Being more past events of the Dothaven adventures.
Food...smells good, yes. Enough to get the death dancer out of bed and realize she hadn't contributed to the morning's fishing. Oh well, it's not like Eleris can't handle it. She wanders towards the communal pot, though staying quite to the outskirts unless she sees that help is needed. She freaks people out too much to always stick her nose into everything. The familiar is curled up on her head, snoozing away.
"Hey," Mi'ehna smiles at the sight of it, accept ing her bowl gratefuly from Skye. "Your friend is here."
He grins, waving. "Good morning, Hadone," he says. He opens his mouth to comment on the lizard, but decides against it. He's not sure if she's a morning person or not.
She waves a little in return. The lizard blinks, waking up a little, yawns, turns around once, and goes back to sleep.
"Hadone, will you join us?" Mi'ehna calls to her, smiles a bit at Skye. "We are having breakfast together. Please?" She looks at Skye, as if asking his permission.
Skye shrugs a bit, half-smiles, and takes a sip of his soup. Truth be told, he'd rather be alone with Mi'ehna, but he'd rather not stop and analyze why just now.
"Yes, come sit with us," he says.
Hadone smiles a little, or so it would look from the twitch at the gauze over her face, and nods to the dual invitation, filling her own bowl before walking over to sit beside Skye and Mi'ehna.
"It is simple fare. Honestly, I always preferred the potato soup we used to make. But the potatoes stopped growing." She eats in a very refined manner, small sips, with one arm under the table... perhaps a bit too formally. "I thought about exploring into the Malufel's nest later." She says this offhandedly, not looking at either of them.
The chameleon yawns. "Dancer's wondering why."
Skye frowns a bit, but keeps his mouth shut, waiting for her answer to that.
"I want to know what is there. If there is a way out." She stares into her bowl, not looking at either of them. "I was thinking it over last night, and... you two deserve every advantage you can get."
Hadone pokes at her soup quietly...befo
re a hand snaps up and clamp's the chameleon's mouth shut.
Mi'ehna chuckles quietly, looks at the Chament. "The monster will not attack me. It knows that I would never try to escape. I am resigned to die here." Takes a bite of food. "I can help you that way, I think. And besides... of everyone here, I am best equipped to defend myself should I be wrong. I can match its strength, if not its pure abilities."
Skye looks down at his food, not hungry anymore. "What do you mean, its 'pure abilities'?" he asks.
"Its resistance to sorcery, and the light in its belly primarily. It is a different species after all." She nods, glancing at each of them briefly. "But I can match its strength well enough to get away should it become violent."
The chameleon shakes its head free. "Dancer thinks Skye will be in the most danger by far if he comes."
"I would never insist upon such a thing," Mi'ehna is awfully quick to say, eyes flashing a bit before returning meekly to her bowl. "I could not ask Hadone, either."
"And you think I'd - " he falters, then corrects himself, " - we'd let you go alone?" He stares at her fixedly. "I'm going with you. If you're concerned for my safety, you'll command me to flee at the first sign of danger."
Mi smiles into her bowl. "And you would do it, if I commanded?"
"He probably would if you pulled out your sword again," the chameleon notes cheerfully, to a dirty look from the dancer.
Skye grins. Indeed, he is stubborn in these matters, and there is practically no one alive who could command him to flee battle and expect to be obeyed.
"It would really depend if I thought I was in any danger in the first place," he says. "At any rate, I'm going with you."
"Then be ready to go when I am. I will not try to persuade you otherwise just... if it gets rough, please leave me and escape. I will not permit you to go otherwise." Mi'ehna lifts her eyes again.
Skye looks as though he's about to protest, but stops himself and nods firmly. "I'm going to go collect Silence and Fairfight, then," he says, leaving the women and walking away, muttering something unintelligible under his breath.
Once he's gone, Mi'ehna turns her attention to Hadone again, pushing her bowl away. "Stop him. Whatever you do, please, find a way to stop him from going with me."
The death dancer nods, and stands. "I predict ropes in the boy's future," the chameleon notes.
A slight smile touches the corner of Mi'ehna's lips. "Maybe so. But what about you? I cannot ask you to come, but I know that you have some rapport with the beast and would probably be safer than Skye would."
A pause. "Hadone is hesitant to come," the chameleon notes after a few moments. "She does not fear the Malufel, she does not believe that it will harm her. But she does not wish to violate its privacy."
"Skye, he... actually, he asked me something last night that has me thinking. About if the monster is a prisoner here as well." Mi'ehna has only finished about half of her soup, but finds that her appetite isn't as big as it was a moment before. "I want to know."
Hadone looks down and aside. It's a good reason to go, to be sure. Another long pause. "Dancer," the chameleon notes, somewhat subdued, "is not at all sure that this is untrue. But the Malufel's bonds may be far more concrete than any holding anyone else here, imbedded one way or the other in its own nature."
"Anything done can be undone, one way or another. I will find out, but you can help me if you go or stay..." Mi is playing with her bowl nervously right now, her thoughts broadcasting openly just how on edge she is about this. "Here, you could watch over my people in my absence or... heaven forbid... help if one of us comes back hurt."
"Dancer will go," the chameleon notes finally. "If she can find a way to keep Skye here."
At this, Skye returns, Fairfight on his hip and Silence the rapier in his left hand. Unfortunately, he's caught the last, and doesn't look too pleased. "The only way I'm staying is if I'm too injured to move." He gestures at himself. "And seeing as the only thing wounded is my pride, that's not going to happen."
Mi'ehna hadn't expected him to come back so soon, and there's more than a little dismay in her eyes at his reaction. "Skye, please understand. I do not want you to be hurt again. So soon."
He hesitates a moment, then unsheaths Fairfight, laying it on the ground with Silence, blade-to-hilt between himself and the women, sitting on the ground.
"I've been hurt enough, and it never makes much difference to me," he says.
"While we're all impressed by the tragic tough-guy face, the wound that kills you will make a difference," the chameleon states.
Skye glares at the lizard. "I look forward to that wound," he says evenly. He turns his gaze back to Mi'ehna. "If you don't want me to go, you'd better give me a better reason that not wanting to see me hurt." He really doesn't want to explain the complications of his situation.
Hadone shrugs, and gathers up her bowl to wash before they go. The chament's tail--which is lengthening and developing a furry tuft--curls around the dancer's neck as it moves to her shoulder. "She looks forward to singing for you." And then they both disappear through the door, bound to return in a few minutes.
Mi'ehna's cheeks are cast in rainbows again, though her eyes are hidden behind her hair at this point. The next words are relucant, and whispered... she is aware that her sensitive emotional nature is running away with her again, but can't do a damn thing to stop it. "I cannot think of a better reason to do anything, than to keep you from being hurt."
Skye looks rather taken aback at this. "Damn it, Mi'ehna. Please don't get emotional with me." A pale orb of light forms in his palm and he begins to absentmindedly toss it from one hand to the other. "Look, I'll run if you tell me to, okay?" He feels childish again, most unused to having to argue with someone who cares weather he's hurt or not.
She doesn't answer, this time, for a long, uncomfortable period. Too much is running through her mind, and it is taking a great deal of concentration to keep from broadcasting it all across Dothaven... except for one darkly charged thought she allows to slip out.
Please understand. My purpose here is to help the lives of my people. If I failed, especially with you, then my life would be of no use. And I would not hesitate to end it.
Skye, for his part, can feel her light surging and fluttering unnaturally. The orb of light in his palm grows to the size of a large rock, then explodes.
He hesitates only a moment before reaching out to touch her cheek, lightly.
"Mi'ehna... I care about you. And because of that..." it seems to take a lot of effort to say it, "... I'll do whatever you ask me to."
"You what? No, Skye, no. Please, do not say such a thing." Mi scootches away a little, shaking her head. "Many people have cared about me, but... they are all dead. If you really do care, Skye, then... just..." Her words fail, but she lifts her eyes anyway, brushing them gently. "Then just do as I say, when we are there. Whatever I say."
Skye frowns a bit, but stands and turns away. "Fair enough," he says, picking up Fairfight and Silence.
Mi bites her lip, kicking herself mentally for the way she's acting.
"Skye? Thank you. I... am happy that you told me. It means that I was not fooling myself when I realized how I care for you, as well." She turns away from him, though, embarassed by the admission, and not really prepared to deal with what it might entail. Her heart had gotten her in quite a bit of trouble before, after all, and now could prove to be just as dangerous as then.
Skye's light at this point can only be described as... dancing. He manages to contain himself, though.
The death dancer returns at this point. Looks from one, to the other. "So," the chament inquires, "we all going, then?"
"It seems so," Mi answers the little beast. "I should go and get ready. I... yes. I will be at home." That said, she stands and walks away, head held low. She'd just been hoodwinked, is what had happened.
Skye watches her go, still grinning like an idiot. Glancing at Hadone, he directs his attention to Silence as though nothing out of the ordinary has occured.
Ugh... Hadone just shakes her head, hands on her temples, and gets to checking the organization on her medical bag. "Everything's always sane and logical until a boy and a girl are alone in the same room," the chament observes, tail swishing happily. "Chee. Humans."
Skye makes a face at the chament, but says nothing. For him, though, things just became all the more logical and sane. He chooses not to share this, however.
The death dancer just works along quietly, setting things on the table to move them out of the way as she checks her inventory. The lizard narrates the name of each as they go by. "Hemlock, iitari, letaern root...good lord, do you have anything that isn't lethal in there?"
The names sound familiar to Skye. Though he can't remember exactly what they all do. "Why do you carry those?" he asks.
"To end peoples' pain," the lizard chirps in response. "If they can't be saved, and will only suffer longer, then a death dancer kills them instead of leaving them to writhe."
He nods, understanding. "Personally, if I were suffering greatly, I'd want it to end, as well. But I wouldn't have much say in the matter." He offers a half smile. "What happens when you find someone who, for some reason or another, cannot accept your services?" he directs his question at the air, not really expecting an answer.
"Clients don't tend to protest," the chament notes with a smile. "They aren't very talkative."
Skye seems to snap out of a trance. "Yes, of course," he says quickly. There's an undertone of What a foolish question! in it. However, he appears a bit troubled.
The lizard's tail swishes. "And what has your panties in a budle?"
He shrugs. She might as well know. "If something happens to me while I am here, Hadone, you won't be able to do anything for me." He chooses the next carefully. "My Faith won't allow my body to be treated after death."
"Well. Do you really believe that your body isn't fit to be treated after death?" the lizard inquires.
He nods slowly. "I was taught that. From my Faith." Well, not exactly. It's much more complicated than that. But it's the best answer he can provide.
"You don't sound all that convinced." The lizard tips its head. "Why in earth sky and sea would your faith not let you be buried?"
Skye frowns a bit. He's never been in a situation like this before. "I did something wrong..." he says. "Unforgiveable. Because of that, I was stripped of my right to Terra Divina, Divine Earth."
"Earth to earth, child. You'll be returned there sooner or later anyway."
He nods, not wanting to continue the conversation. Of course, eventually his body will become earth again. But it's what comes after death that matter. But he doubts Hadone believes in that, and even if she does, this probably isn't the time for debate.
The death dancer lets it die...for now. And she certainly does care about what comes next, else she wouldn't bother to be a death dancer. She finishes sorting her medicines in silence. The chament now, curled up in her hair, looks at Skye as she stands up. "Well. Shall we go?" The dancer waits for no response, and just heads towards the door.
Sensing that they have things to talk about later, Skye follows, running a finger over his right shoulder out of habit.
Dothaven Past IV
Stumble!