Things to do in Marn when you're Wanted

[Goeffrey Coward]

((Sorry about that... Summer job / end of year craziness...))

It was at this point that Samahazai had almost tuned the others out, listening with care to Davrib's explanation of the terms under which he might lodge here. The serious and poker-faced expression he had momentarily adopted receded, and in its place was that barely hidden mischief. He nodded curtly in acceptance of said terms, then looked to the curtain, wondering if there might be possibly a more unsavory and terrifying creature than the one already in the room. He stole a glance at the kabuki theatre that was Udorl's seduction and noted Chrishton's reaction with a hint of disdain. Men thought themselves so far above wild animals, but Samahazai barely made any distinction. He quickly turned his attentions to the old woman again.

"Which room exactly is it that I am to be lodged in? If you don't mind I'd like to take a rather long nap." A nagging itch caused Samahazai to wring his hands and shake his head slightly, again jingling rather loudly. As the offending feather floated from his head, he grabbed it and placed it in one pocket in one swift motion. He felt his lids lower slightly, involuntarily, from fatigue and scratched his neck, taking a step to steady himself.

[Chrishton Radu]

Chrishton did his best to pull his attention away from Udorl's tongue and made room so that Flosmarra could sit the eggs in front of him. He then had to use the last few squirts of his willpower to refrain from looking like a complete ingrate and not just start stuffing his face with the food he was presented with.

"Oh it suits me just fine. Yer chickens worked hard ta make 'em an' this fox is gonna enjoy 'em."

He followed her lead and began serving himself a healthy portion of the food, not ashamed to take enough for a man his size, which was a fair amount. He caught Flosmarra's look and subtle grin for a moment, and then smiled more broadly himself before responding to Udorl.

"Gorgeous, I was born hungry," he said, and then added after thinking for a second, "an' dirty."

He dug into the meal and took the opportunity to have another look at the strangely ornamented guest. He did not catch the feather, but he already knew enough to draw some conclusions. These were furthered by the spirits, several of which began flying circles around the room and cawing like hoarse birds. Clearly, the man was a raven.

The cawing was ruining the mood however, and grating on Chris' nerves. Everything was perfect, except that the damn spirits were keen on being a nuisance. He glared at them while he ate and they zipped around, but they did not take the clue. It was as though they didn't think he had gotten their message. Instead, more of them joined in the cacophony, several which seemed to be doing it only because it looked like fun.

He struggled to resist the urge to yell, clenching his mouth shut on some of the eggs. When he realized Udorl was watching him still, he looked back at her and smiled in a vain attempt to cover up what was obviously an ich he couldn't scratch.

[Dorcas Tansy]

Flosmarra and Davrib both looked up to the back of the room as Dorcas emerged from behind the sackcloth curtain. Flosmarra smiled impishly, as if at a naughty joke, and turned her head a bit to hide her expression from Dorcas. Davrib nodded to Dorcas over Samahazi's shoulder; a raise of her upper lip created some sort of smile.

Dorcas allowed the curtain to swing shut behind her. Her big, shaggy cat ducked under the ragged bottom edge of the cloth to stand behind her. She was now wearing a black woolen skirt that reached just past her knees, thick gray stockings that added bulk to her already solid calves, and a faded blue men's shirt. A few loose threads and a line of dirt indicated where a breast pocket had been torn off. She had rolled the sleeves up to her elbows.

Boy, at Dorcas's feet, began to purr loudly. He eyed Samahazi with great interest and settled down where he was to watch the spectacle of this man. Dorcas looked down at the cat and up to meet Davrib's eyes. "Who's he?"

The girl balled her hands into fists when met with the sound of her own voice, sounding awkward and unsure with a question such as that. "I mean, wot the hell . . ." she added briskly. She glanced to Chrishton to see he was busily eating, with Udorl all but sitting in his lap. "Tsssh." She rolled her eyes and turned her head away from the sight.

Recalling her intended posturing, she lifted her chin--her cheek turned pointedly against Chrishton--and folded her wide forearms over her chest.

Davrib motioned with a crooked finger for Samahazi to turn his attention to Dorcas. "You spent the night in the guest room, Dor? Yeah?" croaked Davrib. "This friend wants do nap in our home."

Dorcas wrinkled her nose grudgingly and twisted her shoulder in a shrug. "Yeah, arright, but don' be puttin' him there if ye wan' t'keep an eye on him. Another guy already ran away out the window las' night."

Pleased to have added an interesting piece of exclusive information to the conversation, Dorcas's confidence seemed bolstered. She swaggered over to the small table where three of the room's occupants were taking breakfast and cleared her throat.

"Yer bath is olmost ready," she said to Chrishton. Only then did she notice how oddly agitated he looked, and she scooted back a fraction of a step, eying both him and Udorl incredulously.

Udorl eyed Dorcas right back and reached to pour herself some cream. "I'll let him know about the bath," she replied sweetly. The pretty young women lowered her eyes from Dorcas to watch, with great interest, the way Chrishton wolfed down his food.

[Goeffrey Coward]

Samahazai looked at the creature at this girl's feet with barely masked terror. Samahazai knew that many people kept cats to drive away vermin, something that he thought described his current condition quite accurately. Cats, in his experience, were the animal world's contract killers, bringing grisly corpses to the feet of their masters.

While the animal in question almost certainly did not know Samahazai's true nature, it would doubtless make transformation dangerous and difficult. If the opportunity presented itself, he would slip poison into its food on general principle in addition to pragmatic reasoning.

His brain taking a moment to digest the conversation occurring around his internal monologue, Samahazai looked impassively at Dorcas, then said to her in a conciliatory tone, "Yes very interesting. Well I believe I shall want to leave you all to you sustenance, and get as much rest as possible before the vigorous collision of unmentionables resumes." He he took a single step toward the door, then looked pointedly at the cat, waiting for it to move from the doorway.

[Chrishton Radu]

Chrishton was mostly too distracted by the annoying spirits and the food he was indeed wolfing down like a hungry bear to notice what was transpiring in the room. He was not a complete pig about it - some of his past training on how to be civilized at a dinner table refused to give way to natural tendencies. At least, not while the ladies who prepared the meal for him were sitting in the same room.

The spirits took a sudden interest in the cat when it showed up. They were more interested in it and its exchange with Samahazi than anything else. It meant that they finally quieted down, and Chrishton was able to shut them out. With a roll of his eyes he was glad to have some temporary silence.

He pushed an egg into his mouth and then noticed the look Dorcas was giving him. It was less than friendly.

Something that sounded like a "thank you" came from behind a mouthful of egg. He acted completely oblivious to her glare, but he knew what was bothering her. She didn't want to see him with Udorl. So be it.

He didn't make eye contact with Udorl afterward, instead hoping the issue would go away.

[Dorcas Tansy]

Udorl had hardly shown herself to be easily abashed thus far. She appeared unfazed by Chrishton's sudden avoidance of her bedroom eyes, and dipped her barley roll into the cream on his plate, rather than her own. Olive hands lifted the soaked roll to her mouth, and she allowed the thick milk to stain across her lips as she sucked the crust clean. "You have quite an appetite," she murmured while teasing another soft kernel of barley from her roll with her tongue.

The big Norwegian cat glanced over to the table with the food and licked his upper lip once with a loud, wet inhale. The frequency of his purring increased as he dotted the air with his nose.

Dorcas seemed momentarily pleased as she lifted her head to hear the sound, behind her, of her cat's sensory pleasure. She rolled her eyes back down to Samahazi as he indicated he'd like passage to the upstairs. "Oh, shit, aren't you witty. Is that your sense of humor then?" If Dorcas's age wasn't already perfect for breeding sass, she did have, on top of that, a particularly bristly nature, and this morning she was unusually sour.

She took a few steps back to the curtain at the back of the room and pulled it aside; she would lead him to the proper room if he followed. "So if you're such a smartass," she said across the room--Davrib had turned her attention conspicuously to inspecting the accumulation of dirt under her grayish fingernails--"you should've used the gerund 'colliding,' not the nominal 'collision.' The former leaves room for the interpretation of continuous action, but the latter refers to a single episode." She had changed her tone to the round, high accent she had taken only a few times with Chris before. Dorcas pressed her lower lip in against her upper teeth and raised her eyebrows to their apex; her education had gotten the better of her desire to be rough.

She dropped her eyes and looked at her cat. He was still eying Samahazi with unusual attentiveness, his yellow eyes unblinking. "You're not from here, I guess," said Dorcas. Her tone was lower and less hostile than a moment before, even though her words sounded as if she were attempting a lofty posture. "You'd best learn quickly there are plenty of things to avoid 'mentioning' around here." The cat wriggled on his haunches restlessly.

Dorcas gave a stony look around the room, but none of her housemates appeared interested in what she had just said. Flosmarra was engrossed in picking out a select slice of hardboiled egg, Davrib in her fingernails, and Udorl in her personal breakfast time burlesque.

Dorcas held the curtain to the staircase open a little wider and scowled at the back of Chrishton's head. For all her big talk, she was subjugated in this house.

[Goeffrey Coward]

Samahazai now sneered openly at her, blackness beginning to creep into the edges of his eyes like inky black roots. "And your humour is an impression of a terrific tight-ass, then?" The Turkish burr was more pronounced with this flare of annoyance. "Apologies for my grammatical errors. My name is Samahazai."

The name itself he had not yet adjusted to a more local pronunciation. If his foreign nature was ever in doubt, it was certainly not now. "Had I known you were a grammar professor I would have been more careful. At any rate I apologize for offending your pubescent sensibilities, and will, in the future, endeavor to avoid mentioning anything so as to preserve them."

Little shit. I may not be a diplomat but she's got a disposition like shark skin. And how old is she? Certainly not old enough. Well you wanted sleazy, Sammie. This is the bottom of the barrel, innit?

He looked down at the cat again. "Could you be so kind as to relocate the, eh, pet so I might maintain distance? I am rather allergic to the things." As he looked again to Dorcas the crackling blue facade returned with his composure. With composure came awareness, and Samahazai felt the distinct feeling of being watched. Not his usual paranoia either, but the magical presence of unseen eyes. He rubbed the fingers of his left hand together from nerves, rings clacking against one-another soothingly.

[Chrishton Radu]

Dorcas and Samahazi's exit was silently marked in the back of Chrishton's mind while his body kept working away at the food. He was ever suspicious that something was going to come up and that it wasn't likely he would get another meal like this for a while. It was in his best interest to make sure that he at least was able to finish this one.

He stuffed himself with a few of the rolls and the rest of the five eggs which were originally his to claim, and eventually slowed down when nothing did, in fact, burst into the room demanding the blood of innocents or some other such inconvenience. By all rights, Marn was the quietest place he'd visited in years, but such tranquility made him all the more suspicious. Something was keeping a lid on the power required to keep such a tight fisted military state together, but how? And why did none of the locals notice it? To Chrishton, the normalcy of Dorcas' lifestyle was anything but a comfort. At least when things got weird he could start looking into why.

Eventually his eating slowed as he filled up, and he caught Udorl's eyes again. Leaning back in his seat, he dusted his hands off on each other a few times to wipe off some of the cream and barley from his fingertips.

"This is where ya join me fer a bath, right?"

[Dorcas Tansy]

Dorcas would not make eye contact with Samahazi as he spoke, instead watching her cat's face as he stared up at this perceived adversary. The cat's jaw quivered like the tensed muscles of his haunches.

When Samahazi finished by saying he was allergic, Dorcas rolled her eyes in a dramatic arc. As she knelt to pick up the cat, she sneered haughtily. "An' where were you educated?" she retorted. At least for the moment, Dorcas was not letting her circumstances trump her particular breeding.

She stood erect and held the large cat to her bosom. He shimmied out of her arms and onto her right shoulder, then snaked his bulk halfway around the back of her head to stand with his forepaws on her left shoulder. His back was hunkered low so as to keep his balance on this perch. Dirty fur mingled with the unwashed hair at the back of Dorcas's head. He let out a long, almost timid meow at Samahazi through the shaking of his jaw, and the product was a chattering, a rapt sort of moan.

"Allergic? That's all in your head," said Dorcas plainly. She proceeded up the stairs, with her cat bobbing on her shoulders, to lead Samahazi from the front room.

At the top of the stairs, she motioned to the right. "The first door. My things're still in there, so you get yourself settled an' I'll tidy it up." Dorcas let her jaw list to the side carelessly as she shrugged her shoulders. "An' if you must run away, try to find an original way to do it. Someone already did through the window."

* * *

Downstairs, Davrib moved herself back to the breakfast table and took a seat beside Flosmarra. She proceeded to eat off Flosmarra's plate, sharing the plump woman's food and receiving no quarrel for this.

Udorl's cheeks bloomed pleasantly pink at Chris's suggestion. She reached out to finger a lock of unkempt hair at his nape. "Oh, you're filthy," she lamented with glee.

Davrib didn't look up, but put her arm casually around Flosmarra's middle as she spoke up. "Your husband is goming home doday, girl."

Udorl also didn't look when she replied. "I'd best be bathed for his arrival, Nanny," she said airily as she played with the length of her braid.

Davrib grinned and hitched her arm tighter around Flossie's waist. "Bad for business . . ." she muttered in good nature.

[Goeffrey Coward]

Samahazai let his black tangled hair fall back onto his face, having finally wrested itself from the impromptu comb-over he had subjected it to in the streets. He ignored the question of his education almost automatically. Samahazai had taught himself reading and writing; his natural curiosity had driven him to learn a great many things, and if he hadn't been told he was sub-human from infancy he might have been a scholar. He soon abandoned arithmetic, philosophy, literature, and history as favorite topics in favor of vice, betrayal, lust, and murder. The love of knowledge had been twisted in him, and had become a love of ruining others with knowledge.

Using the hair as a veil he relaxed the magical hold over his eyes slightly, easing the mental burden like relaxing a muscle. He maintained eye-contact with the cat, appearing rather grave but unafraid. At the noise of the cat he nearly grimaced, but caught himself at the last moment. Her crack about his 'allergy' was more true than Samahazai would readily admit, but he was too busy going into vicarious hysterics in his mind at its unwashed body rubbing in her hair to say anything at first. Finally he began to respond as they were halfway up the stairs.

"Oh, that's what the father used to say, too," he said matter-of-factly, "No such thing as allergies he said, and to prove it he got a kitten and let it lick him." Samahazai paused and looked away thoughtfully. He added gravely, "Of course, a few weeks later all his hair fell out and then, leprosy." He nodded to himself as if the cat could be the only explanation.

At the door he waited a moment before realizing he was to go inside. Opening the door he stepped in, still jingling, and sat on the bed to removed his boots. Anklets ringing, he set his pale, delicate feet on the floor, and while curling and stretching his toes he exhaled deeply in a sign of deep contentment. At Dorcas' final comment, he smiled mischievously to himself. "Rest assured, my escape would be very... Idiosyncratic? Is that the word?" He looked at her as if he expected her to inform him.

[Chrishton Radu]

Of course. The husband thing. Chrishton rolled his eyes.

Nothing interrupted his meal, which now filled his stomach to the brim. It was the best thing to happen to him in weeks by far. As lady luck would have it, the sword of Damocles dangling over his head and causing him so much worry was never going to fall during the meal. No, the sword hung there to make the meal less enjoyable, but it was only now that the promised after dinner entertainment was ready that whatever bad news destined to make things difficult again came his way.

Fuck the husband. Well, not quite. Fuck his wife and forget about the husband. That was Chrishton's plan. Bigger things were coming to make his life miserable in ways some angry husband and possibly an offended Dorcas could never dream of. His willpower shot, and his hormones active, he just couldn't bring himself to care anymore.

He pushed himself to a standing position and waved a hand at Davrib dismissively. "It's just a bath, dun be so suspicious."

Still walking with a slight hobble, he walked slowly for the doorway with the aim of having Udorl lead the way.

[Dorcas Tansy]

"Who's susbicious?" Davrib called after Chrishton . "Not the husband . . ."

Flossie and Davrib chuckled between themselves and continued to share their breakfast, more interested in the food before them than intervening in a possibly ill-advised situation.

Udorl picked up a new roll before she pushed her weight up from her seat. She shuffled past Chris to duck under the curtain and start to make her way up the stairs.

* * *

Dorcas's cheeks flushed with angry embarrassment as she knelt to pick up the grease-stained blue dress on the floor of the guest bedroom. She searched the floor with somber eyes for any other articles that may have been left behind. Her hand shot out to snatch up a stiff apron peeking out from beneath the bed. When she stood, her blush was still full: ruddy, purplish, and splotchy. She was not one to be blessed with a vital pink glow.

" . . . Idiosyncratic? Is that the word?"

The flush cooled from Dorcas's cheeks as she heard the last bit of what Samahazi said. "No," she sighed airily in response, and rolled her eyes.

She tucked the gathered clothes into the crook of her right elbow and lifted her left hand up to her shoulder for her cat. He sniffed at her knuckles and dragged his tongue roughly over the calloused skin. The cat looked up at Samahazi with wide eyes and chattered again, that weak sort of vibrato call.

Dorcas took her time walking back to the door. Her step might even be called a swagger, for it was clear she considered herself to be in a position of power that needed to be reinforced. She turned at the doorway to look back and Samahazi sitting there on the bed, his pale toes exposed, his bones draped in charms. As she sniffed in disdain, she, for reasons unclear, took the hem of her loose shirt in her hand and shoved a part of it under the waistband on her shirt.

"Yeah," she said as she lifted her chin a few degrees. The cat reacted to this with a fond smear of his cheek against her temple. "I don't b'lieve it's the cats, guy, causing all the leprosy." The last word was drawn out, its sibilance hissed through teeth exposed in a sneer.

Dorcas backed out of the room quickly and bumped into Otter.

The smaller girl hadn't been looking where she was going and had actually run head-on into Dorcas. Slightly dazed, she glanced up and found she was headed in the wrong direction, and so wheeled herself around 180 degrees to run for the stairs. At the landing, she was about to descend when she realized Udorl was already coming up, with Chrishton behind her.

"Ooohhh! It's his bath, laik it's ready," Otter whined to Udorl.

Udorl continued up the stairs, the front of her voluminous skirt grasped in her hands. "Of course, Otter," replied Udorl. "Clean linens and soap, then."

Otter rolled her eyes as if overwhelmed and exhaled with apparent exhaustion. She bobbed her feathery head and slipped past Udorl. As she skipped down the stairs and came up beside Chris, she opened her mouth again. "OH!" She looked back up at Udorl. She clapped her mouth shut and her eyes seemed to bulge even more. "Oh, oh, oohh," she said to herself as she twisted her body past Chrishton's on the stairs and disappeared down into the basement.

Udorl arrived at the top of the stairs and came face to face with Dorcas, who was standing in the hallway.

Dorcas's brow knit with distrust, and she stepped back a little. "What, he needs your help to take a bath . . .?" Her face suddenly blanched and she craned her neck to look down the stairs at Chrishton. She asked nothing, but her look was fraught with disbelief and hurt.

[Goeffrey Coward]

Samahazai was too busy cracking joints to reply to Dorcas' words. He was already removing his coat, staring blankly at his belt buckle. He reacted to her correction with a quiet "Oh," as if far past disinterested in the answer, replying for politeness' sake.

"I don't b'lieve it's the cats, guy, causing all the leprosy."

Samahazai looked up and nodded, eyes glassy. He had already forgotten the lie, and had no idea what she was talking about, but nonetheless nodded. "Very possible. Could be living in filth, or maybe not enough prayer."

The moment she left the doorway he hopped up and shut the door. Withdrawing his black book he scribbled a few notes about mixtures that, when ingested, might cause a small explosion, and which could by slipped to the cat. Results were inconclusive but promising. Perhaps he would think better after he had slept. Returning the book to its hidden pocket, he lay on the mattress and immediately fell into deep sleep.

[Chrishton Radu]

"Yeah I'll bet 'e ain't." Chrishton replied with a hint of sarcasm. Anyone married to Udorl with half a brain would be suspicious of her non-stop.

He eyeballed them before following Udorl through the curtain. They didn't look like they cared and that was good enough for him.

Halfway up the stairs was a different matter when Otter came hopping down and suddenly realized what was going on. She cared a whole lot. So much, in fact, that Chrishton became convinced that her stories about being an older woman trapped in a young body were completely fabricated and without a shred of reality to them.

Oh, oh, oohh went the little creature as she ran past.

"Yea oooh OOOH oooh!" Came his masculine voice in a mock reply, followed by a muttered "Bloody 'ell..." as he climbed the rest of the way.

Of course Dorcas was at the top of the stairs, already confronting Udorl and then accusing him with everything but words. There was no privacy to be had in the damned place. None at all.

Chrishton answered for Udorl before things could get worse. "She's showin' me where it is, fer fuck's sake. It's just a bath!"

[Dorcas Tansy]

As Chrishton came up onto the landing, Dorcas averted her gaze from him--first, downward, and then, on realizing her action, upward. She could pass off the act of discomfort as a roll of her eyes.

"She's showin' me where it is, fer fuck's sake . . ."

Udorl was not even trying to meet Dorcas's gaze. "Of course, Dorcas," she said with a deliberate sigh that caused her breasts to strain dangerously at her bodice. "I don't imagine he'll need me to show him where anything else is. I think he'll be able to find everything just fine." With this, Udorl tugged down at the edge of her stiff bodice in adjustment, but she seemed to overdo it a bit. The bodice shifted down over her transparent blouse such that a near half-moon of dark pigment was visible at presumable center of each compressed breast. The smooth fabric of the blouse puckered at each spot.

Dorcas scowled at the empty space between Udorl and Chrishton--which threatened to disappear quickly--and lifted a hand to her shoulder to evoke some affection from her cat. Her face blanked when no immediate acknowledgment was received upon her knuckles, and when she turned her head, she saw her cat was preoccupied staring at the door to the guest room behind her. His purring resumed when her fingertips grazed his side, but his gaze didn't shift from its lock on the door behind which Samahazi slept.

Dorcas screwed her face into a look of annoyance and shifted her eyes to look at Udorl. She pursed her lips tensely, and pressure seemed to build in her throat as the allotted time for a witty reply quickly ran down.

"--Freak!" she finally spat out, though perhaps not as loudly as she might have hoped.

Udorl paused, looked at Dorcas, and raised her eyebrows. "Mm . . ." she replied with a flash of amusement in her eyes. The woman reached back to take the front of Chris's shirt in her hand. She walked forward, along the left wall of the sitting room, to where a door was slightly ajar. When she pushed on the door gently with her free hand, a thin billow of steam escaped the small room.