Whispers of Dissent - Part II

A tall human man leaned casually against the rough stone wall by the westernmost street to the docks. His hands were buried deep in his pockets and held tightly to his body in an apparent attempt to stay warm against the bite of dusk's encroaching chill. His feet shuffled restlessly beneath him every minute or so, but whether the mans movements were designed to shake or boredom or the chill was known only to him. He was a plan looking man, in his mid 30's with his hairline now fully retreated into a widow's peak a the crest of his head. He had thick heavy eyebrows that dominated his round and otherwise non-descript face in way that gave him the look of someone deep in thought but the rough clothes and heavy shoulders of a man who had known a life of hard and honest labour. He was an exceedingly average man, especially in the city of Bareshield, and even more especially this close to the city's docks. A few hours prior the streets of Bareshield had been filled to the brim with a medley of workers, artisans, sailors, and merchants, and the man by the wall could have blended in with them with gentle ease and once again became another face in the throngs of Bareshield. "I suppose that's why they chose him for this part of the job." thought Elysha, "I could ask someone to describe this man to me and find a dozen more that fit his description on any street in this city." If that had been the reason this man had been chosen, then it was certainly a good play. Elysha and Dant had been laying atop a roof overlooking the street for the better part of an hour before the human's quick eyes had made the man out from the thinning crowds around them. Dant had elbowed her sharply in the ribs and hissed excitedly in her ear, "Down there to the right, tall man in the patchy brown cloak." Elysha had frowned, scanning the crowd of humans below them from their perch in an attempt to spot Dant's quarry, her sharp Alvain eyes darting from a hunched old man with a cane, to a heavy-set woman berrating a passing group a children for some unknown affront. She thought she knew the man Dant was refering to however as her gaze fixated on a dark bearded man in a patchy brown cloak pushing his way up the street against the current of people exiiting the harbour district - but no - his aggressive demeanor melted away into a great smile as a blonde woman appraoched him from the district and the two embraced. "Who are you talking about Dant - every one of you wear a damn brown cloak." Elysha could practically hear the human beside her role his eyes and he reached into his satchel and produced a small metal cylinder. Elysha took the cylinder from Dant and pulled it apart so it's length doubled, and then placed then brough Dant's spyglass to her field of view. "Do you see the fisherman's wife yelling at those kids for begging in front of her stall ?" Elysha nodded and Dant continued, "Well look just a bit up from there and then to the left of the stone wall where the path opens into the dock district. There is man there having a smoke." Elysha traced the path that Dant described and the spyglass rested on a tall man with thick eyebrows and heavy patchwork brown cloak. He was leaning casually against the stone wall and watching the flood of humanity pour past him as he took long patient drags from a short wooden pipe. He looked completely ordinary to Elysha. "You mean the man with the pipe? The one with the thick eyebrows?", Elysha asked Dant as she passed the spyglass back to him. "He looks normal to me?" Dant feigned offence, "Big eyebrows? That's rich coming from your big-browed Alvain face." Dant smiled at Elysha as he took the spyglass from her. Elysha hadn't worked with Dant for long, only a few years now, but she had quickly grown to like him. Everyone had. Dant was still young, even for a human, and had joined the Wardens at the suggestion of his father who had claimed that his father had served the Wardens in Bareshield as well... but Elysha didn't have the heart to tell poor Dante that she didn't remember working with anyone who fit Dant's grandfathers description and somebody had likely been lying to the poor child. But all the same Dant took things seriously and learned quickly, and she enjoyed working with him more than some of the other humans in The Wardens. Often times some of the humans didn't seem to know how to behave around her, and took her overt preference for Heidi's partnership as some form of coldness or indifference on her part. In truth though, this was simply the second generation of humans she had been serving The Wardens with, and at a certain point it becomes difficult to bond with a race that dies before it's lived a full century. Even Dant, who had just seen his 22nd winter was beginning to show his age. He had landed on his knee funny during a foot chase the autumn prior and seemed to walk with a limp on colder nights like this, and the previous winter he had come down with a terrible cough that seemed to linger in the back of his throat almost a full year later. Elysha made a point of reminding herself that human's tended to slow down before they've even reached their full potential, and only a few short decades after that they're gone too. Still, she liked Dant and didn't mind the occasional jokes he made at her expense; it was refreshing in a way that reminded her of the enclave back home, and she had a hunch she would miss his jokes when he too was gone. "But yeah... the guy with the big eyebrows if you feel like pointing out how ugly all us humans are." Dant smiled a full grin of crooked teeth and tucked the spyglass back into his satchel. "You know I didn't mean it like that Dant." sighed Elysha dryly, "and besides we both know the only human I think is ugly is your children's mother." Dant chuckled quietly and shook his head, "I had that coming I suppose. But yeah - the man smoking. That's our look-out for sure." Elysha gave it a bit more consideration before responding. Dant didn't have a tenth of the experience Elysha had, but the man was particularly good at reading other humans - a trait that had earned him a reputation as a particularly formidable card player. "What makes you so certain? He doesn't look like much, I don't even see a weapon on him. Maybe he is simply enjoying a smoke and waiting for the worst of the rushing hour to die out." Dante gave Elysha a incredulous look, "Look you don't have to believe me, but I'm telling you that's our guy. Look at him - he couldn't be any more suspicious!." The man was now helping a passing pedestrian load the contents of an overturned handcart back into the man's cart. He looked even less formidably now with an armful of cabbages. "I think you're losing your touch Dant." Dant made an exaggerated sigh in response and shook his head slowly, "I'm telling you M'am - this man is our man. Just you wait."
And they did wait. The street continued to clear out and the man repacked and lit his pipe again, and again, and again until at last he seemed to run out of either tabacco or matches and tucked his pipe into his coat to instead bury his hands into his pockets of his cloak as the last of the sun's rays dipped below the buildings to their back. He was still down there now, a think shilouette in the ever darkening landscape of Bareshield, still leaning nonchalantly against the stone wall, but now in such a way that his figure would be impossible to distinquish from the rough stone outline of 6 foot wall if Elysha hadn't already known where he was. At some point in the last hour or so she realized she had owned Dant an apology, but the thought of hearing his sing-songy "I told you so" made her pride hold steady. Judging by the smugness that was now radiating off from the man though - she had a hunch he knew exactly what she was thinking. They heard the soft footsteps of about a half dozen people behind them, then the slow moaning of wood straining under weight as the makeshift ladder they had requistioned to access this rooftop began carrying their comrades to the rooftop perch.