weren’t too fond of this place,” he said, arching an eyebrow.

“Aye, devil-spawn,” Khelgar chimed in, eager to get his own back. “I seem to remember you callin’ Neverwinter ‘a stuffy maze of uptight cretins,’ or some such.” He crossed his gauntleted arm. “A course, I might’a misheard ye, bein’ as your voice seems to fade out and turn to cats’ screechin’ after a bit.”

In spite of herself, Elanee burst out laughing, clapping a hand to her mouth in horror at her lapse. Her eyes twinkled merrily.

This time, it was Neeshka whose back was put up. “At least I don’t use my voice to complain every chance I get. Gods, I wish you’d both be silent. The entire trip was one long whine from both of you.” Khelgar uncrossed his arms to glare up at her, and Elanee’s free hand tightened on her robes, but Neeshka rolled on. “’Oh, me stomach feels funny,’” she said, dropping her voice and puffing out her cheeks. “This boat rocks like a baby’s cradle.’” Then, she put an arm out, the hand bent daintily downwards, and gave her words a haughty, too-high tone. “This water is so unnatural and deep, not like the swamp of dead people I grew up in.”

She stopped and pitched her voice back to normal. “Okay, so my memories of this place aren’t that great,” she sighed, “but, like I said, it’s home. Now where’re we going?”

Kris answered her hurriedly to cut off the others’ angry retorts. “We should look around for my uncle’s inn,” he decided, starting off so the others would follow.

After one last glare, the dwarf started after him, Elanee close behind. “Not sure I can stomach any food just yet,” Khelgar rumbled, spirits high again. “A stiff drink and a good tavern brawl, though …” he laughed heartily. “I say lead the way. I’d welcome a stable bed after being trapped on that filthy excuse for a boat.”

Turning back, Kris saw Neeshka shadowing Khelgar, copying the dwarf’s exaggerated body language silently. He was unable to keep another chuckle down, and she glanced at him, grinning widely. They started off into the city.


****


His room at the Sunken Flagon was fairly well-appointed. Kris had a sneaking suspicion that Duncan had given him his best room free of charge. Ah well. More pressing worries were filling his head at the moment; his talk with his uncle and the magician Sand had raised more questions than it had answered. He stared hard at the silver shard Duncan had given him, fixing its shape in his mind as he tried to figure out what to do next.

The door banged open, and Kris was up off his bed with a knife in his hand in the blink of an eye, poised to throw.

“So, when’re we gonna –“ Neeshka bubbled before drawing up short at the sight of him. With a small shriek, she darted back out into the hallway and slammed the door before he could let fly.

Ruefully, he tucked the dagger back into his sleeve and crossed to the door. Pulling it open, he found her wide-eyed on the other side, a dagger clutched in her trembling fingers. He raised his own palms to placate her, before she could do something drastic.

“Sorry,” he told her calmly. “Reflex.”

For another heartbeat, she stared up at him, her expression unchanging. Then, sheepishly, she sheathed her own blade and looked at the floor. “Oh well,” Neeshka said in a small voice. “Good instincts, I suppose.”

“Won’t you come in,” Kris chuckled, gesturing dramatically into his room and moving out of the doorway. She smiled at that, and gracefully stepped past him.

“I came to see when we’d go meet this thug your uncle suggested,” she stated as he closed the door. “I’ve never heard of him, but I’ve been gone a long time, so …” A painful thought seemed to occur to her, and her features tightened in an expression of premature pouting. “Unless, you’ve decided to go with the Watch.” The contempt she infused in that statement said it all.

“Nah, the Watch isn’t my style,” he replied, and she relaxed visibly. “Besides, we’ll need some quick cash for this journey, and, judging by my friend Cormick, the Watch isn’t exactly a road to riches.” Kris took out a gold piece and began twirling it between his fingers. “Might as well have some fun on the way, too.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” the half-demon girl said as she surreptitiously drew a coin from her own pouch. Kris watched with amusement as she twirled it the way he did; then he watched in surprise as she somehow made it dance across her knuckles. He’d never seen anything like it short of magic. After a moment, he could see how it was done, though; quickly, he copied her movement, slowly at first, then faster and faster until he was almost even with her.

Neeshka laughed delightedly and ended her own trick with a coin toss that landed back in her purse. Kris, grinning widely, flipped his own coin through the air, but miscalculated; it went forward, and she snatched it out of the air before he could react.

“Mine now,” she told him triumphantly, and this time he laughed.

“C’mon,” he said when his shoulders stopped shaking. “We’d better go meet this smelly fellow.”