VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, [7], 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 12:58:34 01/10/02 Thu
Author: Laurel
Subject: No interruptions yet....
In reply to: Tia (and Jeremy) 's message, "Another major interruption" on 11:46:58 01/10/02 Thu

And so it came to pass that Laurel was sitting upon a rock in the middle of a foreign desert with a man named Erlic Eastlore, and neither of them could think of anything to say. The evening crickets which had gradually began to emerge seemed to pierce her ears as they screeched into the late afternoon air. Speak! they seemed to be crying, over and over and over again. Speak, speak, speak, speak!

She was on the verge of leaping to her feet and crushing each and every one of them with the heel of her boot when Erlic suddenly stood up instead, excusing himself quickly before heading toward the passing Ardesmar. Laurel sat and waited on the rock, swinging her legs a bit and feeling like a teenager. What had he said about the assassins spying on them? And not do anything about it! Well…she didn’t like the sound of that.

While Erlic was talking quietly with the sheik’s lieutenant, she called her familiar, Piper, the black and white magpie, to her and instructed him to keep a sharp eye out over the surrounding area. If necessary, he was to enlist the aid of resident raptors and jaybirds. As soon as she sent him off back into the air, Erlic was returning, reclaiming his seat beside her on the boulder.

She opened her mouth to tell him about the birds, but he was ready this time, and immediately began thanking her for teaching Ravin. She blushed slightly when he mentioned that no one else knew of his friend’s illiteracy, for it had never once occurred to her that it might be a sensitive issue. Now that she thought about it, most elven farmers and lower merchant class citizens could at least read and write.

He paused, then, the silence stretching between them once more. I suppose this is where I should say something, she thought silently, but she found, for one of the first times in her life, that it was suddenly quite difficult to open her mouth. Well, that was very silly. They had had many conversations between them in the past, some which left her so angry and energized that she couldn’t stop the words from pouring out fast enough.

“You once told me to speak to you when I had something to say,” he said bluntly, turning his head suddenly toward her. She realized he’d been staring off into the distance. No, I told you to learn to speak properly, she almost said, but she held her tongue. Actually, it was fairly close to what he’d just said, and she looked away, somewhat embarrassed by her harsh words from days ago.

He went on to profess his apparent inability to speak as well as he would like, and to even ask her to teach him how to do so, if she were so inclined. Oh! It was almost too awful to listen to for much longer!

“Teach you how to speak!” she exclaimed, looking everywhere but at his face, “Oh, Erlic, I never…. I am sorry to have implied…to make you feel in any way foolish or inadequate. I am ashamed to think of what I said to you the other night. It was a most disagreeable thing for me to do, I am sure of it.”

“Teach you how to speak!” she murmured again, shaking her head. “What arts should a useless little thing like myself ever possess that a man like you could learn from? Erlic…” She hesitated, then shifted to wrap one arm around his and shake it slightly in an amiable way. “Erlic, I want us to be friends,” she continued, finally staring up into his eyes. “Speak to me as you would any of your friends, and I should be very…” She cleared her throat and smiled. “Well, it would make me very happy if you did.”

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Forum timezone: GMT-6
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.