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 Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:33 pm
“Yes. Yes I was.” It wasn’t as if he had earned the rank of lieutenant just by sitting around and looking pretty, after all. The truth was, he still thought of himself as military; it wasn’t something you left behind, like a pile of old clothing. It stayed with you, always looking over your shoulder and affecting your behavior in small almost unnoticeable ways. Or, sometimes, in big noticeable ways, like automatically going for a dagger if someone wakes you up.
“I’m the youngest son in my family, you see. I went into the military career because someone in my family had to. My older brothers already had their lives planned out, so I joined when I was…” he paused for a moment, considering this. “I think I was seventeen or sixteen at the time. The war broke out when I was nineteen.” Patting the dogs absentmindedly, Rem had a slightly faraway look on his face. This was common enough in people looking back on their past. The only thing that was off was the fact that he looked wary, as if he thought the past might come back and bite him on the butt. He shook his head slightly, and smiled at Laura once more. “Let’s get Leo unloaded now.”
Happy Sharing Hour---or Fifty Seconds---was over. Well, at least until Laura asked more about it.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:15 pm
"As you like." Laura murmured, attatching the sword to her waist to free up her hands and went to coax the griffin out of the stall now that the dogs were occupied. "You didn't happen to know a man named Jonathan Fields, did you?" She asked, not looking to his face as she shouldered one of the saddle bags with her belongings, and allowed Leolin to carry the second.
She cast a side-long glance at Rem, then calmly shook her head. "No, I don't suppose you would. My brother died fighting, but he taught me enough to support myself. He was infantry, even though he could ride horses with the best of them." Easily taking on a bitter tone, Laura tried to shrug it off. "I'm sorry Rem, I don't mean to bring up the past. I suppose I should make lunch for you now, hmm?" The smile returned as she looked back to him. "What would you like to eat?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:34 pm
“I wasn’t part of Xuan City’s military,” Rem explained. “I wasn’t born around here. I’m from Estesona. It’s pretty far away… It’s the capital city of the Paralenian Empire.” The places he named were far to the north, well beyond the mountains. The Paralenian Empire was a mysterious place known mainly for two things: wealth and magic. It was far colder than Xuan, but, apparently, the cold climate made an ideal location for luxurious furs and mages. Long winter evenings gave mages plenty of time to look up ancient spells, so it was said. It was also known for an extremely efficient military; there were other countries, after all, that would eye such a gem.
Rem didn’t wait to hear ‘why did you leave’. That was the sort of thing that always followed this sort of conversation. “I felt it would be best to travel a little. I got a little attached to the warmer weather down here, so here I am. I’m sorry about your brother. It’s tough losing friends and family to war.” In an oddly affectionate gesture---for Rem, that is---he rested a hand on Laura’s shoulder for a moment before going to the door and holding it open for her.
“I haven’t actually thought about lunch at all, to be honest. I’m not picky. So long as it isn’t moving. Or furry. I won’t eat anything that has fur growing on it.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:43 pm
The woman did, indeed, look touched at his gesture and returned a genuine smile for the man. "I suppose you won't be having rabbit with Leolin then?" She joked, walking past the man almost reluctantly before entering in the house to sort out what she'd brought with her.
Leaving her clothes in her room, Laura almost seemed too flustered to remove her sword. It continued to dangle at her hip with the soft jingle of the chain as she walked- heading straight for the kitchen to cook. Rem needn't worry about upsetting a cook holding a kitchen knife when she kept a sheathed sword.
Leolin seemed all the more willing to share, however, and he untied one of the dead rabbits strapped to the saddle bag still across his rump to offer to Rem. He gave a curious whistle, tilting his head to let the rodent hang before squishing the little bunny's head.
Well, he seemed to think he was doing something nice for the man...
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:56 pm
MmMm! Squishy raw rabbit, complete with fur! Could there be a better meal? Rem could think of quite a few without really even trying, and most of them involved rats. He eyed the rabbit in Leolin’s beak for a moment, looking rather wary. “… you keep it, Leolin.”
The gesture was touching, that was true, but… well, Rem liked his meat cooked. Well, that and he didn’t want to eat any of Leolin’s food. The gryphon needed it more than he did. He rubbed the gryphon affectionately. Hmm… now, should the gryphon eat inside or outside? He definitely couldn’t eat in the stable; that would spook the horses (or, rather, horse). He didn’t like the idea of leaving Leolin outside either, but nor did he appreciate the thought of having bloodstains all over his floors.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:07 pm
The griffin thrummed affectionately as he was pet, though did drop the rabbit to nibble on Rem's shirt. Leolin headbutted the man lightly, as he let go of the cloth, and went to take up the bunny and make his way out of the stables.
Seems the griffin made his own decision as to eating- flapping his wings to take him onto a nice perch on the roof to eat.
All the more flustered when Laura realized she'd left her sword on, she quickly returned it to her room while the water was boiling. There'd been potatoes the other night, so she hoped to make stew over the fire that would take until dinner to cook.
In the mean-time, she busied herself with something smaller that would fill Rem up until dinner time.
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:23 pm
Rem stared disconsolately as the gryphon flew to the roof. Great… just great! How was he supposed to convince the gryphon to come back down? He probably wouldn’t get hurt since Rem was relatively sure the roof was sound… but what if something collapsed?
“Leolin! Come back down!” Honestly, could he leave the gryphon alone for even five minutes?! How did Laura handle this? By now, Rem was starting to re-think his thoughts about getting a gryphon. They were more intelligent than most other creatures, true, but was it really worth all this aggravation?
And this was an adult gryphon. A chick would be even more troublesome…
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Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:09 pm
Thinking Rem actually wanted the rabbit now, Leolin shrieked at him and tossed the bloody mess at the man. Luckily, he hadn't opened the rabbit up yet, so it fell without making a very large mess.
Flapping his wings, the griffin didn't seem to want to come down any longer. Rem had his lunch, so why should he come down?
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 6:44 pm
Several days had passed since Rem’s reunion with Mal; they had spoken since, but their meetings had been terse and short out of necessity. After all, Mal had to take care of Aeron. This was either because none of the gryphon-doctors were willing to see Aeron or simply because Mal was being paranoid and didn’t want anyone else to take care of his ‘baby’. Ah well, it was his decision. His eyes slid towards the pile of papers that had once been Mal’s own war journal, remembering a few of the more… poignant passages concerning how Cambrian military doctors took care of wounds.
No wonder Mal didn’t trust doctors.
It was none of Rem’s business anyway. Leaning back in his chair, he pushed the pile of paper away, considering what he should do for the day. After all the excitement at the shindig, he didn’t feel the need to find adventure. He had a feeling it would come soon enough anyway, even in his little study at home.
~.~
Ironically enough, excitement was on its way there. Whistling a brief tune to himself, Mal made his way towards Rem’s house, Aeron following closely behind rather morosely. The gryphon was NOT happy with Mal at all. Both of them now sported their fair share of bandages, Aeron from the attack by Abaddon and Mal from his attempts to bandage Aeron’s wounds. In his bandaged hands, Mal held a small box with a few holes punched in it.
For a moment, he grinned at the box before giving it a brief pat. Now… should he just leave it on the step for Rem to discover? Or would that possibly harm the little treasure inside? Decisions, decisions…
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:37 pm
Outside, Laura was busy finishing mucking out the horse's stalls. With Leolin gone, she was keeping herself preoccupied with various housework to keep from worrying. He was safe, comfortable, and had Kedri to keep him company; pity she didn't have something to provide solace for her the way Leo had Kedri.
With the last stall cleaned out, Laura started out of the stables with a wheelbarrow- only to spot a familiar face between the bars of the house's front gates. "Oh no...." She muttered, leaving the barrow there and starting towards the gates.
"What do you want, Malcom?" She asked bluntly, leaning on the stone to stare out at the man and his bird. By the slightly peeved expression she wore, he wasn't getting inside. Hair disshelved, half falling out of the loose pony tail she'd put it in. Though, she was wearing a skirt for once... even if it didn't hide her rather large and dirt caked boots. "Rem's busy right now, go look for other men to bother."
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:49 pm
Inwardly, Mal was delighted when Laura came to greet him. Despite the woman’s apparent dislike for him---well earned dislike, of course, given how he had treated her earlier whilst she was ‘Lucas’----she amused him. With an injured expression on his face, one bandaged hand went to his chest as if her words had somehow wounded him.
“My dear Laura, I have other things on my mind besides constantly tormentin’ Rem, you know. As a matter of fact, I know I’ve been a bit of a b*****d to him, so… well, I guess I came to apologize and give him a little gift. And, no, not that kind o’ gift either, Laura.” Letting the hand at his chest fall, he once again held the box in two hands and extended it to her.
The box shook a little and some strange noises came from inside of it.
“… do I have to add that you shouldn’t shake it?”
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:58 pm
Thinking Mal had gotten some poor injured animal for Rem to take care of, Laura took a key from her pocket to unlock the gate. "All right, fine. Aeron has to stay in the yard, and I'm keeping an eye on you." With the gate open, she held out a hand for the package.
"Give it here Mal." She didn't care in the least for his theatrics, and continued to stare at him with disdain. She agreed whole heartedly with his statement about being a b*****d, though did wonder just what he was planning. "If it's a rat or something that equally shares your qualities, I will be sure to call the hounds." Smirking slightly, she knew the only way Rem's dogs could possibley kill someone was drowning them in drooling doggy kisses.
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:12 pm
“Pfft. I’ve never thought of myself as a rat, Laura. For one thing, that would mean I would reproduce quickly and I’m certain you don’t want that. Can’t say I’m much like this fellow either, though.”
He just wanted to drag out the suspense and tension for as long as possible because he was, at heart, a b*****d. Of course, his theory was that everyone else was too, so it hardly mattered.
Eventually though, he offered her the box, grinning mischievously. Sure, he felt a little bad for putting the poor creature in a box, but it had to be done for the amusement value. Besides, he wanted to see the look on Laura’s face when she opened it up to see the ‘gift’. It was, in Mal’s strange way, a peace-offering. It wasn’t as if he wanted to constantly fight with her every time he came around to talk to Rem. That would only get exhausting.
~.~
Inside the box, something wriggled out before cheeping desperately. He was scared. He liked the funny man and the Big Gryphon. They were nice. But then the funny man put him in a box! The little silver gryphon chick didn’t care for that and was terrified now. There were voices outside. He couldn’t understand what they were saying and could only assume the worse. He had tried fitting his beak or feet through the holes punched in the box, but, alas, they were too small and he wasn’t strong enough to open them any more.
Again, the little chick could only remain in the box and wail for help.
~.~
By this point, Rem was getting a little curious about why Laura was taking so long. Normally she would have been done by now. It was almost time to go visit Leolin, for one thing, and that was something she always looked forward too. Putting everything aside, he walked down the hall and out the door of his home. The first thing he saw was Mal offering Laura some sort of box.
Immediately, he panicked, on the basis that Mal and Laura did not get along. No doubt, there was some sort of nefarious scheme up Mal’s sleeve to rid himself of Laura’s enmity forever.
In a strange way, Rem’s paranoid mind was right.
“Don’t touch it, Laura! You don’t know where it’s been!”
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:23 pm
Hearing the squeaking of the poor little griffin, Laura looked utterly horrified. "You-you didn't!" Rather quickly, she pulled the lid from the box and gasped quietly at the poor griffin that had been caught inside. "Malcom, you're horrible!" She shouted at him, holding the little griffin to her chest and stroking the silver fellow.
"Shh, shh, it's all right sweetie." She cooed to the chick. If looks could kill, the one Laura shot at Mal certainly would leave him stone cold in seconds. "What the devil possessed you to torment a little creature like this?!"
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:33 pm
“Mostly the idea of gettin’ you all riled up,” Mal admitted easily, still grinning at Laura’s reaction. Damn, you would have thought he had put a human child inside a little box instead of a gryphon! It wasn’t as if the chick was hurt at all. Then again, that was the way of humans, eh? They were always more concerned about the harm inflicted on cute little critters instead of other humans. Even Mal was like that.
“Anyway, he needs a good home. I’ve already got my hands full with Aeron, so I can’t take care of him. I want you two to have him instead.”
The little gryphon shivered dramatically as the box opened and cheeped at all the sudden attention. What was happening?! It cheered up at the sound of Mal’s voice and poked his head over the rim of the box, chirping at Mal. Then, turning it’s pale eyes towards Laura, it let out a little happy noise best described as ‘Scree!’
“See? He’s not hurt at all, Laura. You’re overreactin’,” Mal said, pointing at the gryphon. “Are you still goin’ to set the dogs on me?”
“You were going to set the dogs on my friend, Laura?” Now it was Rem’s turn to sound horrified, this time at the actions---or could-have-been-actions---of his so-called ‘maid’. He walked a little closer, satisfied that the box wasn’t anything dangerous since it hadn’t exploded. His steps stopped as soon as he saw the little gryphon chick.
“…Mal, did you steal that?”
“How come you always accuse me of stealin’ things, Remmy? No, I didn’t. Won’t tell you how I came across him. All you need to know is that I can’t take care of him, and someone has to.”
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