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Date Posted: 17:22:57 01/20/02 Sun
Author: Corum, Valhorek, & Erlic
Subject: Unusual tendencies
In reply to: Laurel 's message, "Remembering something" on 01:43:52 01/20/02 Sun

As the group departed, Corum was glad to have Tia riding with him. She was neat, and he almost considered her a sister, well he had to consider her a sister, for she always seemed to like Rowan. But that was all right by him. As long as he had her for a friend, that would be sufficient. He didn’t think it would lead to anything more than that since the elf was beautiful, and that she preferred Rowan.

They exchanged various dialogues during the trip, taking brief pleasure in each other’s company. Barry suddenly popped up next to him, and explained how he, and some of the Jann women had gotten it on.

“You better watch yourself dude,” Corum stated to the skull. “One of these days, one of the husbands, or boyfriends, isn’t going to like you too much, and really knock some sense out of you.”

He smiled at that statement, still trying to figure out what it was that Barry was actually doing here. He really hadn’t gone into any detail, but since he had been here, the skull had managed to help them out considerably.

And that’s when the whole group stopped, after a whole bunch of arrows came flying through the air, and landing directly in front of them. They were told to dismount, and raise their hands. “Now how in the world is Yorik supposed to raise his hand?” Corum said to no one in particular as he dismounted, and helped Tia dismount as well.

As instructed he raised his hands, holding Yorik up in one of them. They were asked to pull on their beards for some unknown reason, and soon were being led toward the camp of the centaurs. It was quite obvious that Barry was going to have a field day with them. “Just watch yourself dude,” Corum stated to the skull. “Don’t want you getting into any trouble where I have to save your sorry arse,” he finished with a laugh.

Eventually they arrived, and took a seat near the campfire. Roasted snake sounded decent, and with that thought in mind, Corum found himself extremely hungry. “Are you OK?” he asked Tia. “You seemed a bit, I don’t know, not like yourself.”

******************************


Valhorek had a tendency to keep an eye on Ravin, and the thief was doing quite well. A few times he gave the man some water, rather than the ale he preferred to drink. Val would have to try and explain that alcohol was not a good substitute for water, especially when one was injured.

The encounter with the centaurs was most unusual, and Valhorek dismounted, and helped Ravin down as best as possible. Eventually, after explaining why they had been detained, the group was led to the Centaur camp, where they were going to dine on roasted snake.

The healer recalled his incident in the enchanted forest with another group of centaurs, and took the liberty of approaching one of them. He quickly explained that he was a healer, and if he could be allowed to speak with the healer of the group. After discussing the matter with some of the others, the centaur led him to another area. “Jamal is our healer, and perhaps she can explain matters to you,” the centaur explained.

Valhorek immediately made friends with the female centaur, and the two of them shared, and exchanged medical information. He didn’t care how strange some of their procedures might seem, it was a matter of extensive knowledge. He needed to know how to care not only for humans, but also for the various races that existed. The two of them shared their meal in Jamal’s tent, while continuing their conversation.

A faint sound attracted both Val, and Jamal, as they looked to each other before hearing the sound again. The both followed the sound until Val happened to spot something lying on the ground about thirty feet away from them. Once they arrived they spotted a bird lying on the sand near death. “Shaheen!” Jamal quickly stated. Not too familiar with the word, Valhorek asked the woman to explain. Jamal stated that it was a bird of prey, and a member of the peregrine. Val quickly recognized that to be birds of the hawk or falcon family.

The healer knew enough about birds of prey, that they could attack even while injured. He tried to talk softly to the injured bird, and finally got up enough nerve to pet its head. When the bird didn’t try to attack, Val quietly lifted it up off the ground, and carried it back to Jamal’s tent. Within the scope of thirty minutes, the healer, along with the help of Jamal, found out that the bird’s wing had been severely damaged, along with certain injuries to its breast. Val was able to use his psychic powers to mend the internal injuries to the bird, and with a little help from Apollo, tried his best to close the wound to the wing, and to the breast. Val asked if Jamal would wish to keep the bird but pleasantly declined. She insisted that since he had healed the bird, it was now his responsibility to nurture it back to health. With some help from Jamal, they formulated a plan as to what the bird should eat, and drink. Even now, that the bird had regained consciousness, Val was already feeding it water. Now all he had to do was think of a name.

*************


Erlic thought it odd that Laurel chose not to ride with him. Hadn’t she been trying to be friendlier with him, and he with her? He simply shook his head, and allowed the druid to have her way. However, he was quite curious about the statement she had made, and what possible undertones were being implied.

“That is, it would be silly for us to burden one beast. Neither of us is an invalid, and we certainly are not lovers.”

Just exactly what did she mean by that? The more he tried to understand her, the more he found himself being totally confused. He had presumed that she had no intentions of entering into an affair of sorts, and had to wonder about her statement.

"I didn't realize that one had to fall into one of the two categories to ride together," Erlic stated with a smile.

He simply pushed the thought aside, as they rode together saying very little to each other. It felt very awkward, especially after they had managed to settle their differences just the night before. During the almost silent journey Erlic kept his eyes on constant alert for any signs of danger. Assassins preferred to attack under the cover of darkness. The darkness helped conceal their stealth, and their presence. It was something Erlic could attest to being an assassin himself. As far as he could see, there was no impending danger, at least not yet, from the assassins.

The sudden stop of the group, and the arrows that almost surrounded them brought Erlic to his defense. He had immediately withdrew several shurikens, and waited. The voice echoed its warning, and considering he didn’t know how accurate their numbers were, decided to comply with their wishes, although he kept the shurikens hidden.

He almost smiled when asked to pull on his bear, but met the terms of the condition. Soon Ebessa, leader of the clan Awati was informing them of the incidents with the Sharm. Erlic quickly placed his shurikens into their compartment, and followed along until they arrived at the Centaur camp.

Erlic took a good look around him judging the size of the camp, and its defenses as well. He would need to speak with Ebessa, and tell her the truth about the impending danger of the assassins that were on their trail. It wouldn’t be polite to simply conceal the information, especially when their lives could be in danger.

Erlic had seated, and was just starting to bite into the savory snake meat when Laurel sat down next to him, and joined him. Her next remark took him a bit off guard. “I confess that I am curious as to what took you away from me so urgently last night. What was it my brother needed to speak to you about that simply couldn’t wait until later?”

The woman definitely had a knack of trying to get to the point of matters, and Erlic wasn’t about to tell her the truth. Of course he wouldn’t directly lie to her either. That wouldn’t be fair to her, or to him. However, a portion of the truth should help matters out considerably.

“It’s common practice,” Erlic began. “To know as much about the people I travel with as possible.” He realized the importance of getting to know everything, if at all possible, about those that he had journeyed with. It helped him in relying on various individuals for certain set tasks, which he knew could be carried out without any difficulties. “At least for me, it is,” Erlic finished before taking another bite of the snake meat.

“I had overheard the term Shado”, Erlic began once he had swallowed his food. “And I merely meant to ask Rowan what type of definition it held, in case it could help us with our defense against the assassins.”

At the time any help in the art of assassination would have been appreciated, and since Erlic had approached Rowan, the elf had explained the term in great detail, and had helped him carry out the killing of the men spying upon the group. Although it wasn’t the end to the problem, it helped minimize their numbers.

This didn’t rule out the strengths of the other members within the group. On the contrary, their help would be greatly needed against such numbers. It usually took, depending upon the person’s skill, one assassin to every three, possibly four good fighters, regardless whether they fought single handed or dual handed. That was the finesse the assassin possessed, the ability to move at lightning speed, determine within an instant the strength, and weakness of his opponent, and without too much exertion, be capable of exterminating each of his opponents, and still be able to either escape, or carry out his assignment.

“Anyway,” Erlic continued. “Rowan didn’t go into great detail, and stated that it was something from the past, and he wished it to remain so.”

Hopefully that would ease any of Laurel’s suspicions regarding his own activity as an assassin, as well as her brother’s. Wishing to turn the conversation in another direction, Erlic decided to ask about the cat. “I’ve seen you found yourself another friend,” Erlic stated regarding the cat. “Are you going to keep it with you, or will you let it go its own way?”

He hoped that he had answered Laurel’s question to the best of his ability. No sense in letting his secret out, especially now that it concerned Rowan.

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