The Cat Came Back?

[Maetel and Ariel]

Maetel had been missing for some time... called away to help people during the conflict in the Old Temple District... and the patrons of the Crooked Hook were, for once, more worried about her than about themselves. There had been rumors of her in action, but none of the survivors who poured out of the District had actually seen the cat woman. When the hostilities had died down and even Andre and Lianna had returned to the Hook, Maetel was still nowhere to be seen.

"How bad was it out there?" Mikhail asked his old friend.

"They caught on quicker than I expected." Andre replied, his silver and red lacquered armour still splattered with mud and blood. He lowered his voice, "Maetel ran off after the first fight... I saw signs of her still fighting them, but never did catch up with her again."

"Don't worry boys..." said Lianna from the doorway. "Maetel's still out there. She just needs a little time to calm down."

"I hope yer right Miss." said one of the sailors, eliciting a series of nods and grumbled agreements from the other patrons.

[Maetel and Ariel]

It was raining that night... one of those slow, drizzlely rains that seem to depress the spirit. Fog was rolling in over the city like the blanket a child pulls over their head to ward off the monsters in the closet.

Those who were out and about on nights like this tended to walk a little faster, wanting to get their errands done as quickly as possible. The Watch patrols moved slower, and kept closer together.... preferring the relative safety of the lamp-lit main streets.

The Old Temple District was quiet, save for the clip-clop of the Templar & Hospitalatier patrols that moved in strength upon the streets. The Watch was out-of-favor here, both with the Districts surviving citizens and it's erstwhile protectors, and rarely ventured within... especially on nights like this.

One patrol, upon returning to the Templar compound, reported having heard the sound of someone weeping in an abandoned house. Upon investigation, only the bodies of a young dwarven boy and two elven girls were discovered... obviously killed by the horrific soul-eating blades used by some members of the Myr-Khul forces. One member of the patrol claimed to have seen a tiger fleeing the house, but pursuit was impossible given the speed of the beast and the poor visibility.

The bodies had been brought to the compound where a young recruit was able to identify them as having been fellow orphans at an orphanage that had existed just outside the city walls of the Seaside district... one that had burned down many years ago, before even the Templars had come to Rhy'Din.

[Maetel and Ariel]

Early one morning, just at that moment when the sun hasn't quite risen... and the eastern sky was fading from that pre-dawn blue to that early-morning yellow, there was heard from the northern end of the Dockside district a sudden... and obviously drunken... loud cheer. The sounds of celebration were very short-lived, however, and cut off rather abruptly with the sound of a clay mug being broken across a man's head followed by an urgent "shushing".

For you see... underneath a ragged, old willow tree out in front of a certain dilapidated bar was sleeping a long-missing young feline woman. After further observation from where they stood at the door to the tavern, the men could see that her vest and shorts were dirty and torn and that her normally clean fur was unkempt... and there were even a few bloodstains visible.

"We'd best let her rest fer now." Said the grizzled bartender of the Crooked Hook. "'Tis clear she's had a rough time of it, and I doubt it'd be wise to wake her up right now."

The handful of patrons, despite their inhibriated state, nodded at the wisdom of the bartender.

"Come inside now and stay quiet... and I'll buy the next round." the bartender said, holding the door open.

The men drew in a breath as if to give another cheer at his suggestion... but with a quick glare and a shake of his meaty fist, the bartender kept them quiet so the cat-girl could sleep.

[Maetel and Ariel]

In the days that followed, the sailors were heartened by Maetel's return... and more importantly, by the return of her boundlessly cheerful attitude. One sailor's grandmother came by with replacement clothes for the talkative cat-girl... "Real denim. straight from Earth!" Nobody knew what was so special about that... but Maetel seemed to appriciate the durable clothing.

The Bard, Mikhail, still showed up almost every other day to check up on her and regale the patrons with fanciful stories of worlds far away. Maetel lied those times the best... and sometimes people would come from all over town to hear his performances.

One day a stranger came to visit... but she was known to Maetel. Indigo Trusst had come to ask Maetel to fight with Team SHE for the second season of the IFL. It did take her a few tries for them both to understand each other... and Maetel did return to the IFL rings.

Soon after that, with a little help from Mikhail, she was able to regain her rank as Emerald in the Duel of Fists... And soon, she was regularly spending one or two nights a week enjoying her chances to "make-do fight-thing".

And so, everything returned to normal at the Crooked Hook... Until the night that the Vampire came...

[Maetel and Ariel]

Now... Vampires aren't exactly popular in most places under normal circumstances. But this was Rhy'Din and tolerance, if not acceptance, was the general rule. Still... after the incidents involving the Temple of Myr'Kul, vampires were even less welcome than usual in Rhy'Din.

This particular vampire wasn't exactly young, but he certainly wasn't old... not as vampires measure age. He'd been a vampire long enough to get used to being a vampire... but not long enough to really begin amassing power. He had come from a place where there were very few people capable of challenging a vampire... at least at night anyway... so he really had no idea what he was getting into that night.

It was a cloudy, moonless night and Maetel was sleeping under the willow tree as she often did. The usual crowd had filled the Crooked Hook... mostly local fishermen and retired sailors. The press gangs and less savory pirates knew to avoid that end of Dockside entirely. The Baron didn't like competition and Maetel didn't like people bothering her friends.

Unfortunately, as was mentioned before, this particular vampire was new to the area and didn't know the way things were in Rhy'Din. So it was with a particularly preditory smile upon his face that the vampire walked in to the Crooked Hook that night.