Magic Beans.

12th of Ymiden 718

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Vega
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12th Ymiden, 718
They'd popped to Mistral village with the aim of selling some items she'd crafted from wood, picking up some more wood and maybe learning about making musical instruments and instead, they'd found themselves fighting off attackers and helping out in the investigation afterwards. So, that hadn't entirely gone as planned, Vega considered with a smile as she pulled a small package wrapped in parchment out of the supplies she'd popped into town earlier on to pick up. But then, in fairness, this was them. When did it ever go as planned? Rarely enough that, if it ever did, they'd both get suspicious, she'd wager. She'd gone into town early, while he'd been doing something with that bloody cast iron pot of his which she'd nearly killed some time ago - some kind of coating or treatment or something or another. Mostly it just sounded like gibberish to her.

Besides, Vega had wanted to pop to the dance school she'd told him about some time before. Not that she mentioned it before she went, he might have decided that it was just too good an opportunity to miss, him with his balletic talents and all. So, when she got back she had a look on her face which told him she was pleased with herself about something. Which wasn't entirely true.

She was pleased with herself about a number of things.

"Hey," she called, as she returned to their camp and then beamed in delight as Zyqat, her dog, ran up to meet her. "Hello, boy, have you been good? Have you, oh, I bet you have, come on, did you get a single belly rub while I was gone? Did you?" The dog and Vega got on enormously well, she adored it and was soft as could be with the thing. Zyqat, in turn, transformed into a tongue-lolling, rolling on the floor, cute little pup whenever Vega was around. When he'd said that she was well trained by Zyqat, Arlo hadn't been far from completely right and Vega knew it. But she also didn't care. "Come on then, lets go show Arlo what we got, shall we?" He was growing and growing, Vega thought and scratched him behind the ear before getting up and grinning at Arlo.

"I know what yer thinkin', you know. It's written all over your face," she teased and moved over to him, slipping an arm around his waist and kissing him. "He's a good dog. Did you do the schmurdle-urdle-umph you wanted to with your pot?" Vega's lips lifted as she teased him and she bumped her shoulder against his. "So, I went to the dance school I told you about, an' guess what?" Whatever it was, there was no doubting that she was pleased, more than a little. "They teach musical instruments, an' singin' too!" They could teach her to play the cello, she said, and the piano, flute and harp too. Singing too and dancing. "Only thing is, it's like, well expensive. But that's alright, I've got coppers saved an' there's no pockets on a funeral pyre, so I might as well spend them as store them." She was pleased, there was no doubting it. It would mean that she could get a basic grasp of those four instruments - the classes were paid for in blocks of five, so she'd have five classes in each. "I can book them up in a group, or space them out, I don't mind. What're we thinkin' about stayin' here or movin' on?" They hadn't considered it, and it wasn't like them to plan but still ~ she wanted to do this so wanted to make sure that she booked the lessons in the right sort of space of time. "If I've got time an' money," money would be the issue, but she didn't say that. "I'll do some dance classes too. Maybe singin', I dunno." It was all a bit odd to her, really, the idea of going to a school. She'd never been a student before, not of anything or anywhere and so it was exciting, but she felt a strange nervousness too, which she covered in brash.

Once they'd worked out timings, Vega bumped against him and smiled, slightly ruefully. "So, I got all the stuff you wanted. An' I met this kid," she watched him as she told him the story, which was entirely true. "He looked well desperate, Arlo. His shoes had holes an' he looked poor. Not like someone pretendin' to be poor, neither, you know? Sunken cheeks an' the lot." So, she explained, she'd felt bad for him. Vega had no idea that she'd been taken in by good make up, but that was what had happened. "He said he had these magic beans, an' I mean, I don't think they're really magical, but it would be cool, though, wouldn't it?" Solemnly, she handed him three, small, beans.

"An', look." she said, passing over a very crumpled piece of parchment. "He wrapped them in this for me, an' I reckon that's a map. Do you think it's a treasure map, Arlo? We could go look, couldn't we?" Yep. Hook, line and sinker, she'd been played. The 'map ' was a piece of parchment drawn on and then soaked in tea to look old. But it had been a child with good make up to look poor and hungry and a really good skill at acting.

And so, Vega had bought it. "Don't ask me 'ow much I gave him. I'm not tellin' you." Vega said, primly. "But if that little chap buys some food out of that three gold an' two silver, then it'll be well spent. So, do you reckon this is a treasure map?" Looking at him, it had to be said she looked nothing but believing and hopeful. "An' those might be magic beans, don't you reckon?" She wasn't tugging at his sleeve, but it was a close thing. "Can we plant the beans an' then go follow the map?"
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Vega's skin has a reflective metallic sheen with a red glow. Her eyes still swirl biqaj colours, but one colour is always bright red which glows like fire. She has a bright red glow in her chest, situated directly under the mark of a heart (Daia mark) in the middle of a glowing silver dragon on her chest (Xiur). She's unnaturally warm to the touch
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Arlo Creede
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No outing of theirs ever seemed to go as they'd planned it to. In fact, for them, planning seemed to be the most perfect way to ensure that things eventually turned upside down on them. And the outing to Mistral Village had done just that. Par for the course, Arlo had thought. Simply was what it always was and he wasn't complaining. Though he'd never admit it, he'd already been of a particular inclination. But marked twice by Cassion now, the tendency had increased more than twofold. He lived for the concept of things getting interesting out of the blue.

Vega had gone off to town earlier and he'd stayed behind, taking care of what otherwise could be thought of as dull and unappealing business. But a cast iron skillet or pot that was worth the stuff it was forged from, required as much care as the most precious of possessions or loved ones. While doubling as a fine weapon of convenience, when nothing else was available. But Cassion's service also required him to be a cook of some talent. And you just couldn't do it without good equipment. Scoff as much as she liked, he'd told Vega with a grin when she'd wandered off. Caring for that pot was like a version of worship to his patron.

"He's been a nuisance," he called back when she returned and greeted her pup. It was true, and not. That dog knew where the best treats came from and no matter how much Arlo complained and refused to indulge him on principle, things managed, somehow, to get dropped on the ground. The best bits...Funny how he never dropped an artichoke or clutch of greens. His cookware was in good shape, he told her, as she told him what she'd been up to. "Well that's good isn't it?" he said. Dance, music, instruments all in one place. Saved walking, it did. "I'm in no hurry to get back to Scalvoris, or to move on. No schedules that I know of," Arlo added with a grin.

And nels? "You know Vega. My nels are yours, yours are mine, ours are ours." He had plenty, he rarely felt the need to spend them, she needn't worry about not having enough. She should take all the lessons she wanted, so long as they were in a place to find them available. Who knew what they'd find in the next place? Then however she mentioned the supposed beggar and Arlo raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You've been had," he said, matter of fact. The beans and the map only confirmed it. "Beans? And Vega, you know how many maps I drew as a kid and convinced my pals there was treasure out there? It's a right of boyhood and he reeled you right in with it."

And yet, he suspected she knew that already and would have given the kid the nels anyway. She was a sucker for kids...Unlike him. "If you're wanting to plant those beans, better in a big pot we can take with us when we go, rather than leaving them behind in the ground." Worth two silvers? No. But at least they might have a supply of fresh beans aboard ship wherever they want. Vega's enthusiasm was catching however, and he couldn't help but want to indulge it. Even if they ended up led in circles in the search for an imaginary treasure.

"Plant your beans then, and we'll go," he agreed with a grin, stood up and began throwing things in his sack and arming himself. "That map, well, I sort of recognize the region there if not the location. Probably someplace he's been before when he drew it." And probably not a thing there, or maybe some useless rusted trinket the kid had hid under a rock. But an outing on a nice trial was never wasted and could always be counted on to turn sideways on them.
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"Don't you listen to him, you've not been a nuisance, no you 'aven't. You've been a good, good boy." Vega said to Zyqat and she looked at Arlo accusingly. "You shouldn't say mean stuff. He's got feelin's you know, an' he doesn't know you're only jokin'." Lowering her head next to the dog's ear, Vega whispered to the rapidly growing puppy that Arlo was just joking and that he was a very good dog. Zyqat, obviously pleased by this, licked her on the ear, which provoked a squeal of delight from her as she got up to move over to Arlo.

With her arms wrapped around him, she grinned as he was so positive about the school and then reassured her that they had no worries in terms of time or the time they needed to take here. "Well, that's good. An' you know, I'm very happy for you an' yer pot." She lingered in kissing him and then, of all things, he said that his money was hers? That drew her up short and Vega took a slight step backwards, surprise on her face. "Well.. what?" His nels weren't hers, she said most sincerely. They were his. The sharing of money seemed to be somewhat of a strange concept to her and she frowned. "I mean. All of me an' everythin' I've got is yours. So, I guess in that way. But you've got money, it's yours to spend. I'm not gonna start spendin' your money. That's all a bit too.." she waved her hand in the air in a futile gesture of trying to explain herself. "I don't wanna be like the Useless Twins," her pet name for Reese and Shon's wives, Sian and Lily. "I mean, they jus' float around an' sigh an' heave their bosoms, while that pair of idiots work themselves silly. I'm not doin' that." There was no doubting it, Vega was not impressed. "It's a partnership, me an' you. Which means we have to think about what we spend our money on, no matter whose coin purse it comes out of."

Grinning slightly, she pointed out that flinging three hundred gold at learning to play a few instruments was too much. "I'll do the piano lessons, cos we can't afford a piano, they're well expensive. But the other stuff?" She had learnt to play the fiddle from a book, she reminded him, and she wasn't bad at that, these trials. So, she'd get a book and a clapped out cheap and second hand instrument which would be good enough to learn on. That way, she could learn and have the instruments too - and they wouldn't have spent all their nel on something they didn't need to. "Lets see what the lessons are like. I might be unteachable," she added and then, quite seriously, "I really wouldn't be surprised, would you? That chef thought so."

She'd been had? Vega, who knew absolutely that he was right, looked at him archly and sniffed, derisively. "You're wrong you know." This was not about whether she'd been had or not. No. This was a matter of Arlo not being right about it. "I'm gonna plant my magic beans, an' then go explorin' an' we're gonna find wonders, an' treasure an' you know what? " Stepping back up next to him she kissed him as she pulled herself tight to him. "You're gonna say 'you were right, Vega. There was treasure there.' An' when you say that, I'll be very," another kiss and a wicked glint in her eyes, "very happy." With a chuckle, she skipped away from him and, once she'd found a large pot, she filled it with stones on the bottom, then earth and she planted the beans far enough apart that she thought they'd grow and not strangle each other. Then, she started to pull together her things. She already had her sword on her hip, of course, and her bow at her back.

"So," she said, grabbing her bag. "Wanna make it a little more int'restin'? Two wagers, Arlo Creede." They enjoyed very little more than a challenge between them. The last one had involved dressing up like pirates, throwing pistachio nuts and flagrant cheating on both their parts. "I bet you that there's treasure there. An' I bet you, they're magic beans." Raising an eyebrow at him with a determined glint in her eyes, she was more or less daring him not to take the bet. Something she thought he really couldn't manage.

"I call the wager, so you decide what we're bettin' for. But make sure you're happy losin' it. Cos I've got magic beans an' a treasure map."
word count: 823
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Vega's skin has a reflective metallic sheen with a red glow. Her eyes still swirl biqaj colours, but one colour is always bright red which glows like fire. She has a bright red glow in her chest, situated directly under the mark of a heart (Daia mark) in the middle of a glowing silver dragon on her chest (Xiur). She's unnaturally warm to the touch
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Arlo Creede
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Vega spoiled that dog, Arlo thought. He'd grown up around animals of all kinds of course, and while his mother loved and doted on her chickens, gave them names and even cradled them in her arms, Jonas had taken a more practical approach. Sheep provided the wool so ought to be cared for. Cows the milk or meat. Chickens the eggs, or poultry.

Dogs had their roles as well. Herding, keeping watch, but to have heard him say it, ought not by sensible people to be treated as pets...all the harder to focus on their jobs. But Arlo had seen him, once or twice, making over a pup or kitten in a way that hadn't seemed very practical minded. All in all, he figured, if the pup and his antics and his devotion made Vega laugh and made her happy, then the creature was doing its job well.

With her arms around him, and his around her, Vega was awfully hard to reason with. Or rather it was impossible for him to want to try. Add to it the fact that when she was convinced of one position, it did him very little good, and sometimes ended up bedeviling him, to try. His stance wasn't changed however, he just didn't say it. What was his, was hers. "If you say so," he quipped with a grin. Proof enough that he was holding the argument in check rather than taking the part of said pup chasing his own tail.

On the question of whether or not she'd been tricked, Arlo grinned a little and shook his head. "He bamboozled you Vega, flat and simple." Of course it also meant that in spite of her sometimes prickly outer shell, Vega was also soft hearted and he couldn't begin to fault her for that. The kiss was taken and appreciated, and returned in kind, though still he shook his head and smiled. "Bamboozled...Not right," he insisted. "Well both of those things will have to prove true" he pointed out, "for that particular wager to have any merit. but I'll take the wager," Arlo added and then hoisted his sack up over his shoulder.

Except, he added, he'd reserve his right to name the stakes for later...Much like the rules that she tended to sometimes create or revise, after the fact. What was good for one? It was good for the other. 'Now stop stalling," he added, teasing her as he urged Vega on their way. "It's your map, your folly...I'd say it's yours to lead the way don't you?"
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Standing there, arms wrapped around each other and the feel of his breath on her cheek, Vega knew that she couldn't actually argue with him. There was no point to, he'd win and every time. Touching her nose to his, she smiled. "I'm jus' bein' contrary. It sounded a bit like, you know, joint bank accounts an' I darn your socks." With a smile, she spoke what she suspected they both knew. "An' I have to object to that on principle cos it sounds like commitment an' that scares the beejinkies outta me." And being without her beejinkies, Vega said most seriously, was just not something she wanted to think about. "Until I realise it's to you, an' then I think, oh, that's a'right, I'm already there." Shrugging she kissed him softly. "An' thanks. I know." Blinking slightly, she frowned suddenly and looked at him. "Arlo. Did we jus'.. that is. Did I jus' admit I was wrong, compromise an' then let it go?" With mischief all over her face, she shook her head, faking disbelief that such a thing could ever happen. But she'd told him, hadn't she, that all he ever needed to do in an argument was to up and kiss her, she reminded him. So really, by default, any and every argument they had was his fault entirely. Why? "You need to learn how to handle yer woman, Creede."

And good luck to him there, she thought.

But bamboozled? Vega shook her head. "I'm disappointed in you, Arlo. I am." She wasn't at all, mostly because he was right and they both knew it. "I gave that boy three gold nel an' two silver nel. Which, since it's mine an' yours means you gave him one gold an' six silver, so I don't know what your gibbin' about." She shook her head and grinned. He'd have done the same, she insisted because the boy looked hungry. Maybe he had bamboozled her, although he hadn't, but even if he had, there was a very simple question. "What person would you rather I was? The kind that gives some spare coins to a hungry child or that walks past? Exactly," she didn't actually wait for his answer, but simply assumed that he agreed with her. She was quite content to linger in the kiss they shared and then laughed as he spoke about the wager.

"That's a'right. You put what you like on it." Vega said, of the wager. Her eyes were quite serious, she was absolutely sure. Or determined. Or... something. "It's a treasure map an' they're magic beans." What kind of devotee of Xiur would she be, she asked seriously, if she didn't maintain that hope? That was what made her who she was, after all. "An' all I can do is hope that no mean boys come along an' shatter that hope. Come on then," Once they got themselves ready, she took the map back from him with a haughty huffing sniff.

And off they went. It was a hand drawn map (then dipped in tea) and so she checked with him that they were where she thought they were and then they made their way. Zyqat very much wanted to go with them, but Vega set him to guard - a command which led to him lolling in the sun. It was close enough for her. As they walked, the Stormlands lay in front of them and she noticed how it was changing with the season and the new cycle. It was beautiful here and Vega thought that it was good for Arlo that they had come. They'd stay a little while, she thought ~ giving Jonas time to get himself used to living on the Wanderlust, to sell the farm if that was what he chose. Giving Jonas time. That was fine with her, Rharne had enough wilderness and interest to keep them busy and she didn't care where they were as long as they were there.

For no apparent reason, she thumped him on the shoulder. "You've turned me into a right soppy mare, you 'ave. Shurrup." No. He hadn't said a word and neither had she for a good quarter break at that point. So, she put her hand into his and strolled once again.

But eventually, after they'd walked for a couple of breaks, Vega pointed. "Arlo, look. I think it's over there. Jus' by those.. do they look like ruins to you?"
word count: 768
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Vega's skin has a reflective metallic sheen with a red glow. Her eyes still swirl biqaj colours, but one colour is always bright red which glows like fire. She has a bright red glow in her chest, situated directly under the mark of a heart (Daia mark) in the middle of a glowing silver dragon on her chest (Xiur). She's unnaturally warm to the touch
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Arlo Creede
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"Being contrary? You?" Arlo shot back with wide eyes and a suppressed grin when Vega had said it. "Surely not. Since that's the case, I might never let you forget it," he vowed. In fact, he thought dryly, she might never admit it again. But in part it was her prickly disposition that was a real part of loving Vega. He probably should try to control his woman better, he agreed, teasing her further. "But if it's commitment, it's our own unique brand. Which is all for the good. I can mend my own socks or buy myself new ones."

The number of nels she'd given that kid was climbing, he noted, and said nothing of it but rolled his eyes briefly heavenwards. "I love you just the way you are," he assured her. "And maybe i'd have given him the nels, but I'd have also made sure he knew he was caught out at it. That way, he either mends his ways...or he gets better at it and richer in the process." Everyone needed a reliable source of income after all.

Magic beans though, a genuine treasure map, he didn't put any stock in either. After all..."And if it is?" he added with another grin and they headed out. "How many of those maps do you think he's sold to other....suc...I mean, well meaning donors, and how many of them do you think have already gone on that wild goose chase?" And yet here they were, doing just that. But Arlo still envisioned the little conman with a sack full of useless beans and a stack of hand drawn grubby maps that he pulled out one or three at a time.

It was a beautiful trial and a nice leisurely walk at any rate. Soppy. Yeah, that was her alright, he teased back when Vega thumped him on the shoulder, while Lyova was lounging and sunning herself on the crown of his hat. But of course, eventually they did catch sight of something. The stormlands were probably littered with broken down, abandoned shacks and old houses. But most of those eventually went to dust or kindling, having been built from wood.

What they were looking at though, just inside the line of trees, had been built from stone, and quite a long time ago from the looks of it. There was the outline of the old foundation in place, some crumbling walls, no ceiling...But what else? They wouldn't know till they got there. And when they did, what wood remained was part of an old door, hanging on one hinge on a halfway crumbled wall. "Your map," he said, ushering Vega in first. "Yours to lead the way."
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He might never let her forget it? Vega smiled at him and then, as he said he should learn to control her better? Vega leaned into his arms, wrapping hers around him and she kissed him, her hands moving to his hair as she pulled herself close to him. Mid sentence he might have been, but she didn't mind as she focused all her attention on making sure that he did forget, thank you very much.

Or she did. Whichever, really, it didn't matter.

"Don't tease me when I'm nice to you, Creede, or I won't be nice no more," she mumbled against him, her lips still mostly concerned with his. However, they had a wager for her to win and a camp to leave so, regretfully, she got about the business of doing just that. But when he said that he'd have told the lad that he was rumbled, Vega smiled at him sympathetically. "Well, that's cos you're soft on kids, innit? You're tellin' him so that he either ups his game an' gets you next time or you've gone an' saved him from his wicked ways. You're such a softie." She delivered it entirely seriously and if he'd go with it, Vega would maintain that he was the one who was daft on children. It wasn't her that was for sure. "You are, you know," she said, bumping her shoulder against his as they stepped out of camp together. "I mean, in Mistral village, you was like the one that all the short ones followed around. It's adorable, in a terrifyin', don't ever go there or if you do, go with someone else kind of way." After all, Vega said and she looked at him with a totally deadpan expression. "I thought gettin' the dog would make you less of a sook, but nope. Soft on th' dog, soft on children. Yer an enigma in a conundrum you are."


But as much as she enjoyed tormenting Arlo, and getting tormented back, all good things had to end and as they spotted the ruins and made their way, Vega glanced at him and grinned. "Humble pie, Creede. On the menu for.. oh crud." That was as they moved and Vega looked down at the ground where an arrow had literally just thudded in front of Arlo's feet.

Neither Lyova or Iris had spotted them, but then neither of them were expecting trouble, despite having obviously found it. Vega narrowed her eyes, looking into the woodlands ahead of them and she simply couldn't see anyone. Iris, having been flitting around and having quite a lovely time made her way, sight unseen, into the treeline and there spotted five of them. Well armed, armoured and obviously here for a reason. What she didn't know for sure, though, she told Vega, was whether they were the only ones. They were well hidden, obviously prepared. Further in, Iris reported to her and presumably so too did Lyova to Arlo, there was some kind of entrance down underground, in the middle of the ruins.

It was at moments like this, Vega thought, that she wished she was any good at pretending to be a damsel in distress, but no. No, that wasn't happening. "Put your weapons down!" Came a voice from the treeline. Vega cursed under her breath. "There's weapons trained on both of you. Drop your weapons or you both get shot!" Vega turned to glance at him with eyes which were rapidly turning crimson and black. As she did another arrow thudded into the ground, this one a hair's breadth away from her foot. Whoever it was, they were a damn good shot. "NOW! Drop your weapons!"

With an apologetic shrug, knowing that she couldn't allow him to get hurt because she had to be clever, Vega's hand moved to undo her sword belt.
word count: 665
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Vega's skin has a reflective metallic sheen with a red glow. Her eyes still swirl biqaj colours, but one colour is always bright red which glows like fire. She has a bright red glow in her chest, situated directly under the mark of a heart (Daia mark) in the middle of a glowing silver dragon on her chest (Xiur). She's unnaturally warm to the touch
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Arlo Creede
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Vega wouldn't be nice anymore? The kiss they shared right there, a distraction from the forest around them, said something very, very different. Arlo only grinned in response. "I can't help it if my Immortals given charm and natural charisma attracts followers of all stripes, including the youngest of them," he shot back. "Doesn't mean I want to take any of them home with me." Immortals, and Originals forbid, he thought and it didn't need saying. It would be like having a wart spring up on his heel, he was sure. Growing by the trial, a constant inconvenience to say the least, and impossible to untangle yourself from for at least sixteen arcs or more.

"What's the fun if I can keep you guessing and back on your heels," he figured, so far as being a conundrum. A thing that he wasn't, but Vega was. An humble pie? He thought not. One could travel the wilds of Idalos on any given trial in any given location and stumble across a pile of rocks and rotted wood. He would have said that, if they hadn't been stopped short, the two of them. As the arrow landed at her feet, something Lyova had not warned him about, Arlo immediately reached for and drew his pistol crossbow as he turned, the thing already loaded up with a bolt and primed to fire.

At first he couldn't exactly see the source of the arrow, but he knew from what direction it had come. But he stayed his hand, realizing that chances were, whoever had fired on them had probably intended to miss. Maybe not, but it wasn't worth Vega's life to assume. And then? There were five of them. Five men very well armed and protected. Arlo considered flatly refusing to drop his weapon, calling their bluff so to speak. If the men hadn't already filled them full of arrows, then chances are they didn't want to for some reason. But with Vega's life on the line, it was a call that could exact a price that Arlo wasn't willing to risk.

He glanced at Vega, who was already undoing her weapons, and scowled darkly before begrudgingly dropping his pistol crossbow, unbuckling his sword and relinquishing his short bow. His knife was well hidden, and he'd be keeping that unless or until they thought to search him. And happily, they didn't, but one of them only gathered up what had been dropped. "What do we do with them now?" one of them said to another who seemed to be the leader of the bunch. Which led Arlo to believe that these men hadn't exactly thought out what they were actually doing. That was a good thing.

"We'll use them," the leader said. "We'll make them go first." "First? To what?" Arlo asked and the leader thrust a crumpled piece of paper into his hands. "Down there. Move!" he ordered and gave Arlo a shove before Arlo was actually able to look at what he'd been handed. In spite of it all, it was a trick to suppress the grin that was tempted at the corner of his mouth as he showed it to Vega. "Look familiar?" he asked. She would in fact recognize it, and recall his earlier reference to that kid probably having a dozen copies or more of that map on hand.

Except that these men had clearly added another x on the map where they'd already discovered something. A wooden hatch sunk into the ground where they'd find a set of rickety wooden steps leading deep underground. And it looked like that was where they were going. "Move!" the man insisted again, and urging Vega to go in front of him, so that he was positioned between her and them, he quipped, for the benefit of those men..."I don't suppose this map came with a handful of magic beans?"

"How do you know about those beans!?" one of them shouted.
word count: 683
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Vega
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Everywhere they went, it was trouble, Vega considered. "I swear to U'frek, Arlo Creede, you could get us into trouble in a temple to Ziell." Vega looked at him accusingly as the men shot arrows into the ground at first his feet then hers. When they dropped their weapons, though, Vega looked at him and dropped a wink. She wasn't annoyed at all, but Vega figured that it was good if the men got used to her turning to him and talking, then the two of them would be able to communicate.

What were they going to do with them? Vega looked at the man who asked that and then at the one who answered and she gave an audible sigh. "So, you lot are a right bunch of geniuses aren't ya?"

But then, as one of them put a piece of parchment into Arlo's hand Vega raised an eyebrow. She was going to say something, something biting and sarcastic or mouthy and obnoxious, depending on one's point of view but before she could, one of them shoved Arlo. Just a shove and Arlo didn't bat an eyelid, but Vega reacted. Vega didn't care that it was the leader of this group, she shoved him back - hard. Vega wasn't particularly good in a brawl, though she was competent enough, but she was strong and she had the element of surprise. The man stumbled backwards and started to move. "You put yer hand on him, I'm gonna rip it off you an' shove it where the sun ain't shinin' an' keep goin' till yer fingers are tickling the back of yer throat," she more or less growled at him and the leader's eyes widened, both at the physical shove and at the colourful description.

But then she looked down at what Arlo had in his hand and she snorted. The other men had trained their weapons on her as she shoved their leader and Vega waved her hand in return, dismissing them as unimportant. "He's fine, stop fussin' the lot of you." As the leader of the group spoke up he gestured to the others. "Leave her, lower your weapons." He gestured to the area, with the rickety wooden steps. "You go down there, the pair of you. Bring back what you find."

And then, there was the revelation about the beans and Vega sighed. Arlo urged her forward and she glared at him. "Side by side I can do, Creede, but we aren't tradin' places." She had always had a tendency to jump in front of him but just lately, and as a result of more than a few very complicated situations, he had become somewhat prone to being the one to leap in front of her. Still, she went first even as she grumbled. Down the rickety wooden steps and Vega knelt and picked up a long stick on the ground. It immediately started to glow as she used her Nalos mark power and the pair of them found themselves in a long, dark corridor. Judging by the dust and general state of the place it had been a long time since anyone had been down here, and Vega turned to him and spoke, quietly. "So, how'd you wanna do this then?"

If either Lyova or Iris scouted ahead there was a T-junction in front of them and from there, they seemed to be in some strange catacombs. "I thought the Rharnian lot burned their dead," Vega whispered with a frown. "Whatcha reckon's down here then?"
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Vega's skin has a reflective metallic sheen with a red glow. Her eyes still swirl biqaj colours, but one colour is always bright red which glows like fire. She has a bright red glow in her chest, situated directly under the mark of a heart (Daia mark) in the middle of a glowing silver dragon on her chest (Xiur). She's unnaturally warm to the touch
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Arlo Creede
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Arlo was quick to argue that the amount of trouble he'd gotten into over the course of his, not very long life, had redoubled upon itself since he'd taken up with her. Vega could hardly argue the point, since before she'd known him...she hadn't known the extent of his troubles. And besides that, it was also true. So was it him that courted trouble? Or was it actually her, and he'd only been pulled in by default? "Chew on that one a while," he'd teased her.

Anyhow, those men on the other side of the weapons pointed in their direction, not very bright. While that might make it easier to find a way out of this most recent predicament, it also made those men more dangerous in a way. At least so long as they were still armed. And Arlo couldn't think of an immediate remedy to that. Ordinarily, if someone up and shoved him like that, he'd turn their face inside out in a heartbeat. He'd ignored it this time, but naturally Vega did not

"Don't provoke them," he signed. "The jumpy one with the one eyebrow looks trigger happy." It was a risky move, all that signing. A calculated risk. He wasn't disappointed though when the leader scowled and addressed Vega. "What's the matter with him...He touched? You keep him minding himself you hear?" Good, Arlo thought, let them wonder if he was a little unhinged and unpredictable. Would keep them back on their heels. He only grinned and winked at Vega.

Once they got going however, well, Arlo didn't like it. He wanted his own back between her and them. But Vega wasn't having it as usual. "You have to let me be the self-sacrificing one sometimes Vega," he complained. "However will my ego survive it you don't?" It was all banter and Vega knew it. There was nothing wrong with Arlo's ego and sense of self. All in very good working order.

Vega's Nalos mark was a very handy one, though Arlo wondered what might be down here in order that the men would allow them to go down alone. Had they already checked for another exit? What was to stop the two of them from finding it and getting away? "Most do, or have," he said, regarding cremation. "I think. But maybe the bodies have been here a very long time, before it became the usual way. Or maybe they're foreigners, or something." The more he looked though, more and more he caught glimpses of the light from Vega's stick flickering off things that must be made of metal, some sort of crystal or glass.

Curious, he made his way over to one of the tombs built into the wall and examined it. Definitely a body, or what had once been a body there. But there was more, and Arlo reached in and drew out a very nice dagger that shined as much as it must have, the trial it was new. That fellow in the grave didn't need it, but he did and he notched it into his belt. "Bet there's more," he whispered to Vega.
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