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 Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:38 pm
Despite Mal's avoidance of the topic, Laura let it go until a later time in the discussion. When Mal's story was over with, she'd started on her second slice of apple- the first devoured already.
"I suppose you're not as horrid as I took you for..." She murmured quietly, though still didn't seem to much like the man overall. She batted a hand at the mention of the war. "I don't even remember what it was any more. Xuan sent troops to aid some other place... Somewhere cold."
Placing the last of the apple slice in her mouth, Laura rested back against the sofa to look at the pair of them. It was slightly odd, she couldn't help but feel, that two men didn't seem to care in the slightest that she was beneath them as they spoke together. After all was said and done, she was employed as Rem's maid; wouldn't most Lords find what she was doing destestable? Then again, Laura admitted to herself, neither of them were ordinary men.
"Do either of you need something else?" Laura didn't fidget, though did seem to want to get up for a bit. With Rem and Mal, surely there were things they wanted to discuss alone without a woman being there?
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:52 pm
As far as Mal could remember, the Cambrian Rebellion didn’t have anything to do with Xuan. Maybe by a very, very limited association… Paralene was allied with Albion and Albion had lots of trade with Xuan City. So, it was possible… but, probably not very likely, he decided.
“D’aww… thank you, Laura. That gives me a warm and fuzzy feelin’ inside. That’s either from your kind words, or from poison. Let’s hope for my sake that it’s your words.” Yeah, just because Mal did nice things for his gryphon didn’t mean he would cease to be a b*****d to nearly everyone else. It was hard to imagine why he and Rem were friends at all, given their differences.
Rem sighed and rolled his eyes. So much for the idea of Laura and Mal getting along for more than five minutes in each other’s company. Did the man really have to torment everyone? “You should probably see how Tali and Aeron are doing, Laura,” he suggested. Yes, he felt that the baby gryphon would diffuse Laura’s temper, which was surely growing by now.
Laura was right about some things though. Neither Rem nor Mal were typical, really. Mal was… well, Mal. And Rem had been raised in Paralene, where certain standards were far more lax. Not all of them, of course, but certainly a few of them.
At that very moment, actually, Aeron was settling down and curling up protectively around Tali. If anyone wanted this chick, they would have to get through him first. He yawned and laid his head down on the ground, perfectly content to sleep under the open sky. Or at least take a brief nap. Tali seemed content to do the same, sleeping under Aeron’s protective wing.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:09 pm
Her nervousness ended there, and Laura got up calmly. "Malcom," She murmured, as if about to say something quite profound. "You are the most obnoxious b*****d I've ever met." She turned on her heel, and strode out as calmly as she'd walked in. At least Laura didn't need to worry about being nervous around the pair of them.
Leaving the house, Laura spotted the griffins out on the lawn in the sun. No, scratch that: Laura only saw one griffin. Brow furrowing, Laura edged closer to Aeron. If he had eaten the little baby, she certainly wouldn't know what to do. When a tuft of white fluff was seen hidden beneath the tawny mass of Aeron's wing, Laura managed a sigh of relief. Now how to get the baby out?
Having told her not to touch him, or Aeron's bells, Laura was at a bit of a loss for how to go about this. If she messed up, it certainly wouldn't take much for a griffin to fatally wound a woman her size. Standing near the griffin's wing, Laura placed her hands in her pockets as she tried to analyze the situation. It was only then she discovered several lumps of sugar she'd been saving for Rem's horse. "Would a griffin eat that...?" She mused aloud, and looked to Aeron. Standing a short distance from him, she squatted down, a lump of sugar in the palm of her hand. "Here big fella, come get the nice treat for you..."
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:34 pm
“Yay. I guess that means I win a prize,” Mal said right at Laura’s back. Pfft. Let her get the last word? Of course not! It simply wasn’t his way.
Rem sighed once more. “Must you be such a b*****d to her, Mal? You’re making this difficult as it is. She is my friend, after all. It would be much easier if you two could just get along…”
He was interrupted by Mal quickly enough. “Yes. I must. ‘Cause that’s what I am. I’m not too interested in makin’ nice with everyone I meet, Rem. It ain’t my way. That would be a lie.”
“… Need I point out that you’re currently pretending to be a noble? Isn’t that living a lie?”
“Hey, it could be real, Remmy. Everythin’ seems to be matchin’ up. Even my mother’s name, Rem! Coincidences… normally, I don’t believe in them, but this is one helluva thing.” He shook his head slightly, making his dark hair sway. “Anyway, what did you do after?”
There was no need to ask what Mal was referring to. Everything always came back to the war. For someone who wanted to avoid it as much as Mal did, he sure brought it up often. Or maybe everything just made him think of that… as Rem was very interested in the human mind and how it worked, Mal was rather fascinating in that way. “I traveled around. I went back home for a little while. Didn’t stay there long because war changes things. I just couldn’t stand being around everyone all the time. I couldn’t stand letting other people do the work because what if they messed something up? And the nightmares. Don’t get me started on those… you know why Laura is the only maid here? I need to do all the work myself. That way, I get tired enough to avoid nightmares. What do you do to avoid them?”
He didn’t even have to ask. He knew that Mal had them. Everyone did.
“Drink,” Mal said automatically. “A lot.”
~.~
Aeron opened one golden eye and glared at Laura as she approached. With a soft menacing hiss, he curled up even more around Tali, clearly intending on protecting the little chick from the woman. The hiss temporarily abated as the woman offered the sugar lumps, but it continued soon enough. Obviously, Aeron wasn’t going to be distracted by sugary treats.
When little Tali woke up, Aeron’s noise immediately stopped and he cooed at the chick instead, lightly nuzzling him. The chick bit his ear playfully. Aeron didn’t seem to notice and merely continued grooming Tali.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:41 pm
This.... was annoying. Laura pocketed the sugar cubes, glaring at Mal's beast. "You're worse than your master." She muttered, standing up and walking to the window of the room Rem and Mal resided at. She lifted it calmly enough, leaning on the planter to look in at them. "The ruddy b*****d's bird isn't going to let me take care of Tali." She shot a look at Mal, despite addressing Rem. "Seems pets really do resemble their owners..."
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:05 pm
“Ruddy?!” Mal sounded absolutely scandalized at the word and looked at his pale skin. “S’ not ruddy. S’ pale…” Well, the parts he could see anyway. Stupid bandages… He seemed far more offended at the word ‘ruddy’ than he did ‘b*****d’. “Fine, fine… I’ll go get Aeron away from the baby…”
Getting out of the chair, he stretched luxuriously, purposefully taking his time before finally making his way over to the window. Promptly moving one of the flower pots and shoving it at Laura for her to hold, he hopped out of the window. He made his way towards Aeron, who was still hissing loudly. The hisses died a little at the sight of his ‘food-provider’.
Again, he clicked his tongue, waving one hand towards Aeron. The gryphon didn’t move. Mal came even closer, eventually putting one hand on the beast. Aeron, for once, didn’t make any attempts to snap at him. His eyes were fixed on Mal’s other hand, which was going for the pouch at his hip. Eventually, Mal took out a delectable gryphon treat, a nice strip of dried meat. Slowly, he backed up, trying to coax the gryphon away from the baby.
Aeron whined pathetically, watching the meat with intent interest. He looked down to the baby, then back to the meat, then back to Tali. Another thin whine left his beak and he slowly stood up and wandered over to Mal.
“… you know, there IS a door, Mal,” Rem said, wondering how many times he would have to remind Mal of common house features, like stairs and doors. Still, he wasn’t about to argue with the other man as he took made his way out the window. As Mal carefully coaxed Aeron away from the baby, Rem went to pick him up.
He wrapped his hands gingerly around the baby gryphon, a little worried about accidentally hurting him. Tali didn’t seem to notice as he merely made happy noises in his sleep.
D’aww… Rem knew that he had never seen a cuter thing in his life. By the time he looked back up, he was looking directly into the golden eyes of a very annoyed Aeron. Mal clung to the gryphon’s belled collar. By the looks of the lines in the dust, Mal had been trying to hold the gryphon back and failing.
“Aeron! We don’t attack people, remember?” Mal wheedled, gently stroking the gryphon’s head.
Very slowly, the beast backed down, still glaring at Rem and Laura for stealing his little chick away.
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:19 pm
"Rem, don't encourage him!" Laura said as the Lord made his way out the window, and with a sigh she placed the flower pot back where it belonged. "Honestly..." She muttered quietly, striding over to where Rem was with the baby griffin.
With Rem getting to hold the baby for the first time, Laura didn't want to steal the little creature from him. However, she did grasp Rem's arm firmly to tug him away from Aeron. "I expect Tali's eaten too, we should find a nice bed for him inside." Laura reached to stroke the baby griffin's head with a warm smile. "Do you mind if he sleeps in my room?" She glanced up at Rem, hoping he'd agree to it. "After all, if he came to beg for attention in your room.... Well, you're dangerous in the morning when you wake up."
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:13 pm
Rem looked at Laura in a perplexed way, plainly confused at her words. “What? Do you honestly believe it is possible to discourage him?”
“He’s right, y’know. It ain’t possible to discourage me when I got my mind on somethin’. It’s one of my charms, I think.” Well, maybe ‘charm’ was too strong a word. He certainly thought it was one of his better traits at least. His tendency to never let anything go had served him well in the past, except during the time when he had clung to grudges. He was better at letting those go now, especially if business was likely. “Anyway… it would be better for Tali to stay in your room, Laura. Like you said, Rem doesn’t know how to take care of a gryphon. I certainly won’t ask why you were doin’ in Rem’s room when he first wakes up in the mornin’. None of my business at all.”
“Shut up, Mal,” Rem muttered, blushing slightly. It really was easy to make him blush… any mention of sex---or even just allusions to it---and he would blush. No doubt, this was part of the reason that Mal loved teasing him so much. That and Rem never really fought back. He looked down at the gryphon in his arms and clung to him a little bit.
No! He didn’t want to give up Tali. But… damnit, Mal had a point. So did Laura. “I guess you two have a point though… never thought I would see you two arguing together for the same thing…”
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:51 am
"I'm Rem's maid, I was bringing him breakfast." Laura said simply, rolling her eyes at Mal's childishness. The idea didn't bother her in the slightest, but Rem's blushing did make her chuckle softly. He was cute when he was teased, and the woman kissed his cheek with a smile. "Now I think I see why Malcolm ruffles your feathers." Giving an innocent smile, she didn't try to take the little griffin while the pair continued to make Rem feel uncomfortable.
Turning to look at Mal, she seemed a little more keen on being nice for the most part in front of Rem. If they were going to quarrel, she'd rather it wasn't in front of her employer... at least, not so obviously in front of Rem if she could avoid it. "Is there anything else you need, Malcolm? If not, then we should be getting things ready for Tali." It seemed the politest means to ask if Mal had something else of importance, or if he would finally go away.
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 7:50 pm
“Breakfast. In bed. Now I see what’s goin’ on…” Mal made the words sound far more suggestive than they should have, a tone that was only accentuated by the wink he sent at Rem. “Rem, you dog, you! I didn’t think you had it in you!” As a matter of fact, he knew that the blonde didn’t have it in him. It was mildly worrying to see him not go after anyone. And one could easily see that it wasn’t just because he didn’t have a sex drive. Or, at least, Mal could. Ah well, one of these days, he would have to get that story out of the noble.
Normally, Mal would have let the hint fly over his shoulders, just to annoy Laura a little bit more. Every little thing counted, right? But, alas, he actually did have things to do, such as taking care of Aeron and such things. “Yeah, I’ve got some business to handle pretty soon. I better get goin’. See you two around.” Mal gave a jaunty little wave before starting on his way. At the gate, he gave a little whistle for Aeron, which the gryphon pointedly ignored.
Aeron continued glaring at Rem, waiting for him to put the chick back down. He fully expected this to happen. Mal had always put Tali down before, after all… everyone had to put the little baby down eventually, if only to get on with their day. The idea of leaving Tali behind with these… these humans was unthinkable for Aeron!
At Mal’s second whistle, Aeron’s ears went back slightly, becoming a tad annoyed with all the noise. And also worried. Slowly, he stood up and trilled a anxious noise right back at Mal, who only answered it with another one of those whistles. But… but…
Aeron looked back at Tali, clearly not wanting to leave the chick, but equally unable to let Mal wander around on his own. Temporarily, the gryphon tried to decide who was more likely to get into trouble if left alone. He didn’t have to consider this for long and slunk after Mal soon enough.
Rem waved back at Mal awkwardly, smiling at the odd relationship between the man and his gryphon. Did Mal have any normal relationships at all, or were they all strange convoluted pathways that sane men best not tread upon? His blush---which had doubled at Laura’s kiss---had gone away completely by this time.
“Don’t be too hard on him, Laura; he’s been through a lot, even if he doesn’t act like it,” he commented lightly. “Let’s go baby-gryphon proof the house.”
There were probably a lot of little holes and things that Tali could get into and Rem really didn’t want to lose the silver gryphon. He was just too adorable to be lost!
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:18 pm
"I don't think too little of him, if his story about Aeron was true." She let go of Rem's arm, chuckling at Rem's red face. "I think he only teases you to see you red faced! Honestly... You'd think by now you'd have a tolerance for his perversions."
Following after, Laura stopped at the front door to watch Mal and Aeron off. When she was sure he wasn't going to hang about, Laura entered inside the large house. "There's not a lot within his reach in my room." Laura murmured. "If you give him free range of the house he won't listen to you- even Leolin had his own quarters he was designated when he was that age." Then again, that too had been a much younger Laura's room.
Within a few quick steps she came to Rem's side to scratch Tali lightly behind his feline-like ear. It made her smile, seeing the little fluff ball so comfortable in a person's arms. "Do you think he'll be a good racer?" Though Laura doubted Rem would allow her to teach the griffin such things, it did give Laura the idea to find something that the little griffin could grow up to do. Leolin found purpose in racing, and it brought in a pretty penny. There certainly wouldn't be anything more boring than to be something pretty to look at with nothing but idle time on his talons.
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:51 pm
“I’m not saying that you think little of him. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t be hard on him. He may be a b*****d, Laura, but he’s got a reason. No matter how badly he treats someone else, you can be damned sure that he’s gotten worse. Trust me on that.” He was actually pretty sure that Mal teased him just for the reaction. It certainly wasn’t because the Cambrian actually hoped Rem would one day return the affections! He openly admitted that Rem ‘wasn’t his type’. It was impossible to understand Mal’s mind. Rem couldn’t even figure out why he bothered…
Maybe it was simply because it was impossible to understand.
The noble looked down at the silver gryphon curled up in his arms and lightly scratched under his chin. “I don’t know… maybe he will. I wish Mal had told me where he had gotten him. He would only tell me that he bought Tali legally and that was that. Didn’t say from whom or how much he had cost or if he was wild-caught or anything.” Probably very expensive, Rem realized. After all, Tali was so sweet. Had Mal gone to a private breeder for this little treasure? Surely, no wild-caught gryphon could be this loving and gentle.
Tali woke up with a soft sneeze and blinked sleepily up at the humans. Yawning, he squirmed temporarily in Rem’s arms, apparently trying to get more comfortable. That is, until he got distracted by a shiny button on the noble’s sleeve. Eyeing it intently, the little gryphon started to chew on it, apparently thinking that all shiny things were edible.
Rem gently tugged his sleeve from the little gryphon’s beak, ignoring it’s heart-rending squeaks. “No, Tali, you can’t chew on that; you might swallow it by accident.”
Damnit, why did baby gryphons have to be so cute?!
“Should we make a little pen for him in your room then? Just to give him his own space?”
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:02 pm
"A basket and a little pillow should be fine... for the first few weeks." Laura pondered, trying to remember just how fast griffins grew up. "They get big rather quickly." Smiling at the adorable griffin, Laura finally tried to hold the little griffin once more.
"He was fed, and he'll probably want to sleep some more." She smiled fondly at the thought of watching little Tali grow up. He would be absolutely adorable. And it gave Laura something to concentrate on while Leolin was recooperating. Looking up at Rem, she began to wear a more thoughtful expression. "Do you have a strong broom and mop you don't mind throwing away?" She asked vaguely before filling Rem in on the reasoning: "Griffins aren't housebroken after all."
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:09 pm
“I think I have an old basket that the dogs used to use… wait, how do you think they’ll react to him? Or the cats? I know that the cats often sleep in your room… you don’t think they’ll attack him, do you?” The soft-hearted noble hated the idea of disrupting his cats lives with this little bundle of joy. “Do you think they’ll bother him?” Luckily for him, the dogs were sleeping at the moment and the cats were… well, they were off doing whatever cats did all day.
He doubted that the dogs would hurt anyone, and Tali was cat-sized himself, so it didn’t seem likely. But, it seemed like a good idea to ask Laura anyway since she knew more about gryphons than he did. “Yeah, I’ve got some old cleaning supplies over here… you carry him for a moment and I’ll go get them.”
Holding out Tali, he waited for Laura to take the little creature. He doubted that he would have to wait long.
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:25 pm
Holding the little griffin came naturally enough to Laura with motherly care not to ruffle a single feather. She cooed softly to Tali, smiling warmly at the little griffin before turning to look at Rem. "I'll protect him Rem. You never know with cats, but they'll leave him alone. I'll keep the window shut if they bother him, but I'll protect Tali."
Stroking the little griffin, Laura kissed the top of the little bird's head. "Hopefully Leolin will get back soon to feed him... Though if you like, I can show you how to fix food for little griffins?"
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