Spirits of the Earth

OOC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bpltN7y3Vc  Here's a song that inspired this post! :3
Listen if you wanna~ It's a fun one from the Prince of Persia soundtrack

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Why the hell did he take this job? He was millions of miles away from his ‘beloved’ Connlaoth, boots thigh high in the sands. The sweat suctioned his clothing to his back, for the sun was unforgiving here in Essyrn. He was only a few miles outside the capital, the bustling city full of gold and promise.

But yes, he shouldn’t have taken this job. He had a pretty good thing going back there in Connlaoth, steal a bit of coin here or there, order his men to find more information, this or that…
But when a search came back with a fruitful bit of coin, some ancient relics along with an ancient map, one showcasing the possibilities of an ancient, forgotten city of gold laid buried in the sands of the Moraki Desert... Well, even a man such as Trest could not fight the luring temptations such an adventure could hold. But damn was it ever hot and damn him if this map wasn’t putting him into a speck of trouble.

Ever since he had entered the lands in the south, it seemed all eyes were upon him, and people were all too willing to accommodate him. The funny thing was, he hadn't even uttered a sound about the map. ANd now? Now he was running for his life, lizard scale skinned men with clothing that wrapped tightly around them, concealing all but their wild eyes held with daggers and spears rushing after him upon some sort of racing lizard things instead of horses and he, he  was just about ready to give up when he took a step and tripped over his own boots and fell face first in the sands.

It didn’t take long for the lizard riders to be upon him, their shadows racing over his form. And as Trest Arristaire turned around, a blanket of nets fell over him, and across the desert he was dragged, his body burning against the racing sands beneath him as he swore up a storm through the wretched sanded dust that gushed into his face.

And that’s not all the pain he endured, for when the men had procured him and the map, they strung him up and whipped him into questioning. He was a mess of sweat, blood and whip lashes by the time they were threw with him, and one of the lizard-skinned men shook the map scroll case in his face and hissed in his own tongue.

“I told you before!” Trest shouted desperately. “I don’t speak Essyrn! Or whatever snake tongue language you speak!”

The lizard men hissed between it's snake like fangs and a quick punch to Trest's face only served to anger him as he fought against his bindings. His muscles were tightened as veins throbbed out from his neck. And despite his vicious growls and mean looking eyes, Trest fell back within his bounds, completely powerless to try anything against his captors. He had been stripped of most of his clothing, but they were gracious enough to let him keep his under garbs and boots, while the rest of him remained slick in sweat and blood. Even his hair hung in a long, ratty mess over his face.
The serpentile people looked to one another, chittering in their own tongue before stepping away, closing the door behind them and leaving Trest to rot in the dark of his sand stone cell.

Yeah... why the hell did he take this job? Now he was probably going to die, didn't have the map and sand was still stuck so far up his nose and ass that he was pretty sure he hated deserts...
and here he was going to rot and die in one. And to think, if he wasn't so upset with his Grandfather, he himself, right now, could have become one of those fancy, pantsy dukes; living the life of luxury...
but instead, he kept to his roots, actually did so in paying tribute to the stubborness of his father (whcih he unwillingly acquired those genes) and now.. well...
the adventurous side of him (thanks to his mother) was going to get him killed. And to think, his mother was from a place like this. What a living hell!

The city of gold. Why did it have to be in a stupid desert? Why couldn't it have been on a beach, or something like that? Lyr was sick of wandering around in the desert. But she needed to find this golden city. It had some connection to her home and she needed to know what it was. If it turned out to have a secret connection to her homeland that would be bad. It would mean her mom could get out and find her.

The cross-dressing emperor wasn't about to let that happen. So as soon as she heard about this gold city she packed up and headed for the desert, against her intellectual pet's warning. Lyr didn't think the desert would be that bad. She was wrong. The purple haired one had almost died. If it had not been for the lizard people she probably would have. They originally took her to the dungeon. But since then, she had worked her way up. Now, she was just considered a guest. At least, she assumed she was a guest, she could be a secret slave, or worse a strange concubine of some kind.

The lizard people reacted to her singing the way most did; they loved it, especially this one strange girl lizard. Lyr was pretty sure she was the "princess" of the group, at least, Lyr assumed it was a woman. But she couldn't be sure.  All they wanted her to do was sing for them all day. It was getting quite boring. But at least she wasn't incredibly hot and had a nice place to sleep. However, she was growing restless. It was time for her to move on and find the gold city.
But she had a feeling she couldn't just tell the lizard people that. Not with the princess being so lovey dovey. Sometimes pretending to be a man had its draw backs. So it was time to plan her escape. There was only one in the kingdom that could speak in a normal tongue that she could understand. He was in the dungeons. Why? She didn't know. But she made it her business to go and visit him each day to learn more about the gold city and this wacky place. Apparently the lizard man had been there before.

So she went into the hot dungeons. She was amazed at the way the heat blazed. Surprisingly she wasn't too bothered as it by most. Probably because her two pets were flying next to her and fanning her. One of them looked very annoyed to be out in the sun, the other had its usual happy smile on. However, as she walked past one cell she noticed a strange coloring out of the corner of her eye. She paused and turned to look into the cell that had always been empty before. It was...a human?! What was it doing out here? It was a man, obviously. He was all sweaty and...well, Lyr wouldn't think like that. She reminded herself to think like a man. So she took out a leather padded water can. She opened the plug and began to sip on the water looking at the human for a moment.

"Aren't you a bit far from home? You're the first non-lizard I've seen in ages...well, maybe you speak hissy something or other. I know...you were caught swimming in one of their pools. But why the boots? Doesn't that make it hard to swim? Where did the rest of your clothes go?" she asked, walking up to the cell bars to get a closer look at the prisoner.

Trest had been so busy lamenting over 'what could have been' that he hadn't noticed the only other normal human approach. So when he heard the common tongue come out of her (him?), it did not register at first as he groaned and kept his head hung low.
"Ugh, leave me alone."
But then after a moment, he noticed something strange, and he picked his head up, staring up at her, his vision bleary and slowly it began to focus. And the look he gave her was hardly a charming expression for his handsome face, for his lips were parted open like a fish as he gawked, and his eyes, half lidded from the strain of the desert and his torture, an dhis hair? Well, it would look a lot nicer were it now slicked against his face from sweat and blood, and his beard was beginning to set in, making his normal 'dashing' stubble make him appear a bit more on the wild man side.

"Wait.." his eyes suddenly went wide. "You're a human!" and he lurhced forward in his chains, only to groan in pain as they restricted his movement and tensed his muscles all over, drawing more blood.  But as his eyes took her in, he blinked, uncertain what to make of this.... man... woman? Thing... with purple hair and.. floating.. weird things around it. Maybe he had passed out and had gone to Disney Land?

Lyr frowned at first when he told her to leave him alone. She didn't want to. He was the first non-lizard thing she had seen in...well, quite some time. Lyr didn't want to stop talking to him because he clearly understood her language too. Which was delightful. However, what had this man done to deserve being chained up? Maybe he had been in a situation similar to hers, wrong place wrong time.

"Yeah, sure, I'm human," Lyr agreed, slightly. She wasn't human, despite how she looked. She winced seeing him trying to move forward and only get more restrained. "I guess I need a closer look at you to see if you're worth my time."

One of her pets immediately flew quickly passed her in front of the cell door. It ordered her in a squeaky voice not to do...whatever it was she was planning on doing.

"Please move Bugbee, or you're going to get hurt," she told her little creature, it reluctantly flew towards her shoulder, and glared into the cell at Trest.

Lyr surveyed the door and pushed at it. Locked, those clever lizards. She felt up the side of the doorway until she found the pins holding the swung on. It looked easy as she gently pulled the pins out. It was too easy. A human shouldn't be that strong. Lyr swung open the door, and she was wearing lose fitting clothes but they were obviously male.

"Careful, you must be! Lyr, we musta go. Not like this the scaley ones, won't. To rot, leave him," her pet squealed out next to her, clearly looking worried. Her other pet, however, just flew around the cell, humming.

She stepped into the cell looking over Trest. And she was really looking him over. Then she finally stopped after giving him a good look over. "Yep, definitely human. So...what are you doing in the desert?" she asked, continuing to stand a bit away from Trest. She crossed her arms waiting a reply. She could let him out. But where would the fun in that be? No, she needed to know more about this man first.

Trest was really out of it, his head spinning and his blue eye continued to follow the two peculiar, rabbit-looking flying creatures that adorned the man's one shoulder and the other-fluttering in the air. He made the dumbest, slack-jawed look before blinking and looking over at Lyr. Damn, she was kind of hot. He wondered why this girl was wearing men's clothing. He like the slant to her eyes, and you know, her purple hair did wonders, but he couldn't quite figure out.... did the voice seem a bit.. erm.. masculine? ANd the chest, ok.. she seemed a bit flat but...
wait, was this a guy?

Trest slowly shook his head, disregarding his internal dilemna. He was sticky with sweat and blood nad well...
the only thing he could think to ask of her (since he apparently was too far gone to answer her question just yet) was..
"W-water.. can you get me water, please?" and then when he realized his manners, he pulled on  his chains again, his muscles tightened again as he groaned. But then he gave up, wilted before her as he sighed.
With his dirty red hair hanging over his face, he finally replied to her, looking at the ground.

"Well, let's just say I ran into a bit of bad luck. And once I get out of here, I do NOT plan to stay inside this desert for much longer."

You know,.. unless he got that map back. THen maybe.. maybe he would.

Lyr felt a bit bad for the man. He was very dirty, but he didn't seem too bad. She watched him as he looked her over for a moment. Lyr wondered just what he was thinking. Lyr nodded with a smile, stepping forward with her water canteen until her creature snatched it out of her hands.

It gave her a stern look, and then flew closer to Trest. It popped off the top, and flew a bit over Trest and began pouring the water onto Trest. "Drink!" it squeaked out as it poured the cold water over Trest's head.

"Bugs, I don't think you're doing that right," Lyr told her pet, who just continued to dump water onto Trest's head. It finally fluttered down towards Trest's mouth, and then poured even more water in hopes that the man would be bright enough to tilt his head back and drink the water.

Lyr nodded. She had run into bad luck as well. Well, perhaps it was good luck, since she was fairly certain she was close to death when the lizard people found her. "What did you come to the desert for? Most people don't come out this far. Do you have a particular reason..." She asked, looking at him. It did seem weird that a human would wander this far out into the desert. Maybe he had a purpose. Though, she couldn't be quite sure what it was.

Trest gasped as the water was poured over top of him, but he leaned his head back, closed his eyes. It felt so good. Like heaven. He moaned, and when the waters were directed more towards his lips, he jutted them out and made some awkward sputtering, lapping motions with his lips and tongue, devouring it in and not caring he was inhaling nearly half of it into his lungs. Though after a time he began to cough out a fit,a nd just shook his head into the falling waters, letting it cool and sooth him. Then, opening his blue eyes he looked over at her.
"Hey..thanks." And now waters were dribbling off his nose and chin as he studied her from where he remained, still bound with chains inside his cell, so when he shuffled, the chains began to chime together.

"What did I come here for?" he repeated the question, blinking back the water that still was dribbling down his face. He shrugged. "To be honest? I came here because I was an idiot, and too ambitious for my own good." Then he turned away from her, looking down a the ground as he shook his head, tensing his fists as he tested the chains again, but it was to no avail and he sighed nad wilted against their restraints again.

"I should have stayed in Connlaoth.." he muttered.

Lyr watched him moaning and groaning as he drank the water. He must have really been thirsty. She just smiled and continued to watch. She listened as he explained his predicament. Lyr watched as he tested his chains. Nope, he wasn't getting out of those things. So she moved a few steps closer.

Lyr's pet flew back to her shoulder and perched on top of it again. He handed her back the water canteen. Then it whispered something into Lyr's ear and she just shrugged in response. She didn't really care if the man was lying to her. He probably had his reasons for lying. Maybe he was an escaped convict or something.

"Yes, I know he's not telling me the complete truth, Buggy but he's entitled to his secrets...I think he might be a barbarian, or an escaped convict. Or..." Lyr began to say to her pet and grinned when she heard the word Connloath, so she turned her attention back to Trest.

"Ah, Connloath, one of my old haunts. How is Lady Geraldine doing? She lives in Reajh, tough old woman. I haven't seen her or Madame Devereaux, Lady Gazille, Thomasina, Doreen, Noreen, Emilia, Lady Santinia, Duchess Vonkempt, Lady Lores or any of my other clients in the capital for a long while. Lady Geraldine was always my favorite though."

Trest stared at Lyr for a good long while, completely puzzled at this change of luck.
"How do you know Lady Geraldine?"

"I'm...her...well, bard? I guess is a good word for it. I'm Lyr Alderez, the wandering bard. Lover of women and romance. Anyways, I perform at Lady Geraldine's home whenever I'm in town. I usually spend the night, or a week or two. She's such a good host," Lyr told him quite proudly. "How do you know Lady Geraldine? Are you one of her servants?

Trest was taken back. Lover of women? Was she gay? Or wait... maybe this purple haired person was really a man...
A very... pretty... man...
He was eyeing Lyr over before his eyes blinked a few times at the question.
"I er... used to do business with her.." he said, staring shamefully at the ground. How did you explain to someone you were a thief? And a very prestigious one at that...
and you know, a duke that would never be? Yeah... he'd just leave all those details out for now. No sense in bringing up what wasn't needed. But it was only then he thought to ask, "Hey... what's your relation to those lizard-people anywys? I can't understand a damn thing they say. Are you their servant?"
He knew not what else this woman, er.. man could be.

"Servant! Don't offend me! I'm their guest. I perform...for who I guess is the princess, at least I think she's a girl. She could be a man. Anyways, I sing for them and they love it. I don't speak their language either. They are letting me live the life of luxury, so I suppose it is fine for now. Though, I do wish to leave. But...I don't think they'll let me, the princess has grown rather attached to me. There is one lizard that can speak our language. He's down here as well," Lyr told him grinning. She was quite proud of herself, for some reason.

Trest raised a brow. Was this man for real? Boy was he rolling with arrogance.
"So erm.. did you just... come down here to chat then? I mean..." he moved his arms, rattling the chains to draw her attention to them. "IN case you can't tell, I'm sort of hung up right now, so I don't really think I could use your services of singing..."
Though he hadn't meant to be rude, his temper was a bit short for some reason. Must be the man's flare of tongue. He tried not to glare back at Lyr, but he might have looked like it He was tired.
"So like, got any more of that water or some sort of, you know... key I might be able to use to get out of these shackles?" And tha twas only then he noticed the cell door was.... was it off it's hinges?!

"Hey er.. how did you get the cell door open? Is it..." he blinked a few times in disbelief. "Is the door off of it's hinges!?"

"I did come down here to chat, just not with you. With Chapawani...I call him Wani. I saw you and I thought it would be nice to see if you spoke my language. Since you did, I decided to stay and talk with you some more because, well, the performing is getting quite boring for them. I simply am not earning enough. I knew you were chained this whole time. I was just waiting to see whether you were violent or not," Lyr told him smiling. Though she did detect a hint of something less than enjoyment in his voice. What could he possibly be upset about? He was talking to her.

Lyr turned around to look back at the door. She grinned as she turned back around. "I pulled out the pins. But...why would I unchain you? I don't know what you're capable of or why you're really here. For all I know you're some sort of violent offender who was sent here as punishment," Lyr told him, crossing her arms.

"You're going to have to convince me to set you free."

Trest stared at her a long time in disbelief before asking, "What!?"
He could not BELIEVE this man was toying with him. Was this his second round of punishment or something? He shook his head. "Violent? Pah! Those lizard-faces haven't even given me a chance to get violent. They took one look at me and knew what I had and started chasing me across the Gods for saken desert. Do you even know how hard it is to run on sands!? My feet still have blisters on them and I don't think the sand inside them is ever coming out!"

What he had? What did he have? Now Lyr was intrigued. She knew there was more to his story and know she wanted to know just what. So she grinned and just moved a small step closer. "What exactly is it that you have? Because the lizards don't really seem to care much for gold or jewels, that I know of. They only care about their magic water stones...." Lyr replied waiting for his answer.

Trest blinked when Lyr moved closer. He cocked a single eyebrow at her, then smirked himself.
"Find a way to get me out of these chains and maybe I'll tell ya," he siad witha  grin.

Lyr sighed, not really wanting to let him out without some sort of prize in return. She went to the side of one of the chains and pulled one out of the wall. He would still be strung up but one arm would be free.

"There, now tell me and I'll let the rest of you go," she told him, stepping back and waiting.

Trest stared, and stared and stared, positively gawking at Lyr who just YANKED the holds of his chains clean out of the wall.
"You... you.." he said, his lips twitching into something of a smile. "You just PULLED the chains out of the wall..." and if to prove her point, he tested it, giving a brief yank on the chains tht remained on his wrist and felt them give, dragging the left over chains that used to be hung onto the wall to now pillow into a pile at his feet. He just couldn't believe this and peered over at her, his mouth gaping open as he repeated, "You just pulled that clean out of the wall!"
Was this man for real!?

Lyr just looked strangely back at the man. He seemed to be in a state of disbelief. Oh silly humans, show a few amazing feats and they go all into shock. What Lyr could do wasn't even that impressive. Still humans were always like 'wow'.
"Yes, I did. I ripped it right out of the wall. Stop gawking and tell me! What it is they want from you and I'll let the rest of you go!" Lyr told him. 

Oh the sarcasm was heavy from this one. ANd Trest could play at that game as he began to bat his eye lashes at her.
"They want my pretty blue eyes," he said, smiling sweetly, then his expression turned sour . "What do you think they want? I had something they wnated, now they want information, as if I can even communicate with them... so you see the complications? Even if I knew what they wanted from me, I couldn't even tell them since I don't know their language..." and as he grumpled, he lifted his one, semi-free arm and rubbed at the chains on his wrists. Boy those chains were tight and rubbing his poor skin raw.

Was this man dense! Lyr angrily inhaled, her patience waning. She looked coldly at Trest. Annoyed that he wasn't giving her the answers that she wanted. Lyr didn't want to play games at the moment. Now she just wanted to know what he had that they wanted. It had to be some sort of material item. She wouldn't stop until she got an answer, either. Lyr saw him rubbing his wrists. The chains probably hurt him, but she wasn't going to help him anymore unless he gave her some straight answers.
"What is the something that they wanted!? They wouldn't just kidnap you for no reason. You're not telling me something and my patience is getting thin. I might leave you here and come back tomorrow to see if you're ready to talk then," she told him, waiting for his response. 

Trest raised a brow at her.
"And you expect me to just tell you? How do I know you didn't come down here as a spy just to find out what it is? But I know!" he smiled fiendishly. "Let's make a deal. You break me out of this other chain, and I.. well, I'll steal back what they've taken from me and show you it. How's that for a deal? Then if you're interested, maybe we can split whatever treasure there is to be had?"

Lyr's pet whispered something into her ear and she just shook her head. They appeared to be at an impasse. She didn't really care about treasure. But she didn't think she would be able to leave this place by herself. So it seemed like a fair deal. She motioned to her two pets, and they both returned to her shoulders.

"Fine. I can't take any more of this verbal dueling. Besides, I want to get out of here. Don't try anything funny or I'll scream," she told him as she went to the other chain and pulled it out of the wall. 
"The cuffs should come loose and just slip off by removing the pin." Lyr told him, crossing her arms and waiting for him to either try and hurt her or something.

Trest was more than relieved when the man actually helped him out, and once hte chains were free of the wall, he wasted little time in working at the pins. Though he wasn't anywhere near as strong as Lyr was, he did manage (after some time of grunting and sweating) managed to pry the pins out and loosened his cuffs, the metal dropping to the floor.
He immediately rubbed at his wrists and turned to smile at Lyr.

"Hey, thanks! And really, you want to escape as well? Well, it just so happens that's my specialty!" he said with a laugh, "But if you really are interested in what got me in here, perhaps you can help me think of a way to get us out of this place? Now you say you work for these creatures? Are there any sort of habbits, or.. um, routines that I should be aware of that we could use to our advantage so we can sneak out through the halls much easier? If not.. welll.." he eyed Lyr over. "How are you with just breaking walls down? It seems like you have some sort of strength to you. Oh, and by the way, the name's Trest." he said, standing at his full height now as he offered out his hand. "Trest Arristaire."

"It was nothing," Lyr replied when Trest thanked her. It really wasn't that big of a deal for her. She giggled a bit as she watched him try to pull the pins out of his cuffs. It was too funny. She knew it was probably rude, but it was funny for her.


"Correction, I don't work for them. I am a guest. Hmm, habits that they have. Well, they get really sleepy in the day during the hottest part of the day and at night they bury themselves under the sand to keep warm, I think," Lyr told him. Actually now was probably the time that the things were going to sleep. "So perhaps now would be a good time to get escaping. Bugbee, Chuggles, into the bag. This could get dangerous and I can't let you two get harmed," Lyr told her two pets, who immediately flew into her.

"I've never tried breaking down a wall before, I might be able to do it, then again, maybe not. I've already given you my name, but you might have forgotten it, I'm Lyr Alderez. But you might have already heard of me. I'm quite popular in Connlaoth."

Trest grinned.
"Ah, right, Lyr.." he rubbed his chin thoughtfully at the name.
"So.. where do these things keep their treasure hidden? I'm pretty sure what they've taken from me wouldn't just be out int he open. They chased me for a good while to get it, and every since, I think they'v been trying to get more information out of me about it. Not that there's much to say on the matter, but er.. you haven't seen some sort of cylindrical container.. about this long and well, it's pretty worn and made of leather. It erm, contains what they had stolen from me." Then he hesitated, before telling her. "They think they've found some sort of treasure map." But to him, it more or less felt like the treasure map from hell.

Lyr listened as he talked about treasure. She really hoped he wasn't interested in stealing everything. She was about to ask when it seemed it wasn't all their riches he wanted, just the thing that was taken from him. Lyr thought about it. She had seen the lizard "princess" handing something that looked like that to the "twitchy eyed" one as Lyr called him. Lyr assumed he was an advisor or something. That meant it was probably in the room she wasn't allowed to go in. The room with the black door.

Lyr snapped back when she heard the word map. A map!? Maybe it was to the golden kingdom. This could be more beneficial to her than she had once thought. Should she ask? Well, there was really no going back now. "Is the map to the golden kingdom? And, I think it's in the room with the black door. But I'm not allowed in there, so I can't tell you what is behind the door. I hope it's just a few hundred puppies...but I'm sure it'll be a bunch of scarabs or laced with curses of some kind..." Lyr said thinking about things. 

Trest sort of stared at her, mouth agape as Lyr mentioned the Kingdom of Gold. Blinking a few times, he slowly closed his mouth.
"Er... possibly," though he was reluctant to say it, maybe it meant this man would be more helpful? He just hoped he hadn't just shot himself in the foot with that one. But this purple haired man did just rescue him, possibly saving his life.

"A black door you say.." he contemplated the words, rubbing at the scruff upon his chin. "Well, where is it? And is there anyway we can trick anyone guarding it so we can get close?" THen he looked her over. "As in I'm asking, are you willing to distract those lizard folks from it so I can get near to it to see what's inside?A  few curses and scarabs never deterred me before."
Nor did a vast, hot and endless desert, apparently, either...

Possibly, that was close enough to a yes for Lyr to get excited. Things were starting to finally look up for her. It was obvious she was already plotting what to do next. She wanted to get out of this lizard place. Besides the longer she was here, the more likely her mother was sending goons from her homeland. Lyr couldn't allow that. So, it was time to start moving.

"We go up, right, down a long hallway and it's the last door in the hallway. I can distract them easily. It's one of my many gifts. When can we start? I'm ready now!" Lyr announced walking out of the cell. She put her hands on her hips and breathed in air and coughed a bit. The air wasn't exactly fresh down here. 

Trest smirked.
"Nows as good a time as ever. I might be bleeding and sore, but I think that water you gave me was good enough to pick me back up. Come on, lead the way, I'll follow your lead. I know what I'm looking for, and I'm pretty good with stealth. So long as you can keep them distracted, we can pullt his off and get otu of here.. "and his smile grew. "With the treasure map." And he was smiling like a kitten in the cream. Those lizard-faces would pay!

"Make sure you cover your ears. Or you'll sleep like the lizards," she warned Trest before bounding up the stairs. She looked around. It seemed most of the lizards were starting with their evening desert naps. It was just these two guards and...maybe some more but probably not. She smiled at them and began talking to them for a few moments. After a few hisses and growls, she began to hum a song. Slowly, the guards began to droop over. Eventually they both fell to the ground, sound asleep.

"Success!" She said rushing down the hall even further. It seemed there really was no one around. She wondered why. Lyr paused at the black door, but was a little too afraid to actually open it. So she moved out of the way, hoping Trest would complete his part.

Not realizing she meant to literally cover his ears, Trest went about sneaking over toward the black door. He was just about to open the door when the hum reached his ears. Quizzically, his brows raised, and after a few moments, a sleepy smile graced his lips and he slumped over, sleeping as silently as the lizards.

OOC: lol

Lyr waited by the door until finally giving an annoyed sigh. She ran back towards the door she came from. There was Trest sleeping like a baby. What a moron! She had warned him, hadn't she? Yes! She had. Now she had to wake him up. Wonderful. She just hoped she wouldn't wake up the two sleeping guards as well. So she went to give Trest a good hard kick to the side, hoping that would wake him up. If not, a kick to his manhood would be the next target.

"Get up you lazy bum! I thought I told you to cover your ears! See what happens when you don't listen? You fall asleep like a baby! Ugh, men are so stupid...all the time," Lyr said half to Trest half to herself. 

The sharp kick caused him to yelp as he doubled over, grabbing at his side.
"Huh?" he stared up groggily at Lyr, but then shook his head and got to his feet, dusting himself off.
"Yeah, well, I didn't know you meant literally to cover my ears. What sort of voice box do you got anyways? Are you a siren or something?"

"I'm part siren, not completely. Let's get going. I don't want them to wake up and see you out! Hurry," Lyr told him in an annoyed voice as she quickly hurried back to the black door. She looked around to make sure that there was no other lizards walking around. Nope, still pretty empty. She hoped Trest would just do his part and not do something stupid. However, he was a man...so she had little hope. 

Staring up at the black door, Trest rubbed his chin in thought.
"So er.. do you think it's locked? SHould I just open it?" but before he asked much more, he noticed a keyhole and bent over, keeping his blue eyes steady on the images inside.
Within he saw a lizard-man, ARGH! THe same, stupid one that had captured him from earlier.He recognized this beast from the piercings on his face. A lot of gold cuffs around his nostrils.

"There's a lizard man in there. What should we do? And only one. If that's the case, I could just take him out unless you want to try that sweet, sweet voice of yours again," he siad, the last part was sarcastic.

"Why don't you just try opening it and find out," Lyr replied to Trest. Honestly, she didn't understand why he was wasting so much time. She wanted to be away from this place as soon as possible. She frowned when she heard Trest say there was a lizard man in the room. She gave him a glare after his last sarcastic remark.

"Oh, I think I'll let you handle it. Since you say escaping is your specialty," Lyr said moving out the way of the door so Trest could do whatever it was he did. She wasn't sure why, but Trest was beginning to get on her nerves.

She was right, they were wasting too much time here. He didn't have much of a plan, but what was one lizard man? Stealth was not necessary for this job, so he simply rose off of the ground and opened the door.

As suspected, it wasn't locked, and threw openly easily. ANd wasn't the lizard-man surprised to see Trest! It's eyes went wide before it hissed and backed away, grabbing for a weapon, which, unfortunately for the lizard-man , was too far out of his reach, for Trest had already scouted the room when he peered into the key-hole and had (somewhat) of a plan figured out. His sword was resting in a pile at the side witht he rest of his discards, which just so happened to be near to the door, and far closer to Trest than the lizard-man was to his spear he tried to grab. So in a quick motion, he drew up his blade, unsheathed it and cleaved the spear rod in half whent he lizard tried to thrust it in his direction.

The front, bladed end of the spear dropped to the ground, rattling to a halt, and Trest smirked and looked over at the lizard man who was now stunned. He pointed his sword at the lizard thing's throat, when suddenly it let out a terrible shrill cry, one that made Trest's ears bleed.

And then he heard the same, shrill-like reply come from elsewhere int he building. And he knew that noise, even if he didn't know their language.It was a universal cry for help.

"You've got to be kidding me." And Trest wasted no time, and threw a punch, knocking the lizard-creature clean out. He then rushed over to his things, scooping them, up, including the map before he turned to Lyr and shouted, "Come on, let's get the hell out of here!"

Lyr had been waiting outside the door and peered in to watch Trest work. She really hoped he didn't kill the lizard thing. That was until the lizard man let out a shrill that was almost as bad as hers. Almost. Lyr shook her head trying to get the sound out of her ears. It was time to go. So she ran up to Trest, not really sure what she was doing at this point. A part of her wished she would have just let him rot in the dungeon.

"That was pretty average as far as seek and retrieval missions go. Are you really sure you've done this sort of thing before? Because...you don't seem very skilled at it," Lyr told him, after getting the dull ringing out of her ears.

"How are we going to get out of here?" She asked, hoping he had some sort of plan. Lyr knew what she would do, fly away. But not without that map. The thought did enter her mind to take the map from him and fly away leaving him to deal with the lizards. She could immediately hear her father's voice in the back of her mind, scolding her for such an evil thought.

Trest ignored her comments, having gone over to the window now and, once realziing they were at least two stories up, swore beneath his breath. But then he noticed a pile of hay, a group of those lizard-horse things down below that the men had been riding earlier tethered to a nearby stable, and well, with the sound of the other lizard-men becoming alerted and fastly approaching the black-doored room, it seemed they had little choice what to do next.

"Well, the plan now is to jump." and he wasted no time leaping out the window, plumeeting intot he air and landing in the pile of hay below. He lay there a moment, the thrill from the fall still dizzying before he sat up, brushed off the hay from his nearly naked body, and ignored the burning pain from all of the whip-wounds that were now breaking open and oozing with blood. UGh, he'd have to tend to those later, for now, he had a pair of lizard-horses to steal!

"Jump?!" But it was too late, Trest was already out the window. Lyr peered down and saw he was already getting ready to do...whatever it was he was going to do next. So, she closed her eyes and jumped out the window. Yes, she could use her wings but that would be a last resort. She hit the hay bed face first and was surprised how comfortable it was.

"This is so comfy. I can understand why peasants make their beds with this stuff...What next?" Lyr asked, not getting up from the hay. She was feeling a bit sleepy after all the excitement. One would think that the adrenaline would have hit her by now, but, it hadn't. Maybe she didn't completely understand how much danger they were in. 

Trest approached the kaadir with caution. These lizard-horses were something he was not accustomed to, having come from the north where horses were common. So he was hesitant at first to grab for their reins.

"Well, you can sleep there all day, I'm taking one of these animals and getting the hell out of here." And just as Trest was untying the reins, one of the lizard-things snapped at him.
"HEY!" he punched the lizard in the head, it dizzying hte creature before it fell over, unconscious. Trest shook his hand, making a face of pain. That kind of hurt.

"Oops, guess we're not taking that one." And without so much as wasting another move, he untethered another, a more tame looking kaadir and was quick to get into the saddle.

"If you're coming along, I suggest you do it now." And he looked over towards the gates that were now flying open, the lizard-folk crying and heading their way. Trest's eyes went wide before he gave a quick kick to the lizard's side nad... nothing happened.

"Come on, come on!" Trest pleaded, hopping about on the saddle in hopes to get the damn thing to go. And like a camel, it groaned and gave a few hesitant steps backwards before Trest noted a riding whip latched to it's side. Once he had it in hand, he cracked the beasts side and it let out a cry, and soon was racin goff at top speed through the desert, Trest's whoops of victory filling the air as they raced through the sands.

Lyr shot up as she saw Trest riding away on the kaadir. She got even more upset when she saw him punch the other one. It was just a scared lizard horse. Now she was angry. Perhaps she would steal the map and leave him for the lizard people. She glared even more seeing him hit the poor beast with a riding whip. She struggled to get some of the straw out of her hair.
In a blurred speed of movement, she was on the back of the kaadir behind Trest. Well, she was going to have to steal the map, once she figured out where he put it.

No, there were some things that Lyr couldn't tolerate. Harming defenseless animals was one of them. "Hit that creature again with the whip and I'm going to hit you with it," she told him coldly from behind into his ear.  But she had to grab onto him to keep her balance. She looked down his body for the map, yes that was what she was doing.

It was hard to tell who was more surprised that Lyr was suddenly on the saddle, Trest or the beast! But at her words, Trest only growled.
"I wouldn't have to hit the thing if I wasn't running for my life! You have to do what you can in order to survive.." then he noticed Lyr's eyes seemed to be roaming around for something. "Hey, what are you doing back there!?"

She supposed he was right, in some regard. Still, she had learned other ways of coaxing animals to do her bidding. But alas, Trest was just a human. That type of magic was probably lost on him. Lyr didn't stop looking around for the map even after Trest asked her what she was doing.

"Nothing, you're so sweaty and gross. I'm looking for a towel or something to clean you off with. Did you take anything besides the map? Gold pieces? A towel? Oooh, maybe one of their water stones?! Where did you put that thing anyway? I think you might have dropped it..." Lyr told Trest, wanting to know where he was hiding the map. 

"What? Of course I'm sweaty! We're in the desert, and I'm going to be sweating buckets once we get out in the desert and in that sun. We need to find a place to go and fast. I'm not expert on survival int he Moraki and I... hey wait.." he blinked as his eyes stared over at the horizon. "Is that a city? Alright! Finally some luck our way!" and he pressed his heels deeper into the animals side so that it kicked up sand onto Lyr's back.
"Hold on tight, I bet we can out run those stupid lizard-people. Come on, Lizard-horse," he siad, patting down the kaadir. "Get us to that city alive and they'll be as many bugs and goats or whatever it is that you eat waiting for you! We'll treat you like a king!" and the poor Kaadir just let out a groan, but obeyed it's riding, stretching it's neck out as it continued to bolt across the desert at  a wicked speed.

"Humans...so gross," Lyr said under her breath. She noticed he didn't answer any questions about the map. In fact, he had dodged it. Two could play at this game. She let out a groan when the animal kicked sand onto her back. She had a feeling that was Trest's doing. If only she could punch him out, she would. However, Lyr knew she needed to keep him around. For one thing, she hadn't a clue how to survive in a desert and for another...well, she wasn't exactly skilled at map reading.

Lyr just decided to play the annoying man role. So she wrapped her arms tighter around Trest's waist and held on. She hoped that it was the city. Because she wasn't sure if she liked being this close to him or not. "Please be the city! I cannot deal with your lack of hygiene for much longer. I hope there's baths there. Do you think there'll be baths there?" she asked, hopefully. 

"Baths? That's my last concern, but a bath would sure be nice!" he siad, laughing at her and shaking his head. Then an arrow whizzed right past their heads.
"SHIT!" He instinctively ducked down from it, his eyes going wide as a few more sunk into the sands around them.

"Well, if we make it out here alive without turning into human pin-cushions, I'll treat you to a bath if they've got one!" and she pressed his heels harder into the kaadir, the thing crying out as it stressed it's body to go at top speed. Trest leaned into the beast, making himself more aerodynamic as he gripped onto Lyr and forced her to lay against his back as well. Though at this angle, both of them were literally eating sand, but the city was in sight, and that was the only focus Trest had for now.

"Come on, come on," he pressed, giving a few more kicks to the beast's side.

By then, they had finally made it to the outskirts of the city, their kaadir groaning as it whizzed past a series of merchants entering in small caravans to the large city. And straight into the frey of a market place the pair went as Trest let out a cry of alarm as their kaadir would not stop and it kept on going at top speed through the center of the market.
"Great, where are the brakes on this thing!?" he shouted, before shielding his face as he, Lyr and the kaadir crashed right into a laundry tent, and became entangled in a series of colorful underwear, dresses, and sheets.

A moment later, Trest was poking his head up from the pile, spitting for breath. He glanced aroun, his body now curled beneath a sheet as their kaadir groaned and shook itself loose from a clothe and woman's brassiere that was latched onto the horns upon his head.
"Think we lost them?" But no sooner did he say it did he spot the lizard-people entering into the town. And a crowd had already begun to gather around both he and Lyr and their pile of laundry.
"Shit."

Gritting his teeth, Trest scrambled to get out of the pile of clothing, but it seemed as if thy were surrounded, for coming on the other direction were the town guards. Thinking quick, he looked down at a flashing red dress and sari laying at his feet, and wasted no time throwing on the dress and swathing a clothe around his face. He might have looked ridiculous, cross-dressing in red, but at least his identity was hidden.. for now.

"Come on, pick up some clothes and get on a disguise," he said, pulling downt he veil from his face to bark the order at her before securing the clothe back to where it once was. then elbowed Lyr lightly before pointing to an allyway. "And we can sneak off through there, come on!"

"I think the bath should be the most of your concern," Lyr replied, not intending to sound rude. Still, Trest bothered her for some reason. She didn't completely understand it. Just thinking about him mad her angry. When an arrow whizzed by her head she wasn't really that sure what to do. Trest apparently knew what he was doing, however, it meant she was really close to the sand. Lyr was not pleased, at all.

"Ahh" Lyr exclaimed as they ran into a laundry tent. When she managed to get up she was covered in a bunch of women's clothing. Some of it was actually quite nice. Before Lyr could answer, it was clear they hadn't lost the lizard men. Lyr looked down at the clothing then back up at Trest as he told her to put on a disguise. She wasn't so sure about wearing women's clothing. There was really no option, though, so she tossed on a dress and a veil and followed along after Trest.

"Lead on, Trest," Lyr told him, hoping he really knew what he was doing. Because she was feeling bit scared. She thought once they reached the city the lizard men would stop.

"Come on, keep up!" he shouted back to her, peering over his fringed veil towards the approaching lizard-men. Without thinking, he grabbed onto Lyr's hand and yanked her along, dragging her down the back allyway's until they were in a more secluded portion of the city.

"I think we might have lost them," he said, but still continued to look cautiously around, having already released his hold on Lyr's hand.


OOC: Sorry post is short but HRNNGH, I am tired lol

Lyr stared at his hand the whole time they were walking through the alleyway. She hadn't really ever held hands with a man before. So she stared at it the whole time. Lyr only came to her senses when Trest announced they might have lost the lizard men.

"Good. I don't think they'll stay in the city for too long. They need to sleep at night in the sand. So...when the sun goes down we should be free," Lyr told Trest, rubbing the hand he had been holding of hers against her stolen dress. "Drag really doesn't suit you..." she made a face looking at him in his new attire.

Trest nodded at Lyr's assessment about the lizard-folk.
"That's good to know something will come good from the dark. This place becomes quite freezing when the sun goes down, and is wretchedly hot when it's up. Come on."
And then at Lyr's comment about his attire, he pulled the veil down for a brief moment to flash a gri her way. Once the veil was secured back over his facea nd nose, and batted his eyes.
"I don't know, I thought the red brought out the blue in my eyes."

Freezing?! How was Lyr going to survive freezing cold? She was quite adapt to surviving brutal heat. But brutal cold? No. That wasn't something she was quite prepared for. The lizard folks always sent her to this special underground chamber during the night time, so she had never felt how cold it was. Now she was worried. They needed to find an inn or something!

She smirked at his joke, but quickly remembered she didn't like him so she put her frown back on. "Umm...what did you do for the cold? I'm not...really built for cold weather. I don't have any frost giant blood in me, unfortunately. You don't look particularly Connloathian, by the way. How do you know so much about the desert?!" she asked, curiously. Though, she didn't' know why she was so curious about him. Since she really didn't like him.

"Well, my mother was Essyrnian," he said with a shrug. "So I learned a thing or two about it from her. So when I traveled here, I was well prepared, though it is always a shock to go from scorching hot temperatures during the day, to where it's cold enough you can see your breath at night."
He shook his head.
"In the wild,y ou have to build a fire or layer up, but here in town, the weather isn't as drastic, however, if we can procure a room at a local inn, that might be wise, being as this city is large and I doubt those lizard-faces have enough resources to keep chasing us through a city this large."

Or so at least he hoped!

"So...you're a half....human? Not human...but...half...one thing and half another?" Lyr asked, a little perplexed. She wasn't sure whether Trest was Essyrian then...or whatever it was his father was. That meant he was sort of like her. Interesting...well without the magic blood.

"I don't know how to set a fire. That's what dragons are for, fire ones at least," she replied to Trest. "Do you have money? Or am I going to have to trade something for the inn?" She asked. She didn't want to trade any of her stuff.

"Well, I had money on me, but if I had to guess, those lizard-faces probably robbed me of everything. Thankfully we got the map," he said with a broad grin, one hand gripping onto his wrapped dress to keep his body and face still hidden from sight so he could play off the role as being a woman...
Too bad he looked awkwardly tall to be a woman, and a rather stocky woman indeed. So the pair of them got a few awkward stares when they were walking down a path way leading to a market.

"Perhaps we can find some things to barter with. But here.." Trest paused in the middle of the alley way, pulling down his veil as he bent over and began to search his bag.
"What do you know..' he siad, a grin stretching across his lips. "I've still got my daggers and sword in here." ANd he continued to rummage through, smirking as he caught a few other little trinkets.
"Looks like they kept my things all together." he stared for a moment at the gold ring baring his family's crest... perhaps they could sell that for money. However... it was his only ties and proof of who he was and what he was. He wans't sure if he was ready to give that up just yet, and they werne't in too dire straight just yet.

Lyr giggled as people stared awkwardly at Trest. It was too funny. She made sure not to laugh too loudly to draw suspicion but it was funny. When he paused to look in his bag, Lyr looked over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. So this must be where he was keeping the map. However, she could do a ditch now. She was too deep in.

Oh, good! He had items for bartering. That mean she wouldn't have to give up any of her things. Bugbee was always telling her to get rid of things. But she never wanted to. She liked holding onto things. Especially, expensive shiny things.

"Ooh, what's that?!" Lyr exclaimed, her hand diving down to try and snatch up the ring, just too look at it. It looked interesting, and it had some sort of fancy drawings on it. Maybe it had magical properties of some kind. Lyr hoped so.

"Ack!" Trest was caught off guard and dropped the ring, it falling into a twirl within the sands.

OOC: lol sorry for the short post but... looool
feel free to have Lyr pick it up and look at the shinies XD

Lyr watched as Trest dropped the ring. Immediately she ran to pick it up. Once she scooped it up, she immediately began to inspect it. It had a crest! Did Trest steal this, she thought to herself as she glanced over at him suspiciously. Yes, he definitely stole this. Only nobles and royals had rings like these. She looked back at Trest, looking him over very carefully. Nope, he was too messy to be a highborn. Therefore the ring was stolen at least Lyr concluded that.

"Who did you steal this from? It's nice, real too. I don't think it has any magical properties, though," Lyr told him, sliding it onto her ring finger. She brought it back up to her face, trying to get a closer look at it, as if to understand it more.

"Hey! Give that back!" Trest barked, making a grab for it, but it was too late. The damn man put it on his finger. He found himself growling.
"If you must know it is mine. It's my grandfather's, now hand it over."

Lyr laughed when Trest claimed it was his. She didn't care if he had stolen it or not. It made no difference to her. He was getting a little too agitated for this to be some unimportant stolen trinket, though. Still, she couldn't quite believe it was Trest's.

"How can it be yours?! You don't seem highborn! You were wearing a loincloth and locked in a dungeon when I found you. And...you don't act highborn, either. I don't care who you stole it from. But now I am quite interested to know why you're so interested in this ring. I'm going to keep it on my finger until you tell me," Lyr replied to Trest grinning. Ah, fun at last.

Trest's face fell.
"What!?"
Sadly, Lyr was too perceptive and well, right. He hardly appeared like nobility, and the only thing he could think of in response was, "Oh yeah right, then you've never been to Connlaoth. The dukes are more like dogs. Now give it here!" and he attempted to reach for her hand.

"NO!" Lyr snapped back, quickly taking a step back and putting her hand behind her back. She then stuck out her tongue at him. Childish, yes, but she didn't understand why he was lying.  "I've been to Connlaoth, many times! None of the dukes act like dogs! They're always using highborn speech! If you're lying over this little ring, it makes me wonder what else you might be lying about..." Lyr told him, waiting for him to say or do something.

"What? Why lie over a ring?" he growled. He reached for it again, this time grabbing onto Lyr's arm in attempts to yank her hand out from behind her. THen at her tongue sticking out, his hand found it's way to her finger, and, deftly slipped the ring off.
He stuck his tongue back out at her once he had gotten the ring, bt in that same instance, the ring fell out of his hand and he cursed and tried to reach for it again from where it had fallen back into the sands.

Lyr was angry that he had taken the ring from her. It seemed to fall in slow motion for her. She dove down into the sands to catch the ring before Trest. First she got a fistful of sand but with her other hand she managed to slap the ring.

"I got it!" she announced triumphantly in a kneeling position on the ground. She immediately went to try and put it back on. 

Oh NO she didn't.
In an angered roar, he tackled her, pinning her beneath him int he sands and tried grabbing at her hands.
"Give it back to me, Lyr! That's my ring!" he shouted- and the pair probably looked like quite the sight, two 'women' in colorful wrapped dresses tumbling about and wrestling in the sands.

Lyr held onto the ring, in a death locked grip while she cat swatted at him. She was using normal strength, to not hurt him. "It's mine now! I'm just stealing it from a person that stole it! And get off me! I don't like you being on top of me! You're not a woman and you're very heavy," Lyr told Trest, continuing to move her hands around wildly to avoid the ring's capture. 

"A horse's ASS I stole that thing! Give it back or I'll-"

"What's going on here?"

Startled, Trest whirled around at the sight of a pair of guards at the end of the way. HIs veil was half hanging off his face, which he quickly moved a hand to cover, his other hand, still gripping around Lyr's wrist that had the ring.

"Oh, erm.. nothing, er Officers," Trest said, in the most horrendously sounding female voice ever.

The guards made a face at them.

"We're just having a bit of a female scuffle, a cat fight!" Trest said, still using that wretched sounding female voice as he gave a ridiculously patronizing female laugh.

Lyr knew she could totally toss Trest to the wolves and it would be easy. Lyr attempted to get up and shake Trest's hand off of her wrist. Lyr didn't want to go to jail. "Yeah, we were fighting over whether we should tell you about the lizard beings or not. I thought that we should. They are outsiders and they seem rather hostile, they gave us quite a terrifying look earlier. But my friend here thinks we should just keep our mouths shut on the issue. I don't think it's a good idea, I think they're here...well, doing bad things. But I don't know, what do you think?" Lyr asked the guards, still trying to wriggle free from Trest's grip.

"Lizard beings? You mean the Sehn-shok?" One of the guards growled.

"Those damn lizards have been skirting around the city for weeks now, making a scene," said another.

"But oh, they are dreadfully awful!" Trest went on, wailing in his womanly tone. "Simply revolting, and I was afraid for us if we were to 'spill the beans'. I think they had some sort of plan to run amok through this city. Truly a terrifying thing, it would be!"

The Guards agreed, shaking their head, and while the conversation went on, Trest was still trying to fight Lyr's wriggling arm. She was not going to get his ring so easily!

"Let's go take this up to Malek. He'll be able to deal with those rascals."

"Oh, what saviors you are!" Trest exclaimed. "May the sun and her desert child bless you both!"

And the guards gave the pair of them a quizzical look, ad Trest stepped on Lyr's foot, hoping she'd just play along. No sense in drawing unwanted attention now...

"Yes! What saviors they are. Bless you both," Lyr said trying to keep a smile on her face, even as Trest stepped on her foot. As soon as the guards were gone she was going to slap Trest across his pretty face. She could still feeling him trying to get the ring out of her hands. Lyr wasn't going to give it up, now. Not when he was clearly so attached to it.

"Come now, it's getting late," She told Trest tugging on his arm. She didn't want to hang around the guards any longer.

Trest wasn't letting go of his grip. The guards had left by now so he turned to her and tried to grab her hand with his other.
"We're not going anywhere until you give me back my ring," he growled.

"It's not yours! You're not a highborn! You cannot have a highborn ring if you're not a highborn. Therefore you stole it from a highborn. Or...your grandfather stole it from a highborn? Ah, were you in love with a highborn and she died in a terrible accident? And left you with her family ring as a sign of your undying love for one another? Or...maybe she was a he?" Lyr asked looking at Trest trying to figure out what the story was behind this ring. She didn't like not knowing. Lyr wasn't sure why she wanted to know so badly either.

Trest's brows raised at all of the attempts she made at conjuring up a story behind it.
"What? No!" he barked, making his grabs a bit more rough as he wrestled her for it. HIs brows furrowed angrily now.

"The story behind it's stupid, and yes it was my grandfather's. He was a god damn duke! Now.. give.. it... BACK!" He shouted between grunts, before finding his way to her ring finger and giving a tug-
and the ring flew off...

and there it went.... fluttering into the air, spinning about and catching a sparkle off the ray's of the daylight sun... only to land in a pile of mule dung with a splunk a few feet away.
Trest's face fell, but he still made a leap for it, diving desperately towards it before LYr could get her grubby little thieving hands on it.

"THERE!" he shouted, after making a glorious dive into the mule dung. He lifted up his hand victoriously, show casing the ring between two pinched fingers, which was now, unfortunately, covered in stinky mule poop.
"I GOT IT BACK!"
And the he slipped it back onto his OWN finger, not seeming to care it made a poopy-smear there before shoving it but a few mere inches into Lyr's face and sticking his tongue childishly out at her.

"Now..' he said, giving a fluff of his hair. "About that bath.."
since well... he smelled really, REALLY gross now as he gave a sniff, flies buzzing over head.

"It's probably not stupid! I love stories...I..." But by this time Trest had managed to get the ring off her finger. She watched as it flew through the air and plopped in a bunch of dung. Her mouth curled down. Her eyes got big as she watched Trest dive for it into the dung.

"I don't want to touch it...ever again," Lyr told him, taking a step back from Trest. The smell and the dung better not get on her.

"Yeah, let's get to an inn that has a really nice bath house. You smell even worse than before and I didn't think it was possible. So, congratulations. Please wipe of your hands too, it looks like you used your hand as a toilet cloth," Lyr told him, trying to breathe through her mouth and not her nose.

"Good," he said, smiling darkly at her and placed his hands upon his hips, glancing around to see what could be made of this city.
"So right.. erm.." he sniffed, trying to remain looking competent. "So an Inn..."
He had no idea where he was going, so he simply shrugged nad picked a direction. "Let's try this way," and he worked at adjusting his dung covered dress as he walked, and also wiping the shit off his hand on the sides of his dress as well. He'd have to pitch this entire ensemble once he got somewhere 'clean'. And to think, the red dress looked lovely on him. Didn't Lyr agree it brought out his eyes?

Lyr walked a few paces behind Trest with a disgusted look on her face. She watched as he wiped the dung off onto the side of his dress. She made sure to keep her distance. Lyr didn't want him getting any ideas. She hoped they would find an inn soon because Trest smelt awful.

"You must really love that ring, huh? If your grandfather was a highborn...why don't you act like one? I know, you were kidnapped as a child by the king of thieves and only found out recently your true identity?" Lyr asked, expecting that she had hit the nail on the head. 

"What!?" Trest's face twisted at her comment as he turned to look back at her, shaking his head. "No! I wasn't kidnapped. My father was just an idiot." he said with a roll of his eyes. "My grandfather disowned me, what else is there to know?" He shrugged it off, but then got a whiff of himself and made a face.
"Eww.."
It was about this time they had made it to the end of the road, and a small inn called 'The Rose Without Thorns' came into view. It was a corner inn, and hanging off the wooden sign was a smaller sign that said 'Bath House in the Basement- 1 silver.'
Trest smirked and nudged Lyr's side.
"Hey, I think this is our lucky day." And his smile brightened and widened before he then turned to her and asked, "Say, you got any silvers?"

"Oh, how sad. A highborn being raised as a peasant. That is an interesting story..." Lyr had more questions in her mind. When Trest nudged her, she looked down at herself to make sure there was no dung on her. There wasn't, thankfully.

She read the sign, the Rose without Thorns. Perfect! And it had a bath. Even better! She frowned when he asked her about silvers. She opened her satchel and a little fluffy paw holding a smaller change purse poked out.

"Ah, thank you Bugbee. I'll let you two out soon when I get to the room." She told them, closing the satchel, and opening her change purse. "No, silvers but a lot of golds..." Lyr said, and then realized maybe she had given him too much information.

Trest's eyes lit up at her words, then narrowed upon her with a playful leer.
"Oh really?" he said. "Then lead the way my King. It looks like you're buying."

"If you insist," Lyr said, defeated. She had let her own stupidity get her into spending her golds. She walked into the inn and smiled at the inn owner.

"Hello. I'm looking for two rooms."

"Sorry, we only have one room left..." the inn owner told her apologetically.

Lyr looked back over at Trest to see what he wanted to do. If she had to room with him, it would be difficult to do things. It depended on what he wanted to do, though, he was covered in poop. So he probably wanted to stay.

"One room, that's fine!" Trest said, wrapping an arm around Lyr and hugging her close. "See, we're cousins," he went on, intentionally using his horrible 'woman' voice as the inn keeper stared at the pair of them as if they were a pair of zebras with rainbow spots.

"Al..right then," they began to say, and produced a skeleton key, and handed it over to Lyr.
"First door to the left at the top of the stairs."

Smiling, Trest bowed 'her' head and said, "Yes, and we'd also like to see about getting a bath?"

The inn keep then realized why an dhad thought that perhaps one of hte guests might have left their chamber pot out again to be cleaned. Turns out the one woman must've rolled in dung. These definitely were a pair of strange women.

"Alright, but you have to pay for it all now. The bathing house is in the basement, just simply go down the stairs." Then the innkeep put out their hand, awaiting payment expectantly.

"Hmm...will 5 gold coins be enough," Lyr asked, placing them in the inn keepers hand.

It seemed the inn keeper was pleased, and shooed them away. Lyr took the key and dashed off to the room. Once she got into the room she checked her dress, it was smelly and dungy now. She tossed it off and went rummaging through her satchel to find another appropriate dress. She let out her two pets and told them to stay in the room.

"I'm taking a bath! Since you got your stench on me," Lyr told Trest rushing off to go take a bath.

Trest followed after her, rolling his eyes before Lyr bolted out of the room.
"Oh yeah, well I am too!" he said, ditching his dress, tossing the god awful thing out the windwo, and didn't seem to hear the woman shriek in the streets below as it landed on her since he was dashing off towards the basement.
Now in but his underclothes, the wounds healing from the whip lashings from earlier were now apparent, but he didn't seem to care, and laughed deviously as he raced past Lyr, sailed down the basement steps and dove into the first bathing pool he found, having discarded his loin clothe at the base of the steps for Lyr to find.

"YOU BIG JERK!" Lyr screeched as Trest raced past her, tore off his clothes and jumped into a bath. It wasn't fair! She stared down at his ugly loin cloth and kicked it towards his bathing pool. She took the opportunity while Trest was underwater to race to the back of the bathing pool section. Once she found a bath that was extremely secluded, she surveyed it from all angles. Once she was confident that no one could see her, she took off her clothes and hopped in.

She was quick to submerge herself in the water and made sure nothing could be revealed. Lyr then leaned back and closed her eyes. "He's such a jerk..." She mumbled to herself.

And the big jerk was hardly done being a jerk yet, so when he heard what Lyr had said, he waited for a moment after soaking himself well and good in his own pool, soaping up and scrubbing himself down vigorously, then once he was thoroughly turned into a soap monster at the end of his pool, he climbed out and LEAPED into hers. There was a large splash, and BUBBLES went everywhere.

Lyr was covered in bubbles by the time the shock of what had happened had worn off. She immediately crossed her arms over her chest and sunk down rather lowly into the water. What was Trest going to do now. She didn't really like the idea of them both being naked like this.

"Get out of my pool!" She ordered trying to make sure the bubbles were covering things. Thankfully the basement was very dark, so nothing could really be seen. "What are you doing! Go away!"

"Yeah?" Trest said, lounging back inside her pool, draping his arms against the side of it.
"Make me. Besides.." he said, with a smirk, "I think this pool is better."

There was nothing she could do. At least not without revealing herself. So she got as close to the side of the pool and as far away from him as possible. She sunk down even further, not taking her eyes off of Trest. He did look much better now. Maybe he looked too good. Lyr averted her eyes back to the water.

"You're horrible," She muttered.

Trest grinned broadly, puffing out his chest in a sense that made him feel he'd won. Though as he leaned back, enjoying just soaking in the waters of the bath, he couldn't help but notice how feminine Lyr appeared. He must be young. It would explain his attitude as Trest let out a contented sigh and scooped up some soap near to him and began to scrub suds-ing bubbles into his hair.

Lyr just watched Trest in silence, not completely sure what to do with herself. She hadn't really ever been this close to a naked man, so it was a bit unnerving. She continued to try and inch her way further away from Trest. Her back kept bumping into the side of the pool, and she knew there was no where she could go.

"Are you done here?" She asked, hopefully.

"Nope!" he said, and lifted up his feet, working at scrubbing nice and thoroughly at his toes.

OOC: loool...

Lyr groaned, quite annoyed. She didn't really move much. She just stayed frozen and hidden. Again she tried to sink further under the water.

"So is this the gold city? Because...I thought it would be a bit more...golden and well...abandoned," Lyr asked, trying not to stare at him as he washed up. She couldn't stop thinking about how attractive he looked. 

Trest laughed as he moved from scrubbing his toes to scrubbing his back. Despite having scrubbed down once, he still felt dirty. Diving into a pile of mule dung will do that to a man. Peering over at her, he shrugged.

"I don't know, I think the city just uses that as a title out of arrogance. It's said Essyrn is one of the wealthiest cities in all of the world, which works well for it's merchant princes and princesses, considering they have become the ruling class here int he desert. So, none of your precious highbornes here, as you so eloquently put it.It's all about the trade. If you can sell your wares and sell it well, you too, can become a prince amongst men."

"That's ridiculous! You cannot become royal just by selling things. It's either in your blood or it isn't," Lyr replied to Trest. She wondered what he came here for anyways. He had a map was there some sort of unknown place he wanted to go.

"So...uhh, where is it that you were planning on getting your riches? Do you have things you want to sell?" She asked, curiously. She wondered what he was doing here now if it was a big merchant town. Lyr knew she needed to look for...well, she wasn't completely sure what it was she needed to look for. Just something with her homelands marking, that her mom could magic into a gateway. 

Trest was scrubbing at his chest now, then his... rear, when the question was pressed.
"Hrm?" he sat back down into the water, making tiny waves ripple withint he pool as he shrugged back and dunked his hair intt he pool, rinsing out the soup for his second washing.
"I thought why i was here was obvious," he began. "I was a fool chasing after the Kingdom of Gold." He then made a face. "Why would I want to make a living here? THis place is too damn hot. The second I figure out if this treasure map is real or not, the closer I'll be to returnign to Connlaoth. I have no desire to remain in Essyrn."

Lyr continued to watch him scrub his body. She tried to hide her annoyance in her face, but it was getting to be quite difficult. He just kept on pushing her buttons. How long was she going to have to wait for him to leave?

Lyr was still confused about why Trest was here. The city was populated. Any treasure to be had was probably long since gone, taken by others. Still, Lyr knew she needed to get a good look around before leaving. She needed to be sure her mom wasn't able to get this close to her.

"You could let me have a look at the map, you know. Maybe I'd be able to help you a bit. And you did promise me if I released you, I'd get some share of the treasure," she replied to him.

Trest grinned over at her when she reminded him of what he said.
"Alright. Let's say we head back to our room then and we can go over the map. If there's any treasure to be had, assuming the map is real, which I'm thinking, based on those lizard-face's reactions, that it is, we'll split it. Sixty-forty."

"Good, I'll take the sixty and you can have the forty," Lyr replied to him with a grin. She knew what he was trying to do, take more of the riches for himself. Lyr didn't really care about riches. But it was a matter of principle. She wasn't going to let best her and take more of the earnings, even though she didn't really care about them.

Trest raised his brows.
"I.. think you misheard me. Sixty for me." He gestured to himself. "Fort for you." and then he gestured to her, touching her shoulder with a smirk.

"Hmm, that doesn't seem fair. True, you do have the map. But would you be here without me letting you out of the cell? I don't think so. So fifty-fifty," Lyr replied to him. She froze when he touched her shoulder, and scooted away from him in the pool.

Trest withdrew his hand as Lyr move away from him. It almost seemed as if he had hurt 'him'. He furrowed his brow.
"Alright, fifty-fifty, but you have to pull your weight. I'm sure I'll need my ass saved quite a lot of times," he said, giving her a roguish grin.

"I am sure you will. I will pull my weight, I promise," Lyr told him, trying to get back to her normal state. He wasn't sure why his touch felt like it sent electricity through her, but the good kind.
"So...umm, you going to get out, so I can finish?" Lyr asked, waiting for Trest to leave so she could finish her bath alone.

Trest raised a brow at him.
"You're.. one of those men, aren't you?" He rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine." and with no shame, he stood out of the water and went to fetch his towel.

Lyr wasn't completely sure what he meant by "those men" she wanted to ask him, but decided it could wait. In the pool she continued to sit until she was completely sure Trest was gone. Just to make sure she called out.

"Trest are you still here?" she called, hoping to get no reply.

Trest was wrapped in nothing but a towel as he moved to leave the bath house. It was then he heard her voice. Groaning, he turned around and shouted across the room.
"What!?"

Lyr assumed he was quite aways away so it was time for the fastest changing in history.

"NEVERMIND! I'M GONNA GET CHANGED! DON'T COME BACK HERE!" She shrieked, her voice wavering for a moment and sounding pretty feminine.  Quickly she dried off and began wrapping and binding herself up. She tugged her shirt on and was going to put her pants on when she slipped.

"Ouch! Stupid water!" She cursed, trying to quickly shove her pants on.

Trest froze at the voice.
Lyr sounded... most definitely like a woman. He furrowed his brow, hung around at the front of the bath house door and studied the partitions to each pool in silence. Though he couldn't see Lyr, he could hear her fussing over this and that. Definitely sounded more woman than man...
What if...
No, it couldn't be but...
it would explain a few things if Lyr were.. you know, a woman.

He smirked when he heard her cussing after she fell. But again, he remained, arms folded across his bare chest as he waited for her to leave.

Lyr tried quickly to pull her boots on. She hopped around until she managed to pull them both on. With that she ran towards the front, slowing down when she was Trest was standing there waiting for her. What was he still doing here? Was he peeping! "Were you peeping at the bathers!" Lyr called to Trest, rather loudly, with a  hint of triumph on her face.

As she slowed down, her boots slipped send her sliding on her back and butt in front of Trest. "Why couldn't have my ancestors been merpeople?! I'm part siren the water should be my friend...but it just insists on destroying me..." She said to herself as she attempted to get up, but instead slipped again and fell back down. 

Trest laughed at her, and laughed and laughed, the noise echoing almost melodically around the bathing pools.
"No one else is really here now and you... my friend," he said, getting down on one bended knee. "Should be careful where you step. The ground is slippery, and well.." he offered out a hand. "I suppose we can't all be so graceful as you."

Lyr remained on the floor, looking up at Trest as he laughed. Had it been the other way around, she was sure she would have had the same reaction. However it was here that had slipped and fell. Lyr could feel her face turning red as he got down on his knee. Her cheeks burned even more as he extended his hand.

"Umm...thank you?" Lyr replied accepting his hand.

Trest's grin grew more suave.
"You're welcome," he said, seeming to give her a bit of a leer.. until, you know, he suddenly remembered..
SHIT.
SHE was a HE and he should NOT be thinking about flirting with him!
He coughed, using the 'clearing of his throat' as an excuse to hide his smile and tuck it back as he pulled the both of them now to their feet.
"So.. do I have to hold your hand the rest of the way? Or can you manage the next few feet?" he said, sweeping his hand out towards the door.

Lyr tried to study Trest when he gave her a different look than usual. She had seen that look in other men before. She usually didn't like it, but she liked it with Trest for some reason.
"I can manage the next few feet, just fine," Lyr replied to Trest carefully walking until she was out the door. As soon as she made it out of the bathing pool chambers, she gave a fist pump and jump of triumph.

"I won!" she declared.

Trest followed after her, slowly raising one brow.
"You... won... what?" he asked slowly.

"I won the battle against the bath pool room!" She said happily walking along next to Trest. She supposed now was as good a time as any to ask.

"What did you mean back there when you said...I was one of those guys?" She asked, curiously looking at him.

"What?" Trest scrunched his face, then rolled his eyes at her comment. "Yes, yes, good for you." he said with a half-hearted applaud. "Though to be fair, that floor was terrible and villainous, and even I wasn't sure I'd make it out alive."

His grin reached nearly to his ears now at the playful air about them. He was enjoying teasing this man a bit too much, but once Lyr brought up the question, his face twisted in reply.
"Eh? Oh, I just met you fuss over things most men wouldn't." he rolled his eyes and didn't bother to elaborate. Did it need to be spelled out? Most men didn't give a hog's breath if they were walking around naked, and well, right now, Trest was nearly that- but at least he was wearing his towel. He'd have to get his clothing back in the room. They were still stuffed inside his bag.

"I thought for sure you were going to slip and take me down with you," Lyr teased back. She was having a bit too much fun with him. She reminded herself that she didn't like Trest. He was...well, handsome in a homeless kind of way.

"I still don't get it...but maybe you're not used to the way I am because I am highborn...and you're a highborn that was raised as a peasant? I know I'm bit girly, but when you're this pretty what can you do?" She teased back. She wasn't nervous about Trest learning her identity at all. She doubted he even had a clue. From what he was saying, she assumed he just thought she was a very effeminate, bratty man.

Trest was walking down the hall now and Lyr might have missed the expressions he was giving as she spoke.
"You seem to have some sort of fear of water, or rather... just bad luck with it. You sure you're not cursed?" he asked, turning around and giving her a grin. But then as she pressed the question about him saying he was 'that way'; he only laughed and continued towards the stairs and up the hall to their room.
"Highborn or not, yes, you are a bit too pretty. It's probably why no one questioned us in drag." And he gave a laugh, stepped into the room and dropped his towel while he rummaged through his bag for clothes.

"I'm not afraid of it. It's just not my element. My family was more into fire magics, except for one of my brothers, but that's just because his mom was part mermaid and water nymph," Lyr replied to Trest. But maybe she was cursed by water. After all, her mom had an affinity for reflective magics, but it was usually just mirrors.

"I know. I look so beautiful as a woman," Lyr replied grinning but her mouth became agape as he dropped his towel while he looked for his close. Her face turned bright red, and she immediately turned her back on him and covered her eyes. "Can you not do that?! I really don't want to see you naked!" She called, not wanting to turn back around and face the naked man. 

OOC; lol

Trest just ignored her, grunting as he pulled out his things and slipped on his undergarements, then his pants. As he was tightening his belt, he peered back over at her.
"Why are you blushing like a church girl? You're not... woah, hey.. just to keep things straight.." Trest said, pausing as he gestured towards Lyr, his hands holding his pants in place, which were only half fastened, "I'm er.. straight."
And he thought it over a moment, before nodding his head when he realized, yes, he said the right thing. Best not to confuse the man more than necessary.
"Maybe if you were actually a pretty purple haired princess, I might care a little. But as it stands.." he shook his head, looking her over. "You're.. clearly not my type."

The fact that he was straight just made Lyr blush even more. She wasn't sure why it was exactly what she wanted to hear.

"Yeah, you might not like men but I do," Lyr mumbled a little louder than she anticipated.

She was a purple haired princess too. But Trest was the type of man she was supposed to stay away from. Besides, Lyr was pretty sure her destiny was with whoever the man in the prophecy was. Lyr couldn't see Trest as some sort of royal. So it couldn't be him.

Trest heard that.
"Well, that explains a lot!" and he laughed.. a bit more loudly than intended because well..
THIS WAS AWKWARD!
"I suppose it was my rugged good looks that made you take sympathy on me when I was locked in that cell," he mused, rubbing thoughtfully at his chin.

Lyr was just happy Trest wasn't berating her about how men should only love women. In fact, his response was rather refreshing. Lyr smiled, happy that at least some of the awkwardness was out of the way. Well, besides the whole her being a woman and hiding her true identity thing.

"I don't think it was that. I think it was just that you were the first human I had seen a while. Now...let's look at the map," Lyr told Trest, hoping they would figure it out and be off in the morning.

"First human you had seen?" He blinked. "What happened before you met me?"

"I was held there for a few months. They kept me in my own chambers and I usually wasn't allowed to leave. That was until I had proved my...trustworthiness?! The lizard people don't really like humans too much, I don't think. Once I proved I wasn't really human, they seemed to trust me more," Lyr told him, grinning. Then realized she had probably said too much. He was from Connloath. Weren't they about to have a war against mages? That meant he probably hated anything magical and not human. 

"That's pride for ya," Trest said with a roll of his eyes. "One race always thinking they're better than the last. Lizard-faces or not, I don't like them cause they're just plain rotten, which is just how I'd feel about any human that might be just as rotten." He shrugged. "Though I'm surprised they cared. I mean.. you look human. Most times, the hate for others is through something vain like looks alone and the rest is all a mind-play." He shook his head.

"So...you don't hate that I'm not human?! You're different from most humans I've met. They...don't usually like it," Lyr told Trest honestly.

He was different and Lyr found it refreshing. Wait! Why was she thinking this? This was Trest. He was super annoying and stuff. She shouldn't be getting so happy over something like this.

"What is it that you do anyway, in Connloath? Are you a professor?" She asked, curiously. She was beginning to wonder especially at how open minded he was .

"What? Why would I hate you if you weren't human?" Trest asked, making a face. THen at her other question, he raised his brows and shrugged, and only then returned to finishing tying up his pants, then fitting the belt. "I'm a thief." And he said it so casually.
Amongst other things...

Lyr wasn't sure what this sudden rush of attraction was when he said he was a thief. Shouldn't she like Dukes and Princes? She was a royal after all. Lyr watched him tie up his pants and then moved further into the room now that he was fully clothed.

"That makes a lot of sense now. You do seem like a thief I guess. At least from stories I've read. It's quite fascinating. Do you have a thieving guild? And a secret place where you all meet and trade treasures?" Lyr asked, quite interested now. That was until she saw Bugbee perched in the window. The little creature was shaking his head. It was clear she shouldn't be interested in things like thievery.

Trest paused, staring over at Lyr as she was asking him a million questions a minute.
"Uh... yeah, I had a guild. I was the leader of one. Though just a small branch of bandits, really," he said, rubbing at his neck now that was beginning to feel a little tense. So he cracked his neck wtih a wince before looking Lyr over. "I was known as 'The Hawk' and my band, as simply 'The Hawks." And he dipped his brow, looking at her suspiciously."Why the sudden interest in me?" And he looked her over. "What about you? Are you.... any sort of.. you know..." he said, talking wtih a waving flick of his had. "A thief or like.. something?" He planted hishands on his hips.
Yeah... that question came out sounding dumb.

He did have a group! The stories were right. How exciting. She remembered her father used to enjoy stories about thieves and he had read her those stories as a child. Even when she was little she thought it would be fun to be a thief or a pirate.

Lyr laughed when he asked if she was a thief. "No, I'm more of a con artist. I use my abilities to get old women to lavish me in riches and such. There are some men too, but it's more older women. They're so sweet, I feel a little bad. And I'm interested because I've never met a real thief before. I've only read about them in books. I find it fascinating, really, them and pirates." She answered honestly.

"You find thieves fascinating?" Trest repeated, raising a single, skeptical brow at her. "And I don't know about pirates... they're kind of, you know rather limited in what they can steal. If there are no boats on the ocean, the it's just another boring day out at sea." He shook his head. "And I'll say you're a con-artist, though I'm sure you could do a lot more with the sort of strength you have. Where did you get that ability from anyway? Is that like, something that just runs in your family line or something?"

Lyr nodded, it was true. She found them fascinating. But that was probably just because she was just read romanticized versions of their lives as a child. Trest seemed like a nice thief though. Lyr knew she couldn't trust him, though. He was a thief and she knew how men liked to lie.

"I'm not sure where I got my strength from. Most people said it was because I have ancestors that were dragons. But I think it's just because I'm part harpy," Lyr said, not completely sure what she could do with her strength. She wasn't really much of a fighter.

"A harpy?" Trest made a face. Yeah, the idea of that sounded repulsive to him. Might as well call herself a vampire.
"I dunno, you don't look like either of those things.. though I suppose magical beings can use glamour, you know, to fool the stupid humans, or something. As if us humans aren't stupid enough." Trest gave a roll of his eye, and finished dressing, smoothing a hand down his clothes but winced as he felt the wounds prickle a bit. At least they were clotted and not bleeding... for now.

"Not the kind of harpy you're thinking of. The harpies from my home look more like angels. Plus I have fae and elven blood in me, so that just makes me much more beautiful than most humans," Lyr told him, happily.

"I do agree, most humans are stupid. Are you sure you're not more than human? You seem to open minded to be a human..." Lyr told him honestly. She watched him wince and thought about offering her assistance. But she was a "man" so that would be weird. Besides, she shouldn't be thinking about wanting to touch men that weren't her husband.

"Oh, like angels?" Trest said with a roll of his eye. "I suppose that's why your'e so damn pretty." he said, giving a petty smile Lyr's way. "And boy, you seem awfully full of yourself. What does it matter if a man's pretty? You know.. " he continued, giving a cough. "Unless you're trying to attract the wrong sort of breeding." he shook his head, it was half a joke, but at the comment of being open minded, he laughed.

"Open minded? Try being sick of dealing with those closed minded. It's enough to make one sick, especially if you've ever been to Connlaoth. Gods, all of those pompous assholes who've got their egos so far crammed up their asses.." but he felt himself beginning to growl out the words, his blood broiling so he stopped, took a careful breath, before slowly, ever so slowly, releasing it.
"Let's just say I've had my fair share of that shit to deal with." And he looked Lyr over once, his eyes flicking a bout, before he turned from her to throw himself at the bed.

"Looks like only one bed. Have fun sleeping on the floor." He stated simply, not really in the mood to talk anymore about anything, and he 'pretended' to be 'asleep' by simply closing his eyes. But it was obvious he was still hot and bothered over something. But hey, it ws better to let himself cool off then go off onto a political tangent. Besides, this Lyr fellow wouldn't understand. He was what, a fairy boy or something? He didn't rightfully know.

"Full of myself?!" Lyr demanded at first, annoyed that Trest had said that. She watched as he got worked up over closed mindedness. She was happy about that, but a little worried too. He got so worked up. She wasn't sure why he stopped so abruptly. Then she quickly realized it was his ploy to get the bed. Well...gods no! Lyr would never let that happen. She wanted the bed!

She paused for a moment, deciding on her next move. Clearly Trest was only pretending to be asleep. True she could just lift the bed out from under him, or throw him off, but where would the fun in that be? Unable to control her impulses, she took a running leap.

So, without a word, she jumped onto the bed, on top of Trest.
"NO! I want the bed. You sleep on the floor. You're used to it. I'm too delicate for such things," Lyr was spewing out BS and she knew it. She really just didn't want to sleep on the floor.

Trest's eyes bulged open when Lyr landed on him, the wind getting knocked out of him.
"What.. what are you doing!?" he said, grabbing onto her arms and moving to push her off the bed. "DId you forget I'm the one who got lashed by whips all day? I ain't sleeping on the floor and risk letting those rip open. STop your whining and sleep ont he floor. Or.. if you're going to be that big of a baby about it, we could share," he added, giving her a soured smile and knowing full well his kind wouldn't go for that.

"Yeah...I did kind of forget that you were lashed by whips," Lyr replied to Trest, honestly. She immediately felt bad about jumping on top of him. It was very...unroyal, she supposed. Lyr looked down at the floor and saw a bug run across it. No, there was no way she was sleeping on the floor. She was afraid of bugs.

So, she rolled over onto the free side of the bed, and curled up. Immediately her two pets flew down to block the area between Trest and Lyr.

"Fine we can share. But don't you dare try to touch me in my sleep or do anything else weird," Lyr told him, shocked by the fact she was agreeing to this. Her two pets nestled down in between her and Trest.

"Funny business, NO! Fancy Pants, sir," Bugee said to Trest, keeping one eye opened and watching him intently.

Trest turned, making a face at Lyr's two animals.
"I thought we've been through this. I'm not into guys," he said with a roll of his eyes. "Beside, you'd only have to worry if you were actually a hot princess, but.. seeing as you're nothing but a pretty boy, I ain't interested, " he said, resting his hands behind his head as he stretched out onto his back, ignoring the pain from stretching out his fresh wounds. "Nope, noooooooooooooooooooooot interested at all." he said, with an added smirk.

"Oh please, I've seduced straight men before. And I don't even have to use my voice, though it is helpful. And whoever said I had any interest in you! You're smelly, grungy and...annoying," Lyr replied to Trest, glaring at him from his earlier grin. She rolled over onto her side, so she wouldn't have to look at his annoying face anymore.

"Come here, Chuggles, I want to cuddle," Lyr said, picking up one of her pets with one hand and bring her over to the side where Trest couldn't see them. Lyr just buried her face into her pet's fluff.
Bugbee, however continued to glare at Trest with his one open eye.

"Oh, yeah? Well you won't seduce this one!" Trest spat back, then at her cuddle comment, he turned around. "Well, what if I wanted a furry creature to cuddle? you should learn to share." But then he looked down at Bugbee, smirked and grabbed the thing up in his arms and turned around on the bed, back to Lyr, Bugbee held tightly in a hug.
"Never mind, I'll take the othe rone. Good night, prince."

Was that a challenge?! Lyr didn't like to be told she couldn't do something. She could seduce him. She could totally do it, and it would be easy. Eh, what was she thinking? She couldn't do that! Well, she could but it wouldn't be right. Lyr gasped when she heard Trest had taken Bugbee.

Bugbee let out a little wail, and attempted to squirm out of Trest's arms. Lyr moved quickly to try and grab him out of Trest's hands. "Don't touch him! Give him back! He's not yours to cuddle! You might crush him! Please don't hurt him!" she demanded reaching for her pet.

Chuggles just cooed as she slept, completely oblivious to the chaos around her.

"I'm not going to crush him!" Trest said, his body shaking as he laughed and curled himself over top of Bugbee. He wasn't crushing him, but he had a decent enough grip to keep the little fur-ball captive.

"Give him back, or I'm going to climb on top of you!" Lyr ordered. She wanted her pet back! Trest had no right to take Bugbee. Besides, she didn't think her little Buggy liked Trest all that much. To her it was just better for everyone if she had her little creature back.

"What? What sort of lame kind of threat is that? It's not like you weigh all that much," he said, giving a roll of his eyes. He felt a little bad for the whimpering Bugbee, for it was only at this time he realized he might have been terrifying the creature before he let it go.
"There." he said, turning to Lyr and getting right into her face. He narrowed his gaze challeningly. "Happy?"

Lyr didn't move as Trest got very close to her face. "Yes!" she said, grabbing Bugbee who was shaking and continuing to whimper. "You weren't in any danger, Buggy. Trest wouldn't hurt you. He's just smelly and lonely. And has no way with women, so he'll always be smelly and lonely," Lyr told her little creature, as she placed him down next to Chuggles. Bugbee quickly curled up next to Chuggles, and hid his face from Trest.

Trest rolled his eyes as Lyr cooed over and coddled her little furball.
"I smell fine," he said, lifting up his arm to check and smelled at his pit. Yep. Smelled fine. He narrowed his gaze. "Besides, thieves don't need women. They all die in the end." You know, the perks to being a criminal. And he turned from her and sunk back onto the bed.
"Good night, prince boy." and he gave a single wave before letting his hand drop beside him.

"If you have to check like that...then you probably don't..." Lyr told Trest. She was sad that he said all thieves die. She didn't want him to die, for some reason unknown to her.

"Good night, Trest," Lyr replied closing her eyes. "And don't you dare try to steal the map and run out on me in the middle of the night...because I will find you," She told him, turning over away from him.

"Ha!" he said, slamming his head int his pillow. "If there is one thing to be said, there is honor among thieves. Don't worry, I won't ditch ya." He said, his lips curling into a smile. "Goodnight."

OOC: Lyr's internal struggles make me lol :D

Lyr laid awake for some time thinking about the man that was lying right next to her. She had never been in bed with a man before. Well, not like this. She closed her eyes willing sleep to find her. Luckily it did and she slowly drifted off to sleep.

But her pets moved during the night because Lyr was tossing and turn for quite a long while. That was until she started having a very good dream.

OOC: lol she's totally dream about Trest!
----------

Trest had slept rather well, and most precariously upon the bed. He was half hanging off of it when he awoke, entangled partially it he sheets and his mouth hanging open, dry from a night of snoring. And that's how he awoke, from a loud snore.
Sitting up suddenly, he made a noise, a wince, and moved to crack his back. He wasn't as young as he used to be, and rubbed at his lower back now and raked a hand through his hair, which was a mess about his face. He curiously peered over at Lyr. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully and he grinned. Her little fluffy guardians were asleep as well. His eyes narrowed dangerously upon as he crept across the bed, his shadow slowly stretching across her form as he lowered his face down over hers.

"Princess Lyr.." he teased, using a patronizing tone. "It's time for her majesty and fluffy companions to wake up..."

OOC: She totally is...

"Hmm...Trest..." Lyr said aloud in her sleep, her voice sounding pretty feminine.

It was anyone's guess what she was dreaming about. Though, she did sound a bit too happy. It took a moment for someone's voice to speak to her. What was going on? Was she back at the palace? Lyr was still sleepy, so she rolled over.

"No, a few more hours, please," she replied, reaching out to grab whatever was closest to her, pull it in and cuddle it.

Before Trest knew what was going on, he was grabbed around the head and with an 'oof'; smashed clean into Lyr's chest as the 'man' held him tightly around the head in attempts to cuddle. Well... this was awkward.

"Trest..." Lyr said about whatever was happening in her dream. "I don't..." She mumbled out again. She continued to hold onto Trest's head, unknowingly.

That was until Bugbee woke up and saw what was happening. Quickly he dove off the bed and jumped into Lyr's satchel. There were some sounds of all sorts from the bag until he finally emerged, clasping a little blue stone in his hand.  Immediately he jumped up, and flew off over Lyr and Trest. He then held the stone over Lyr's head and water began to pour out of it.

"AHHH," Lyr woke with a scream as cold water rushed onto her. She let go of...whatever it was she was holding and was completely unsure what was happening.

Trest backed away, jumping at the sounds of Lyr screaming and felt, just lightly, to the side of his head... wait, what.. was that water!? He furrowed his brow up at the little furry creature. What the heck did it just do!? Then over at Lyr, he rubbed at the back of his head, his cheeks lightly flushed.

"So.. I take it you slept... well?"

"Yeah...until [i[he[/i]" Lyr dramatically pointed up in the air and Bugbee, who was quickly flying back into her satchel with the water stone.

"Woke me up! Did you sleep well? Why is your face red?" Lyr asked, not completely sure what was going on, other than being so rudely woken up.

Bugbee was lucky that he was cute and she loved him, otherwise...she would make him wear some sort of outrageous outfit at punishment.

"Huh?" Trest's face fell, but then he shook his head, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Er.. no reason!"

"You must have had a sexy dream," Lyr told him, slipping out of the bed. She knew what she had dreamed about and was actively trying to forget it. She went over to her satchel and rummaged around for a few minutes before pulling out some food.

"Well, I'm going to eat breakfast. You can keep relieving your dream if you like," She told him, sitting down at the table as she spread the assortment of food out.

"Sexy dream!?" Trest squeaked, then realized his voice had cracked as he growled and shook his head. "Try you had a sexy dream." He retorted with a roll of his eyes. I woke up to you grabbing onto my head. WHat was that all about anyway, huh? You were saying my name and cooing and said that you loved me," Trest teased, hoping to goad out a reaction. He was not about to let Lyr best him on come backs. Oh, he would make the little purple haired twerp pay for teasing him! He was the one that grabbed his head anyways! Ugh! ANd if Lyr was a woman... well, it would have been DOUBLY awkward since he had squished him into his chest!

"I did not have a sexy dream?! And if you must know, you were in my dream, but...you were my pet," Lyr replied to him, taking a bite out of her bread. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of letting him know her real dreams. Did she have a sexy dream about Trest...yes, she did. And it made her angry. So she felt like lying about the truth. Because well, the truth was too embarrassing.

"Come here my little pet. It's breakfast time," She teased Trest some more, with a grin on her face. 

"Pet?" Trest made a face. "That's.. terrifyingly kinky." His expression went more bitter as he shook his head, but his blush remained. "Don't even tell me what you did to your pet in that dream of yours. I don't think I want to know." And he plopped down on the floor beside her and began to help himself to the food.
"Say, this is pretty good," he said with cheeks full of bread.

Lyr got angry at his comeback and couldn't really think of anything else to say. There was no doubt about it, Trest was the worst. She just glared at him. And then moved what appeared to be some sort of jam towards him.

"Try it with this, it's delicious," Lyr said with too sweet of a smile on her face. It was obvious she was up to something. 

"Oh, don't mind if I do," Trest said, grinning as he took the bottle and slathered it all over a piece of bread. THen popped it into his mouth with a big, wide grin.

Lyr was surprised when he had taken so much of the white jam. She frowned for a moment, and then began to laugh. "I wasn't expecting you to eat that much...I wish you and your bowels luck," Lyr said laughing evilly.

The white jelly was a mild laxative that tasted delicious. However, if too much was consumed well, one would spend a lot of time on the chamber pot. 

OOC: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
<3

--------------

Trest stared, and stared and stared. He had already swallowed the thing as he looked at her.
"You didn't.."

Lyr began to laugh uncontrollably, and even fell off her seat. She continued to laugh hysterically. "What did you expect?! You didn't even ask to eat my food, you just helped yourself to it. I didn't do anything...you shouldn't have been so selfish and eaten so much, mwahaha," Lyr continued to laugh on the floor.

Yeah, she could give him a special potion that would reverse the effects, but where would the fun in that be?

Trest paled and felt himself begin to sweat. And what was that.. was his stomach already upset with him?! But at her laughter, he furrowed his brow.

"Yeah? Well who says you're getting fifty-fifty if I take the map and run?" he said, and turned from her fetched up his pack and threw it over his shoulder. "Let's call this I get 100- you get zero, and I get to leave. Have fun paying the bill!" he said, and moved swiftly towards the window.

Lyr sat up immediately, unsure of what to do. So...immediately tears began to well up in her eyes. He was leaving?! He couldn't leave. What was she going to do? Lyr wasn't sure why she didn't want him to leave so badly. But she did. And there was no resisting her feelings when she felt them.
"No...please don't leave. I'll fix it!" Lyr said through tears. "I'm sorry. But I didn't think you'd take that much. If you had just taken a few bites, you just would have had bad gas... I'm sorry..." She continued to cry on the floor. She wasn't completely sure how or even why her emotions did a complete 180, but they did. And she wasn't one for impulse control.

"Yeah, as if I'm going to buy that." He said while pushing open a window. He gave a gesture with his head, looking her over as if in disgust, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"How are you going to help? Give me more to make it worse? You tricked me, remember? I think that goes into the rule where, if I fall for it again, then I'll become the ass. So.. hrm.. let me think this over and answer with a big fat.. yeah, no. Besides.." he said, dusting himself off. "I apparnetly am going ot have to find a chamber pot to haul away in for the rest of the day. So.. goodbye," he said, givin ga wave of his hand.

Lyr continued to cry and got up and ran over to grab his leg. "It's not a lie! I have a potion. I'm sorry!" She said, kneeling down and grabbing onto one of his legs. She buried her face into it and continued to cry. Now she felt really bad. Trest was really angry and he was going to leave her. Why had she played that trick on him? It was a bad idea.

"Please don't leave!" she continued to cry.

With all the commotion, Bugbee stuck his head out of the satchel. He looked back and forth curiously, then over to the breakfast table. "AH HAH!" he announced and ducked back into the satchel. Quickly he emerged with a vile of some silky white liquid. He quickly flew over to Lyr and Trest, and happily showed vile to both of them.

"Why- woah, what are you doing!? Get off of my leg before I lose my-"

CRASH-

"Balance.." he said in a muffled voice, face now planted onto the floor.

Lyr grimaced as Trest fell to the floor. She hadn't meant to do that. Now seeing that he was down, she crawled next to his face. She put her head down right next to his. She was still crying a bit, but his fall had shocked her into lessening her tears.

"I'm sorry, Trest. I mean it. I didn't think you would have eaten that much. If you take what's in the vial you won't have diarrhea," Lyr said hoping Trest wouldn't still be angry with her. "And...and...if it makes you feel better...you were right, I did have a sexy dream about you..." Lyr hoped that would put them back on equal grounds. 

Trest groaned. ANd then raised his brows, looking over at her in the face.
"You.. are... really... strange.." he said carefully, before pushing himself up. "Fine, give me the damn vial." he said with a sigh. "And... just.. don't remind me you had that dream, ok?" He shook his head. Yeah... it was just weird. Did the purple haired effeminate man have a crush on him? Just... yeah... well, he supposed this technically wasn't the first....
and probably, not the last.

"Ok, I'll keep that in mind," Lyr agreed.

Lyr took the vial from Bugbee, and handed it to Trest. He wasn't leaving?! Yay! She wasn't sure why she was so happy about this. She should be upset. She hated Trest, after all. Well, if she hated him so much...she wasn't sure why she insisted that he stay. 

"So...you will stay?" She asked, just making sure it was certain.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah.." he said, knocking back the vial and made a face, grimacing at the flavor. "Yeah, that one definitely did not taste anywhere near as good as the jam." Then he looked Lyr over skeptically a moment before setting the empty glass down. "You know, for a man, you really do cry like a girl." And he smiled, but shook his head.

"So.. you got anythign else I can eat, or are you going to try to poison my innards some more?" He said, taking a seat back on the floor.

Lyr was thrilled when he said he would stay. She smiled and just grabbed onto Trest to hug him. She was so happy she could kiss him. But why? She hated him. To her, he was the worst person....ever! Lyr quickly released Trest from her hug, and grinned as she got up.

"I do not cry like a girl!" She told him.

"Bugbee, get the good stuff," she told her pet, who was busily eating his own slice of bread. After taking one more large chomp on his food, he flew off into the bag, and brought out a bunch of pastries. He flew over handing the lot to Lyr. "Ok...which do you want?" There were more pastries than she could really hold.

Trest stared down at the array of pastries. There were all sorts, from simple, glazed twists of bread, to beds of cakes embedded with sweet jams, and others tht were frosted in pink. He stared at them for a good long while before he started to laugh.

"You know, I can't say I've ever had this sort of food before. I'm used to the usual, you know, some simple porridge or eggs or bacon or some form of dried meat or bread when I'm on the road. BUt this?" He picked up a pink strawberry puff. "I don't even know what to make of it." He gave it a sniff. "It smells a lot like sugar and strawberries.." he stared at it skeptically. He poked it. "What is this one? It almost looks like one of your furry friends."

"Yes, but that food is so dull. Except for bacon, I do love bacon. That one is a strawberry iced, vanilla cream filled puff ball, it's called Strawberry Delight. They're delicious! I could eat them all day long. But I've been saving them because they're expensive," She told him honestly.

But if she got money from this treasure hunt they were on...she could buy all the strawberry delights she wanted. 

"Try it! It's sooo good. Not my favorite, but a good runner up," She told him.

Trest stared at the puff for a while, before digging his teeth into it-
and totally unexpected; the cream filling shot out from the other side and went sailing onto the ground. Trest stared at the goop on the floor a moment, then down at the puff,a nd what was left of it, now; considering it was nearly deflated as he gave a laugh.
"Oh, so that's what was in there." he gave another laugh, dragging a finger through the pile of 'delight' cream o the floor and put it in his lips.

"Say, that's pretty good." he said. "Too bad most of it's on the floor." And he moved to pop the rest of the pastry into his mouth. "A bit sweet for me, but.. hey, it's good."

Lyr had never seen anyone do that to a pastry before. How did he manage to squeeze out all the cream? She wasn't sure why Trest had no skill eating pastries. Then she remembered he had been raised as a peasant. Peasants wouldn't have been eating pastries.

Her mouth turned into a grimace as she watched him trace his finger on the floor and eat some of the cream from there. She wasn't sure why, but she did find what he just did very attractive, which was odd. Why would she think that?

"Nothing is too sweet for me. Do you want more? This one is my favorite. Chocolate Knight. It's chocolate glazed with some chocolate in the middle, and little chocolate chips throughout," Lyr told him, handing one out to him. 

If she wasn't about to hand him one, he was considering just taking it and giving it a bite anyways. S with a smirk, he eyed the thing over and took a few big bites into it.
"This is pretty good," he said, his cheeks mostly puffed full of pastry. Swallowing down the food, he stared over at her, then down at the remaining pastries. "Though to be honest, these things are too sweet for me. I feel strange eating them, as if I should be eating something else instead. Like.. Id unno, a carrot or something."

"I don't really cook, so I don't have any carrots, sorry. You can have more bread if you don't want to eat them. It just means that there is more for me," Lyr said happily. She got up and went back over to the table to grab some of the bread off. She then rushed back, knelt down and extended the bread over to Trest. There were three types of condiments to put on the bread, butter, a grape jelly and strawberry jam.

Trest took the bread.
"Hey, thanks.." he then peered back at her. "So like.. do you have an endless supply of food in that bag of yours or something?" He broke te bread in half, then began popping pieces of it into his mouth. The bread was definitely a lot plainer than the pastries, but hey, all of this food was good. ANd he didn't bother with any condiments. He knew better. Besides, his taste buds were still dancing over the extreme sugary goodness of the puff and chocolate pastries he had earlier.

"No...not an endless supply of food. It's just a satchel that can hold anything you can fit into it. I think Bugbee and Chuggles made a home in there. I've got all sorts of things, books, foods, tents, instruments, pots and pans..." She told Trest about her satchel. She had gotten the satchel from home. It was one of the few relics she still had left of her old life. That and her "sword".

"It's from my homeland."

Trest stared at her for a while, studying her face, then the bag, then back up to her face again.
"Where is that, anyway?" he said, taking another bite of the bread. "Your home land? It's gotta be some place grand to have a magical bag like that. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me you had a boat in there or something."
Though even if she did, what good would a boat do them out here?

"It's quite far from here, you probably never heard of it. In your tongue its called The Forgotten Isle. Where I'm from we call it Valyrii. No, there is no boat in there. I don't think I could fit one through its opening," Lyr told Trest.

But now she wanted to try and see if she could fit a boat in there. She had a tent but a boat? Maybe she could get a shrinking potion and shrink one down and shove it in. 

"Can you do any magic? I've heard some humans can," Lyr asked, curiously.

"Magic?" Trest laughed. "Did you forget I'm from Connlaoth?" He wrinkled his nose. "The people up there despise magics, of all forms, especially magic users. I'd be worse off than what I've suffered here if I was." ANd he rubbed his chin in thought. "Though about your home island... I can't say I've ever heard of The Forgotten Isle. Must be because of it's name sake. Where is that at, Valyrii, that is. Is it somewhere in the Tuor ocean?"

"Ha,ha, people from Connlaoth should come to my homeland and get a taste of their own medicine. Valyrians usually don't like non-magic users..."she told him grinning. Lyr could be a little bit biased against non magic users, but she wasn't as bad as some from her homeland.

Lyr didn't actually know the exact location of her homeland. "Umm...I'm not really sure. I was kind of exiled, and half dead when I arrived in Le'ranna," she told him honestly.

She had no idea how to get back home. Even if she did, she wouldn't go. Going back would mean facing her mother. And that was something Lyr would never do. The evil queen was simply too powerful and too wicked for Lyr to face. 

"Ah, exiled," he said with a roll of his eye. "Something I'm familiar with. And it always seems to come from people who think they know what they are doing. Not to say I was exiled, but being disinherited sort of breaks your ties to your own blood. So in a way, I suppose it's like an exile." He shrugged. "What did you do to get kicked out, anyways?"

What did she do? Nothing really. She was born a girl and that was pretty much her crime. That and since she was a girl she fulfilled her homeland's prophecy. Her mother didn't want to give up the throne. She had killed to get it.

"I'd rather not say. You got disinherited, that's awful. Why would someone do that?" She asked, wanting to change the subject from her familial ties.

"You'd rather not say? Why, did you kill someone?" And he too, seemed to ignore her question to go back to his.

"No, I didn't try to kill someone! I was just...born the wrong way," She exclaimed. Lyr didn't like how he ignored her question. "And the queen tried to have me killed because of it."

"Born the wrong way?" Trest made a face. "Oh.. because you were born gay?" He shook his head. "Sounds like Connlaoth right about now. If you're born a mage there, you might as well be dead for what the government would have planned for you."

OOC: lol, oh Trest. So simple minded.

"Yeah...sure we'll go with that theory that I was born gay," Lyr replied to Trest, smirking. She wasn't gay. Lyr was quite straight. However, she couldn't really tell Trest that without giving away too many of her amazing secrets. She decided it was better to not talk about how liberal her home country had been, when it came to things besides non magic users. She had two brothers that were eternally bonded to men. So, it always seemed so normal for Lyr.

OOC: But cute :D

"So.. you knew the Queen?" Trest asked. "You must've been pretty close to the royals then."

"Yep," Lyr replied not letting on just how close she was to the royals. She couldn't just tell him she was a princess, well, prince.

"Oh?" he gave a curious tilt of his head. "How close? Were you related? You do look like a princess, after all," he teased.

"Yes, I was related..." Lyr said giving him a piercing look.

But she was beginning to feel like she couldn't hold the secrets anymore. The more he pushed for answers the more difficult it was to keep them from him.

"Well, it doooooooooes explain a lot," Trest said, moving off the ground as he stretched his arms high above his head.
"Well, we probably ought to get going. I doubt those lizard-faces will stop trying to find us. So perhaps we ought to take a look at the map and devise a plan as to what we ought to do next. All I know is, the map points due south of here, implying the location of the city might be in the Seraj Isa, also known as the Glass Desert. Though the place is unique and beautiful, I can only imagine the dangers that might await us there. And.. well, you know how the saying goes." he grinned. "Wherever there is danger, there's gotta be treasure."

Then he moved over to sit on the bed, removing the map from the bag and carefully unrolling it as he spread it out onto the sheets. The paper smelled ancient, and was crisp and turned yellow, from age. The ink on it had begun to fade, evidence of it's age- but it was still legible.

"Well, here it is. A map to The Kingdom of Gold."

The princess was surprised when Trest stopped questioning her about her heritage. But she was grateful all the same. He didn't need to know more than he already did. She got up to watch Trest move to the bed and open the map.

Lyr didn't want to see the lizard faces anymore. Trest was right. They needed to start moving. More dangers?! Wonderful. Well, Lyr needed to make sure there were no Valeryian transportation mirrors or stones in that kingdom. If there were, she would need to dispose of them.

She moved to sit down on the bed next to Trest. She looked over the map. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to her. "Due south...but the Glass Desert is more than 100 miles away from here. We'll need horses, or something faster..." Lyr thought outloud wondering what would be faster than a horse. A magic carpet, perhaps.

"Well, horses wouldn't last long in a desert," Trest began to say. "Camels might be our safest best, though they're not the fastest, or so I've heard. Can't say I've ever ridden one. Then there's the Kaadir." He made a face "Though not sure I like those buggers either. Either way, since it's a considerable distance, even from here, we'll have to be smart when we go to supply ourselves in the city. I wouldn't recommend us leaving here without at least a month's worth of rations, a better map of the area and perhaps listening in on some local lore. Shouldn't be hard if we find a tavern or bar. Locals tend to become your friend when they're drunk. LEt's hope Essyrnian locals are the same."
Rolling up the map, he slipped it back into his sack.
"So.. first things first, let's go get ourselves a drink." he said, tossing her a wink before heading towards the door.

"Is a magic carpet an option? Don't worry about the kaadir. Just give me a few seconds with one and I'll be able to communicate with it. But camels are too slow. We'll be stuck in the desert for weeks...." Lyr frowned when she heard about going to a bar. It just reminded her of her time working with Carmichael and all the drunk and stupid men she had to perform for.

"Ok...but isn't it a bit too early to drink? I'd rather not get drunk. I can't hold my liquor very well..." Lyr admitted, cautiously. "And when I'm drunk...I tend to...do bad things."

"Magic carpet? What are you talking about? I don;t.. think those things really exist, and if they do, I'm not sure if Essyrn would be the place to find them."

Though come to think of it, hadn't all of the 'magic carpet' stories come from tales of fallen desert princes? He shook his head of it.

"But you're right, it is rather early for the drinking crowd." he said, but hten his attnetion perked up at the lat thing she muttered. "Oh? You do bad things? I didn't think a princess was capable!" then with a laugh, he corrected himself. "Oh, my bad. I meant prince."

"Well, maybe I'll ask someone about a magic carpet," Lyr replied. She hoped that there would be one big enough to fit them both. Meanwhile, Lyr's pets were packing up everything. Bugbee handed Lyr her satchel before diving into it. Chuggles gave Lyr a kiss on the cheek before she slowly plopped down into the satchel.

Lyr glared at him when he called her a princess. She was one, but he shouldn't be calling her that. "Keep it up and I'll make you my first victim after I've had a drink," Lyr replied, looking up at Trest.

"Oh yeah, asking for a magic carpet won't raise suspicion," he said with a roll of his eyes. "We're trying to be discrete about this. No one needs to know about the map, unless you want to invite more trouble.."

Then at Lyr's last statement, he quirked a brow.
"Is that a threat, princey-boy?"

"Then I guess kaadir it is..." Lyr said reluctantly. She had really wanted to ride a magic carpet. Trest was a thief so he knew what he was doing. Lyr didn't really know what she was doing. So she supposed she needed to trust him about some things.

"It's not a threat, it's a promise," Lyr quipped back, grinning. Trest was simply too much fun.

Trest stared at her skeptically.
"I don't know you well enough for promises, so I'll just assume not to worry." And he smirked, throwing his satchel over his shoulder as he gestured towards her to follow. "Come on, let's go see what can be done. Perhaps we can check out the market? Maybe we can at least buy a map, and if not, see if we can't find a caravan that might be headed south. It might be safer to travel in numbers, and we can always play it off that we're new merchants looking to check into the southern jungles that are past the Seraj Isa rather than admitting that's where we are going."

"Sounds like a plan. And I always keep my promises, Trest," Lyr replied following after him.

She was a bit nervous about being in a caravan. There was no telling what type of people she might meet. What if one of them was her former boss's client? She had to push that out of her mind. Most of those men were well away from Essryn. There would be no reason for them to come all the way here.

"Why do we need another map, anyways? We have the treasure map, isn't that enough?" She asked.

Trest ignored her second threat.

"I'd like a more recent map," he stated simply as they walked along the city streets. "The one we got is pretty old and dated. It would be wise to know if there are any oasis or caravan trails or other cities we can stop at along the way that aren't marked on this one. This journey won't be easy, so it won't hurt to have all of the help we got."

Trest paused now at the end of a street, looking both ways before he swore beneath his breath and grabbed a hold of Lyr and dragged her back intot he alley with him. He was pressing his arm over her to keep her against the wall, while he peered down the way.

"Shit, those lizard-faces are back,a nd it looks like they've brought some friends."
Peering around the corner, he noticed the pierced one frrom before that gave him the painful lashings he was still feeling against his back, and then, a few other lizard-faces he hadn't seen before. These ones were much larger and had darker scales, and boy did they look mean.

"Shit, they're all over the market place."

His logic made sense. Lyr didn't want to remain forever in the desert. He was right. Their journey wouldn't be easy. How difficult it would be, Lyr hadn't the slightest idea. When Trest pressed her against the wall, at first, Lyr hadn't a clue what was going on. She wasn't even able to think of a quick insult as to why he was doing this. She found herself enjoying this too much. That was until she caught the expression on Trest's face.

"They're really beginning to make me angry. How do we get rid of them? I wish we had magic disguise potions...or an invisibility cloak...or something! You wouldn't happen to have one in your bag, would you? Is there a magics shop nearby?" Lyr asked, hopefully. For Lyr everything could be solved with magic.

"What? No? ANd keep your voice down, do you want them to hear us?" Trest warned. "Besides, I don't know the first two things about magic, and it looks like we might have to avoid the market, or be extra careful. Too bad we don't have those dresses again. I think they worked out rather nicely." he said with a smirk. But in all honestly, he was wracking his brain trying to think of some sort of plan. but what!?

"I have dresses! Lots of clothing actually," Lyr told Trest, confidently. She had many outfits she had picked up along the way. Some of them were from her days when she worked for Carmichael. So she had a multitude of disguises. She might even be able to make Trest look even prettier. "And make up!" she told him. If that was the plan they were going for again.

"We could always use veils to cover our faces..."

"You know, for replying to my joke, you seem quite serious about that. You might make me wonder if you like wearing dresses, Prince Lyr," he said, cutting into her with a joke. He gave a mean smile. "Though you might be onto something with the veil.... but dresses aside, what else do you got int hat magical bag of yours?" Perhaps she had some other sort of disguise? If not, looks like the two would have to dress in drag again... or, become super careful when roaming the streets.

Lyr looked at him, clearly not amused. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"One second, let me check," Lyr said wiggling her arm out from under Trest's. Kneeling down, she opened her bag and yelled into it. "We need some sort of disguises..." she called into it, waiting to see if Bugbee had any ideas. After all he was the one that took inventory of the bag. Lyr had slightly lost track of how many things she had shoved into it over time.

Soon a veiled monk costume and a veiled dress popped up out of the bag. Lyr looked at both the dress and the monk costume.

"Where did this thing come from?! Oh well! Here, this looks big enough to fit you. It's for a monk err...priest of some sort of earthian god. And this is the outfit of a...confessor! Oh, the monk's female counterpart. Bugbee...why would you choose this for me? You deviant little beast!" Lyr said annoyed. She just hoped that these costumes would confuse the lizard people. Lyr knew more about the religion of the robes she had, but there was little time to discuss it.

"Maybe they chose the dress for me? I do have prettier eyes," Trest jested as he picked up the monk's costume, examining it. "I guess this will have to do, but I think my face is a bit recognizable. It's not like a lot of people around here have blue eyes and red hair like me, but I guess we'll have to make do. Got anything else in there? Maybe we can hide my hair in the hat?" he mused out loud as he began to pull on the costume rather quickly over top of his own clothes.

"Do you know nothing about the Priests of Adrall?! Their hoods magically en-cloak their faces, it's against the order to look on a priest or priestesses face unless you're the other half. If you're really worried, then here," She reached into her satchel and pulled out a wrap.

"Wrap it around your face, just your eyes will be seen, and they should appear a different color. It's got cloaking magic on it. Same as this," Lyr replied, wasting no time in shoving the priestess clothing on and wrapping her face and hair up so it couldn't be seen.

Sometimes Lyr felt as though Trest knew nothing about magic. It was really annoying at times. She didn't completely understand why he didn't understand it better. He was from Connloath. So maybe that was his excuse.

Lyr's shortness grated on his nerves.
"Why would I know anything about Priests from Adrall?" he asked curtly, feelign one of his brows beginning to twitch. "Either way, you'd better brief me.." he said, adjusting his head piece. "Because I think those lizard-face are heading this way!"

"Just tell them you're here on a pilgrimage, to sire more of your line. Adrall Priests can only be sired in certain temples around the earth. Chances are they won't ask many questions," Lyr told him, seeing the lizard people coming closer. Why did she leave this up to Trest. He didn't know anything about...a lot of things. Chances are it would have to be her saving their skins. 

"What!?" Trest said, but before he had a chance to ask anything more, the damn lizard-people were there. Trest adjusted his posture, clearing his throat as he bowed humbly, "Might we assist you, gentle creatures?"

The one lizard-folk hissed out a tongue.
"We are looking for someone.." he hissed.

"Oh? In life, we all have a journey. We all feel we need to seek someone," he said with a bow. "Just humble yourself in knowing that the will is the way."

The lizard-folk looked angry, their tails swishing as they peered around.
"They don't seem to be down this road. Come on." And the one gave only one second look to Trest and Lyr before disappearing down the street.

"Hmm, that was pretty good. I'm almost impressed. Now, let's go get our supplies. If anyone asks, just tell them the child was sired and we're on our way back to our home temple," Lyr told him. They would need to move quickly, she supposed. But once they were out in the desert would the lizards still chase after them.

"Ready?" She asked, hopefully. Lyr didn't want to bump into more lizards, but she knew she probably would. Since they seemed to be lurking every which way.

"Wait- what!?" Trest asked, yanking down the front of his costume so he could get a better look at Lyr.
"What do you mean by, 'a child was sired'?!"

 "What do you think I mean?! The only reason priests and priestesses of Adrall leave their home temple is to have a child to carry on their order. What! Don't give me that look. It's not like this is real. It's just an act, go with it. I don't see why you're having such a hard time with this," Lyr told him, confused. She didn't really understand what his problem was.

Trest's face blushed.
"Yeah but-" he barked, then tucked back up his disguise over his face as he sighed. Shaking his head, he said, "Oh, never mind. You're right, it's just pretend.  And thank the Gods for that. Come on," he said, taking her by the hand. "Let's move through this market quickly, sweetie. IF you've got a bun in the oven, it might be getting rather hot.. or maybe you should cool it on those pastries?" he teased, and continued to drag her along as the pair wove through the busy, bustling streets of Essyrn.

"I'm not fat! My boobs are just too big!" Lyr snapped back, more than a bit annoyed. Maybe she had spoken too fast or was a bit too convincing. She needed to change the subject. Trest really brought out the worst and most careless part of her.

"So...we need food, rope, water...well we can just use the magic water stones in our canteens to keep them filled. Is there anything written about the temple where we're going? Does it have any...hidden dangers?" She whispered the last part.

Trest laughed at her comment about boobs.
"Nice acting, as if you have boobs!" ANd he didn't know why, but he just kept on laughing, amused by Lyr's whines that seemed so honest, but to him, were ridiculous. Unless he had man boobs but... no, Lyr looked too scrawny for that.And why would he care if he had man boobs? Just ew.

At Lyr's other questions, he hrmmmed and tapped a finger to his lip.
"Well, I can't read too much Essyrnian, but I wouldn't doubt a treasure like this might have traps." But instead of elaborating, he simply shrugged.
"Hey, looks like a fellow over there is selling maps. Come on!"

"My...." Lyr's words fizzled away, remembering that yes she was supposed to be a man. Why did Trest make it nearly impossible to play her part? Usually she was so skilled at playing this part, no one ever questioned her. But there was something about Trest that just threw her off her game.


"Oh yes! A map, I had completely forgotten about that," Lyr told Trest following along after him. She was annoyed by his lack of elaboration.
Lyr hoped there were no magical traps where they were going. But with her luck, she was sure there would be and loads of them.

With their costumes secured, Trest went ahead to a vendor, and once he found one that sold maps to the Seraj Isa, he found himself arguing over price. Half a gold sliver for a map!? It was asburd, but he talked the prince down to two silver slivers and a few coppers, then once the price was settled on, he turned to Lyr as he smiled behind his facade.
"Why don't you pay the nice man for the map, dear." Trest said, batting his eye lashes so that only Lyr could see this action. He just hoped Lyr had the money. She seemed to be pulling a lot of coin from no where nad he wondered if her bag was hiding some wealth within. Either way, he wanted to be done with the map salesman. The sun was reaching it's zenith and it was getting too damn hot to remain in the market. He felt as though he were sweating buckets.

"You're really bad at haggling, my dear I think he would have gone down further. But here's the money, anyways," Lyr said, after reaching into her bag and pulling out the money.

She hated paying for things. Trest was a big boy. Certainly he must have some sort of money? Lyr eyed him suspiciously. He was a thief. How come he had no money. Maybe he was waiting to steal her magic bag?! Well, the laugh would be on him, since the bag was bound to her through magic. It would be just an ordinary bag to him. Lyr giggled at the thought.

Treat gave a grin, jutting his chin out as he did so.
"Thankyou, dear,"" he said with a playful batting of his lashes. Once a map was secured, he lead Lyr into a quieter part of town and unfolded the map before them.
"Now let's see here. Hrmmm... Seems a few new trade routes heading south might be wise, particularly the one that cuts through the canyon here, but that's probably bandit territory. We'd have to be careful."

"Bandits?! Exciting! I've always wanted to meet bandits. My father told me stories about them too. Though, I don't quite understand what the difference between bandits and thieves are. Oh, are we traveling with any others?" she asked.

She knew it would probably be safer to travel in a group. But she knew they needed to keep their goals secret. So, whatever Trest decided would be ok with her. Though, she didn't really want to travel with anyone else.

"Traveling in a group might be wise. If we can find a caravan going through the Seraj Isa, then we're lucky, but I can't see a glass desert being  a hot spot for travel. Rumor has it it's quite dangerous, especially if you walk over the brittle glass parts and entire caravans have been noted to become lost. Some say ghosts even live there."

He paused to consider what this could mean. "Either way, if a caravan is at least heading towards the Jungles to the south, a more likely destination, then we could even follow along with them."

Then he paused to consider Lyr's earlier statement.
"And you can't be serious. If we run into bandits we'd be left for dead. So unless you think a coffin is exciting, then you might want to reconsider that fantasy you've woven over them. Besides, not all bandits can be as charming as me." ANd he grinned, his blue eyes sparkling.

"Real ghosts?! Amazing! We have those where I'm from as well. Though...I don't think our spirits are quite the same. We have forest spirits called wisps. And there are other types of spirits with different wisp...names. And, jungles?! Will we get to go into them? Or are they not on the way to our final destination?" Lyr asked, wanting to know. She heard all sorts of amazing animals lived in jungles. She decided not to tell Trest about her animal communication ability. After all, he didn't really need to know that little fact.

She still wasn't thrilled about the idea of traveling with a caravan. Who knew what type of seedy people might be traveling with them. Lyr certainly didn't want to run into one of her former boss's clients. Though, she doubted any of the high level men she had performed for would be in a traveling caravan down that way.

Lyr was sad when she heard the truth about bandits. Well, Trest's truth. Who knew if it was the real truth. He could be lying. "Please, you charming? I bet more women run away from you than run for your bed," Lyr replied, casually, not completely sure where or why this statement came out of her mouth.

"For now, the jungle is no where near the location of this Golden Kingdom, but I don't exactly believe in ghosts, so I doubt the rumors are true.  If anything, we might find bones of animals or people dumb enough to trek there, so we'll have to be careful we don't turn into bones, too. It's not an easy ground to walk over and it's nearly blinding during the daytime. ANd if the heat won't kill us, thin glass might."

ANd at her last comment he added, "Oh, on the contrary, I've had plenty of ladies run to my bed. It seems women find blue eyes and a roguish grin attractive. Sorry, I haven't seen many women swoon for the violet hair, though maybe if you were a woman... men might think you're hot. But being as your a man, well.... purple hair just normally doens't do. At least not from where i'm fun. Having such strange hair normally means you're a mage, or some none sense like that." he said with a roll of his eyes and shrug.
"But come on, let's check the other end of the market near the bazaar. There might be a listing of traveling caravans taking on passengers or we can ask around. I mean, if you're goign to be traveling, makes sense you'd need some animals, right? And all we have to do to find it is listen for the sound of animals. Or you know, smell them."
Considering bazarr's normally reeked of animal dung.

"I'm not that worried about thin glass," Lyr replied. The heat probably would be annoying but she doubted it would kill her. Besides, she could always fly over the thin glass if things got too hairy. Though, she still didn't completely understand what this thin glass stuff would be. But she supposed she would find out when she got there. No sense in worrying about it now.

Lyr gave Trest a disgusted look. Why were the human species so...yucky? It was a foreign thought to her to have more than one mate. It didn't happen in her homeland, usually, unless the king wanted too, and he usually didn't. He was like all the other disgusting men she had met during her time. "You clearly don't understand women. I can see why most of my kind don't like humans. You take too many mates. My kind only takes one mate forever. I didn't realize humans didn't do the same till I got here," Lyr said, disgusted. She was beginning to remember why she really didn't like human men.

"Let's make sure we get nice people in the caravan. I don't want to have to deal with twenty of you," Lyr told him. Still disgusted by the fact she learned Trest was a whore, like every other human man she had ever met. The women weren't usually much better, either.

"One mate? Those ideals are in fantasies. There are too many fish in the sea. And besides, it's not like I run the sort of business that allows for the flexibility of a wife," Trest said with a nonchalant shrug. And then at his last comment, he laughed.
"What's wrong with me?" And he gave her a roguish grin. "Maybe we can find a caravan of full ladies."
Actually, he'd hate that. Women were so demanding, and he wasn't about to admit to Lyr he'd only shared his bed with just a few, small handful of women. And sadly, most of them he was hoping for more than a one night stand. But then again, it was what it was, and he was not in the type of industry to be a man who shoudl be seeking a wife or 'life mate' as Lyr so eloquently put it.

"Obviously with humans it is. But it's not that way for me. You could always marry a female thief and start a partnership business. There are a few cons I know with men and women..." Lyr replied. She understood that men were pretty much whores this side of Valyria. That didn't mean she was going to become one. Besides there was too much risk involved. Her former boss hadn't understood that when he tried to sell her off to the highest bidder. Then again, even if he had known the truth, Lyr doubted he would have cared much. 

"Please, don't. I don't want to deal with them right now," Lyr told him. She liked human women more than most human men. Then again, there were a lot of women she just couldn't stand.

Trest gave a laugh.
"Not a fan of human women either? Man, you're quite the picky, purple-haired wonder, aren't ya?" Trest teased. He gave a shake of his head and shrug as the pair continued into the market when his eyes began to search through the masses.

"Man, this place is crowded," he commented as his broad shoulders were pushing through and being pushed by those within the crowd. He gave a shake of his head. "I see a lot of sellers, though it's difficult to gage who might be traveling. Oh wait, hold on a moment, there's a group making it's way out of the city. It looks large enough to be the sort of caravan we're looking for." Not to mention, the people within didn't look too shady, just weather worn from their work. Trest quickly approached one of the men at the rear.

"Excuse me, sir," he said. The man, who was tending to a crate of wares, turned to observe Trest.

"Can I help you?"

"Maybe you can, you see I'm looking to join up with a caravan heading towards the jungle."

The man eyed Trest suspiciously.
"And what sort of business do you both have in the jungle?"

Recalling he was in costume, Trest gave a roguish grin and humbled bow.
"To find our path of enlightenment. It is said many wonders exist in the jungles, and that the beauty of the Gods and of nature is truly a sight to be seen."

The man continued to stare, and Trest quickly added, "And my companion believes we can do some good work teaching the tribes of the south about the Truth."

Lyr didn't really like getting bumped into people from every way. She followed along after Trest, looking up at him when he made a comment about the market being crowded. She decided to bite her tongue and not make some comment. When he finally found a group Lyr stood next to him quietly. They were supposed to be in character, after all. She could see one of the caravan members giving her a look over. He looked familiar but she didn't remember him. So she doubted he was that important.

The man eyed the pair over, raising a dark brow before nodding.
"You can come along, but not on my watch. The caravan guards itself. I'm linked with a few other travelers, mostly men in the market. It would be... unsuitable for us to reject those of religion." And the man smiled, revealing his rotting teeth. "We can use all of the help we can get from any God from any land from the place we're traveling. The Seraj Isa is dangerous territory. You ever been?"

Trest forced a smile back and shook his head.
"No, but there's a first time for everything, my friend."

THe man laughed at that.
"I think you two will fit in very nicely. By the way, my name is Abel." he said with a bow. "And yours, stranger?"

Trest paused a moment before grinning.
"You can call me Jezreth. And this is is Merrimar." And Abel gave another once over of Lyr, making note of how lovely she looked.

"It is a pleasure to meet you both. Are you equipped for such travel? We leave before night fall. It makes travel easier to move in the desert in the dark."

Lyr decided to just let Trest speak. Because she had an uncanny ability for rubbing everyone the wrong way. Besides, she wanted to get to this Gold Kingdom safely. If she died, while not impossible but difficult for her, she wouldn't be able to see if her mom was doing anything evil. So she just smiled, and nodded to whatever "Jezreth" was saying. Could he have possibly picked out more difficult names? She didn't like Abel continuing to give her a once over. So she stood behind Trest slightly. This was not going to end well, she could already feel it in her bones.

Trest gave a nod.
"We need to get a few supplies, though I must say I am uncertain what we will need." And he gave a partial bow. "Since I've never been through the desert, let alone the Seraj Isa, I do not know what to expect."

And at this, Abel laughed.
"Lots of water and dried foods. Covers to protect you from the sun, and shields for your eyes." And he gestured towards a wall of merchants before him. "You have a plethera of choices," the man began to explain. "You should be able to find all that you need here int he Market."

Trest gave a nod.
"Thank you, Abel. You have been a blessing."

And Abel's lips peeled back to reveal a rotten toothed grin. "I should hope." And he bowed to Trest before the man walked away.


Heading back out into the market, Trest gave a laugh now that he and Lyr were alone.
"Well, that was simple enough."

"Simple for you. Did you see the way that man was looking at me?!" Lyr finally let out. She felt she could finally breathe again without being in his presence. "It was horrible. Don't ever leave me alone with him, please," Lyr requested. She had a feeling something awful was going to happen. She just didn't know what. But she assumed it would probably have something to do with Abel.

"Dried foods, water...I have a tent in my satchel," Lyr told Trest. "And don't we need something to ride? I still think we should find a magic carpet."

"Ok. You find us a magic carpet, I'll find us a donkey... Or something more realistic to ride." And he moved deeper into the market, pausing beside a rug dealer to grin. "Any of those look magical enough for ya? Personally, I think the red looks pretty with its 'enchanting' gold tassels."

Lyr gave Trest a glare. "Magic carpets are real! And only one...steed? I think we'll need two," Lyr told him, frowning when she looked at the carpets. They were really pretty. But none of them seemed particularly magical. It was so sad. There was limited magics here.

Trest looked over at Lyr and smirked.
"One steed, because I'm not made of money, though if we use you as a tool to barter with, we might be able to get two for the price of one...." Trest said with a thoughtful rub to his chin.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lyr asked, hostilely.

She gave Trest a rather cold look. He had hit a sore spot with her. She didn't like the idea of being used as some sort of prostitute to get them something. That's what she assumed he was thinking. It reminded her of her former boss and he wasn't a very nice man. But she stopped where she was and waited for Trest to answer.

"Just saying something to get you mad," Trest replied with a grin. "Say.. how much coin you got in that magic pouch of yours?"

"Enough," Lyr replied giving Trest a glare. "But at this rate, you're in quite a bit of debt." She told him, grinning. He owed her money, now she had concluded. Because, well, she decided so just now. That and Trest was being rather annoying and he never paid for anything himself. Besides, he was a thief and she doubted he'd pay her anything back. She was just trying to prove a point.

"Hey, you can get your gold back once I'm well and safe back in Connlaoth. It's not my fault those lizard-faces stole my money!"

Lyr laughed when Trest said it wasn't his fault that the lizards stole his money. "Really? Not your fault. Who was the one that got captured?" Lyr asked, shaking her head.

Trest made a face, then realized, "Hey, you got captured too," he said, with a partial sneer. "Besides, you never answered me." he folded his arms across his chest. "Do we have enough money for two rides or just one?" If they had to share, he wasn't sure he would survive this trip.. alive.

Lyr had enough for two, but if she used it all she would start to feel poor. So she wasn't about to use it all for two steeds. "Not enough for two if we still need to buy other things. And as I told you before, I wasn't captured I was a guest. The princess lizard wanted me as a mate!" Lyr told him triumphantly, grinning, thinking she had won this battle.

Trest suddenly barked out a laugh, which inadvertently made him spit (during his laugh) in Lyr's face. He was laughing so hard, his cheeks teared up and his face turned red.

"Use you as a mate?" And he proceeded to laugh and laugh. "Forgive me, your royal, purple haired highness but..." he looked the other 'man' over and raised a brow. "Really? I dunno, most women prefer their men a little... you know... manly."

Lyr wasn't smiling, and she wiped Trest's spit from her face. Well, she was happy he said that she wasn't manly. But at the same time, she was highly annoyed. After all her act brought in countless women.

"Please, you don't know the first thing about women. I'm more in-tune with their needs than you are. And I didn't see you manning up at all while we were there, either. If it wasn't for me, you'd still be stuck there. And don't insult me. I'd be a wonderful mate...to the right man. Err...person..." Lyr stated, but got annoyed and out-winded by the end of her declaration.

Trest rolled his eyes.
"Well, Abel seems interested, so if you're lucky, I'm sure he'd take you on as his mate." He cracked her a soured grin, but at her last remark his narrowed his gaze. "It's not like I can do much when I was chained up and bleeding..." he replied, then turned away from her, keeping his eyes now focused on the bazaar as they approached. It seems they'd have a lot of animals to choose from, but which would work best in the desert?

There were riding lizards, mules, donkies, horses, camels, large, feathery-bird things, ostriches, even a large crocodile, which nearly made Trest piss his pants as he passed by it, the gator growling at him through a strapped closed maw.
"By the Gods... that thing could swallow me whole!" and just as he was fumbling to get away from the crocodile, he moved too closely beside a pen of ostriches as one pecked him on the rear.

He gave a leap. "Yee-ouch!"

"If that cretin so much as touches me...I'll really, really, really, hurt him," Lyr replied, a chill going up her spine. She didn't want to go with Abel. He was creepy. She was a little bit afraid. But it seemed that going with the caravan was their best option. Lyr just wished it didn't have to be the one with the creepy man.

Lyr laughed when she watched Trest interact with the animals. He seemed to be afraid of the gator. Well, Lyr would be angry if someone had tied her up like that. She really didn't like seeing all these animals penned up. "So...which one will it be, Trest. I think the gator would be the best bet. She really doesn't like you. So, naturally I like her the best." Lyr told Trest grinning.

We're not getting the gator," Treat informed her with a frown. "Nor an ostriche." He made a face at the bird but it just blinked. Shaking his head, he looked at the camels. "What about one of these?" He said, petting its long neck when suddenly it spit on his head.

Lyr grinned when Trest said they weren't getting the gator or an ostrich. Animals really didn't seem to like Trest too much. Lyr had powers that connected her with animals. But she didn't need to tell Trest that. Watching him suffer was simply too much fun.

"I don't think the camels like you that much either," Lyr told him, shaking her head.

Trest made a face, and tried to stare the camel down after wiping the spit from his hair. But the camel simply made another noise at Trest's visual threats-
then spit at him again, this time hitting him square in the face.

"Oooh, I like him," Lyr said walking up to the camel, gently stroking his fur. "He's so cute!" she exclaimed looking at the camel.

She took an apple out of her satchel and fed it to the camel. "Let's take this one!" The camel was cute, but it also appeared to detest Trest. So that was just another point for this creature.

"We're not getting the camel," Trest said, making a soured face and glare towards the camel. But then the camel swept it's head down and stared over at Lyr, before taking some of her hair at her cheek and began to nibble on it lightly.

"But look at him, he's adorable," Lyr told Trest. She didn't really like the camel nibbling on her hair. But she decided to use her powers on it to see what was really going on with this beast.

"Could you stop that, please. How do you feel about a long journey through the desert, filled with danger," She asked the camel, using her powers to communicate with it. Unsure what type of response to expect in return. 

"You taste like salt," the camel responded, still nibbling at her hair.
"And the desert? That's all I ever do. I'm not even sure there are other options besides sweltering at this bazaar."

Trest merely raised his brow at the pair, not sure to make of Lyr getting close to the camel. So he eyed the pair of them suspiciously.

"Well, if you don't want us to buy you and take you away from all this, that's ok? Though, I don't really understand the concept of buying another living creature. We'll look for another ride. What do you think of my fiery haired friend?" she asked continuing to pet the camel and smile. She looked over at Trest, and noticed he was giving her a look.

"I'm talking to it and seeing if it wants to help us or not." She told Trest with a nod.

Trest gave a single quirk of his brow, then rolled his eyes.
"Yeah... right. Talking to an animal." Then again,t his statement came from a 'man' who wanted to use a magic carpet.

The camel seemed to smile, it's lips moving as it licked at them and turned to Trest.
"Oh, him? He's like any other barbarian. Though I wouldn't mind traveling with a human who can actually talk. It would be refreshing."

"I bet the animal is telling you how much it likes to spit on me," Trest said bitterly, still wiping some of the gunk from his hair.

"Then it's decided. We'll take you! You're right, he is a barbarian. First time I met him he was running around in a loin cloth," Lyr exclaimed happily.

Besides once they were no longer in need of a ride, they could set this beast free. She looked sadly at all the other animals. They were enslaved. Now wasn't the time to be bringing about a revolution. No, she needed to hang her head low. Besides, she could always come back and free them.

"Ugh, you need a bath again! Maybe there will be an underground spring somewhere in the desert," Lyr said looking back at Trest. She was happy with the camel.

"After we sweat all day in the desert I'll be due for a bath anyways." Then at her decision for the camel, he looked at her, then at the beast.
"I don't know about this one.." and as he studied the camel, it was almost as if it were smiling at him.


"Yes, definitely a barbarian,"t he camel agreed. "And how scandalous. Did you enjoy the show?" The camel was not fooled by her appearance, and knew a female when he smelled one.
"Is that the only reason you keep this barbarian with you?" Then more so it thought, "I suppose the hair  and rugged features are on 'the in' for female's tastes?"


Trest swore the camel was giving him a scrutinizing stare and found himself smiling back.
"Why don't we get a horse instead?" he suggested.

"Horse?" the camel sounded upset. "Horses have NO place in the desert. They wouldn't last an hour. Poor things. They don't have humps."

"If you say so..." Lyr disagreed with Trest. She thought he needed to clean up right now. Her face turned red when the camel asked her if she had enjoyed seeing Trest running around in a loin cloth. Lyr didn't know how to answer that. Yeah, she had liked it. Even though she knew she really wasn't supposed to. 

"So you know my secret. No sense in trying to fool an animal's nose! Well, he is attractive, but his personality lacks a lot. And he does seem to be a bit of a womanizer. He's said he bedded many women but I don't know about that. Still one can only assume that he's only after one thing. Which, for me, drops his attractiveness down quite a bit. I think if he was a bit more knightly and chivalrous I'd like him better," Lyr told the camel, continuing to pet it. She rolled her eyes when Trest suggested a horse.

"He says that horses won't last long enough in the desert. We're taking him. My coin, my choice," She gave Trest a challenging look.

Trest narrowed his gaze at Lyr.
"Are you saying I'll have to put up with both you and this quirky camel the whole way to the Seraj Isa?"

The camel perked up at that.

"Oh, you're going to the glass desert?" the animal inquired, peering over towards Lyr. "And you're taking this brute with you? You'd think you'd want to hire someone with more... skills. The glass desert is very troublesome. Some places the glass surface might be miles thick.. other places, thin as a sheet of parchment. It would be a shame to see your barbarian friend break right through the surface and be swallowed unto his death." Though the camel's tone shown no real 'shame' to it.

"Yes you will! Don't worry Trest things will be fine. Just as long as you make sure Abel keeps his grubby paws away from me," Lyr told Trest. She took out her change purse and called the merchant over. Within a few moments, she had bought the camel.

"Yes we are. And I wouldn't worry too much about my friend here. He does have some skills, I think, other than just being pretty to look at," Lyr told the camel, patting him, forgetting Trest could understand her. She took the rope from the merchant with a big smile on her face. They had gotten their ride! Now what did they need? 

"Are you going to keep scrutinizing me with that camel, or are we going to get going?" Trest asked when at last the camel was theirs. He grabbed the camel by his reins and began to guide the beast away. The camel made a light groan of protest as it sighed inwardly.

"Will he be like this the whole time?" the camel inquired. "If so, I might not have enough spit."

"And if you want me to be more like a knight in shining armor, we should have went for the horse. They're more dashing."

ANd at that comment, the camel made a groan and chomped it's teeth into Trest's butt.

"YE-ouch!"

Lyr sighed, Trest was right. She frowned when he took the reins out of her hands. "If he's bothering you, do whatever you like." Lyr told the camel. She laughed as she watched the camel bite Trest.

"You might want to try being a little nicer to our new friend. You two might even get along..." Lyr told Trest, shaking her head.

Lyr had wanted to marry a knight as a child. Her father told her she was destined to marry royalty or something like that. Honestly, once Lyr heard she wasn't supposed to do something, it only made her want to do it more. Lyr looked Trest over, she did wonder how he would look in knight's clothing....where was her mind going!? He was a human! These types of thoughts were not allowed. 

Trest rolled his eyes.
"Lucky for the pair of you, I'm anything but knightly material. So your little day dreams can be left to yourself."

The camel sighed at this.
"I see no reason a camel might not be a dashing steed," it argued, though Trest could not hear it, and it reluctantly followed after him as the man lead him towards the caravan and through the market.

"Let's see... we probably should get more supplies while we're here," he said, his blue eyes scanning the area.

The camel gave Trest's side a sniff.
"This human at least smells alright, aside from my spit." The camel could hve smiled, if it could, before giving a few more sniffs to Trest's leg, then to his hair.

"Hey, cut that out!" Trest growled at the beast, and it appeared as if the camel might be ready to spit into his face, but it reserved it, knowing full well if it spit everytime he got upset with this man, it might become weary of it.

"I suppose my new master could be worse," the camel admitted.

"Isn't that the truth! But women do prefer knights. They're so chivilarous and shiny and handsome!" Lyr exclaimed from behind Trest, ignoring her former thoughts. She quickly walked forward to be alongside Trest. Yes, they did need some more supplies. Hopefully they would be close by. Lyr didn't want to get left behind.

"I think camels can be quite dashing too."

Lyr looked curiously when the camel said Trest didn't smell bad. Was it because of her costume? "Smells all right?" Lyr inhaled very deeply but couldn't really smell anything. "I can't smell anything but he could still use a bath. He's going to be all sweaty and gross, riding through the desert. You're right. He's exactly the sharpest tool in the box, but he's not cruel," Lyr said with a sigh. She wished she could be less cheap and buy a second steed, but alas, she would not. 

"Oh? So you both won't ride me then?" the camel inquired, seeming not to understand that they would both share the humps of it's back.

And as Trest was going through and purchasing some supplies, he paused to glance back at Lyr and the camel.
"What are you two talking about anyway? And are you really able to talk to animals, or are you trying to make me look bad? Either way, I think you're at least an animal charmer. Seems that camel likes you."

And that's when the camel spit on Trest again.

"I guess we could try to take turns. If you think it would hurt you too much with us both on your back..." Lyr offered, not wanting to crush the camel's hopes. After all, she didn't want to hurt the beast. She merely wanted to make him comfortable.

"Of course I can talk to animals! I'm not a loon!" Lyr replied to Trest, shaking her head. Did he really think she was just doing this for fun? Well, Lyr wouldn't put it past herself to pretend to know about something she actually knew nothing about. "He doesn't think you're that bad, either. At least, he says you don't smell bad. But...I don't think he wants us both riding on his back..." Lyr told Trest.

Wiping off the spit, Trest growled. " We, tell your friend we bought him for the ride, not to tag along. He's designed to carry more loads than us. Besides, you probably weigh no more than a stick."

"He said you're designed to carry things that are much heavier than us. So...I have a feeling we'll both be on your back..." Lyr told the camel apologetically. It seemed Trest was displeased. How could she cheer him up? Why did she even want to? "Ummm...the caravan is all men, right?" Lyr asked, trying to decide why she asked the question in the first place. 

Trest gave a shrug, bartering with one man for supplies; which was hard to do when he was half focused on trying to hear what Lyr was saying about him to the camel...
and from having hte camel step on his foot or spit on him again.
It seemed this time the camel decided to step on his foot.

Trest held his breath, holding back a scream before he suddenly punched the camel on the side.
"GET OFF MY FOOT!"

The camel let out a noise and reared back, trying to fight Trest's hold.

"He hit me! He actually hit me!" the camel said in fear. Then agian, his foot crushing Trest's foot probably hurt ten times worse than the punch Trest had give him, for while the camel was shocked, Trest was doubled over from the pain;t hough he still held the reigns in a death grip, his face now red from pain as he gripped onto his poor sandaled foot, a few of the toe nails now seeping blood.

Lyr watched the seen unfold. She grimaced as she watched Trest and the camel fight. She sighed. Boys will be boys, she supposed. "Camel, he won't do that again, but you really can't keep physically harming him..." Lyr told the camel, patting it as she walked over to Trest.

Lyr knelt down next to Trest, and looked at his foot. She could see the blood, so she immediately rummaged around in her satchel for some healing potions. Eventually she found some. She pulled out two vials. "I'm sorry that you're hurt. But you really scared the camel...Ok, Trest, this first one drop is going to sting, but it's necessary to clean out the wound. And the second one is going to heal it all up."

Trest's cheeks were puffed, his knuckles white from his grip as he steadily released a breath.
"Just do whatever. This god damn hurts!" And he tried his best not to let his eyes tear up, however, toe nails were such a sensitive part of the body, it was a hard feat to accomplish.

Lyr felt really bad that Trest was injured. So she began using the eye dropper tool with the first potion on his wounds. She did it quickly hoping it wouldn't make the pain that much worse. She knew it would sting, but she didn't think it would hurt as much as the initial crush. Lyr fiddled with the next potion, pulling out its droplet. Some of her hair fell down in her face.

"I'm sorry this happened to you...this part shouldn't hurt as much," Lyr said, using the potion to heal his toenails. His injury looked mighty painful.

Trest like out a hiss.
"Holy shit." he seethed through his teeth, trying his best to blink back any tears. "You sure as shit weren't lying when you said it would sting!"
And after a moment, the pain seemed to subside as he sighed wearily and glanced down at Lyr.
She looked pretty, beautiful even as he admired her.
And ti was only at the snort coming from the camel that he was popped out from his little day dream.

Shit.
Lyr was a man.

"You don't have to apologize. I'm no good wiht animals," he said, his voice a bit softer as he turned away, staring down at the sands.

Lyr winced as she heard Trest hiss. Yeah, it would hurt quite a bit. Lyr was just happy she didn't have to use this stuff on herself again. "The stinging will go away soon enough, once they're completely healed. Probably less than 30 seconds..." Trest's wounds didn't appear to be that bad, so Lyr was just guesstimating.

"I guess I'll just have to teach you to be friends, then. Since we're all going to be traveling together," Lyr told Trest, smiling as she stood up.

"That means you too, Mr. Camel. We can't have you injuring him at every turn, no matter how...ridiculous he's being. Do you have a name you'd like us to call you?" Lyr asked the camel.

"Samelton," the camel said with an indignant sniff. "And for you, my lady, I suppose I can make an exception. Though, would it be rude for me to ask your full name as well? I must admit, I am terribly awkward at communicating with humans this way. I'm just not used to it. We normally all exist in our own world."

Trest glared at the camel.
"Us be friends? Fat chance."

The camel sighed. "There goes that idea." ANd he smirked inwardly, chuckling. "Seems like we're allin for a bumpy ride."

"Samelton, that's cute! You can just call me Lyr. His name is Trest," Lyr told Samelton, grinning. She frowned when Trest said he wasn't going to be friends with the camel. Well, wasn't he just being a stubborn baby. Lyr crossed her arms looking at Trest.

"Samelton is willing to be friends with you, and you're going to need to change your attitude. It wasn't just his fault you got hurt. You hit him and scared him! He's much bigger than you, it was an accident. Get over it and try to be friends," Lyr told Trest, trying to grab the reins away from him.

Trest yanked the reins away from her.
"Maybe we'll be friends when my foot is fully healed," then he stuck his tongue childishly out at Samelton, and the camel looked about ready to spit, but instead, just puckered it's lips and turned away.

"What an ass," Samelton said, with such class.

OOC: Lol, oh my this camel is just.. lol XD

Lyr sighed, looking over at Trest, more than annoyed. Why was he being such a baby?! "Well, you should start making up, then because it should be less than two minutes with the amount of potion I drizzled on your foot," Lyr scoffed out at Trest.

"I agree with you, Samelton. He is that," Lyr replied, looking at bit icy at Trest.

"Less than two minutes?" Trest blinked, but then quickly smirked. "Man, I could get used to having a magical companion. So... since I have two minutes of hate left towards the camel, I'd better make good use of it." Then he playfully and childishly turned towards the beast and stuck out it's tongue.

This time, however, Samelton seemed to chuckle.
"At least he's got a sense of humor. I wonder how happy he'd be if I stepped on his other foot?" the camel mused thoughtfully, but his tone was obviously jesting.

Lyr couldn't stop herself from grinning when Trest called her a companion. Did this mean that they were friends? She wasn't sure. Now didn't seem like the right time, especially since he and Samelton were acting so childish.

She decided to keep Samelton's jest, quiet so this peace could last a bit longer. She doubted it would last too long. If her brothers had taught her anything, it was that men would go back to fighting very quickly.

"Does this mean we are friends, Trest?" Lyr asked, nervously. She didn't want him to say no. Though, if he did she was sure she would be crushed.

Trest was still all smiles when the question came from Lyr. Raising a brow, he stared the other man over.
"I don't know. I suppose you could call it that," he said, still chuckling as he wiped a light tear from his eye. He shook his head, still smiling before he peered at the camel. "I never had a friend who can talk to animals. So what is this beast really saying about me anyway?"

Samelton blinked.
"Tell him if he asks that again, I'll spit," and the camel chuckled.

Lyr didn't know why she was so ecstatic about being called his "friend" but she was. It showed on her face. There had to be something wrong with her. "I never had a friend that was completely human with no magic, whatsoever," lyr told him, still grinning from ear to ear.

"Samelton says if you ask that again, he'll spit on you. Just call him by his name, you might become friends with him, too," Lyr told him.

Trest raised a brow at Lyr's ectastic reaction to him being a 'non-magical human'.
"Yes, an interesting friend to have!" Trest jested, "A normal, ordinary, boring, run of the mill, ain't go to magic fluff, human."
Shaking his head, he turned to the camel with a smirk. "So he's got a personality on him, does he? I like him already." Then he paused to add, "Well, you know, spitting aside." Then he gave a side long glance to Lyr as he was making his way back towards where the caravan would be meeting.

"So why are you so excited I don't have magic anyway? There's nothing really special about someone who can't manipulate the world around us, or.. well, in your case, own infinite space in a bag and can speak to animals." But then he gave a more thoughtful rub to his chin and inquired, "Then again.... what else can you do anyway? Just asking," he siad witha  shrug. "Just incase I might need to know for survival purposes when we're out int he desert."

Lyr thought that it was wonderful to have non-magical friends. Well, friend. Most of her friends were all magic users. The humans she met tended to be clients. So they weren't really friends. Lyr grinned at Samelton, it seemed that he and Trest had a chance at friendship after all.
"He's a very noble camel."

Should she really share her magical abilities? Usually, she kept them a secret from others. But...for some reason she liked Trest a lot. Too much.
"Hmm...what else can I do? Well, I'm really, really, really strong. I can fly. I have a magic voice. I'll be alive for a really, really, really long time. I'm super durable. There's other magical properties involving my species, but I doubt you need or want to know about them...," Lyr told Trest.
She decided to leave out the immunity to fire potential. Because she had never actually tested out that ability. So she might not be able to do it.

"Magic voice?" Trest repeated with a scratch to the back of his head. "What do you mean by that? You could serenade my pants off me or something? And when you say durability, can I push you over a cliff and you'd survive?" And he smiled charmingly at his jokes.

OOC: Sorry it's short D:
I also totally thought I replied to this but I didn't ;_;

OOC: it's ok. Happens to everyone.

IC:

"Something like that. My voice just umm creates emotional responses and can cause people to fall asleep. So I could easily sing you a song that would make you fall in love with me...so I guess you'd take your pants off. For the cliff, I have wings so i can fly but yeah... I probably wouldn't die either way," Lyr replies unsure whether Trest was joking or not.

"Oh right, I remember the singing and the sleeping thing," he said with a smirka nd thoughtful rub to his chin. But at her last comment he paused, so did the camel. "Wait, what? You have wings?"

OOC: Omgerd, so tired, I can't recall if Lyr mentioned her wings or used them yet XD I don't think she did? If she did I can fix this D:
I'm tired so I'll be heading to bed soon XD so sorry for another short post

OOC: she hasn't used them yet :)

IC:

"Yes I do. I can fly really, really fast. I am not sure which part of my ancestry it's from...Phoenix, dragon or harpy. Probably harpy since my wings aren't fiery or scaly," Lyr told Trest proudly.

Trest stared at her in disbelief, not sure what else to do but blink!
"You've.. got quite the blood line," he said with a laugh. "Lyr with wings, hrmm.." he rubbed his chin again. "Not sure what to imagine there. Maybe leathery wings.. like  a demon's..."
Yes, clearly that would make sense on a 'man' like Lyr!
"Say, you got a tail, too?" Might as well ask, who knew what else this man was hiding!

OOC: ok, good XD
I'm in so many threads, I sometimes forget details ;_;

OOC: No problems. You are in a lot of threads

IC:

"My wings are not leathery! They're white, feathery and beautiful. And I have absolutely nothing on my body that remotely resembles a tail," Lyr replied unsure whether to be hurt or not by Trest's comment.

Trest paused to consider what Lyr said, and couldn't help himself but respond, "So... are you saying you're a girl?"

OOC: Just... lol. Trest can be so special at times XD

Ooc: true. But it's cute.

Ic:

How did he know!? Then Lyr thought about what she had said. Oops. "No! I'm a man. I just forgot about that ugly thing!" She responded afraid she had been found out about.

Trest wasllaughing so hard by Lyr's response he had tears in his eyes.
Samelton only looked at the pair, shaking his head.
" So childish," the camel stated, then to Lyr he inquired, "So he really has no idea you're a girl?" And so it was the camel's turn to laugh.

"Nope, he really doesn't have any idea," Lyr whispered to the camel, and patted his back. Lyr turned back to look at Trest, frowning. Why was he laughing so hard? She didn't really understand it.

"What's so funny about what I said?" Lyr demanded.

She crossed her arms and waited. Had she said something wrong? No, she had said something that was convincing. He would have no clue to her true gender. And that's what she wanted, kind of. A part of her wanted to tell him. But when he acted like this, she most certainly did not.

Trest wiped away a tear from his eye.
"Gods, that was funny," Trest said, still wiping at more tears. "Your culture is obviously a lot different than mine. Where is that kingdom you said you're from again? Cause I can tell it's no where near Connlaoth."

"You call it the Forgotten Isle. It's called Valyria, though," Lyr still didn't understand what Trest found so funny. She continued to look at him. "I don't think it I that different...I still don't understand what you found so funny..." Lyr told him, looking at him a bit dejected. She didn't think she had said anything super funny.

By the time they had approached the caravan, they had supplies ready and the caravan was ready to go. Small talk was shared amongst the men, and as per an agreement, Trest allowed only Lyr to travel on the camel, and let her remain on Samelton for most of the evening. Night soon over took the skies, and as far as the eye could see were stars.

"Isn't that a sight?" Lyr said dreamily. "To think that each star up there is a.symbol of hope." Then he laughed and explained, "At least when I was young, that's what I believed."

Lyr was sooo bored! She sat on Samelton's back watching the rest of the caravan as they walked. She tried to not look at Abel, but every time she caught herself looking in his direction, he was sitting there were a toothy, evil grin. He made her nervous. When Trest spoke up during the night, Lyr looked up at the stars.

"Hope for what? I always thought that they were balls of fire burning billions of miles away. I don't understand..." Lyr replied to Trest, leaning forward on Samelton, half lying down as she continued to sit on the camel.

Trest gave a shrug.
"I told you it was just something I thought of when I was younger." He looked away, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he thought it over, then laughed through his nose. "Children can be hopeless romantics sometime. So you'd probably think it was stupid.. " then he eyed her over. "Didn't you have childhood fantasies when you grew up? Things you thought were real, though when you grew older, you realized it was for not?"

"Yeah, I thought my family would live forever...and they did not," She replied, quickly. Yeah, she could tell him she thought she was a boy for most of her early life, but that changed when she realized the truth. She was sure as a child she had had many strange ideas, she just couldn't recall them.
"I also thought someone loved me but she did not." Lyr said with a shrug. She didn't really liked dredging up personal stories. Because than people began to poke around in her past.

"Yeah, death is sort of a hard pill to swallow," Trest agreed. "I don't like thinking much on it myself. It kind of scares me, to think we're just here one moment, then gone the next. Though hey, while we're here, I guess we might as well enjoy it?" Then at her question about love, he nodded sagely."Love is a hard nut to crack. I'd lke to think men and women are kind of like pieces of a puzzle. Though you think one piece might fit, you realize you're looking in all the wrong places. Not sure if that makes a bit of sense, but hey, I'm also probably not the best man to ask about love."

"That's right, I forgot humans die quicker than Valyrians..." Lyr said as though she had just stumbled upon this fact. Suddenly, she found herself worried about Trest's mortality. What if he died? His life or death shouldn't bother her that much, but it did. She was brought from her gloomy thoughts when Trest started to speak about love and puzzles. She didn't completely understand what he was talking about.

"Ah...do you mean you're one half of the puzzle and your life mate is the other? I thought you said you bedded lots of women...are you saying you have never been in love?" Lyr asked, getting more confused than before.

Trest shrugged, keeping his back to Lyr as he lead the camel forward at the tail end of the caravan.
"Eh, we've all been young once, we can all make mistakes," he smiled back slightly to Lyr. "You said it yourself you thought you had been in love once. All men, I'd like to think, are the same. Not just women can be fools in love." And he grew quiet again, reflecting upon the girl he had been sweet on. He hadn't known heart break until her, or what 'loose' really meant either; and quickly learned that sleeping with more women would not fix what the other broke.

Lyr started laughing when Trest misinterpreted what she had said.

"I wasn't talking about a lover, I was talking about my mother..." She blurted out, and immediately realized what she had said. Oops. She shouldn't have said that.

"I've never been in love and I've never thought I was in love either. I'm Valyrian, we only get one shot and I'm not going to ruin it by whoring myself." Lyr told him.

Trest realized his mistake and only laughed.
"Yes, well.." he gave a scratch to his nose. "Perhaps I'm too tired. The caravans been moving for a while. I wonder when we'll pause to sleep..." And it was true, he was exhausted, but the caravan continued to move and so he sighed, his blue eyes going once again to the stars and thinking about what the hell he was doing here. Seraj Isa.. a Kingdom of Gold....
Was he really so suicidal and stupid to seek something just for money? Or even fame? Truth was, he wanted to prove something...
and naturally, he always went about things like that in the wrong way.

"I can get off and you can ride Samelton. I don't mind. I'm sleepy too. I hope we stop soon," Lyr told Trest, waiting to see if he wanted to ride Samelton. Truth was, Lyr bottom was starting to hurt. So she wanted off. Plus she felt a little bad that Trest had such a short lifespan. And he did seem tired. But really, it was cause her booty was hurting...right?

Trest shook his head at the offer, but not even half an hour later, the caravan settled in at the base of some sand stone cliffs for the night. A few set up fires, and Trest joined them after leading Samelton to his own place to lay down for the night. Small talk was shared amongst the men, and some mead and wine that was passed around. Trest had his fair share before passing the water skin of alcohol to Lyr.
"Here, but go easy on it. This stuff's pretty strong."

"I can handle my booze," were Lyr's famous last words. Two sips in and she was already feeling tipsy. Third sip and she was gone. The next thing she knew she was trying to wrap her arms around Trest for some reason.

"Is our tent set up?!" She asked, lazily, still trying to grab ahold of him so she could lean her head on his shoulder.

OOC: lol XD
oh, Lyr <3

-----------

"I thought I warned you about that mead?" Trest said with a shake of his head. It was awkward to think the man was already drunk and they hadn't even been drinking for an hour, but here he was, escorting the drunken Lyr to their tent.
"Here.." he said, gesturing towards a limp clothe tied between two cactus. "Your castle awaits," he said, and finding it difficult to walk with Lyr as she was stumbling ove rher feet drunkenly, he sighed and scooped her up into his arms and carried her the rest of the way inside.

Lyr laughed a bit as she stumbled along with Trest. She giggled even more when he picked her up. She looked at the clothe and stared for a moment.

"That's not my tent. My tent is in my satchel...." She told him, snuggling up against him.

He smelt nice. Which was odd. She didn't think humans had a particularly appealing aroma. But he didn't smell as bad as she thought he did once.

Trest rolled his eyes. "This one will have to do. Your'e too drunk, and I'd hate to see you fall and get lost inside your bag trying to retrieve it." He then set her down upon a pile of blankets with a sigh.

Lyr looked around the pile of blankets a bit dazed. It was unacceptable but she found herself not caring. "Stay!" Lyr demanded of Trest. She didn't want him leaving. "Please..." she continued to try to be nice about it. In truth, she just wanted someone to cuddle with. Trest was the perfect person for it.

Trest blinked at Lyr's sudden words.
"Where do you think I'm going, to sleep, in the open desert? We have to share a bed, remember? You're the one who wanted to be frugal about our money. Well, your money, but our money now, since you know, we're an alliance." Then he looked down towards the blankets. "But you ought to move over to give me some space. I'm exhausted and feel like I could sleep the whole week away."

Lyr smiled and scooted over. He was going to be staying! Why did that make her so happy? There was something wrong with her brain, maybe? She just had this overwhelming desire to be near Trest. The alcohol was probably making things worse.

"Ok, our money! Let's cuddle, cause it's going to get cold. No funny business," She told him, continuing to wait for her friend to lie down.

Trest raised a brow at the use of the word 'cuddle'.
"Ok...." and he gave her a frank smile at her warning.
"You've got nothing to worry about, Lyr. Since you're not a woman, I ain't going to try something funny. Even if you were, I'm not that sort of man. It would be wrong to take advantage of a girl who's drunk."
It happened to him before, and to wake up after such a state...
it was like twisting a knife. He hoped no one ever had to go through that. Though he knew, many did.

"You're a good man," Lyr told Trest, snuggling up next to him. She knew lots of men took advantage of drunk women. Lyr had seen it happen, tried to stop it but then she got into trouble. That was at her old job, though. There would be no going back.

"But I'm not sure. Sometimes you seem like a...pig," Lyr told him honestly as she tried to stay awake.

Trest felt awkward with the other man clinging all up against him in a snuggly manner. If it was a girl, that would be different. He might even enjoy it. But this was Lyr. And to remind him the soft man clinging to him was Lyr, the 'man' said something very Lyr like.

"A pig?" he laughed and shook his head. "I'm sure you could think of more colorful things to call me than that."

"I could, but I can't right now. My mind is too happy. Do you have any family still alive?" Lyr asked, casually, wanting to know. She wanted to know what life was like for normal beings. Lyr had a family and some of them were technically alive but she wouldn't be able to really see them again. Being reminded of this, she tried to worm her way in closer to Trest.

Where she was happy, Trest was not as he sighed irritably as the woman nestled in closer, and happily continued asking questions. He was exhausted, but despite that, he sighed again and replied, "My parents are still alive, though I'm not sure where they've settled now. They used to be of nobility but were in the outs. My father married for love rather than wealth and basically his father disowned him." He gave a shrug and another sigh. "It's not exactly a happy family portrait; and I don't like speaking about my parents. They were too... weak," he said, wrinkling his nose, "And pathetic and stubborn. They'd rather suffer together than a part, even when my father could have died. I never understood why my parents never asked for help and I... well, my grandfather tried to make amends before he passed, but I ignored his inheritance wishes. I hope they rot in the grave with him."

Though he knew it was childish, he was still hurt that; after so many years of ignoring one another, when his grandfather met him and grew to like him; it upset him that he tried to 'apologize' at the end- without even trying ot smooth over the rocky relationship with his son! Though there were some things Trest hadn't known, he'd rather make his riches his own way, and in turn, became parts of his parents he thought he despised but really admired. Though sadly, his methods were through thieving and the likes.  Andw hy not? Organized crime was quite profitable, and Trest was good at what he did.

Should she be sorry she asked? No, not really. Lyr didn't completely understand why Trest was so angry. What was so awful about his parents? Maybe they beat him and poisoned him? Lyr didn't know. She couldn't really put her mind around why Trest was so angry at them. She figured Trest had a similar situation to hers. His parents must have been completely awful for him to want to forget them. That must be it. They must have tried to kill him or torture him severely. Something along those lines. Perhaps she and the human's histories weren't quite so different.

"So your parents were bad parents? They must have beat you, or abused you in some way for you to disown them like this. I understand completely. I only dislike one of my parents, she tried to kill me a few times. All because she thought I was going to take away her throne, but I really had no interest in it. Did your parents try to kill you too? Though, I don't think I'd say no to any type of inheritance. Being rich is better than being poor," Lyr replied nonchalantly.

Trest was still brooding over his own parents, which he waved off, not really wanting to talk about it when suddenly he sat up in their make shift bed.

"What do you mean, throne?"

"You know to be like the ruler of a country, that kind of throne. I was supposed to be the Emperor, but my mom kept the throne for herself, killed my father before he could tell anyone that...I was...the one who was supposed to be on the throne..." Lyr told him, drowsily. She wondered why Trest had sat up so fast.

"Come back, please...I'm starting to get cold..."

"Wait, you mean to tell me you're an Emperor!?"
Trest stared at Lyr as if he were mad. He shook his head as if to shake away the idea, then cringed when he realized he had been a bit loud and he could hear murmurs from the other tents. Leaning forward, he took Lyr by the shoulders and shook her, hoping to shake the alcohol and drowsiness out of her system.

"No, only a princess. I'm supposed to be the Emperor but...since I'm not in my country, I can't be the Emperor, can I..." Lyr told Trest, giggling at the shaking. She didn't understand what he was trying to do.

"But, I guess technically yes. I'm just in exile?" Lyr replied, still a bit drowsy, but now her head was hurting. She didn't even realize her slip up.

Thankfully for Lyr, Trest was more confused by her slip as he shook his head. But then at her last statement, he sighed.
"You and me both," he said with a roll of his eyes. "Though I suppose you have good reasons not to tell me before, but geeze.. I suppose it explains alot about your attitude."

Lyr woke up a bit at Trest's last remark. "What about my attitude?!" she demanded. What was wrong with her attitude? There was nothing wrong with it, she convinced herself. But if she thought about it, she was doing most things that her father had taught her not to. He would be disappointed. But...she just couldn't help it most of the time.

Trest raised his brows. He didn't want to argue with a drunk, or a tired drunk, or rather, he just didn't want to argue with Lyr, and the tone she had come off with was accusatory. He shrugged it away.
"Don't worry about it and let's get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day." ANd he laid his head down upon the pillow in hopes to sleep, but he was still tense- for he had a feeling Lyr was sobering up and not the sort to just let things ly.

"No! I am worried?! What about my attitude? Is something wrong with it? Because I could say a lot about your attitude as well," Lyr yawned out to Trest, glaring at him as he laid back down.

Lyr was sleepy so she laid back down as well, snuggled up against him. Why? She didn't know. Because she was certainly angry at him. Lyr wanted to be warm, though, and Trest was warm and oddly smelt appealing.

Trest sighed and tried to ignore her, and was surprised when the 'man' tried to snuggle up against his back. He rolled his eyes.
"Good night, Lyr."

"Good night. We'll continue this discussion tomorrow," Lyr said, shutting her eyes and was quickly taken over by sleep. Inch by inch she moved closer to Trest, even while she was sleeping.

When he awoke the next day, Lyr's face was plastered over his chest with his mouth open, drooling on him while he slept lazily across him, a hand draped into the air. For a moment, Trest just stared at Lyr's sleeping form with a sigh before putting a finger into Lyr's mouth.
"Hey, wake up- I think the caravan is getting ready to move." And he sat up suddenly so that Lyr would fall off of his body she had been sleeping upon.

Lyr had been having another good dream. Lyr wasn't completely sure why there was this much noise so early in the morning. Someone was talking to her. She wanted to ask for another hour, but that's when she noticed something in her mouth. Why was there something in her mouth? What was it? She immediately bit down.

"Yee-ouch!" Trest immediately yanked his hand outside of Lyr's mouth.
"Wake up!" He said,t hen proceeded to splash water from their waterskin onto her face.

Lyr jolted up when her face was splashed with cold water. She was not happy! Her eyes darkened and she turned to look at Trest. She reached her hands to her face and felt the water soaking in her hair. She then touched her shirt, and could feel some of the water had gone down. No doubt it was loosening her bindings. In a fit of anger she moved quickly to try and jump on top of Trest.

"Why did you do that?!" She cried out.

Trest made a single 'Ooof!' when Lyr suddenly tackled him. It wasn't expected, and he had forgotten Lyr had extra strength within her (damn those with magical heritage!) and was on the ground beneath her, a breath grunting out of him. He squirmed beneath her wrath, making a face.
"you bit my finger," he informed her, sourly. "And you were drooling all over my face. Besides, urgh, get off! The caravan is starting to pack up. We'll be on the move in no time."

"Why were you sticking yoru finger in my mouth?" Lyr demanded. She was straddling on top of him, continuing to glare down at Trest. She could feel some of the cold water touching her chest. If it ruined the bindings, there would be hell to pay for Trest. "I would never do something so peasant-like! No, I'm going to stay like this on you until I'm good and ready to get off," Lyr replied, glaring down at Trest, daring him to attempt to try and get her off of him. 

"And I would let you if you were a woman, but this is just awkward!" Trest spat back. "GET OFF!" and he tried to wrestle the other man off him.

Lyr wasn't sure why she was happy that Trest had said he'd let her keep doing this if she was a girl. But she was. She snapped out of that happy moment when Trest reminded her she was supposed to be getting off of him. Lyr just grabbed onto his hands and wrestled back with him. "You actually think you can win?!" Lyr asked, laughing at him, unaware of the footsteps approaching their "tent".

Trest continued to struggle beneath her.
"Come on! What are you trying to prove? You already know you're stronger than me!" he growled.

He was right. What was she trying to prove? Lyr gave an exaggerated sigh, slapped at Trest's hands one more time and got off of him. "You make me so angry!" She announced as Abel walked up to see the aftermath.

Trest cast a glare her way as she sat up, dusting himself off.
"Yeah, well now you're stuck with me." Then he shot Abel a look as the man gave them a greedy look. "What!?"

Abel only shrugged.
"The caravan will be leaving soon," he said, smirking at the pair and giving Lyr a dirty leer.

Lyr scoffed for a moment, but stopped when she saw the look Abel was giving her. She was almost frozen for a moment. She was scared of him. He reminded her of someone she wanted to forget. She wasn't thinking as she wrapped her arms around Trest, leaning into him for a moment.

"Guess we'll just have to work on the baby later tonight," She said to Trest brushing some of his hair aside. She turned her face away from Abel's leer, to look more at Trest with a smile.

"Can you give us some privacy, Abel, please? We're not exactly decent," Lyr requested, a little bit withdrawn. She tried to hide some of the fear in her voice, but she wasn't doing a very good job masking it.

Abel only smirked, laughing silently as she moved away, singing a crude song in his own tongue. Trest made a face, then glanced up at Lyr, appearing unamused, but also uncertain.
"So what was all that talk about a baby?" he said, his eyes boring into her.

Lyr was still holding onto Trest as Abel walked away. Her eyes narrowed. She had the intense feeling that Abel was up to no good. What was he plotting though, was the question. Her focus returned to Trest as he pulled her out of her worries.

"It was just to get him to go away. Why? Did you want to try for one with me?" Lyr asked, arms still draped around him, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Trest just stared at her, his expression nonplused.
"No," he said, folding his arms over his chest. "Considering it would be a bit difficult, or should I add, impossible since you're a man... Now come on. Let's gather our things. We have to fold the tent away. I'd hate to see the caravan move off without us." And he began to scoop up their bedding, rolling it up tight as he secured it with some string.

Lyr frowned at Trest. He wasn't even unnerved by her statement. That just made her annoyed. She wasn't sure why she wanted to get Trest flustered she just did. She smirked as she stood up. "How cute," she began as she messily began to untie and fold up the tent. "You and I both know you're suppressing your true feelings. We both know I'm hot. You'd take me right here if you could." She stated triumphantly.

Trest grew annoyed, especially considering how messily she was cleaning up the tent. Instead of venting, he chewed on his cheek.
"Abel's obviously interested, why don't you go flirt with him? I'm sure he'd find a way to help you with that baby problem. Hell, he's probably the type that'd steal you one." Trest then shook his head and looked up at her. "Why are we having this conversation anyway?" He raised one brow. "And no, I wouldn't. Even if you were a girl. I'm not that kind if man, Lyr. Sorry to disappoint. Besides, I'd be a terrible father."

What was that supposed to mean?! What kind of man?! Wasn't she pretty enough? Lyr was enraged. He had even mentioned Abel. Not that Lyr wanted to hop into the sack with Trest. Because she didn't, she convinced herself she didn't. Her gaze become icy as she looked at Trest.

"If Abel touches me I'll rip his head off in one clean swipe. And what do you mean you're not that kind of man? You've said it before, you're a man whore. What am I not pretty enough? Not experienced enough!" Lyr said to him angrily. She then tossed the tent sheets onto the ground.

"They're not folding correctly"

Trest just stared at Lyr with lame anger as he bent over, plucking up the tent and shook out the sands from it.
"Do I need to repeat myself? You're a man, Lyr. I just don't swing that way." And he gave a smarting smile before shaking his head and working at rolling up the tent. Then, tossing the tent and sleeping clothes over his shoulder, he began to walk away, towards their camel before peering over his shoulder at Lyr.
"You coming? Looks like the caravan is already ready to go. I'd hate for them to leave us high and dry in this place." and he looked around towards the skies, where the color was changing from the violet of night into the burning red of day. The sun would be rising soon, and with it- the impressive, blistering heats of the desert.

Yes.. they had a lot of grounds to travel before then.

There was no denying it now, Lyr hated Trest. She couldn't imagine disliking someone any more than she already did. He still didn't answer her question and since they were going back to the caravan, she wouldn't be able to have it answered, either. She was enraged. She couldn't wait till they found the stupid kingdom and they could part ways.

"You're the worst person, I've ever met. And I think I might hate you," Lyr told Trest sadly as she walked by him towards Samelton. Lyr looked pretty defeated. She wasn't sure why Trest made her so angry and sad all at the same time.

She lethargically, climbed up onto his back, and buried her face in his fur, half sitting, half lying down. Why did she ever go on this stupid quest, anyways? To protect everyone from her mother's wrath. She was beginning to think it might have been wiser to stay in her comfy life before. At least there, there was no Trest.

Trest rolled his eyes. Lyr was in such a 'dramatic' mood, he just left her alone. She could ride on the camel's back all day if she wanted. He felt as if he were itching from the inside, so he needed a good walk- and what better way than to walk through the desert? Though he peered over just once at her curiously, as she buried her face into the camel before he shook his head, secured their supplies and guided the camel forward by the reins.

Samelton wasn't without his observations, so as he chewed on his breakfast, he inquired to Lyr, "What's wrong? What did the human male do this time?"

Ooc: she's such a drama queen xD

Ic:

Lyr's face remaine buried in Samelton's fur though she would peek over occasionally at Trest. "He said I wasn't the type of man that would sleep with me if I was a woman. I think it's his way of calling me ugly. I hate him. I hope he stubs his toe on a sand dune," Lyr told Samelton. Trest was such a jerk.

Samelton blinked.
"Well, humans are rather finicky about those sorts of things," the camel mused. "But this one is apparently very stupid. Even that Abel fellow, I bet, knows you're truly a woman. You'd think the red hair fellow might be able to tell... or... is it that you want him to like you as a man?"
The camel was uncertain how to comfort her as it slowly moved along.

Though as they moved forward and Trest heard Lyr whine something or other to the camel, he rolle dhis eyes and gave a tug at the reins, getting Samelton to move forward a bit faster.

Lyr wasn't completely sure whether she wanted Trest to like her as a man or not. She just wanted him to like her she supposed. Well she knew it was more than that but she would never admit it to herself. "Yeah, he's pretty but I still can't believe he realized it yet. We even took a bath together and he didn't pick up on it," Lyr laughed, her mood improving. She say up, looked over at Trest and laughed some more.

Samelton blinked at that last remark.
"So you were both naked and he didn't even realize it then?" And it was the camel's turn to laugh and laugh, and at Lyr's laughing and the camel's wheezing, Trest looked back tot he pair with a face.

"Is the camel dying or something?" he inquired, his expression half joking, half serious as he noticed a few chuckles from Lyr. "And what's so funny?"

"Goodness me! This human is positively stupid!" the camel laughed. "If anything, he ought ot have smelled you were a female, even dressed but.. my goodness! I knew humans smelling was bad, but perhaps this one's eyes are bad, too!"

"Yes we were both naked. I'm still surprised he hasn't caught on. Though, in his defense I did try to hide it. Still maybe his eyes are bad..." Lyr laughed and chuckled a bit more till Trest spoke up.

"Samelton is fine. We're just talking about you and how you might have poor eyesight to not notice a naked woman when she is sitting in front of you..."

Trest just looked at the pair, unamused, and in silence, just walked faster, dragging Samelton behind him.

"Well, at least he's being quiet? Though his grip on my reins is a bit tight. And do we have to go this fast?" the camel complained. "I'm still not awake yet."

"Trest your hurting Samelton. Please slow down," Lyr requested of Trest. He didn't seem happy at all. Well, it serves him right for being such a jerk earlier. "Stop being so cranky.  You weren't the one who was harshly rejected this morning. I still think I might hate you though."

Trest rolled his eyes, but obeyed. He didn't want to walk too closely to Abel, but it seemed his plans to avoid the rat-faced man were thwarted, for the second Abel noted the camel was close enough, he smiled over at the pair, his eyes lingering on Lyr.

"Well, if you hate me, I can always pass off these reins so you can travel along with Abel. He seems to have taken a shine to you," Trest teased cruelly.

Lyr slumped down on the camel, again. Why was Trest so mean to her? He kept bringing up Abel. And she hated it! She had told him she didn't like him, but Trest insisted on bringing him up. "Stop  it Trest, I don't like it when you keep bringing that up. I've told you how uncomfortable he makes me feel. Why do you insist on returning to it?" she asked, annoyed.

"I'll be nice once you play nice," Trest said simply with a shrug ,and he smiled back at Abel but then his expression went flat. He too, hated Abel.
"It's only fair.."

"Fine, I'll try this playing nice thing. Let's play a game! We ask each other questions and the other person must answer them, or tell a horrible secret," Lyr told Trest, quite pleased with her idea. She patted Samelton, trying to tell him to slow down, so they could get away from Abel. Lyr didn't even smile back and Abel, she just ignored him.

"A game?" Trest made a face as he glanced back at her and sighed. "That's not what I meant..." but by the looks of things, what did he have to lose? Lyr knew most things about him anyways, and as he thought that fact over, he gave a sniff...
Why DID Lyr know a lot about him? They had barely known each other a few days!

"Fine.." he said, his back to Lyr.
"But I'll start first."
And then, his grin became wicked as he asked, "So what feature of mine do you find the most attractive?" he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he glanced back to Lyr, his grin growing wider so that it cut into his cheek.

Lyr was very excited for their game. She was starting to get bored, so this might be a good way to pass the time. Lyr nodded when he said he would start first. She was smiling until she saw the wicked smile on Trest's face. Then she frowned when she heard his question. Well, it was either answer this, or have him ask a horribly embarassing secret.

"Hmm....well your body is very nice. I like your hair color. But I think your eyes win," Lyr told him, deciding that it was true. Then she grinned when it was her turn to ask him a question. "So, have you ever been attracted to me? Even for the briefest of seconds?" She asked.

Trest grinned and batted his long lashes.
"So a fan of the blue eyes, eh?" he said, his grin growing wider, but then at her question, his face faltered as he turned around, rubbing at the back of his neck.
"Well, er, for a split second,you sometimes look like a girl.." he began, coughing a bit to clear his throat. "So yeah, sometimes your face, er I mean your eyes are nice."
Yeah, the eyes was a nice save!
Then glancing back over at Lyr, he asked, "So yeah, sometimes when I forget you're not a boy you could be attractive...." he adde din quickl;y. "And I could shoot that question back at you- but I think I already know the answer, but I'll ask it anyways." He said, staring at her with a cemented, unyielding gaze 'to look tough' as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Sameltone just watched the two of them and inquired, "So.. when do I get a turn?"

Lyr's heart skipped a beat when he said she looked like a girl and her face was nice. He had finished with her eyes, but he had said her face, first. It made her happy. His next question confused her. She wasn't really sure what he was asking. Was he asking if she thought he was attractive? Probably. That's what it seemed.

"Yep. I think you're a very attractive man, when I forget that you're...a...er...promiscuous," Lyr replied. She petted Samelton. "Samelton wants to ask a question! So it's his turn!" She announced.

Samelton got really excited about that, but Trest did not. He raised a single brow and looked at Lyr as if she were crazy.
"The... camel wants a turn?"

"Yes, he does. He might be bored too. He's walking along with us, afterall. So it's his turn. Let's see what he has to say," Lyr told Trest with a nod. She then waited for Samelton to speak his question.

Samelton was so happy it was his turn, his little tail seemed to wag. Trest only rolled his eyes and gave a laugh.
"Alright, alright, fine, what does the camel have to ask?"

Samelton seemed to smile before asking, "Ask him if he'd ever walk for a camel before. I'm just so surprised he's being a good sport, he hasn't really asked to ride on me and it's been great. he weighs a lot you know, probably all in those muscles of his, but yes, do ask him if he's been this kind to another camel before!"

OOC: Samelton is so like, friggin' cute

OOC: he really is :D

IC:

Lyr smiled when she saw Samelton's tail wagging. She was just happy that he was happy. Because she was riding on his back after all. She wished she could do something more for the camel, but she wasn't sure what. She had been sneaking him treats whenever she could.

"Ok, he wants to know if you've ever been this kind to a camel before? By not riding on his back and walking instead. He's happy about it. He thinks you weigh a lot because of all your muscles," Lyr told Trest awaiting his reply.

Trest stared at Lyr ... And stared and stared.
"Uhh..no, can't say I've ever ridden a camel before.... Let alone one who talks." And he stared over at the camel skeptically.

"He says he's never ridden a camel before. He doesn't know that all camels can talk. He thinks just you can," Lyr told Samelton, patting him on the side.  "Trest, all animals can talk...your turn again," She said to him, hoping he would have a good question this time.

Trest thought it.over, uncertain of even what to consider to.ask at first before he simply inquired, "You talk about promiscuousness, yet do you know what that truly means? Or rather," he said, reassessing his thoughts, " Why do you seem so offended and flustered by it, and why do you presume I fall into that catagory?" Lyr certainly.made great efforts to remind him of his bad traits!

Lyr crinkled her nose in thought. Why did it bother her so much? It was a good question.

"Because where I am from we only have one mate, and its quite taboo to take more lovers, unless you're the king. And only he does that when his soul mate dies to continue the line. And you stated yourself you've taken many women with you to bed, does that mean that you love them all. No, humans don't operate like that, do they? Because I know they couldn't all be your soul/life mate. In my culture we believe that every time you take a new lover to bed, it kills your soul mate a little, literally." Lyr replied, trying her best to answer his question. Wasn't it her turn? Yes. It was.

"So, how many lovers have you actually taken?" Lyr asked, grinning.

Trest's expression went flat, almost cold at the thought that such a tryst actually harmed a future, true and faithful lover, and the idea actually bothered him so much, he was massaging at the knot in his throat.
"Well," Trest began, his voice a bit croaky. He cleared his throat. "Wording it like that does make it sound more serious. If that sort of lore were in my.religion, I'd probably become celibate." He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize there could be those sorts of.consequences. it seems where I come from, you're almost mocked if.you don't enjoy a romp or two in bed."

Here, he lifted his gaze to take Lyr in.
"You know I am sorry if I've offended you. Your people sound like they have good principles, especially as it seems their only aim is to.protect those that they love." And here, he nodded his head before clearing his throat once more as he laughed. "Guess its your turn again, Lyr." He said, elbowing her playfully. "Better ask a good one."

 He was sorry?! That was surprising. Still, Lyr knew she didn't fully understand Trest. He was much deeper than she gave him credit for. Not that she would ever admit to that. Lyr didn't necessarily believe what her religion taught, not fully anyways. She just didn't think it was right to do it just because she doubted it. What would happen if she whored herself and killed her future lover in the process? The risk outweighed the benefits.

"How many people have you been with? I want to know how many years have been taken off of your soul mate's life," Lyr stated nonchalantly. She really did want to know. Each lover equaled 100 years off their soul mate's life. But with Trest being human, she should probably round it down to ten years or something.

"W-what? Are you seriously asking to know how many women I've bedded?" And that itself was a shock if there ever was one, and as Trest sheepishly rubbed at the back of his.neck, Samelton's tail began to wag.

"Oh oh! I want to guess. He seems like a fair enough male specimen. Im sure he's could have bred with an entire herd of human women!" And the camel's tail wiggled all the more.

"Why do you want to know anyway? I mean its not like I've got that many notches on my bed post..." Trest protested lamely, still rubbing at the tight spot on his neck.

"Oh, look at how.bashful he is!" The camel.noted gleefully. "Maybe he's only bedded half a herd..."


Ooc: looool

Lye smiled over at Samelton. It seemed that Trest was embarrassed. "A herd, Samelton?" Lyr asked the camel with a frown on her face. Poor Trest's future soul mate if that was the case. No doubt she was human, too. So she was probably already dead at this rate. That would be sad. Lyr would have to break it to Trest.

"Because I want to know how many years you've taken off your soul mate's life. You need to answer the question, or you're not playing the game right. And it's not your turn to ask questions," Lyr replied to him, with a bit of a frown. 

"What?" Trest stated at Lyr, his skin a bit pale and clammy. "That's absurd. Besides, I'm not the sort of guy that should ever be tied down by a lover. It wouldn't be fair." Especially as he viewed women in a more traditional role.

"Yes, half a herd!" Samelton continued to guess, playfully.

"You're avoiding the question! What's wrong? Is the number so high she's already dead? And you have a soul mate. Everyone does, whether you want to be tied down or not," Lyr told him, pouting at his lack of response. She patted Samelton on the side. The camel was just too cute.

"Half a herd?! That's still a lot, Samelton," Lyr told the camel. She looked back at Trest, waiting for his answer.

Trest.gave a dry.laugh when he realized what Lyr was saying about the camel.
"Half a herd of women? Ha! I wish! Not even I'm so lucky."

"Lucky?! You don't even answer the question! Is it 10, 11 because that means by now she's already dead. Probably died before even being born. You might've even killed her parents," Lyr told Trest crossing her arms, giving him a disapproving gaze.

"Answer the question! Stop avoiding it!"

Trest felt trapped and annoyed by her pressing for an answer, and waved her off angrily, "It's only a game yet you're treating this as some sort of interrogation," he growled.

"Oh, ten seems like such a low number for him," the camel went on. "I'm sure he has many babes from his breeding. I bet they're a handsome lot, too!"

"Maybe its time we called it quits," Trest said bitterly. Besides, he wasn't about to admit to Lyr the number was far less than ten....

"You're just not playing the game correctly, otherwise it wouldn't feel like an interrogation...." Lyr spat back at him. Why was he so annoying? He couldn't even play this game correctly. It just made Lyr angry. She wanted him to admit he was a whore. Why did she even care? Who knows? She just did.

"Samelton. It may be good for a camel to have that many mates. But it is not good for humans."

"So, you admit defeat! I won!" Lyr replied to Trest triumphantly. Maybe that would get him to scoff up an answer.

Trest was not truly in the mood for this game anymore, and being soured by it only bruised at his ego. But the idea of losing to Lyr made him draw in an angered breath before he admitted pathetically, "Three." And though at the time of admittance, he quickly added while casting the cross dresser an indignant glare. "Since the fourth and fifth.women just weren't... Werent up.to my.tastes!"

"Really?! That's it! Good, you've only taken 30 years off of your soul mates life, congratulations. I thought it was going to be at least 70. That's good news for her," Lyr told Trest with a grin. She patted Samelton again. She wondered if the camel would be disheartened or not.

"Your still a whore, though," Lyr told Trest, she just stuck out her tongue at his glare. This really was good news. Why did it make her so happy? Like usual, had she thought it out she could have solved she had feelings for Trest. But thinking things completely through was never Lyr's strong point.

Trest rolled his eyes.
"Oh goodie, that's only half the life of a normal human," Trest muttered. "Thankfully, I don't believe in that garbage." And at her comment about him being a whore, his brow twitched. And instead of saying any more sassy come backs, Trest just chewed on his tongue and guided the camel more swiftly across the sands.

"Three?" The camel seemed shocked as he held back a laugh. "Do you think he's lying?" the camel asked after a time. "Because that seems like such a sad and lonely number. But maybe he's not that good looking of a human specimen? It's hard for me to say, being a camel and all."

"It's not garbage! It's true. You're just upset that your whoring ways have hurt your soul mate. Honestly, humans are so selfish, I can't even understand it," Lyr said, turning away from Trest. She didn't like him calling her belief system garbage. In fact it hurt her feelings. She was too upset with Trest to look at him.

"He wouldn't lie about the number, Samelton. Humans love to rack up their lovers, it's no wonder they all die so young. It's why my kind shouldn't take humans as lovers. Because it kills them, I've seen it happen." Maybe that was an extension of the truth. But Lyr wasn't going to admit it.

"I don't have a soul mate, so I wouldn't worry about it," Trest muttered. "Besides, I'm allowed to believe what I want to believe. It's a free world!" he said, giving Lyr a soured smile. "Besides, it's your turn to answer a question, Lyr." And he gave her a mean look.

"Uh, oh, he doesn't seem too happy. Maybe he needs a few more mates? That normally makes me happy. Meeting more mates," the camel said wtih a happy wag f his tail. "Too bad there are no women in this caravan. Well, with you as the exception, naturally. But it is interesting you wish to pretend to be a male, yet you are against their vices. I do not understand these. Mating is mating, after all." At least, that was such as the philosophy of a camel.

"Yes you do. You stupid jerk," Lyr replied just as angrily back to Trest. "Then ask away!" She replied to Trest, as angry and annoyed as he was. Trest really didn't care about his future wife and children, did he? What a mean, messed up, person! Lyr wanted to punch Trest, but decided against it. He wouldn't be able to handle her brand of strength.

"He doesn't need any more mates, Samelton. He just needs his life mate. That should set him straight. Camels, humans and Valyerians are different..." Lyr wondered if camels felt love. "Maybe we should find you a girl camel..." Lyr mused to Samelton. She didn't mind about his matings. He was a camel. Things were different.

"Oh, that would be nice!" Samelton said with a happy wag of his tail, seeming oblivious to the tension of the other two companions of his.

"I'll ask when I'm good and ready," Trest spat back, and continued to lead the camel along as he contemplated a good question to ask his annoying companion.

Lyr glared down at Trest, but grinned at Samelton. He really didn't have a clue what was going on did he? He was just so cute.

"Let's hope it's never. With that sour look on your face I can't even begin to imagine what nasty thoughts are going through your mind," Lyr told him with a disapproving glare.

"Yeah, nasty thoughts of.you," Trest muttered bitterly, his voice low.so.she might not have caught what he said.

Trest had said something and Lyr could tell whatever it was, it had been unpleasant. "Guess it's looking like I win, because you can't think of a good question," Lyr grinned down at Trest. He was really, beginning to grate on her nerves.

Trest said nothing, doing all in his power to swallow down his pride. Lyr wasn't worth it, he had to remind himself. He ought to be focusing on the real treasure, though it was difficult when thoughts of strangling the purple haired wonder kept crossing his mind.

Too bad the camel heard him.
"Oh, I do believe he might have said something unpleasant about you," the camel said with a pout. "But all I caught was that he said something about nasty, then you."

"He wants to do something nasty to me?!" Lyr gasped out. Unsure whether she was disgusted or pleased.

"I'm not sleeping with you Trest, ever! I'm waiting for my soul mate. Unlike you, I actually care about his future," Lyr told Trest, wondering what she could say to set him off.

She could tell he was angry. Well, so was she. She wanted Trest to...do something? Maybe not be so angry? Lyr didn't know. She just didn't like it when Trest turned into a moody puppy.

Great, she had heard his.comment and naturally took it the wrong way. Not that it.mattered. Trest just chewed on his cheek and kept his.words to himself. He knew better than to start an argument, especially when he felt guilty and knew that at least... Well partially so, Lyr was right. He was also getting angry but knew he had to keep a level head. They weren't alone on this.caravan, after all.

Lyr was starting to get angry by Trest's lack of response. Since she had no impulse control, she found herself reaching her leg out to take innocent swipes at Trest's back. Not with the intention to hurt him, she just wanted to annoy him a bit. So she continued to reach out with her leg and attempt to poke and swipe at him with her foot.

As he felt her little kicks, his brow twitched a.moment.before he spat out, "Just what do you think you are doing?" And no sooner did he speak did he regret it as.he set his jaw and tried to focus on the road ahead... So he could much moreeasily ignore Lyr, the purple haired terror!

"I'm getting your attention! Do something other than be a broody baby! I don't see why you're so upset. It's your own fault for hurting your future soul mate," Lyr told Trest, as she began to get bored. A bored Lyr was never a good thing. Because she almost always found something bad to do to quell her boredom.

"I don't have a soul mate," Trest growled stubbornly. "Besides, why should you care? It's not like you're my soul mate." That would be far too weird anyways! And need he remind himself (and her) he wasn't gay!

"Damn right I'm not your soul mate. I'm not sharing my powers or longevity with a human! And you do have a soul mate, stop saying you don't. Everyone does, unless you don't have a soul...Do you not have a soul?" Lyr asked Trest already knowing the answer to that question. Of course Trest had a soul mate. He was just too stubborn to admit otherwise.

Trest draped a hand over his eyes, already regretting talking back to her as he sighed.
"Sure, whatever," he muttered, and concentrated on trying to.ignore her again.

"I can't take it anymore!" Lyr said, maybe a little too loudly. "Stop being such a baby! I'm too bored to handle this. I'm about two seconds away from jumping off of Samelton and on to you," Again, Lyr said that a little too loudly. Some of the caravan members were whistling and whispering amongst themselves. Probably taking what she had said the wrong way.

Trest, ever tapping into his.reserves of patience, only sighed.
"It's not my fault you're bored. Can't you nap or something? Or bother the camel? Maybe he'd like to play a game.."

At that, Samelton perked up and his tail was wagging again.
"That does sound nice! Perhaps we can have a.race!" The camel.suggested happily.

Lyr slouched down onto the camel's back. "Who are we going to race, Samelton? We're in the desert won't that wear you out and make you thirsty?" Lyr asked, not really in the mood to race. She was too angry at Trest. She needed to find some way to get back at him.

"Let's play everything I hate about Trest," Lyr suggested to Samelton.

Trest rolled his eyes at her selfish remarks but ignored them as he kept silent. The camel, on the other hand, was.confused.
"I don't think I've ever played that game," he admitted.

"We just list things we like and things we hate about Trest. You start with one thing you hate and one thing that you like. Then it's the next being's turn. They pick one like and one hate two. Then you pick two likes and two hates, but they need to be different every turn. The one with the most wins," Lyr explained. She gave Trest an icy stare, wanting a reaction from him. She got a bit sad when he didn't give her any.

"Why don't we play the game where we list all of the things we hate about Lyr," Trest suggested off the cuff, saying nothing more or nothing less. It was too easy to let himself fall prey to this childish game.

Lyr looked suspiciously over at Trest how did he know about the "Lyr fails everyday" game? She was sure her brothers were the only ones that knew about that game since they invented it. So how did he know? " I used to play that game against my brothers. They always made me cry. So we can't play that. The Trest game is more fun." Lyr explained.

Trest quirked a brow at Lyr.
"That.. hardly seems fair.." he said and gave a roll of his eyes as he turned to keep his back to her, eyes on the caravan moving before them. "No wonder they tormented you." And the last part was muttered beneath his breath. She was probably just as mean to her brothers as she was to him! It was no wonder this 'man' wasn't married, or anything of the sort. 'He' was simply trying!

"It's perfectly fair. If you weren't being such a baby we could play a different game." Lyr replied. Trest wasn't being very fun. He didn't seem to like any of the games she chose. "Are we almost there?" Lyr asked knowing they were days away from anywhere.

Trest rolled his eyes and muttered, "Sure, and hurting someone else's feelings are better than your own." He shot her a glare,t hen sighed miserably as he looked away from her.
"And no, we've hardly even begun."

Lyr groaned as she looked over at Trest. Why did this quest have to take so long? They were just going to ride, sleep, ride, sleep ride. Lyr was hoping something exciting would happen to quell her boredom. Though, whenever she wished for something exciting, something bad and unwanted tended to happen.
"Can't you at least give me something to do? I'm dying up here..." she told Trest, slouching down into the camel.

Leave it to Lyr to ask Trest to come up with a solution to her boredom. Rolling his eyes, he shook his head, but noticed a few stray rocks on the trail. Scooping one up, he handed it to her.
"Here, maybe you can sing or dance to this rock or something. Give it a name or dress it up or something, I dunno. But I'm sure you can figure out a way to be creative with it."

Lyr snatched the rock out of Trest's hands, with a slight glare. She looked it over, and the thought entered her mind to toss it at his head. No, she couldn't do that. That would be too mean. Besides she could really hurt him if she did that. Why couldn't Trest be made of stronger, less humany stuff? Lyr turned the rock over in her hands a few times then smirked. Immediately she began pulling items out of her bag and gluing/pinning them enthusiastically to the rock.


"How are you not bored? What's your secret?" she asked as she continued to pin things to the rock. Art was never really her strength.

Trest sighed and continued to lead the camel.
"Let's just say I've done a lot of traveling," he grumbled, though as his eyes took in the caravan moving before them, he sighed. "This is going to be a very, very long trip."

The hours went by, and finally the entire place settled in for the night. A fire was lit and tents erected, though with a growing wind coming from the West, the men found some of themselves without a tent anymore as the winds up and took them away. Trest shook his head, keeping their own tent down and going outside to get a face full of sad as he went to renail the spikes back into the ground. He'd have to do this a dozen more times before morning, but at least it would give the pair some reprieve from the nasty sand storm settling in.

Peering over at Lyr, he gave a sigh and noticed their small fire was going out as he brushed away at all fo the sand clinging to his face and hair. He even gave a good scratch to his arm pit and back- Damn this sand was itchy and sticking to him all over!

"Keep stoking the fire. We can't let it go out, or we'll be eating raw food tonight. I bought some fresh meat from one of the other men, so if you wouldn't mind, I'd prefer to eat my rabbit cooked tonight, not raw."

The time seemed to pass by slower than usual. She had been ready for it to be night many hours earlier. She became cold shortly after the sun set and was snuggled up in her blankets when the wind started. She could hear the sand scraping against the side of the tent. This was no good. When Trest walked back into the tent he was covered in sand. She would laugh, but she was cold. Lyr wasn't completely sure what stoking the fire meant. So she just took the stick he had given her and poked at it, hoping she was doing it right.

"Raw meat will make you sick. Rabbit?! How can we eat rabbit?! The poor animal..." Lyr immediately felt bad that an animal had to die for them to eat. But she was hungry and would have to choose whether to eat or go hungry. She already knew she was going to choose to eat it and deal with the guilt later.

"Do these sand storms happen every night?"

Trest spat out some gritty sands from inside his mouth and frowned at her while he was working at rubbing sand from his face.
"Ugh, I'm going to be tasting sand all weak," he griped. Moving towards the fire, he gestured for her to help. "Here, fetch me that knife over there. The rabbit will cook faster if we cut it, first."
And at her question, he shook his head and shrugged.
"I wouldn't know."A nd his eyes met to hers. "I'm not from around here, remember?"

Lyr looked at Trest for a long while. "Still, if you're traveling around here shouldn't you know? Why can't someone here have weather magic? That would fix this storm up quickly..."

Lyr slowly got up, making sure to keep her blob of blankets wrapped around her. She slowly waddled over to the knife, and she stared at it for a few moments. Moving even slower than before she picked it up. She held it outwards as though it were carrying some sort of disease. She continued to hold it outwards waiting for Trest to take it. There was no way she could cut up some sort of rabbit meat. It was too wrong for her to do.

Trest quirked a brow.
"A bit cold, are ya?" and he accepted the knife and moved, his back to Lyr as he began to carve the meat. Placing the cuts over the fire's coals, he shook his head. "And weather magic.. yeah that's all we need. And then the mage can make it snow in the desert." He poked the rabbit meat with his knife, and the meat popped and sizzled, and soon the tent was filled with it's delicious smells.

He licked some of the blood from his finger nails before using some of their water to rinse his hands off. Then, drying his hands off on his pants, he turned to Lyr.
"Food should be ready soon. The fire's pretty hot." ANd after cleaning his knife, he began to stab up and place the cooked meat into two dishes for them- and handing Lyr her portion he grinned.
"There, fire-grilled rabbit. Enjoy."

"That's not a bad idea. Then it will be cold when we have to travel in that awful heat!" Lyr was saddened that there were no weather mages with them. They could have had such a pleasant journey had there been. But it seemed weather mages probably wouldn't dwell this far into the middle of nowhere.

Her eyes went down to the sizzling rabbit meat. It made her sad watching it roast. But her stomach was hungry and she needed to eat. She wrinkled her nose when Trest wiped the water onto his pants. He really need a rag or something. Clothing wasn't meant to be used as a water rag. When Trest handed her the food she stared at it sadly.

She took a bite and it tasted good. But she couldn't stop a few tears from falling down her face. Soon her tears were beginning to downpour. It just made her so sad to eat this poor little creature. Maybe if it had been some awful criminal this would be fine, but she doubted it was. 

Trest had just popped a delicious, sweet juicy piece of roasted rabbit into his mouth and was practically moaning over how good it was- when he noticed Lyr's demeanor and blinked.
Having not swallowed his food, he spoke through a mouth full of rabbit.
"What? You think it tastes that bad?"

"No, it's not that. It tastes fine. I'm not supposed to eat meat from innocent creatures..." Lyr said continuing to eat and sob at the same time. "If I do something terrible is supposed to happen..." Lyr wished that she hadn't eaten the rabbit, but it was too late. Almost all of the food was gone.

Trest raised a brow at her.
"Um... ok.... look, if it gives you bad indigestion, I'm sure one of the men here might have something for your diarrhea ass. Just... if it does happen, could you take care of that outside? I'd rather not have to smell shit all night, thank you very much. Though if you fart all night, I might have to ask you to sleep outside, too. I'm sure the camel wouldn't mind the company."

Ooc: oh Trest... such a man with words!

Lyr tossed the empty plate at Trest's feet, angrily as she stood up. She was not going to have indigestion. "That's not what's going to happen, its worse! The gods are going to know and something terrible will happen. Like, I might get severely injured by an innocent creature in the future. The rabbit will find a way to exact his revenge...I'm too pretty to have horrible bowels!" Lyr raged at Trest, angry at him for suggesting that she might contract some sort of ailment. She was a princess...prince! Things like that didn't happen to royalty, right?

OOC: Lol, she really deserves those comments, though xD

Trest just blinked, and stared at Lyr as she raged. But as she was obviously extremely upset over this, the man doubled over, not even able to finish his own food as he laughed and laughed.
"Ahahaha, that's a good one, Lyr. Too pretty for horrible bowels. AHAHAHAHA!" And he was laughing so hard, now HE was crying!

OOC: She's probably rethinking that crush on him now loool

This was no laughing matter! Lyr stared at Trest, unsure whether she wanted to punch him or not. He was so...barbaric? Maybe that was a good term for him. His manners and personal hygiene were a bit appalling. She didn't like him laughing at her. It wasn't funny.

"Trest! You're a barbarian! I should have never saved you from those lizards! Why can't you at least pretend to be a high born? It's infuriating. To think I almost found you attractive for a split second," Lyr grumbled angrily looking at Trest. She wrapped the blankets tightly back around herself, sat down, and continued to glare at him.

Unfortunately for Lyr, this was just TOO much for Trest to take in, and he was still laughing, trying to compose himself as he wiped away tears from his eyes and sighed happily, "Ugh,a nd here I'm getting sand in my eyes." But he laughed again and went to eat his meat. "Though honestly, Lyr, I think you're taking this whole barbarian thing way over the line. There's nothing wrong with a little meat. I'm sure your stomach will be fine."

"You're a moron, too. But I already knew that," she said under her breath. She glared back up at Trest. Apparently it was all lost on him. Though, she supposed it was to be expected. He was a human and she was fairly certain that they didn't have the same brain capacity as she did. Thinking too much might make his brain stop functioning.

"My stomach will be fine. Maybe the rabbit will take his revenge out on you. Since I've mourned his loss. In fact, I think that is exactly what will happen. I've honored him so I am free from his torments from beyond. But you, my red-headed barbarian, will not be..." Lyr told Trest, shaking her head.

"Alright then!" he said with a smirk. "I accept all responsibility of any bad luck that befalls us because of hte rabbits death. Though, I must say- it was totally worth it. It was scrumptious. Simply scrumptious." And he licked the juice from his fingers as he looked over at Lyr to see what her reaction might be.

"You're a horrible person!" she said as she watched him lick the rabbit's juice from his fingers. She couldn't wait until the rabbit came back and haunted him. She hoped it did something horrible to him. Lyr just glared at him some more. Why did she sometimes find him attractive? He was so...wrong. Just plain wrong most of the time.

Cleaning up the small mess from dinner, Trest went about fixing himself a small bed in the sands. The one's nearest the fire were warm, and there was plenty of space if Lyr wanted to sleep ont he opposing side. And if she were still angry at him, it didn't seem to bother him much as he hummed along and then settled in for the night.

"We've got a long journey tomorrow. About as long and boring as it was today. Hope your prepared for it. The southern desert isn't just a few days away... try a week on this trail, easily. So I suggest you get some shut eye. I'm doing the same. Oh, and if you see a rabbit, just tell him I'm over here." And with a grin, he turned away from her and settled into his bed. Really, this 'prince' was hilarious. Afraid a dead rabbit would come to haunt them- HILARIOUS!

"I will, gladly. And I'll even give him a sharp weapon to poke you with," Lyr responded to Trest. She was not looking forward to tomorrow. It would be so long and boring. More camel riding and doing nothing. How was she going to survive?

Lyr made her own bed, though she didn't really need much for matting, since she was covered head to toe in sheets. She took the opposing side of the fire, and turned her back so she wouldn't have to look at Trest. He was horrible. She couldn't wait for the rabbit to exact his revenge on him. Lyr smirked thinking about it.

"Rise and shine, Princey boy," Trest said, a trolling grin upon his face as he shook her by the shoulder. "Come on, before the rabbit stew gets cold." It was a joke, a terrible one, but he could't help himself as he chuckled. "Actually, we don't have enough money for breakfast, so you'll have to wait until night fall for us to eat again. Now come on, get up sleepy head. The caravan will be leaving within the hour and we gotta pack this place up."

Lyr had a rude awakening as she was shook awake by some unknown force. She didn't like it. Lyr was too sleepy to throw a good punch, so she just attempted to latch onto Trest's hand. She glared up at Trest first with the rabbit joke and then with the no money for food. She didn't know which was worse. Her stomach decided for her. She rolled over to her magic bag, and then rolled back towards Trest. She pulled out a few loose coins and handed them to Trest.


"Here, buy us something bready not an innocent animal that was recently killed. If you don't I'll find a way to sneak that special jam back into your digestive system..." Lyr warned him.

Trest quirked a brow at Lyr.
"Oh really? So what if I bring back some rabbit bread..." and his face split with a cocky grin as he took the coin and yanked his hand free of the sleepy 'prince'.

"There's no such thing as rabbit bread!" Lyr yelled at him, annoyed. She hadn't thought that there might actually be rabbit bread. That would be a cruel and twisted thing to do. It was Trest, though. So he probably would bring back "Bread of the Slaughtered Piglet" or something equally as gruesome.

Trest only laughed, a sound that could be heard even through the tent flaps he closed behind him. It didn't take long to procure something, but what he brought back wasn't bread- but hard biscuits; food which was more suitable for travel. He also had a few other things wrapped in some paper which he set on the ground before them. "I bought some more food for us while we're traveling. Figured we'd need it and Id hate for the seller to run out of sellable food before we even get to our destination. Just a few things in there," he said, teeth crunching into a stale biscuit. "Some cheese, more hard biscuits, a few fruits and dried meats. You'd be surprised how long this sort of stuff can last if we're careful with our rations." And he took another crunchy bite, crumbs spilling all over the sands.

Lyr bit down into her hard roll. This was not exactly how she wanted to be spending her time. She wanted to be back in a giant manor where there were servants to wait on her. Oh, and the food at one of these places. She could just imagine it. Lyr was brought back to reality when she looked down to see the other foods Trest had procured. No, this really was no way for an Emperor to live. Well, potential Emperor...king....princess, whatever.

"Will it only be more desert today? Or will be finally hitting a different type of landscape?" Lyr asked, hopefully. She was pretty sure she knew the answer though. Desert, desert and more desert. Lyr was getting tired of all the sand and the heat and she hadn't even been there for that long.

Trest peered over at Lyr as he took another bite of his food, crumbs spilling down his chest.
"Desert, desert, desert. It's several days ride to the Seraj Isa, Lyr. What did you expect? No vegetation can grow in a place like this. There's too much sun and not enough rain fall. but then again, Essyrn was never known for it's farmers!" he joked, smiling at her as his blue eyes sparkled.

Lyr didn't know why she sometimes she found Trest so attractive. She looked him over again, noticing the crumbs that were falling all over him. He was definitely not the type she was supposed to be attracted to. She was supposed to like other frilly princes. For some reason she didn't like those types though.

"I wish there was a faster way to get there. Is Seraj Isa more desert? Or are there pretty things there?" Lyr asked hopefully. She really didn't want to see anymore desert. Maybe flying would be faster. But then they would lose the safety of the group, which might be a bad idea. Afterall she had heard stories about strange creatures that lurked in the desert sands.

"I have a question...are there really desert worms? Like giant things that live underground only to come out and eat unsuspecting caravans?"

Trest regarded her first question with a rub to his chin.
"Well, the Seraj Isa is a desert, but nothing like you see here. The sands have been petrified, turning into glass for as far as the eyes can see. I almost can't believe it, but turns out- it's very much real, or else we're heading down south for no reason at all!"

And at her second question, he tilted his head and shrugged.
"No place is without it's beasts, Lyr. I would not be surprised if that much were true. Why?" he said, smiling and looking the cross-dresser over. "Are you afraid of worms?"

A glass desert? That hardly sounded safe. How were they supposed to, well, go over it? Wouldn't it just smash to pieces under their weight? Well, Trest's weight, because in Lyr's mind she was as light as a feather. "The glass is strong enough to hold everyone, right? Because I don't like the idea of falling and getting giant glass pieces in my legs or elsewhere."

Why couldn't there be one place without beasts? Or a place where the beasts were at least made out of candy or something like that? Why no isle of the rainbow puppies? The beasts always had to be big, scary and hungry or just plain intent on killing someone. Lyr didn't like hurting the beasts, but she didn't understand why they were so angry all the time.


Lyr glared at Trest when he suggested she might be afraid of worms. "Of course I'm not afraid of worms! I'm afraid of being eaten alive by said worms. Maybe they'll be friendly and want to give us food..." Lyr hoped.

Trest laughed at all of her questions and ramblings.
'I don't think these are the home maker kind of worms," he told her with a smirk. "But I don't know much about the glass dessert except what I've heard from others." He shook his head. "I doubt many would go there if it would break so easily, but we'll just have to be careful when we travel there. Though, I suppose we could ask some of the men in the caravan about it. It wouldn't hurt to see what the natives have to say."

Lyr wasn't sure about asking men in the caravan. There were several men she didn't really like too much. But still, anything would be better than being bored. Lyr really wished she had known this journey was going to be so epically long and boring. She might have brought some entertainment had she known.

"Let's go ask some people. They might be selling things, too. I wonder if they get as bored as I do..." Lyr told him, stuffing the last of her breakfast in her mouth before standing up.

"Alright then, but are you sure you're pretty enough to go talk to the other men?" Trest jested, his grin tugging leftward.

Lyr glared at Trest for insulting her good looks. Of course she was pretty enough! She ran her hand through her hair and stood up. "Don't get so jealous, Trest. It's not my fault I always look so pretty and you look so....rugged." Lyr stated glaring at him.

Trest laughed, and laughed and laughed.
"Rugged, oh.." He wiped at a tear. "Yes, you can keep all the pretty you want. I prefer to remain dashing and ruggedly good looking- as all men strive to be. Though perhaps your race is just full of pretty boys." ANd there he wrinkled his nose at the thought. "Like elves."

Lyr knew she was very good looking. Had she been dressing like a woman, she was sure she would have had Trest wrapped around her finger. "My blood line descends from elvish roots. And elves are beautiful. I don't know why you're upset. And I'm much more beautiful than most men of my race. It's because I'm royal and...well, just super beautiful," Lyr told him, not realizing how conceded she really was. She hadn't a clue that she was incredibly vain when it came to her looks.

ANd the more Lyr talked, the more Trest laughed.
"Please... please stop." He said, holding onto his side since he was laughing so much it hurt. "I don't think I can take any more of this vanity." And he wiped at a second tear, still laughing at her.

Lyr remained silent, for what seemed like almost four years, before giving him an icy glare and opening her big mouth.

"I think you left rugged and dashing somewhere and just became smelly and dirt-ridden. Women don't like that! Trust me! I'm a performer and a dazzler of women!"[/b] she retorted, doubting it would bother her companion at all.

Nothing seemed to bother him, it was annoying. Who did he remind her of? Someone that pissed her off to no end! Though she couldn't place it at that moment in time.

Her eyes glanced over to the men in the caravan. Talk to them? No, they were scary and grotesque.

"Why did I let you talk me into this..."[/b] she complained.

((OOC: I'm pretty sure you're on a hiatus. So, I'll just leave this here for when you return. If you want to continue this or even start something else when you get back, let me know. Lyr's been changed a bit since her first incarnation here a bit))