[color=a2d39c]"Hmph... well, when you put it like that, yes, it ain't something you'd expect."[/color] Gherken remembered saying to the bandit, before she and the rest of the crew had packed up their things and left for the road. [color=a2d39c]"...But I'm not the one who wants it, I'm just a glorified postwoman. Personally, I'd take a good Beer over your cheap piss-honey any day."[/color]

Since then, the Orc veteran couldn't help but shake a feeling of unease from her. She was, by nature, a lone wolf who played by her own rules. Granted, she had a sense of military discipline about her, but that was part of 'her own rules', as developed by two decades' worth of courier work. But now she was being strung along with some people she barely knew, and while they certainly seemed competent, she didn't really trust them in a professional sense just yet. They all seemed too... independent, and chaotic. 

Someone else might say this was due to a higher-than-average proportion of Argonians amongst them than... just about any Merc group north of Leyawiin, not counting Black Marsh itself, obviously. But she knew that the Guerrilla forces active in the Marsh were just as disciplined as any other professional army, so such an assumption would be wildly inaccurate. No, this was something else.

[color=a2d39c]"Guess I can't stay anti-social for long in this ragtag bunch o' misfits, huh?"[/color] She made an attempt at sarcasm, not that she was used to talking much beyond clients and bartenders. She knew already that trying to militarise the group wouldn't go down well with laid-back misfits such as these, so instead decided to adapt herself to the circumstances. 

[color=a2d39c]"...My name's Gherken Grumar. Well... actually it's Gra-Umar, but everyone says Grumar 'cause it's easier t'pronounce."[/color]

It was at this point that she stopped fulfilling the bare minimum and perhaps began to overcompensate in the chattiness department. Plus, she might as well make some use of the people she was with beyond their apparent fighting expertise. Usually there was some kind of logic behind their jobs, but with this one, not even the militant Gherken could resist asking questions as they approached the town of Riverwood. Plus, it might make them look less out of place if they were talking. A visible overt military presence in civilian territory tends to unnerve people.

[color=a2d39c]"'Kay, no-one else's asked anythin', so I'm gonna take the arrow. Three questions, actually. First, why are we takin' the long path to the mountain, when we could just cut through that forest there? Second, what's with gettin' paid this much for a bottle of worthless Mead? I mean, I ain't complainin', but I know good booze when I see it, and that ain't it. Third, there's certainly a lot of Argonians here. I mean, I was in Black Marsh a couple weeks ago, an' from what I gathered, everybody an' their mothers was goin' back there because of the whole, y'know, security in independence thing they got goin'. Plus, the weather's nice; warm an' reasonably moist, not like Elsweyr."[/color]