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Date Posted: 23:05:10 01/06/02 Sun
Author: Tristan and Laurel
Subject: Readying for departure
In reply to: Corum & Erlic 's message, "Barry, and far away sounds" on 16:28:29 01/06/02 Sun

When Tristan heard about the fight between Marz and Justin, he sucked in a breath, glancing quickly at the heavy mercenary. The man was glaring hard in their direction, his eyes focused mainly on Marz. It wasn’t hard to believe that a skirmish had broken out between the two of them, especially since Marz had a habit of only deepening the dislike his enemies usually had for him. Tristan growled very lowly in his throat, for unlike Dalo, Justin was no friend of his. The big ugly human was definitely on his shit list now, and Marz could count on having backup the next time he and the merc had a go at one another.

He turned to examine his friend’s face again, deciding that he was probably more beat up than Tristan had realized at first. Marz must be hurting like hell. As usual, he made no complaints, though, even if he was spitting out blood and sounded like his whole mouth was swollen when he tried to speak. He even claimed he wanted a rematch! Tristan rolled his eyes discreetly and moved to pat his knee with a consoling hand.

“You don’t look like shit,” he assured him. Although you probably feel like it, he thought to himself, but he knew Marz likely wouldn’t admit to that. He shook his head slightly as Marz turned his head to spit out more blood, but he couldn’t help smiling, too. “Course I’m biased,” he added shyly with a shrug. “I think you always look good.”

Although the bruises and bloodstains did tend to distort the picture somewhat, but he kept that to himself. He looked up and frowned at Erlic, who was gesturing for Marz to follow him. Apparently, this was to be a closed conversation, since the older man abruptly led his student away out of earshot. Even though he was clearly not expected to follow, Tristan thought about doing it anyway. A small part of him didn’t like to share Marz’s private company, but mostly he just wanted to go out of curiosity. He knew Erlic would be most displeased if he caught him eavesdropping, though, so he stayed where he was. For some reason, the thought of making Erlic dislike him even more than he probably did now was disturbing to him.

He was pulled from his momentary concerns by Jeremy, who suddenly appeared to dump a handful of swords at his feet. Tristan shot him a questioning look, noticing for the first time that his own sword was lying close by as well. He picked it up and sheathed it before returning his gaze to Jeremy.

“What,” he asked in a careful voice, “Are all these for?”

Jeremy shrugged and glanced in the direction Marz and Erlic had disappeared in. “Marz told me to get them,” he answered, looking extremely disappeared that his idol wasn’t here to compliment him on his speedy delivery. Tristan picked one of the swords up and twirled it a bit, not too impressed with its noticeable lack of balance and poor craftsmanship.

“Did Marz tell you to kiss his ass, too?” he asked mildly, still studying the sword in his hand, “Or do you do that voluntarily?”

That grabbed Jeremy’s attention. He looked abruptly away from where he’d been watching for Marz to reappear and stared at Tristan. “Huh?”

“Never mind,” Tristan muttered, standing up after tossing the sword back into the pile. He surveyed the weapons with disgust, deciding that this whole possessive nature thing was going to be a real pain in the rear while it lasted. How the hell did Marz think he was going to carry all those, anyway?

After a few minutes passed, Erlic and Marz did eventually reemerge, Marz breaking off and heading in his direction when he saw the pile of swords. There was no denying the greedy look on his face, so Tristan just sighed, deciding already that it would be pointless to try and convince him he didn’t need ten or twelve extra weapons.

“Look, I’ve been thinking about what happened this morning,” he said, as soon as Marz was close enough to hear. “I…sort of told Erlic I didn’t think it was a good idea for you to continue working on the chakras.” No, I actually sort of told him we wouldn’t have anything to do with it period, he thought, but he didn’t say that aloud. Marz might respect his teacher too much to forgive Tristan for being a bit of a jerk to him. “Do you think it was the right thing to do?”

Once again, he thought of the recent fight with Justin that had occurred while he’d been unconscious. Suppose Erlic hadn’t been there to break it up, and Marz had gotten so angry he let his magic burst free again? Tristan would have been oblivious to his dilemma. It was the type of scenario he’d once proposed to Erlic himself, and was the basis for why he’d insisted Marz begin working on the chakras immediately in the first place. But now, because of this morning, he wasn’t so sure. Could he really sit by and let him experience his fears again? He almost thought it’d be too much for him, for both of them, really, so he just wasn’t sure. Damn it, he’d just never known what it felt like to worry over someone so much, and now he didn’t know how to deal with it!

~*~*~*~*~

Once the battle came to an end, Laurel hopped down from the rock, telling Tia to stay put so she didn’t bump into anything. It would be tragic if the little thief took into her pretty head to wander off, and ended up getting herself lost! Quietly, she whispered to her brother to watch over Tia and make sure she stayed safe, since the girl didn’t look too happy about staying put for long. No doubt she’d soon decide that what little she could see was sight enough at least, and would end up twisting her ankle in some unseen hole or some such thing.

Laurel hurriedly went about visiting each dead mant body, checking to see if any of her arrows lay buried within the creatures’ flesh. It was a foul job, but she didn’t fancy losing half her supply to this peasly little battle. The bodies were still warm, and the arrow shafts made awful sticky sucking noises as she yanked them free. Wrinkling her nose, she withdrew the final one at least, cleaning the head on the ground, before replacing it with the others.

Presently, she searched for Ravin, since he had volunteered to discover the whereabouts of Tia’s dagger and return it to her. She found the thief discussing something with his friend Erlic, who had just returned from somewhere he’d gone off with Marz to. Whatever master and student had been up to was clearly none of her business; however, seeing the serious expressions on both Ravin and Erlic’s faces as they quietly talked made her more curious than she could stand.

As she considered herself a senior member of this group—that is, her level of maturity far exceeded a good half of those currently present—she approached the pair with confidence, certain that whatever important matter they were discussing could be shared with her. After all, Erlic had seemed to think very highly of her, so she knew there must be some merit in that, unless the man had only been flattering her for some hidden agenda of his own. And although Erlic struck her as one who carried many secrets, she did not think he was the type to tell her a blatant lie to her face. Somehow, she got the distinct impression that Erlic wouldn’t be able to lie to her at all.

Unfortunately, just as she was about to advance, Erlic broke away once again. He gathered the attention of the rest of the group and immediately informed them that they would be leaving soon. Laurel liked this much better than the original one hour rest, since she couldn’t shake the thought of those assassins eventually catching up with them. A good assassin, once given an assignment, would likely pursue that assignment until he or she was assured of its completion. She had no desire to test the competency of their present foes.

Still, she was curious about what he had been saying to Ravin, and why he shouldn’t want to share it with the rest of the group. Mostly, she was just weary of being in some ways estranged from him, since he had not voluntarily approached her since she’d told him not to several days ago. Actually, she hadn’t said it exactly like that, but he seemed to take it as such. But what sort of man actually kept his distance when she commanded him to do so, anyway? Why, it was positively absurd to even think of it!

“I should like to know what you discuss so secretly with your friend,” she said, coming up behind him. He turned and looked at her, not looking at all surprised to see her. She didn’t think he allowed very many people to sneak up on him. “Surely, you have nothing you would keep from me, Erlic?” she said, smiling generously. “If there is a problem, you can be assured that I would offer my services in whatever way that I can.”

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