A (not so) Well Kept Secret.

[Vega]

[img]/gallery/image ... ge_id=6913[/img]

Ashan 71,

following this

Vega was sitting in the camp, trying to learn how to make arrows. It had to be said that she wasn't actually succeeding, but she was sure that it couldn't be that hard so, she'd decided that she was going to learn. Thankfully, Arlo had gone off somewhere and he'd been really quite shifty about where he was going and what, exactly, he was doing. Vega had come to the conclusion that there was a girl involved. He'd been mysterious, after all, and had taken Peg and the cart. Maybe he was hoping for some hanky panky in the back of the cart she thought.

The frown on Vega's face deepened at the thought of what kind of girl Arlo was meeting. If he was having some secret relationship, that was fine and his business, but why was he keeping it secret? Was the woman a lot older? If she was, Vega was going to punch him into Arc 723, she determined, for all the old lady jokes he'd subjected her to. As she sliced the wood into a vaguely-arrowhead shape at best, Vega sliced her finger and let out a yelp. What followed was a stream of Rakahi the like of which would have had her father sending her to her room.

Sucking her finger, Vega wiped the knife on the grass, then sheathed it and went over to get Arlo's first aid kit. As she did, she saw a strange sight, that of Peg coming back into the camp. Arlo's mare was wearing a saddle and she looked. Well, Vega couldn't deny it, the mare looked pleased with herself. "Hey Peg, where's himself?" Vega asked, then shook her head. "Even if you know, you aren't telling me, are you?" There was one, entirely inescapable conclusion for her. "I'm standing alone, in a camp, talkin' to a horse. Peg, I'd say I've been hanging out with Arlo too long, you know. Time for me to go live with the sane people. You know any?"

So, there was the horse, but there was no Arlo and there was no cart. Vega considered tying the mare up here, but then thought that it was probably best to bring her, since she was going to find Arlo and the cart. "Come on then, Peg, lets go get him. Is he alright?"

Vega took the mare's rein and started to walk out of the camp, following the most recent hoof prints. They hadn't taken Peg out for a few trials and the newer ones were more obvious than the older ones to her. "Look at that Peg, I think I learned about tracking." Vega's frown was growing as concern for her young friend built. "Where in the pits of Augiery has he been, Peg? To town?" That was the way they were heading. If she found Arlo Creede in a brothel, Vega determined, she was going to skin him. She remained convinced that he was up to something of that ilk, but the saddle confused her.

Why on Idalos was Peg saddled?

She kept the pace as much as she could - the cart had definitely come this way earlier and the mare had come back this way too. But where was Arlo Creede? After a break, Vega lifted her voice and yelled, at the top of her lungs.

"ARLO?" She then turned to Peg and patted her, soothing the horse. "Sorry, I'm just getting worried. Where is he, Peg?" Sighing she continued to speak, but not to the horse.

"Alright, XIur, do me a favour would you? Or you, U'frek, if it pleases either of you. Arlo, right, he's short and he worships Cassion. Actually, sorry, why am I bothering you, if you're listening, Cassion, you probably don't remember me cos you blatantly wouldn't. Firstly, kissing girls in the middle of a .. anyhow, maybe not that conversation right now. Listen, I know he's an irritant, but he's a good kid, and he's not really a kid any more. You couldn't get more devout to you than him, so look after him, would you? What did you say? No" Vega was starting to confuse herself,"I meant the horse, Cassion, not you. Hang on. Shush Peg, I'm talking to the Immortals. Right, so Cassion, yeah. Look after him, please? I mean. Really, please. And sorry to bother you there, U'frek and Xiur, but you know, you're my first ports of call. Sorry about that. Hope you're all having good trials and all that."

Vega prayed in a way unique to her, it had to be said. But it was as heartfelt a dedication and concern as could be.

"ARLO!?"

[Arlo Creede]

As horse-drawn carts went, Arlo's wasn't a heavy one. Especially when it was nearly empty. All that was loaded in it was Peg's driving harness, curse her black heart, and the book that he'd bought. The one that he'd thought he'd learned to ride from. And he would have, if his mare hadn't dumped him on the trail leading into Willow Woods, and then high-tailed it back to camp.

Turned out that it was a lot heavier and more difficult to manage on its own and without a horse to pull it. The young man had thought he might ask a local farmer or two to help him get it back. But he'd only met one on the path back to town and had tried out the truth on him. How exactly he'd come to pushing a driving cart along the way. The man had laughed at him, so Arlo had resolved then that not only would he do it alone, but he'd need to conceive of a better story before he got back to camp.

Vega would be there, he was sure. And so would Peg. She was probably already there and had gone trotting into camp with her reins dragging the ground and the stirrups flopping empty against her sides. Bandits, he thought. Peg and him had been set upon by bandits, who'd coincidentally been hauling a saddle just looking for a horse to steal. And though his mare had resisted valiantly and he'd put up the good fight, they'd managed it anyway. And how had she returned without a rider? Well Peg was smart, resistant to riding and had tossed them off soon after.

He did look like he'd been in a good scrap, and had added a new scrape or two, bruise and a bump on his forehead while struggling with the cart. And a good half or more of fine storytelling was in the spinning of the details.

Pulling on the cart hadn't been any use at all, so he'd ended up having to push it. Strength he discovered was more than just muscle, it was endurance and the proper application of leverage. The last bit had come to him only after the thing got away from him, just over the top of a rise. Arlo hadn't realized there'd been a slight slope to the road, when he'd driven or walked over it. But there was a distinct sense of pushing an unruly cart uphill that caused him to curse his mare once again. "Good for more than just pullin' and riding," he'd muttered resentfully.

"Not half bad in a stew pot either!" It was just then that he'd come to the top of the rise, the load came easier to the extent it got away from him, and he stumbled forward and knocked his forehead on the cart's back. And then landed face first on the dusty path. At least it had rolled a few yards down the way, he thought as he climbed to his feet, dusted himself off and picked up his hat to follow it.

Then, just as he'd caught up and started pushing again, he heard a familiar voice calling out. Arlo straightened up, frowned, squinted against the sunlight and there she was in the distance. Vega, and Peg was with her. "Here! I'm over here!" he called out before getting back to the job of pushing his cart. Bandits, he decided. It had been bandits that were the cause of it all.

[Vega]

[img]/gallery/image ... ge_id=6913[/img]

"Oh thank all the Immortals. Nice work, Cassion, thanks and all that. You too, Xiur and U'frek. Cheers. I'm gonna kill him." The relief Vega felt when she first heard and then saw Arlo was enormous and she was totally serious in her thanks to the Immortals. However, it quickly turned to annoyance.

"Where the snardin' heck have you been you steaming pillock? I was worried sick!" Vega could do some really good frowns and the scowl she wore in that moment was one of her better ones, but when she saw that he was cut, she dropped Peg's reins and moved over to him, confident that the horse would follow. "What happened?" He was covered in cuts and bruises and Vega grabbed ahold of the cart, to stop him having to half kill himself. "Stand still, I'm gonna clean you up. If you argue with me I'll make you wish you hadn't so shurrup." She didn't know much about medicine, but she knew enough that if he got an infection in any of those they'd be in a world of trouble.

"Please, Arlo," she replied, more gently when he started to argue that he was fine. "Just, let me look an' fuss a bit, a'right? You've done the same for me, after all. Please?" He couldn't deal with it when she pretended to be reasonable, she knew, so he'd let her. "What happened?"

Vega worked to clean up his wounds, listening as she did. She was as quick as she could be because she knew that she couldn't stop it stinging, so she worked as fast as she could. Whilst she worked, she listened to his story and Vega got more and more angry. "Right. Where was this? We're going to hitch Peg up to the cart and get you back to camp." Then, Vega decided, she was going to go to wherever this was and track the bandits back, find where they were and kill them. She didn't say that, of course, instead she finished cleaning him off and realised after she'd said "Sit there," just how bossy she sounded, because she was beyond furious. Not with him, unusually, but the idea that there were people out there who had thought it was acceptable to hurt him like this made her blood boil.

"Please. I'll just go hitch up Peg." Which she would, asking him as she did. "Where'd she get the saddle? It's nice. She doesn't seem to mind it, either. So, where were you going?" Vega rolled her eyes when he didn't sit but was there helping her hitch up Peg so that they were doing it together, as they had lots of times. "You're a stubborn idiot, you know that? I thought you were off meetin' a girl, but judging by the saddle and the book," she motioned to it in the cart. "You're getting Peg used to being ridden? How's she doing, or didn't you get that far?"

Once the mare was hitched up, Vega suggested that he sit on the cart and she would lead Peg back, though she thought she might as well save her breath. "You gonna be alright on your own for a few breaks once we get back? I've got some errands to run." If, Vega considered, one thought that bandits were errands and by run, one meant run through.

[Arlo Creede]

Once Vega had found him, thanks to his mare's treachery, Arlo told her the story he'd been planning ever since he realized he'd have to tell her something. It wasn't as if the truth hadn't occurred to him. Only that he knew how it would go after he told it. Truth told, he hadn't had time to consider the consequences of a more dramatic telling.

He did it anyway, even while she was fussing over him. Bandits. Two of them. A dirty, rough looking duo and he'd put up a very good fight. In fact, he told her, they might have gotten Peg temporarily but if she thought he looked roughed up, she should have seen the other guys. "A left hook's not a bad choice you know," he told her, winced when she got too close with a rag soaked in something invisible to the naked eye but all too painful. "Stop it. It hurts, and it's just a scratch anyway."

But that left hook, combined with a diversion, he added. The stupid ones would fall for it every time. He pushed her hand away several times, ducked her a couple more. But all to little avail. Regardless, he wasn't going to let her hitch Peg up alone so while she got the harness from the back of the cart, he removed the mare's bridle and saddle. And just his luck, she noticed the book he'd thrown back there too.

Arlo expected right then that she'd realize he'd made up the story. Except that she didn't. "She did alright," he said vaguely. "She needs more work though. And come to that?" he asked with a curious frown. "Why would I need a cart and a saddle if I was off to meet a girl?"

Peg for her part was a great deal more cooperative when it came to putting on her driving harness and hitching her up to the cart. And with the two of them on the driver's seat as they headed back, it gave him time to consider things. And he wasn't foolish enough to believe Vega had any errands to run.

"They're long gone Vega. I don't think they were from around here anyway. Probably just a couple drifters passing through. They'll think twice before trying to steal another horse." What with the walloping he and Peg had both given them, was the implication.

[Vega]

[img]/gallery/image ... ge_id=6913[/img]

"I know it hurts. It's supposed to. Shurrup." Vega didn't think that she was ever likely to take up a career in medicine. Injured people were just so irritating. Arlo Creede specifically seemed utterly determined to wriggle around like some kind of worm on a hook. "If you don't stay still, I'll show you my left hook. Cut it out!"

He told her about his victory over the two bandits, left hook and a diversion and Vega just let him. She didn't believe it for a moment, he hadn't landed a punch. After all, she'd seen his hands and there were no signs of having been in a fight on them. No, these two bandits had beaten him good, she reckoned, and Peg had run like the big wuss she was.

"Cos you're too tight to pay for a room?" Vega shook her head when he asked why he might have wanted the cart, should he be off to meet a girl. "Although, since you have to ask, I guess that's not on the cards. I can do this myself, you know." She had to grumble, there was no doubting it, she liked to. Besides, she was boiling with anger and needed to do something about it. "Peg likes it best when I hitch her up to the cart, cos I'm nice to her. Aren't I Peg?"

"What? Yeah, I'm sure they are." Vega nodded when he said that the two in question were long gone. That was fine, she could track after all and a damn sight better than she had been able to when she first met him. "Peg doesn't seem any worse for wear, either." She smiled a tight smile, her violet eyes vivid and flecked through with silver. "I was tryin' to make some arrows. It's harder than it looks and I'm clumsier than I thought. Go figure. I'm gonna get a book or see if the fletcher in town will help. I'm not doin' it right, that's for sure and it would be good to have the ability to make our own." There had been something else she was thinking, Vega said, and she wondered what he thought.

"I thought I might buy myself a horse. I've always loved them, you know that, an' I could buy one that's trained. Would you teach me to ride if I did?" Of course he could ride, she figured. He didn't ride Peg because Peg didn't like being ridden, but of course he could. Either way, she was stalking out of the camp as soon as she was sure that he was settled down and safe, with every intention of going and finding the people who'd hurt him.

[Arlo Creede]

"I told you it's nothing," Arlo argued once again when Vega ordered him to sit still. He did it though and allowed her to finish her fussing simply because failing to do so would have caused more arguing and fussing still. Besides, so long as nobody knew the truth of where he'd gotten all the scrapes, cuts and bruises, he figured they added an air of danger to his look. He didn't mention that though. Not to Vega who'd have hopped on it and right quick.

And Peg liked him just fine, he muttered and continued to insist on helping to hitch the mare to his cart. Never mind that she'd dropped him twice and thrown him off for good measure less than a break before. At least she didn't seem any worse off for the experience. He'd intended to give her a good looking over once he'd gotten back to camp. But as it happened, he'd gotten the worst of it by far.

"No, she seems fine," he agreed as they'd driven the cart back to camp. "All the more reason to consider it a lesson learned." Like he'd told her after all, the bandits were probably several miles gone by now. She was right anyway about the arrows. They used a lot of them and lost nearly as many in the process. It would be more convenient, and more cost efficient too if they learned how to make their own.

Back at camp, sat side by side on a log by the cold embers which had once been their campfire, Arlo considered the topic of a mount for her to be a good distraction. One he hoped would divert her attention long enough that she'd forget chasing after a couple of bandits. The ones that never were, that was. "Course I can," he said when she asked if he'd teach her. He had the book after all, and Peg had taught him a lot that trial even if he wouldn't admit it.

The way he figured it, they'd gotten past the rough patch and there'd be smooth sailing ahead. They'd settled their differences, so to speak. "It's not hard and even Peg's alright in that regard. She's gettin' more agreeable all the time." She wasn't. Not even a little. But next trial, he resolved, that would change. "Would make traveling on land some easier over long distances."

But then appeared she hadn't forgotten about those bandits after all. He tried his best to distract and dissuade, but she was as stubborn as his mare and once she'd gotten herself worked up, there was no stopping her. So he let her go, seeming resolved to it.

He'd wait just a few bits. Long enough for her to lose sight of their camp and of him, and then Arlo would collect his bow and his sword and head out after her. With his luck, she'd either pick a fight with someone genuinely dangerous, or on the other hand, someone completely innocent of any wrongdoing at all. Better he was there to prevent it.

[Incubus]

Arlo

Knowledge
Endurance: Maintaining difficult movement
Endurance: The sting of medical care
Hunting: Following someone from a distance.
Persuasion: Being the voice of reason to an angry (irrational) woman
Stealth: Following behind quietly.
Strength: Pulling a cart across rough terrain
Storytelling: Embellishing a tale
Storytelling: Fabricating a story from beginning to end

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Fame: N/A
Devotion: N/A

Points: 15

Vega

Knowledge
Carpentry: Basics of carving
Fletching: Basics of arrow creation
Hunting: When following tracks, follow the most obvious.
Hunting: Distinguishing old and new tracks
Medicine: Cleaning wounds

Loot: N/A
Injuries: sliced finger; will heal in 11 trials! muahaha
Fame: N/A
Devotion: N/A

Points: 15

Comments: If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please let me know.