The forests around Menevia are lovely this time of year. Unfortunately, the highway you're traveling on runs through the only area near Menevia that has been cleared for use as farmland, and so the scenery is rather less captivating, here. You're about three miles out from the city of Menevia itself, which means, since it's in a valley and you're on the edge of said valley, that you can already see the inn where you decided earlier to meet. The Angry Porcupine is a rather large affair. (Go on ahead, people. There's more description, but it isn't vital that you hear it before you start talking.) The skies are clear and deep blue above you, and despite it being early in the day you can already make out Masser, the larger of the two moons, in the sky. This is doubtless an omen of something, and if you go find a place in town with more than one fortune teller, you can listen to them argue over the matter. * Nebrinel looks out towards Menevia, and lets a small grin slip onto her face as her new silken cloak moves in the wind. "Well, soon we'll find out if the food is as good as I remember." * Fyril stops his jaunty whistling, and looks over at Nebrinel with a playful look on his face. "What, mine hasn't been good enough for you?" The hillsides are green, and the candlebud flowers that grow in this region will probably be blooming on the western face of the valley in the mid evening. The Kieron River runs, sparkling and clear, through the middle of the town. * Nebrinel grins slyly, and punches Fyril lightly on the arm. "Of course it has. But the Angry Porcupine is just... the Angry Porcupine. I'm sure you'll understand when we get there." * Fyril pouts slightly, then grins. "Yeah, all right. If something's going to be better than my food, I'm sure it'll be memorable." * Nebrinel smiles slightly, and then frowns. "Soon we'll meet up with Ada... for all that is worth." She looks down at the Plague Bringer on her hip. * Fyril shrugs, and looks around. "Come on, it won't be bad. You're finding what you're looking for, and we can do more together than we'll be able to apart." A coach passes by the two of you, moving the other way. The coachman gives Nebrinel a confused glance for a moment, then shrugs and goes back about coaching. * Nebrinel mms softly. "That may be true, but I can't trust Xivilai. Nobody can." She pulls her cloak around her. Fortunatley, the superstitious belief that saying Xivilai's name summons her prooves false. (Whew. @_@) * Fyril cocks his head as the coach goes by, then at Nebrinel again. "All right. So she's not the most trustworthy elf out there, but it's still better in Shardae than the Empire." He shifts a bit, slowing his walking down. * Nebrinel chuckles darkly to herself. "I'm sure it is." She never acknowledged the coach. She gets those sort of looks a lot, after all. * Fyril stops, and rolls his shoulders, a strange look flickering across his face. "Hey, why don't we get off the road for a bit? I've still got some food left to use up, and if you're so hot on this Porcupine place, we might as well have lunch and finish it now." * Nebrinel looks up from brushing the sword with her hand, and nods, smiling lightly. "Yeah, good plan." * Fyril surveys the area, looking for a good place to set up a picnic. To your left is a flax field that's been harvested already. It's the only really flat spot to be found around here. * Fyril points over towards it, and starts heading over. "That looks good, if not as picturesque as some of the hills. Easier to cook on, though." I've always been a fan of functionalism. * Nebrinel walks on over as well. The harvested field does not seem afraid of you. * Fyril sits down, and starts to take the food out of his satchel. "You OK with something cold, or should I hunt up some wood?" (Well, I'll just have to TEACH it some fear. *cackles*) (Damn! What if I powerposed?) It's pretty much a mostly-flat piece of land, about two acres in size. It has yet to be plowed in preparation of the next crop, even. * Nebrinel sits down, spreading her cloak out so as to not sit on it, and its beautiful black pattern. "No, cold will be fine." (Er. You guys need more prodding, or something? c.c; +) (Heh.) * Nebrinel pulls her sword up into her lap, and looks at it again, while Fyril works on the cooking. * Fyril sets some bread, the green cheese, and a jar of minced meat and sweet, tangy fruit, down his semi-flattened satchel. "Good, because it'd be hard to make something hot with just this anyway." He smiles. * Nebrinel looks up, and chuckles softly, before peering down at the sword with a frown on her face. (Sorry, got distracted. Animals doing weird things here.) * Fyril puts together a sandwich with thin slices of bread and a good mix of the cheese and meat, and hands it to Nebrinel. "Something wrong with the sword?" * Nebrinel nods, and takes a bite of the sandwich, muttering around it, "Yes. It's looking at me... and I am not sure what changed with the addition of the guard." * Nebrinel frowns and adds, "No matter what it seems to tell me." * Fyril blinks a few times as he quickly puts together his own sandwich, and frowns slightly. "What it tells you? Is it talking to you now?" Sort of. I wouldn't call it talking, persay. * Fyril peers at the sword as he eats. "So, it's looking at you and telling you things, and it's changed in some way you can't tell. Did it gain a mind of its own, or something?" * Nebrinel takes another bite. "I think it's some of what we saw in Sergeant's house, in terms of its new mind." * Fyril looks away from the sword up to Nebrinel's face as he swallows another bite. "Do you think it's safe, then? It's not going to try to take you over again, is it?" * Nebrinel smiles weakly, but wryly. "It's a powerful thing. I wouldn't be surprised..." * Nebrinel holds up a hand to shush Fyril, puts down her sandwich, and then looks down at the sword intently. It's pretty obvious she's trying to do something towards it. * Fyril fidgets a bit, crossing his legs, eating silently, watching. He quietly makes himself another sandwich. * Nebrinel is still starting at the sword extremely intently, (and you'd probably have to be mundane to not feel the magic she worked. ^^;) * Fyril looks quietly at Nebrinel, waiting for the feeling of magic to subside. * Nebrinel 's features are very slightly twisted in pain. * Fyril sits up straight, and hesitates slightly, thinking about whether speaking is a good idea, before softly, worriedly saying, "Nebrinel?" * Nebrinel does not respond. Still staring at the sword. * Fyril hastily sets down his sandwich half on the ground, half on the satchel, and moves forward in front of her in a fluid motion. Slightly louder, he says, "Nebrinel? Say something, please?" * Nebrinel blinks, and looks up from the sword. There is a scared look in her eyes that even she can't hide. She looks at Fyril weakly. * Fyril reaches out a hand and grabs Nebrinel's in his own, careful not to cut her, and not blushing over the contact, for once. "Are you OK? What did you do?" * Nebrinel looks down at the sword, and shoves it off the side of her lap onto the ground, and then looks back towards Fyril, saying softly. "I talked to its mind. It's the same mind the chain had." * Fyril widens his eyes, and squeezes her hand. "And it tried again? You looked like it was hurting you, so I..." He trails off, looking at her intently. * Nebrinel realizes Fyril is holding her hand, and smiles softly, if weakly, towards him. "It's OK..." * Fyril shakes his head firmly. "Don't tell me that. Tell me what's going on. I can tell, something happened. It's in your eyes." * Nebrinel looks over at the sword, and looks down, saying softly, almost whispering, "It's... it wants to destroy the world. It thinks it was designed to do it. And... it wants to use me..." * Fyril shivers, and looks briefly down at the discarded sword before looking back into Nebrinel's eyes. "Whatever it wants, or thinks it can do, doesn't matter. We're here, and we're stronger than it is. You've shown that already, and it hasn't even seen half of you yet." He smiles warmly at her. * Nebrinel looks at the sword briefly, but back to Fyril's eyes quickly. "I'm not so sure. Especially not if we find the last piece... they are called Great Weapons for a reason." * Fyril nods slowly, keeping his eyes on hers. "Well... if that's the case, how badly do you need the last piece? It's pretty strong as it is." * Nebrinel mms. "Perhaps... " she actually curses and continues, "I wish there was more information on Great Weapons. All the people who know anything are Serioli or won't talk." * Fyril thinks. "Well, if you're in the right company, maybe they will. That guy Ada kept bringing us to with the windows seemed to know a lot." Maybe, maybe... * Nebrinel shivers. (Involuntarily, of course.) (Am I pinging, or are you two going silent? ^^;) * Fyril moves around to the side without the sword, and keeping their hands intertwined, puts his arm around her, now blushing. "Nebrinel..." He falters, then continues, "If you really don't know what you're dealing with, maybe you shouldn't continue. One of the first rules of magic, right?" He smiles uncertainly. (Silent. 'cause it's all long. ^^;) * Nebrinel chuckles softly. "I never was one for magic's rules..." She then looks at Fyril softly, smiling weakly. Then she, impulsively, leans against him. "I'm not ready to give up so easily, though." * Fyril blushes more, looking down at her, a soft look in his eyes. "I know. Determination's one of the things I like about you." He grins. * Nebrinel smiles playfully. "Is it, now?" * Fyril nods, looking away. "Yeah, it is. Being determined's one of the best personality things I can think of." The smile on his face grows a bit softer, and he says. "Now, if I only knew why you were so determined." (Lemme know when you guys are ready to head into town, or alternately, to call it a night. ^.~) (OK. Don't think it's either yet, though. ^^;) * Nebrinel mms softly, and squeezes Fyril's hand. She looks around for her sandwich and, finding it, grabs it with her other hand, chuckling. "I never finished my lunch." * Fyril nods and laughs before looks sadly at his somewhat dirtied sandwich. "Yeah, well, I wasn't that much hungrier anyway." He looks over at her. "So you really aren't going to tell me, then?" * Nebrinel waves her sandwich hand in the air. "Why is anyone driven, really? You once said you wanted to make your mark on the world." * Fyril nods, his eyes sparkling. "My mom and dad told me all these stories when I was a kid, and the best ones were always about thieves. For me, anyway. And I want to be able to be in one of those stories, someday." He sits up a bit, smiling widely. "That's my biggest dream, still." * Nebrinel smiles softly, and then looks at her hand. "I've always had to prove something. Learning magic without a teacher, you had to be driven." * Fyril blinks, then turns his face fully to her, wide-eyed. "You learned without a teacher?" * Nebrinel mms softly, and says hesitantly, "The... majority of it, yes. Formal magic training... wasn't for me." * Fyril pauses, then says with real admiration in his voice, "Wow. To be as good as you are with little formal training is just... wow. Astounding." He beams down at her. * Nebrinel looks up, and smiles. "Exactly. As... young as I am, self trained... there's always something to prove." * Fyril nods again. "And you're still my age. And so much better than me." He looks rueful, and chuckles. "My old teachers would be so mad." * Nebrinel waves her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that." * Fyril nods. "I never tried that hard with the magic anyway. It was interesting, but the thievery was so much better, I always focused on that." * Nebrinel nods. "Exactly." She rests a bit more weight on him. * Fyril shifts a bit to accomodate her, then looks thoughtful. "You know, that means you and magic is like me and thievery, right? All on our own, figuring things out." * Nebrinel nods. "Very true." She chuckles. "Two of a kind, that's us." * Fyril nods, and moves his hand over to stroke her hair. "Not a comparison I mind." * Nebrinel smiles softly, and guages the time. * Fyril looks over at her, the thoughtful look still on his face. "Hey, you said the majority of your training was just you. So was there someone at some point?" He gives her a quizzical smile. * Nebrinel frowns, although she doesn't move away. "Adron." * Fyril widens his eyes a bit. "Adron? He's not a small name. Even down in my town, we'd heard of him." * Nebrinel continues frowning. "Yes. Adron. As briefly as that lasted." * Fyril feels his smile falter a bit before saying tentatively, "We don't need to talk about this now, if you don't want to. I just want to know more about you. You don't look like this was fun, though." * Nebrinel shakes her head briefly. "I won't be happy about Adron for a long, long time. I'd rather not." * Fyril nods, and his smile becomes warm again. "Well, the day's been hard enough for you without going through old memories. You don't need to go into it." He squeezes her hand again, running his middle finger over the border of her palm. "Some other time, maybe?" * Nebrinel mms, lets her face soften to a weak smile, and says, "Maybe." * Fyril takes his hand from her hair, and holds her close to him, blushing all the while. "All I ask." * Nebrinel leans into the hug, saying nothing. * Fyril blushes harder as he leans down to kiss her forehead softly and silently. * Nebrinel blinks, and looks up after the kiss to see the blushing Fyril. Her soft smile grows a bit wider. * Fyril smiles, still bright red. "Thought that might make you a little happier." * Nebrinel laughs softly and touches Fyril's nose. "It did." * Fyril blinks and twitches his nose, and laughs. "Good! I don't want everything all somber. Especially not you." His fading blush returns in full force. * Nebrinel chuckles and taps Fyril's chest. "Seems you are persistant as well." She looks over at her sword and sighs. "But as much as I hate ruining the moment... we really should get to the Porcupine." * Fyril nods, but doesn't move his arm from around her. "Yeah, we should. Getting into town before dark'd be a good idea." * Nebrinel nods, and softly pulls Fyril's arm off of her, and stands, waving her finger. "Now, now, sloth never gets you anywhere." She stretches and frowns at a neck crack. "At least the inn will have beds." * Fyril grins sheepishly, and gets up. "Yeah. There's a luxury commodity. I didn't realize how much I'd miss those when I left home." He packs the remains of the food back into the satchel and hefts it again. (*Yawn* Y'all wanna head to town or call it quits?) * Nebrinel nods in agreement, and picks her sword off the ground with a sad smile on her face, sheathing it. (I'm unfortunately alert. I can go on for a bit more. ^^;) (I'm OK, if tired. I'd rather it not carry on too much longer, but more travel scene/inn scene wouldn't be amiss. ^^;) (Well? ^^;) (I'd like to call it a night, if it's all the same to youseguys. x.x) (It's fine. I'm sure we can assume they made it into town safely. ^^;) (*nods* Go for it, Yu. ^^;) Okay. And so they headed on to the awfully big Angry Porcupine Inn, where they got beds for themselves and reserved some for the others, and they all lived happily ever after. Well, maybe. (Damn, I hope not. That'd be boring.)