An: Yeah, I'm bad no update the last two months but I needed sometime to get back into the swing of being back at school, and since my grades count this semester this year; since all the nice college people see them, (Yup, I'm a senior this year) they really matter this quarter, year, whatever. I'm going to sincerely try to get back into the swing of things but it'll mostly depend on how weighed down with work I am. Well there's my list of poor excuses, Enjoy!
The city lay sprawled beneath them, a stone wall surrounding it. Six guard towers were built into the wall at even intervals. Clat's City was larger then Konan's capital city and home to all sorts of people. Miaka clutched Tasuki tighter, not liking the look of all those strangers. Nuriko, sensing his miko's unease reached over and gave her arm a gentle squeeze.
"Its all right you've got me to watch your back." He said, flexing one of his arms and giving her a wink. "And a few other people who do have some talents, but are not worth mentioning in comparison to my many talents." Miaka giggled, and gave him a grateful smile. Of course he was right. She now looked down at the city with interest now instead of fear.
Satura guided the group in through the gates and into 'organized insanity' as she described it. People and carts and cattle all traveled in what could only be described as an insane and completely unorganized way. However, if one were to take a second look they would see that while things still seemed crazy, they were actually quite organized. The traveling people, carts and animals moved in a surprisingly organized and fast way.
Satura led them down a narrow lane and stopped before a small inn. A sign with a painting of a bronze griffin, and the words "The Bronze Griffin" painted on it was the only indication that the homey-looking place was indeed a business. "Wait here for a few moments, while I go get us rooms."
Satura dismounted and entered the inn, she came back out a few minute later with a small green silk bag in her hand. She took Bonfire's reins and gestured for the others to follow her. She led them to a small gate and unlocked it using a small key she had removed from the bag. The group rode through and into the stable yard, Satura locking and closing the gate behind them.
Hostlers came out of a well-built wooden stable to take Bonfire, Windstar and the other horses to their stalls. The group removed the saddlebags then turned their horse's reins over to the hostlers. With the saddlebags flung over their shoulders, they followed Satura to another door, which was unlocked with another key from the bag.
The mage paused in the small, sparsely furnished, foyer and waited for the others to come in. "I've gotten everyone their own room." She said, reaching into a bag and pulling out more keys and handing them to everyone. "The rooms are private and not exactly what I would call luxuriant, but their not cesspools of rats, mice and roaches, either. The rooms are very plain, but very comfortable. After sleeping on the ground, on rocks, almost on top of Tasuki," She added mischievously, watching Miaka blush bright crimson and Tasuki's eyes widening and blushing only slightly while trying to avoid the look of profound amusement on Nuriko's face, and the look of barely concealed amusement on Keldar's visage.
"For five months," Satura said continuing, "That any type of bed would seem like heaven." The group nodded ruefully, only remembering too well the backaches and the various species of insect life paying a visit late at night. "On that cheerful note, follow me please."
The group went up a wooden staircase and stopped before a door painted with a small red griffin. They noticed all the other inn doors had a mythical animal painted on them. Satura opened the door to reveal a small but comfortable looking room. Two wood chairs with fluffy cushions sat by a small fireplace, a small fire dancing merrily in it. A large blue and white hooked rug rested in the center of the room. Two couches rested on the edges of the rug facing the fire, a small wooden table palced within easy reach of them. A tapestry of a deer resting by a stream and two paintings- one a portrait of a woman and the other of a hawk perched on a mountain – were the room's only decorations. There were five doors leading to the individual bedrooms.
"Pick a room." Satura said. "How about Nuriko, Tasuki and I take those rooms?" Miaka asked, pointing at three doors lined up on one wall. The other two women nodded their consent and the three then walked over and disappeared into their rooms. The mage and druid headed over to the two remaining rooms unlocked the doors and went in.
The mage's room contained a bed, table, dresser, mirror and two small chairs. A fire burned in an even smaller fireplace. There was a door connecting her room and Keldar's. She dropped her bags and then flopped on the bed. A knock came on the connecting door. "Come in." she called. Keldar came in and closed the door behind her. She sat down in one of the chairs facing Satura. "Looking forward to a night in a bed?" The druid asked. Satura nodded, pushing back an errant strand of hair.
Keldar studied her friend for a moment. Her face was too delicate, to finely made to be human. Her eye and hair color were too bright for a full-blooded human. Her ears were rounded like a human's but a bit smaller and more delicate. The druid's face wrinkled in puzzlement as she looked at her friend thinking to herself, If she's not human, or at least a full blooded human, what else could she be?
The mage had removed one of her arm-guards and was gently rubbing her arm. "Ouch! These things hurt sometimes, but I can't really complain since they've saved my life more than once." She said. "I thought the arm guards weren't supposed to hurt anybody, since they were specially made to fit your arms and no one else's." Keldar told her, a puzzled expression on her face. "Well, they aren't but sometimes my blood kicks in and makes them swell to a larger size then what the guards are." Her friends replied. "Blood? What does your blood have to do with everything?"
"Both of my parents are of mixed lineage. They're both part elvish and human, the elvish blood being the dominant one. That's why my arm guards are so small their made for mostly elvish arms but sometimes they seem to remember I have human blood in me, and decide to swell up painfully. Garret has the same problem he tells me." Satura said." "Garret's of mixed blood human and elvish blood, too?" Keldar asked with a raised brow. The mage nodded. "Why didn't you tell about it when you first met?" The druid asked. "I thought you'd figure it out, I had to tell the Miaka, Tasuki and Chichiri outright." Satura said. "How did they react?"
"Miaka thought it was great thing, and she told me loudly and vocally, Tasuki and Chichiri asked a couple of questions then just shrugged and dropped it. It didn't seem to matter to them I was mixed blood." The mage said. "Which was nice, since so many purists will so readily condemn to me to hell for not being pure elf or pure human." Satura said rolling her eyes. Keldar chuckeled. "Well don't worry I'm not a purist so, I won't be condemning you the fiery depths of the underworld."
"Thank you. That's very comforting." The mage replied somewhat dryly. At that moment a knock came on Satura's door and she went over to answer it. She opened the door to reveal Nuriko, who had a look of long suffering on his face, although what was the cause of it soon became apparent. "Is there a good place to eat? My bottomless pit for a miko is hungry." He said with a hint exasperation in his voice. They glanced over at Miaka who was clutching her stomach in apparent pain a large growl coming from her.
The three rolled their eyes and shook their heads. "The dining room is open downstairs, that all right with everyone?" They all nodded. "Where's Tasuki?" Growls and yips were the answer. The door to the bandit's room flew open and Tasuki fell out onto the floor, Zyra jumped on top of him a rag in her mouth and tail waving exuberantly. That was fun we should play tug-of-war more often. "Yeah but did you have to jump on top of me like that?" Tasuki asked. Zyra barked and jumped off the seishi. Miaka walked over and helped him to his feet. "Come on, let's go eat." She said smiling at him.
*****
The group descended into the dining room. A large fire pit in the middle of the room provided heat and a large grill over the pit provided a cooking surface. The room was decorated with four large tapestries depicting a large bronze griffin on each wall. A small fireplace provided extra warmth. There was a large painting of a bronze griffin with wings partially unfurled hanging above the mantle.
Satura led them over to a small table in a back corner, away from prying eyes and any possible spies. "Well, well look who's here." They all looked up to see a girl in her late teens dressed in a white blouse with russet skirt. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a half ponytail, the rest left to trail down over her shoulders. Her hazel eyes looked at them in open friendliness. "It's been a while, Satura." The girl said. "It's nice to see you're in good health, Mara." The mage said smiling. "You two know each other?" Tasuki asked. "Yes, Mara's from Rosethorn Village, her father is in charge of the manor's northern fields." Satura said.
"I love my family dearly, but I wanted to get out and see the world, so when Rosethorn put out a shipment here a few years ago, I decided to go with them. I have an aunt who lives here, so I didn't have to worry about paying any rent. I got the job here to help pay for my expenses and so I could save up a little money. My aunt's a governess to one of the local noble families and I'd like to be one myself, but I don't have enough schooling yet. My Aunt is tutoring me by night and some of my money goes towards purchasing books and supplies so I can study on my own. I should finish off my training within the year and by this time next year, I'll hopefully have a position." Mara finished her eyes bright with enthusiasm.
"Well, good for you Mara. I hope you get it." Satura said. "But in the meantime we're all hungry travelers and would like to order some food." "Oh I'm sorry! I didn't mean to keep you waiting like that. Well, onto business then. Our menu this evening consists of roast pork smothered in fried vegetables. Hot beef stew with a side of sweet peas and corn and finally the house specialty, Tomik stew with Kalma spices." So what will everyone have?" Mara said.
"Stew." Satura and Keldar said instantly. "I'll have the stew too." Nuriko said. "So will I." Miaka said. "I'll try the Tomik stew." Tasuki said. "All right sir, But I feel I have to warn you Kalma spices are extremely hot, they've actually been known to burn the tongues of some of our customers." Mara said. "I'll be alright, I'm a tough guy!" Tasuki said stubbornly. "All right sir. What does everyone want to drink?" "Cider." Satura said with a pointed look, at the disappointed bandit. "I'll be back with your drinks and meals in a few minutes." Mara left the table. "Why can't I have any ale?" Tasuki grumbled. "Because I've seen it happen all too often, one ale leads to two and that leads up to four or five more." Satura said. "And besides you need to be alert if something happens. I don't think anything will but it's always a possibility."
Miaka noticed some movement behind Keldar and Satura. Two swarthy but obviously drunken men stumbled over to the two women. "Hey pretty things want to join us on the balconies in our rooms?" One drawled. "No thank you. We already have company." Keldar nodded towards Miaka and the others. "We can be better company." The other said suggestively sliding his arm around Satura. He leaned over to kiss her but met with her fist instead. He stumbled back clutching his mouth. "Heh, no luck with the ladies huh?" The first one laughed. He too tried to lean over and kiss Keldar but she met his advances with a kick to the gut. Both women stood up and looked at the two of them. "Would you be so kind as to leave us alone?" Satura asked. "Heh, looks the girls are just playing hard to get heh?" The two started to move forward, but where stopped by hands on their collars.
"You know, I think when two ladies say they don't want company they mean it, so if you would be so kind as go to sleep and leave us alone?" Nuriko knocked the two men against each other, just hard enough to knock them out cold. He then walked over to the door, opened it and tossed them outside. The seishi came back over to the table and sat down just in time for Mara to reappear and set their meals down along with a jug of cider and two big jugs of water.
The girl set Tasuki's meal down first. Looking at it they could see why Mara had given him that warning before. The meal was still slightly boiling and from the looks of it, it wasn't the temperature that was causing the boiling. "Go ahead and take a bite sir." Mara said, stepping back with her tray, the other meals still on it. Keldar and Satura had braced themselves to jump up and run for cover if the seishi couldn't handle the spices. They had seen enough people who could not handle Kalma spices and the people normally went berserk trying to cool their tongues off.
Tasuki took a small bite of the stew. He chewed on it for a few moments. "See there's nothing to it. What's the big-" Tasuki stopped talking and his eyes widened. He clutched his mouth and jumped up looking around for something. Finally spotting the jugs of water he grabbed one of them, opened his mouth and dumped the water over his head. Half went into his mouth the other half went all over his clothes. He looked around for the other jug, but Keldar handed him a glass of water instead. He gulped that down then grabbed the jug and started drinking the water straight from it. When his mouth finally cooled off, he looked up to see Mara, Satura, and Keldar giving him knowing looks. Miaka and Nuriko we're trying their level best not to laugh at him, but the obvious quivering showed their efforts were not meeting with much success.
"Are you alright?" Satura asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes." The bandit said looking properly chagrined. Mara served the rest of the meals to the group. "Is their anything else I can get you?" She asked. "Can you get me a beef stew instead? This other stew is a little too hot for me." Tasuki said in a small voice. "Of course." Mara left the group and returned with another beef stew. The bandit took a bite and said, "This one isn't so hot. It's a lot better." That did it. The other five broke down laughing at him. It was few minutes before they could calm down enough to finish eating. When they finally did stop, it was to a glaring bandit. "Okay, I get the point I should have listened to you!" He said. "I admit it I was an idiot this time!" "Only this time? What about the other five hundred times?" Nuriko teased. The three women snickered at the glare he gave Nuriko. The two seishi spent the rest of the meal exchanging teasing insults with each other until Satura called a halt to it an ushered the group pack up to their bedrooms for the night and a much needed rest.