<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/1pvC3a3.jpg?1)<br/><div align="center"><em>Hodge</em></div></div><br/>Hodge cocked his head as he stared down the brazen little thing that had wandered into the alehouse. A half-smile crossed his lips. She wasn’t even half a foot over five feet, not a knife or blade on her, but she still carried herself like she was some kind of untouchable swordsman. Her blue eyes looked up at him bravely. Innocently. Naively. He could feel the tension in his shoulders forming as she stared him down.<br/><br/>“Told ya’ that cur wouldn’t have the stones to come back himself,” the half-orc said from the doorway, with his arms still across his chest. A long blade hung on his hip, a single strap of leather cutting across his body that held a shoulder pad onto his right shoulder. His hair was a black mohawk, clean shaven along the sides of his head. He took a step deeper into the alehouse.<br/><br/>Hodge eyed the little leather pouch. It was small, not likely more than but a pittance of what Eller owed for his gambling debts. He kept his palms flat on the bar counter and growled at her. “Looks a little light.”<br/><br/>The half-orc took another step towards Miriel, his head tilting to the side so he could get a better view of her body.<br/><br/>Hodge’s jaw clenched as he looked her over again. She had the look of a naïve rich girl who had wandered too far away from home. She knew the cant, but she wasn’t like them. She looked like she’d had never had a hard day in her life. He licked his lips as he stared at her face, half-hidden under her hood. But still, he had to admit that he admired the tenacious spirit she seemed to possess, having come to the Applebarrel with nothing more than a staff to protect herself.<br/><br/>“Open it then, let’s see what Eller thinks he owes,” he said gruffly, nodding to the counter in front of him, instructing her to empty the bag. His hands remained face down on the bar, his muscles bulging out in every direction. The man in the black rimmed hat at the bar showed no interest in the unfolding of this affair. He had a ledger in front of him, made not from parchment but real paper, and was seemingly invested entirely in his own matters.<br/><br/>“Do you know how much he owes?” the half-orc asked Miriel as he took another step closer. He was close enough now that she could smell the pleasing, deeply primal musk of his body. He took a hand and slowly pulled down the hood of her cloak, fully revealing her beautiful young face and head of blonde hair. His nostrils flared in excitement as he watched her react.