EPISODE 5
Early the next morning, Ka woke up to the sound of the newcomer Dil'andau's dreaming. She was tempted to hold his loudness against him, but she quickly reminded herself that she too dreamt 'out loud'. What irked her, however, was not the fact that Dil'andau was talking in his sleep...it was the fact that what he was saying offended her.
Ka crept out of her warm blankets and stealthily crawled over to where the warrior slept. She perched herself over his face for a moment, steadily listening to the things he was saying...or rather, mumbling. Dil'andau was complaining about his halberd again...there was a moment when he said something about eating crab legs for supper, but the dream mainly focused on the 'stolen' halberd.
Muffling a giggle with her hand, Ka reached out with the velvet fingers of her mind and focused her attention on Dil'andau's dream. She saw herself in the man's dream, barbarically ripping the halberd out of Dil'andau's hands and running away at top speed, laughing maniacally. Boy...this one sure had a way of dramatizing things...
Shaking her head, Ka retracted her mental grasp and simply examined Dil'andau as he slept. The feisty warrior of Streeka'Xukuth slept in the worst position Ka had ever seen; he lay sprawled, taking up enough room for five, with one leg stretched out and the other bent at the knee, and with his arms up over his head. He moved about constantly and occasionally lashed out with his hands or legs, thus becoming a real hazard to anyone sleeping within a ten-foot radius of him.
Grinning to herself, Ka looked around to make sure Rose and Zoe were both still asleep. When she saw they were, she returned her attention to Dil'andau and blew sharply in his face. The warrior instantly snapped wide-awake, thrashing about like a man drowning.
"What the hell?!" Dil'andau cried, his voice cracking. "I'll teach you to--" He brushed his face with his hands and got to his knees, then whirled around and faced Ka. His crimson eyes grew wide. "You!" He hissed through clenched teeth. "YOU!" He repeated, louder this time, and started for Ka, then his eyes caught the glint of adamantine wrapped up in the psionicist's bedroll. With a whimper, he shoved passed Ka and reached for the halberd. "My baby!" He murmured and attempted to free the long weapon from it's comfortable prison. Ka grinned wickedly, amused at the warrior's gender disrespect.
"Your baby?!" She snapped and dived for Dil'andau. She grasped his arms and tried her best to pry him away from the halberd, but the male was quite a bit stronger than she had expected. This one was not like her weak brother... The warrior lashed his arm back and Ka was thrown onto her backside at the end of her blankets. The halberd finally came free and Dil'andau held it up triumphantly.
"Haha! Thought you'd get the best of me, eh?!" He cooed, his eyes sparkling. He was about to ramble on about finally being reunited with his 'long lost love' when someone jumped on his back and threw him forward. Ka laughed gleefully and hopped over Dil'andau, snatching up his halberd as she did.
"It's mine!" She yelped territorially and bounded out of the warrior's reach, hugging the weapon to her chest and giving her opponent a hard look. Dil'andau gritted his teeth and started to get to his feet when Ka pointed behind him and declared, rather smugly, "Look behind you, Dilly...Zoe's gonna beat you up for ruining his beauty sleep!" The warrior's face grew dull.
"Oh, please Ka." He grumbled in a low, unimpressed voice. "For a brainiac, you sure got some pretty stupid tricks..." He continued his advance on the psionicist then cried out as something stung his left arm. Dil'andau whirled around at once, his gaze falling upon that of an unhappy, ill-rested Zojikoe. The mage held a single finger extended in Dil'andau's direction, and a light wisp of smoke wafted up from it's very tip. "She -- I --" The warrior tried with great effort, then looked over his shoulder and gave Ka a dark look before returning his attention to the displeased wizard. "She attacked me first." He grumbled childishly and pouted. "And she has my halberd." He then added pointedly. Zojikoe spoke very slowly, something he did only when seriously irritated.
"You know what, Dil'andau?" He said thoughtfully, "You're a real champ...you know that? A real...champ." He spat the word like venom. This was no compliment... The lithe mage closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, "I don't know if you two could have possibly made any more noise..." He sighed and fought back the urge to jump on both his sister and the new male and throttle them, "...some of us are trying to sleep!" He made absurd hand gestures and rubbed his temples again, "Now I know that Ka doesn't sleep, but if you--" He paused and motioned sharply to Dil'andau, "--don't sleep either, we're going to have some serious problems in the near future." He gave his sister and the new warrior an exasperated look. Dil'andau blinked and looked back at Ka.
"You're gonna take that from him?" He asked idly, thumbing back at Zojikoe. Suddenly, the halberd didn't matter any more. Ka opened her mouth to say something, but Dil'andau cut her off. "Do you want me to teach him some manners?" He asked forcefully, his expression growing angry -- not play-angry, but seriously angry -- all of a sudden. He didn't even wait for Ka to answer before turning around and striding determinedly towards Zojikoe. Zojikoe stepped back cautiously, Dil'andau's sudden change of character had taken him by surprise.
"Listen--" He tried, his voice quavering; it was his turn to worry. He sidestepped from the warrior's path, but Dil'andau was faster. Ka watched in horror as Dil'andau cracked a fist on her brother's jaw.
"Dil!!!" She cried at the top of her lungs and bolted towards him, "Stop it!" She hollered. The slender mage brought a hand to his face and looked up at the taller warrior with murder in his eyes.
"Oh you mother f--" He whispered in warning and launched a punch at the other male. Dil'andau narrowly avoided the blow and pulled a dagger from his vest, then threw the mage back against the cavern wall and started a classic tavern fight.
Sleepy-eyed and in a sour mood, Rose sat up in her blankets and rubbed her eyes. "W-what?" She asked drowsily. She had been sleeping perfectly until Ka cried out... She opened her eyes and as she saw what was going on a few feet away, her jaw dropped. "Holy mother of spiders!!!" She cried and jumped to her feet. She hurriedly made her way over to where Ka stood and grasped the drowess' shoulders, spinning her around so that they would be face-to-face. "What did you do?!" She yelled at the psionicist. Ka shook her head.
"I didn't do anything!!!" She defended herself firmly, still clutching the halberd tightly. Rose eyed the weapon and frowned.
"Is THAT why Dil'andau's beating on Zojikoe?" She asked, pointing to the halberd. There was a scream off to the side and she looked over to see Zojikoe wrestling with Dil'andau; the mage appeared to be trying to get something shiny out of the warrior's hand... Ka shook her head again.
"NO!" She sighed heavily. "Dil'andau and I were fighting over the halberd this morning and we happened to wake Zojikoe up...he's such a light sleeper...and then Zoe got mad at me and gave me some attitude and then Dil got mad and went after him!" She explained hastily. Rose raised an eyebrow.
"So, technically, this is all your fault." She figured bluntly. Ka narrowed her eyes at Rose.
"Well you're just cruisin' for a bruisin', aren't you?" She commented ominously, pushing up the sleeves of her overcoat, "That's it..."
Two seconds later, all four drow were mutually at war with one-another.
***
A half hour later, the 'companions' sat by the -- completely cleaned up -- camp, quietly eating their breakfast. The meal consisted of dried meat and a flask of water that they all shared...yes, shared.
The tension between them was present still, yet not as overbearing as it had been a moment ago.
Ka sat by her rolled-up blankets, occasionally giving the others evil looks. Dil'andau sat opposite to her, firmly clutching his halberd (which he had managed to retrieve during the fight); he looked suspiciously from Ka to Zojikoe. Rose sat near Ka and spent the meal looking up at the ceiling. Zojikoe, far away from everyone else, pouted.
After a long moment of silence, Ka spoke up in a dismal tone., "Wow...how much do you guys wanna bet that none of us lives to see the Kyrashar Rose?" She asked cynically. There was a universal grumble from everyone else in the room, then Rose piped up.
"We'll be fine...we'll just have to try very hard not to get on each other's nerves." She suggested rather optimistically, looking away from the ceiling at long last. She looked over at Ka.
"Then tell Ka to leave my stuff alone." Dil'andau snapped moodily, giving the psionicist a malicious stare. Zojikoe looked to the warrior and sneered.
"And tell him to stay the hell away from me." He added pointedly, hugging his knees to his chest. Dil'andau turned to look at the mage and gritted his teeth.
"Why don't you just stop breathing, champ?" He spat in reply, feeling the anger well up within him again. The siblings of Venorik'Z'ress were not his favorite people right now... Ka sighed loudly.
"Okay, okay!" She cried exasperatedly, "Let's just get up and out of here...if we start moving, we'll get other things on our minds and we'll be able to function like normal people." She figured and got to her feet, hefting her covers onto her back. She was silently thankful that she no longer had Dil'andau's halberd on her back, for her balance was a lot better.
Zojikoe slowly got to his feet and brushed off the front of his deep red robes, "Dil'andau's not normal, Ka." He commented dryly to his sister, giving her a most serious look. "He's a freak." When Ka rolled her eyes at his comment, the mage strode by the warrior in question and approached Rose. "Why don't we leave the two weirdlings alone for a bit and travel together, hmm?" He offered to the priestess. "Perhaps, between the two of us, we could have a sensible conversation that doesn't include topics like weaponry or brain hemorrhaging." Rose gave Zojikoe an unsure look and glanced back at Ka.
"May I have the map?" She asked and held out her hand. Ka considered it for a moment, then pulled the crumpled piece of paper from her coat and handed it to the priestess.
"Don't get us lost." She warned and looked to Zoe meaningfully; the wizard knew where they were going and would surely correct Rose if she read the map wrong. Rose began to walk ahead and then she stopped and looked back at Zojikoe.
"Well?" She asked him. "Are coming or not? I was looking forward to the conversation you had in mind..." She managed smile -- the first smile of the day for almost everyone in the party -- and beckoned the wizard to her side. His eyes lighting up with pride and purpose, Zojikoe hurried over to the priestess' side and they walked off, chatting in quiet tones.
Still behind, Dil'andau looked to Ka with an icy expression on his sharp-featured face. Why did he get stuck with Ka? She might decide to take ownership of something other than his weapon...
Ka gave the warrior a dull look, trying to wear down his ignorance, then, realizing that the male was an awfully stubborn thing, she rolled her eyes and walked off after Rose and Zoe. "Sulk all you want, Dil." She mumbled and took off.
Dil'andau watched Ka go and seriously considered returning to Ched Nasad; but then, he decided that fighting with the little brainiac was far better than fighting with his enraged matron...
Ka smiled victoriously when she heard the sound of footsteps behind her. Soon, Dil'andau appeared at her side; now that they were shoulder to shoulder, Ka noticed that the warrior was much taller than she...this didn't come as a surprise to her as she had never been physically imposing. Up ahead, Rose and Zoe seemed to be holding up the sensible conversation that Zoe had promised Rose; jealous, Ka looked over at Dil'andau and opened her mouth to say something smart and conversational. She immediately closed her mouth when she caught sight of Dil'andau absent-mindedly picking his teeth. There would be no intelligent conversation out of that one...
"What?" Dil'andau asked innocently, seeing Ka turn away with disgust. The psionicist of Venorik'Z'ress silently cursed the fact that the man had noticed her attempt at conversation.
"Nothing." She snapped, giving Dil a sidelong glance.
"No." Dil'andau objected, searching out Ka's elusive gaze. "What is it? Tell me...did I do something? Was it because I was picking my teeth?" He asked curiously. He watched as Ka's lips quirked upwards and he frowned deeply. "It was because I was picking my teeth, wasn't it?" Ka looked over at the drow and sighed disconsolately.
"You're not a quick one, are you?" She asked rather harshly. There was no use keeping secrets... Dil'andau's eyes widened into large rubies.
"What do you mean?" He became thoughtful all of a sudden. "I'm fast in combat...I'm actually the fastest of my entire House!" He declared proudly. "I'm even better than the Weapons Master!" He frowned again. "But Streeka'Xukuth doesn't notice...or care, as far as I can tell." He ran his fingers through his thick white mane and avoided Ka's gaze a moment. Ka examined Dil'andau and blinked, interested by the turn of things; so maybe he wasn't smart, but he was interesting none-the-less.
"Welcome to my world." She commented with heavy irony; she laughed a short, throaty laugh and looked at the cavern walls as she walked by. "I'm pretty damn sure my mother sent me on this mission in hopes of losing me to the horrors of the Underdark." She confessed sourly. She looked away from the wall and was surprised to meet Dil'andau's attentive gaze.
"Why would your Matron do that?" He asked almost innocently, "You're a female." Ka smiled at the warrior's words and wondered if it was possible that a drow be that inattentive to the world around him.
"I'm not a priestess, Dil." She explained promptly. "I hate religion and my mother can't take that. Her one-track mind doesn't understand what I can do for her and for my House." She shook her head and closed her eyes. "Let's not go into this subject...I don't feel like getting a headache today." She breathed and opened her eyes. She looked to Dil'andau. The warrior smiled.
"I've never had a headache." He commented lightly, "Did you know that?"
Ka kept her caustic reply to herself and simply smiled back.
***
About ten feet ahead of them, Rose and Zoe chatted about the Kyrashar Rose.
Zoe was using all his intellectual charm to try to impress the priestess who traveled at his side. "The Rose was created by the followers of the Queen of Air and Darkness...and Lloth. A Black Shard was used to cut into an oak tree, causing it to bleed as it died. Into that mix was added the poison of a thousand black roses." He explained glibly. Rose quirked a brow.
"This happened on the surface, then?" She asked curiously, looking over at the taller mage. Zoe nodded and smiled.
"Yes, that's right. Anyway, Lloth's avatar then appeared and magically transformed the sap into the shape of a Rose." He paused at the word and gave the priestess at his side a gentle nudge. "Heh...you're name's Rose too." He chuckled even though Rose didn't look impressed, and then he went back to his explanations. "Okay so...because the Black Shard was used to cut into the tree, its residual dust stayed inside the Rose...and, of course you already know, the Black Shard is a bane to the faeries, so the Kyrashar Rose became a legendary weapon against the cursed fairy-folk of the surface." He finished his story and cocked his head to the side, eager to see if Rose would have any questions for him. She was such a fun student, if he dared think of her as a student.... Rose cracked a smile.
"So, why does your Matron want it?" She asked pointedly. Zoe pursed his lips, then shrugged.
"I'm not sure...you'd have to ask Ka." He thought for moment. "I suppose she wants to use its power in some way, but I don't know how or why." He gave Rose an apologetic look, then fidgeted as something brushed up against his leg. The mage looked down to see Rose's pet panther, Slayer, at his side. Zojikoe looked up from the magnificent beast and into the priestess' eyes. Rose grinned with amusement.
"He likes you." She purred, turning her attention to the panther. Zoe swallowed thickly; he was pleased that the cat liked him, but he wasn't so sure he liked the cat. It made him nervous, but he managed to flash Rose a confident smile.
"Nice kitty." He choked and patted the great feline's head with the very tips of his fingers. Rose, aware of the wizard's discomfort, laughed.
"Don't worry, Zoe!" She urged. "Indulge a bit...Slayer won't harm you." She held the mage's gaze firmly, reassuring him with her eyes. "He only hurts mean people like Dil'andau." She frowned at the name and made an impatient gesture with her hand. Zoe slowly reached further down and rubbed the cat's muscular back; Slayer began to purr and, seeing this as some sort of objection to his touch, Zoe retracted his hand hastily.
"There...that's good enough." He managed, his voice barely audible. Laughing, Rose rolled her eyes.
"Ka was right...you're a baby." She concluded. Indignant, Zoe crossed his arms over his chest and raised his sharp chin.
"Ha!" He cried and gave Rose a pointed look, "Just keep walking." He snapped pertly. Rose shook her head.
"Whatever..."