heading to the obelisk

[Angie Gignac]

ooc - hey everybody, here's a scene Tom and I cooked up. It can be self-contained, but if anybody has anything to toss in either before, during or after, please feel free to. Just keep in mind that Bryn is speaking in Halfling throughout. If however, anybody interrupts and wants her to switch to common, she will.

 

[Bryn and Leif new]

 

As the group started heading up the path again, Bryn fell into line behind Leif, Ember and Daram. Flask was up front with his new toy, and she didn't want to be anywhere near it.

 

The human, tied to Ember, was seething. Bryn had seen Daram hopeless, depressed, and resigned. This was the first time she'd seen him angry. He glared at Leif with real hate in his eyes. Bryn wondered if the shifter was aware of the man's fury, then decided that he had to be. Leif was a psion, supposedly good at picking up on the emotions of others. And apparently he was, for after a moment he turned to her, a questioning look in his eyes. "What's wrong?"

 

Bryn hesitated, but she was too upset to hold it in. In Halfling, she said, "What you did to him, that didn't seem fair."

 

Leif looked incredulous. "Not fair? I'm trying to save his life, and ours. Would you rather he killed himself, trying to rescue his friends, who are probably already dead?" He paused, then added, "As I recall, you're the one who was throwing things at him."

 

"Of course I don't want him to die. But there are other ways to stop him. Putting a trap in his mind?" She shuddered. "It's not natural."

 

"Oh, like calling on magic is natural! Like bending the will of creatures to your own is natural! What you mean is it is foreign. That you don't understand it and it seems weird to you. If it were within your ability you'd think it was as natural as drinking water or healing the sick or summoning creatures from the air." Leif's Halfling was failing him and he kept using Common words at odd moments. "Please Bryn, don't preach to me about natural. I don't judge your abilities, what gives you the right to judge mine?"

 

"It's not the ability I'm questioning, it's the use of it." Bryn struggled to find the words to express what she was feeling, but Leif was too upset to wait.

 

"I didn't see you complaining when I used my unnatural powers to fight the Valenar, or when we were being attacked by giant bats."

 

Bryn shook her head; he was missing the point. "Fighting is one thing, but using your power to control people's minds? Making people do things they would never normally do? Look at you, you've got scars to show where that leads." She pointed at the healed circular scar on his throat. "Pakua did that to you, remember? And Ember, your good friend, was ready to defend him to the death. Because of something that changeling did to his mind."

 

"That's not the same thing at all!" Leif exclaimed abandoning Halfling altogether. "I'm nothing like that… that monster!"

 

As their voices rose, the others became aware of the argument. Flask, understanding both Halfling and Common, became more interested in their debate as they discussed the traitorous changeling. Unaware, Leif continued, "I don't use my powers lightly, not now, not then. That Changeling used his power to turn Ember against us…"

 

"And how is that different from what you did to Bob?" Bryn remembered the raved screams that had come from the room they'd locked the guard in.

 

Leif's mouth opened and closed silently. She had discerned what he had done. He recovered quickly but his face was flush with more than anger. "Once again, you mistake similar abilities to similar motives," he stammered. "I was protecting the Princess and the guards. I knew they wouldn't kill each other purposefully. But if I had attacked them directly, I would have had to kill at least one of them. This way, everyone lived."

 

"But surely there was another way," she began, but Leif was still talking.

 

"The same with him," Leif nodded toward Daram. "I don't give a rat's ass if he kills himself in some fool rescue mission but I'll not let him put you… ah… us in harm's way." To cover his stammer, he rushed on. "Besides, how is it different from the poor animals you force to fight? The eagles that fought the Valenar? Where did they come from? Did they volunteer to be skewered by angry elves?"

 

Bryn gasped; the comparison was totally unfair. "That's not the same thing at all! Those were…"

 

"Animals? Are you, a druid, now going to claim that their lives were worth less than a person's?"

 

"Enough!" Belkar's voice was a whip, cutting through their argument. "Whatever the problem is, sort it out quietly. We'll have every native and giant snake in the jungle on us if you two keep up that racket."

 

For the first time, Bryn realized that everybody was staring at them. Furiously embarassed, Bryn blushed red to the roots of her hair. "Sorry," she mumbled to the group as a whole.

 

Swift saved her from having to make eye contact with the others, for she came up with Bryn's boomerang in her mouth. Bryn had entirely forgotten the weapon, and was grateful that her companion had rescued it. As she reattached it to her saddle, something that Leif had said popped into her mind. Wait a minute! Did he call Arianna a princess? She stared at the shifter's back, still rigid with hurt pride, and wondered what that meant.