Al-kin attentively listened to all the chief had to say. Eyes danced over his face and body as he talked, gaging each reaction, each small microcosm of emotion there. It was obvious that the chief of this people was well trained and well composed. Yet his culture ranged all about him and it was this that Al-kin endeavored to read. For to not know what expectations were required could prove fatal and nearly had a time or two.

The relief came when with a start, Al-kin realized that the chief did not see his guest as a danger, nor as a prisoner. The giving of names outside of his tribal culture proved that. It amused Al-kin to note that the chief seemed to almost indicate he felt Al-kin as an equal by the act. But then, that would have assumed that to Arlix’s people, names meant the same as they did to Al-kin’s. There was high doubt of that being true. Still, due to Al-kin’s own care in providing a name, such things were of greater import and thus, a bit of a conundrum.

The woman come and gone, food set before them, Al-kin tries the liquid. The taste is bitter with a thick, sour taste underlying the spice and sweet. It is such a complex taste for the traveler that another taste is taken and Al-kin’s face cannot keep from showing the complete newness of the experience. There had been ale in the ale houses along the way, for human kind drank little in the way of water, yet Al-kin had not sat to break bread with any human and therefore hadn’t felt the need to drink the human’s drink.

After a small cough which as due more to the strength of the drink and less to the state of lungs, Al-kin grunted and put the cup down alongside one foot. A small square of white cloth, embroidered with sigils along the edges was removed from a back pocket and placed upon Al-kin’s lap. Then, nodding in acceptance, Al-kin too reached for meat and bread. That it might be treated with poison or some other danger did not outweigh the hospitality shown and Al-kin was dreadfully hungry as well.

"I thank you for the offer for respite. My name too is but a calling and I have others which I am called. But I’m sorry to say, not by those we would call stranger," Al-kin felt the need to almost apologize for not taking the man into confidence in the same way. "However, you honor me with your name and I will strive to respect your wishes." Al-kin bowed at the chest as one might to another in proper gratitude, not so deeply, accepting the token of equality.

"You ask what a pooka is," Al-kin smiled. "I cannot say myself. I was but of the People until I came out of the People and began my search. I have heard many a word to describe my kind since, yet cannot say what it is about us that gives others the right to name us so." A delicate brow arched, Al-kin gazed at the human. "There is little of the magic and power that is ascribed to us in each description. Yet I suspect that we seem as strange to other kinds as other kinds do to us. We often give nomikers to those we do not understand. And there has been small opportunity to know my kind. My people do not often leave their homeland. Generally only for reasons of being cast out.

"Yet that is most done for insanity or madness, what I’ve heard your kind call evil intentions. So perhaps due to the hearts of those which have been cast away, such words as trickster might fit?" Al-kin attempted also to understand, but there was little sense in it. Al-kin’s life had not included talk about or even with other beings until quite recently.

The traveler ate with care not to spill even the slightest crumb, one hand cupped under a chin, and yet did not seem to mind talking around the food. Now and again, the hand which caught the crumbs would dance over the white cloth and drop them into it, but went back to capture any others.

Al-kin gazed at the leader of this small band of humans. "It interests me how your kind came to still be here, to live like this, when there is so much offered in your outside world. You are not ignorant of it. I can tell by the way in which you have not balked from me.

"You must recognize that your way of life is looked down on by some and thought of as simple by others. Yet you continue to lead your people to live as they do. This intrigues me. You are not like my people in this, for my people do not know of the outside world nor does the outside world know much of them."

Al-kin’s gaze was intent and questioning. "The map I was given indicated your existence. You live in a land of beauty and yet none have come to take it from you by force or magic. Is it that others think of you as too insignificant to bother with or that others fear you?"

Tilted head, Al-kin gazed at this human while chewing in thought. To be sure, Arlix was a man who exuded confidence and was all as much a leader as some of the warrior leaders Al-kin had seen. Yet the man did not seem to be so much a warrior as a king. Still, Al-kin knew that strength and charisma could stretch so far. At some time, Arlix and his people had to have dealt with those others in the outside world. Arlix’s very response to Al-kin stated as much.

[Sounds good to me. I'm sure some direction will occur soon enough.]

__________________

‘What will my death be like?’ he thought- and knew at once
with abrupt certainty, that it would be just like his life:
... the same balance of bearables.
~Amis