Technically, it's still Saturday when I'll post this, no matter what it says on the update date, so it's still the first week of February for me, so I beat the system. So no saying I didn't update this one quickly.
_____________It's go time_________________________________________________
Jetrin had been sitting atop the horse, as it plodded along the forest trail, trying to keep focused. But, it had been hours since he'd left the village, and he'd been unable to check for his gold the whole time. Actually, he probably would have checked it before leaving the village if it hadn't been for what Kevan said to him. He decided he'd check it later tonight…
"So Jetrin, can you at least tell me where you're going? If you want me to come along, you might as well give me an idea of where I'm ending up."
…As soon as his irritating baggage went to sleep.
No, not baggage. Baggage has a use. This is more like a curse. A curse I accepted for some gold. And, I don't even know if the gold is really there. Wonderful.
Jetrin knew he should have checked his bags as soon as he could. But, if the gold had actually been in there, he would have broken his 'deal' with Kevan, and it's not like he wanted that to happen.
"Well, talk already. I haven't got all day. If you don't decide on a direction, I'll go by myself. Don't think I won't!" Meria kicked her horse up from the steady pace to a trot to add more force to her threat.
Oh but if only you would. Of course, I told Kevan I would take care of you, so I'd just have to follow… and I'm not following some girl who's never left her village. Especially since she probably has no idea where anything is.
Thinking for a moment, he decided to tell her his destination.
"Illian."
Meria looked surprised. "What? Illian? What's that?"
Right. She has no idea where Illian is. Or that it's a city. She probably only knows places like Caemlyn and Cairhien. Or Tar Valon, of course. Everyone knows those three.
Suppressing a sigh, he answered her question tiredly. "Illian is a city in the South. The main city of the country of Illian. I've heard there's been trouble down there, so I've decided to go there."
She looked confused at this explanation. "If there's trouble, wouldn't you want to ignore it? Wouldn't it be kind of dangerous there?"
Jetrin scratched his head at her comment. "Er… I guess normally people would, but this rumor is a bit old, so by now, or by the time I get there, the trouble should die down. And, if the troubles gone, people will want to celebrate, right? And, that's where I come in."
Meria looked even more confused by this explanation, so Jetrin decided to 'connect the dots' for her.
"I'm an Illuminator. I have fireworks. People who celebrate like having fireworks. I sell them fireworks and earn money. Good for me, good for them. Everybody's happy. Get it?"
Of course, if Kevan put the gold in my bag, I don't have to worry about money for a while.
Meria made an exasperated noise. "You don't have to treat me like an idiot you know. I would have figured it out."
Yeah, but we don't have the time for that.
"And, why Illian? I've never heard of Illian. Why not Caemlyn or Cairhien or Tar Valon? Those are places everyone knows."
…Right. I knew she would think about those places.
With a shake of his head and a suppressed grin, he answered he replied smoothly.
"I've already been to all three of those places, I've just come from Caemlyn, and the only place I haven't been too in a while is Illian."
Meria took a moment to digest this information, and then responded with another question.
"How many places have you been anyway? You've been to a lot of places haven't you?"
How should I know? This'll take me a while to figure out.
Thinking carefully for a moment, he began reciting the names of all the places he'd been out loud and counted them out on his fingers.
"Caemlyn, Cairhien, Tar Valon, Tear, Illian, Amadicia, Arad Doman, Ebou Dar, Altara, some steddings, and once to Shienar. That was a frightening place since they're all so grim... Oh, and I saw the Aiel Waste once. Never went in though. So… a little over ten of the largest places in the world."
Meria looked impressed at this recitation, but she looked a bit puzzled at the end.
"Why didn't you go in? Scared of Aiel?" She gave a sly smile after saying that.
Of course. What kind of fool isn't scared of those people?!?
Jetrin decide that rather than showing fear, he'd show some false bravado. "Not too much. I've met a few in Caemlyn. They're all followers of the Dragon Reborn, so they can't be that bad… The probably with the Waste is that it's such a dry and hot place. Makes the weather we've had here look cool."
Giving a sideways glance at her, he asked, "Well, is that all?"
"No, actually I have a couple more questions left," was her response.
"Go ahead." Might as well get her questions out of the way now.
"How old are you? You don't look too old, and you're probably not more than twenty-five."
What kind of question is this? …how old am I anyway? Let me think.
"Umm… give me a while. It's been a long time since I thought about my age… hmm… I think I'm… twenty-two? No, wait, twenty-one. Why?"
Meria looked at him curiously. "Really? How can you be that young and have been to all those places? When did you start traveling anyways?"
"That's for me to know, and you to not know. So what's you're other questions?"
Meria looked irritated to have just been blown off like that, but hadn't been very important. She asked her next question instead.
"Why didn't you mention Tachio as a place you'd been? Isn't that where Illuminators come from? At least that's what my father told me."
"People don't mention the starting point as a place they've been. If someone asks you in the future about where you've been, you won't say the Two Rivers, will you?"
Meria thought it over for a while. Then, she nodded in understanding.
"I get it, that makes sense. Alright, here's another question…"
This is getting kind of long here. After this question, I'll be finished answering questions about myself… yeah.
"When was the last time you went home?"
Too long. If I tell her, she'll be able to figure out my age, so…
"…next question please."
Meria blinked at Jetrin's response. She'd been expecting a real answer and had been surprised at the blunt response.
"Wait, answer my question first. It's my last question anyway."
"No. Ask a different question."
Meria looked really irritated at this. Thinking for a moment, she had another question to ask.
"Ok then. Why'd you leave home by yourself? Don't Illuminators usually travel together?"
…I might as well answer this bloody question truthfully…
"Because I felt like it. Now, no more questions."
Kicking his horse up to a swift trot, he sped along the trail.
________It's stop time_____________________________________________________
Same bat time. Same bat channel.J: …Wow
TI: What? What're you saying wow for?
J: I just can't believe that you actually updated when you said you would… at least technically.
TI: Hey, I said I would, didn't I?
J: Yeah, but you say a lot of things. Once you said you could stick an entire hot dog in you mouth.
TI: Hey, I did it, didn't I?
J: Yeah… let me just say that you're a bloody idiot.
TI: O…k… I just want to do something to you alright?
J: It depends. What are you going to do?
TI: Nothing much, just send you five hundred feet into the air and watch you plummet to the ground.
J: …What? *vanishes*
TI: *looks up* Eye for an eye and all that… Wow, look at him fall. I think he's making up his own curses just for this situation… look at him go.
Reviews:
ckk: Actually, you can do something. You can find my address and send me threatening letters, or find me, and force me to type out a chapter a day or else you'll restrict my internet access… But please don't. I'll be seriously freaked out if any of those two happens. Especially the first, since that's the only one that actually can happen… hopefully.
Annonomus: I think you misspelled that. It's probably Anon o Muse… or Annono mouse… or Anna Nomus… what the heck? Never mind, scratch those names, I can't figure it out. As for the fall in love thing, that'll probably happen, but not until the end. And by end, I mean the very end. As for different POV, most of the story is going to be from Jetrin's POV. If I change once in a while, it's because the story needs it, or if I have to keep Jetrin's thought's private. Probably will happen at least three times.
Bad Luck Charm: Yeah, Cenn Buie's a loveable guy, ain't he? Smacking people with his stick here and there. Eh. Anyway, here's a question for you again. Isn't it a bad thing to constantly change names? If you change your name, won't any stories you write on one name not get transferred over to the other, so it's as if you didn't write any? Or, I'm being an idiot and all you have to do is change your name without making a new account, like when Fanfiction.net changed names to keep people from having the same name… please ignore the first half of this response. I realize that I'm an idiot and that my second idea is right.
So… yeah. That's it. Anyway, about my updating, at best I'll probably update on an every other week sort of schedule. So, by the end of this year I'll have written about… let's see, 52 weeks minus 6 weeks is 46 weeks. 46 divided by two is 23. So, at that pace, this story will be done in about… a year and then some… Dammit
