|
Post by Brandwyn on Jun 29, 2009 5:48:37 GMT -5
Katrina walked through the streets of La Rivage with Henry, Shamus and a half dozen Scotti warriors. They were checking out its condition so they could report back to Sir Horace.
She saw that there had been a fire in the merchant section, but other than that, things seemed to be normal. On the surface.
People didn't linger in the streets though. They made their way to their destinations with little banter or ease. They were generally uptight.
"Looks like the people are a bit scared, or suffering from shock or something." Katrina commented to Shamus and Henry.
Henry nodded. "Maybe we should talk to someone. Find out what happened."
Katrina agreed. She would stop the next person that came along and ask them some questions...
|
|
|
Post by ivory on Jul 1, 2009 11:34:21 GMT -5
Adrian felt slight unease as he followed his group through the streets of La Rivage. He turned his head to scan around him, not taking too well to the 'lifeless' people. Where was the normal banter? The laughter? The gossip? He scanned his surroundings again, nervous from the people's too serious attitude, and took comfort by brushing his fingers against the hilt of his sword every so often.
|
|
|
Post by JezusBagels on Jul 1, 2009 14:34:09 GMT -5
Tolsk was shoved out the door and landed on his butt in the dirt. "Fine!" he shouted. "Cut me off! I'll just go get drunk somewhere else!" he shouted fervently. He hated when people managed to tell him to stop drinking. It was his only pastime. He stood up, patting the dirt off of his trousers before the door opened again and his sword and shield flew past him, into the middle of the road. "Oh, thanks a lot you stupid sods!" he shouted inside, shaking his fist as he did so.
Grumbling swears and curses, he made his way into the middle of the street and picked up his equipment. Then his hand moved to his waist, where his whip hung, just to make sure no one had stolen it. He stood up to his full height, burped, and looked around. He came face to face with a rather large group of people with weapons. This was either very good or very bad.
"Evening," he said in a friendly tone, raising one hand in greeting.
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jul 2, 2009 10:44:45 GMT -5
Katrina watched a rather large man get thrown out into the street in front of them and fought back an amused smile at his string of curses, remembering a similar scene from years ago with her mentor.
"Evening," he said in a friendly tone, raising one hand in greeting.
Katrina glanced up at the sun. It was barely past 2 in the afternoon as nearly as she could figure. "Afternoon, my friend." She answered just as cheerily. "Perhaps you can help us out." She walked up to him and motioned the others to stay back a bit
"My name is Kat. Perhaps I can buy you a drink - er - from a different establishment." She looked around and saw another tavern at the next corner and pointed towards it. "Perhaps that one?"
As they walked towards it, she motioned the rest to follow and tried to strike up a conversation, "It seems like everyone around here is a bit uptight. Something going on here in the city?"
She made sure to keep her hands away from her weapons, not wanting to provoke him. He looked like a seasoned fighter and a drunk seasoned fighter was not something to trifle with.
|
|
|
Post by JezusBagels on Jul 2, 2009 13:34:10 GMT -5
Tolsk grinned and nodded at her offer to buy drinks. Trying to look respectful, he stood as tall as he could while they walked, sort of half-swaggering. "That'd be right kind of you, miss," he said, bowing. They headed for the nearest tavern and the woman asked why everyone seemed so uptight.
Tolsk scratched his chin in deep thought. Everyone always seemed a little uptight around him. Could have been because of his weapons, but he never really thought about it. Then the answer came to him. He snapped his fingers and pointed up in exclamation as he said, "There's a war going on. People are afraid to die. That could explain it!"
|
|
|
Post by ivory on Jul 2, 2009 14:01:08 GMT -5
Adrian followed them into the tavern more than a little puzzled. The guy was either crazy or drunk, or maybe both despite the fact that he'd said he wasn't. He wondered why Sir Katrina was offering to buy him another drink or so.
Imagination running wild, he figured that he was some sort of spy or something, just undercover. Actually, weren't all spies undercover all the time? Now that he thought about it, he guess they were. So this guy was just pretending drunk? Or was he really drunk? Was he even a guy? He wondered briefly if all that was a disguise and a darn good disguise it was. He, or she, had the form of a man. Or maybe the spy was really a man pretending to be a woman who was pretending to be a man. Man, his head hurt. Maybe he should order a drink...
But of course he couldn't since he was on duty. Ah, oh well, he'd just stop thinking about it and instead simply listen - not a hard thing to do since even the tavern was unusually quiet.
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jul 2, 2009 18:17:03 GMT -5
Katrina motioned to the barkeep to bring them a couple of ales and set the coin on the bar. She nodded to the others that they could have a drink if they wished to and placed another coin on the bar to cover everyone for one drink.
The barkeep smiled and pulled out some nearly clean mugs and filled them up from the tap, sliding them down to the Scotti and Adrian and Henry after he gave Katrina the first one and Tolsk the second.
"So," Katrina asked casually, "was there fighting here in the city?"
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jul 21, 2009 11:02:51 GMT -5
Henry wiped the rim of his mug off with his sleeve and sipped at his beer, leaning his back against the bar with one elbow resting on it. He surveyed the current occupents of the establishment. There were very few, but then it was early in the day. A couple of locals had come in for lunch and were eyeing the bunch warily. Henry smiled at one man and raised his mug in salute. The man swallowed the last few mouthfuls of food, left a copper on the table and scurried out the door without looking at Henry again.
"Hmmff, not very friendly." Henry remarked to Shamus who was standing beside him. Shamus nodded. "They are scared. Must have been some serious fighting or something, though I don't see much in the way of bodies in the streets."
Henry agreed and took another sip, only half listening to Katrina and their new friend. He watched a pretty barmaid move over to the table just vacated and clean up the dirty dishes and deposit the coin in her bosum. Henry nudged Shamus with his elbow and nodded towards the girl. He wasn't really interested, but it was what Shamus would expect of him and he was hoping Katrina would notice him looking at another woman.
"Nice." Shamus murmured and smiled at the girl. She smiled back, but kept to her current task of wiping off the table. Shamus looked at Henry, who nodded back and they both sat down at the table next to the one she was cleaning off.
The girl turned around and took a step to move past Shamus towards the kitchen. "Hi there, my Sweet!" Shamus winked at her and reached out to gently touch her arm to stop her.
"Hello, my fine Sir's." The girl stopped and shifted her tray of dirty dishes to her hip as she reached out and stroked Shamus on the neck. "You two are getting an early start tonight." She winked at Henry.
"Oh we aren't really. We are on a mission!" He said importantly, smiling back. All the while he kept Katrina in his view out of the corner of his eye to see how she was reacting. She appeared to be totally oblivious.
The girl laughed, "and that mission is? Perhaps to see how many beers one can drink before he passes out?" She put the tray down on the table and sidled around Shamus and into Henry's lap, "or perhaps you had something else in mind?"
"Hey now, wait a minute," Shamus said, "I saw her first."
Henry placed an arm around her slim waist and grinned at Shamus, "no you didn't." He leaned forward and whispered something in the girl's ear and she giggled delightfully.
She cleared her throat just as Shamus was about to protest, "There, there now boys. There is plenty of me to go around. No need to fight." She grabbed Shamus' hand and started rubbing her finger tips lightly up and down his arm.
Shamus grinned, then looked over his shoulder, "Hey Commander, how long we going to be in here?" he asked Katrina.
Henry was twirling a bit of the girl's hair between his fingertips and looked up to see what Katrina would say.
___
Katrina had noticed the two men make a play on the barmaid and was doing her best to pretend they didn't exist, then Shamus had to draw her into their little sharade. She looked back at him, a look of irritation followed by a quick flash of pain as she saw Henry twirling the girl's hair as he had often done hers during the voyage. She quickly schooled her face, though, knowing what he was up to.
"Not long enough." She snapped back at Shamus, then turned her attention back to the man they had met in the street, Tolsk. She was beginning to think this may have been a waste of time and money, since he didn't seem to be supplying them with much information.
___
Shamus chuckled at the look of irritation on Katrina's face, but then his own face fell when she said they were not going to stay here long. It had been a very long voyage and Shamus would have liked to get to know the girl better - a lot better. "Ah, sorry, my sparrow, but it seems our fearless leader has other plans for us today." He captured her hand and planted a very suductive kiss on the back of it.
Henry gently stood her up when Shamus had finished, then stood up himself and downed the rest of his beer in one big gulp. "Perhaps later, on our way back through..." he said softly in her ear, but loud enough for Katrina to hear.
"I will be looking forward to it, My Lord." the girl curtseyed to them and then picked up her tray and scampered to the kitchen.
Henry looked at Katrina and strode to the door. "I need some air." Katrina didn't stop him.
Shamus just sat there smiling to himself, laughing at the silly games Henry was playing with Katrina. If he played his cards right, he might just end up with her afterall because right now it looked like Henry was messing up.
___
Katrina watched Henry leave and then turned her full attention back to Tolsk, but her mind kept wandering to Henry and wondering what he was playing at, shoving her away and then trying to make her jealous. How was she supposed to react anyway?
After a few moments she brought her thoughts under control. She had forgotten what she had asked Tolsk, but then suddenly remembered, 'oh yeah, about the fighting in the city.' Another question occured to her then.
"Do you know who it was that was fighting? Was it Aslavian soldiers?" She asked Tolsk.
|
|
|
Post by ivory on Jul 22, 2009 11:18:39 GMT -5
Adrian hesitated for a moment when a mug of ale was slid in front of him, wondering what he should do about it. Sir Henry Lionheart of Caraway had quickly taught him to never drink when in a possible combat zone and even those times that he weren’t, that he should never drink too heavily. Maybe just a sip…she had after all, already paid for it and it’d be rude to let it go to waste…
Biting his lip, he gripped the mug in his hand and let the liquid seep into his mouth. He swallowed as Henry and Shamus rose to their feet, wondering what they were doing. He placed the mug back on the table as he watched them make their way to another table. Puzzlement stayed with him for another second…and then he saw the barmaid.
The left side of his mouth quirked up into a grin before he shook his head and brought his drink to his lips. He’d admit that she was pretty, but she wasn’t anywhere near Marguerite’s shining beauty. He winced at the thought of her and sent a prayer that he ran into William sometime soon so he could go ahead and give him her message.
Prayer finished, he turned his attention back to Sir Katrina in time to hear her ask, "Do you know who it was that was fighting? Was it Aslavian soldiers?"
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Jul 28, 2009 11:05:34 GMT -5
Henry stepped out of the bar and surveyed the street from the stone sidewalk. There was very little activity in site. He stepped to the corner and looked up the street there. Several people were moving along a main throughfare that ran parallel to the street the bar was on, about two blocks up.
He debated on heading up there to see if he could find out anything, but dismissed it. He glanced up at the sky to try to determine the time and that was when he saw the sentry on the roof of a tall housing building across the street and down a ways. The sentry was watching him, bow strung with an arrow on the string hanging casually from his left hand. The man could likely kill Henry before he took two steps in any direction.
Henry tipped his head at the sentry and leaned back against the wall of the bar. The Sentry nodded back and then scanned the street. Henry noticed that he kept looking back to see what Henry was up to. Henry kept looking from the sentry to the people moving on the street across the end of the alley. 'Definately strange' he thought to himself, wishing the others would hurry up.
He tried not to dwell on Katrina, but no matter how hard he tried, he kept coming back to her in his thoughts. Then that made him think about Dougal and her feelings for him and wondered if she would throw herself at him the next time she saw him. He tried to steer his thoughts away, but it didn't work. Soon he found himself pacing up and down the length of the building, muttering to himself. He looked up and the sentry was grinning at him. Henry scowled and went back around the corner into the sunlight and sat down on the step of the pub. He would wait for the others here, he thought....
|
|
|
Post by JezusBagels on Aug 24, 2009 20:56:42 GMT -5
Tolsk, rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment. He knew how drunk he was. He couldn't really be sure of anything, but the question seemed familiar enough. He nodded at the soldiers. "Aslavians. Sounds about right. Nasty buggers, them. Not too friendly neither."
He leaned back in his chair. Being Percival Wales was much more difficult when he was drunk... but ale just tasted so good.
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Aug 25, 2009 5:31:56 GMT -5
Katrina frowned in thought. What if the Aslavians were in control of the city? But if they were, surely there would have been some at the docks and they would have seen them by now.
"Did the Aslavians take the city?" Katrina asked, sipping her ale slowly. It was quite good ale and she made a mental note of the name of the establishment. This might be a place to frequent if they were going to be in La Rivage for long.
___
Ouside Henry lounged against the corner of the building and kept an eye on the guard on the roof. He saw the man signal to someone and looked around the corner down the street that his party had just come down.
There was a small band of armed men. Most of them looked nervous and not used to carrying the swords at their side or wearing armor.
Their leader looked like a seasoned soldier however and was wearing the emblems of the city guard. He signalled back to the man on the roof and the entire party made a beeline for the front door of the the tavern katrina was in.
Henry casually ducked back into the tavern and strode up to Katrina. "We may have trouble coming. Looks like a city guard - sort of."
Katrina motioned for Henry and Shamus to sit back down at the table they had been sitting at just a few minutes before. "Adrian, slide down there and lean against the bar down there by the front door and pretend you don't know us." Katrina said softly, getting as close to his ear as she could.
She turned back to their new friend and repeated her question, leaning casually on the bar, pretending she was flirting with the drunken soldier. It seemed to be obvious now that the Aslavians were not in control. At least not of this part of the city anyway. Whoever was in control was keeping a close watch on everything it seemed. It hadn't taken long for the city guard to show up here.
|
|
|
Post by JezusBagels on Aug 25, 2009 10:31:36 GMT -5
Tolsk perked up at the mention of the guard. He'd been in more than a couple scrapes with them. He'd always come out on top, but it didn't mean he enjoyed fighting them. The reaction sobered him up a little. He stood up, keeping one hand on the hilt of the sword at his belt.
He looked down at Katrina. "I wouldn't say they... took it. I'd put it more in the... 'taking' category," he said, careful to enunciate the past and present tenses.
|
|
|
Post by Brandwyn on Aug 25, 2009 11:27:25 GMT -5
Katrina wasn't exactly sure what he meant, since it seemed the fighting was over. Maybe it wasn't really over, they might just be regrouping.
"Well, in that case, maybe I need to talk with whomever is in charge of the defenses." Katrina said and downed the rest of her ale in two big gulps. She knew with the guard coming that she probably wouldn't get a chance to finish it slowly and it would be a shame to let that good ale go to waste.
The door banged open and the leader of the city guard strode in like he owned the place and everyone should bow down and worship him. Katrina didn't even turn her head at the sound. She leaned her elbows on the bar, facing the barkeep, staring into her now empty mug as if she didn't care at all who had come in the door.
Henry did the opposite, turning in his chair and leaning back, as if to watch a show and stared at the Captain and his men, his face impassive while Shamus smiled at them.
The Captain stood there for a few minutes and looked each one of them over. His eyes kept going back to Katrina and after a moment a leer came into his eyes. Katrina could just make out his expression by the reflection in a tray leaning on the shelf behind the bar. She saw him reach out to lay a hand on her shoulder and just before his fingers would have touched her, she spun around in one of her signature lightening fast spins and had him laying back halfway across the bar with her sword at his throat.
Henry smiled at her in admiration, still amazed at how fast she could make that move, even though he had seen it a dozen times already.
"Don't you know it is impolite to lay hands on a Lady?" Katrina asked the Captain in a deadly quiet voice, so quiet that everyone in the room would have had to strain to hear her if it wasn't for the fact that there was dead silence in the room already.
His men took a step forward and in an instant Henry had leapt up and shoved the point of his sword to just touch the stomach of the man closest to him. "That's far enough!" He said. Shamus still smiled behind him, fingering a throwing knife.
"If you don't want to be guarding the gates of Hell, call your men off." Katrina said a bit louder and pushed her sword blade against his neck just a bit more until a drop of blood welled up onto the blade. The man motioned for them to stand down, his eyes white with fear and surprise.
|
|
|
Post by JezusBagels on Aug 25, 2009 11:36:57 GMT -5
Tolsk drew his sword, smirking in amusement. He liked the woman. She had spunk. One didn't find a lot of that from women in his experience. However, he supposed that times were changing. He noticed the captain's eyes on him now and gave a mock salute.
"Evening, sir," he said calmly, but with wicked joy. "Come for a drink?"
The soldiers had backed off, but not much. He noticed that all of their hands were still near their weapons. He kept his guard up, ready for someone to disobey an order.
|
|