The Price to Pay to Keep the Devil Away

[Lion]

Tenran looked over to Jinai from where she was as he streched out on the cot across from her.  The old man Cartwright lingered in a chair in a corner, puffing on a pipe in front of his fireplace, paying her not heed.

"Yeah, me," he said with a sigh.  "Sorry about the knee, but you know how it is."

[visualspice]

Jinai scowled at him.
You know how it is. Is that all he could say!? Her hands tightened into fists and she was about ready to lung at him and strangle that scrawny-ass neck of his, and would have, but she had already forgotten about her knee, and fell face first onto the ground. Picking herself up, she growled up at Tenran through a curtain of her hair.

"I'm due an apology for more than my knee," she spoke bitterly, managing to sit up as she cast a glare over towards Cartwright, before looking towards Tenran again. A hand went for her dagger, only to realize, it was already gone. She narrowed her eyes upon him.

"It seems you have nice friends," she said, using the wall to help herself stand as she leaned into the wall. Gods, did her knee ache like a thousand hells.

[Lion]

"You really shouldn't put pressure on it.  You did just get it after all, or you could render it completely stiff for the rest of your life.  That wouldn't be good," Tenran said with a nonchalant shrug.  "You might as well just calm down and lay in bed."  He sighed and got comfortable in his cot as he stared at the ceiling.  "And exactly what else do you feel you need reparations for?  You were in the way, you would have done the same thing.  You understand."

[visualspice]

Jinai found her way back to her cot, her eyes never leaving Tenran's, and staring around suspiciously to the others than back to Tenran again.
"Where are my things?" she hissed in a low voice, ignoring anything else he had said.

[Lion]

"The hole, where else?  Pfffft!" Cartwright said.  "Ye can't get 'em yet though.  Hole's far away.  It'd take you weeks to find it.  And on that bum knee of yours, you might as well crawl on your belly like a yellow snake."  He laughed and puffed on his pipe once more.

"Just get some rest Jinai, you have a long journey ahead of you," Tenran said to her.  "You won't get far with your wounds or your attitude."

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"What makes you think I have a long journey?" she asked, testily. She was in no mood for Tenran to be barking orders. He was just lucking she wasn't throwing herself at him right now and trying to strangle the life clean out of him. The same went to Cartwright.
She might have had time to play with Tenran before, the last time they had met, but so much had transpired since then, she had little time for these games anymore.

[Lion]

"Because I'm taking you in of course," Tenran said with a sigh, as if it was taxing that he even had to explain it to her.  "There's a good price on someone matching your description to a T.  And if alive, all the better.  I shouldn't have to spell it out for you.  You've got half an unfried brain left, don't ya?  Hmm."

"Hey don't look at me," Cartwright said, putting his hands up.  "I ain't no snitch.  Neither are the twins!  Tenran came on his own for some musket ball wound in his arm.  You just happened to be here when he came.  I'm just a healer, old cow."

[visualspice]

Jinai set her jaw, staring back at Tenran with an iced over gaze. She ignored Cartwright. But it figures they'd both end up at the same place for wound care they had given to each other.

"Well, if you take me in, I want half. Or no deal."

[Lion]

"Certainly," Tenran said, finally looking over at her with another nonchalant shrug.  "I wouldn't expect you to come along for anything less.  But, you'll need to pay your way.  I'm not lugging around any invalids on my back.  This ain't a free ride.  Then again, that is you're specialty."  He laughed and relaxed further into the cot.  "We'll leave come morning, get some rest."

[visualspice]

Against her better judgement, she moved right on over to Tenran's side and kicked the rickety, layering of mouse traps that had supported one side of his cot, thus dismanteling it's only means to keep the damn thing propped up, and the cot went toppling to the ground. And although her leg hurt like hell, and her shoulders ached from even that brief little action, she sure felt like a million bucks right then, and even paused a moment to laugh as she collapsed back onto her own cot.

"There, I think I can sleep a whole hell of a lot better now,"she said with a sarcastic roll of her eyes.

[Lion]

Tenran gave a grunt when he rolled to the ground and looked up at her with a growl and a snarl.  He stood up when she laughed and stalked over to her cot before leaning over her and slamming his foot down onto her bum knee, smashing it into the side as hard as he could.  "There.  How's that for pleasant rest.  Good night," he grumbled as he stalked back to Cartwright and leaned by the mantle, watching the fire instead.

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Jinai should have seen his childish, and unkindly tactic coming from a mile away, but as it were, she was too late to perceive it and found herself doubled over in pain. Oh the things she would do to Tenran if he decided to sleep... but instead, glared daggers at the back of his head and clutched her  knee. For now she might have been defeated, but the whole scenario was like rubbing salt into her wound. Too much was at stake and she was wasting so much time here. And it was only now she was realizing she should have tried a stealthy approach instead of the latter, but none of that mattered now.

She'd have to think of something clever, later.
"Don't sleep tonight or I'll piss on your face," she said, and winced and drew her leg back into the cot, staring away from him and Cartwright now as she frowned and looked down at her wounds. Gods...
Blinking back her tears, she sighed.
This was going to be a long night.

[Lion]

At that, Tenran whirled around and leaned over her with tight lips and rage in his eyes.  "I should kill you with all the hell you put me through over my gun," he growled.  "And don't think I don't know you were after that letter.  But you lost.  It's already at its destination as we speak, so don't  even bother looking for it.  Just keep your hands to yourself and your trap shut.  Harboring mages, their secrets...trying to make me feel sorry for them.  I should have let that poison kill you.  That's a mistake I won't make twice."

[visualspice]

He could have been glaring at her using the fires of hell within his eyes, but that didn't mean she was going to give him the time of day. Instead, she ignored him, didn't even bother to look up at him as she stared over at the wall where the yellow light from the hearth was flickering off the wall.

But after a time, her lips twitched and she found herself simply asking, "And where did that letter go?"

[Lion]

"Where it belongs," Tenran answered simply, pushhing himself off her cot and moving back toward the fireplace.

[visualspice]

Jinai didn't even look at him as she smirked, albeit a hollow one.
"And you have no idea where it belongs," she muttered, still staring at the wall.

[Lion]

Tenran said nothing in response and would not stoop low enough to turn his gaze to her either.  All that mattered was that she didn't know where it really was, where it was going.  All he needed to know was that it was going back to it's original destination, as it was, the one who'd mistakenly sent it in the first place.   From what he knew, Jinai favored the mages and if what the contents of the letter were what he thought they were, then somebody high up knew something they weren't supposed to know.

Well, it didn't matter now did it.

[visualspice]

After a time of silence, Jinai looked back down towards her leg. The wound had opened up again, and she stared at the bubble of blood that was trickling down it and staining the cot. Not about to ask for any help from anyone here, she simply tore at the clothe blanket they had offered to her and she began to bind it around her leg in hopes to clot up the wound. It seemed her and Tenran were at an impasse, and she had no idea how to get out of this one. She knew Tenran fully aimed to turn her in...
little did he know the consequences of his actions once word got back to the Folks. But she had to bide her time, she needed to figure out how to foil this plan, and how to trick Tenran into giving her the information she needed..
and maybe abandon him in some discarded alley with a lump on his head. The ass deserved it. Perhaps more. But she was feeling bitter, so terribly bitter that it didn't matter.

So once her knee was bound up, she stood up from her cot and hobbled away from the fireside and away from where Cartwright and Tenran stood to lean against a window nearby the door. Was it already evening by now? Long, dark shadows stretched across the world. She would have sighed, but refrained from doing so and stared longingly out the window. If she could run, she'd totally try to make a getaway, but as it were... she'd have to think of something else.

[Lion]

By then, Tenran decided he'd gotten enough rest and pushed off from his spot on the mantle.  He smirked at her freshly bound leg, as she waited by the window.  "Don't bother, Cartwright keeps the windows nailed shut.  Keeps out pests," he said and stalked toward the pack he had on the side by the overturned cot.  He threw it over his shoulder and tossed a coin to the old man, the clang of it landing in a pot on the side ringing out.

"Thanks for the work, old man," he said and the old man just nodded to him before he headed for the door and opened it.  Tenran offered his hand to Jinai to help her out the door.  "The dark is better for this kind of travel.  Let's go."

[visualspice]

Jinai kept her back to Tenran, and although she was smiling, it never reached her eyes.
"Don't I get to take my things?" she asked, turning around and raising her brows at him. Though she knew the answer, she supposed it didn't hurt to ask.