Naturally a light sleeper, Annah woke up in the night when she heard a
small cry. Punching daggers in her hands, she turned to see Loké
sitting up in the dark wide awake, his legs crossed, trembling, a
haunted look on his face and in his eyes. She relaxed and swore quietly.
"I t'ought we were annay attack. Instead ah see yeh tremblin' like a wee kiddie." She sneered as she gave him a withering look of contempt. She promptly swore again as Loké whipped his head round and snapped, "Shut it," in a demonic voice, his eyes glowing yellow.
When he blinked, the eyes disappeared, and he looked away from Annah ashamedly as he realised what he'd said to her. "Sorry," he muttered.
Sorry wasn't good enough for Annah. "What tha hell was that!" she demanded.
"What was what," Loké asked a face to match the puzzlement in his voice.
"Yeh bloody eyes, they were glowing yellow fer gods' sake!" She cried out. Lok's eyes widened in shock and he seemed to shrink in size.
"What in tha hells happened!? Yeh voi-"
"Look, I had another nightmare, alright!?" Loké turned and cried back at her defensively. "I get them every night," he continued, flipping over with his back to her, "just leave me alone."
"Nah until yeh tell me what that hells that was berk," she retorted, getting up and walking over to his bed. When she nearly got there he rolled over and snapped, "I haven't told you everything about me, and I don't bloody well intend to until I know I can trust you! You're not the only one with secrets so sod off back to your bed!"
Annah unconsciously clenched her hands around her daggers, but bit back a snide remark. 'He das 'ave a point. I havnae exactly told him that much about mahself,' she thought as she left him and climbed back onto her bed, and they both tried to fall back to sleep.
Loké couldn't sleep though, and he lay there as he started trembling again, remembering the dream. He only became aware of the fact he hadn't slept after it when someone knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" He called without looking. "Me." Came the voice of Keldorn from behind the door.
Loké got up and unlocked the door as he slung Celestial Fury and it's scabbard over his shoulder. Keldorn walked in as Loké stood aside as invitation, and he looked at him quizzically when he saw the tiredness in Lok's eyes. The said person nodded to answer the unspoken question.
"The others are downstairs Loké," spoke Keldorn, "however, I am sure that we could wait-"
"No point..." Loké interrupted simply as he walked back to his bed to pick up a few minor items next to the candle on his dresser, "I can't sleep and I don't feel that tired anyway," he lied. He'd gotten good at lying about this subject. Keldorn gave him a sceptic look, but turned around wand walked out. As he did so he said, "We'll be waiting for you and the lady downstairs."
Loké slipped on his chain mail and turned around to Annah's bed to wake her up - only to find that she was already ready to go.
"I take it you were awake." It was more a statement than a question as Annah stood there silently. "Do you intend to stay with us for the time being Annah? And do you want the others to know you're name?" He found himself asking. The tiefling shrugged, "Ah dannae 'av much choice. As fer yer friends..." she shrugged, "Ah get the feelin' ah'm gonna be staying here for a while," she spoke as she turned and started to leave the room.
"Annah?" Loké called out. She stopped, and turned around. "Aye, what?" "I don't know about where you come from, but tieflings are very seldom seen here. So don't be too surprised if everyone... well..." Loké trailed off, seemingly embarrassed. "...Stares at me like ah'm some kinda freak?" Annah finished for him.
He nodded in a sheepish way, blushing faintly and Annah gave a small snort as he did so. 'E's kinda cute like tha',' she half-thought to herself as she turned around and continued walking downstairs.
As she walked she became aware of Loké catching up to her and walking next to her. She turned to look at him and gave him a quizzical look when she saw the dark green bundle of cloth he was holding out for her In one hand.
"Athkatla is quite magically orientated. More than one mage would want you, your race being so rare," he explained, "this cloak isn't much good-"
"Thanks laddie," she interrupted as she realised what the idea was, "bu' dannae expect annaethin' back from meh."
"You part of my... our team now Annah. We don't expect you to pay us for anything," he muttered, looking a little hurt. "Why are you so mistrustful?"
She stopped walking as they arrived on the stairs and slipped the cloak over her shoulders. It came down just past her knees, and she coiled her tail around her waist like a belt. "'Cause where ah'm from, ya hafta look after yahself," she replied as she stared harshly into Lok's eyes. He nodded in understanding after a few seconds and the pair resumed walking downstairs.
Either everyone from last night wasn't there any more, or they didn't recognise Annah, as when they walked down the only gazes were longing or jealous gazes from men and women when they saw her face. They saw the others sitting at a table nearby and they walked over to sit with them. Minsc Keldorn and Jaheira were out of their armour, Aerie wearing her mage's robe.
"So where are we going?" Asked Aerie timidly as Annah and Loké sat down next to each other. She looked a bit worried about something, Loké noted without really paying attention. He was still dwelling on the nightmare. As the waitress came, Loké ordered some dwarven ale. Keldorn and Jaheira exchanged glances at this, while Minsc was chatting happily to Aerie as she petted Boo. Annah just sat there, watching the others as she gauged them.
"I was thinking of going to... what's her name...? Nalee's...? keep and helping her with those trolls." He replied.
"What are trolls?" asked Annah.
Loké turned his head, "Seven foot tall ugly green bastards that eat anything and everything they can, have incredible strength and stamina, oh and to cap things off," he paused as the waitress arrived with the ale, and he downed it in one swing, "The fuckers re-grow anything you hack off unless you cauterise the bloody wound with acid or heat."
"Cute," was all Annah replied. Loké looked at her silently for a few seconds before a thought occurred to him. "Do you want a drink?" He asked. Annah looked at him, thought the better of accepting and shook her head. "Then we'd better get going. Annah and I've got our stuff, we'll wait outside for you."
As they entered the open the door outside and stepped into sunlight, Annah took in her surroundings as Loké walked up to the railings in front of her, and looked over the expanse of water in front of them.
'A'reeght, nathin' too dissimilar except for tha loada primes... usual whore's an' merchants, blue skies ah kinda nice ta look a', and...' "What the 'ell is that?" Annah cried out as she scrunched her eyes shut.
"What's what?" Loké asked.
"Tha' bright thing in the sky!" She exclaimed as she faced him.
"The sun." Loké stated in a very confused voice
"Whose son?"
"It's 'the' sun."
"Whose son!" 'E's doin' this an purpase...'
"It's called 'the sun' as in s u n, not s o n, 'son'." A look of understanding appeared on his face as flash of insight hit him. "...Sigil didn't have a sun, did it?"
Surprise flickered across Annah's face for a moment before she looked away from him sullenly. "How'd you figure out Sigil is where 'am from?" She murmured, half hoping the background noise would drown her out.
"It just clicked in my mind. Last night when they offered to take you with them-she said you wanted to go back. But you didn't..."
They stood there silently for nearly a minute, before Loké murmured gently, "you can't go back, can you?" he asked softly.
"Nae," she whispered. "I upset tha' Lady a' Pain. She kinda owns the city, an' ya cannae piss her off 'n get away wi' it. Ah was a lucky 'un."
'You can never go home. Just like me...' Loké thought sadly.
"What?" Annah asked as she returned the gaze. Lok's eyes widened as he realised he'd actually said it out loud.
"It-it's..." Loké gave a small sigh, "To cut a long story short, I can't go home. People wou-"he stopped short as he saw the door to the Five Flagons inn open behind Annah and the rest of the party file out. "We'll continua this late'er laddie," Annah whispered to him as she spun on her heel and fell into step behind Keldorn.
As they walked through the city Annah looked at her surroundings with a mixture of familiarity and caution.
'Tha' shapes 'ave changed, but the nature hannae changed a bit,' she thought as she watched a street urchin steal an apple and run off from a merchant while he was busy with a customer. She almost felt at home.
Almost.
And that lingering feeling was going to die when they exited the towns on the road to the de'Arnise keep. She looked at the landscape wide-eyed like a child for several minutes as they walked, the others chatting happily to each other, before falling in step next to Loké who was walking silently along.
"Ah'v never seen so much green before. Is it always this green laddie?" She said as greeting.
"Will you please stop calling me that?"
"No."
Loké sighed. "Fine. In answer to your question, not always. There's The Great Desert further north," He turned to her and gave a small chuckle, "No prizes for guessing why it's called that. There's swampland south too, and mountain regions too." He gave a small smile at her that she found herself returning with a ghost of a grin. "What was Sigil like?"
Annah thought for a moment. "It's kinda shaped like a wheel-rim, tha city is built inside so if ya evae looks up, ya see the city overhead an if ya look outside tha city, ya cannae see anythin'. . "Hm. Mini-ring-world... I read about those in some of the books in Candlekeep.'
Annah picked it up straight away: "This world innae like tha?""
Loké shook his head, "No, it's thought that Toril's flat." He paused when she gave him 'the look'. "Toril's what we call the prime material plane. When the sun rises it lights the world up and when it sinks below Toril it's night. If the moon co-"
"Moon?" Annah interrupted.
"The moon," Loké continued, "Is a bit like a smaller, less bright sun." He looked a bit at a loss for a moment before he finished with "I can't really explain it... you'll have to just see for yourself. Hopefully it won't be cloudy tonight."
"It's always pissin' it down in tha cage." Annah clarified "Sigil" before he had a chance to ask, "Tha or ya hafta deal wi' tha bloody smog. Ya cannae see more 'an a few metres in front a ya an' more often tha' not tha bloody rain's acid."
Loké gave her a look of amazement and horror. "How the hells do people live like that?"
"Fer most, wi' difficulty," she responded casually. They continued walking side by side as they journeyed to Nalia's keep, Annah pumping Loké for information on the surroundings and the plain, Jaheira intervening several times when Loké couldn't explain certain things.
By the time they arrived at the keep it was night, and the stars and moon could be seen, as there wasn't even a hint of clouds in the sky.
"She mentioned that they had set up a sort of palisade south of the keep," Loké thought aloud, "we'll go talk to her and then set up camp for the night."
"Boo says that is a good idea, for he is tired and wishes to have enough strength to fight evil trolls tomorrow," which drew another funny look from Annah.
Annah leant against the inside of the wooden wall of the palisade, the guards looking nervously at the entrance, worried the trolls might decide to venture out of the keep and finish the job.
She gave a heavy sigh. What the hells was she going to do? She knew so little about this world... and as much as she hated it-her eyes narrowed at this thought-she had no other option but to tag along... to trust... these people.
Loké....
She practically snarled to herself. What was he after? Why was he being like this? She'd seen him act like that with that whining blonde Aerie, and she'd seem to thrive on his attention.
She looked up at the stars and gave a small smile. She liked them-they were a damn sight prettier than Sigil, where the surrounding light simply increased and decreased for day and night.
"They are very beautiful, are they not?"
Annah's smile instantly disappeared and turned to the speaker. It was Jaheira.
"Aye, beats mah kip."
Jaheira gave her a funny look, "Kip is slang for sleep here," she stated.
"It's 'Where ah come from', where ah come from," Annah replied.
Jaheira didn't respond at first, but after a few seconds silence, she murmured to Annah in a threatening tone, "I do not trust you, tiefling. I am aware of why you have... that tail. But I shall give you the benefit of the doubt for now." She shot the tiefling a harsh glare. "Do not disappoint me."
With that, she turned on her heal and went back into her and Aerie's tent.
Annah gave a small snort as she looked back to the sky and began making up constellations in her head. 'Arrogant bitch,' she thought to herself as she looked at the moon
Nearly half an hour later she became aware of someone approaching her, and turned her eyes to see whom it was. It was Loké. He looked sheepishly, and slightly nervously, at her when he spoke.
"We forgot to buy a tent for you, so you can borrow mine for tonight." Annah opened her mouth to protest but Loké interrupted. 'Don't worry; you're not going to have a repeat of last night. I'll sleep under the stars," seemingly reading her thoughts.
"Good."
"I suggest you get some sleep," Loké said, "It's going to be tiring work tomorrow."
Annah pushed off from the wall and made to walk past him. As he was at her right shoulder though, she stopped and turned.
"Ah said ah'd continnae that convahsation late'er, It's late'er." she stated. "Why wouldn't people what?"
"I'm not telling you until I know you're going to stay with us or not!" he growled defensively.
"Well ah'm nae gannae stay if ya dannae tell me!" She snarled as he eyes sparkled with defiance. "I wannae know what the feck ah'm getting' myself in fer!"
Loké looked at her for several minutes, the conflict evident in his eyes. Eventually he spoke, "Fine. I'll tell you tomorrow," as he spun away.
At least tried to. Annah's tail shot out from her cloak as her right hand latched onto the same arm the tail coiled around. "Yer'll tell me now!" she hissed.
"Put your tail away dammit!" He cried out, "Before someone sees!"
"Naht until yeh tell me!"
"Not until I trust you!"
"Ahreet," Annah said. The tail returned to the folds of her cloak as she started walking away from him towards the exit of the small fort.
He watched for several seconds before he ran after her and hissed "Fine, I'll tell you!" in her ear-just before a guard rounded the corner of one of the larger tents from the keep, drawn by their not-so-discreet banter.
"What's goin' on?" He asked as he walked up to them..
"Nothing, it's alright. Really."
The old looking guard looked at them both pesnively before he chuckled knowingly and left, thinking about 'Young Love'.
Loké turned back to Annah and muttered, "You're a tiefling and because of that you're part demon or devil. That means you've always got that evil voice taunting you in the back of your mind."
He hesitated. "It's a bit like that with me. I have a something similar."
"But yah said yer a half-elf."
"And I am."
"Than what tha' feck are yeh talking aboot?"
"..."
"Well"?"
Loké stood there is silence for a few several minutes before he almost whispered almost silently:
"I'm a godchild."
Annah gave a small 'pfft'. "Is tha' all?"
Loké looked at her bemusedly, for the faintest sign of a joke. "...What?"
"Ah though' it'ad be sommat bad, like a gaes or sammat."
"My father was a god. A dark god," Loké said quietly, "And Sigil may be different-but here that means the fewer people that know the better. Tieflings, aasimar, even godchildren may be nothing special on Sigil but here... everyone takes a great deal of interest in them."
"So yeh special. So bloody what?"
His voice shrunk to a whisper, and he seemed to shrink in size as he spoke.
"So single every important group on this plane is always watching me- Jaheira's a member of one of them, the Harpers-all the 'normal' people want me dead because of it." He gave a small sneer, "and to cap it all off the taint is always trying to turn me into some raging psychopathic murderer that destroys anything and everything just for the hell of it."
"Stop whinging and cope wi' it laddie. Ah have fiendish blood in meh an' I'm always bein' taunted by it bu' ya navae hear meh whine like a babeh," Annah retorted as she walked past him to her tent. As he watched im go the taint sniggered in his head as both taint and mind agreed with her closing remark.
'Feck' is actually a real word. It's also not rude. It's a measurement, used in Scotland: 'He had a feckload of books with him,' for example. Annah's saying you-know-what though, her accent doing the rest.
Before the rabid Aerie fans jump on me, this isn't going to be an Aerie bashing story-or an Anomen bashing story. Aerie's my faveorite 'vanilla' BGII romance and Anomen... well. His mother died when he was, I gather, still a fairly young child. Coupled with the fact that his father is always abusing and deriding him he has no self confidence and a fairly low self esteem. The constant bragging he does is to convince himself as much as everyone else he's worthy of becoming part of the radient heart.
Frankly I'm amazed, and touched, that I got some reviews and that they're actually positive... I have my doubts about my writing abilities.
Don't expect the other chapters to be this fast. I'd nearly finished this one when I posted chapter 1.If you want to talk to me about this fanfic then my icq number is 148642246.
"I t'ought we were annay attack. Instead ah see yeh tremblin' like a wee kiddie." She sneered as she gave him a withering look of contempt. She promptly swore again as Loké whipped his head round and snapped, "Shut it," in a demonic voice, his eyes glowing yellow.
When he blinked, the eyes disappeared, and he looked away from Annah ashamedly as he realised what he'd said to her. "Sorry," he muttered.
Sorry wasn't good enough for Annah. "What tha hell was that!" she demanded.
"What was what," Loké asked a face to match the puzzlement in his voice.
"Yeh bloody eyes, they were glowing yellow fer gods' sake!" She cried out. Lok's eyes widened in shock and he seemed to shrink in size.
"What in tha hells happened!? Yeh voi-"
"Look, I had another nightmare, alright!?" Loké turned and cried back at her defensively. "I get them every night," he continued, flipping over with his back to her, "just leave me alone."
"Nah until yeh tell me what that hells that was berk," she retorted, getting up and walking over to his bed. When she nearly got there he rolled over and snapped, "I haven't told you everything about me, and I don't bloody well intend to until I know I can trust you! You're not the only one with secrets so sod off back to your bed!"
Annah unconsciously clenched her hands around her daggers, but bit back a snide remark. 'He das 'ave a point. I havnae exactly told him that much about mahself,' she thought as she left him and climbed back onto her bed, and they both tried to fall back to sleep.
Loké couldn't sleep though, and he lay there as he started trembling again, remembering the dream. He only became aware of the fact he hadn't slept after it when someone knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" He called without looking. "Me." Came the voice of Keldorn from behind the door.
Loké got up and unlocked the door as he slung Celestial Fury and it's scabbard over his shoulder. Keldorn walked in as Loké stood aside as invitation, and he looked at him quizzically when he saw the tiredness in Lok's eyes. The said person nodded to answer the unspoken question.
"The others are downstairs Loké," spoke Keldorn, "however, I am sure that we could wait-"
"No point..." Loké interrupted simply as he walked back to his bed to pick up a few minor items next to the candle on his dresser, "I can't sleep and I don't feel that tired anyway," he lied. He'd gotten good at lying about this subject. Keldorn gave him a sceptic look, but turned around wand walked out. As he did so he said, "We'll be waiting for you and the lady downstairs."
Loké slipped on his chain mail and turned around to Annah's bed to wake her up - only to find that she was already ready to go.
"I take it you were awake." It was more a statement than a question as Annah stood there silently. "Do you intend to stay with us for the time being Annah? And do you want the others to know you're name?" He found himself asking. The tiefling shrugged, "Ah dannae 'av much choice. As fer yer friends..." she shrugged, "Ah get the feelin' ah'm gonna be staying here for a while," she spoke as she turned and started to leave the room.
"Annah?" Loké called out. She stopped, and turned around. "Aye, what?" "I don't know about where you come from, but tieflings are very seldom seen here. So don't be too surprised if everyone... well..." Loké trailed off, seemingly embarrassed. "...Stares at me like ah'm some kinda freak?" Annah finished for him.
He nodded in a sheepish way, blushing faintly and Annah gave a small snort as he did so. 'E's kinda cute like tha',' she half-thought to herself as she turned around and continued walking downstairs.
As she walked she became aware of Loké catching up to her and walking next to her. She turned to look at him and gave him a quizzical look when she saw the dark green bundle of cloth he was holding out for her In one hand.
"Athkatla is quite magically orientated. More than one mage would want you, your race being so rare," he explained, "this cloak isn't much good-"
"Thanks laddie," she interrupted as she realised what the idea was, "bu' dannae expect annaethin' back from meh."
"You part of my... our team now Annah. We don't expect you to pay us for anything," he muttered, looking a little hurt. "Why are you so mistrustful?"
She stopped walking as they arrived on the stairs and slipped the cloak over her shoulders. It came down just past her knees, and she coiled her tail around her waist like a belt. "'Cause where ah'm from, ya hafta look after yahself," she replied as she stared harshly into Lok's eyes. He nodded in understanding after a few seconds and the pair resumed walking downstairs.
Either everyone from last night wasn't there any more, or they didn't recognise Annah, as when they walked down the only gazes were longing or jealous gazes from men and women when they saw her face. They saw the others sitting at a table nearby and they walked over to sit with them. Minsc Keldorn and Jaheira were out of their armour, Aerie wearing her mage's robe.
"So where are we going?" Asked Aerie timidly as Annah and Loké sat down next to each other. She looked a bit worried about something, Loké noted without really paying attention. He was still dwelling on the nightmare. As the waitress came, Loké ordered some dwarven ale. Keldorn and Jaheira exchanged glances at this, while Minsc was chatting happily to Aerie as she petted Boo. Annah just sat there, watching the others as she gauged them.
"I was thinking of going to... what's her name...? Nalee's...? keep and helping her with those trolls." He replied.
"What are trolls?" asked Annah.
Loké turned his head, "Seven foot tall ugly green bastards that eat anything and everything they can, have incredible strength and stamina, oh and to cap things off," he paused as the waitress arrived with the ale, and he downed it in one swing, "The fuckers re-grow anything you hack off unless you cauterise the bloody wound with acid or heat."
"Cute," was all Annah replied. Loké looked at her silently for a few seconds before a thought occurred to him. "Do you want a drink?" He asked. Annah looked at him, thought the better of accepting and shook her head. "Then we'd better get going. Annah and I've got our stuff, we'll wait outside for you."
As they entered the open the door outside and stepped into sunlight, Annah took in her surroundings as Loké walked up to the railings in front of her, and looked over the expanse of water in front of them.
'A'reeght, nathin' too dissimilar except for tha loada primes... usual whore's an' merchants, blue skies ah kinda nice ta look a', and...' "What the 'ell is that?" Annah cried out as she scrunched her eyes shut.
"What's what?" Loké asked.
"Tha' bright thing in the sky!" She exclaimed as she faced him.
"The sun." Loké stated in a very confused voice
"Whose son?"
"It's 'the' sun."
"Whose son!" 'E's doin' this an purpase...'
"It's called 'the sun' as in s u n, not s o n, 'son'." A look of understanding appeared on his face as flash of insight hit him. "...Sigil didn't have a sun, did it?"
Surprise flickered across Annah's face for a moment before she looked away from him sullenly. "How'd you figure out Sigil is where 'am from?" She murmured, half hoping the background noise would drown her out.
"It just clicked in my mind. Last night when they offered to take you with them-she said you wanted to go back. But you didn't..."
They stood there silently for nearly a minute, before Loké murmured gently, "you can't go back, can you?" he asked softly.
"Nae," she whispered. "I upset tha' Lady a' Pain. She kinda owns the city, an' ya cannae piss her off 'n get away wi' it. Ah was a lucky 'un."
'You can never go home. Just like me...' Loké thought sadly.
"What?" Annah asked as she returned the gaze. Lok's eyes widened as he realised he'd actually said it out loud.
"It-it's..." Loké gave a small sigh, "To cut a long story short, I can't go home. People wou-"he stopped short as he saw the door to the Five Flagons inn open behind Annah and the rest of the party file out. "We'll continua this late'er laddie," Annah whispered to him as she spun on her heel and fell into step behind Keldorn.
As they walked through the city Annah looked at her surroundings with a mixture of familiarity and caution.
'Tha' shapes 'ave changed, but the nature hannae changed a bit,' she thought as she watched a street urchin steal an apple and run off from a merchant while he was busy with a customer. She almost felt at home.
Almost.
And that lingering feeling was going to die when they exited the towns on the road to the de'Arnise keep. She looked at the landscape wide-eyed like a child for several minutes as they walked, the others chatting happily to each other, before falling in step next to Loké who was walking silently along.
"Ah'v never seen so much green before. Is it always this green laddie?" She said as greeting.
"Will you please stop calling me that?"
"No."
Loké sighed. "Fine. In answer to your question, not always. There's The Great Desert further north," He turned to her and gave a small chuckle, "No prizes for guessing why it's called that. There's swampland south too, and mountain regions too." He gave a small smile at her that she found herself returning with a ghost of a grin. "What was Sigil like?"
Annah thought for a moment. "It's kinda shaped like a wheel-rim, tha city is built inside so if ya evae looks up, ya see the city overhead an if ya look outside tha city, ya cannae see anythin'. . "Hm. Mini-ring-world... I read about those in some of the books in Candlekeep.'
Annah picked it up straight away: "This world innae like tha?""
Loké shook his head, "No, it's thought that Toril's flat." He paused when she gave him 'the look'. "Toril's what we call the prime material plane. When the sun rises it lights the world up and when it sinks below Toril it's night. If the moon co-"
"Moon?" Annah interrupted.
"The moon," Loké continued, "Is a bit like a smaller, less bright sun." He looked a bit at a loss for a moment before he finished with "I can't really explain it... you'll have to just see for yourself. Hopefully it won't be cloudy tonight."
"It's always pissin' it down in tha cage." Annah clarified "Sigil" before he had a chance to ask, "Tha or ya hafta deal wi' tha bloody smog. Ya cannae see more 'an a few metres in front a ya an' more often tha' not tha bloody rain's acid."
Loké gave her a look of amazement and horror. "How the hells do people live like that?"
"Fer most, wi' difficulty," she responded casually. They continued walking side by side as they journeyed to Nalia's keep, Annah pumping Loké for information on the surroundings and the plain, Jaheira intervening several times when Loké couldn't explain certain things.
By the time they arrived at the keep it was night, and the stars and moon could be seen, as there wasn't even a hint of clouds in the sky.
"She mentioned that they had set up a sort of palisade south of the keep," Loké thought aloud, "we'll go talk to her and then set up camp for the night."
"Boo says that is a good idea, for he is tired and wishes to have enough strength to fight evil trolls tomorrow," which drew another funny look from Annah.
Annah leant against the inside of the wooden wall of the palisade, the guards looking nervously at the entrance, worried the trolls might decide to venture out of the keep and finish the job.
She gave a heavy sigh. What the hells was she going to do? She knew so little about this world... and as much as she hated it-her eyes narrowed at this thought-she had no other option but to tag along... to trust... these people.
Loké....
She practically snarled to herself. What was he after? Why was he being like this? She'd seen him act like that with that whining blonde Aerie, and she'd seem to thrive on his attention.
She looked up at the stars and gave a small smile. She liked them-they were a damn sight prettier than Sigil, where the surrounding light simply increased and decreased for day and night.
"They are very beautiful, are they not?"
Annah's smile instantly disappeared and turned to the speaker. It was Jaheira.
"Aye, beats mah kip."
Jaheira gave her a funny look, "Kip is slang for sleep here," she stated.
"It's 'Where ah come from', where ah come from," Annah replied.
Jaheira didn't respond at first, but after a few seconds silence, she murmured to Annah in a threatening tone, "I do not trust you, tiefling. I am aware of why you have... that tail. But I shall give you the benefit of the doubt for now." She shot the tiefling a harsh glare. "Do not disappoint me."
With that, she turned on her heal and went back into her and Aerie's tent.
Annah gave a small snort as she looked back to the sky and began making up constellations in her head. 'Arrogant bitch,' she thought to herself as she looked at the moon
Nearly half an hour later she became aware of someone approaching her, and turned her eyes to see whom it was. It was Loké. He looked sheepishly, and slightly nervously, at her when he spoke.
"We forgot to buy a tent for you, so you can borrow mine for tonight." Annah opened her mouth to protest but Loké interrupted. 'Don't worry; you're not going to have a repeat of last night. I'll sleep under the stars," seemingly reading her thoughts.
"Good."
"I suggest you get some sleep," Loké said, "It's going to be tiring work tomorrow."
Annah pushed off from the wall and made to walk past him. As he was at her right shoulder though, she stopped and turned.
"Ah said ah'd continnae that convahsation late'er, It's late'er." she stated. "Why wouldn't people what?"
"I'm not telling you until I know you're going to stay with us or not!" he growled defensively.
"Well ah'm nae gannae stay if ya dannae tell me!" She snarled as he eyes sparkled with defiance. "I wannae know what the feck ah'm getting' myself in fer!"
Loké looked at her for several minutes, the conflict evident in his eyes. Eventually he spoke, "Fine. I'll tell you tomorrow," as he spun away.
At least tried to. Annah's tail shot out from her cloak as her right hand latched onto the same arm the tail coiled around. "Yer'll tell me now!" she hissed.
"Put your tail away dammit!" He cried out, "Before someone sees!"
"Naht until yeh tell me!"
"Not until I trust you!"
"Ahreet," Annah said. The tail returned to the folds of her cloak as she started walking away from him towards the exit of the small fort.
He watched for several seconds before he ran after her and hissed "Fine, I'll tell you!" in her ear-just before a guard rounded the corner of one of the larger tents from the keep, drawn by their not-so-discreet banter.
"What's goin' on?" He asked as he walked up to them..
"Nothing, it's alright. Really."
The old looking guard looked at them both pesnively before he chuckled knowingly and left, thinking about 'Young Love'.
Loké turned back to Annah and muttered, "You're a tiefling and because of that you're part demon or devil. That means you've always got that evil voice taunting you in the back of your mind."
He hesitated. "It's a bit like that with me. I have a something similar."
"But yah said yer a half-elf."
"And I am."
"Than what tha' feck are yeh talking aboot?"
"..."
"Well"?"
Loké stood there is silence for a few several minutes before he almost whispered almost silently:
"I'm a godchild."
Annah gave a small 'pfft'. "Is tha' all?"
Loké looked at her bemusedly, for the faintest sign of a joke. "...What?"
"Ah though' it'ad be sommat bad, like a gaes or sammat."
"My father was a god. A dark god," Loké said quietly, "And Sigil may be different-but here that means the fewer people that know the better. Tieflings, aasimar, even godchildren may be nothing special on Sigil but here... everyone takes a great deal of interest in them."
"So yeh special. So bloody what?"
His voice shrunk to a whisper, and he seemed to shrink in size as he spoke.
"So single every important group on this plane is always watching me- Jaheira's a member of one of them, the Harpers-all the 'normal' people want me dead because of it." He gave a small sneer, "and to cap it all off the taint is always trying to turn me into some raging psychopathic murderer that destroys anything and everything just for the hell of it."
"Stop whinging and cope wi' it laddie. Ah have fiendish blood in meh an' I'm always bein' taunted by it bu' ya navae hear meh whine like a babeh," Annah retorted as she walked past him to her tent. As he watched im go the taint sniggered in his head as both taint and mind agreed with her closing remark.
'Feck' is actually a real word. It's also not rude. It's a measurement, used in Scotland: 'He had a feckload of books with him,' for example. Annah's saying you-know-what though, her accent doing the rest.
Before the rabid Aerie fans jump on me, this isn't going to be an Aerie bashing story-or an Anomen bashing story. Aerie's my faveorite 'vanilla' BGII romance and Anomen... well. His mother died when he was, I gather, still a fairly young child. Coupled with the fact that his father is always abusing and deriding him he has no self confidence and a fairly low self esteem. The constant bragging he does is to convince himself as much as everyone else he's worthy of becoming part of the radient heart.
Frankly I'm amazed, and touched, that I got some reviews and that they're actually positive... I have my doubts about my writing abilities.
Don't expect the other chapters to be this fast. I'd nearly finished this one when I posted chapter 1.If you want to talk to me about this fanfic then my icq number is 148642246.