The night passes and May rises and looks over to the rest of the group, they were eating a freshly hunted deer. Zilo motioned for May to come over and enjoy she rose and said, "I would but today is Azdan's day of rest, I must avoid the consumption of living things today"
Zatrian perks up to that and asks, "Wait, wait, wait, did you say Azdan? As in the god of death that wants to make the entire world go extinct?"
May puts both hands on her hips and says, "When you say it like that he sounds bad."
Tess narrows her view at May and asks, "Is he wrong though?"
May tips back on her heels a moment before saying, "Well, no but he does stuff other than genocide too. Like can you really expect Zilo to do the cold blooded dirty stuff for our group." Zilo and Tess lock eyes, the bard's mouth is full as he swallows and shrugs.
"Exactly, I kill people, this is a fact. Sure, Leo is scummy, but he doesn't have the guts to kill if push came to shove, and Maldrek is cold too, but he can't fight up close. I'm the prime Assassin for Swords and Sorcery, and if you want to beat an assassin, it pays to have one."
Tess twists her venison in her hand and mutters, "Fine, you might have your uses, still doesn't mean your choice in gods is a comforting one." Zatrian turns toward May and takes out a notebook before speaking, "Well I for one welcome this opportunity, do you think you can tell me a bit more about Azdan?"
Zilo taps Zatrian and says, "The enthusiasm is great, but getting info from her is like pulling teeth. Here I have some notes you can transcribe." May stands indignantly with her hands on her hips and asks the fetchling, "and what do you mean by that, bard?"
Zilo stares at May a look of fear in his eyes and says, "What? I didn't say that, that was Jin." Zilo is immediately socked in the jaw by the vanara and the campsite laughs. The meal went by rather uneventfully before they packed up camp and got on their way. It would be maybe a month before they finally arrived at the wood elf jungles. Zilo, May and Zatrian spent their time in the back of the cart and traded off with Tess and Jin in the front.
Zilo and Zatrian discussed much information on the two cultures that they came from, with Zilo remarking on how it is weird how elves age so slowly. Zatrian looked at him strangely and asked, "What do you mean?"
"Well when I visited some elven children remarked about how they were my elders despite their small bodies. I have it in my notes right there that in order to stay alive for centuries you all tend to slow the aging process." Tess let out a boisterous laugh from the front of the cart as Zatrian shook his head.
"Those children were fooling you Zilo, elves' bodies grow just as fast as a human, we just simply keep that youthful appearance for some odd 500 years. We are fully grown in two decades same as you." Zilo's jaw drops and May chuckles at the bard's gullibility.
"Though it is true that in our society you don't reach adulthood until you spend many decades at a craft, most elves accomplish this by the time we reach 100.""
Zilo leans back, rewriting a few of his notes and asks, "So if you stay young so long how do you tell an elf's age?"
Zatrian smiles and says, "Why you ask of course, guessing an elf's age is so difficult that you'd have a better chance of predicting Xix's whims."
Zilo sits back up and says, "I bet I can get pretty damn close." he says as he points to the well spoken elf. Zilo thumbs his chin for a moment and speaks, "I bet Zatrian is around 350." Zatrian shakes his head and says, "I'm 496, I've still got some pep in my step but in another century I'll likely be inducted into the elders of the Tower Elves."
Zilo snaps his finger then looks to the front of the cart and to Tess and says, "I'm going to value my neck on this next guess, I need a few days to think over. Wouldn't want to mess up a lady's age."
Days later while the group travels Zilo is noted as staring at Tess and thinking, the days on the road begin to muddle together and the days on the road begin to wear down the heroes, but Zilo finally has his bet. One night as they sit at the campfire, he turns to the magus sat beside him and speaks,
"Tess, I think you are 130."
The elf smiles with a heavy breathing shocked expression and says, "Your close, I'm 123. How'd you guess?"
Zilo wheezes a bit as he leans in with a grin and says,"hundred years to be a spell dancer, but swapping over to dragon disciple, had to be just a bit more than 100."
"You don't think I've spent a few decades doing stuff?"
Zilo points to her and says, "With a snappy attitude like yours no way. You are a young elf, no question." Tess shakes her head and lays down to rest. "Good guess, I'll think of some sort of prize to give you tomorrow. For now I'm absolutely beat."
Jin stands and takes a drink before speaking, "I'll get to watch, I guess, not like anae of you all can spot the sassy." The vanara goes to drunkenly climb a tree. The night passes peacefully enough and May wakes up first as the sun had already risen into the sky. She grits her teeth and begins to head over to the tree Jin was in.
"Hey monkey! You were suppose to wake us at first light!"
"I'm tired okay, was up all night! Didnae wanna move." May shakes her head and shouts back, " Oh by Dema, get down here, we're wasting daylight." Jin falls out of the tree and lets out a grunt upon landing, which May perks up to. Jin wobbles over to her, but she holds out her hand to stop him.
"You feelin okay?"
"I... yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine."
May lifts her hand to Jin's head and says, "You're hot as an Ifrit! Come on, you need to lay down in the cart."
As May passes by she notices that even after all the shouting the rest of the group isn't rising either and mumbles, "Gods no." She runs over and feels all of their foreheads as well and each test she curses as the party begins to stir. May helps some of them to their feet and shouts.
"Damnit! What happened!?" She looks about as they begin to rise and then looks to the treeline of the campsite and her eyes narrow. she spins back and begins rushing the party back to the cart as they slowly gathered the camp.
"Back to the cart now! I think I' Sereg'wethrin may have poisoned you at some point in the night, I can look into it on the road, but we can't stay in one spot." With that the group hurries along a bit more and they take off to the road with may beginning to examine the exhausted Zilo.
No comments:
Post a Comment