<div class="floatright"><div align="center"><sup><em>click to enlarge</em></sup></div>(http://i.imgur.com/wu0EhlB.jpg)<br/><br/>(http://i.imgur.com/JxQwClm.jpg)</div><br/>Zerxel realized that taking to the rooftops of such old buildings in a ghost town might be as dangerous as anything she'd face on the ground level.  A second look at some of the bowing roof tops and she corrected herself, possibly more dangerous.  So there was only one way to go forwards in her mind.  Taking a deep breath she began walking down the center of the road.  She tried to appear casual, but her eyes were watching the tavern as it became less decripit, became more substantial, more real, including the two men and the woman standing out front laughing.  Just before they became perfectly substantial, the two men, laughing, walked into the tavern as the woman, leaning against the outside took a deep draw from her mug.<br/><br/>Zerxel was almost parallel with the door, and for a moment thought that she might just stroll past unnotticed before she heard a voice call out,<strong> "Ey.  Ey you, elf."</strong>Zerxel's combat instincts told her better than to leave her back to a potential threat and she turned to face the voice.  The redheaded woman was still leaning against the wall, having not moved but was looking right at Zerxel.  The woman gave a slight head nod with a smile and raised her mug.<strong> "You just appeared out of thin air, you must be another one of those travelers huh?  I usually miss em."</strong><br/><br/>Zerxel wasn't exactly sure how to respond, so nodded curtly and said,<em>"Something like that.  But yeah, traveler seems as good a name as any for what I am."</em><br/><br/>The woman smiled and nodded to the tavern doors,<strong> "This ere is the Tipped Tankard, an I'm Amber.  We've got hot food and cold ale if you're hungry, soft beds if you're tired, and bodies hard or soft if you're not."</strong>She grinned wickedly before taking another sip from her mug,<strong> "Big Jack is always lookin to meet with any travelers that walk through, long as you don't bring trouble through our doors, your kind are welcome."</strong><br/><br/>Strange, Zerxel hadn't expected such a passive response. She'd been ready for some sort of trap, possibly an attack by the people of the tavern.  But this woman, Amber apparently, seemed completely unconcerned.  More to the point, there didn't seem to be anything stopping Zerxel from continuing down the road.  Nothing else seemed to have changed except the tavern, which seemed as real and vital as any tavern that might have been found in any human town.  Zerxel looked down the road, the woman she thought was Bo was in that direction, probably.  Then again, a safe haven to sleep, and one to get provisions, was never something that should be passed on lightly.  The drow had a choice to make.