jxded

Your character has just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As they look around, their gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. They duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? She begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.

((How do you respond?))
 

Naivara halts to a sudden stop, her eyes snapping towards the back of the room and away from their silent surveying of the dingy room.

"Uh..." She pauses slightly to regain composure before straightening into a careless, confident stance and plastering a smile on her face, trying her best to quiet the unease in her gut. "Hello there, I'm Naivara. Though..." her smile twists into something slightly wry yet questioning, "I suppose you already know that."

Sensing the old woman's silence and unwillingness to take the bait, Naivara sighs and takes a few slow steps forward, throwing glances at the candles bobbing in the air around her and casually scanning for any possible threats. She halts a few paces before the crone and tilts her head up slightly, sizing up the woman before her with crossed arms — the only hint of her unease being the slight, almost imperceptible fidget of her gold bangle.

"Well... Where to start," Naivara begins, resigning herself to divulging just enough to appease this mysterious woman. Despite the lack of immediate danger she sensed in the tent, the stranger seemed... unlike someone to cross.

"I grew up in a secluded, tight-knit community of wood elves — I doubt you would have heard of it,” she trails off slightly as she begins her retelling, eyes glossing over in quiet nostalgia. "It was breathtaking, serene — the kind of picturesque place where one would wake to birdsong and where everyone knew everyone."

Her eyes suddenly hardened, a flash of pain flitting across her features before being quickly replaced by a cool, shuttered mask. "Of course, it didn't last. Before my parents passed..." she stalled, clearly unwilling to go any deeper with this woman, "...they bid me leave, go out and see beyond the confines of home. And so, here I am! Exploring the world and all the dingy tents it has to offer!" She widens her arms in a performative manner, gesturing at the long shadows of the rooms sarcastically, and forces her voice into something unbothered and grand, a saccharine smile on her features.