Rainy Nights

Ok, I feel that in this chapter Bishop is maybe slightly out of character, but, I hope, not too much. This chapter is the longest by far, since I kept on thinking of things to add to it. Oh, and throughout this story I'll be using conversations from the game, like in this chapter, but I can't really remember exactly what was said in the game. So there'll be some familiar conversations, but I've added or taken away from them a bunch because I don't know them line for line. Anywho...enjoy!

"Malin?" Bishop murmured under his breath, eyeing the woman by the fire with surprise. He cocked his head to the side and briefly considered going over, but decided against it. "Useless wench."

He glanced to the side, where Khelgar was bellowing for more ale. Casavir, standing silent and depressed near the fire like some statue, was staring into the flames balefully. Sand was hunched over in a chair, staring into his book like it held the secret to life itself inside. Shandra and Neeshka sat together at a table, chatting animatedly and sipping at mugs.

And...their perfect leader, usually trying to force a joke out of the paladin or get Sand drunk, was nowhere to be seen.

The ranger considered Tasha's behavior over the past few days- she had been quiet, restless, and irritable. No doubt because of the upcoming trial and their relatively fruitless search for evidence.

So, he mused, she was probably off staring at a wall or a ceiling or the sky. Or praying to Lathander, the practically defective god of birth, renewal, and all the cheerful crap Tasha raved about. The way she yapped about him and prayed unceasingly, the ranger was surprised the woman hadn't been miraculously impregnated at some point.

Bishop smirked and considered sharing his view with the paladin.

He felt a pair of eyes on him and turned, arching one eyebrow at Malin's damning look. My, she looks angry, he mused absently, then smirked when she glared. I guess she's finally got a spine. The dark-haired woman fingered a sword that hung at her waist, looking more than a little alarmed by Bishop's sneer.

In answer he moved forward at a slow, bored pace, making her shift and straighten noticeably. He continued on, walking past Malin and continuing on, towards the door. As he walked past he turned his head and gave a little grin, reveling in the woman's murderous glare.

Casavir watched the exchange, raising his brows when the tall woman stiffened. He frowned when Bishop casually went to the door, opened it, and walked silently into the storm.

The woman seemed to hardly relax when the ranger left, and she occasionally shot a glance into the shadows around her, as if expecting an attack. Casavir watched her for a few minutes, then moved from his position by the fire and approached.


Bishop's eyes swept the town, which was occasionally highlighted by lightning. He lifted his hand to his mouth and whistled sharply, blinking back the raindrops that were crashing down. A minute passed by, then two, and then a small grey shape came padding out of the rain. Karnwyr stopped in front of his master, tongue hanging out, tail wagging happily.

The ranger's eyebrow went up and he said, "Why are you so happy?"

The wolf's answer was a soft whine, and he pawed at the mud. Bishop glanced up at the sky when another peal of thunder momentarily deafened him, then looked back at his companion.

Who was causally trotting away, heading towards the river.

"Hey!" Bishop called after the wolf, who paused, turned his head around, and blinked at the ranger. Bishop rolled his eyes and walked after him, muttering, "Fine, now what've you found?"


Tasha yawned, stretched, and yelped when her hand knocked against a sharp rock. She rubbed her fingers and glared at the offending object, which didn't respond. She leaned back against the cave wall, which was surprisingly dry since there was a thunderstorm pummeling the ground not ten yards away.

"So much for peace and quiet," the cleric muttered when more thunder sounded from outside. She shivered, the sudden loss of Karnwyr's warm fur coat leaving her side exposed to the chilly, damp air. "And here I thought it was summer."

Tasha rubbed her forehead and blinked tiredly, then shifted against the harsh stone and tried to get comfortable. A futile attempt, she learned, when the cold floor always ended up pressing uncomfortably into some part of her body.

"Ow," she snapped at another rock when she tried to lay down, once again bumping her head on the unyielding stones. "What'd I ever do to you?"

Then, with startling abruptness, there was hot breath in her ear and the sound of heavy breathing. Tasha placed a hand on her scimitar and whirled around, coming face to face with Karnwyr.

"Oh, hey." She reached out and rubbed his head, marveling at the sleek grey fur, a beautiful covering for the perfect interplay of power and muscle that lay underneath it. "Where'd you run off to?"

He didn't answer, of course, only sat next to her and whapped his tail against the cave floor when she gently rubbed the spot just between and above his eyes. The amber eyes, normally so alert, closed halfway in pleasure.

"Yeah, you like that, don't you? Mm-hm, yes you do." Tasha said absently, grinning at the wolf. She had unconsciously reverted to the voice she used when playing with the bloodhound puppy Daeghun has given her when she turned eleven. "Who's a good boy? Yes, you're a good boy, yes you are."

"Enjoying yourself?" came a dry, sarcastic voice from the small cave entrance. She snapped her head around and blinked at Bishop, dripping rainwater from his cloak and hood.

"Apparently you weren't."

He walked closer and stared down at her, looking much taller and more imposing than usual from that vantage point. "The paladin was trying to murder me with another joke," he replied, thinking back to the previous day when Tasha had futilely tried to wheedle a joke out of the man. The paladin's half-hearted attempt had been, to say the least, almost concerningly sad.

She chuckled and turned back to Karnwyr, ruffling his dark, wet fur.

The ranger watched her for a long moment, then moved to Karnwyr's other side and slid to the cold floor. "So...I guess you're hiding from our favorite paladin, right? Or your lawyer?"

The cleric sighed and leaned back against the wall, wet hair plastered against her neck. "No, I'm hiding from...a bunch of guards, I think. I don't really know who they were, but they were trying to kill me because of what supposedly happened at Ember." She seemed sobered for a moment, then smirked and said, "Of course, it's really not that hard to outrun men in plate mail in a thunderstorm."

He snorted. "Outrun, huh? You should've just gutted them."

"Yes, and subsequently been arrested for killing rightfully angered men. No thanks."

They sat in silence for several minutes, Tasha rubbing Karnwyr and Bishop watching her from the corner of his eye. She's scared, or at least nervous, the ranger thought to himself. And she did come out here to hide, just not from some untrained men with swords they've used probably once in their lives.

Finally Tasha spoke, voice soft, "So...I've asked everyone else about the trial, and now it's your turn."

He turned to eye her thoughtfully, and didn't immediately answer.

She arched an eyebrow and blinked. "Well?"

"Hn...first, you answer a question. Are you really asking, or is this just your attempt at conversation?"

The ranger was met by a slightly confused expression. "Huh?"

He smirked at the tiefling and folded his arms. "Well, it seems to me that a law-abiding lady like yourself would seem slightly more interested in playing fair and doing 'the right thing' than in getting advice from someone like me. And trust me, I'll respect you a lot more if you admit that now then if you deny it and then ignore whatever I have to say."

Tasha dropped her eyes down to Karnwyr and began making little circle patterns on his side. "I see. In that case, I'm really asking. I'd prefer to handle this the non-violent way, but there's no way I'm dropping that as an option." She looked back up, meeting his honey colored eyes firmly. "I wouldn't respect myself, otherwise. Would you?"

"No, I wouldn't."

"So I've answered your question, now you answer mine."

He made the mistake of glancing down at Karnwyr, who was once again getting rubbed between the eyes and was making little groaning sounds, his amber eyes half-closed. Bishop grinned at the wolf, reaching out to pat him. "Fine. I say you just skip this whole trial, and just kill the ambassador. That'll send them a nice message on what you think of 'justice'."

The cleric smiled, expecting an answer like that, and murmured, "She certainly deserves it."

Bishop considered his next words carefully, then smirked and said, voice suddenly low and suggestive, "Or, if you just want to forget about the whole thing..."

She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped one arm around them, watching Karnwyr.

He shifted slightly closer and placed one arm against the jutting wall behind them, twisting a bit to face her fully. "You and I could go find a nice little trail in some woods and...'camp' for a year or two."

Tasha blinked, not expecting that reply and caught off-guard both by the idea and the sudden realization that it was more than a little tempting. Naw, he's just trying to make me uncomfortable again. I think. "Is that an offer, or just another snide comment?"

"I don't know." The ranger's head tilted to one side, eyeing her almost predatorily. "If it was an offer, what would you say?"

"Heh..." she absently tucked some hair behind her ear, aware of the fact that she was sitting barely a foot away from Bishop, in a cave that was well-hidden and extremely private. "You have no idea how good that sounds. Probably the best advice I've gotten so far."

His smirk got bigger and he moved even closer, so that she could feel the ranger's warm breath, more heat than anything else, and a startling contrast to the cave's frosty air. "Oh really?" She licked suddenly dry lips and tried not to blush, failing miserably.

"But I can't. You know that."

Bishop scowled, "I do, huh?"

Tasha met his eyes, green on gold, and said firmly, "I've got a choice, Bishop. It's a tough choice, but it's a choice."

He leaned back, frustrated and slightly embarrassed, although he managed to hide it well. "A choice? From the Luskans?" He snorted and crossed his arms again. "The Luskans don't give choices, ever."

"Yeah, they do," she paused, trying to figure out what to say, and looked at the ceiling searchingly. "They just...they just don't view it as a choice."

The ranger rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. Do what they want or get killed. Some choice."

Her brow furrowed and she frowned. "Yeah, actually, it is a choice. No one can ever force someone else into something. There's always a way out, even if they choose not to see it. And maybe it's a really bad second option, like dying, but it's still their decision." Tasha nodded to herself, and Bishop realized that she was talking to herself as much as to him. "There's always a choice, some people just choose not to see it."

His scowl darkened and he felt oddly disturbed by her words. "What, you're god teach you that? Real nice of him."

The tiefling snapped a glare on him and growled, "Watch it, ranger."

Bishop met her eyes, hardly afraid of the woman, and arched a challenging brow.

She sighed and continued rubbing Karnwyr. "Well...that's just what I think." The cleric yawned and leaned back against the cold stone, smiling faintly. "Of course, once this is all over, I might just take you up on that offer."

The ranger watched her with a frown, the spine-tingling ideas he had had when his offer was made long gone. After a moment he shifted back into his original position, no longer facing her, and sneered. "Well, we wouldn't want to make the paladin jealous, now, would we?" Bishop looked at her out of the corner of his eye, watching for her reaction.

It wasn't a pleasing reaction. After a long moment of digesting his comment the tiefling sighed, rubbed her eyes, and rose. "Let's go back to the inn," she muttered wearily, practically stalking out of the cave. Bishop watched her go, frowning.

What was that all about? he wondered silently. After a minute he stood, brushed himself off, and padded after her. Damn paladin.