"Oh..." Mel replied to Lucio as she slowly removed her hands and tucked them behind her back, keeping them from Lucio's sight. "You're right. I'm sorry." She said sternly and with just a hint of heat behind her sudden seriousness. She turned and was about to leave before his formal introduction turned her right back around. Her mood lightened a bit and her smile gleamed again. "Lucio..." She said his name under her breath, rehearsing the sound it made. "My father always called me Melerindalowen." She replied with earnest. "But... you can probably call me.. Mel? Yea just call me Mel!" Her real name seemed like a mouth full and so far the only two people she had met had shorter, cleaner names. There was always Melerin or something but for some reason when Mel came up with her abbreviated name on the spot, she thought the shorter, the better. 

Mel would have likely continued the conversation if not for something popping in her head. "Eargen!" She hollered, probably confusing Lucio greatly. "Eargen!" She said it again and glanced around the tavern, not hearing anything. Not waiting for Lucio to inquire or anything she took off in a haste. In mid stride she shifted into the form of a wolf and began smelling the air and ground vigorously. The she-wolf howled and darted up and over the collapsed giant, still partially lying inside a collapsed tavern. She vanished from at least Lucio's view.

------

Mel woke up coiled in her large bearskin cloak. The brisk chilling air failed to stir Mel from her sleep but the shouts and hammers of nearby activity did. She was resting just outside town in view of the backside of the tavern. Eargen was a no show last night. He fled from the center of town from what Mel could tell, apparently in the direction of where the giants came. His tracks and his scent sort of dissipated because the scent of the giants were so pungent. Why would he run towards the incoming giants? Did he summon them? Did he try to fight them? Regardless there was no body and Mel hoped Eargen wasn't eaten. He was a sweet dwarf and the only other friend she had in this world, aside from Lucio.

Rising from her cloak, she picked it up and gave the exterior a pat down or two, wiping away the accumulated down. Then she hauled it around her shoulders and brought the two ends around and tied together using a bit of leather on the inside to do so. Her moccasins fell from their hiding place and plopped right next to her feet. She slipped her feet in and then picked up her metal staff. She entered the inn just in time to witness vials of something being passed around. She shook her head when offered one and stepped back, away from the group. Wasn't so much as distancing herself, as it was to study the builders repairing the wall. The concept of architecture and construction was something new.