Joska watches her go, then peers down to the tiny woman. "You two are very close, eh?" she asks.

She smiles back at Erinn, fixing Joska with a penetrating look before nodding crisply. "Yes. We were young together, her parents helped mine, kept us off the street.. Her mam taught us together, like I mattered. She is not here, but Erinn is, they are the same."

Joska nods, returning the gaze. "Then you are right to treasure her friendship, little one. It is good to have such a close friend." she gives a toothy smile, then lowers her gaze to Mitoolia's rapidly vanishing food, gesturing with a nod. "You certainly eat a lot for one so small. It is...impressive." she says, before meeting the little gnomes gaze once more.

She gives a little snort. "You come from a land of plenty, I do not. I eat whatever trash and scraps I can find, dirt alone if I have to. When there is food I eat, the fatter I can get the safer I am an' longer I can go between." She gestures with her dwindling hunk of cheese. "The trick is keepin' it all down.. sometimes it gets so its harder to keep the good down than it was the bad.."

She chuckles a little. "A land of plenty, indeed." she says, polishing off the last of her drink. "That is a pity though, I sometimes have trouble keeping food down as well." she then pauses, looking at Mitoolia consideringly. "Do you really eat dirt?"

She gives a little laugh. "Who would say they ate dirt if they did not? I ate dirt on my way here in fact. It was a long road, many farms but too many angry farmers.. them and the storms.." she shakes her head. "Bad for scrounging, and I was in a hurry. More to eat in the woods, unless goblinz getcha, but I had dirt or nothing, so I ate dirt. Kinda gritty, but it fills the hole."

"Fascinating." says Joska. "You must tell me more about yourself, little one. There are not many of your kind willing to speak to me."

She cocks her head suddenly, eying Joska narrowly. "Aren't many of my kind period. Most're huddlin' in the dark clingin' to their tails an' hopin' they don't get the boot and end up eaten by goblinz." She shovels in another couple bites of soup before gesturing with her spoon. "An' those are the ones that're more 'town friendly'.. an' I don' mean nice." She gives a misshapen ear a tug. "I been run out more times'n I can count.. I ain't got big ol' rat teeth stickin' outta my face, but that's about all I got goin' for me."
She holds up her pale hand, turning it front and back and wrigglin' her little delicately jointed fingers, their yellowish nail claws and slightly raised pads on the underside more obvious when attention is called to them. The skin of the hand itself is completely 'white' unlike the darker ruddy tan of the rest of her, and it becomes piebald down the wrist where the mismatched sleeve lengths of her simple greyish shift fail to hide it. "Lookit that, that ain' Normal."

Joska leans over the table curiously, peering down to get a better look. "How unusual..." she mumbles to herself, then eases back down into her seat.

Some of the locals are watching the exchange with odd expressions.

She then eases back into the chair, causing it to creak and groan as she does so. "Wait..." she pauses. "'Clinging to their tails'..." she repeats Mitoolias comment. "Do *you* have a tail?" she asks in a hushed but excited tone, leaning in eagerly. She beams toothily as she does so, revealing her full set of fangs, looking far more intimidating then she likely intends to be.

Mitoolia snatches her hand back, clutching it to her chest with the other, hunkering down her her seat hissing "Stop that!" She immediately truncates the sound with a strangled squeak and flinches, dropping her gaze to her nearly empty soup bowl, grinding her teeth before responding bitterly. "Its a rare enough mutation, and I'd be a damned fool to claim it in the middle of a room full of people already out of their minds with goblinz an' you an' the killins yesterday."

"You *Do*..." she exclaims quietly, then relaxes and eases back into her chair, causing it to groan loudly. She takes a drink from her cup for a moment, regarding you silently, then speaks. "I apologize, I did not mean to embarrass you. I was simply curious. Please, forgive me."

She regards the ogress with incredulity. "Embarrass me?? I would Prefer shame!" She cuts off and snorts again, bringing her voice back down to their table only with great effort, her indignation plain. "People- THESE people" she gestures in a circle which includes the room, "-kill mine for being different. The More different, the faster they decide the world is better off without us, the easier it is to convince the few who might be sympathetic that it was the 'right' thing to do. I am not ashamed of who Or what I am, but I know better than to flash my bits at folk who'd already rather I be dead than under their roof.. Shades, I ain't lived this long fer that."