Tales of Faerun

[AurianaValoria1]

Menarses made a point of ignoring Azuris's threat, instead applauding the piratess joyfully, "Most excellent! I shall be looking forward to seeing you perform." The merchant turned to Llhunarra and added, "Well, if you insist, you may do so. Although, I feel I must express my great disappointment in your choice..."

 

He then beckoned for Rhaine join him, Shalena, and Llhunarra at his table, "Please, do sit....make yourself comfortable."

 

Just as the Doomguide was seating herself warily, Sybille entered the commons, wearing her lightly-colored tunic and breeches. Menarses jumped up, wasting no time in looping her into his scheme as well.

 

"And you, my wonderful lady knight, what say you? I simply must have dancers for my festival...and you, my dear, would be perfect to play the part of our mighty goddess Hathor."

 

Sybille raised an eyebrow at him. "Certainly sounds like a good old time, to be sure. But one thing I need to know....what's this 'Hathor' like? I'm not too familiar with Mulhorandi gods, and my bookworm friend's still in bed, I'm afraid."

 

Menarses grinned, "Hathor is our Nurturing Mother, She-Who-Is-There-For-Those-In-Need. She is goddess of the moon, of dancing, and of our traditional music."

 

Sybille shot him a smile right back. "She sounds like someone I'd share a few drinks with. Right up my alley. I've danced a few times- mostly while I was drunk, mind you - but I like to think I've got at least a little skill. Count me in!"

Not three breaths later, Arland appeared as well, clad in his usual casual clothing,"Mornin', everyone. Say, Menarses, we got any bacon I can grill up? Could use a good sizzley pig-feast."

 

Rhaine rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, biting her tongue to keep from commenting. Menarses, on the other hand, seemed more than happy to engage in conversation with the youngest Grey, "Bacon? I have not heard of such a thing. Is it something you enjoy frequently?"

 

Arland stared at him. "It's only the greatest food ever invented, good man! Looks like I ought to teach you how to make some so you can try some! If you've got any spare pig meat around I can do so right away if you wish." Then he shrugged. "Or, y'know, I can teach a servant instead. Whatever works."

Menarses straightened his robe, "Share the recipe with our cook, then, when you have a chance. I am eager to sample this delicacy of which you speak."

 

"Just when I was beginning to enjoy not smelling it every morning," Rhaine muttered.

 

Arland nodded. "It'll be my genuine pleasure. No man should go any length of time without bacon."

Hearing her voice on the edge of his hearing, Arland looked at the Doomguide and then opted to sit down beside her. "Mornin', Rhaine." He greeted, seemingly forgetting her anger with him.

She briefly acknowledged him by glancing at him out of the corner of her eye with a slight nod, but said nothing, too irritated to form a civil reply at the moment.

 

Arland's voice dropped almost to a whisper and he looked sidelong at her, leaning in a little bit. "You doing alright today? You were pretty sad last night."

Her lips formed a thin line, "As well as I can be, all things considered. Should you wish to speak of this more, I suggest we do so in private...”

 

Meanwhile, as Arland and Rhaine had their quiet exchange, Menarses rejoined them at the table and gestured for Sybille to seat herself as well, "So...it appears that all we have left to do is decide who shall play the role of our Bountiful Lady Isis."

 

Rhaine, who had just caught Menarses's musing, would have suggested Ianthe for the part, but she remembered that the nymph had recently departed with Hazel, Arva, and Aera to investigate the decay of the dryad's forest.

 

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

 

Conall's brow furrowed, "All right...I suppose I'll leave you to your rest, then." He stepped away from the door and gave Nawen a slight bow, "If you need anything, just ask. I do hope you feel better soon."

 

With that, he turned away and proceeded to walk down the hall towards the stairs, a twinge of worry plaguing the back of his mind.

[Deleted6317247User]

As Shalena was already sitting at the table she didn't move from her seat, eagerly waiting for breakfast. "Why not get men involved with the dancing too?" The piratess asked. "Surely there are plenty of women in this land who'd love to see that. And from what I know Mulhorandi pantheon isn't lacking in male deities either."

 

She was expecting Nawen to say something to that, as she usually did, but the piratess noticed that the drow wasn't there. Shrugging it off she went back to waiting for food.

 

"Thank you, and I will." Nawen said as she watched Conall walking away before closing the door. Sighing, she approached the couch and changed in to clean clothes she left there last night. She didn't want to leave this room, or really see anyone really, but she will probably have to, but then she could simply leave the mansion altogether and settle in an inn, even if the locals would be suspicious of her. She knows how to hide.

[josh900]

Lucas came down to the common room, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Morning everyone." He said sleepily. "What's going on?" He asked after taking a look around the room.

 

"Our host is blackmailing the women into some dance of his." Azuris said, shooting daggers at Menarses with his eyes.

 

"A.. wait what?" Lucas asked, suddenly wide eyed and looking around the room. "What what.. what do you mean he's blackmailing us?"

[Llhunara]

With a smile Llhunarra makes her way to the larger table from her seat at the side of the room. Pitcher and glass in hand she takes a seat. Elbows settling onto the table she rests her chin in her hands before letting out a yawn. “I am afraid I must, but I assure you while dancing is not one of my talents I have many more.” The smile she wore coming off a bit girlish after the comment. While some may call it flirting, the rogue saw it more as securing her position off the dance floor. If a smile helped her case she was more than willing to give one.

 

Letting her eyes slowly close as she relaxes some as the others talk, only opening them when she hears one known as Azuris mentioning blackmail. Thinking the assessment a bit unfair she pipes up. “I wouldn’t exactly call it blackmail; we are slightly in his debt for the hospitality he has shown us thus far. If a little work allows us a tenday of eating, drinking and relaxation we should be more than willing to do it.” After a slight pause Llhunarra adds. “Just my opinion of course…” Hoping she did not offend. The group had allowed them to travel with her; they could just as easily turn on her if they were too tired of her presence. She didn’t desire to make any enemies here.

[AurianaValoria1]

Arland looked at Rhaine oddly, and then nodded to himself, "Y'know what? I think we probably ought to talk with each other in private, yeah."

 

The Doomguide sighed heavily again and rose, excusing herself from the table. Though she was not looking forward to speaking with Arland very much, she was thankful to be away from Menarses.

 

Arland shrugged and led her out the doors and into the courtyard. He put some distance between them and the doors and leaned, arms crossed, on the wall. "So," he began where they left off, “Again, are you doing alright? You were in quite a state last night."

 

“I’m fine,” the Rhaine replied shortly, putting her hands on her waist and shifting from one foot to the other, “Though I feel I should say that to imply I am jealous of you and Marie is folly.”

 

Arland smirked and rolled his eyes, "If you say so."

 

She raised a brow and stepped closer, “I need no such relationship. If that is what you desire, so be it. I am glad you have found someone. But to imply that my anger at you last night stemmed from any sort of envy of you is to cheapen my words. You still have an excess of hubris, and attempting to deflect my statement by diverting the focus to what you deem to be my problems will not change that.”

 

She then paused, glanced away, and added, “Call me weak, but you hurt me, too, Arland Grey.”

 

Arland's shoulders looked to sag for a second before the roguish Grey puffed himself up again. "How'd I hurt you? I was concerned for you, you know that, right?"

"Yes," she murmured, "I know. But you also made a point of reminding me of my single status in a not-so-sensitive fashion. I realize that I provoked such a reaction from you, but you dealt a blow harder than you received."

 

He raised his eyebrows before he dryly asked, "Really? Because not only do I have a burn on my face because of you, but you slapped it, too. Hard, might I add."

 

Her eyes flashed as she looked back at him, "Flesh wounds are not like wounds of the spirit, Arland. You know that I battle with my own heart all the time...and that I have rejected more than one man's affections because of its coldness. You need not remind me that many of you are experiencing something that I might never know and use it as a weapon to hurt me."

 

Arland scowled, "I'll ignore the fact that we were in the middle of a heat-of-the-moment fight for a minute. You don't seem to think you've got much in the way of good things about yourself or something if you think you're never going to fall in love. Stlarn, Rhaine, you've got pretty much forever for that to happen. I wasn't trying to do any more than piss you off a bit 'cause you did the same thing to me what with the slap and all." He paused, and his expression softened considerably, "Look, Rhaine, even if nobody's after your heart just yet, I know we're all here for you whenever you need it. Your friends, that is. Nawen, Weyland, Amendale...me, even. It's not like you're not wanted or anything, you know. Stlarn, if it doesn't make me look too stupid to say so, I'd say some of us already DO love you in our own ways. Just might not be the kind of love you're talking about."

If his words eased her pain any, it did not show on her face. Instead, she shook her head and replied, "Nevermind. As I said before, I need no such relationships. I keep conveniently forgetting I’ll outlive even a potential lover. I must learn to ignore my fleeting and immature yearnings and take gladness in simpler things. It will be better for me in the long run.”

 

Arland scowled again. "Oh, please don't do this again. Just because you have a duty doesn't mean you ignore yourself, Rhaine. You might try to pretend you're not but you're still a person like all the rest of us. So keep yourself happy…literally for Kelemvor's sake. If you're happy, you'll be more focused 'cause you're not worried about anything. That means you can do your job better, which means you'd be doing him a service.

 

"I'm gonna tell you somethin' my Mum told me- well, all three of us that were there - once. She said, "No matter what you do, love always ends in sadness. All of it, from the best loves, the blessings from Sune herself, to the little things like loving a pet or a spot."

 

He frowned as he tried to remember exactly the words she'd used. "This might not be word-for-word. She probably made it sound a lot smarter than this," he apologized. "But anyway, then she said, ‘So you gotta enjoy the time you got with who or whatever you love. ’Cause even though it ends with sadness, love'll make you happier than anything in the world.’ Where I'm going with this is that sure, you'll outlive most of the people you know. But they'll make you happy while you know 'em, and I think you need that."

 

The youngest Grey, now on a roll, gazed at her meaningfully, "The Big Man from the other side's blessed you with more time than you'll ever need. Most of us worry about making the sixty winters or so we see have some kind of meaning before we die, to find someone to spend our time with before we die. But you don't need to worry about that. If you keep beating yourself up and keeping yourself....sad, like this, then you're wasting a gift most of us can only dream about. You gotta make the most of it, Rhaine. Don't worry about outliving anyone, worry about making the time you've got with 'em the best it can be."

 

Rhaine crossed her arms, closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and sighed, letting out her breath slowly. When she finally reopened her eyes after a few moments, she replied, “Do you still want to know what we were talking about?”

 

He raised an eyebrow, "I'm pretty sure I know what we're talking about. Why, did you have a different idea?"

 

She shook her head, “No, Arland. I meant…my lordship and I. Why I was upset.”

 

“Oh, why he made you upset, you mean. Sure, I'm all ears."

 

Rhaine gave him a wry smile, threw her hands in the air and answered, “This. The reason I shouted and cried like I did was because I was thinking about Tak’we…and all the others I’ll lose in the future. I…wanted to know how I could move on. How I could deal with all the loss decade after decade. Of course, I started mentally criticizing myself for even wasting his time with such trivial matters. Once that happened, my wall came tumbling down, and every emotion I’d shoved away for weeks came spilling out in that instant. He has a way of doing that to me…”

 

Arland met her gaze, "Y'know, you said a minute ago you don't need love, but look at how twisted up you get when you lose someone. And then you told me that night a little while ago that we're the closest you've got to family. Maybe you need people close to you more than you think you do."

 

The Doomguide bit her lip, “Perhaps. Almost everything you’ve told me, Kelemvor has told me as well, just in different words.” She paused and put her head in her hands, “Why is it so difficult for me to find joy in anything other than my work?”

 

Arland seemed to think for a minute. Surprisingly, he came out with an answer within the minute. "I think you're lookin' too far. Maybe you've got people that can make you happy right in front of your face but you've not noticed it yet. Maybe you won't fall in love like in the minstrel's tales, sure. But you might be happy anyway. At least take a good, long look at everyone and think about what they mean to ya. Might be more than you think."

 

She glanced away again, her expression unreadable as she repeated quietly, “Perhaps.”

 

"I don't see anything ‘perhaps’ about it. You oughta try it, for your own sake."

 

She then huffed out a heavy breath, “I hate this…I hate feeling…vulnerable. Exposed.”

 

"Well being exposed around me won't hurt you. I promise."

 

Rhaine smirked at him with an eyebrow raised, “I bet you’d like me exposed, you lecher.”

 

He snorted. "Not if it led to the arse-whoopin’ I imagine I'd get after," he grinned at her.

 

“I’m sure you’d like that too,” she said flatly as she turned back towards the doors.

 

"Wings, an arse-whoopin' from you'd send me to see your boss a lot sooner than I meant to," he laughed. "But hey, think about some of what I said, eh? Might help. Hells, I know I'd like to see you be a lot happier."

 

The Doomguide gave him a small smile, “Thinking is what I do best.”

 

With that, she opened the doors once more and headed back inside to face whatever else Menarses had in store for them.

 

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

 

About that time, Zorica and Conall both entered the common room. From the look on Menarses's face, Zorica was almost certain she did not want to be there. Before the merchant could say anything, Rhaine supplied his question for him, "Zorica, are you interested in playing Isis in a dance for a festival a tenday from now?"

 

The half-drow, her head still pounding, winced and squinted at the Doomguide, "Wait, what...?"

 

She glanced back and forth between the others seated at the table as if looking for an explanation.

[josh900]

"Congratulations." Azuris grunted. "You're being roped into what our host thinks is adequate payment for giving us a place to stay, not that we couldn't find somewhere else or anything apparently." He added under his breath.

[Deleted6317247User]

Shalena couldn't help but chuckle at Azuris's words. She found his comments oh so amusing. The piratess was far too busy imagining herself wearing beautiful dancer clothes to notice that Arland and Rhaine had left, nor when they returned. She did however noticed Zorica and the puzzled look she gave them.

 

"I'm so glad more of us are in danger of being attacked by the locals than just the usual three or four," the piratess said, "otherwise we would have had to stay at some inn, as long as only less important members of the party are in potential danger." For a brief moment she mulled over her words before adding: "So, as you can see it is in our best interest to help our gracious host, otherwise we'll have a lot of angry people to deal with."

Edited November 18, 2014 by Guest

[AurianaValoria1]

"Great," Zorica mumbled, rubbing her temples.

 

That was all the confirmation Menarses needed.

 

"Wonderful!" the merchant exclaimed, bouncing out of his chair again, the expression on his round face positively giddy, "I shall make arrangements for your outfits to be made as soon as possible! And you, my good man," he gestured to Arland, "Please, come with me to the kitchens...we must try preparing this 'bacon' of which you speak..."

 

Rhaine, Zorica, and Conall all looked at each other and heaved heavy sighs.

[Flipout6]

Arland zipped off to the kitchen, and from the ruckus that was quickly created it became immediately apparent that Arland did not mesh well with the prim-and-proper, orderly operations of the kitchen. Once he mentioned that he was there on Menarses's orders to show them how to make something he got to work. It involved a lot of improvisation and demonstration-

 

"But that's the fish pan!" Someone whined in protest and was ignored.

 

-but he managed, somehow, to get several pounds of bacon made. Perhaps it was shaped a little differently from the usual (he had to use meat not specifically made to be bacon.) bu it tasted mostly the same. He used one of his flaming blades as a stove to get it heated quickly, leading to a brief panic until he promised that he wasn't going to use it on anyone.

 

"How...unsanitary." The same cook commented.

 

"Shuddup it's worth it, trust me." Arland shot back.

 

Amendale came downstairs clad in loose pants and a plain shirt, gifts from their host. He yawned, stretched, and grinned hugely at Zorica, like they were sharing some inside joke instead of feelings for one-another...though it was mostly to prevent the less perceptive amongst Rhaine's little posse of suspecting anything. He sent her a questioning look to try and get a read on whether she cared or not.

 

Sybille raised an eyebrow at the disastrous-sounding racket coming from the kitchen. "I can't tell if he's cooking or destroying the place."

"Probably a bit of both." Amendale commented, and Sybille smirked.

 

Once the scent of bacon wafted throughout the building, it didn't take long for Weyland and Dri to appear, hands touching. They both looked like they'd slept in a pigeon's nest if the colossal bedhead-hair was anything to go by, but the groggy smiles on their faces indicated that they didn't give a care in the world about their hair.

 

"Mornin', everyone." Weyland greeted. Dri's greetings were incoherent barely-conscious jumbles that were half greeting, and half her smelling bacon and pursuing it mindlessly. A clang from the kitchen woke her up pretty quickly.

 

"What's happening?" She chittered.

 

"It sounds like Argyros tried to go full scaley and didn't fit." Was Weyland's response. Dri giggled.

 

"Arland's showing them how to cook bacon." Sybille explained. "Oh, and Rhaine and I are gonna be dancing in a festival. Maybe Zorica too. I get to be Hathor."

 

Weyland raised his eyebrows. "Sounds like a lot of fun."

 

"Waitwait...Zorica, you're going to dance?" Amendale smiled. "It'll be awe-inspiring, I'm sure."

 

"Me, I'm hopin' to see which between Rhaine and I are the better dancer." Sybille raised an eyebrow at the Doomguide. "Although I'm calling an unfair advantage, what with the dramatic-looking wings and all." She grinned mischievously.

 

Annette silently made her way down the stairs and investigated the noise in the kitchen without a word, before sitting beside Connall with a thump. She swung her legs and followed the conversation with amused amber eyes, but didn't contribute. Marie was one of the last people down, and she sat quietly beside Sybille, also opting not to contribute to the discussion. With any luck, she wouldn't be picked for dancing, but she got the feeling that being agile and lithe she quite possibly could be anyways. She just hoped that wasn't the case.

 

"Connall, why's it sound like the mansion's under siege?" Annette piped up, looking at the werewolf with an eyebrow quirked.

 

Arland took that opportunity to arrive with all five-to-ten pounds of bacon either in his arms or in tow. "Because of this semi-improvised masterpiece!" He declared. "Menarses, behold.....a Grey family delicacy."

"I don't even know where we got the meat to eat as much as we used to." Sybille said, frowning in confusion.

"Oh I usually stole it." Typical Arland statement. "Tuck in before it's gone!"

Edited November 20, 2014 by Flipout6

[Llhunara]

The rogue found it amusing how excited half the selected four was about the upcoming performance while the other two seemed hesitant. Leaning back in her chair to throw her bare feet up on the edge of the table she couldn't help, but smile at Shalena. The piratess seemed to take everything in stride, enjoying life for what it was. Llhunarra agreed completely with that view, you never knew when it was going to come to an end. As the others arrived, the lot of them finally making it down to common room, one even making his way into the kitchen to help prepare a specialty food. Unsure of what it was he was helping the chefs cook smelt quite wonderful.

 

In a short time, far sooner than she would have expected he returned, servants in two to help him deliver the food. Looking at the sizzling strips of what was apparently meat she looks around the table to see if this is what the others had expected. Was this something they commonly treated themselves too? Biting at her lower lip she hesitates to take any, watching for another to pick up one of the hot strips before stealing some for herself.