"A story is it?"

Ashmael gazes around the Hero's Welcome then into her empty glass.

Xxenos gives a long-suffering a sigh and has a word with Sid.

Sid rummages beneath the counter for a moment then passes Xxenos a foamy mug of spicy pale lager and says, "There you go, drink in good health!"

Xxenos hands his lager to Ashmael.

Ashmael winks at Xxenos and clears her throat.

"I am from Britannia, that mist-wreathed Isle to the north, yet I do not remember much about my homeland..."

"I shall tell you what I do know.. "

Ashmael ponders.

"..For a gem or two, if yer that interested."

Ashmael gazes hopefully at Xxenos.

Xxenos rolls his eyes at Ashmael then nods as he settles himself on a chair.

"How could I not be?" Xxenos asks as he grins at Ashmael.

Ashmael grins at Xxenos then gathers her thoughts to begin.

"I cannot remember my parents and yet I remember that my first years were happy ones..."

Ashmael gazes into the distance and let's out a wistful sigh.

"When I was still toddling, we took ship for a destination I do not recall, but terrible storms overtook us and we were overtaken by the angry sea... "

An expression of fear crosses Ashmael's face.

"The next I remember was being fished from the water. I thought I was saved in my childish innocence.. How wrong I was."

Ashmael sneers as she takes a drink of her lager.

"My apparent saviors were Slavers, plucking my shipmates from the water and cackling with glee.. I was so young, I did not fully understand... "

"Anyway, the next years are a blur to me, a blur of changing faces and stinking holds... passed from one slaver to the next.."

"It was only through a chance meeting with a captured rogue that I discovered something I had forgotten - Freedom!"

A look of grim determination passes across Ashmael's features.

"I never discovered his name, but the rogue taught me as best he could the secrets of his craft and I soon realized that the only reason he accepted his imprisonment was for my sake.. "

"This carried on for some years, then, one fateful day, he was caught stealing food for me and was dealt a dire punishment..."

Ashmael looks a bit queasy.

"He was taken out onto the dock of Piraeus at midnight and flogged. Flogged until his screams became pitiful whimpers and then flogged some more."

"As I watched, wide-eyed, a cold rage built within me till I could no longer control it.."

Ashmael's body tenses as her fist clenches around her lager.

"There were three of them, two slavers and a quartermaster and if I'd thought about what I was to attempt I would be dead or still a slave.. But as I saw my friends eyes close and the breath leave his body, my brain, mysteriously enough, left the building."

Ashmael ponders.

"Anyway, instinct took over and I grabbed a nicked dagger that was lying there and fell upon the whip-wielder, screaming and crying as I aimed for his neck. He shrugged me off easily and I fell to the floor, winded. But anger lent me strength and I rolled to one side as he jumped for me and brought my dagger slashing down into his back."

Xxenos listens intently to Ashmael.

"It was not my first sight of blood, but it was the first by my own hand and for a moment it gave me pause."

"It was a pause I could ill afford as I found my arms being roughly pinned at my back by the other slaver. I struggled helplessly for a time then froze as the quartmaster strutted toward me with an evil smile upon his rat-ugly face. My captor snickered in my ear as the Quartermaster gazed leeringly at me and I knew what they had planned.... "

Ashmael shudders.

"Cold fear clenched my belly and adrenalin flooded my veins. It was now, truly, do or die."

"I waited, tensed, as the Quartermaster came nearer... nearer... NOW! I kicked my foot violently into his groin and cracked my head back against the slavers chin. I took my chance and twisted quickly away, snatching a kris dagger from the slavers belt as I moved."

Ashmael taps a bronze kris dagger.

"I had seconds and I knew it, so I took them."

"I threw the first dagger with all my strength at the slaver and heard a satisfying meaty *THUNK* as it found it's target... But I could not stop to celebrate just yet.... "

"The smile on the Quartermaster's face had contorted into a vengeful, angry sneer as he eyed me up and down.. I clenched my fist around the remaining dagger and circled him warily, knowing that I'd likely only have one shot so I'd best make it count."

"The Quartermaster drew a dirty sword from his scabbard and ran a finger down the blade, drawing his own blood and smiling at me in a chilling manner. Then, all of a sudden, in a flurry of moves I could barely avoid, he leapt upon me and attacked."

"I was out-matched, in strength and skill, but I had justice on my side and I somehow managed to parry the worst of his thrusts. But he was quick! Several times I felt the cold-fire of the dirty steel rake my flesh.. My arms, my chest..  I was loosing blood and my strength was failing fast."

Ashmael stares into the distance, seemingly living in the past as she continues her tale.

"My strength was finally exhausted as adrenalin washed away with my blood and I stumbled, thudding painfully to the ground."

Xxenos rubs Ashmael gently.

"I gazed up at my enemy and my eyes filled with tears of hate and defeat. He knew he had me and he howled with triumph as he prepared for the killing stroke."

An expression of wonder crosses Ashmael's face.

"I know not which God or Goddess saw fit to spare me that day, but by some miracle, as his sword began it's inevitable arc, my dagger flashed up, up! To bury itself deep in his vile gut."

"He stared in seething anger and disbelief as his sword clattered to the floor and he collapsed, dead, at my feet.”

"I knelt there for a moment and wept, wept for my friend, myself, and the necessity of what I had done."

"Then I stood, and I ran... I know not for how long.. Stumbling and crawling, my hands covered with blood and my wounds festering."

A tear runs down Ashmael's face and Xxenos reaches up to gently stroke her hair.

Ashmael gives herself a little shake and seems to return to the present.

"And here I am, in fair Athens ... To the best of my knowledge my parents and my teacher, are dead.  But I am free... "

Ashmael gazes thoughtfully at her glass.

"...And drunk."

Ashmael guzzles her lager in one go.. Aren't we all impressed?

Ashmael belches.

Xxenos chuckles at Ashmael .

Ashmael grins at Xxenos.

"So about dose gems...?"

Ashmael takes Xxenos' hand and guides him out of the bar.