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 Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:17 pm
He put Aella in her bed, and the jewerly..well on the table. and closed the door behind him and headed back to his little section of space to brood and basically think of horrible things to do to Zell.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:25 pm
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:26 pm
How long had it been? Three years? Yes, three wonderful years of being a wife and mother…and loving every moment of it. Things had in fact panned out pretty well over the short, at least to an elf it was, span of time. And it had been good for her as well. With a son to look after, she didn’t have time for her own self image issues, so they were more in that back of her mind these days. Her little horse business did quite well for herself and in fact she had made a partner out of Zahara in it as well. She made deals with drow and Piper made deals with more or less everyone else. But point was it was successful.
Though ever stoic Piper had changed little over the past three years. Her hair was down to her hips once again, though she kept her bangs short and the red streaks still remained, she still wore her collar without fail and it had become even more the sentimental object since her son usually gripped to it when she held him. Yes, life was quite comfortable, though there was a constant paranoia, even if it was in the back of her mind. Piper simply preferred to not think about it…besides she had Malikhai to keep track of. Twilight was not easy to catch after all. Of course Keely was a big help in that as well, the girl always being first in line to babysit the small elf. She wouldn’t trade anything for all that had happened and how things turned out. The first year had been quite exciting, seeing as Malikhai took up most of her time and worked his way through the first part of his life, crawling, first steps, first words…he had been getting into everything that he could, and was ever inquisitive, very brave little child. And she had watched with Malik as any prideful parents would, the little elf flourish and grow that elven eloquence and comprehension from being taught while still being carried by his mother showing through. After all, most children Malikhai’s age…at least most she had seen and them not being elven…couldn’t put together well done sentences. Ah to be elves.
He was a rather well behaved child, very respectful. Normal moods found him rather mellow like his mother, though when he got upset and threw a tantrum Malik’s temper shined through with a vengeance. Though his general mood favored his mother, he tended to emulate his father and sometimes be clingy to him. When he didn’t have Zykariel, Keely, or his mother to play with him or if they were busy one could usually find him in trail on his father’s heels or holding to a pant leg. However, he never favored one parent over the other, it was just who was available to giver him attention at the time. And wasn’t he just the cutest thing too? A little version of Malik, hair slicked back and everything, though he had the habit of wearing a black bandana often like his mother did, but never covering his ears, and he had a shock of long bangs in the front on the right side that was dyed red and black, and already his had a small hoop in the upper portion of his left ear. There was the Piper in him for sure.
Sevilin never thought his life would be at this point it was at now. Then again he hadn’t been much of a free thinker before coming here. But it was still amusing to entertain his thoughts. Here he was, out of Llothian society structures free to do as he pleased, more or less, and he had a son as well. One who would never have to experience any of that horror. And yes, his world and life revolved around Zykariel, he lived for that little drow. Personally, Sevilin looked the same as ever. Same clothing styles, same hair style. More or less the same everything. Though it made sense considering Sevilin, he was a creature of compulsion and habit above other things. Besides he was happy to more or less stay the same. The only thing that had changed about him really was his occupation to Malik. He was more of the one who kept check on all of Malik’s runic defenses on his tunnels and little township perimeter, his outer bounds. When he wasn’t doing that well he was often doing supply stock inventory and the like or giving a lesson or two from time to time. Any of his free time was devoted to Zykariel though, either playing with the boy or teaching him something useful. Of course he was at that age where he wanted independence as well, and Sevilin granted him that as well.
He was an apparent born leader, often the ringleader in trouble and what not, also had the need to protect in his blood. Malikhai and him were fast friends, and he often took it upon himself to look out for the barely younger elf sometimes. He did mimick his father in a lot of his motions and gestures, though lacked all the bad habits, was rather upbeat at times and could be stubborn as Zahara ever was. And he was a little powerhouse, though he didn’t know it, having the innate magical abilities of both his parents who were impressive in his own right.
Speaking of Zahara, he knew the woman was his mother but had also learned that she wasn’t…well, mom. Meaning he called her mother or Zara and never anything else. Did he understand all the way why? No, but he didn’t mind too much at all, all he knew was that he got the attention he wanted and any care from her that he needed.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:28 pm
Zahara continued to change though not outwardly as time passed, her nature and her ideals altering slightly as time passed and she grew up. After all she was still a fairly young elf, much younger than Sevilin or Malik though she and Piper were about on the same page. She was still good friends with Piper, the two had gotten even closer over the horse business they ran together and Zahara felt like for once in her life she was doing something right and where she was supposed to be. Her hair had gotten longer but she would randomly cut it and she had been keeping it short lately. She’d just trimmed it up a few days ago so it was a little longer than it had been when she’d first come. Still as flyaway as ever and she was still in her normal clothes though their style had become slightly less revealing with small children running around. Nothing else had really changed about her, she was still brash, still bold, still impulsive but now she was content with her life the way it was.
She’d been living with Sevilin now for about three years and they had watched Zykariel grow from the baby he’d been into the boisterous toddler he’d become. She was a far cry from the frustrated drow who hadn’t even been able to change a diaper though she’d had her own times where having a child around had about driven her insane. There were those nights when Zykariel was a baby that he just wouldn’t stop crying and after hour upon hour of it, she felt like screaming and tearing her hair out. But they were long past those days though the child still found trouble falling into reverie at night. She maintained even moreso now that he was older and more impressionable that it would be a major malfunction to allow herself to get too involved. Sevilin was his father and would always be just that and she wasn’t going to get into his way. She watched Zykariel on an almost daily basis for at least a small stretch of time while Sevilin was in reverie, training, or just running errands. She’d become the unofficial cook for the boys as well, monitoring the foods they put into their stomachs and spoiling them with cakes and cookies when the mood struck.
Life was good emotionally to her as well. She had mellowed out quite a bit from the rageaholic she’d been in the beginning, learned to control her temper somewhat though she still had outbursts and often acted before she thought when she was passionate about something. She’d continued her training with runes and could now scribe relatively well without bleeding from an unnatural surface, which was always nice but still stressed her out. And when she got stressed she got bitchy all over again. Luckily she’d found the solution. Sex. She’d since learned not to fear the sensual activity but indulge and indulge she certainly did over the past three years. Arthur was her buddy when it came to that. He’d become far more attractive to her after his training and she’d begun a mutual sexual relationship with him that she thoroughly enjoyed. She was having lots of great sex, some nights better than others for various reasons. But she wasn’t a nymphomaniac by any stretch of the imagination. Her limits were there and very real but hey, who would turn down really great sex? Needless to say Zahara was usually sated and usually pretty easy to get along with. She was living the dream she’d never even imagined when she’d stared out the bars of her tiny cage, waiting to be sacrificed. Life had definitely looked up for her.
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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:37 pm
Well it has been three long, prospering, years for Arthur while he lived at the fortress. First off he looked totally different on the outside with what he wore, his clothing now had elven designs in all the right places and with the tailor’s help they were made out of the best material they ever had; but he still kept his style, leather boots nice long pants with a silver or brass buckle, a plain shirt with maybe some elven symbols on the sleeves and there are the rare times he wore a tunic. Though his blazer remained, Arthur always liked wearing coats for some reason, maybe the sleeves keep his arms nice and warm from the cool air; he wore gloves as always and kept them leather with nothing special on them, his earrings sometimes changed from silver to gold and the odd time they may of had a gem in some of them; though Nym likes his earrings and keeps on wanting them. His watch was gone, placed in a case he had made and it now rests in his bedroom drawer where he would look at it from time to time, and he got rid of his smoking habit a few years ago after finishing his last bit of cigars he had on him. Plus he had a new eye patches to go along with whatever he wore, he usally wore a solid black one but with different kinds of clothing call for different kinds of eye patches, but the one thing he never changed was his hair, he tried to grow it longer once but it looked weird so he keeps on cutting it when it came to the moment where it got to long. But at least now he had a good wardrobe for himself that he kept in his closet that was built into the wall of his house.
That was a big change for Arthur, about three years ago he told Malik and Piper that he wanted to move out and build his own home outside the fortress, with enough materials that he needed for the house he went straight to work with help from Malik’s group of slaves, of course the cost was not just extra training, like making putting pressure weight on him and making him lift it but also helping Malik develop his land over the years by helping to build the tunnels, walls and other things that the drow wanted him to do; the blue skin elf was even teaching him archery lessons too which came as a surprise to Arthur when they started. So after about a year of building and whatnot Arthur had developed his own one level house about a mile away from the fortress, he was offered to stay in the little town area around the fortress but he declined, living by himself is what he had done before he even thought of going to the fortress, so living in a one level bungalow is just fine for him.
Of course the whole house is made out of stone, anything that was made out of wood was all the furniture he made when he finished building the house. On the outside it looked like a normal home with one window and one door with a chimney sticking out of the side, though it was fairly big because he wanted a little space to focus on training in his magic abilities. When a person walks inside they see a large room, off to the left and up a bit of stairs is the kitchen with all the cooking utensils he needed plus his food supply was stocked up to last at least two people who lived in his home for about a year and a half, of course all of that came form Malik as well and it was stored in the pantry near the kitchen, on the outside it looked like a little bump was sticking out of the wall when looked at. To the right was the dining room which expanded into a small library and a bare training area where he kept his katana placed on a mantel over the fire place, a few couches were set up around the book shelves while a large table with a few chairs, it was like that incase he had company. Since the dining room/library room/ training hall was pretty large there was no need for any hallways so his room was right across the large space behind a wooden door; inside was a king size bed and the matters is made of the best material, his closet, his drawer and a few other things, plus he has a full working bathroom. Right next to his room is the guest room incase anybody decided to pop over and spend the night, they had all the same things as Arthur’s room did but it is a little smaller than the master bedroom. The bonus that Arthur got with the house was he was able to get Sevilin to fix a rune on his home to detect anything that came close, the range on the rune was fifty foot radius and a hundred foot diameter; good enough for Arthur to be ready if anyone decided to visit him.
((Okay just so Arthur’s place can be put on the map, he’s halfway between Sevilin’s place and the fortress and off to the left a little bit so he’s not right in the way. So it should be near the VI in Sevilin’s name))
As for what changed with him over the past three years it was pretty simple, the training he was in with Sevilin and Malik had gone on pretty well, he had improved a lot in his sword play and his magic abilities; also on the other hand Zahara was training him in using daggers and Piper taught him how to speak the surface elf language while he was also taught drow by Zahara, which would come pretty much in hand when the others started to talk back and forth in drow, he wouldn’t be left out again and he could always talk right back to them so he could keep up with what they were talking about. So Arthur had a great three years to even out all the training and bad time he also went through. The one thing that really had changed for the elf was his sex life, over the past three years he and Zahara had been in a sexual relationship that was really good for the both of them, when ever they both were upset or something was going wrong the other was there for them and one thing lead to another which ended them tangled in arms and legs on a soft bed. With everything that was going on for him it gave to the point of Arthur was now living the high times in his long life.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:01 pm
Three years. and his little empire was flourishing. they were self-sustaining, and his lands had become quite ripe and bountiful. he had a tunnel leading into the orcish horde lands, though oddly enough, Malik's interests there were always well met and respected. only Malik knew why.
His son was also growing some, and now a toddler. and Malik's influence was quite plain to see. the boy held himself proud, and strong. he dressed himself in imitation to his father, and often time did watch arthur's training with some apparent interest. the only thing that Malik constantly had to watch for with his son was Malvolence. his son had what malik might consider a fascination with teh glowing blade, and it was often placed out of his reach, or locked up when he proved his elven ingenuity.
Malik's own appearance didn't change at all. he kept his hair a certain length, he kept his clothing a certain way. though he did patrol his lands from time to time, he left them alone mostly, his domineering ways toward his former slaves and now serfs did ebb some. with Piper's influence of course.
He temper had gotten a bit worse over the years, but the fuse had gotten longer. which ment while he might have become mroe violent to people that seriously angered him, it took a lot longer to do it. and he was proving to be able to have some pr skills, working his way into the buisnesses of Deepwater at least for trade.
As always though, the people he seemed to have near limitless patience with were his family. Piper, Malikhai. He was a good father, and a good husband, if still not rough around the edges. He never forgot a special occasion, and spoiled them both. Malikhai already had claimed the armored Zephmare, and Malik often took his son for rides on his own Nightmare. though he let Piper teach him own to ride.
Malikhai was also turning out to be as devious as his father. while Zykariel was often the ring leader, one would find in many occasions Malikhai was the Grima Wormtongue to Zykariel's Theoden. Often to the amusement of his father, and the annoyance of the other one.
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:19 pm
"Arrr! You'll never have me treasure you scalywag!" A swing of a wooden sword, proceeded by a flourish of brightly colored feathers from an overly floppy hat, and the flare of a crimson cloak that obviously belonged to his father. Pirates...the staple game of two children who were bundles of energy and didn't know what to do with it. It was obvious that in his own stancing and what not he was already trying to copy what he had been seeing. Which meant sloppy swashbuckling right now through the house in costuming no less. They usually were on the same team and fouht to get back thier wench, who was usually Keely, but she had chores today.
Piper looked up from her accounting books at the sound of clacking wood. They were at it again weren't they? It was amusing to see how they ended those, seeing as no killing happened in thier pirate games. Though she tried not to be the overbearing protective mother either. Stifling the child would do no good. Shaking her head lightly, she tucked some loose strands behind her ear and looked at numbers again. Ugh...she hated doing business accouting...could usually talk Malik into doing it for her. He liked numbers after all. Hm...maybe she could do it again. Though another look up at another loud crack of wood. "Boys be careful."
Sevilin was currently out in the little empire Malik had forged, checking up on various runings and what not. Thus Zykariel had been left at the D'vinn place, seeing as that had evolved into babysitting central. Which was a good thing because nothing got into that place what with the way Malik had it guarded down. Yup, just another day of work for him.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:27 pm
"Come back here you lily livered swashbuckler!" Tossing the end of his overly long sash over his shoulder so he didn't trip on it in the boots that were clearly too big for him, a ferret riding high on his little shoulder. That threw his balance off a little and he made some wild swipes with his sword, clacking it against his friends. He pulled back too hard though and his hat fell behind him. "Wait Khai! I gotta get my hat. A good Captain always has his hat." Good thing Nym wasn't in his usual place on his hat or that could have been very bad. Leaning down and picking it up before sweeping it onto his head and he tucked the end of his sash into the part looped around his waist. There. That's better. "Alright, we cna start again!" Thrusting the sword once more towards his chest. "Arr! Tell me where it is or I'll make you walk the plank. Right Nym?" Because Sevilin's lovable ferret was their 'parrot.'
Zahara glanced up and watched the boys for a moment then glanced back at the list in front of her. She hated numbers. It had begun when this business first took off and she started helping Piper. She'd tried to make friends with them but they insisted on eluding her and giving her strange answers that never seemed to match up in the end. "And it still doesn't come out right Piper." A sigh as she rubbed a hand over her face. "Do we have to do this? Can't we coerce Malik into it?" Because that was a common thing. Zahara didn't know what she promised the blue elf but whatever it was it worked. Probably sex. A smirk tilted her lips and she shook her head. "Please? I know we said last time was the last time but this is really killing me...and he can do them in a snap."
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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:42 pm
Arthur was off by himself at a table, a empty plate of food was pushed off to the side while his hands were locked together lie he was saying a prayer, his chin was resting on top as his single blue eye remained closed. Since learning drow from Zahara Arthur has had a little bit of a hard time saying some words so he had been trying to recall them in his head so when he spoke to anyone in drow he wouldn't say the wrong word by mistake. Op'elgen, olath faer, valbylen, har'luth, lar, elghinn, draeval, voiryen. All the words he said was random to see if he could remember what Zahara had taught him over the years, the one thing he had learned while being trained by three drow was to not make that many mistakes, some are okay but if a person makes a lot then it's trouble. Sighing lightly Arthur's one eye opened slowly to stare off at the wall in front of him, learning drow had been a bit difficult but slowly he was able to grasp the language to the best of his ability, he just had to take his time while talking in it or he made wind up seeing the end of a blade being pointed right at him someday.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:56 pm
A little click and chitter from Nym as he held tight to the leather belt currently drapped over Zykariel's shoulder. Yes he was often a plaything in thier games as well, not that he minded too much as long as they didn't go about pulling on anything.Besides they gave him treats.
Of course play stopped momentarily as the hat was dropped...couldn't play without hats, he was right about that. Thus waiting a beat before getting right back into the fray, Malikhai backing up in order to keep good fighting space. Backing up was okay sometimes. "Never! My lips are sealed and you'll have to pry the map from my cold de-" Being stopped midsentence as the negative aspect of using his father's cloak was revealed as he back over it as it was being dragged on the floor and more or less tripped himself up, falling right to his bottom, wooden sword falling from his hand and overly large hat flooping over his eyes. "Ow..."
A look over to Zahara across the table...she hated when the numbers didn't come out right. Meant either something was really wrong or they had just calculated wrong somewhere. It was usually the later. "How many times have we done this now?" They both just got overly frustrated with these things...and lacked the patience for them. "Yeah I know but..." Yes they were trying to keep thier numbers straight and what not but hey, it just wasn't their thing. They were great pr, but the paperwork was a bit lost to them. "And we get a mini lecture lesson everytime we ask..."
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:01 pm
Malik right now was finishing up his own work in his private study downstairs. Malikhai wasn't as of yet permitted down there, only knowing that it was his father's personal buisness down there. adn sometimes his mothers. the clack of wood didn't bother him in the least. But he finished his work and headed back upstairs, and past the two kids, though stopping them for a moment.
"Malikhai...that cloak is not for you to play with. it's dangerous."
Stopping them both and taking it off him, before handing him another one that was also red, but didn't have the flame designs on the edges. then a slight grin, over at the other one.
"and he'll walk the plank first, isn't that right mate?"
grinning at his son before taking the cloak of flames back to thier bedroom and hanging it back up. thank goodness the boy wasn't old enough to be able to acitvate the innate magic in that.
Then back over to Piper and Zahara, leaning against the wall lightly.
"How's it coming, ladies?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:07 pm
Zykariel thought Malikhai was just playing at first and he went in for the kill, his sword at his friend's chest. "What was that ye scoundrel? So ye surrender!" Then he heard his friend's words and his demeanor changed entirely. Dropping his own sword he exclaimed, "Are you alright?" Thus reaching a hand down to help him to his feet before Zykariel picked up his sword and Malikhai's and was about to give it to him when one of hte adults came into the room. He glanced up at Malik as he passed and frowned when he lost his cloak. But before he could say anything, another one was given. That one was red too...but who was he to question. Handing Malikhai his sword back, "Here you go. Still don't want to tell me where that treasure of yours is? Maybe cookies will help it feel better?" he asked somewhat hopefully.
Zahara shook her head. "I lose track. Numbers aren't kind to me even when keeping a running count. Besides I don't think we've been able to do it without help as single time since we started." Mini-lectures yes, but she usually tuned them out. They never changed after all and it was pointless to lecture them because they were just goign to ask again. "Well we have two choices. We can sit here and work through all of this again," gesturing to the pile. "Bang our heads against teh wall and try to get the numbers to match up, or we can listen to a mini-lecture for ten, fifteen minutes and be free to exercise and work with the horses." Then a glance up at Malik and she gave a look to Piper. "Yes Piper, how is it coming?"
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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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Fractured Moonlight Captain
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:17 pm
He pushed his hat back, looking up to his father at his voice with that little 'oops' grin of his as he was picked up with his friend's help and his cloak taken and replaced with another. He didn't see the difference but okay. "Sorry dad..." Then another grin at the mention of who would be walking what plank first. "Aye aye Captain." Watching his father walk off with that sort of idle grin before looking back to his friend, taking his sword back. "I'm okay, come from tougher stuff." He learned that phrase from his mother. "Nuh uh, I'm not telling...though cookies are always a good deal. Let's get some." Because hey...cookies were the best.
Piper narrowed her eyes slightly across the table as Zahara turned Malik's question to focus directly on her. Evil. So then fiddling with her pencil some she looked sweetly to her husband, who had proposed the question in the first place. "Oh you know, the usual...something has to go wrong somewhere and the cascade effect happens and then it all goes wrong and so on and so forth and it's almost impossible to find where the mess up was...unless you've been doing business for years upon years and have wonderfully keen eyes for it." Her subtle, 'please liberate the women from the numbers' ploy.
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:34 pm
A slight shake of his head, and a grin.
"Alright. I'm doen with my work, lets take a look at what you got, and then we'll see what doesn't add up. though really you need to learn this on your own, so that you can manage the accounting better, especially when dealing with the drow empire."
Hey, malik had told them time and time again that drow always looked for a way to shortchange or loophole through and out of deals and prices. so he walked over and sat down, taking up thier papers and sorting it in rapid fashion, eyes grazing over the pages in the same fashion a termite grazes over wood.
"Okay here's the mistake on Zahara's end. this sale here was for three purebreeds, you have it marked down as two purebreeds though on they acounting end. add in the extra there nad it should come up correct. and Piper on your end here, your got this sale and that one mixed up. according to records, this one is for two zephmares and a nightmare, and this one is for three pegusi. you got them marked on your accouning sheets as a three nightmare and one zephmare, one nightmare, and one pegasus in the accounts."
then redoing the figures. yep, no problem.
"Just a few mismatched prices, that's all. that's why you shouldn't wait till the end of a month to do all your sales and books at once like you guys do. going through all this at once it's easy to make little mistakes like that. I keep telling you you should do it on a bi-weekly schedule."
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Picking Up Stars Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:45 pm
He grinned right back and then gave a pet to Nym's head. "Nym wants some too." Thus Zykariel took off in his overly large boots clomping his way to the kitchen where he and Malikhai often used their charming smiles and puppy dog eyes to get cookies out of anyone present. "Arr ye wrench," he said to one of the girls who helped out in the kitchen. "Feed us hungry pirates. Whatever ye got will do but cookies would be best." he called out giggling as he came in, sheathing his sword for the time being. "Please?" he remembered to add after a moment. Not being polite didn't get them anywhere.
Now how had she missed that? She'd liked that third one and had been sad to see it go. Pretty little Zephyr. "Would you look at that...it does add up." And here it came, the mini lecture. "Yes Malik we know and we'll try to do better next time." Not. Because they both hated the accounts so much it was easier to put them off. "We just get so busy with the horses. It happens."
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