All About Rain [Lion]

[Anonymous]

[You know what would be a cool plot twist? Evadne catches Taladan kissing some random girl after a performance on their trip. xD]

Arthur waved Taladan's gratitude away. He knew the feeling would expire about an hour after he had left the farmstead. When Evadne said she'd be someone's worst nightmare, she was usually true to her word, and more. Almost invisibly, he shook his head, and watched Taladan leave. "I don't want to see either of you again for at least a couple of weeks!" he called to his back.

Evadne in the mean time, with the bag, a bow and a quiver over her shoulder, was eating her feelings in the form of a couple of apples, and one could see by the ferocity she bit at the juicy orb that she really was not about to be lenient on either her father or the bard she was accompanying. When Taladan came outside, she looked back and forth toward him and the apple, sincerely contemplating throwing it in his face, but at the last moment she reconsidered. If she was going to be stuck with him for a couple of weeks, a broken nose wouldn't improve the view.

"The only thing I am ready for," Evadne snapped at the bard, "is that you won't be able to terrorize me in my own house anymore. And if there's no way out of this anyway, I'd rather have it now than later."

She jerked her head towards the road without taking her eyes off him. "Well, Mr Weathered Traveller. Why don't you lead the way."

[Lion]

Taladan crossed his arms after he threw his travel cloak around his shoulders and clipped it along his shoulder.  This was going to be tough one to get through he was now seeing though he didn't believe that Evadne could hold up her vendetta against him for longer than maybe a month or too.  Once she saw he couldn't be moved by her baseless wrath, she would probably relent.  It wasn't that he took such enjoyment from seeing her so frustrated for no apparent reason, she just seemed so eager to start a fight with him all the time.

Then again, there might be some new inspiration for a few songs from this little experience.  "My intention to get to know you was never meant to terrorize you.  I'm sorry you feel that way," he smirked and did exactly as she asked of him, taking the lead and only turning around, walking backwards to ask a question.  "Say you wouldn't mind giving me one of those apples would you?  Where we are going, there won't be many of those around.  Especially fresh ones."

[Anonymous]

Evadne almost choked on her apple when he said that his attempt to get to know her was not meant to terrorise her. "Oh really?" she asked cynically when she had managed to swallow the bite. "So all your going behind my back and conspiring with my father, more this week than I've ever been conspired against before, and GETTING AWAY WITH IT, this was never meant to force me into cooperation and therefore not at all meant to terrorise me. Am I correct?"

Hating how easily he got under her skin, Evadne threw away the core of the first apple and firmly bit in the second one, completely ignoring his request to share. "I know I'm not the nicest person in the world, but you can at least have the decency and the backbone to say stuff to my face instead of going through my father."

She got quieter for a moment, obviously struggling with the words now. "And I thought after last night you might have gained a little respect for me at least, but I see this has been pointless too."

[Lion]

"Weeeeell...when you put it in that light, you certainly could say that that is correct,"  Taladan smiled and just kept walking, half knowing that she probably wouldn't share anyway.  Good think Arthur was nice enough to give him something to eat.  Though he was used to going for days without eating something worthwhile, kindness was never spurned if it meant getting something good in his stomach.

"It wasn't an issue of backbone, my dear friend.  Trust me, that I have plenty of when I need it most.  But sometimes a little subversion never hurt anyone.  I didn't get where I am today because I was always Mr. Brightsmile...  Well, actually I did so nevermind.  What I mean is, you tend to take things far too personally Evadne.  It's a wonder you haven't murdered somebody by now just for saying your hair was messed up or your breath smelled or something of the kind.  Understand me?  Do you think if I asked you personally to accompany me on the road, that you would have been able to tell me straight to my face that you would have wanted to come?  That you would have even given it a second of positive thought?  I doubt you would have.  Probably would have given me the runaround.  Besides, it was not like it was my intention to use Arthur against you, Evadne.  All I did was offer if you wanted to come.  You still could have said no."

[Anonymous]

Messed up hair? Bad breath? Evadne reached for her head in frustration. "You are completely missing the point, Taladan! And I honestly couldn't care less about such superficial attempted insults. You might have noticed that the only things I could NOT appreciate were the things you did behind my back."

She tried to keep breathing while he went on defending himself. "So you think you know me now, huh? You think you can predict my reaction in every situation and never be wrong? You know what you did last night? You didn't even give me a chance to think about it, you made the decision for me. And now, now you will never know if you were right. So stop trying to make me feel like this is all my own fault, because IT IS NOT."

[Lion]

"We'll always be at a crossroads won't we," he commented half to himself and half to her as he heard her blabbering on in the background.  Only she could take harmless, objective examples and trample them to the ground.  But he stopped and looked at her until she caught up with him then just walked beside her.  "In truth I wish I did know you a little better.  Isn't that why we entered this friendship thing to begin with?  To get to know each other"

He pulled a piece of bread out of the bag Arthur gave him, then chewed it absently.  "I understand what you're saying, but you're missing my point.  Even if it was so short a time, the decision was still yours.  It always is.  Let me tell you a little secret about life: no one can make you do anything that you don't already wish to do yourself.  You went with me because some part of you wanted to.  And that's the plain truth, you don't want to face it.  And whether I was right or wrong doesn't matter at all; I don't care about that."

He tore a piece of the bread and offered it to her.  "And if seeing if I was right or wrong matters so much to you, then tell me now.  Would you have said yes if I asked you myself?"

[Anonymous]

Evadne could barely admit to herself that he was right in some way. When her father had asked her if she could truthfully say she did not want to go with Taladan, she couldn't do it. She wasn't much of a liar, not even about these kinds of things. And even if Arthur had said that she had to go with him, she could still have rejected, but for some reason the thought hadn't even entered her mind.

She stared at the piece of bread he offered her and then averted her gaze to his face, ignoring the outstretched hand. Evadne narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. "Well, since you just concluded that part of me wanted to go, I should think you could figure out the answer to that question yourself. And if you had ACTUALLY asked me to my face, you would have experienced it too."

[Lion]

Taladan paused mid-motion and knew that she was right.  "You've got a wonderful head for wit, Evadne even if it can be a little biting at times.  I like that the most about you," he said, smiling then eating the rest of the piece of bread.  He couldn't help but offer a light chuckle.  "But if you realize I only came to that conclusion because of our present situation: you're here with me now so obviously you said yes.  But if I hadn't left just yet?

"I respect you a little too much to answer any question for you anyway.  You've got a mind of your own and are pretty good about using it too.  Let's just keep walking eh?  Tell me about your favorite songs if you want and I'll sing them for you.  How bout that?"

[Anonymous]

For what was probably the thousandth time, Evadne stared at Taladan in disbelief. He respects me too much to answer any questions for me. SERIOUSLY!? But as soon as the thought passed, she felt her frustration slip away to make place for a certain resignation, the realisation that whatever she said or did would have the effect of water against rock. Which was virtually nothing, unless you counted the years and years it would take to reduce the rock to a grain of sand. But she had no intention of staying around him for years and years.

"If you hadn't left yet, you might have asked me," Evadne answered flatly while she started to walk again. "And I don't want you to sing me songs. I just want you to stop trying to be smart with me and actually start viewing me as a remotely sane, capable human being. Until you can do that... don't try and be nice to me."

[Lion]

Taladan put a little jump into his step for good measure.  Morose people didn't like other people being all happy and jeery around them too often.  For once he was actually trying to annoy her, though she probably wouldn't even notice.  "I'm not being smart," he said with a feigned defensive tone.  "I'm hardly smart at all.  I've just got years of experience ahead of you, okay?  Maybe if you stopped giving me, or anyone for that matter, such a hard time, you might actually have fun on this little excursion, huh?  

"Then again, I'm not really sure you're capable of having fun," he smirked at her smartly, shamelessly throwing her the bait.

[Anonymous]

Evadne opened her mouth to protest, anger turning her stomach inside out once more, but just in time she managed to jam her jaws on top of each other again. It was probably better to ignore him, though her offended ego was eager to fill her head with desperate defences against Taladan. Oh, I'M giving HIM a hard time now?! she thought, her hands turned to fists.

"You should really learn when to shut up," Evadne muttered through clenched teeth, her voice laced with anger. Before he could respond again, she continued:

"So where are we headed? I'm most eager to find a place I can hide."

[Lion]

"We, my most ungrateful bitterbug, are going to venture up to a very, very small town called Thensdale.  It's a nice little place where the people are nice and welcoming and the wine flows like rivers.  Not a bad place to hide too lay low if that's really what you're intending.  Parties are rather wild and can get violent pretty quickly, but it's not that bad since everyone knows each other.  It's all in good fun anyway,"  Taladan explained.

He then looked at Evadne curiously and thoughtfully touched his chin.  "But why would you need to hide?  Is someone hot on your trail?"