((The minion was actually waiting to give Firesky a chance to reply. She has a strong feeling Drew would have something to say about this situation thus far.))

((true... instead of the room... how about a little alcove, or small cave or something "just outside of town" for us to chat..?))

((Firesky has been MIA for a bit... I'm not sure but I think he went on vacation or something... We may have to pause play in this thread for a bit.))

((*sigh* that's just what we need. a long pause amongst several small pauses. Anyway.. yeah.. might as well wait for Firesky..))

[Please keep OOC comments in "(())" to keep the confustion out of the posts.

Thanks ~Marjorie]

((Sorry, I've been having finals. I probably won't be on that much until a few weeks from now. Until then, please have someone play for me. Sorry, g2g!!!!))

((It was pretty obvious it was OOC... at least, I thought so..))

"Yes, it is quite the complicated issue, which is why I need advice on it. I believe I have one that suits it's purpose, though I have never spent much time paying attention to the finer details of culture. If you and your companions could meet me at the Boiled Oil Inn, I would show you it for your input," Byrne was hardly used to the idea of lying, and his nervous twitches and posture was easy to show that face.

"I suppose it would not hurt for me to take a look at what you have," Shallees said politely, still a bit confused as to why the man would approach her from such a matter... she looked much less than a proper lady at the moment.

Drew glanced suspishously at the man and then looked back at Shallees before stepping between them quite abruptly. "She is not going anywhere with you... I think you should take your questions elsewhere."

Shallees took a step back... but didn't argue with Drew's judgment... He was right really, and it was kind of an odd coincidence that he should have a room at the same inn as they did.

((Your OOC comments still look lovely in brackets. They bring out your 'I's.))

Byrne's face screwed into that nervious fear that generally accompinies major mistakes, taking a step back as he muttered, "It's understandable, I... I should probably ask someome else..."

Ranz sighed, and continued towards the inn. "Shall we get moving?"

"Yes," Shallees answered following Ranz's lead.

Roland had been to a couple of different taverns by this time. He'd been extremely careful about saying anything that might be construed as actual interest as he made inquiries into the whereabouts of Shallees. Most of the time, he hadn't even asked questions. His next stop was the Boiled Oil Inn.

Looking around, Roland made his way up to the bar and waved to the bar man. "I'd like your cheapest ale... and to know if you've got any jobs available."

"Jobs? What kind of jobs?"

"Oh, well, I'm good for most things, done work at all sorts of inns and taverns and whatnot. Or if you need a server or cook, my wife's the best there is," he said proudly.

The bar man looked him over. "I'll be needing ta get the owner. He's the one as makes those decisions. You just sit tight there," he said. Then he waved over a bar wench, whispered a few words and waved her off. She walked out, presumably in search of the owner of the inn.

Roland nodded, then looked amiably around those in the tavern, trying to pick out who might have the loosest lips.

Ranz stopped at the door seeing Roland.. "He's here, no doubt his wife may be too." he whispered vigorously to Shal. "I suggest we be careful, we barely know these people.. I doubt it's mere coincidence he just happens to be waiting for us here."

Drew nodded, much agreeing with Ranz's sentaments.

Shallees just struggled... their suspition was beyond her. 'They're porbably just looking for work,' she thought silently to herself. "It matters little... I'm tired from being out on the road anyhow... let's just go up to our room now then... you can order supper in for us later. I feel like that bath you told me about."

Roland, spotting his late travelling companions, waved cheerily from the bar. 'Excellent,' he thought, 'I found them. Let's just hope this place has a job.'

SHallees waved at him as she headed up the stairs toward their room.

Ranz followed her.. not wanting anything to do with the two.. particular peasants. "Drew.. we'd do best to keep an eye on them, take note of anything significant. We'll share our knowledge at the end of the day." he said quietly to Drew.

Drew nodded and went and sat at and out of the way table after ordering a drink.

Shallees glanced between the two but didn't say anything. She wasn't much perturbed by the pesants presance... ti was a small town and they were looking for work. You wouldn't know it to look at her, but what was actually making her uncomfertabul was the fact that Ranz was following her up to their room and they would be alone and unchaparoned in there. Not that she didn't trust Ranz, but she had been raised with certin rules of propritie sense childhood and it made her uncomfertabul to be alone with ANY man.

Ranz knew he was going against Shal's "code of proper conduct" but he felt that they should talk. About anything- things were always so tense between the group.. he wanted to find a way to at the very least, weaken it. He still felt SHal treated him liek a little kid.. even though he tried to act his age.. just for her.. he figured they could talk..

Shallees entered the room and looked around... it was a large room - a large room with only one bed. There was a table with a couple of chairs set about a table and a small sofa near the fireplace. The guys could shair the bed, she decided and she would sleep on the sofa. That decistion made she walked over to the sofa and dropped her pack on it before sitting down and pullling off her boots.

She didn't look at or say anything to Ranz while she did this... not that she meant to be rude or reclusive, it was just that she was SO uncomfertabul being alone in a room with a man... she didn't know how to act. She'd never even been in the situation before... even if it was an innocent occurance.

"Going to sleep?" Ranz asked quietly. he saw Shal head for the sofa and lay her stuff. She was rather... separated as shetook off her boots. "Me and Drew share the bed eh?" he half asked, half decided as he dropped his pack beside the right side of the bed, the side closer to Shal. He didn't mean anything in particular by it.. he'd just never.. slept with a man before. In the same room.. but not the same bed. It would take him some getting used to..

((LOL... that's funny XD))

"Going to sleep?" Ranz asked quietly.

"Humm?" Shallees looked toward Ranz, drawn out of her own thoughts, "oh, no... not yet. Didn't you say something about a bath?"

((I don't know how this inn is set up... is there a bathing room in this room or is there a seperate 'bath house' in the inn somewhere?))

She was rather... separated as she took off her boots. ((That was the point, LOL XD))

"Me and Drew share the bed eh?" he half asked, half decided as he dropped his pack beside the right side of the bed, the side closer to Shal.

Shallees just nodded.

The bar wench soon returned with the owner of the Inn. Roland smiled and made his pitch, telling the man how he and his wife were unfortunate peasants down on their luck and that if the good man could merely offer them some paid employment, he would be forever grateful. He told of Alaina's vast amount of cooking skills and experience in the houses of rich merchants as a serving maid. He hinted that they might soon be expecting another mouth to feed and that they were in desperate need of money... and, last of all, he explained his modest knowledge of basic labor. "I'm good for 'most anything, Sir." He was sure the innkeeper's perception of him was just what he wanted it to be... A common vagabond, perhaps not quite to be trusted with anything particularly difficult... with a wife that MIGHT be what the innkeeper was looking for in a cook.

"Well, I'll need to meet your wife before I go agreeing to anything. You know how it is," the man said thoughtfully. "Might be able to offer ten silver a week between to two of yeh."

Roland beamed. That actually wasn't too bad for a common labor job. If catching the fugitive princess fell through, they could always stay on here for a while...

Ranz laid down, his eyes closed. "There is a bathing room on the first floor, last door on the left before the bottom of the stair-case. Peasants like the rest of us go to the bathing shack that's attached to the inn." he sighed and rolled onto his stomach, pulling a book out of his bag- and he read.

"Thank you," SHallees said beofre taking out a frew things from her bag... a comb and brush, small hand merror, bar of soap, and a spair clean dress. Then she headed back downstairs to the bathing room."

Ranz smiled to himself.. She sure is a gal to be remembered..

((ROTFL... RAnz is TOTALLY smitin isn't he? XD))

((smitin? whatever.. Not sure what that means but.. if you mean a total fall-over-self-crush (I can't say love.. that involves marriage xD) the only difference is he does control it pretty well.. he's not like your typical.. you know what I mean.. I hope.))

When Shallees returned she was in much a diffrent state than when she had left. For one thing she was clean... and her long brown hair was let down and brushed out to the point of being shiney and soft looking. She smelled nicely of buttermilk and hone soap and she was now dressed in a plaine tan linnin dress, but it wasn't raged and warn or stained like the one she had been weairing before. Her other dress she carried... washed and wrung out, but still wet.

She went about hanging up her dress to dry by the fire place and putting the things she had taken with her away when she came back into the room.

"Are you always this proper?" he stopped himself from chuckling - "You gotta learn to live life a little." he said almost playful as he lay on the bed. ((Not implying anything, just so you know ^^))

"Are you always this proper?" he stopped himself from chuckling.

"Yes," she answered turning to face Ranz when he spoke to her, "I am... I suppose... thought I have never really thought on it before."

"You gotta learn to live life a little." he said almost playful as he lay on the bed.

"What do you mean by 'live life'?" she asked, "I was raised to... my life is meant to serve others, to lead people, to protect a nation... that IS my life."

Ranz shut up quick.. sensing this was a tender subject.. "Sorry.. wasn't trying to make you mad.."

Shallees softened her tone a little then. "No need to apologize," she said standing then and turning to face him properly, "I was not upset.

"It's just that I... 'living a little' as you say has never been much of an option for me."

She couldn't understand Ranz at all... he was certinly not a child... a grown man, but he seemed to act more like a child than most she'd met before. She never had much of a childhood - as far as playtime and free time went. She had always been raised with the knowledge that one day she would be Queen and take over her father's role as leader of her people and protecter of their sovgreng. Even her childhood playmates were more like school mates... there were ALWAYS lessons, reading, writing, arithmatic, poloticsks, geography, sience... how to walk, how to stand, how to speak, rules of proprietie... and then the girls they were always being married off and so stayed for not very long, and the boys... well they liked to rpom and play "knight" and ride horses bareback and all sorts of things 'unbecoming a lady of your stature' and so she wasn't much aloud to play with them anyhow... and then as she grew older there were more rules of proprietie... it was improper then for her even to be seen walking threw the gardens with a young man... lest there be a handmaden or nurse or some such about... Even then she had to be careful, such actions might cause roomers...

"You are... welcome," Shallees said politly as Ranz closed his eyes... though she wasn't entirly sure what he thanking her for.

Thought the days had been getting warmer... the nights were still a bit chill so Shallees went over to the fire place and started shifing some of the logs around and looking about the mantle (where she had hung her other dress from) and such for somthing to start a fire with. She had expected there'd be matches or a flit and steel striker or something about... but she found neither.

((LOL... so yeah, she's making noise and moving things around because she doesn't have anything to start a fire with.))

Ranz shuffled and woke.. "Oh right.. I took them, we could use them later in our travels maybe.. when I'm nto around you'll need another source of fire." he raised his hand, forced his mind to focus and a series of sparks lit the fireplace, a fire burning nicely. He fell exhausted to the pillow.

Shallees startled slightly... not having expected the fire to just 'jump to life' of its own accord.

"Thank you," she said softly before heading back to the coutch. She spread the spare blanket, she had gotten earlier when she was down stairs, over her and tried to go to sleep herself.

Ranz mumered a 'your welcome' and finally drifted off....

((unless you have something else planned...?))

((nope... uhh... I kind of wanted to wait for firesky though... he's been MIA for a while... the next leg of the journey is where things are going to start getting interesting.))

Meanwhile...

Roland urgently knocked on the door, calling for his wife. "Sweetling... I think I've got the place."

((Okay, I only have 2 more days left, and then one week if I'm unlucky. If I'm lucky, I'll be on next week and then for alot of the summer, pending absences due to vacations. Sorry, best I can do. But in the summer I will be MUCH more frequent. Yay! Vacation.))

Drew had tagged 12 plots to kidnap Shallees while they had been in town. When that girl made enemies, she sure didn't mess around.

After "advising" the latest kidnapper to change his ways, Drew went to the pub to see if he could hear anything. It was late, and only four men were in there. He sat down at a table and ordered a beer, then taking the time to studiously stare at the far wall without blinking while filtering two conversations in at once. One was just droll. One man's wife was chaeting on him and he was getting some help, but the other was Far more interesting.

"-they are coming?" The first man said to the other.

"Tomorrow Evening." said the second, "They are looking for two men and a girl, and a single man hunting them. There also may be two hopefuls trailing along..."

Drew smiled as several assumptions he had made turned out correct, but he could act on them later. He strained to listen as their voices hushed.

"But the Horde of Ni-" He was cut off as the other man reached over and circled both hands around his neck. Drew stopped breathing.

"Quiet you fool! Their name is NOT to be spoken allowed!" He hissed sharply and then let the choking man go, sitting down to have a swig of his brew. He spoke softly again, "Yes, they only want the hunter, the hunter's prey is just the bait. Then they'll kill them all." He sddenly looked towards the slamming door,"What happened to him I wonder? Let's go find out."

---------

Drew, after being shortly waylaid by the two men from the pub, walked towards where he had last seen Ranz and Shallees. He wiped his sword clean from the blood. He hadn't even gotten excited killing those two. Simply boring him to tears more like. He took out a scratch piece of bark and wrote a quick note on it. He'd stick it under Ranz's door, and then he had to be out of this town.

It read:

Shallees, Ranz. Get out of Town as soon as possible, and definitely before tomorrow night. Do NOT head in the direction you were planning. Not directly at least. Stay off the roads, and if you see anyone, particularly Toral, run. Ranz, I leave it up to you to make sure your tracks stay covered. Make sure those two we picked up on the way here aren't secretly trailing you. There tracks will act as a beacon, for they don't think someone may be tracking THEM. I will meet you - at the stone clearing - in a standard week hopefully, maybe longer if I am waylaid by some old "friends." Go well, and stay through the wilderness. I don't know about money, but use this sack of gold I carry on me to by supplies if needed. Go well.

((Bye))

[edited to add the landmark]

((I FFed to morning if you don't mind..))

Ranz stretched, long, hard, and his body popped and crackled in protest. "Alrighty, let's get some breakfast" he said huffily, quietly to himself as he opened the door, only to notice he nearly stepped on a peice of bark. "What's this..." he read the note and at the end his eyes widened a little.. He went over to Shal and shook her shoulder softly, then slightly harder. "Shal get the heck up, we have trouble."

"Shal get the heck up, we have trouble."

Shallees came awak as soon as Ranz touched her. She started slightly at the ergency in his voice. "Yes, what is it?" she asked sitting up.

((I added the 'land mark' to firesky's post BTW))

*** In the future pleas do NOT fastforward or affect anything so greatly without asking me FIRST. We neede a reply from MW for GB and now they cannot do anything 'last night'. Anything that affects the flow of play this much MUST be aproved by the DM prior to it being done. ***

((Heh... oops sorry...didn't know..))

Ranz handed her the scrap bark. "It's from Drew."

((Grrgh... Need MW...))

They had managed to secure employment... The owner of the establishment, moved by the tale of a poor couple preparing to become a trio, allowed Alaina a place in the kitchen, and Roland a place as all-around laborer.

So it was that he was awake that morning, scrubbing down tables that were sticky from the previous night's beer.

Ranz handed her the scrap bark. "It's from Drew."

Shallees read the note quickly. "We should leave now," she said tossing the note into the still burning fire.

"There is no road the way we're headed from here anyhow," Shallees said as she started to gather her things, "and we'll be in the woods by nightfall if we leave soon so cover shouldn't be too much of a problem."

After she took a moment to comb out and braid her hair so it would be out of the way Shallees turned to Ranz. "Are you in need of any other supplies before we head out of town?" she asked, "we will not come to settled lands again until we reach our destination.

"I know the place Drew mentioned... We would have to stop there anyway to get permission to enter Elvish territory... It's the marker for the borderlands of elvish country."

She paused, looking at Ranz a moment then. "How is your leg feeling?" she asked.

((Yes, before Ranz and Shall actually leave I will wait for a post from MW.))

Ranz stopped.. His leg had been bothering him... but he never thought much of it.. "It's.. It's been fine." he said.. 'lie' written all over it.

"I need a couple herbs, Shrivelswhip, and some peacevine." truth was he didn't need any herbs.. not extremely anyway, he was set for any minor occurrence.. he was using the Shrivelswhip to help his leg heal, and Peacevine was to help numb the painful effects of Shrivelswhip.. "It'll be fine, really."

((LOL... did you forget the old lady who fised it??? XD It might still be sore or paineful even, but it should actually be pretty well healed... at least the bones and stuff should. The burn wounds not compleatly, but they should be MUCH better and noticably more healed.))

"It's.. It's been fine." he said.. 'lie' written all over it.

It was plain to see that Ranz was putting on a tough facad... but his leg had healed much even before they left the oldwoman's abode the day before... she was sure he would be fine... he had already been walking better by the time they left.

"I need a couple herbs, Shrivelswhip, and some peacevine." truth was he didn't need any herbs.. not extremely anyway, he was set for any minor occurrence.. he was using the Shrivelswhip to help his leg heal, and Peacevine was to help numb the painful effects of Shrivelswhip.. "It'll be fine, really."

"The herbalest we saw in town yesterday can likely help you with that," she answered.

((As I actually have time [surprise surprise], I'll explain a little what the Horde of Nighte is. As this is the Searching For the Past, Praying for the Future Quest, I thought I'd add in another of Drew's old enemies [No fair if only Shallees past is dealt with]. The Horde of Night is an Assassin Cult Which live in the Mountain of the Black Depths, or Moon Mountain #6. Toral is an exile from their cult and over time they make [almost annually] a trip to try to kill him. They never relinquish a mark, and once they're contracted, they will try to kill their mark for the rest of his/her days. They right now have a Vendetta against Toral and then Drew, hence the latter's hurried exit from the town. A Vendetta is different. Every Assassin in the Cult knows the scent of those who are marked, and will kill on sight. They don't know it's Drew they've marked yet, but they will. They don't have anything against Shallees, except that she is the bait to draw out Toral. At the end, I'm debating who to turn into an ally, Toral or the Horde. The Horde will certainly enrage someone who's after Shallees alive by kidnapping and then killing her. The Horde of Nighte is a nasty piece of work, as their all at least as skilled as Toral except without his sense of humour and fair play [of sorts]))

((That's cool... The Horde sounds like my kind of antagonest, lol. XD))

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