"No, Kat, this stranger was just saying that maybe you and I should travel with him when we left town. Safety in numbers sort of thing. Is that the way that people usually do things?"
"Yeah, that's how people should do things, Rain. You've got to be careful who you trust, though-they might just decide to cut your throat for you while you sleep and loot your corpse, or tie you up and haul you off to the local meat market...or maybe just rob you blind, leave you hungry and cold in the wastes-it's alot slower than cutting, but no less cruel. And there's some who will do whatever they like once they have you, just because they can." She said, in a conversational manner, her tone sweetly dissonant with her words. Kat rarely seemed to raise her voice for anything but her music.
It was a danger, these people. Kat had been very wary of Rain herself for a few days, until they knew each other. She had done her best to warn Rain about bandits and meat markets (or, Slaver Camps)-about how some of them had taken lying to an artform, and enjoyed trapping the guileless. Not all of the matched the cliche, either-the road leather wearing, tattooed, piercing clad hulks that seemed to be the popular conception of them.
Some monsters were quite congenial-until they got you.
So, Kat didn't quite trust this man at first glance, but she listened to him.
"Nice to meet you too Kat. Your friend here, Rain, told me your name, so don't get too worried about it. I'm Troy, and I noticed you ladies could use a bit of help in the wild. It's a dangerous place outside these walls and I'm currently between jobs, so I figured since we are getting kicked out together tomorrow, we could come to an agreement of sorts. I can help find food and water, fight bandits and wild animals, find safe paths and all sorts of interesting and useful stuff. Interested?"
She addressed Troy directly.
"You make a good case.
I'm not unfriendly to strangers, but how can we trust you...Troy? Some guys see two gals like us traveling alone and they think 'jackpot, lucky me'...you one of those guys?" Kat said, reading his response. She knew she would be able to tell if he was lying.