Re: Between a Rock and a Hard Place (an Averni Story)
Ivomagos leaned his head back to rest on the trunk of a gnarled old tree. He adjusted his cloak to form a cushion between his head and the trunk. Laughter brought his attention back to the fire 30 meters ahead of him. Marah lay on her side next to a small fire, a flask of wine resting in the crook of her arm. Across from her a large Celt with a shaved head and full beard was prodding the fire with a branch. He must be the one called Wulfwilla.
Wulfwilla muttered something and proceeded to stagger into the nearest tent. A few moments passed and Marah’s only movement was to bring herself up into a sitting position with legs crossed.
Ivo tilted his head backed and gazed up into the cloudless starry sky. He could hear Marah start to hum but he continued to gaze up at the stars. Tonight was too beautiful to waste spying on her. If she wanted to betray Prasuta then she could go right ahead. He was going to enjoy beauty of a good summer night. The warm air, clear sky, hushed chirping of crickets, all produced a calming effect on him.
Marah now progressed from humming to singing an Attic ballad. Ivo tried translating the lyrics but soon stopped in favor of appreciating the melody. He closed his eyes and let her voice fill his head. He had to admit, her voice was rather calming when he wasn’t the object of discussion. He focused his attention once again to the song and let it become louder and louder in his head until it felt like she was standing next to him. The song drew to a close but he kept his eyes closed to appreciate the nature all around him. The chirp of the crickets, the light brushing of cool breeze against skin, the creaking of a large low hanging tree branch. Ivo drew in a deep and exhaled. He opened his eyes-…
A pair of large brown eyes peered down at him, “Hello”.
Ivo blinked several times in surprise. “Umm, hello to you too.”
“If you’re going to spy on me then you should at least have your eyes open. You may find that, that…” She rocked gently on the branch trying to remember what she was going to say, “That, ooom,” Marah began to slide out of the tree branch. ‘wumph’ She fell off of the branch and directly onto Ivo. They both collapsed onto the ground. “I’m very drunk.” She teetered to her feet and took a few steps before she had to place a hand on the tree for support, “Could you help me?” she whispered pathetically. She wrapped her arms around Ivo’s shoulders and he led her back to Prasuta’s tent.
As he laid her down in the corner Prasuta looked up from the map he was studying. “It seems you don’t hate her quite as much as you like to say.” He remarked.
“You forget that I’m a gentleman.” Ivo replied. He turned to exit the tent but stopped just inside of the exit. “And I still don’t trust her.” Ivo left to return to his own tent.
Prasuta rolled up the scattered maps and promptly fell asleep.
To be continued....
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Sorry that the update took so long. I've had other stuff going on and I wanted to make sure that I did a really good job with this scene. I still don't think that it is as good as I want it to be but I can't take forever on it.
Sorry, but I still don't have a map. I seem to have lost my flashdrive so I can't transfer the game map from my game computer on to the computer I'm using to write this. If I can't find my flashdrive by next week then I'll make my own map since both Litanos and Prasutagos will be on the move in the next few scenes.
Hehe, the next scene will feature some nice Rhompaia vs. Rhompaia action. That's all I'm going to say about that for now.
After the next scene I'll return to Litanos and advance his plotline a bit.
Spring break starts for me on Friday so hopefully I'll get a fair amount of writing in.
Comments, Criticism, and Questions are appreciated
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