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    11

    Intervention


    “What?! No! how did-- but-- I was finally winning!” A young man stammered, staring down at a game board in front of him. He almost literally scratched his head in thought as he examined the positions of his defeated white chess pieces.

    The red headed woman that sat across from him didn’t give him much response. She took her feet down from where she’d had them propped up on a chair. “I’ll tell you a little secret.” she said flatly. “You were never winning, I had you from the start.”

    “What? But how?”

    “It’s called the art of deception, you should learn it sometime.”

    He hastily began to reset the pieces on the board. “Come on, another round, I won’t let you beat me again.”

    “Daemon, isn’t that what you said before every one of the last hundred times she‘s beaten you?” a voice prompted from the doorway where another man in arcane robes sat. He lounged against the doorframe of the hut.

    “Shut up Aleou! I got it this time!” Daemon shouted, sending the wizard a glare.

    “I honestly don’t feel like playing another round.” the woman said, getting to her feet. She stretched a bit as if she had been sitting for a while.

    “Come on Kyna!”

    “Some other time.” she said a little more forcefully. She had other things at the forefront of her mind. She hated staying still. She hated staying in one town too long even. Never before in her life had she resorted to playing board games so many times in a row to defeat boredom! What a waste of time. Especially when there was no more money to be made here.

    “When’s Tiergan getting back here anyways? What’s it been now, five days?” Aleou questioned.

    Kyna massaged her temples to fend off an oncoming headache. “Hell if I know.”

    “You’re his Director, I figured he’d tell you if he didn’t tell any of us.”

    “Well he didn’t give me a specific time he just left me in charge until he came back. He’s probably heckling a price for our troubles.”

    Daemon scoffed. “Well we’d better get paid good for this job. My axes need fixing and I don’t think there’s another stray wraith beast within thirty miles of this place.” He didn’t look up from the game board as he spoke. It seemed that he had now resorted to playing a game against himself.

    Kyna shook her head. Good soldier, determined, just very stubborn…

    Playing against his own wits wasn‘t going to make things any more interesting. But if it kept him occupied….

    “Well, I’m going to make a few rounds myself to pass the time.” Kyna said, rummaging through her pack in her corner of the hut. “Let Tiergan know that’s what I’m doing if he happens to get back before I do.” She pulled a pair of gloves from her bag with harsh looking metal plating on them. Her weapon of choice.

    She walked past Aleou and out of the door into the bright midday sun as she finished lacing the gloves on.

    “Hey Kyna!” the wizard shouted after her.

    She paused and looked back. She didn’t speak but her raised brow said it all.

    Aleou winked at her “Want some… company?”

    Kyna rolled her eyes but didn’t offer a response other than turning back to her way and waving a goodbye over her shoulder.

    “Oho! Rejected!” she could hear Daemon say rather loudly.

    “Oh shut up!”

    “Come over here and make me, Squishy!”

    Their altercation brought a small smile to her face. Even though she was stuck out in this place with practically no work to do, she could think of worse people to be stuck with. At least much less entertaining people anyway.

    Within moments the shouts from her comrades faded into the distance and she found who she had been looking for: their team’s one and only cleric. The Wing Elf seemed to be enjoying herself as much as the locals. The location was nice, Hidden Orchid Valley had certainly come a long way since the Wraith Wars had ended. The white, sandy beaches were clear of monsters and filled more with the locals. Some enjoyed the sun, some fished either for fun or to earn their living..

    So it seemed the team’s work had paid off in some ways already at least. When they had first arrived the place had been overrun by stray wraith creatures, more a nuisance than a really big danger now with the largest of the wraiths already mostly defeated.

    “Lillian!” Kyna said loudly to get the cleric’s attention as she approached.

    Lillian turned from her conversation with a few townspeople. “Oh, hi Kyna, heading out for a while or something?”

    “Yeah, I’m leaving you and Cyrus in charge until I get back. Let him know will you?”

    “Sure. You’re going alone?” the Wing Elf questioned, her eyebrows furrowed.

    “I can handle myself. There’s not much out there we haven’t taken care of already anyway.” she replied nonchalantly. “Need some alone time.”

    Lillian nodded. “Oh, alright, well be careful and I’ll let Cyrus know.”

    “Thanks, I’ll be back before sundown.”


    -----------------------------------------------


    “Aiden!” I shouted, pounding my wings hard to catch up. He flew so much faster than me and even with him half asleep I had a hard time catching up.

    He paused a moment to look back. His eyebrows furrowed when he seemed to realize just how far behind he had left me. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

    “It’s fine.” I said before he could finish his thought. He had me a little worried. Had he not caught a wink of sleep at all? We were now into our third day of travel since we left Edna and Roarke back at Arrowhead Manor and he looked more and more out of sorts every day. As a cleric I could sense other people’s feelings slightly. Some more than others but I got enough from him to know things weren’t right. I frowned at him and stopped myself to hover a bit as I reached him. “Is it safe to stop?” I questioned.

    “You don’t need a break already do you?” he asked.

    I opened my mouth to answer but a thought crossed my mind. What I wanted to say was, “No, you need it since you look like you haven‘t slept in ages.” He had such dark circles under his eyes that one would think he had gotten into a fight.

    And lost.

    I thought better of it though. He would never take a break if I put it that way. “Uh, well, my uh, wing it…” I began, trying to think of a good excuse.

    He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a frown on his face. “Well?”

    I faked a cringe. “Wing cramp…”

    “I guess you wouldn’t be used to this sort of distance…” he said more to himself than me as his eyes scanned the ground below us for a good landing place.

    Way to lie Cat. I thought to myself. It was for his own good though.

    I followed him down to a small clearing. Now palm trees seemed to mingle with the forest and soil had turned a bit sandy. Just where were we anyway? The first part of our journey had taken us across many hills. And was it ever slow moving! With no real road to travel on while on foot, a journey that should have been short seemed to be taking a lifetime to finish.

    From what I had gathered before we left, the small town in Hidden Orchid Valley should have been the half way point… did the palm trees mean that we had almost made it there?

    I tried to keep up my act when we landed, massaging one of my wings and not bothering to hide them. I took a seat on the ground next to a tree and watched Aiden to make sure that he did the same. He flopped down at the base of one and leaned back on it.

    I tried not to make it obvious that I was observing him… he’d certainly know something was up then, wouldn’t he?

    Go to sleep. Take a nap, please… I pleaded at him with my thoughts. I wasn’t sure what I would do if he didn’t get some rest now, but I was sure that if I didn’t do something he was just going to drop out of the sky before we made it to town. Either that or his attitude was going to keep getting worse. Before he had been so… pleasant.

    Now I sensed more gloom and moodiness from him with every passing hour.

    A few minutes passed and still, he continued to keep himself awake. The trained cleric in me was upset with him. Not only was he keeping himself from sleep, but he was bottling something up, something that obviously wasn’t going to get any better unless he got it off his chest. He hadn’t talked to me since we left unless he absolutely had to.

    It had me irked. More now that things had calmed down a bit and I had time to think.

    “Are you okay?”

    “Hm?” he questioned, looking to me finally. “Yeah… why wouldn’t I be?” His gaze once again returned to some random direction as if he were dodging me.

    “You’re worried.” I pressed.

    “I’m fine.”

    “What’s got you so upset?”

    “Nothing, really, don’t worry about it.”

    I scowled at him and he seemed to not even notice. “You’d feel better if you got it off your chest.”

    “It’s personal. It‘s nothing to do with you so don‘t worry about it.”

    “Please?”

    “Lady Catriona, I just don’t want to talk is all.”

    I let out a sigh. So that certainly wasn’t working. I had discovered early on that most of his feelings showed through his eyes but now he would barely even look at me and his tone had just gotten a little… angry. I closed my eyes, shaking my head slowly. I didn’t like it.

    A few moments of silence passed before I finally decided that plan “B” was in order. “How’s your neck?” I questioned suddenly.

    “What?”

    “That cut you got on the side of your neck, you keep messing with it.” I answered. Which wasn’t totally untrue. I had seen him already a few times put his hand to it and cringe as if it bothered him a bit.

    “It’s fine.”

    I again frowned at him. “At least let me take a look at it. It wouldn’t take much to get rid of it. What if it got infected?”

    “I think I’d know.” he said indignantly, watching me a bit warily now as I approached him.

    Perhaps I had drawn things out too long? Or maybe I was just horrible at acting, he seemed to know now that I was up to something. “Come on.” I said.

    He gave me a scowl. “You didn’t really have a cramp in your wing did you?” he questioned. He once again made eye contact with me and I could tell he’d figured me out. I tried not to look bothered but judging by how he began to get up already I could only assume that I had failed miserably.

    “Wait, I-I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

    He wasn’t going to listen. “I can’t believe this.“ he grumbled more to himself than anything. He knew I had no choice but to follow him or get lost and captured. That had to have been what he was counting on as he turned his back to me and summoned his wings to take off. “We can’t afford to waste any time or we’ll get--”

    I didn’t let him finish. He had only made it maybe a foot off the ground before I made my last ditch effort to keep him there. “Sorry!“ I shouted as I latched onto him from behind, my arms around his shoulders.

    “What the--” he exclaimed, his eyes growing wide before my sleep spell took effect.

    Perhaps it hadn’t been the best idea. Clumsy me!

    I let out a loud “Oomph!” as we both hit the ground. Unfortunately for me, he had fallen backwards. Right on me. He had been more exhausted than I thought, my sleep spell had met absolutely no resistance! I had expected at least enough to where I didn’t have to try and catch him myself. So much for that idea.

    “Ow…” I murmured after a few moments, still slightly dazed. At least one of us had a soft landing. Luckily his head had landed on my shoulder and not on my face. Well, if I could consider myself lucky at all at this point. “Ugh, why do you have to be so heavy?” I said, knowing he wouldn’t hear it as I struggled to get out from under him.

    What a mess… but at least now he wouldn’t make himself sick if he hadn’t already. I just hoped he wouldn’t hate me when he woke up.

    CHAPTER 12