<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/ad/Whipsers_on_the_Night_Wind.jpg)</div><strong>Whispers on the Night Wind</strong><br/><br/>Whisper's found her cheeks heating pleasantly at the attention she was receiving.  She'd really been a little too young too get this kind of admiration from her own people—at least, from<em>men</em>before her world was turned upside down.<br/><br/>Whispers found herself lightly clutching her keyhole neck just bellow the throat and running her thumb softly over the seed-beads in the trim.  She'd received more than a little attention from boys her age or younger, and later from foreigners.<br/><br/>Her host's son was clearly strong enough to hold his head high in the presence of warriors and otherwise easy on the eyes.  Whispers wondered briefly why he stood so shyly.  It crossed her mind then that—while he was admiring her face and body, he probably was having a little trouble, even this close.<br/><br/>Whispers slipped into the kitchen and returned with two mugs of local brew.  She walked up to the young man and offered him one quietly, then turned back to speak to his father once more.  This time, the petite warrior stood closer to the young man.<br/><br/>“I know my way around spears too,” She explained, “I've trained my friends with them, but I prefer the hatchets myself.   I don't fight or spar many people who don't have longer arms than I, so I deal with it instead of trying for progressively longer weapons.”<br/><br/>She took a pull on her beverage, then continued, “The slavers I mentioned?  In that battle I had to get through a hall held by a line of men using the tactics of the imperial legions.  I'm not in any hurry to face a wall of wood and steel like that again!”