The human man was rather odd as she plied her talents upon him. Talking quite a bit as she needled in the vibrant red ink between the crimson lines of a sun at dusk over a mountainside along the crest of his back. The artist in her was very pleased at how this tattooing was progressing. The man she was inking was a very good canvas... Nice skin, didn't flinch when the needle bit... He was still talking though. The word "money" caught the gloaming's ear and suddenly she was very, very attentive.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry, I was concentrating on your artwork. Could you please repeat what you just said?" the artist asked. "Shira, don't space off on me. I was trying to hire you for a job. And not an ink slinging either." "You have my full attention now..." Shira spoke defensively.<br/><br/>"The next town over, a day's walk. Sirlev. An adventurer will need a learned guide through the underdark. You'll receive an equal amount of pay as the adventurer, in the same terms. Half now, half when you return."<br/>She thought about this for a moment. Shira'nuar was quite capable of guiding an adventurer through the deep, dark recesses of Faerun, for she had lived in the Underdark for at least a humans lifetime. Her intuition hinted that there was more to the story, however. "What is the catch, Erven? I have the feeling that this is not going to be just a walk in the dark." Shira asked warily, expecting an answer she would not enjoy.<br/><br/>"Drow." "Then no." "Specifically, the adventurer is supposed to kill some drow queen who's minions are capturing Sirlev's artisans."<br/><br/>Thin, slightly lavender hands kept plinking away at the needle, the ink sinking into the skin with each prick. Silently, the tiny woman finished the coloring of the tattoo, and painted a soothing balm over the image to help keep the tattoo from scarring or leeching the ink out. She knew how well it worked, for the balm was used almost on a daily basis on her own skin, for she was also a canvas with which she plied her craft. Images covered her small frame from forehead to toes, some writhing with magical power, others the same color as her flesh, yet glowed with different shades as her skin shone from within. Nothing was hidden behind clothing either, for the woman proudly showed her artwork, protecting the modesty of others with a simple tribal style chest wrapping of diaphanous silk, nearly transparent, and a small skirt made of the same material covering a more opaque undergarment conceiling her womanhood. Using mirrors, she helped Erven view the image on his back, and he smiled and nodded his approval.<br/><br/>Erven is the one who breaks the silence first, speaking as he slips a jingling coinpurse into Shira's satchel of inks and needles while she cleans and packs away what she had been using. "I hope that you are not wandering in your mind's labyrinth again, Shira, and are reconsidering your hasty denial of this offer." "Do you think this adventurer will be successful?" "Honestly? If you could get The Shadow to that witch... I think they might be successful. Yeah." Shira continues her musings, for she had heard of a Shadow before, usually in the same breath as 'killed drow'.<br/><br/>Slipping her satchel over her shoulder, and whipping the bearskin over her pale shoulders, Shira approaches the door to Erven's door, and pauses with her hand on the latch. "Okay. I'll go. You have the first half of the pay?" His knowing smile causes her to sigh. "Of course not. I'll have to go to Sirlev to get it." She opens the door and hides her eyes from the glare of the setting sun, pulling the muzzle of the bearskin cloak's hood over her sensitive eyes. A soft whistle summons her companion from the thatch roof's overhang, the gentle curving shape of a nine foot wingspan, a jet black creature appearing to be a manta ray. She strokes the leathery underbelly of the sinister, the empathic link bleeding into her mind of affectionate devotion.<br/><br/>"Come Whisper. We have a task to perform in the next town." Whistling a merry traveling tune, she untucks her jet black feathery wings from under the cloak, and sets off towards Sirlev.