Roadside Meeting (Dreamwolf)

[Katie]

Tirzah liked the riverlands. Easy walking, plenty of food. All she had to do was make sure she didn't bother any smugglers and keep Motley in line and she was set. Low standards ahoy, sure--but that just meant she was harder to disappoint, right? Right. She had more fun that way.

At the moment, she was on one of the river roads. Motley was trotting beside her, looking as interested in the surroundings as he ever did. Which wasn't much, really. He was mostly cat. (She'd long ago gotten used to the fact he'd gone and gotten personality on her; she guessed he was somewhere between a hound and a baby human in terms of smarts.) People kept giving them odd looks. Half of each look was for her, given she was pretty much a bean bobbing in a sea of milk, and then their eyes flicked downward and took in the patchwork creature at her side, and she smiled and waved because when you were the odd one out you had to be polite, especially if you wanted people to give you money.

Of a sudden, Motley bolted off through the crowd. Tirzah was about to call him back--no matter how curious the damn fool was, he wouldn't be able to disobey her. But he was just heading for the edge of the road. And it wasn't like she was in any pressing hurry to get somewhere. The only important place this road went was Selevea, and she wasn't quite ready for the big city yet. She needed to warm up with an inn or something first. So she ambled after him. He was sniffing what looked at first glance to her eyes (not the best, she'd be the first to admit) like a pile of rags. "Oh, leave it, ya fool," she said, rolling her eyes. He did that sometimes, got real interested in the most ridiculous things. Raising was such a crapshoot. "Heel."

[Dreamwolf]

"The Yellow Tea pot will crack and the mistress will become angry!" The pile of rags bolted into an upright position, the massive wild boar in the bushes slightly out of sight came trundling over as the man beneath spoke.

"Moko, theres a bunch of tuffles to the left and then the right of the pine tree two miles from here. Oh dear, it seems the tailor failed in his duty and the young brides dress will be late." The man looked over at the patchwork animal that had been sniffing him. "The beast rises with the noonday sun and chases the knight. Poor fool never stood a chance. Do you know the baker on Mulberry street? he's sleeping with the innkeeper's wife and the brewer's daughter."

He then looked at the girl who he knew was traveling with the animal whose name he knew was Motley. The girl was Tira or was it Tirzah. Both names were in his head, but it might be from some other vision. "You'd best avoid the first bridge, the second will hold out in the storm better."

A man in the distance called out to the girl, a lugh in his voice as he told her about the pile of rags. "Tha's Galen, He's a bit of a looney, Ye'd best keep yer distance."

[Katie]

"Well, uh," said Tirzah. "That's...interesting." Wonderful, a madman. She was about to tell Motley it was time to get on with things when she felt her mermaid pendant burn hot. She gasped involuntarily and clutched at it, but it was stuck to the skin beneath her collarbone. Then again, she didn't know what she'd expected. This had happened before. The bloody thing was strong, it hadn't come without a price.

Sometimes she was afraid of it.

The burning subsided after a minute, like it had the last time, and the task dropped straight into her mind. Bring the seer to the King's Tavern on Solloway Street in Cerenis by the next full moon. Not what for--hah, like she ever got told that. It also meant she had to stick around whatshisname, Galen. Which should be fun, for a given meaning of the word. But even if she was completely crazy, she knew how to talk beggars around. She was one sometimes, after all.

So Tirzah moved further off the road and crouched down beside him. "Hey," she said, "Ya want a meal?" And a bath, she didn't add, because dear sweet Kia did he need one. Probably couldn't smell it, which made him the lucky one in this situation.

[Dreamwolf]

"A hot mug of tea on such a hot day? What is the lass thinking!" Galen looked at the girl. While her question had registered it had also turned him toward several future predictions of the hoprribly mundane sort. Forcing his mind into a semi quiet state he nodded an affirmative and then realized how badly he stank. His mind finally numb he managed to ask a question.

"What is the month lass?" The last time his mind had cleared he'd learned he'd been in his crazed state for most of a year.

[Katie]

A sentence that made sense in context. Progress. If he could actually hold a conversation sometimes, this might not be that bad, even if he couldn't tell what season it was. She was still going to have to pretend he wasn't with her when she did the act, for business's sake. If it looked too scruffy everybody stayed away.

"October," Tirzah said, and gingerly reached out to grab his arm. She tugged. "C'mon, up with ya."

[Note: not actually sure of that, going by what the season board on RotE says]

[Dreamwolf]

(Doesn't matter)


"Three months since the last time I regained my sense then." He stood without touching. "Don't mind me, I wouldn't want you to end up smelling like me. You'll ahev to conduct your business with me quickly, lass, I haven't long before the visions take me again." He cracked his back. "Moko, how bad to I smell really?"

Moko looked at his companion and snorted three times before burying his nose in the dirt dramatically. "That bad huh. If there's a river near by I'll bathe before going anywhere."

[Katie]

So the best way to get a suddenly-conveniently-sane man to go with her was not, Tirzah judged, to say exactly what she wanted. "I need to take you all the way to Cerenis so you can do something for someone who I owe a lot of money too" wouldn't exactly work. She had to make him want to come with her. So she was going to be nice. And lie her ass off.

But mostly be nice.

Tirzah let her expression soften into one of sympathy. "Listen," she said, "I'm going to visit my sister, in Cerenis?  Yer welcome to come along all the way, if ya'd like. I was just going to take ya to the next inn, but if this happens all the time, I figure ya might want someone around for it, no?"

[Dreamwolf]

"Yer sweet lass, but I see all things mundane and useless. Yer 'sister' is a merchant who you owe a favor. Ye need not lie to me. Aye, I'm a bit daft, but so would anyone else if they dealt with the things I do." He pulled himself onto the giant boar's back. "I'd offer ye a ride, lass but ye might get ma stink on ye."

[Katie]

Tirzah's jaw dropped.

How in the hells? she thought, and then realized: he was a seer. A mad one who babbled about teapots and bridges and suchlike, but a seer. He'd just looked ahead and seen the absence of sister in Cerenis--or anywhere else, actually. She'd thought he wouldn't be able to tell, but that wasn't the case. If she ever wanted to lie to him again she'd best use the truth to do it.

But for now she'd just go along with it. He seemed willing to come with her, after all. "'s three, actually," she said, "This makes the second. And yer getting a bath, trust me. We'll stop off at the river, there's enough light left yet." And she hadn't the money to buy a bath at the inn she was going to beg a place in the stables at, but that hardly bore mentioning.

[Dreamwolf]

"If yer willing I 'ave som' truffles ye could sell at the market so as we can get ourselves a room and baths. I'll bathe ina river first, get most of the stink gone." Galen switched perilously from proper speech to rough commoner speech without regard, it would likely make him sound strange from another's point of view.

Moko the boar moved forward, towards the river, pushing people aside with his face, scaring them with his arm long tusks. The boar was uncannily smart and seemed to be as sharp as any human. He followed Galen everywhere, keeping the man safe while he raved and ranted about the useless things he saw.