Betrayed by a blanket

Road amid Grasslands

The crumbling road continues eastward and upward as far as you can see towards the mountains. A long way off to the west, and downhill, the ford of a river. This is mostly grassland, with some wooded heights in the distance to the north. Occasional trees provide a possible place of temporary shelter from the wind, but you must suffer the cold winds in order to get anywhere from here.

Obvious exits:

South, East, and West

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Dunland Time and Weather Forecast

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Real Time is:       Sun Jul 26 15:28:12 2009

IC weather is:      Wind:  - Clouds: moderate

IC Moon is:         Not visible

IC time is:         Late Night

IC date is:         Trewsday, Day 10 of July in the year 3047.

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[Nob(#16122)] The night is over, nearly the sun not yet, but almost, rising. And Gidon is up sitting on the edge of the camp and rubbing his arm. His face looks drawn. Behind him, the dwarves begin to stir to poke up the fires, unhobble the ponies.

A fresh breeze blows down from the mountains, and the day is dawning clear and fresh - an unclouded sky that also hints at heat waiting in the hours ahead. All the more reason to move out early: take advantage of the coolness.

Soft footfalls behind Gidon herald Brev\'s approach. The Dunlending rubs at a chin that now has a day and a half\'s worth of stubble - was removing the beard really such a good idea? - then greets the lad with a quiet, \"Morning. Ready for another thrilling day, eh?\" He faces nto the wind for a moment, letting it lift the tangled curls from his face.

[Ollie(#15066)] Gidon looks up over his shoulder, and twists his mouth into a wry grin. \"All this walkin,\" he grumbles, good naturedly. \"Din\'t know it was goin\' t\'be so far.\" He looks around at the endless grasslands. \"I never seen so much \'far\' in all my life.\"

The corners of Brev\'s mouth twitch. \"Me neither,\" he confesses. \"Not about to let it stop me, though. Got this far, going to see what\'s beyond the Mountains. Do you think if we go far enough we\'ll come to the world\'s end, where the mountains and sky touch?\" There is a distant longing in his gaze, and the words are only half-jesting.

His amber eyes snap sharply back into focus though when he glances back down to Gidon. \"Arm bothering you more than usual?\" he enquires. \"I can give you some yarrow leaf to chew - or there\'s some of Saffron\'s herbs for when it gets really bad. Those mess with your head, though.\" He grimaces.

[Ollie(#15066)] Gidon shakes his head, but not in a negative - he is trying to get the hair out of his eyes. \"Been achin\',\" he admits. But he too looks off to the east, where the mountains can be seen rearing up blue against the blue sky. \"Do they?\" he asks, and something of Brev\'s longing is kindled in his voice.

The morning sounds fill the silence, until the boy shakes his head again, and says, \"Hey, I meant t\'tell you - there was some woman here th\'other night. Said a feller was chasing her, only it weren\'t. She was asking \'bout where we was going.\"

\"Some woman,\" Brev repeats, frowning. \"If you don\'t know her name, I\'ll assume it wasn\'t that strawhaired madwoman from back in the Shaws.\" He grins, and it\'s hard to tell whether he\'s jesting or not. \"And it can\'t have been Cordy, she\'d be halfway across the mountains by now. Kin to the rabbit-hunter? What did you tell her?\"

[Ollie(#15066)] \"I said,\" and Gidon blushes a little, \"you wasn\'t reckless. I din\'t know her, she looked more like you, dark. Not like that fellow.\"

One of Brev\'s dark brows tilts up at that, and the side of his mouth pulls back in a sudden smirk. \"Oh, but I am. Else I\'d be sitting in some muddy hut making a living from joinery.\" The amusement fades a little, as he adds, \"Where did she go? Could be she\'s with bandits or the like. Wouldn\'t be the first time -\" The words cut off suddenly, and his features smooth out suddenly.

[Uannve(#23880)] It just so happens that the topic of discusion, the person of Uannve, having woken some time ago in some fairly removed location, is again making her way toward the camp, but this time from the north, behind her being the backdrop of wooded heights. Her hood is again pushed off her head, and alike to some parasite one cannot convince to leave, she returns. She will soon be upon the camp as it is, yet she seems in no rush and as though cautious, squinting even to try to discern men from dwarves so that she might avoid two particular men.

[Ollie(#15066)] Gidon looks down and says stubbornly, \"No you aint, an\' you been watchin\' after me good.\" Then, as if he wishes he\'d never said it, he answers the man\'s questions eagerly, swiftly. \"I don\' know. She come in, saying this feller was chasin\' after her, and ate a bit an\' then she went off. I din\'t see her again.\" He looks at Brev curiously. \"First time what?\"

\"The first time such things have happened.\" Brev\'s features are carefully inscrutable. \"You hear about such things.\" Like Gidon, he avoids the topic of care for his companion, instead turning for a moment to survey the Dwarven camp behind (thus missing his chance to glimpse Uannve for a moment). \"How did /they/ take it?\"

[Uannve(#23880)] Uannve\'s course, content she has seen nothing in the camp to deter it, takes her near a thicket that might be familiar to Gidon and the events of the day prior. She takes her wrapped stick, or whatever it is, from her pack and begins poking around at the brush, moving vines this way and that and then moving closer and squating down in her long dress to peer curiously into it--she might look like a young child the way she squats, curious and oblivious, interested on the contents of within.

[Ollie(#15066)] The boy nods, watching Brev for a few minutes without saying anything. \"They?\" he asks after a bit. \"You mean th\'dorves?\" He shrugs. \"They din\'t say nothin\'. Watched her all th\'time though.\" He was sitting facing the thicket, but having turned around to talk to the Dunlending man, has no idea Uannve is anywhere near.

Brev grunts at that. \"Don\'t blame them. Hope there isn\'t trouble, else we\'ll be easy scapegoats. Figure we\'d best keep our weapons handy.\" He swings round to look at his companion. \"Which reminds me, I had-\" The words halts suddenly, and he tilts his head as though listening, peering thoughtfully toward the thickets, from which a faint rustling as of some small animal comes.

[Uannve(#23880)] Just then Uannve eases back to a stand and looks toward the camp. If her eyes spot Brev and the boy, it might be the reason she ducks right back down behind the thicket. The rustling has stopped for now.

[Ollie(#15066)] Gidon has his mouth opened to say something when Brev stops talking abruptly and stares over his head. The boy swivels back around, then stands up to get a better view. The thicket - he recognizes it - but sees nothing else. \"You hear something?\" he asks softly.

Brev lifts one shoulder in a shrug. \"Did,\" he answers succinctly out of the corner of his mouth, the thread of sound little more than a whisper. \"Rabbit, maybe. Did you set any snares?\"

[Ollie(#15066)] Gidon shakes his head. \"Went out,\" he says. \"With m\'sling. Never got nothin\' though, but some root-things for th\'stew.\" He doesn\'t look at Brev, but ponders the thicket instead. \"Couldn\'t get the snares t\'stay right.\"

[Uannve(#23880)] Another rustle comes from the bush--it\'s accidental. In Uannve\'s haste to duck, the wrap around her stick, or sword as it turns out to be, has got caught upon some thorns and pulled free from the weapon. It\'s a thick cloth, the way it is folded and wrapped, one Uannve sleeps within during the nights, and its bulk proves to be troublesome to free.

Brev, though still gazing mainly into the bushes, flicks a quick glance at Gidon at the boy\'s confession. \"Sling\'ll be easier on the open moors,\" he assures the lad, still quietly though a little louder than before. \"Too many trees here ...\"

And then comes the rustling again. Brev frowns and starts to move slowly and carefully in the direction of the noise. He does not have his spear, which leaves only sling and dagger. It is the latter he draws. \"Take a look?\" he mouths soundlessly in Gidon\'s direction.

[Ollie(#15066)] Gidon looks relieved. \"Aye,\" he says, then looks sharply at Brev, and grins. And nods, working his own sling out of his belt, and awkwardly feeding a stone into its pouch with his left hand. Quietly as he can, which is pretty quiet, he moves towards the thicket after Brev, staying just a little to one side.

[Uannve(#23880)] Uannve continues to try to quietly free her blanket, oblivious what she has drawn into action. \"Kiern,\" she murmurs in annoyance, \"give me my blanket.\" It\'s in Dunael, but very soft nevertheless. The rustling becomes not so much intense as it becomes consistent, as if a portion of the thicket were shivering from a chill wind.

Brev treads quietly as he heads toward the thicket, slipping from tree to tree. Perhaps he catches a thread of human sound, though it is too quiet to distinguish any individual words. His hand tightens round his dagger, and he frowns suddenly. Nearer to the thicket now, he pauses and uses his dagger to part the bushes before him, peering carefully through.

[Ollie(#15066)] Gidon is just behind, though farther now to the side. He leans forward tensely, his hand cocked back and ready to fly with the sling.

[Uannve(#23880)] Uannve\'s patience thins and suddenly she just gives the blanket a hefty yank! It comes free, with thorns ridden here and there within it. She takes a step backwards to counter any fall and as a result lifts up from her lowered posture briefly, just enough to catch that someone might be near. \"Can\'t a girl get some privacy!\" she calls out very suddenly in a startled, frightful tone.

Brev\'s amber eyes narrow suddenly at what he sees. Perhaps sensing, rather than seeing, Gidon behind him, he gives a nod and moves a few steps further from Gidon before replying, in sing-song Common. \"Privacy is generally found /away/ from other people.\" Amusement ripples in his tone - suspicion, though it can be seen in his eyes, does not.

[Ollie(#15066)] Gidon pauses, perhaps still unseen for he is shorter, and waits. A woman speaks, and his attention sharpens he looks over at Brev, lifting his hand just a little.

[Uannve(#23880)] \"That\'s why you should move /away/ from me,\" Uannve responds in angst common, keeping her head turned just enough to try to prevent a clear head-on view of her facial structure. The thorn-laden blanket has been incautiously let open and hung in front of Uannve, as if she does really have something to hide behind it, though at present the only thing she is hiding with it is the lower half of her dress and cloak and her sword.

\"Or - what?\" Brev queries. Perhaps he detects some familiarity in the accent, for his brow furrows briefly. \"Tell me what you\'re doing skulking outside a camp that is not your own, and I\'ll think about it.\"

[Uannve(#23880)] Brev\'s reply earns only silence for some moments. \"I\'m thieving your wagons?\" Uannve remarks questioningly, her questioning tone just enough that it might or might not have been intended sarcastically. It\'s definately a question though. Uannve lets go of the blanket and lets it fall--again, no modesty is lost in this. Her sword is behind it, not gleaming or remarkable in any measure. \"It\'s not what it looks like,\" Uannve tries to explain. \"Or maybe it is. What does it look like?\" she asks with a sudden grin.

\"Not my wagons,\" Brev answers, carelessly. Then the blanket drops and he gets a good view of the woman holding the sword. \"It looks like we make acquaintance for a third time.\" He steps free of a tree bole, so that Uannve may see him in turn. \"Not with your fancy-woman? Told me she was leaving the village.\"

[Uannve(#23880)] \"Mmm, did she?\" Uannve remarks, defaulting to Dunael as well, her grin wiped away but not turning sour however, her eyes narrow. \"I heard you took a liking to her.\" Uannve smirks, but that too is quickly gone. Her next question is simple, hard, and almost derisive. \"Why\'d did you bring the boy, and a healer for him?\" She shakes her head.

Brev snorts. \"Missing me, is she?\" His amber eyes are dancing, and his lips twist in a brief, sardonic smirk.

As he continues, though, it is replaced by a defensive scowl. \"Gidon? I didn\'t \'bring\' him anywhere. He chooses to travel, I choose to travel. Our paths lead the same direction.\" Very simple he chooses to make it. \"Nor the healer - wasn\'t about to turn one down, though. it\'s goblin country, you if anyone should know what that means.\"

[Uannve(#23880)] Uannve\'s eyes, already narrow, take on some aggitation at the first of Brev\'s retorts, and then at his defense they ease, and by his finish they are lackluster. Her eyes remain narrow though, and it is some moments of silence that lapse immediately after this. Even through it Uannve finds no answer or words and gazes into Brev\'s eyes. She nods and shifts and slightly lifts her hand holding her sword--perhaps some kind of strange, non-threatening gesture, or if threatening, subtle at best.

Brev, if giving little reaction to the woman\'s changing expression, does notice the final gesture. \"That\'s why you have that?\" he queries, and then offers, almost reluctantly, \"Can\'t say another fighter would go amiss. Though what the Dorves think,\" he uses Gidon\'s pronunciation with no self-consciousness and likely not even any awareness that it is not quite ..correct.. \"Kiern knows. I /can/ say that if there\'s any trouble Gidon and I are getting out of it alive.\"

[<#23880>]

\" Don\'t be so sure,\" Uannve murmurs softly, though not disinterestedly, keeping herself to her native tongue. It\'s much more smooth, if it can be called that, for her than her coarse common. \" That woman you call my ... whatever,\" she remarks, \" she\'s nearly ... she\'s alive, but don\'t be so sure you will stay such, unless you think Kiern cares so much about you to leave Dunland.\" Uannve takes a dramatic step closer and whispers, \" Take it for what it\'s worth, but out here, if Kiern cares, he has no power.\" She lifts her sword. \" This is power,\" a shake of her head transpires, \" and powers hate it. Aurharth,\" she says with haunted eyes that gleam with some strange pleasure. \" There are different powers out here than Kiern, stronger than he ever was, and don\'t trust the sturdy folk know any of them.\"

Uannve steps nearer, and Brev\'s dagger twitches in his hand, an instinctive response. He does manage not to raise it. He, too, reverts back to Dunael. \"Kiern care about anything? I very much doubt it. If he\'s up there, he\'s sitting laughing at the world.\" The words are oddly bitter. \"Don\'t think to use that blade to threaten me or those I- company.\" The hesitance over the words is barely noticeable. \"You\'re not the only one who can fight.\" Unlike the woman, he does not try to draw attention to his weapon. He reverts to Common. \"Lived this long, haven\'t I? And the lad\'s going to live.\" There is a stubborn set to his jaw, clearly visible beneath the shadow of a day\'s stubble.

[Uannve(#23880)] Uannve\'s intensity wanes and she nods, taking a step back. \"Just don\'t become what I became in the process. Death can\'t find me, and I fight it whenever it does, though I want it.\" Uannve gives a terse nod and inhales deeply. \"I hope you find your father,\" she adds tamely after her exhale. \"I do.\" The reckless craze has left her eyes, but it has left them not just washed out in color, but in emotion as well. \"I\'m up to no good, being out here,\" she admits. \"I wake from it,\" she comments slowly, \"occasionally.\" Her eyes, having darted away, return to Brev. She shakes her head. \"Don\'t become what I\'ve become.\" She takes another step back, but then notices her blanket is yet on the ground and bends to take it up.

Brev snorts at Uannve\'s words, and at one point lifts his shoulder in a shrug. \"Maybe I\'ll have found something I\'m looking for,\" is his cryptic answer. Another part of her speech raises a chuckle. \"Figured. No-one out here is up to any good. But you\'ll have to find another target.\" His stance, as Gidon would see well enough, is somewhat tense.

[Uannve(#23880)] \"Relax,\" Uannve states with a softening expression. \"I\'m just a girl, an old one too.\" She may not look old exactly, nor is she really, but she looks more mature than young, whether she acts it or not. Uannve\'s expression lightens even further, carrying an easy smile. \"I won\'t hurt you,\" she tacks on, having taken up her blanket and heeping it under oen arm. She seems just as wary of Brev though and holds it there as she begins to back up before turning and wandering away, only to give a glance back over her shoulder. \"Aurharth favor you,\" she tells, giving a smirking wink.

Brev watches Uannve\'s departure fixedly, his gaze remaining squarely on her as she turns. \"Kiern!\" he mutters in response to that final remark. Whether it could be construed as a blessing by anyone who knows the man is extremely doubtful, given how often he tosses that word around.

[Ollie(#15066)] Gidon has stood quietly and listening, and when Brev finishes talking, he will follow him away from the shrubs.