[Elora]

Vanwe's lips curved into a smile before she could think twice at Beren's impish wink. She folded her fingers and shifted a little in her seat as she let them fall back to her lap and away from polite sight after they had vainly attempted to still her laughter. In such merry company it was easy to relax a little, as the cant of her shoulders suggested. She sat back in her chair, still smiling and notch by notch she unwound.

Meeting new people had never been easy for her, but then they had not been so pleasant as Falco and Beren were proving. Derufin poured out the wine in ample measure. Vanwe watched the glass nearest to her fill. There was no room for water to be added. She waited for Derufin to sit. A glass was pushed towards her. Fingers speckled lightly green and white wrapped around the stem and pulled it closer.

She was thirsty after a day's work, pleasant as it had been. What matter that the wine was unwatered? It surely could not be so strong as to unlodge her from her chair in one glass, could it? She raised her glass, inspecting its contents whilst those at the table discussed the matter of a suitable toast.

"To the pleasure of newly met companions and the gentle Shire," Vanwe offered to the discussion. It was bolder than her usual wont, but then she was thirsty and the wine's bouquet sharpened that edge. Derufin, Beren and Falco glanced at each other and then acquiesed, some with a shrug. The sweet taste of unwatered wine greeted Vanwe.

Like rains newly come to the desert, she welcomed it with vigour. She did not lower her glass with the others, throat dry. When she did set down her glass there was a warm buzz within her head and the glass was near empty. Derufin raised one brow, to which her smile was her response. Her tension had melted away.

"They make wonderful wine in the south," she commented, laughing lightly for a reason she could not quite put her finger on at that moment. What she did note is that her thirst had not entirely abated. Vanwe sipped a little more delicately at her glass. She gave a small sigh of consternation when it emptied all too soon from her chair at the table. She had hoped to use the wine to remedy her painted hands.

As if she sat alone, Vanwe upended her glass to pry a few reluctant drops from her glass onto her fingers. She resisted the temptation to suck the wine from them and instead started to work at the paint. It started to give way. She had nearly rid her fingers of all the daubing when she heard a droll voice comment, "Interesting uses can the sweet southern wines be put to."

Vanwe's head bobbed up as the last speck surrendered.

"Would anyone like some more wine?" She reached now cleaner hands towards the bottle, ready to pour. The same droll voice added, "I, for one, will be intrigued to see what next she does with her glass of wine." Beren winked with the comment. Vanwe winked back and renewed his glass, seeing to Derufin's and Falco's before her own.

She breathed in the wine's boquet as she raised her glass and resolved to pay better attention to doings at the table rather than fidgeting in her lap like a child. For that she was not.

"What brings you to the Green Dragon, Master Falco," Vanwe inquired lightly as though she often made light conversation over unwatered wine.