Ayla found herself catching compliments without the grace she felt was due to her conversationalists. She had not received praise often and therefore found the entire process a bit disarming. In efforts to dodge the niceties that made her uncomfortable, Ayla chuckled quietly and looked to the floor.

“You are too kind by far.” Taking to the proffered seat, the elf busied herself by scraping leftovers from the bowls into one singular receptacle. It was good to busy her hands with a simple chore. 

“I am hardly above cleaning a dish or two,” Ayla replied with a mirroring smile, though she still harbored awkward flutters in her belly. “But I understand that this is your domain and I would not want to step on any toes.”

After removing leftovers from the individual dishes, she lined the platters by kind to be batch-able. She made a collection of bowls together and separated them from the glasses and a third pile of flatware. 

“I am simply looking for better prospects elsewhere.” Still focused on her task, Ayla spoke as truthfully as she could while being still vague enough to avoid trouble. “In search of adventure, I guess you could say. A new life with fresher air.”

With the plates prepped for cleaning, Ayla found a towel beside the basin. “The boys are quite sweet. It warms my heart to see them living well for themselves. I am sure there is tragedy behind them being at such hard work so young, though they seem to bear it well.” She began to collect damp platters one by one and wipe them of their dew as the two women continued conversation.

“I have not seen many women among the crew. How does one find oneself running a ship kitchen?”