kawa~ inspiration 60
May. 27th, 2005 01:06 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
annarti.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
yrae
Title~ Not what you expected
Author~ Annarti
Disclaimer~ still mine
Notes~ kawa~ inspiration 60.Unfinished. I have to go to a meeting right now, will finish this when I get home. And~ we're done. Yay!
~ ~ ~
Malini rested back against the bar bench, observing the 'contest' before her with exaggerated calm. If Kilen thought she had a chance against the kingdom's best blade archers in a game of dagger toss, Malini wasn't about to stop her. And she wasn't about to pay up for her when she lost, either.
"So what's it like?" she asked, directing the question to nobody in particular. She couldn't quite bring herself to directly talk to any of them just yet. "Being in the Own, I mean."
"Overrated," someone called out from the other end of the target.
Melraan, the swordsman resting against the bar beside her, shook his head and gave a long-suffering sigh. "Here we go," he muttered, but Malini could see the good-natured grin on his face. "It's not overrated so much as... not what people expect."
Malini shrugged, not daring to take her eyes off the game. "You don't know what I expect."
Melraan turned to her, one eybrow probably cocked. She hooked her hair behind her ear, just to cover her blush with a hand, if only briefly. "So what do you expect, exactly?"
Another shrug, more self conscious this time. "Couldn't say, really. It's supposed to rain a lot up there, isn't it?" She risked turning to look at the swordsman, surprised to see a relatively ordinary looking man, if more well-muscled than most. She grinned stupidly despite herself, knowing she was talking with one of the kingdom's legends.
"Oh yeah." Melraan didn't sound particularly enarmoured with the subject. "Down here it's just nice and refreshing, but up there? So much rain and cold that it just ends up getting annoying. Painful in Winter, too."
Malini frowned. "Painful? How do you mean painful?"
"So cold that it hurts. And the water freezes when it comes down sometimes, so it's like pebbles raining down on you."
"Ah." Malini went quiet for a moment, trying vainly to imagine the weather so cold that it hurt. Finally she shook her head. "What else? Have you ever... I mean... how many...?"
The swordsman shifted in a way that could have been perceived as uncomfortably, and sighed carefully. "How many have I killed?"
"You don't have to--"
"Thirty-seven in the last mission, twenty-three in the one before that, forty-eight before that, only twelve before that." He looked up at the ceiling as though trying to remember, but Malini somehow knew he didn't have to. She shrank back involuntarily into the bar bench at the way he mundanely reeled off the numbers as though he was giving his shopping list.
"Fifty-two, twenty-eight, seventeen, thirty-one..." He gave a wry smile and took a swig of his beer. "Not what you were expecting, am I right?"
Malini shook her head dumbly. "I guess not..."
Author~ Annarti
Disclaimer~ still mine
Notes~ kawa~ inspiration 60.
Malini rested back against the bar bench, observing the 'contest' before her with exaggerated calm. If Kilen thought she had a chance against the kingdom's best blade archers in a game of dagger toss, Malini wasn't about to stop her. And she wasn't about to pay up for her when she lost, either.
"So what's it like?" she asked, directing the question to nobody in particular. She couldn't quite bring herself to directly talk to any of them just yet. "Being in the Own, I mean."
"Overrated," someone called out from the other end of the target.
Melraan, the swordsman resting against the bar beside her, shook his head and gave a long-suffering sigh. "Here we go," he muttered, but Malini could see the good-natured grin on his face. "It's not overrated so much as... not what people expect."
Malini shrugged, not daring to take her eyes off the game. "You don't know what I expect."
Melraan turned to her, one eybrow probably cocked. She hooked her hair behind her ear, just to cover her blush with a hand, if only briefly. "So what do you expect, exactly?"
Another shrug, more self conscious this time. "Couldn't say, really. It's supposed to rain a lot up there, isn't it?" She risked turning to look at the swordsman, surprised to see a relatively ordinary looking man, if more well-muscled than most. She grinned stupidly despite herself, knowing she was talking with one of the kingdom's legends.
"Oh yeah." Melraan didn't sound particularly enarmoured with the subject. "Down here it's just nice and refreshing, but up there? So much rain and cold that it just ends up getting annoying. Painful in Winter, too."
Malini frowned. "Painful? How do you mean painful?"
"So cold that it hurts. And the water freezes when it comes down sometimes, so it's like pebbles raining down on you."
"Ah." Malini went quiet for a moment, trying vainly to imagine the weather so cold that it hurt. Finally she shook her head. "What else? Have you ever... I mean... how many...?"
The swordsman shifted in a way that could have been perceived as uncomfortably, and sighed carefully. "How many have I killed?"
"You don't have to--"
"Thirty-seven in the last mission, twenty-three in the one before that, forty-eight before that, only twelve before that." He looked up at the ceiling as though trying to remember, but Malini somehow knew he didn't have to. She shrank back involuntarily into the bar bench at the way he mundanely reeled off the numbers as though he was giving his shopping list.
"Fifty-two, twenty-eight, seventeen, thirty-one..." He gave a wry smile and took a swig of his beer. "Not what you were expecting, am I right?"
Malini shook her head dumbly. "I guess not..."