On a nearby street corner, one of the more exotic citizens of Gercia danced.  Petite by human standards, not even five feet tall, the woman looked like a green-skinned, redheaded elf with a large flower like a lily atop her head.  Actually a nariphon, one of the fey 'pod people', many people stopped to watch Trishna dance as the brass jewelry she wore chimed from her movements.  And many of those people tossed a coin or two into the hat on the ground before a coiled snake of considerable size that observed the crowd with watchful eyes.  By day, Trishna danced in the street for coins, but she also worked as a so-called lady of the evening, specializing in wealthier clientele.  That meant compared to most street performers, she tended to have a lot of money on hand, hence the reason she had trained her snake, Ivy, to defend her from attackers.  She also had a sickle to defend herself if needed.<br/><br/>Finishing the dance, she took a bow and scooped up the hat full of coins.  Counting them out into her belt pouch, she stuffed the hat in there with them once it was empty.  She rarely wore it, as the weight would irritate the sensitive blossom on her head.  Picking up her belongings from the ground, she whistled for Ivy to follow her and started to move on to the next promising spot.  As she walked down the street, she touched those plants in window boxes and on doorsteps that she could reach, murmuring polite greetings.  Like all nariphon, she could talk to plants as easily as to people, and often felt greater kinship with plants than creatures of flesh and blood and bone.  Because of that, she, like most nariphon, was a strict carnivore.  They were indeed a predatory race, one with something of a reputation of being 'black widows', that is to say, seducing and sleeping with prey before eating it.  Though Trishna did eat the occasional person, she rarely ate customers, as that would get around and be bad for business.